Reasons to Criminalize

Author(s):  
Vincent Chiao

This chapter extends the public law conception to the theory of criminalization. The first half of the chapter is devoted to considering whether the criminal law has a privileged subject matter or “core,” focusing especially on Feinberg’s influential account of the criminal law as a system of direct prohibitions. The chapter argues that a subject-matter-based approach has difficulty coming to grips with actual criminal law systems in modern administrative states, in which so-called mala prohibita offenses predominate. The second half of the chapter turns to sketching how we might approach the question of criminalization from a public law point of view, both in general and with reference to the political ideal of anti-deference (sketched in Chapter 3) in particular. Along the way, the chapter argues that the (very popular) wrongfulness principle turns out to be either empty or implausible, and hence that we should reject any version of the harm principle, or of legal moralism, that presupposes it.

Author(s):  
Alex Mills

This chapter focuses on private interests and private law regulation in public international law jurisdiction, and discusses how questions of private law are generally marginalized in favour of a focus on public law, particularly criminal law. This is surprising and unfortunate for two main reasons. The first is that private law issues played a central role in the development of public international law jurisdictional principles. The second is that public international lawyers have, in a range of other contexts, increasingly recognized the significance of private law regulation, and the ‘public’ function which it can play in pursuing particular state interests. Recognizing the significance of private law jurisdiction presents, however, some important challenges to the way in which public international law jurisdiction has become to be understood.


Author(s):  
Vincent Chiao

The previous chapter defended a fully political standard of justification, according to which a justification of the criminal law rests on (1) an account of when the institutions whose rules it enforces are worth supporting, and (2) an account of why its use in a particular context would be consistent with the principles that make those institutions worth supporting in the first place. This chapter offers a substantive interpretation of those more abstract ideas. Starting from a conception of a society of equals, familiar in the works of Pettit, Anderson, and Kolodny, among others, the chapter sketches an account (the political ideal of anti-deference) that is democratic, egalitarian but not equalizing, and focused on a form of freedom—central capability—as its basic evaluative currency. The chapter suggests that institutions committed to democratic equality in this sense would approve the use of the criminal law provided that those under its jurisdiction have an equal opportunity to influence the content of the law, its use does not further entrench an objectionable status hierarchy, and its use optimally protects effective access to central capability for all, criminal accused and victim alike.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 122
Author(s):  
Jaime Almansa Sánchez

While Archaeology started to take form as a professional discipline, Alternative Archaeologies grew in several ways. As the years went by, the image of Archaeology started being corrupted by misconceptions and a lot of imagination, and those professionals that were claiming to be scientists forgot one of their first responsibilities; the public. This lack of interest is one of the reasons why today, a vast majority of society believes in many clichés of the past that alternative archaeologists have used to build a fictitious History that is not innocent at all. From UFOs and the mysteries of great civilizations to the political interpretation of the past, the dangers of Alternative Archaeologies are clear and under our responsibility. This paper analyzes this situation in order to propose a strategy that may make us the main characters of the popular imagery in the mid-term. Since confrontation and communication do not seem to be effective approaches, we need a change in the paradigm based on Public Archaeology and the increase of our presence in everyday life.


Author(s):  
Iryna Muzyka

Peculiarities of M. Skrypnyk's theoretical and ideological substantiation of national, judicial and criminal-legal policy in his concept of state-legal development of Soviet Ukraine are investigated. Coverage of the peculiarities of the ideological platform and legal credo of M. Skrypnik in the aspect of the anthropology of law is important for characterizing his state activity as one of the main theorists of the concept of «Ukrainian path to communism». From the point of view of anthropology, convincing explanations of M. Skrypnyk's various positions and steps in the sphere of state and party policy should be sought in his ideological and psychological sphere. At the same time, in our opinion, maneuvering in the ideological substantiation of M. Skrypnyk's practical activity is explained by his utilitarian attitude to ideology as an effective propaganda means of achieving goals in state-building. In our opinion, M. Skrypnyk considered the ultimate goal of the process of socialist construction not to be the development of a "communist oasis of the Ukrainian model," but the creation of a workers 'and peasants' statehood as a single labor society based on internationalism and communist ownership. M. Skrypnyk saw the national liberation and development of the culture of amateur broad masses of workers and peasants in the process of national development, which he considered a stage in the process of socialist construction, as a transitional stage on the way to this goal. An important argument in the search for explanations of the theoretical foundations and ways of practical implementation of state and national policy of M. Skrypnyk is his vision of the nature and objectives of judicial and criminal policy. M. Skrypnyk emphasized that Soviet criminal law has a public, social, anti-individualistic character, as opposed to bourgeois criminal law, built on the principles of individualism inherent in bourgeois society. On the way to achieving this goal in the mind of M. Skrypnyk, in line with the then understanding of state and legal phenomena and processes, there was a transfer of priorities from the rights and interests of the individual to the collective interests - declaratively to the interests of the proletariat. Man was not seen by him as the highest value and "measure of all things." Priority was given to other values: the "world revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat," the elimination of the class division of society, and the defense and construction of the socialist state. According to the content of the concept of state and legal development of the USSR, M. Skrypnyk can really be considered one of the main theorists of the "Ukrainian path to socialism." However, the very concept of the future socialist state, set out in its creative heritage, does not seem to be a theory of Ukrainian national communism, as characterized by some researchers, and awaits a deeper study by historians of law.


2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-355
Author(s):  
Pieter Bleyen ◽  
Stijn Lombaert ◽  
Geert Bouckaert

In search for efficiency, effectiveness and fiscal sustainability, governments gather more performance information than ever before. As many of them have sought to incorporate and use this kind of information in budgeting and planning documents, the main goal of this article is to discover how local government performance budgeting practices can be mapped by a survey in a way that enables international comparison. Three previous mapping endeavors served as preliminary guidelines to develop a refined index based on the dimensions measurement, incorporation and use of performance information which form a generally accepted logical sequence in the public management literature. Results for the case of 304 Flemish local governments show a huge variation in the way performance budgeting is practiced, as index scores vary from nearly zero to more than 76 percent. Although it seems that available performance information is incorporated fairly well, measurement and use are lacking. It can be concluded that measuring performance budgeting offers interesting insights in the way this kind of budgeting is practiced in local governments. Although, from an analytical point of view, it is not sufficient to fully grasp performance budgeting and this for several reasons discussed in the article.


Author(s):  
Kathrin Deventer

Festivals have been around, and will always be around; no matter the political context they are embedded in, supported by, or hindered by. Why? Simply because society develops, it transforms, it is dynamic and it needs space for reflection and inspiration. Festivals are platforms for people to meet, and for artists to present their work, their creations. This gives festivals an enduring, quite independent mission and reason to exist: as long as festivals strive to offer a biotope for artists and audiences alike and point to questions which concern the way we live and want to live, they will be a fertile ground for a meaningful development of society – and an offer for serving the public wellbeing. What are the challenges festivals are facing today? There are a series of very complex questions related to festivals’ positioning us as human beings in an interconnected, global society, our relation to nature and the immediate surroundings, our stories of life so that as many citizens as possible can be part of the societal discourse, can be enriched, can be touched, can be heard, can be moved. Individuals, interest groups, nationalities, countries, even continents are interconnected. What does this mean for a festival? Travelling across Europe for work and pleasure and meeting citizens from all walks of life has taught me that citizens, a term that connects individuals to some larger constructed community, are just people, everyday people, going about their lives. People connect with other humans and their human stories, real life encounters. Abstract theory and jargon are meaningless when they lack real life connections. Meaningful festivals of the future will offer possibilities for new connections among people: they invite people to travel in time and in space; they inspire to connect human stories, enriching them with new, unexpected, colourful stories!


Author(s):  
A.P. Ushakova ◽  

From the standpoint of the dominant interest criterion the article examines the justification of the legislator`s decision to apply public law methods in order to regulate relations concerning the use of land for infrastructural facilities placing. The author gives the arguments in favor of understanding the public interest as the interest of the whole society as a system, rather than the interest of an indefinite range of persons or the majority of the population. The author concludes that there is the simultaneous presence in the specified legal relations and private interests of the participants of legal relations, and public interests of society as a system. Both types of interests in these legal relations are important, but in terms of different aspects of the legal impact mechanism. Public interest is important because its realization is the purpose of legal regulation of this type of legal relations, from this point of view it acts as a dominant interest. The private interest of the holder of a public servitude is important as an incentive to attract the efforts of private individuals to achieve a publicly significant goal. The private interest of a land plot owner is important from the point of view of securing the right of ownership. It is substantiated that the public servitude is not an arbitrary decision of the legislator, but an example of application of the incentive method in the land law, which provides a favorable legal regime for a socially useful activity.


Author(s):  
POLLY LOW

This chapter discusses one of the best-known instances of classical commemoration: the public funeral and collective burial and commemoration of the Athenian war dead. Its particular aim is to explore the various contexts in which Athenian practice might be understood. How do these monuments fit into the wider picture of Athenian burial and commemoration, in terms of both form and physical location? How do they relate to the political system and ideology of the city that created them? And how might these contexts shape the way in which the monuments were used and understood by contemporary and later viewers?


The electronic revolution, which began over fifty years ago, has changed not only the way libraries operate but the way people conduct research and business, interact with each other, socialize, communicate, and even commit crimes. Originally, the phrase “library electronics” referred to an ILS (integrated library system) or an OPAC (online public access catalog). Today, this same phrase refers to not only the ILS, OPAC, and public access computer but to print management and computer reservation software, e-books, CD-ROMs, databases, and CALR vendors. As technology has changed libraries, it has also changed users’ behaviors, research techniques, public services, and the librarian’s role. Intended to be an extension of the collection development and public services chapters, this chapter explores the effect of the digital revolution on the public law library, ways public law libraries can utilize the technology, and how and why these libraries are being driven to increase their use of digital technology. Because contracts are commonly thought of as being associated with electronic resources, the authors have chosen to discuss contract issues in this chapter rather than in the Collection Development chapter. Other related topics include transitioning from the card catalog to the OPAC and ILS, electronic formats, vendor selection, miscellaneous electronic technologies, and pricing issues.


Author(s):  
Daniel Toscano López

This chapter seeks to show how the society of the digital swarm we live in has changed the way individuals behave to the point that we have become Homo digitalis. These changes occur with information privatization, meaning that not only are we passive consumers, but we are also producers and issuers of digital communication. The overarching argument of this reflection is the disappearance of the “reality principle” in the political, economic, and social spheres. This text highlights that the loss of the reality principle is the effect of microblogging as a digital practice, the uses of which can either impoverish the space of people's experience to undermine the public space or achieve the mobilization of citizens against of the censorship of the traditional means of communication by authoritarian political regimes, such as the case of the Arab Spring in 2011.


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