Procedures of Decision-Making and the Role of Law in International Organizations

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1939-1964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jochen von Bernstorff
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
National Level ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Public Power ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
Procedural Law ◽  
Wide Range

There is no general body of procedural law for decision-making in international organizations. At the same time, many of the more than 230 existing international organizations (IOs) exercise public power through legislative and regulatory activities involving a myriad of decisions taken within these institutions every day. These decisions shape societal perceptions of a wide range of pressing humanitarian-, ecological, technical- and scientific issues and direct actions taken in these fields. From a rule of law perspective any exercise of public power outside a limiting framework of public law is reason for concern. According to the domestic rule of law traditions, public law is supposed to prescribe the form in which public power is exercised. It regulates the process of decision-making by establishing binding procedures, including procedural rights of participants and affected individuals. In case of unlawful exercise of power by public officials affected persons and entities have legal recourse to an independent court or tribunal. If formalized procedural constraints for the exercise of public authority are important at the national level they are all the more so at the international level since conflicts over substantive legal standards and disagreement over community values are usually more acute.

Factors Influencing the Use of Comparative Arguments by Courts

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Bobek
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Factors ◽  
Legal System ◽  
National Level ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Specific Domain ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Constitutional Adjudication

Whether or not judges use comparative arguments is determined by a complex interplay of a number of legal and extra-legal factors within each legal system. The chapter introduces and discusses a number of such factors, which influence the likelihood of the use of comparative reasoning within judicial decision-making at the national level. The factors are grouped into four areas: general, institutional, procedural, and human factors. The closing two sections of this chapter discuss two specific, domain-dependent issues: first, whether it makes any difference, for the likelihood of the use of comparative reasoning, if the dispute at hand pertains to the area of private law or public law. Secondly, the final section addresses the same question with respect to the area of constitutional adjudication and human rights.

Part I Introduction, Ch.2 International Organizations and International Law

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peters Anne
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Legal Environment ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Procedural Law ◽  
The Law

This chapter provides an overview of the state of the art of legal thought about the international organizations (IOs) as legal entities in a legal environment. IOs are legal communities in a threefold sense: they are created by law, they use law as a means of governance, and they should be governed by the rule of law. Accordingly, international law constitutes, enables, and constrains IOs. The chapter shows that legal scholarship until the 1990s was primarily concerned with the constituting and enabling function of the law (thus securing the effectiveness of IOs), while the more recent legal concern is the constraining function of the law (thus improving the accountability of IOs). In the procedural law of organizations, a tryptichon of accountability procedures has been built: transparency, participation, and access to information.

scholarly journals National-Scale Landslide Susceptibility Mapping in Austria Using Fuzzy Best-Worst Multi-Criteria Decision-Making

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meisam Moharrami ◽  
Amin Naboureh ◽  
Thimmaiah Gudiyangada Nachappa ◽  
Omid Ghorbanzadeh ◽  
Xudong Guan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Landslide Susceptibility ◽  
National Level ◽  
Susceptibility Mapping ◽  
Landslide Susceptibility Mapping ◽  
Slope Aspect ◽  
Pairwise Comparisons ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
Wide Range

Landslides are one of the most detrimental geological disasters that intimidate human lives along with severe damages to infrastructures and they mostly occur in the mountainous regions across the globe. Landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) serves as a key step in assessing potential areas that are prone to landslides and could have an impact on decreasing the possible damages. The application of the fuzzy best-worst multi-criteria decision-making (FBWM) method was applied for LSM in Austria. Further, the role of employing a few numbers of pairwise comparisons on LSM was investigated by comparing the FBWM and Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process (FAHP). For this study, a wide range of data was sourced from the Geological Survey of Austria, the Austrian Land Information System, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, and remotely sensed data were collected. We used nine conditioning factors that were based on the previous studies and geomorphological characteristics of Austria, such as elevation, slope, slope aspect, lithology, rainfall, land cover, distance to drainage, distance to roads, and distance to faults. Based on the evaluation of experts, the slope conditioning factor was chosen as the best criterion (highest impact on LSM) and the distance to roads was considered as the worst criterion (lowest impact on LSM). LSM was generated for the region based on the best and worst criterion. The findings show the robustness of FBWM in landslide susceptibility mapping. Additionally, using fewer pairwise comparisons revealed that the FBWM can obtain higher accuracy as compared to FAHP. The finding of this research can help authorities and decision-makers to provide effective strategies and plans for landslide prevention and mitigation at the national level.

R v Secretary for the Home Department, ex parte Pierson [1998] AC 539, House of Lords

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Webb
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Maker ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Public Law ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
Home Department

Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R v Secretary for the Home Department, ex parte Pierson [1998] AC 539, House of Lords. This case explored whether a decision-maker acting in a quasi-judicial capacity was bound by the same decision-making standards as the courts including, for example, whether retrospective decision-making was permitted. As well as these rule of law considerations, it also raises questions as regards the division or separation of functions within the constitution. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.

scholarly journals Empirisk forskning om domstolar i Finland

2017 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-160
Author(s):  
Mika Sutela
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
Legal Realism ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
Procedural Law ◽  
Wide Range

The subject of my article-based dissertation in law was decision-making in the general courts of Finland. My research aimed to describe how uniform decisionmaking is in the Finnish courts. With regard to district courts convictions of  gravateddrunk driving were the main focus of my study. The results show that there are regional differences in the sentences. Results are based on empirical legal research that draws on aspects of criminal and procedural law as well as criminology. Prior to this, only a few empirical studies had been conducted in Finland that focused on the courts and other criminal sanctioning systems. In the current dissertation, the equality and predictability of judicial decision-making at the international level where the influence of legal and extra-legal factors, e.g., offender age, on sentencing is explored. At a more theoretical level, the dissertation reflects the research tradition of legal realism. Empirical legal research will play an increasingly important role in the future. It can increase both equality before the law, as well as the transparency of decision-making and confidence in the judicial process. Data on, e.g., punishments meted out by the courts, should be kept as current as possible since information on the functioning of the legal system is important. Empirical court research provides a unique basis for discussing levels of punishment. The functioning of the legal system has a major impact on society. Empirical data, including statistics, provide a good basis for a wide range of research.1.

scholarly journals Justiciability, Access to Justice and the Development of Constitutional Law in Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 707-723
Author(s):  
Gerard J Kennedy ◽  
Lorne Sossin
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Procedural Law ◽  
Canadian Experience ◽  
The Government ◽  
Public Law Litigation

Concentrating on Canadian experience, specifically litigation under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the ‘Charter’), this article seeks to reconcile the access to justice benefits of summary procedures with the government litigant's duty to act in the public interest (or as a ‘model litigant’) and uphold the rule of law. Though acknowledging the benefits that can result from the use of summary procedures to end litigation, the authors observe that compliance with strict requirements in procedural law are frequently dispensed with in the Charter context. In fact, summary procedures can have a devastating effect on the development of Charter rights. The authors ultimately posit that the government should have a duty of restraint in using summary procedures to end public law litigation, and courts should be reluctant to permit the government to preclude such litigation aimed at advancing the evolution of the Charter from reaching hearings on the merits.

scholarly journals The Binding Force of International Legal Standards in the Face of the Recurrent Practice of Soft Law

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 79-91
Author(s):  
Diallo Boubacar Sidi
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
Binding Force ◽  
The Face

Soft law facilitates cooperation between international actors. Already, the elaboration of international law is a matter of shared competence between States, traditionally recognized as the only subjects of international law, international organizations and the typical actors. International organizations have initiated a movement towards the adoption of flexible forms of regulation of international relations. They will profoundly change the way in which international law will be created and presented to the recipients of the rule of law. From the very beginning of their activities, organizations preferred a method other than hierarchical command to encourage international cooperation. They will develop a consistent legal technique, aimed at persuading and not compelling their Member States to adopt conduct consistent with the legally binding standard. This article proposes a reflection on soft law and the results of its increasing use in international practices.

scholarly journals Empirisk forskning om domstolar i Finland

2017 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-160
Author(s):  
Mika Sutela
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Drunk Driving ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
Research Tradition ◽  
Procedural Law ◽  
Wide Range

AbstractThe subject of my article-based dissertation in law was decision-making in the general courts of Finland. My research aimed to describe how uniform decisionmaking is in the Finnish courts. With regard to district courts convictions of aggravated drunk driving were the main focus of my study. The results show that there are regional differences in the sentences. Results are based on empirical legal research that draws on aspects of criminal and procedural law as well as criminology. Prior to this, only a few empirical studies had been conducted in Finland that focused on the courts and other criminal sanctioning systems. In the current dissertation, the equality and predictability of judicial decision-making act as theoretical starting points. The dissertation adopts a research tradition established at the international level where the influence of legal and extra-legal factors, e.g., offender age, on sentencing is explored. At a more theoretical level, the dissertation reflects the research tradition of legal realism. Empirical legal research will play an increasingly important role in the future. It can increase both equality before the law, as well as the transparency of decision-making and confidence in the judicial process. Data on, e.g., punishments meted out by the courts, should be kept as current as possible since information on the functioning of the legal system is important. Empirical court research provides a unique basis for discussing levels of punishment. The functioning of the legal system has a major impact on society. Empirical data, including statistics, provide a good basis for a wide range of research.

The Law of the European Union in Historical Perspective

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lindseth
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
National Level ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Procedural Law ◽  
European Governance ◽  
Administrative Governance ◽  
Private Actors

This chapter focuses on EU public law—that is, on the structural and procedural law of public institutions, as well as their relation to each other and to private actors. It seeks to answer a specific question: whether, from a historical perspective, EU public law is best viewed as an extension of international, constitutional, or administrative law. It opts primarily for the latter rubric, setting out a historiographical theory for understanding the process of European integration as an extension of the development of modern administrative governance on the national level over the course of the twentieth century. By linking European governance to the development of administrative governance, one can begin to see the basic truth in Alan Milward’s famous, though controversial, assertion that European integration is really just ‘one more stage in the long evolution of the European state’.

Administrative Discretion and the Rule of Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 254-299
Author(s):  
Joseph Heath
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Administrative Discretion ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
The Rule Of Law

Empirical study of administrative decision-making shows that the power exercised by public officials is only loosely controlled by statutory law. Political theorists have traditionally viewed this discretion quite negatively, as a violation either of the rule of law or the principle of democratic legitimacy. This chapter presents a defense of administrative discretion, on the grounds that it is not just inevitable; it makes an important contribution to the quality of public administration. Both legislative and judicial strategies to reduce administrative discretion have failed or had perverse consequences. The best approach to reducing the potential for abuse of power has been through the development of a “rule of law” culture within the executive branch.

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