Open (in)justice: privacy, open justice and human rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 712-721
Author(s):  
Gilead Cooper

Abstract The principle that court hearings must be open to the public is regarded as sacrosanct. It has recently been invoked by the Court of Appeal in MN v OP as the reason for refusing an application to anonymise the approval of an arrangement under the Variation of Trusts Act 1958 Act. Yet the reasons generally given for insisting on open justice as a matter of principle are unconvincing when applied to civil cases as opposed to criminal cases or those, such as judicial review, in which the power of the state is pitted against the individual citizen. If private citizens are free to resolve their disputes privately through arbitration or mediation, why should they not be allowed to have their cases heard by the court in chambers unless there is some special feature of the case requiring publicity? Why are anonymised judgments not sufficient to ensure that justice is administered fairly and in accordance with the law? Could not more use be made of reporting restrictions? In this article, it is argued that the courts should do more to protect the privacy of litigants, and should not bow to populist demands to pry into the affairs of others (particularly the very wealthy). If they do not, those who can afford to do so will choose arbitration, or litigate in off-shore jurisdictions that are more sympathetic to their reasonable desire for privacy.

Author(s):  
Daniel J. Hemel

This chapter suggests a human rights–based justification for national basic income schemes, contrasting it with justifications based on welfarist principles or notions of entitlement to a share of the global commons. Starting from the premise that a state is a collective enterprise that generates a surplus, it contends that any human being who is an “obedient” member of that state has a right to some share of the surplus. That right—which arises from the relationship between the individual and the state, and is independent of need—could justify the entitlement to a basic income. Such income should be provided in cash, not in kind, because the latter risks depriving the individual of the enjoyment of his share of the surplus—in effect, forcing him to forfeit or transfer it to others if he does not use the public goods or services provided by the state.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-211
Author(s):  
Stanisław Trociuk

The changes in the broadly conceived criminal procedure which were introduced in recent years refer to the problems which are crucial from the perspective of the protection of human rights, such as the scope of the authority of the services due to operational control which is conducted secretly, the model of the functioning of the public prosecution service or the unlawful acquiring of evidence in a criminal procedure. The evaluation of these changes, conducted by the Ombudsman from the point of view of the constitutional standards of the protection of the rights of the individual is not positive. The new regulations reduce the quality of these standards and they do not contain sufficient guarantees of protection against the arbitrariness of the activities engaged in these terms by the organs of public authority. This phenomenon imposes a particular duty on the courts – which hear criminal cases – to see that the final decision in a criminal case respects the universal standards of the protection of human rights.


Author(s):  
Alla Demycheva

The situation with human rights violations in modern Ukraine remains quite acute, as evidenced by various sources at both the international and national levels, official and alternative. In such circumstances, human rights activities are of paramount importance. In the modern human rights field, formal (state) and informal (civil society) structures coexist, and rarely interact. A powerful tool in resolving systemic issues related to human rights is the institution of the ombudsman, represented by the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights and the President's specialized commissioners. The informal level is represented by non-governmental human rights NGOs, of which there are currently more than a hundred in Ukraine. They act as organized, structured, registered, etc. associations that work to promote and protect human rights and freedoms, to establish and maintain effective control over the observance of those freedoms and rights by the state, its bodies and officials. To achieve that, human rights organizations work simultaneously in such areas as the protection of human rights in specific cases (advocacy); dissemination of information on human rights, legal education work; analysis of the state of observance of human rights. As it was before, NGOs have different amounts of resources (background, experience, power, influence), depend on funding from foreign donors and compete with each other. One of the main resources for improving the effectiveness of the human rights field is the cooperation of the ombudsman with non-governmental organizations and the public. An example of cooperation is the model of Ukrainian National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), which has been operating in Ukraine since 2012 to prevent torture, although the format of this interaction has been criticized by experts in the context of the limited role of the public. The non-organizational level is represented by the individual practices of Ukrainians in the protection of human rights, the volume of which is increasing, but the efficiency remains low.


1999 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-48
Author(s):  
Nicholas Bamforth

THE remedial aspects of judicial review illustrate in particularly vivid form the divergent nature of public and private law proceedings. The prerogative orders–mandamus, certiorari and prohibition–are available only via judicial review. Leave is required for judicial review but not for private law actions. By contrast with the private law writ procedure, judicial review must be brought promptly and within three months. In judicial review, a remedy can still be denied to the applicant who establishes a substantive case. As the Law Commission made clear in its Report Administrative Law: Judicial Review and Statutory Appeals, “[j]udicial review often involves values and policy interests, which must be balanced against and may transcend the individual interests, which are normally the subject of litigation between private citizens” (Law Com. No. 226, para. 2.1).


2021 ◽  
pp. 179-185

Modern processes of globalization in some way shake the established notions of human rights, and therefore their interpretation and content may be limited or expanded contrary to the regulations of the highest legal force. This creates conflict not only in the legal field, but also in society as a whole. It is emphasized that the most effective and less conflicting will be the norm, the content of which fully reflects both public and individual interest, the norm, in the process of interpretation and implementation of which the social value of law is achieved. What does it mean? That the right in the understanding of the official expression of norms should be only those provisions that ensure the well-being and development at the level of personal and public interest, guarantee and do not violate human rights. It is noted that the value of the right for the individual is that it is able to meet the human need for freedom and establishes a certain order of its use. The value of law for the whole society is manifested in the fact that the law guarantees security, order and harmonization of social relations, integrity and solidarity of society. Human rights and freedoms in the state, its interests should not be opposed to the rights and freedoms of others. At the same time, along with universally recognized human rights and freedoms, there are generally recognized restrictions on most of them. This raises the question of the objectively determined need to define boundaries and their criteria in the process of exercising one’s rights and freedoms. An analysis of legal practice in the context of finding a balance of public and private interest on the example of the constitutional right to education. The conclusion is that education is both a constitutional right and a duty and is not subject to any restrictions, and the state must ensure that education is accessible to all. In the process of ensuring the public interest, the state should apply permissible legal mechanisms to motivate a person to implement certain norms, such as persuasion, not coercion, encouragement, not the threat of punishment. Otherwise, it will lead to discrimination in the exercise of the rights and opportunities provided by the Constitution and the freedom to exercise them. And the establishment of the necessary restrictions provided by international legal instruments must be based on the principles of necessity, justice, legality, equality of rights and freedoms. Keywords: human rights, right to education, discrimination, equality, public interest.


2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 193-199
Author(s):  
Sean D. Murphy ◽  
Claudio Grossman

Our conversation might begin by looking backward a bit. The human rights movement from 1945 onward has been one of the signature accomplishments of the field of international law, one that refocused our attention from a largely interstate system to a system where the individual moved in from the periphery to the center. Human rights champions point to numerous landmark treaties, numerous institutions, and the rise of NGOs as a critical vehicle for developing and monitoring human rights rules. Yet others look at the international human right system and still see the state as overly central, tolerating and paying lip service to human rights, but too easily discarding them when they prove to be inconvenient. The persistence of racism comes to mind. As a general matter, how would you assess the strengths and weaknesses of the system that was built essentially during your lifetime?


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Rúbia Mendonça Lôbo De Carvalho ◽  
Andressa Guimarães Freire

<p>Os atos, condutas e comportamentos do Poder Público gozam de presunção de legitimidade, gerando, em diversas situações, expectativas nos indivíduos. Pode o Estado, no uso de suas prorrogativas, violar aquelas expectativas, causando efeitos negativos à ordem econômica, por despertarem desconfiança e instabilidade nas relações com o Poder Público. Delimitada a ênfase do presente trabalho à função administrativa do Estado, visou-se compreender o princípio da proteção da confiança como instrumento de tutela da expectativa legítima do indivíduo, por impor limites à Administração Pública na anulação de atos administrativos. Nessa situação, viu-se que referido princípio pode conflitar com a legalidade e a autotutela, sendo o caso de se buscar um juízo de ponderação, que resultará na manutenção do ato ou na sua anulação, esta podendo ser com efeitos <em>ex tunc</em>, com efeitos <em>ex nunc</em> ou com a modulação temporal dos efeitos para um determinado momento futuro.</p><p> </p><p>The acts, practices and behaviors of the Public Power in the exercise of legitimation, can generate, in several situations, expectations in individuals. The Estate, in use of its prerogatives, can breach expectations, generating a negative economic response, lack of confidence and instability in its relations. Thus, the principle of protection defends the preservations of these state acts, which effects extend in time, giving the individual an expectation of continuity, even if they are illegal or unconstitutional. Delimiting the emphasis of the present work on the administrative function of the State, it was intended to understand the principle of the protection of trust as an instrument to protect the legitimate expectation of the individual, for imposing limits to the Public Administration in the annulment of administrative acts. In this situation, it was seen that this principle may conflict with legality and self-assessment, being the case of seeking a weighing judgment, which will result in the maintenance of the act or its annulment, this being possible with the temporal modulation of the effects for a certain future moment.</p><p> </p><p> </p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Salem Salem Juber ◽  
Muhammad Awad Saker

The Sharia Hisba is an integrated Islamic system of pillars and construction whose theme is enjoining good and forbidding evil, and aims at stabilizing societies and the supremacy of virtue and high morals in it, and rejecting vice and bad morals from it. The legal public prosecution system is an accusatory system that seeks to safeguard the right of the state and the right of the individual to the public order to ensure a society free from apparent crimes, and a regular picture of the state and individuals is formed in a coherent body without chaos. The Hisba system is a symbiotic social system that moves through the community’s control of the community, while the public case system and its tools from the Public Prosecution and other institutions is a deterrent institutional system that moves in the light of the law and deals in accordance with its principles and limits.


Author(s):  
Alfonso CHACÓN MATA

LABURPENA: «Giza Eskubideetan Oinarritutako Ikuspegiaren» irismena azaltzeko asmoa dauka artikulu honek, zer-nolako aldagaiak eta kontzeptuak biltzen dituen ulertze aldera. Horren bilakaeraz eta indarraldiaz arituko gara, bai eta horren modalitate aplikatua nola nabarmentzen den azalduko ere. Horretarako, Nazio Batuen Erakundearen esparruan garatu diren ekarpenak eta gaiaren inguruko doktrina aditua erabiliko ditugu. Administrazio Publikoan duen indarra ezin ukatuzkoa da; izan ere, estatuak eta horri atxikitako erakundeek oso kontuan eduki behar dute politika publikoak norbanakoen eta komunitateen beharrei arreta ematen ari zaien jakiteko balio duela ikuspegi horrek, edota politika publiko horiek kontu emanez gardentasun publikoa eratzen ari diren nahiz edozelako diskriminazioa saihesten ari diren jakiteko balio duela. Azkenik, ikuspegi horrek Giza Eskubideen Gorte Interamerikarraren jurisprudentzia-aurrekari batzuetan duen indarraldia eta eragina aztertuko dira. RESUMEN: El presente artículo tiene la intención de exponer los alcances del «Enfoque Basado en Derechos Humanos», con la finalidad de entender que variables y conceptos involucra. Haremos un recuento de su evolución, vigencia y cómo se evidencia su modalidad aplicada, a través de diferentes aportes desarrollados en el marco de la Organización de Naciones Unidas, así como de la doctrina estudiosa del tema. Su vigencia en la Administración Pública es de primer orden, puesto que el Estado y sus entidades adscritas, deben tener muy en cuenta que el enfoque citado, sirve para conocer si las políticas públicas, están atendiendo necesidades de individuos y comunidades concretas; generando transparencia pública a través de rendición de cuentas, así como evitando cualquier tipo de discriminación. Finalmente, se analizará su vigencia e impacto en algunos antecedentes jurisprudenciales de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos. ABSTRACT: This article intends to expose the scope of the «Human Rights Based Approach», in order to understand what variables and concepts it involves. We will recount its evolution, validity and how its applied modality is evidenced, through different contributions developed within the framework of the United Nations, as well as the doctrine studious of the subject. Its validity in the Public Administration is of the first order, since the State and its affiliated entities must take into account that the aforementioned approach serves to know if public policies are addressing the needs of specific individuals and communities; Generating public transparency through accountability, as well as avoiding any type of discrimination. Finally, its validity and impact will be analyzed in some jurisprudential antecedents of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.


2021 ◽  
pp. 70-94
Author(s):  
Nadiia BONDARENKO-ZELINSKA ◽  
Maryna BORYSLAVSKA ◽  
Oksana TRACH

The article explores certain problems of law enforcement practice in recognizing inheritance as escheat. The subject of scientific analysis is the subject composition of these procedural relations. Applicants in this category of cases can be conditionally divided into two groups: 1) persons obliged to submit an application to the court for recognition of the inheritance as escheat, and 2) persons who have the right to do so. The persons who are obliged to apply to the court for recognition of the inheritance as escheat are territorial communities. On the basis of an analysis of the legislation, it was established that in the case where a united territorial community was formed in a certain territory, it is authorized to apply to the court for recognition of the inheritance as escheat. On behalf of the local self-government body as a representative of the territorial community (united territorial community), a lawsuit may be initiated to recognize the inheritance as escheat: 1)by its headman or 2) another person authorized to do so according to the law, statute, regulation, employment contract. That is, there can be both self-representation and representation on the basis of a special assignment. It received additional justification for the ability of the prosecutor’s office to submit an application for recognition of the inheritance as escheat in the absence of a territorial community. In such a case, the public prosecutor's office shall represent the legitimate interests of the State in court, in accordance with article 56 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as a body or person entitled to defend the rights, freedoms and interests of others (human rights defender). The possibility of participating not only as an applicant but also as a human rights defender is justified. The possibility of self-representation of local self-governments in cases of recognition of inheritance as escheat by a headman is proposed. It is further argued that such a possibility should be provided for in the Headman’s Regulations, which are approved by the relevant local councils. The peculiarities of initiation of production by subjects for whom the application to the court for recognition of the inheritance as escheat is a right, not an obligation (creditors of the testator, owners and/or users of adjacent land plots) are analyzed. If an applicant in cases of recognition of the inheritance as escheat is a creditor, documents confirming the existing obligations in relation to the debtor-testator should be attached to the application. Recommendations are made on a list of documents that can confirm the status of an applicant-related land user to apply to the court for recognition of the inheritance as escheat. It is proposed to amend Art. 335 CPC of Ukraine on the necessity to provide the originals of written evidence together with a statement on the recognition of the inheritance as escheat. The role of a notary in cases of recognition of inheritance as escheat has been investigated. It is proposed to provide in the legislation the right of a notary to submit to the court an application for recognition of the inheritance as escheat. It is proposed to improve the way of informing the public about the discovery of an inheritance that has no heirs.


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