CIVIL LIBERTIES AND THE RULE OF LAW

2010 ◽  
pp. 57-76
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
The Rule Of Law

scholarly journals Applied aspects of accounting the principle of the rule of law in system analysis and simulation of the state system of Ukraine

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 14-18
Author(s):  
V.F. Obolentsev
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Systems Engineering ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
System Engineering ◽  
The State ◽  
State System ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
The Law

The rule of law is a fundamental principle of the legal sphere. Its assertion in the state institutions of democratic countries is an outstanding achievement of mankind. The implementation of this principle is the basis of civil society and civil liberties. The rule of law is the supremacy of law in society. The rule of law provides for its implementation in law-making and law enforcement activities. The manifestation of the rule of law is that the law is not limited to legislation as one of its forms, but also includes other social regulators (norms of morality, traditions, customs, etc., which are legitimized by society). All these elements of law are united by a quality that corresponds to ideology of justice – the idea of law, which is largely implemented in the Constitution of Ukraine. The first problem for the implementation of the principle of law in Ukraine is that this principle has not yet received the proper normative consolidation and official interpretation. The second problem is its extension to socio-economic rights and social benefits. The third problem is the insufficient level of legality in our state. The aim of the paper is to establish the peculiarities of implementation of the principle of the rule of law at the present stage of development of scientific and technological progress. The task of the paper is to investigate the peculiarities of implementation of the rule of law in the application of information and analytical technologies of system engineering in the legal sphere. In accordance with the experience of using information-analytical technologies of system engineering in the legal sphere, the paper outlines the peculiarities of implementation of the principle of the rule of law in the system analysis and modeling of the state system of Ukraine. The principle of the rule of law must be taken into account in such modeling as "governing circumstance". That is the resource according to which the state system of Ukraine functions. Our preliminary works give grounds to assert that information and analytical technologies of systems engineering are also a promising methodological tool for studying the principles of state building. The principle of the rule of law is the cornerstone of building a democratic state governed by the rule of law in Ukraine. Three years ago, scholars moved away from identifying the rule of law with the law-creating instruments.

scholarly journals Protest und Demokratisierung in Myanmar: Erste Erkenntnisse aus dem „Myanmar Protest Event Dataset“

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 295-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Buschmann
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Economic Transition ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights Standards

Abstract Myanmar has been perceived to be in a sociopolitical and economic transition since the semi-civilian government under President Thein Sein took office in 2011. Amongst other things, for a representative democracy to function, citizens have to have the freedom to express their opinions and deliberate them with fellow citizens. This requires the secure granting of fundamental civil liberties, as prescribed in the freedom of expression, association, and assembly. Hence, once in the process of democratization, a formerly authoritarian state has to make significant improvements in the granting and protection of these rights too. To empirically test whether Myanmar has made such improvements since 2011 is the goal of a greater research project I am working on. This research note introduces the project and summarizes first findings. By combining knowledge on legal reforms and protest data from the Myanmar Protest Event Dataset, it is suggested that, in Myanmar, the de jure exercisability and de facto exercise of fundamental civil liberties have significantly improved from 2011 to 2015. Informal methods of suppressing the right to protest, such as arbitrary violence, have increasingly descended while methods that are formally in accordance with the rule of law but still lack compliance with international human rights standards have ascended.

Conflict and Courts: Civil War and Judicial Independence across Democracies

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 700-713
Author(s):  
Brad Epperly ◽  
Jacqueline Sievert
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Judicial Independence ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Federal Judiciary ◽  
Cross National

Many argue that during conflict, executive power expands at the expense of the judiciary and civil liberties. Although this is a common conjecture, no systematic study of conflict and judicial independence exists. We argue that conflict, rather than strictly inhibiting independence, is instead a critical juncture that increases the possibility of institutional change, either positive or negative. We assess this claim in three ways: cross-national analyses of (1) de facto and (2) de jure judicial independence after the onset of conflict, and (3) a case study of statutory and jurisdictional changes to the federal judiciary after the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War. Each illustrates that conflict onset is associated with a higher likelihood of changing levels—both decreases and increases—rather than unidirectional decreases in judicial independence. We then present preliminary hypotheses and analyses for three factors that, given conflict onset, should be associated with either improved or worsened conditions for the judiciary. This study has implications for research on conflict, courts, and the rule of law in both political science and legal studies.

scholarly journals PROPERTY AND THE RULE OF LAW

Legal Theory ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Austin
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Substantive Content ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
New Framework

This paper offers a new framework for thinking about the relationship between the common law of property and the rule of law. The standard way of framing this relationship is within the terms of the form/substance debate within the literature on the rule of law: Does the rule of law include only formal and procedural aspects or does it also encompass and support substantive rights such as private property rights and civil liberties? By focusing on the nature of common-law reasoning, I wish to question the form/substance dichotomy that frames this debate and to show that the formal aspects of the rule of law are in fact principles widely adopted within the practice of common-law reasoning and as such play a large role in shaping the substantive content of common-law property rights. Understanding this has implications beyond the relationship between property law and the rule of law.

scholarly journals KRIMINALISASI DITINJAU DARI PERSPEKTIF TEORI HUKUM PIDANA (CRIMINAL LAW THEORY)

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-132
Author(s):  
Marthen H. Toelle
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Legislative Power

AbstrakTulisan ini mengkritisi kriminalisasi oleh legislator ditinjau dari perspektif Teori Hukum Pidana. Keputusan legislator untuk mengkriminalkan suatu tindakan melalui undangundang perlu dibatasi karena sangat mempengaruhi kebebasan individu. Di negara berdasarkan pada asas the Rule of Law (negara hukum), pembatasan kekuasaan legislator bersifat niscaya. Khusus terkait dengan keputusan legislator dalam melakukankriminalisasi, bentuk pembatasan tersebut dapat dilakukan salah satunya dengan jalan membedakan antara kriminalisasi yang legitimate dengan kriminalisasi yang tidak legitimate. Melakukan pembedaan tersebut merupakan salah satu bidang kajian dari Teori Hukum Pidana dengan tujuan supaya undang-undang pidana yang dihasilkan dalam proses kriminalisasi mengandung kebenaran.                                                                                                                                                                                                AbstractThis article tries to criticize the legistature’s decision to criminalize from the Criminal Law Theory perspective. The legislatures decision to criminalize needs to be limited because it has great impacts over civil liberties. According to the Rule of Law principle, the limitation over legislative power is inescapable. Specifically related to the legislature’s decision to criminalize, the forms of limitation can be undertaken by differentiate between the legitimate criminalization and the illegitimate criminalization. Doing this differentiation is analytically one of the main concerns of the Criminal Law Theory in order to satisfy that the criminal law resulted from the criminalization process is really needed.

scholarly journals The faces of freedom in the concepts of a liberal and non-liberal state

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-172
Author(s):  
Justyna Przedańska
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Slight Improvement ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual

The last decade has exposed the recession of freedom throughout the world. It arises from the latest Freedom in the World 2020 report that civil liberties and political rights have deteriorated in 64 countries, while only 37 have seen a slight improvement in these areas. The principles of liberal democracy (the rule of law, free elections, minority rights and freedom of expression) in Europe, historically the best-performing region in terms of freedom in the world, have come under serious pressure in recent years. In the article, starting from an analysis of the categories of freedom presented in many aspects, followed by a discussion of the assumptions and concepts of liberalism, as well as the political project referred to as non-liberal democracy, which has grown out of their criticism, the author identifies the problem of instrumentalization and relativization of freedom, which leads to the restriction of freedom of speech, freedom of minorities, religious freedom and sexual freedom, replacing the individual freedoms of the citizens with the so-called collective freedom.

scholarly journals Illiberal peacebuilding in Angola

2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Soares de Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Liberal Peace ◽  
Post War ◽  
Liberal Peacebuilding

ABSTRACTAngola's oil-fuelled reconstruction since the end of the civil war in 2002 is a world away from the mainstream liberal peacebuilding approach that Western donors have promoted and run since the end of cold war. The Angolan case is a pivotal example of what can be termed ‘illiberal peacebuilding’, a process of post-war reconstruction managed by local elites in defiance of liberal peace precepts on civil liberties, the rule of law, the expansion of economic freedoms and poverty alleviation, with a view to constructing a hegemonic order and an elite stranglehold over the political economy. Making sense of the Angolan case is a starting point for a broader comparative look at other cases of illiberal peacebuilding such as Rwanda, Lebanon and Sri Lanka.

Real Respect for the Rule of Law

1999 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-346
Author(s):  
Michael Milde
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Political Event ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation

Judging the Judges, Judging Ourselves is an excellent book for at least three reasons. First, it is a critically engaged, firsthand account of a unique legal and political event: the inquiry by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission into the operation of that country’s legal system under Apartheid. Second, it develops an extended argument for a challengingly normative conception of the rule of law, complete with compelling practical illustrations of what can happen if officials charged with maintaining the integrity of a legal system adopt a less substantive standard. And third, the book is well written and a pleasure to read.South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) represents an unusual attempt to confront, acknowledge and overcome the devastating injustice, violence and hatred generated during the Apartheid era. What makes it unusual is the conscious decision to set aside demands for retributive justice. Instead, by exposing abuses and violations of human rights, and then compensating victims and pardoning confessed perpetrators, the TRC aimed to establish a framework in which former antagonists could set aside adversarial postures and work together to create a new, integrated and just South Africa. Whether this laudable experiment will succeed remains to be seen.What was clear early on was that the TRC could not hope to complete its task if it did not investigate the performance of the legal system and the legal profession under the Apartheid regime. Apartheid was a social and political construct that systematically denied basic human rights to the vast majority of South Africa’s population on the basis of race. A substantial amount of state violence was required to secure this result. But it is a singular, remarkable fact that the racial divide was maintained by a legal system which in many respects resembled its counterparts in liberal democratic societies where the courts actively and successfully protect civil liberties. What is particularly striking is that gross human rights violations were permitted, even approved, by legal institutions that appeared to respect such fundamental legitimacy-conferring principles as the rule of law and judicial independence. Equally troubling is the observation that the system was staffed by functionaries many of whom had unimpeachable credentials as advocates of human rights. So how could this justice system have produced such iniquitous results?

scholarly journals Facets of Democracy: An Overview

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 15-29
Author(s):  
Aswasthama Bhakta Kharel
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
The World ◽  
Elected Representatives

 Democracy allows the expression of political preferences of citizens in a state. It advocates the rule of law, constraints on executive’s power, and guarantees the provision of civil liberties. It also manages to ensure human rights and fundamental freedoms of people. In democracy, people are supposed to exercise their freely expressed will. Ordinary people hold the political power of the state and rule directly or through elected representatives inside a democratic form of government. Democracy is a participatory and liberal way of governing a country. Different countries in the world have been practicing various models of democracy. There remains the participation of people in government and policy-making of the state under democracy. But when the majority can pull the strings of the society without there being legislation for protecting the rights of the minority, it may create a severe risk of oppression. Many countries of the world at the present time are facing democratic deficits. In several countries, the democratic practices are not adequately regulated and governed, as a result, the rise of violations of rules of law is observed. Even a few countries practicing democracy are not living peacefully. This situation has put a significant question about the need and sustainability of democracy. Democracy is a widely used system of governance beyond having several challenges. Here the concept, origin, models, dimensions, practices, challenges, solutions, and future of democracy are dealt to understand the structure of ideal democracy.

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