scholarly journals The Changing Role of Nordic Courts

2021 ◽  
pp. 167-183
Author(s):  
Martin Sunnqvist

AbstractThe Supreme Courts in all the Nordic countries reserve, and exercise, the power to set aside unconstitutional laws. In this way, they protect the rule of law and the human rights that are enshrined in their national constitutions. However, they go about this in different ways and treat different constitutional rights in ways distinct from one another. In this chapter, I discuss the development of the diversified judicial review of legislation in the Nordic countries. I also discuss the independence of their judiciaries in the light of the latest developments in Europe. Finally, I discuss the importance of developing standards for the interpretation of case law on these constitutional issues. Recent development brings with it two consequences for Nordic courts: the task of assessing the independence of judiciaries in other EU states, and questions about how the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary can be strengthened at home.

ICL Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-69
Author(s):  
Eszter Polgári

AbstractThe present article maps the explicit references to the rule of law in the jurisprudence of the ECtHR by examining the judgments of the Grand Chamber and the Plenary Court. On the basis of the structured analysis it seeks to identify the constitutive elements of the Court’s rule of law concept and contrast it with the author’s working definition and the position of other Council of Europe organs. The review of the case-law indicates that the Court primarily associates the rule of law with access to court, judicial safeguards, legality and democracy, and it follows a moderately thick definition of the concept including formal, procedural and some substantive elements. The rule of law references are predominantly ancillary arguments giving weight to other Convention-based considerations and it is not applied as a self-standing standard.


2021 ◽  

Περιμένοντας τους Bαρβάρους. Law in a Time of Constitutional Crisis is not a typical celebratory book offered to the dedicatee for an academic jubilee. The studies offered to Professor Mirosław Wyrzykowski present the readers with essays analysing the most pressing problems of modern constitutionalism in its European dimension. The primary themes of the book are topics dear to Wyrzykowski: the rule of law, human rights, the crooked paths of European constitutionalism, and last, but not least, one that binds them all: judicial independence and judicial review, as well as the role of the courts in upkeeping the rule of law.


Author(s):  
Tomuschat Christian

This article examines the role of the rule of law and democracy in international human rights law. It discusses the legal nature and the formal recognition of the rule of law and democracy. It explains that that rule of law and democracy are elements that constitute essential pillars promoting real enjoyment of human rights but they are dependent on the general conditions prevailing within society. This article highlights the importance of the supervisory roles of international bodies in ensuring the effectiveness of the guarantees set forth in international instruments for the protection of human rights.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Carmelina Londoño-Lázaro ◽  
Ulf Thoene ◽  
Catherine Pereira-Villa

Abstract This article analyses the role of the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) within a business and human rights framework. A qualitative data analysis of cases on multinational enterprises (mnes) identifies the following: that the obligations the IACtHR places upon States explicitly contemplate soft law instruments, such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights; and that there exist shared obligations with companies and attempts to regulate mne conduct by establishing conditions for due diligence, such as prior consultation, benefit-sharing and reparation measures for affected communities. Therefore, IACtHR rulings may contribute to the rule of law in so far as they have normative effects on member States, but they can also prove to be ineffective given the nature of corporate conduct and certain non-enforceable responsibilities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Nyoman Satyayudha Dananjaya ◽  
Fuchikawa Kazuhiko

This paper aims to examine the protection of the environment in Indonesia which is part of the realization of a law state that guarantees the constitutional rights of its citizens. It is a legal research that reviews Indonesian constitutional and statutory provisions, besides adding a comparative perspective from a Japanese Constitution and legal system. It is found that the concept of a law state in Indonesia does not specifically follow the concept of a law state like what is meant in “rechtsstaat” or “the rule of law”. It has peculiar characteristics which indeed seem to adopt the noble values ??of those two concepts which clearly confesses in the constitution along with the elements and characters stated in it. One of the most prominent characteristics of a law state is the recognition and protection of human rights. In the Indonesian Constitution 1945, human rights as the fundamental rights of human beings have been arranged and compiled which is legally legitimized become constitutional rights. Among human rights, rights related to the environment include essential rights in array of international human rights formulations. Article 28 letter H of the Indonesian Constitution 1945 expressly states the rights to habitable and wholesome environment for citizen. The protection form can be a normative arrangement in the constitution or in a formal juridical through legislation. Protection of citizens' constitutional rights related to the environment is faced with due process of environmental protection that requires consistency in order to achieve the intention and direction of the Indonesian law state itself.


Author(s):  
Tamara Manea ◽  

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global health crisis unlike any experienced for more than a century. The need for keeping social distancing and applying lockdown measures have resulted, in many instances, in the disruption of courts’ and prosecution services’ work, delays in proceedings and have impacted on procedural time limits and the suspension or reduction of legal aid, as well as public and community services. The measures have significantly affected international cooperation. The prosecutors have faced the challenge of making sure that, in the course of their work; the measures taken under public health emergency are used so as to protect people and not as a pretext for human rights infringements and those new legal measures are applied with strict respect for human rights obligations. The objective of Opinion nr. 15 is therefore to determine how prosecution services can, without hampering their functional autonomy, fulfill their mission with the highest quality and efficiency, respecting the rule of law and human rights, in the context of emergency situations, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic and their aftermath. This Opinion mostly does address the concerns of prosecutors to work as efficiently as possible, even under the most challenging circumstances, avoiding any unlawful or undue interference in their work and maintaining the highest quality in all their activities and strict respect for the law and human rights.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-153
Author(s):  
Gamze Ovacik

The term, de facto detention, refers to instances in which foreigners are held or deprived of their liberty usually with a view to preventing their entry into a country or expelling them from a country, but without implementing a legally prescribed detention regime that satisfies the criteria of the rule of law. The first type of de facto detention occurs when provisions regulating detention are absent or deficient in the legal framework. The second type takes place when domestic law sufficiently regulates detention regimes; however, the law is not duly implemented in practice. This article examines judicial practices in Turkey in both categories of de facto detention, analysing 37 Turkish court decisions with supporting case law from the European Court of Human Rights. Focusing on case law makes it possible both to track deficiencies in administrative practices and to analyse judicial response as a tool for rectifying unlawful administrative practices.


2021 ◽  

There are various challenges to democracy which have worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some countries have experienced democratic backsliding and other problems from the perspective of democratic participation, human rights and the rule of law. To discuss these issues in the context of the Philippines, a webinar entitled ‘Democracy Talks in Manila: The Role of Youth Voices in Democracy’ was organized in December 2020 by the Embassy of Sweden in Manila, International IDEA and the Program on Social and Political Change at the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UP CIDS). The webinar was part of the Swedish Government’s Drive for Democracy initiative, and among the participants were students, youth leaders and youth advocates of democracy and human rights.


Author(s):  
Aidan McQuade

This chapter begins by setting out the root causes of slavery, and demonstrating the fundamental role of the failure of the rule of law in enabling slavery to persist. It then sets out how particular failures in the rule of law give rise to four ‘peacetime’ political economies of slavery (i.e. state-sponsored slavery, state-tolerated slavery, state-facilitated slavery, state-muddled slavery). Where international mechanisms exist to uphold human rights standards, these political economies may be reformed somewhat. However, in addition, what is needed is a more fundamental reform of the nature of all political economies to establish processes to empower vulnerable individuals and groups and to uphold human rights standards. The chapter then sets out what forms these reforms must take to establish political economies with the potential to reduce slavery, if not eliminate it completely.


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