Democracy, courts and proportionality analysis in Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-542
Author(s):  
PO JEN YAP

AbstractWhile proportionality analysis (PA) may have originated from Germany, it has not remained a European product. PA has been locally transplanted across Anglophone nations, found in mixed legal systems that are rooted in the common law and even adapted in parts of Latin America and Asia. This article explains why PA is flourishing in parts of Asia – for example, South Korea and Taiwan – and why it is faltering in other countries, such as Singapore and China, where the absence of PA can be attributed to the non-fulfilment of Kant’s first prerequisite for perpetual peace: a republican government (liberal democracy).

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Margaret Fordham

AbstractThis article examines the issues experienced by civil lawyers when studying the common law. It considers the extent of the differences between common law and civil law legal systems, examines the challenges which students from civil law jurisdictions face when first exposed to the common law, analyses the various ways in which these challenges may be met, and summarises civilians’ overall impressions of the common law.


Author(s):  
Steven Gow Calabresi

This chapter examines the two models of judicial review that exist in the common law countries: the Diffuse Model and the Second Look Model. The Diffuse Model of judicial review originated in the United States and has spread to India, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, most of the countries of Latin America, the Scandinavian countries (except for the Netherlands), and Japan. It is premised on the idea that a country’s written constitution is its supreme law and that courts, when deciding cases or controversies that are properly before them, are thus duty-bound to follow the constitution, which is supreme law, and not a contrary statute whenever those two items conflict. Meanwhile, the essence of the Second Look Model of judicial review is that a Supreme or Constitutional Court ought to have the power of judicial review, subject to some kind of legislative power of override. This, it is said, best harmonizes the advantages of a written constitution and a bill of rights enforced by courts with the imperatives of democratic self-government. The underlying goal is to obtain the advantages of both constitutional government and also of democratic government.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 267
Author(s):  
Nader Ghanbari ◽  
Hassan Mohseni ◽  
Dawood Nassiran

Comparing the legal systems is a specific method in which due to its important function is considered as a separate branch in law. None of the branches in law can place its knowledge merely on ideas and findings within the national borders. Several basic objections have been given regarding the definition and purpose of comparative study in civil procedure. In addition there are specific problems regarding studying practically the similar systems in a legal system like differences in purpose, definition and concept. In different legal systems like civil law and common law systems in which there is a divergence, even the judicial system`s organs and judges` appointment and judicial formalism are different, which add to the problems of the comparative study. Reviewing these differences could lead to a better understanding of these legal systems and recognizing the common principles in making use of each other`s findings considering these differences and indicate the obstacles of comparative study in this regard.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 47-77
Author(s):  
Hanna Kuczyńska

In this article the position of the accused as a source of personal evidence in three different European legal systems: Poland, Germany, and England, will be presented. This analysis will be oriented to understand the way of functioning of the two different models of giving statements of fact by the accused at a criminal trial. The main difference is that in the common law model of criminal trial the accused may only present evidence by testifying as a witness speaking about what happened, whereas in the continental model the accused gives a specific personal type of evidence (that in the Anglo-Saxon literature is rather described as “oral evidence”) that is known as explanations. From this differentiation several consequences arise: among others, the possibility of presenting untruthful explanations and presenting many versions of events in the continental model which have to be assessed by the judges. At the same time, the same right of the accused to silence and not to give incriminating evidence applies in both models of criminal trial – however, in two different shapes and with different types of limitations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2/2020) ◽  
pp. 38-61
Author(s):  
Milica Ristić

The arrival of the Norman tribes in the territory of England inevitably meant the influence of the customs of these tribes on the formation of a new legal system, known as „common law”. Soon after, this system established the judicial precedent as the basic source of law, which made it significantly different from European continental legal systems. However, when it came to the position of women, the common law world was the same as the continental legal systems. It was the male world, as evidenced by the famous Blackstone’s thought that husband and wife are one, and that one is the husband. In the moment of marriage, the wife would lose her legal capacity, and her personality would be drowned in her husband’s power over her and her property. Considering many other restrictions on women’s rights that will be addressed in the paper, it is not surprising that widows enjoyed the best status in medieval England, mostly owing to the institute of dower. This injustice was corrected by the emergence of the justice system and especially the trust institute. This paper is dedicated to the stages of development of the rights of married women in medieval England from complete denial to their affirmation, and especially to the contribution of the institutions of equity law to that development.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 151
Author(s):  
Ewa Dziuban

ROMAN SOCIETAS AND THE COMMON LAW PARTNERSHIPThe construction of roman societas in comparison with the common law partnership was the subject of authors inquiry. The idea was to find whether these two contracts, being created in a very different time and situation, with ages of various experiences between them, could, in some way, resemble. In other words - is that possible that the similar aim of the contracts determined the shape of the legal form?Both constructions were analysed stressing their most significant points.The comparison was led due to the pattern established by the author, created to make it more readable.As a result every characteristic was composed of the following parts:1. description of the contract’s nature;2. types of the contract;3. inner relations between partners;4. societas/partnership in relation to outer world;5. dissolving the contract.On this basis author examined the findings.The pointed conclusions seemed to provide a very interesting start for further inquiries. The reason for this is, as it occurred, that between two legal systems, existing in separate ages and conditions, with settled opinion on their incompatibility, more than few similarities can be found.Author did not give a straight answer to the question why these similarities really exist. In fact she provides at least two possible explanations without prejudice.Actually to give a more exact answer deeper studies shall be undertaken. However even at this very early stage it can be said, that both constructions, even though so faraway in various dimensions from each other, developed compatible solutions on their way to find the best idea how the goal can be achieved. And this goal, as it occurred from the contracts’ nature, seemed to be analogous.Is the similar solution a question of reception? Or maybe both systems parallel found the way, which occurred to be the best and, in the same time, convergent? Maybe the catalogue of best solutions is closed and sooner or later every system shall come to it?These questions must be asked. Even if or especially that the answers are neither easy nor immediate.Author finished this first stage of her studies leaving them open but with the reservation that inquiry will be continued.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azamat Omarov ◽  
Asylbek Kultasov ◽  
Kanat Abdilov

The article discusses the features of civil law in different countries. The authors studied the origins of the modern tradition of civil law, comparing the legal systems of two European countries. One of the traditional classifications of duties in civil law is analyzed, the conclusion is made about the inappropriateness of the allocation of personal and universal duties. In comparative law, there are many situations where the same legal term has different meanings, or where different legal terms have same legal effect. This confusion most often occurs when civil lawyers have to deal with common law, or vice versa, when common law lawyers deal with civil law issues. While there are many issues which are dealt with in the same way by the civil law and common law systems, there remain also significant differences between these two legal systems related to legal structure, classification, fundamental concepts, terminology, etc. As lawyers know, legal systems in countries around the world generally fall into one of two main categories: common law systems and civil law systems. There are roughly 150 countries that have what can be described as primarily civil law systems, whereas there are about 80 common law countries. The main difference between the two systems is that in common law countries, case law – in the form of published judicial opinions – is of primary importance, whereas in civil law systems, codified statutes predominate.


Author(s):  
E. Allan Farnsworth

This article presents an overview of comparative contract law. It reveals a number of differences between civilian legal systems and the common law, and also between French and German law as two main exponents of the civil-law tradition and, to some extent, even between English and US-American law. The same is true of other major issues in the field of general contract law that have not been touched upon. But there is a gradual convergence. This convergence is due to developments in all of the four legal systems covered in this article: English, US-American, French, and German law. And it has enabled scholars from around the world to elaborate an international restatement of contract law (the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts) and scholars from all the member states of the European Union to formulate a restatement of European contract law (the Principles of European Contract Law).


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 108-116
Author(s):  
K.A. USACHEVA

The extent to which the contract law traditions in the common law systems really differs from those in the civil law ones is discussed in the article. Today, the existence of such differences is difficult to reject, but their modern description looks more like rough cartoon sketches, which do not take into account lots of additional factors. The article proposes considering this matter more carefully.


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