Home  About us  Contact
 

Legal Context (legal + context)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Law and Criminology26%
Humanities and Social Sciences26%

Selected Abstracts

The Self-Referential European Polity, its Legal Context and Systemic Differentiation: Theoretical Reflections on the Emergence of the EU's Political and Legal Autopoiesis

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 4 2009
Jiri Priban
It highlights the role of statehood in those debates and suggests moving beyond the constraints of institutionalist and constructivist perspectives by adopting specific notions from the theory of autopoietic social systems. The following part describes the EU political system as self-referential, functionally differentiated from the system of European law, and internally differentiated between European institutions and Member State governments. Although the Union transgresses its nation-state segmentation, the notions of statehood and democratic legitimacy continue to inform legal and political semantics of the EU and specific responses to the Union's systemic tensions, such as the policy of differentiated integration legislated by the flexibility clauses. The democratic deficit of instrumental legitimation justified by outcomes, the most recent example of which is the Lisbon Treaty, subsequently reveals the level of EU functional differentiation and the impossibility of fostering the ultimate construction of a normatively integrated and culturally united European polity. It shows a much more profound social dynamics of differentiation at the level of emerging European society,dynamics which do not adopt the concept of the European polity as an encompassing metaphor of this society, but makes it part of self-referential and self-limiting semantics of the functionally differentiated European political system. [source]

Constitutional Privilege and Constituting Pluralism: Religious Freedom in National, Global, and Legal Context

JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 3 2003
Peter Beyer
Lori Beaman argues that religious freedom in Canada and the United States is well established in theory (or myth) but limited in practice, privileging Protestantism in particular and varieties of Christianity in general. Focusing on the treatment of other religions in the courts of the two countries, she defends the hypothesis that these legal systems tend to reinforce the hegemony of Christianity, using this as an implicit model of what constitutes a religion, and thereby maintaining the marginalization and restricting the freedom of other religions. The present article sets Beaman's arguments in a wider global context, exploring the extent to which Christianity does and does not serve as a global standard for religion; and addressing the question of why issues of religious freedom so frequently end up being the subject of legal judgment and political decision. The main conclusions drawn from this global contextualization are that maintenance of some kind of religious hegemony is the rule all across global society, not just in Canada and the United States, and that unfettered freedom of religion or genuine religious pluralization is correspondingly rare, if it exists anywhere. Moreover, it is argued that such limitations, frequently expressed in legal judgments and political decisions, are more or less to be expected because they flow from the peculiar way that religion has been constructed in the modern and global era as both a privileged and privatized, as both an encompassing and marginalized social domain. The article thereby simultaneously reinforces and takes issue with Beaman's position: the modern and global reconstruction of religion invites its infinite pluralization at the same time as it encourages its politicization and practical restriction. Religions act as important resources both for claims to inclusion and for strategies of relative exclusion. [source]

MODULE ONE: INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH ETHICS

DEVELOPING WORLD BIOETHICS, Issue 1 2005
UDO SCHÜKLENK
ABSTRACT This module will introduce you to the ethical concepts underlying applied ethical decision-making in the area of research involving human participants. We will also learn what the issues are that people involved in research on research ethics are concerned with. Ethics without an understanding of historical and legal context makes arguably little sense. It is for this reason that this module will begin with a brief history of research ethics and ends with a brief overview of the relevant national and international guidelines pertaining to ethical issues in research involving human participants. [source]

Criteria for the assessment of processes for sustainable river basin management and their congruence with the EU Water Framework Directive

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2008
Beatrice Hedelin
Abstract In order to manage the increasing pressure on the world's water resources, new planning methodologies/processes for sustainable river basin management are currently being developed. For such processes to work well, however, the legal context must allow, or support, such processes. In this study, a set of criteria relating to methodologies/processes for sustainable water management is used to assess the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). The study suggests that the WFD erects few formal barriers to good planning practices. However, planning processes will need to be adapted to compensate for the weak legal support in a number of important areas, namely the use of knowledge from beyond the natural sciences, the use of methodologies for the explicit handling of values and the use of procedures for democratic participation. In so doing the issues identified here provide a basis for systematic thinking about how to design the necessary planning processes. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]

Taking Language Seriously: An Analysis of Linguistic Reasoning and Its Implications in EU Law

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 4 2010
Elina Paunio
This article discusses legal reasoning at the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The following questions are addressed. First, the authors look at the way linguistic arguments are used in ECJ case-law. Second, they consider whether the requirements of legal certainty, and more specifically that of predictability, may be fulfilled by reference to linguistic arguments in a multilingual legal system. The theoretical starting-point is that of open-endedness of language: no means exists to definitely pin down the meaning of words. Defining the meaning of words in a legal context is necessarily a matter of choice involving evaluative considerations. Consequently, when the ECJ uses linguistic arguments to justify a decision, it is an active agent choosing the meaning of words in a specific case. Essentially, the authors argue that legal reasoning based on linguistic arguments is particularly problematic from the viewpoint of legal certainty and predictability. In this respect, the key importance of systemic and teleological argumentation is emphasised in assuring convincing, acceptable and transparent legal reasoning especially in the context of multilingual EU law. [source]

Maximum Residue Limits of Veterinary Medicinal Products and Their Regulation in European Community Law

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 2 2003
Robert Ancuceanu
This paper proposes a legal analysis of a legal and empirical tool (maximum residue limits (MRLs)) designed to protect the consumers of animal foodstuffs, as it is regulated in European Community law. After introducing the concept of MRLs in its legal context, MRLs are defined and the need for harmonisation in this field is explained. Then the main rules governing the establishment of MRLs at a Europe-wide level are expounded, an important place being devoted to some problems occurred in the cases decided by the European Court of Justice: is it possible to establish an MRL only for certain therapeutic indications? What about the intention of placing on the market in the establishment of an MRL? Is the procedure for the establishment of MRLs a tight or lax one? The answer to some of these questions involves more general aspects of European Community law. [source]

Racial redistricting in the United States: an introduction to Supreme Court case law,

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 183 2005
Jean-François Mignot
Racial redistricting is a form of territorial rearrangement of electoral districts implemented in the United States in 1990s. Its purpose and effect is to increase the number of districts with an African American or Hispanic majority in order to increase the number of elected officials from those minorities. Racial redistricting is thus a public procedure that takes explicit account of the ethno-racial identity of individuals. The emergence of racial redistricting is explained by the fact that, in the political and legal context of the late 1980s, the officials in charge of redistricting had a vested interest in adopting such a scheme in order to ensure their own continued presence in positions of power. However, racial redistricting had hardly been implemented than its constitutionality was challenged. The Supreme Court then defined the conditions for racial classifications to be validly taken into account in the redistricting process. The Court's complex case law is particularly concerned to make the account taken of racial factors in redistricting as invisible as possible. The objective is to ensure more complete integration of African Americans (and Hispanics) into the US political system. [source]

The urban market for farmers' water rights,

IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE, Issue 4 2003
Stephen Merrett
stress de répartition; irrigation; droits à l'eau; provision urbaine Abstract Allocation stress, that is, access conflicts between the agricultural, domestic, industrial, urban service and environmental uses of water, is set to become more intense in the future because of global population growth and climate change. Because of the dominant role of irrigation water use at the global level, it is imperative to explore the possibilities of reducing farmers' use of water or, at the very least, of slowing its growth. One process by which the scale of irrigation is reduced occurs when farmers choose to sell their water rights to actors that apply these released flows in towns and cities for household, manufacturing and urban service uses. In this paper a theory of price and volume determination of such markets is presented, using concepts of urban actors' maximum bid price and farmers' minimum release price for water rights. The limits of the theory are then discussed with respect to timescale, water concessions, part-sales, sales of land, the legal context, third-party effects, market structure and transaction costs. The main conclusion is that the market equilibrium approach is rarely applicable and that fieldwork will in general have to deal with arcane, one-off bilateral trades. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Les contraintes d'allocation de l'eau, c'est-a-dire, les conflits d'accès à l'eau entre secteurs agricole, domestique, industriel, urbain et de l'environnment, vont augmenter dans le futur, à cause du changement du climat et de la croissance de la population mondiale. Le rôle dominant de l'irrigation tend de réduire l'usage de l'eau dans la secteur agricole. Cette réduction se produit quand les fermiers vendent leur droits à l'eau aux acteurs urbains. Dans cet article on présente une théorie des prix et quantités de ces marchés. On présente aussi les limites de la théorie et on conclut que l'approche par équilibre du marché s'applique rarement et qu'il faut en pratique considerer egalement des transactions obscures et bilatérals. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

How and Why to Support Common Schooling and Educational Choice at the Same Time

JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 4 2007
ROB REICH
The common school ideal is the source of one of the oldest educational debates in liberal democratic societies. The movement in favour of greater educational choice is the source of one of the most recent. Each has been the cause of major and enduring controversy, not only within philosophical thought but also within political, legal and social arenas. Echoing conclusions reached by Terry McLaughlin, but taking the historical and legal context of the United States as my backdrop, I argue that the ideal of common schooling and the existence of separate schools, which is to say, the existence of educational choice, are not merely compatible but necessarily co-exist in a liberal democratic society. In other words, we need both common schooling and educational choice. The essay proceeds in four parts. First, I explain why we need to understand something about pluralism in order to understand common schooling and school choice. In the second and third parts, I explore the normative significance of pluralism for common schooling and educational choice, respectively. In the fourth part, I show how the two can be reconciled, given a certain understanding of what pluralism demands. [source]

Assessing and Managing Environmental Risk: Connecting Local Government Management with Emergency Management

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 2 2009
Scott Somers
Ensuring that a community is prepared to deal with a disaster is among the many tasks public managers are charged with addressing. Disaster preparedness and response requires adherence to standard planning practices, yet disasters are typically unpredictable. Dealing with disasters, therefore, requires a blend of traditional management skills and improvisation. Furthermore, like other aspects of administrative leadership, the top administrator must blend initiation and responsiveness in interactions with elected officials and a careful delineation of responsibility in handling actual emergencies. This article discusses how local administrators assess risk and balance preparedness needs within a universe of daily operational needs. Managing environmental risk is also explored from a political and legal context. [source]

Collaboration and Leadership for Effective Emergency Management

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 2006
William L. Waugh Jr.
Collaboration is a necessary foundation for dealing with both natural and technological hazards and disasters and the consequences of terrorism. This analysis describes the structure of the American emergency management system, the charts development of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and identifies conflicts arising from the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the attempt to impose a command and control system on a very collaborative organizational culture in a very collaborative sociopolitical and legal context. The importance of collaboration is stressed, and recommendations are offered on how to improve the amount and value of collaborative activities. New leadership strategies are recommended that derive their power from effective strategies and the transformational power of a compelling vision, rather than from hierarchy, rank, or standard operating procedures. [source]

Supernumerary Pregnancy, Collective Harm, and Two Forms of the Nonidentity Problem

THE JOURNAL OF LAW, MEDICINE & ETHICS, Issue 4 2006
M. A. Roberts
An interesting question, in both the moral and the legal context, is whether babies born of an infertility treatment-induced supernumerary pregnancy (or ITISP) are properly considered to have been harmed. One might wonder how such a question could even arise in the face of data that clearly demonstrate that ITISP leaves an unduly large number of babies blind, deaf, and palsied, and facing lifelong disabilities. In fact, however, a number of arguments, based on the problem of collective form and two forms of the so-called "nonidentity problem," challenge the claim of harm in the ITISP context. The purpose of the present paper is to establish, as against these arguments, that harm has been imposed on the ITISP-damaged offspring. [source]

Brain abnormalities in antisocial individuals: implications for the law

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 1 2008
Yaling Yang B.S.
With the increasing popularity in the use of brain imaging on antisocial individuals, an increasing number of brain imaging studies have revealed structural and functional impairments in antisocial, psychopathic, and violent individuals. This review summarizes key findings from brain imaging studies on antisocial/aggressive behavior. Key regions commonly found to be impaired in antisocial populations include the prefrontal cortex (particularly orbitofrontal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), superior temporal gyrus, amygdala,hippocampal complex, and anterior cingulate cortex. Key functions of these regions are reviewed to provide a better understanding on how deficits in these regions may predispose to antisocial behavior. Objections to the use of imaging findings in a legal context are outlined, and alternative perspectives raised. It is argued that brain dysfunction is a risk factor for antisocial behavior and that it is likely that imaging will play an increasing (albeit limited) role in legal decision-making. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Anticipatory injustice among adolescents: age and racial/ethnic differences in perceived unfairness of the justice system,

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 2 2008
Jennifer L. Woolard Ph.D.
The present study examines age differences in anticipatory injustice, or the expectation of unfair or discriminatory treatment in the legal system. 1,393 adolescents and young adults from the community or from detention centers and jails were interviewed regarding demographic and justice system experience, intelligence, expectations about fair treatment, and legal decisions. African Americans and Latinos and those with more system experience expected greater injustice across multiple legal contexts. Anticipatory injustice increased with age among African Americans and those with the most system experience. It also predicted choices about police interrogation, attorney consultation, and plea agreements. Anticipations of injustice during adolescence may affect future interactions with court officials as well as more general constructs of legal socialization. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Effectiveness of participation as a defendant: the attorney,juvenile client relationship,

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 2 2003
Melinda G. Schmidt M.A.
Recent changes in the processing of juveniles in the justice system place greater significance on children's capacities to participate in legal contexts. Effective participation as a defendant encompasses abilities beyond those legally required for adjudicative competence, which may nevertheless influence the quality and nature of a defendant's participation in the trial process. Based in developmental judgment theory, the current study compares 203 juveniles and 110 adults detained pre-trial using a hypothetical attorney,client vignette to examine how psychosocial factors are reflected in decision-making processes and link to decision outcomes and effective participation within the attorney,client relationship. Age-related differences in legally relevant decision-making processes and outcomes are identified, and implications for policy are made. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]