scholarly journals Medico-legal and bioethical perspectives following the constitutional legitimacy of assisted suicide in Italy

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-154
Author(s):  
Andrea Cioffi ◽  
Giuseppe Bersani ◽  
Raffaella Rinaldi
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Conscientious Objection ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Psychological Suffering ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Constitutional Legitimacy

Assisted suicide is the subject of much debate throughout the world. In Italy, on 24 September 2019, the Italian Constitutional Court legitimised assisted suicide under certain conditions: self-determination capacity, irreversible illness and intense physical/psychological suffering of the patient. This historic judgement surely paved the way for an evolution of the Italian legal framework on the matter but also raised some challenging medico-legal and bioethical questions. This study aims at analysing two of the most controversial among them: the inclusion of psychiatric patients among eligible patients for assisted suicide and the position of physicians related to their right to conscientious objection.

scholarly journals Reclaiming Romani-ness

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioanida Costache
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Gendered Identities ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Epistemic Systems ◽  
Porous Boundaries

Drawing on theories of identity postulated by cultural theorists, scholars of gender identity, and critical race theorists, I explore issues of identity politics and “Otherness” as they pertain to Romani identity, history and activism. By critiquing the latent bifurcation of identity and subjectivity in Judith Butler’s theory of performativity as well as her explicit adherence to universalism, I begin to outline a (post-Hegelian) hermeneutic in which narratives of self enable political processes of self-determination against symbolic and epistemic systems of racialization and minoritization.[1] Roma identity both serves as an oppressive social category while at the same time empowering people for whom a shared ethnic group provides a sense of solidarity and community. In re-conceptualizing, reimagining and re-claiming Romani-ness, we can make movements towards outlining a new Romani subjectivity – a subjectivity that is firmly rooted in counterhistories of Roma, with porous boundaries that both celebrate our diversity and foster solidarity. I come to the subject of Romani identity from an understanding that our racialized and gendered identities are both performed and embodied – forming part of the horizon from which we make meaning of the world. I wish to recast the discourse surrounding Romani identity as hybridized and multicultural, as well as, following Glissant, embedded into a pluritopic notion of history.

Some Reflections on the Constitutional Review in Albania in a Comparison Key

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Ismail Tafani ◽  
Renata Tokrri
Keyword(s):  
Balkan Peninsula ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Constitutional Reform ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Constitutional Review ◽  
The World ◽  
Constitutional Legitimacy ◽  
Formal Point ◽  
Constitutional Revision

In this study we will try to analyze the foundations of the Constitution as a pillar and as a guarantee for its solidity. The study will also address the need for revision of the constitution as a fundamental element of its existence and continuity. Particular emphasis will be given to the comparison of the constitutions of the most important countries in the world as regards the procedures and limits to the constitutional revision. In this sense, the constitutions of some Balkan Peninsula countries will be analyzed to draw a comparison and analyze the Albanian Constitution as regards the procedure for its revision. The study intends to analyze the procedures for the revision of the Constitution as well as the explicit and implicit limits to these revisions. In the Constitutional revision in Albania in 2016, the role of the Constitutional Court on the control of the constitutional legitimacy of constitutional revision laws was clarified. Formal constitutionality is usually emphasized since the Albanian constitutional reform underlined that the Constitutional Court in Albania could express itself on the constitutionality of the Constitutional revision law only from a formal point of view.   Received: 2 January 2021 / Accepted: 27 February 2021 / Published: 7 March 2021

scholarly journals Along the Italian route of End-of-life: the latest judicial evolution on assisted suicide

Bioethica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Teresa Andreani
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Pharmacological Therapy ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Life Saving ◽  
Life Issues ◽  
End Of Life Issues ◽  
The Individual

In the last three decades, the dilemma of End-of-Life is one of the most disputed bio-juridical questions Italy is confronting with. By raising highly sensitive ethical, legal and political dilemmas, it has deeply divided the Italian society, the scientific community and the political arena. In the context of a raging controversy, the Italian Parliament has opted for silence. Thus, an evolutive, judicial route has marked the legal frame in response to numerous, concrete demands of recognition of the freedom of self-determination and value of dignity in the final phase of life. In this review article, an overview of the judicial evolution of the complex mosaic of end-of-life issues will be firstly offered through three cases, pillars on which the latest judicial evolution on assisted suicide lays its foundations. Secondly, the issue of assisted suicide will be singularly addressed through the examination of the Cappato case which has outlined the path for the historical ruling of the Italian Constitutional Court, no'242 of 2019 on the constitutional illegitimacy of the crime of assistance to suicide under article 580 of the Italian Criminal Code. Precisely, the Court has pointed out several, concurrent requirements in presence of which an active conduct directly connected with suicide is not criminally relevant: the autonomous and free formation of the individual will, the irreversible nature of the disease, the ongoing practice of a life-saving treatment, the intolerability of the physical or psychological sufferings and the mental capacity to self-determination. Among the numerous, emerging, interpretative questions, the latest Trentini case, in which the requirement of life-saving treatment has been interpreted as inclusive of pharmacological therapy and of every material, sanitary life-saving assistance, will be further evaluated. Conclusively, a cross section of the fragile interplay between the legislative power and the judiciary power will be depicted in reference to the main open interpretative questions related to the enforcement of the constitutional ruling and a portrait of the upcoming scenerios, as the existing legislative drafts and the prepositive referendum question, will be concisely examined.

Data Screening of Muslim Sleepers Unconstitutional

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 967-975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Kett-Straub
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Federal Constitutional ◽  
Data Screening

Shocking news for police and intelligence agencies in Germany: the search for inland sleepers following the terrorist attacks in 2001 on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon was unconstitutional. Preventive data screening is incompatible with the fundamental right of informational self-determination according to Article 2 (I) in connection with Article 1 (I) of the Grundgesetz (GG - Basic Law). Since the ruling of the Bundesverfassungsgericht (BverfG - Federal Constitutional Court) of 4 April, 2006 (1 BvR 518/02), such numerous acquisition of data is not permitted unless a concrete threat to important objects of legal protection is existent.

scholarly journals Origin, establishment and development of the idea of self-determination of peoples

2021 ◽  
pp. 60-73
Author(s):  
Azer Kagraman Ogly Kagramanov
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Right

The subject of this research is the examination of evolution of the idea of self-determination of peoples based on the fundamental works of the Russian and foreign scholars, thinkers of the antiquity and modernity. The author considers the transformations experienced by the principle of self-determination at various historical stages of development; as well as builds a corresponding systems of the development cycles. The conclusion is made that after conception of the idea of self-determination, the colonial powers viewed this concept as ethical, seeing the threat to legitimacy of the established order. Therefore, throughout almost a century, the leading countries refused to include this right into the corresponding international and domestic documents. The main conclusions are as follows: after consolidation of the principle in the Charter of the United Nations, it became the foundation for the emergence of news states and destruction of the colonial world; the principle served as a leitmotif for the development of human rights and international relations, but at the same time became a threat and challenge to the territorial integrity; wars between the countries are replaced with the civil and interethnic conflicts; the world is captured with such phenomena as state nationalism that subsequently grew into extremely radical forms, such as fascism and Nazism; the modern international law actively promotes the two competing principles – territorial integrity and self-determination; in modern world, the right to self-determination is not limited by peoples under the colonial past – there occur new forms of self-determination that threaten the existence of sovereign states. Uncertainty of the status of the newly emerged states formations serves as the source of domestic and international tension, which inevitably leads to intergovernmental clashes and negatively impacts geopolitical situation in separate regions and in the world as a whole.

scholarly journals El derecho a decidir y el principio democrático

2016 ◽  
pp. 477 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Tudela Aranda
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Independence Movement ◽  
Democratic Principle ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
Right Of Self Determination

Decidida la independencia, las fuerzas políticas partidarias de la misma, tenían que encontrar la manera de poder encauzar sus aspiraciones. No teniendo cauce ni en derecho interno ni el derecho internacional, se busco ese cauce en el principio democrático mediante la construcción del llamado derecho a decidir. Un derecho a decidir que suponía, en esencia, reducir el principio democrático a un solo acto electoral, con reglas establecidas unilateralmente. En este artículo se pretende desmentir tanto la oposición entre principio de legalidad y principio democrático como la propia ortodoxia democrática del derecho a decidir. Junto a ello, se argumenta que en ningún caso resulta posible constitucionalizar, normativizar, un derecho de autodeterminación. Más allá de su naturaleza difícilmente compatible con la esencia de cualquier orden constitucional, las dificultades de fijar las condiciones concretas de su ejercicio, lo antojan imposible. No en vano, ningún ordenamiento jurídico del mundo lo reconoce.After having decided the objective of independence, the political parties in favour of this objective had to find a way how to articulate their aspirations. Since there is no legal way within the national or international law, the independence movement based their demands in the democratic principle by building the so-called right to decide. However this right to decide means to limit the democratic principle to a single electoral act, with unilaterally established rules and outside the existing legal framework. In this article we try to disprove both the supposed opposition between the rule of law and the democratic principle, as well as the supposed democratic spirit of the right to decide. Along with this, we will argue that it is impossible to constitutionalise the right of self-determination. The right of self-determination is opposed to the essence of any constitutional order, moreover the difficulties of setting the conditions in order to implement this right, and particularly, the definition of the subject, makes the application impossible.

The Dutch Euthanasia Act: Recent Legal Developments

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 451-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Legemaate ◽  
Ineke Bolt
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Levensbeëindiging Op Verzoek

Abstract The Dutch Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act [Wet toetsing levensbeëindiging op verzoek en hulp bij zelfdoding (Wtl)] came into force in 2002. Its aim is to increase the degree of due care exercised by physicians when terminating a patient’s life and to provide a legal framework within which physicians account for their actions in such cases. On the basis of the second evaluation of the Act, published in December 2012, this article provides an overview of the most recent legal developments regarding the Dutch Euthanasia Act. Special attention is given to patients with dementia, psychiatric patients and patient who are “weary of life”.

scholarly journals Fakultativna međunarodna pravila u oblasti ugovornog prava reosiguranja

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (01) ◽  
pp. 38-51
Author(s):  
Slobodan Jovanovic ◽  
Ozren Uzelac
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Contract Law ◽  
International Institute ◽  
International Trade Agreements ◽  
Legal Relationship ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Supranational Level

The state of reinsurance contract law as unregulated has continued to this day. One of the reasons for reluctance in adopting particular legislation for reinsurance contracts lies in the fact that it is a legal job between professionals − two legal entities who have adequate professional knowledge and who do not need a specifi c legal framework to regulate their legal relationship. However, aft er the outbreak of the World Financial Crisis at the end of 2007, it became apparent that the fi nancial sector had to submit to stricter rules on risk management and providing suffi cient capital to cover them, unless possibleotherwise. In this regard, an initiative for formulation of the appropriate reinsurance contract law at supranational level was launched in 2015. Th e fi rst version of the Principle of Contract Reinsurance Law published in November 2019 is the subject of attention in this paper. In this paper, the authors investigate the content and eff ect of the provisions of these Rules, but do not analyze in more detail relevant provisions of the Rules of International Trade Agreements of the International Institute for the Unifi cation of Private Law of 2016, which apply supplementary to the reinsurance contract law. In this research, the authors primarily considered the aforementioned solutions and their eff ect on the rights and obligations of the reinsurer and the reinsured, with reference to the views of legal reinsurance theory.

scholarly journals Prospects of decriminalization and legalization of euthanasia in Ukraine

2021 ◽  
pp. 55-60
Author(s):  
A.P Lutsenko ◽  
D.I. Khairullina
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
State Level ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Right

This article is devoted to the study of the legal regulation of the institution of euthanasia in foreign practice and in Ukrainian law. We conducted a thorough analysis of the existing arguments for and against the legalization of the assisted suicide procedure, which have developed in scientific doctrine. Given the importance of the right to life in the fundamental human rights system, deprivation of any life is unacceptable, as it could set a precedent that would lead to the abuse of criminal intent by the possibility of masking premeditated murder with voluntary consent to accelerate biological death. That is why today in Ukraine deprivation of life at the request of a person is a crime, namely premeditated murder, and therefore euthanasia at the state level is now criminalized. However, after analyzing the views of scholars studying the dynamics of human rights, as well as paying attention to the practice of countries that have already legalized euthanasia at the state level, we concluded that assisted suicide today is a powerful mechanism that can guarantee the human right to a dignified existence at the end of her life. A number of foreign countries have shown by their example that the legalization of euthanasia is an important step towards building a more humane and humane society, where there is a place of mercy for terminally ill people who want to end their lives painlessly. The current position of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on the interpretation of the right to life does not allow for its expanded understanding, and therefore there is a need to amend the Constitution (for example recognition of the right to die) or change the position of the Court. In order for the right to dispose of one's own life to be properly guaranteed in Ukraine as well, we have developed on the basis of our research and proposed an algorithm of actions that can be used in the implementation of the institute of assisted suicide in Ukraine. We emphasize the need to amend the Constitution of Ukraine or change the position of the Constitutional Court on the interpretation of the right to life and the development of an appropriate legal framework that should take into account the medical side of this issue.

The Italian Constitutional Court and the constitutionality of the criminalisation of assisted suicide of patients suffering from serious and incurable diseases

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 376-388
Author(s):  
Javier Escobar Veas
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Present Note ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Right To Die ◽  
European Court ◽  
First Time

On 16 November 2018, the Italian Constitutional Court addressed for the first time the controversial issue of the constitutionality of the criminalisation of assisted suicide of patients suffering from serious and incurable diseases. In its judgment, the Court held that the criminalisation of assisted suicide is not contrary to the Constitution, rejecting the existence of a right to die, in line with the European Court of Human Rights case law. Nevertheless, the Constitutional Court recognised that in cases of patients suffering from serious and incurable diseases, an absolute prohibition on assisted suicide could run contrary to the freedom of self-determination and the constitutional principles of human dignity and equality. The present note describes and analyses the facts of the case and the reasoning of the Constitutional Court, especially the structure of the argument and the new ‘decision technique’ adopted.

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