“Making Public Law, ‘Public’: An Analysis of the Quebec Reference Case and its Significance for Comparative Constitutional Analysis”

2000 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 445-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. Mchugh

The Supreme Court of Canada's advisory opinion inReference re Secession of Quebec, 1998(also known, more simply, as the “Quebec reference case”) has been the subject of much interpretation and comment, because of its obvious implications for the future of Canada.1However, it offers an arguably wider opportunity to consider the role of the judiciary within a liberal democracy. The professional nature of the legal process and its practitioners often has made legal and judicial institutions, to most of the public, distant and alien components of the political system. The technical aspects of many areas of law (such as contracts, torts, and civil procedure) may, in fact, make this area of public concern seem unapproachable to the average citizen; indeed, some legal practitioners may prefer that the law remain that way. That mystique often is transferred to the realm of constitutional law, where the use of technical terms (including Latin words and phrases) may serve, intentionally or not, to insulate legal arguments and proceedings from public scrutiny.2

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Joyce

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the 2016 elections for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and to compare them with those that took place in 2012. It seeks to evaluate the background of the candidates who stood for office in 2016, the policies that they put forward, the results of the contests and the implications of the 2016 experience for future PCC elections. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based around several key themes – the profile of candidates who stood for election, preparations conducted prior to the contests taking place, the election campaign and issues raised during the contests, the results and the profile of elected candidates. The paper is based upon documentary research, making particular use of primary source material. Findings The research establishes that affiliation to a political party became the main route for successful candidates in 2016 and that local issues related to low-level criminality will dominate the future policing agenda. It establishes that although turnout was higher than in 2012, it remains low and that further consideration needs to be devoted to initiatives to address this for future PCC election contests. Research limitations/implications The research focusses on the 2016 elections and identifies a number of key issues that emerged during the campaign affecting the conduct of the contests which have a bearing on future PCC elections. It treats these elections as a bespoke topic and does not seek to place them within the broader context of the development of the office of PCC. Practical implications The research suggests that in order to boost voter participation in future PCC election contests, PCCs need to consider further means to advertise the importance of the role they perform and that the government should play a larger financial role in funding publicity for these elections and consider changing the method of election. Social implications The rationale for introducing PCCs was to empower the public in each police force area. However, issues that include the enhanced importance of political affiliation as a criteria for election in 2016 and the social unrepresentative nature of those who stood for election and those who secured election to this office in these contests coupled with shortcomings related to public awareness of both the role of PCCs and the timing of election contests threaten to undermine this objective. Originality/value The extensive use of primary source material ensures that the subject matter is original and its interpretation is informed by an academic perspective.


Acta Juridica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 141-176
Author(s):  
F Brand

The role of abstract values such as equity and fairness in our law of contract has been the subject of controversy for a number of years. In 2002 the Supreme Court of Appeal took the position that these values do not constitute self-standing grounds for interfering with contractual relationships. Despite this being consistently maintained by the SCA in a number of cases, some High Court judges deviated from this position on the basis that they were permitted to do so by some minority judgments and obiter dicta in the Constitutional Court. The uncertainty thus created has fortunately now been removed by the judgment of the Constitutional Court in Beadica v The Trustees for the Time being of the Oregon Trust.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diarmuid McDonnell ◽  
Alasdair C. Rutherford

Charities in the United Kingdom have been the subject of intense media, political, and public scrutiny in recent times; however, our understanding of the nature, extent, and determinants of charity misconduct is weak. Drawing upon a novel administrative dataset of 25,611 charities for the period 2006-2014 in Scotland, we develop models to predict two dimensions of charity misconduct: regulatory investigation and subsequent action. There have been 2,109 regulatory investigations of 1,566 Scottish charities over the study period, of which 31% resulted in regulatory action being taken. Complaints from members of the public are most likely to trigger an investigation, whereas the most common concerns relate to general governance and misappropriation of assets. Our multivariate analysis reveals a disconnect between the types of charities that are suspected of misconduct and those that are subject to subsequent regulatory action.


Chapter 3, after describing general principles of international law and the relationship between international law and domestic law, focuses on the hitherto neglected subject of private commercial law conventions. Textbooks on international law invariably focus on public law treaties. By contrast this chapter addresses issues relating to private law conventions. It goes through the typical structure of a private law convention, the interpretation of conventions and the treatment of errors, and the enforcement of private conventional rights against States. The subject of private law conventions and public law has become of increasing importance with the appearance in several private law instruments of provisions of a public law nature designed, for example, to ensure that creditors’ rights are not enforced in a manner that adversely affects the public interest or State security. Reservations and declarations are also discussed, together with the subject of conflicts between conventions.


2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 2013-2039 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armin von Bogdandy ◽  
Philipp Dann

The administration of the traditional nation-state used to operate as a rather closed system to the outside world. Today, cooperation between the public authorities of different States and between States and international bodies is a common phenomenon. Yet the characteristics and mechanics of such cooperation can hardly be understood using the concepts domestic public law or public international law currently on offer. Conventional concepts, such as federalism, confederalism or State-centered “realism” hardly fathom the complexity of interactions or reflect the changed role of the State, while more recent concepts, such as multi-level systems or networks, seem to encompass only parts of the phenomena at hand. Given this void, we propose to explore the notion of “composite administration” (Verbundverwaltung) and argue that it offers a concept which can combine more coherently the seemingly diverging legal elements of cooperation and hierarchy that distinguish administrative action in what often is called a multi-level administrative system. Even though the concept of composite administration was originally designed and further developed with respect to the largely federal European administrative space, we suggest testing the concept in the wider context of international cooperation. We believe that it offers valuable insights and raises critical questions, even though we do not intend to insinuate any proto-federal prospects of the institutions discussed in this paper.


1983 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Smith

abstractThe origins of judicial review in this country have been the subject of debate among legal scholars. This article examines the conflicting accounts provided by W. R. Lederman and B. L. Strayer, and attempts to assess them in the light of the Confederation debate, 1864–1867, and the debate surrounding passage of the Supreme Court Act in 1875. It arrives at these considerations: that the intentions of the founders are of greater significance than has hitherto been suggested; that both the founders themselves and the legislators in 1875 held conflicting expectations on the role of the Supreme Court in constitutional matters; and that this conflict has left its mark on the court. The article concludes that reflection on the origins of judicial review ought to temper the enthusiasm with which many Canadians have greeted the advent of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caleb O'Fee

Behind every theory of administrative law lies a theory of the state. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the application of judicial review to government contracting decisions. New Zealand courts have long struggled to adopt a consistent and coherent approach in this area, and two recent decisions of relevance do very little to improve the situation. This article argues that a decision of the Supreme Court in Ririnui significantly broadens the scope of justiciability of government contracting decisions by providing an exception to Mercury Energy. The Court of Appeal's approach in Problem Gambling is more cautious but has nevertheless resulted in a broadening of the range of circumstances where government contracting decisions will be subject to judicial review. Beyond these limited findings the law both in New Zealand and overseas continues to lack consistency and coherence. This article suggests that while this state of affairs is undoubtedly the result of the application of a public law cause of action to a context which sits on the public law–private law divide, the courts should stop relying on an inconsistent doctrine and recognise that cases are being decided on the basis of normative conceptions of the proper role of judicial review in this context.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-44
Author(s):  
Helmi Setiawan ◽  
Anwar Efendi

This research is descriptive qualitative research using the feminist literary criticism approach. The subject of this research are three novels by Okky Madasari which are titled: 1) Maryam, 2) 86, and 3) Entrok. The technique of data collecting used in this research is to study the library read the note, conducted by reading carefully and repeated thoroughly and classifying the data obtained based on women’s image. Analyzing data in this research use the descriptive qualitative method. The research finding in the form of physical women’s image, the image of women’s psychic and the role of women consisting of domestic and public areas. Domestic roles include as a child, wife, and mother. The role of women in the public domain consists of the educator, economic, and social movement sectors.


Prawo ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 320 ◽  
pp. 57-70
Author(s):  
Witold Małecki

Comments on the public law framework for the scope of public economic lawThe evolution of administrative economic law into public economic law should cause extension of the scope of this section of law, corresponding to its name containing two determinants. However, the scope of public economic law presented in contemporary Polish comprehensive manuals of public economic law does not contain any references to economic criminal law, which is undoubtedly a section of law situated within the confines of public law. In order to determine the meaning of the determinant “public” in the name “public economic law” two models were proposed. In a “shaping” model the determinant “public”, together with the determinant “economic”, defines the scope of public economic law. Only accepting the view on economic law as an independent branch of law and — consequently — the view on public economic law as a divisive factor of the economic law as an independent branch of law allows to justify an omission of economic criminal law provisions which should be included into criminal law. Regarding economic law as an independent branch of law does not entitle one to include such provisions into it if they are classified as a part of another independent branch of law — in this case: criminal law. Another model is a “descriptive” one, in which the determinant “public” does not define the scope of public economic law — the scope is determined by the definition of public economic law. The only role of the determinant “public” is to describe a category of provisions that are included in public economic law. The model, however, does not justify the omission of economic criminal law provisions in the manuals because of a broad shape of the definition of public economic law presented in Polish literature.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 57-78
Author(s):  
Patrycja Kanafocka

Przedmiotem przedstawianego tekstu jest działalność poznańskiego kontrwywiadu w uświadomieniu zagrożenia szpiegostwem ludności cywilnej na terenie województwa poznańskiego, a także rola, jaką odegrała prasa Poznańskiego w realizacji tego zadania. Temat szpiegostwa w prasie wielkopolskiej był niewątpliwie jednym z najczęściej poruszanych w okresie II Rzeczypospolitej. Na jego popularność wpływało nie tylko szerokie zainteresowanie czytelników. Rozrastający się rynek prasowy i coraz większa konkurencja na nim powodowały, że konieczność zdobycia uwagi czytelników wymuszała koncentrację na tematach wzbudzających zainteresowanie. Zamieszczano nawet krótkie, a niepozbawione sensacyjnych wątków informacje o aresztowaniach czy podejrzeniach o szpiegostwo. Odrębną zupełnie kwestią była współpraca prasy z poznańską „Dwójką”, która, dopuszczając zamieszczanie artykułów o szpiegach i szpiegostwie, prowadziła akcję uświadamiania obywateli o grożącym im niebezpieczeństwie. Symbioza prasy i służb specjalnych przyniosła równe korzyści obydwu stronom. Dla prasy zamieszczanie interesujących opinię publiczną informacji przekładało się na liczbę czytelników i nakład, a co za tym idzie także na zysk. Służby specjalne realizowały poprzez prasę swoje cele. Edukowanie społeczeństwa było tylko jednym z nich, ważniejsze z perspektywy realizowania operacji było odwrócenie uwagi od przeprowadzanych działań kontrwywiadowczych i kierowanie jej w stronę działalności obcych służb. Spies and espionage in the Poznań press in the period 1918–1939 The subject of the article is the operation of counterintelligence in Poznań and its role in raising awareness of the danger of espionage among civilians in the Poznań region, as well as the role of Poznań press in fulfilling this task. The subject of espionage was undoubtedly one of the most frequently discussed in the Greater Poland press in the period of the Second Polish Republic. The reasons for its popularity lay not only in avid interest it aroused among the readers. The expanding press market and growing competition meant that newspapers had to draw readers’ attentions by concentrating on those subjects which the public found interesting. No matter how short the pieces information about the arrests or the suspicion of espionage were, their sensational character meant they were published. The cooperation between the press and the Poznań counterintelligence which, by allowing the press to publish articles on spies and espionage, raised awareness among the citizens on the possible dangers, is a whole separate issue. The collaboration between the press and special services was mutually beneficial. The press printed articles that were interesting from the point of view of the public, which was then reflected in the number of readers and circulation, as well as financial profit. Special services achieved their own goals. Educating the society was only one of them. From the point of view of their operations, drawing attention away from the activity of counterintelligence and towards the operation of foreign services remained more important.


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