scholarly journals Measuring Liberalism, Confronting Evil: A Retrospective

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Ira Katznelson
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Public Rights ◽  
Enabling Institutions

Taking liberalism's measure as an indispensable yet inherently fragile design grounded in the rule of law, government by consent, individual and public rights, and political representation, my work at the intersection of ideas, institutions, and methods to appraise behavior has focused on origins and transitions, membership boundaries and domination, and an unsteady bonding with the older regime model of democracy. Shaped by early and later life experiences and guided by the good fortune of stimulating networks and enabling institutions, my analytical histories of thought and events, primarily in the American experience, have asked when and why liberal democracies become normatively appealing (less closed and more tolerant) and more effective (less vulnerable and more secure). As a political scientist trained in history, I have been keen to advance a discipline that refuses to be enclosed or too crisply divided into subfields, or, indeed, to choose between quests for causality and understanding.

Open Access Order and Interconnected Institutions in Brazil: A Challenge

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Guanghua Yu
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Economic Organizations ◽  
Property Rights Protection

AbstractThis article examines the evolution of democratic practice in Brazil. The article begins with a discussion on the country’s performance in terms of social equality, violence, and weak economy after the consolidation of democracy in 1985. Based on historical evidence, the article offers explanations concerning the weak performance in Brazil. The case of Brazil provides a challenge to the theory of open access order of North and his colleagues in the sense that open access to political organizations and activities does not necessarily lead to either better political representation or better economic performance. The case of Brazil also shows that open access to economic organizations and activities in the absence of the necessary institutions in the areas of property rights protection and contract enforcement, the financial market, the rule of law, and human resources accumulation does not lead to long-term economic growth.

A PROPÓSITO DEL ORIGEN Y EVOLUCIÓN DEL RÉGIME ADMINISTRATIF

2010 ◽  
pp. 767-785
Author(s):  
JESÚS LEGUINA VILLA
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Public Rights ◽  
Statutory Power ◽  
Administrative Courts ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
Principle Of Legality

El Derecho Administrativo es un producto propio y específico del constitucionalismo nacido tras la ruptura revolucionaria con el Antiguo Régimen, que resultará profundamente condicionado por las circunstancias sociopolíticas del país, Francia, donde nació. El Régimen Administrativo del Estado de Derecho se conforma a partir del principio de legalidad, de la potestad reglamentaria, de las libertades públicas y los derechos públicos subjetivos, de la responsabilidad de la Administración y del control a través de la jurisdicción contencioso-administrativa. Administrazio Zuzenbidea konstituzionalismoaren berezko produktua espezifikoa da, Frantziako Iraultzak Erregimen Zaharrarekin apurtu ostean sortua eta herrialde horren egoera soziopolitikoak sakon baldintzatua. Zuzenbide Estatuaren Administrazio Araubideak osatzeko hauek guztiak hartzen dira abiapuntu: legezkotasun-printzipioa, arauzko ahala, askatasun publikoak eta eskubide publiko subjektiboak, Administrazioaren erantzukizuna eta administrazio-auziarekiko jurisdikzioaren bidez egiten den kontrola. Administrative Law is a product typical and specific of the constitutionalism born after the revolutionary break-off with the Ancien Regime, which was deeply conditioned by the sociopolitical circumstances of the State, France, where it was born. The Administrative Regime of the Rule of Law was made up from the point of view of the principle of legality, the statutory power, public freedoms and subjective public rights, the liability by the Administration and the review by means of the contentious administrative courts.

scholarly journals Witchcraft and Statecraft: Liberal Democracy in Africa

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelson Tebbe
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Traditional Healers ◽  
Large Majority ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Equal Citizenship

96 Georgetown Law Journal 183 (2007)This Article addresses the prospects of liberal democracy in non-Western societies. It focuses on South Africa, one of the newest and most admired liberal democracies, and in particular on its efforts to recognize indigenous African traditions surrounding witchcraft and related occult practices. In 2004, Parliament passed a law that purports to regulate certain occult practitioners called traditional healers. Today, lawmakers are under pressure to go further and criminalize the practice of witchcraft itself. This Article presses two arguments. First, it contends that the 2004 statute is compatible with liberal principles of equal citizenship and the rule of law. Second, it warns against outlawing witchcraft as such. Subjecting suspected sorcerers to criminal punishment based on governmental determinations of guilt that many will perceive to be unprincipled would work too much damage to individual autonomy and national unity, among other values. These arguments are designed to contribute to a wider discussion about the capacity of liberalism to respond to the global resurgence of religious traditionalism, especially in countries where traditionalists may comprise a large majority of the citizenry.

Constitutionalism under Stress

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Public Reason ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Constitutional Review ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Comparative Constitutional Law ◽  
Liberal Constitutionalism ◽  
Western Democracies ◽  
The Eu

This volume is designed to mark the outstanding legacy of Professor Wojciech Sadurski’s scholarship in the field of comparative constitutional law. It provides a rich palette of chapters that aim to rethink the state of the art in this field, in light of the latest challenges to the foundations of liberal constitutionalism. Edited by former doctoral students of Professor Sadurski, the volume transcends the celebration of his major academic contributions by linking his pioneering writings, inter alia on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), to core dilemmas in the turbulent state of the rule of law in western democracies. It consolidates contributions by numerous current and former students, as well as colleagues and friends around the globe in admiration of his didactic style, tireless work, civil dedication, and priceless commentary influencing the work of generations of constitutional scholars. Besides drawing on Wojciech’s fields of interest, the book aims to provide a full overview of the crucial dilemmas in dealing with the current decline of liberal democracies and populist challenges to the rule of law throughout Europe—events that he predicted early on in his writings about the Jörg Haider affair in Austria and the introduction of Article 7 TEU by the Amsterdam Treaty. The major themes of the chapters are thus as follows: 1. Populism and democratic decline in CEE; 2. The EU role: Article 7 TEU vis-à-vis the rule of law in Hungary and Poland; 3. Constitutional review and militant democracy: between public reason and new forms of populism.

Secret State, Transparent Subject: The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in the Age of Terror

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 400-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jude McCulloch ◽  
Joo-Cheong Tham
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Relative Distribution ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Open Discussion ◽  
Security Information ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
The Government ◽  
Distribution Of Power

This article describes the secrecy provisions embodied in the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Legislation Amendment Act 2003 (Cwlth). The article explains how these provisions curb freedom of speech and remove ASIO's activities from the domain of public scrutiny. It argues that by effectively criminalising open discussion of ASIO's activities the provisions insulate much of the domestic ‘war on terror’ from the public gaze. It also argues that the provisions implicitly sanction lawlessness by ASIO in open breach of the rule of law. By undermining free speech and the rule of law, this legislation increases the risk of torture of persons detained by ASIO. The legislation also exacerbates the punitiveness of such detention. Moreover, the secrecy offences will distort Australian politics by enabling the government to control and manipulate ‘security’ information. The article concludes that the increase in state secrecy and its impact are part of a continuing shift in the relative distribution of power between state and subject in liberal democracies; a shift that signals a move to more repressive or authoritarian forms of rule.

scholarly journals Administrative Law as a Dual State. Authoritarian Elements of Administrative Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bas Schotel
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Normal Operation ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
State Nature ◽  
Better Than

AbstractScholars have recently shown how in Europe regimes in democratic decay (e.g. Poland, Hungary) take all sorts of measures targeting and marginalizing political opponents. Although they are authoritarian by nature, the measures are cast in a legal form. According to some scholars this kind of authoritarian rule of law can be best understood as a dual state, namely a combination of the normative state (the rule of law) and the prerogative state (the pure—political or arbitrary—will of those in power). Building on these insights, the present paper makes two new observations. First, administrative law is distinctively well suited to cater for the creation of a dual state. By distinctively I mean better than civil and criminal law. In fact, I argue that administrative law constitutes a dual state in and of itself combining normative and prerogative state elements within a single area of law, in ways that cannot be done under civil and criminal law. Second, not only regimes in democratic decay but also liberal democracies make use of the dual state nature of administrative law. The paper illustrates this point with two techniques whereby liberal democracies use administrative law to circumvent or pervert the normal operation of criminal law, namely crimmigration and the alien detention of citizens. My underlying normative point is to draw attention to the inherent authoritarian potential of administrative law.

scholarly journals Russian and German Legislation on Personal Data: Comparative Analysis of Approaches and Practices

Lex Russica ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 170-178
Author(s):  
E. N. Matyukhina
Keyword(s):  
Data Storage ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Storage System ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Biometric Data ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Identification Documents ◽  
German Legislation

The paper analyzes the legislative acts on the collection and storage of biometric data of citizens and the changes in the idea of how the legal state can and should be arranged, what the guarantees of the security of providing such data to various structures in the Russian and German legislation are. The idea of a rule-of-law state was, as you know, was developed in Germany by C. T. Welker, R. v. Mohl, R.G. Gneist and J.C. Freiherr von Aretin and was borrowed by Russian statesmen — S. S. Alekseev, V. M. Gessen, N.M. Korkunov, A. F. Kistyakovsky, S.A. Kotlyarevsky, P.I. Novgorodtsev, N.I. Paliyenko. During the existence of our States, this concept has undergone many changes in both its Russian and German versions, which each time was dictated by a number of objective reasons. At the present stage, both powers are concerned with the problem of security, the threat of terrorism, fraud in the Internet space. Therefore, in the European Union, for example, the requirement for identification documents to contain biometric data is now mandatory for all member countries. European thought, as revealed in the analysis of existing concepts and experience of their implementation, was a few steps ahead — while in Russia laws are adopted without discussion with citizens infringing their rights guaranteed by the Constitution, Europe is concerned with the creation of a data storage system representing the cultural heritage of mankind. The rule of law state has become to a large extent a metaphor for which a particular citizen does not feel any content. The use of this term has become a technological tool for the state to achieve political and geopolitical goals, a way to prove that we are also among the civilized liberal democracies and market economies, which distorts the essence of the idea of the rule of law for a particular person. The Russians themselves often do not understand the idea of the rule of law and the mechanism for its achievement.

Membership Eligibility in a Europe of Liberal Democracies, 1970–2005

2021 ◽  
pp. 159-193
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Fast Track ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter uses extensive archival evidence to demonstrate how the membership norm adopted by the community around 1970—that only liberal democracies respecting human rights and the rule of law are eligible for membership—shaped its decisions on Greece, Spain, Turkey, and Ukraine over subsequent decades. The democratic governments that took power in Greece and Spain after the collapse of authoritarian rule in the mid-1970s used the community’s membership norm to pressure member states to fast track them to accession despite the hesitation of the European Commission and powerful domestic lobbies. Notwithstanding the growing controversy over Turkey’s membership prospects in this period, the community’s membership norm played an important role in keeping the relationship on track. Finally, the EU’s membership norm impeded Ukraine’s pursuit of closer ties after interdependence in 1991 because of widespread concern within the Union regarding the country’s actual commitment to liberal democracy and the rule of law.

scholarly journals The politics of implementation of the judicial council model in Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-520
Author(s):  
Pablo Castillo-Ortiz
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Service Model ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
European Continent ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Justice Model ◽  
Cross Country

AbstractCurrently, at least three approaches to judicial governance coexist in the European continent: the judicial council model, the courts service model, and the Ministry of Justice model. Although doctrinal and case-specific literatures abound on this topic, examples of cross-country studies explaining choices on these models of judicial governance are rather scarce. More particularly, we lack so far knowledge on how different factors interact in leading to the implementation of the judicial council model. This is striking, given the importance of judicial councils for the operation of the rule of law. Furthermore, explanations on the choices of models of judicial governance are essential to understanding the intricate issue of the political rationalities underlying macrolevel design of judicial institutions. Using qualitative comparative analysis and focusing on European liberal democracies, this article contributes to the literature in the field. It is shown that judicial councils are created when postauthoritarian countries implement new constitutions either in romanistic law countries or in countries subject to Europeanizing pressures.

Liberalism, Allegiance, and Obedience: The Inappropriateness of Loyalty Oaths in a Liberal Democracy

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liav Orgad
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Legal Institution ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
Loyalty Oaths

The Article examines the wisdom of loyalty oaths as a legal institution in contemporary liberal democracies. First, using comparative analysis the Article highlights the growing global interest in loyalty oaths. Second, based upon historical evidence the Article explores the functions of loyalty oaths and assesses their role. Third, through using legal analysis the Article challenges the validity of loyalty oaths and identifies three fundamental problems related to their content and form: the rule of law, freedom of conscience, and equality.The Article reveals liberal concerns associated with the added value of the duty of “loyalty to the law” (allegiance), as distinct from the duty to “obey the law” (obedience). It presents an ongoing tension between loyalty and liberalism and argues that the more loyalty liberal democracies demand, the less liberal they become. The Article concludes that loyalty oaths yield high costs but have low benefits and suggests that liberal states should abandon them as a legal institution.

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