scholarly journals Witnessing Arbitrariness: Roncarelli v. Duplessis Fifty Years On

2011 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 689-720
Author(s):  
Mary Liston
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Conceptual Content ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Core ◽  
Good Government

In Canadian public law, Roncarelli v. Duplessis stands for the proposition that arbitrariness and the rule of law are conceptually antithetical values. This article examines multiple forms of arbitrariness in Roncarelli, going beyond the usual focus on discretionary power arbitrarily exercised by the executive branch of government. A close reading of the case brings to the surface other forms of arbitrariness, notably under-acknowledged forms of judicial arbitrariness. Repositioning the case in its social and political context provides an alternative vantage point from which the core conceptual content can be enlarged and the case’s normative import better gleaned. The article argues that such a repositioning illuminates how legal actors attempt to constrain arbitrariness within the activity of judging. Reason-giving appears as one significant rule of law practice that can counter institutionalized arbitrariness by seeking to ensure that decision makers throughout the state are attuned to the demands of legality, can be held to account, and are committed to upholding good government.

scholarly journals Ensuring Guarantees of the Rights of the Individual and the Inalienability of his Legal Status in the System of Legal Regulation

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 21-29
Author(s):  
Alexander Vladimirovich Konovalov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Synergistic Action ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Core ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Different Levels

The article is devoted to the analysis of the general principle of law — ensuring guarantees of individual rights and the inalienability of his legal status. According to the author, they are provided by the synergistic action of private and public law regulation. The article convincingly shows that private and public law is a single system of values with different levels of generalization of terms and different methodology. At the same time, it is the private legal mechanisms that are the basis, the core of the rule of law.

scholarly journals On the Lawmaking Policy, Discretion and Importance of the Rule of Law Standards

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Biernat
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Legal Regulations ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
Comprehensive Description ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Democratic State

<p>The paper attempts to provide a comprehensive description of the problem of legislative discretion. The study employs two approaches to the issue, traditional and holistic. The former considers the legislative process in its essence, as decisions of legislative bodies, and their discretionary power being determined by the constitutional norms and legal regulations adopted within the lawmaking process. The latter, broader perspective on the legislative process involves other stages (including the pre-legislative stage), thus implying that the discretionary power should encompass various decision-makers. Following this approach, the scope of legislative discretion is determined not only by the legal provisions but also the principles of a democratic state of law. While the degree of (non-)compliance with the standards in question is evidently different from the violation of the rules of law, it does have a significant impact on the passed laws and the functioning of the entire legal system. It also constitutes a challenge to the courts and affects the use of discretion by judges.</p>

The COVID-19 Pandemic, the Courts and Online Hearings: Maintaining Open Justice, Procedural Fairness and Impartiality

2021 ◽  
pp. 0067205X2199313
Author(s):  
Michael Legg
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Procedural Fairness ◽  
Judicial Power ◽  
Communications Technology ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Adoption Of Technology ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Core

The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing mandated health protections saw courts turn to communications technology as a means to be able to continue to function. However, courts are unique institutions that exercise judicial power in accordance with the rule of law. Even in a pandemic, courts need to function in a manner consistent with their institutional role and their essential characteristics. This article uses the unique circumstances brought about by the pandemic to consider how courts can embrace technology but maintain the core or essential requirements of a court. This article identifies three essential features of courts—open justice, procedural fairness and impartiality—and examines how this recent adoption of technology has maintained or challenged those essential features. This examination allows for an assessment of how the courts operated during the pandemic and also provides guidance for making design decisions about a technology-enabled future court.

Nationality and the Unrecognised State

2001 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 849-876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Grossman
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Good Government ◽  
Military Security ◽  
Chagos Archipelago

Section 4 of the [Immigration Ordinance 1971] effectively exiles the Ilois from the territory where they are belongers and forbids their return. But the ‘peace, order, and good government’ of any territory means nothing, surely, save by reference to the territory's population. They are to be governed, not removed. … These people are subjects of the Crown, in right of their British nationality as belongers in the Chagos Archipelago. As Chitty said in 1820, the Queen has an interest in all her subjects, who rightly look to the Crown—today, to the rule of law which is given in the Queen's name—for the security of their homeland within the Queen's dominions. But in this case they have been excluded from it. It has been done for high political reasons: good reasons, certainly, dictated by pressing considerations of military security. But they are not reasons which may reasonably be said to touch the peace, order and good government of [the British Indian Ocean Territory].1

scholarly journals RELEVANT PRINCIPLES IN THE ECHR AND CJEU JURISPRUDENCE REGARDING NATIONAL SECURITY

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-95
Author(s):  
Sorina Ana Manea
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Intelligence Services ◽  
European System ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Mass Surveillance

The European system ensuring the protection of human rights is nowadays one of the most advanced in the world. However, there are also areas of activity where clarification and improvement are constant demands. Counter-terrorism measures considered or adopted in Europe, in particular those that increase mass surveillance, the collection and storage of electronic information or the protection of personal data are such areas. Some of these measures give more intrusive powers to the intelligence services to channel decisions in the direction of the executive branch, without the necessary judicial guarantees being established in a state governed by the rule of law.   Keywords: community law; ECHR; CJUE; national security.

More Discretion, Less Law: Exploring the Dilemmas in the Recent Anticorruption Reform in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-278
Author(s):  
Su Bian
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Supervision System ◽  
The Rule Of Law

In 2018, the promulgation of the Supervision Law in China professed the central government’s determination to combat ‘corruption’ at a new level. By putting ‘all public officials exerting public powers’ under supervision, these newly-established supervisory commissions have unified the dual-track and dual-leadership supervision system that came into force since 1954. In this respect, some have argued that the supervision reform is a step forward toward promoting the Rule of Law in China. However, this paper argues that there are some key ambiguities to be clarified in this law, especially with regard to non-typical corruptions - the vaguely-defined supervised object of ‘duty-related violations’. By comparing this notion with similar concepts in other countries, particularly the ‘maladministration’ under the jurisdiction of an ombudsman, this paper suggests that the supervisory power for anticorruption needs to be checked by other state powers so as not to degenerate into a new discretionary power.

Burmah Oil Company v Lord Advocate [1965] AC 75, House of Lords

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Webb
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Case Note ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
Oil Company

Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Burmah Oil Company v Lord Advocate [1965] AC 75, House of Lords. This case, read together with the War Damage Act 1965, outlines the capacity of Parliament to enact retroactive legislation. The case note discusses this in the context of the rule of law and parliamentary sovereignty. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.

Forty Years of Public Law

1990 ◽  
Vol 24 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 341-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kretzmer
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Judicial Decisions ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
Intellectual Revolution ◽  
Do So

It would be impossible in a short lecture to give a comprehensive survey of all the changes that have occurred in the last forty years in that branch of law known as “Israel common law”. I will not, therefore, try to do so. Instead, I wish to single out the most distinctive phenomenon in this area of law. I refer to the conceptual/intellectual revolution in the outlook of the court regarding the nature of its judicial function. The original view, according to which the sole function of the court in the area of public law is to decide disputes between citizens and public authorities, has been abandoned and replaced by an outlook that views the court as an institution responsible for the legality of public administration, or, as the court itself is accustomed to defining the matter, for the rule of law.I shall divide my discussion into two parts. In the first part I will briefly discuss the prominent changes that have occurred in the judicial decisions regarding public law in recent years, and the judicial philosophy underlying these changes.

scholarly journals Digital Constitutionalism: Using the Rule of Law to Evaluate the Legitimacy of Governance by Platforms

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630511878781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Suzor
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Contract Law ◽  
Private Governance ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Core ◽  
Urgent Task ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Relationship

Platforms govern users, and the way that platforms govern matters. In this article, I propose that the legitimacy of governance of users by platforms should be evaluated against the values of the rule of law. In particular, I suggest that we should care deeply about the extent to which private governance is consensual, transparent, equally applied and relatively stable, and fairly enforced. These are the core values of good governance, but are alien to the systems of contract law that currently underpin relationships between platforms and their users. Through an analysis of the contractual Terms of Service of 14 major social media platforms, I show how these values can be applied to evaluate governance, and how poorly platforms perform on these criteria. I argue that the values of the rule of law provide a language to name and work through contested concerns about the relationship between platforms and their users. This is an increasingly urgent task. Finding a way to apply these values to articulate a set of desirable restraints on the exercise of power in the digital age is the key challenge and opportunity of the project of digital constitutionalism.

scholarly journals DISKRESI SEBAGAI KEBEBASAN BERTINDAK PEMERINTAH (Tinjauan Konseptual dan Empris)

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusri Munaf
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
Government Action ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Government Administration ◽  
The People ◽  
Specific Sense ◽  
Discretionary Powers

The concept of discretion is the concept of power, in this case the power of government in the sense of narrow (bestuur). Discretion as a concept of power is power in a specific sense, not in the routine sense. The power of discretion here is the freedom of government action. Freedom here has a neutral understanding, which describes the existence of a power to choose various actions. This discussion aims to provide clarity on the concept of discretionary power in the administration of government that is still controversial from various aspects so that the concept of power of discretion is not only acceptable power, but also at the same time acceptable juridically and morally / ethically. The discussion is complemented by empirical aspects of the application of discretion to the implementation of local government in Indonesia. The central government guarantees the protection of discretionary regional heads to accelerate the development and welfare of the people. Ministry of Home Affairs, explains that there are now Law No. 23 of 2014 on Regional Government, and Law No. 30 of 2014 on Government Administration, which guarantees discretion by the regional head. In principle, Law No. 23 of 2014 and Law No. 30 of 2014 serve as guidelines for the regional head to innovate and undertake discretion without hesitation and fear. However, the government's discretionary powers must remain operative under a legal system of the rule of law. Under the prescriptions of the rule of law principle, the government's discretionary powers coexist with the rule of law principle, the power of government discretion coexists with the principle of responsible goverment.

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