Yelling ‘Fire’ in a Crowded Occupation: Cynical Fire Hazard Claims and the Technocratic Containment of Dissent

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-573
Author(s):  
Honor Brabazon
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Fire Hazard ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Uk

While the privatisation of public space has been the subject of considerable research, literature exploring the shifting boundaries between public and private law, and the role of those shifts in the expansion of neo-liberal social relations, has been slower to develop. This article explores the use of fire safety regulations to evict political occupations in the context of these shifts. Two examples from the UK student occupation movement and two from the US Occupy movement demonstrate how discourses and logics of both private and public law are mobilised through fire hazard claims to create the potent image of a neutral containment of dissent on technical grounds in the public interest – an image that proves difficult to contest. However, the recourse to the public interest and to expert opinion that underpins fire hazard claims is inconsistent with principles governing the limited neo-liberal political sphere, which underscores the pragmatic and continually negotiated implementation of neo-liberal ideas. The article sheds light on the complexity of the extending reach of private law, on the resilience of the public sphere and on the significance of occupations as a battleground on which struggles over neo-liberal social relations and subjectivities play out.

The Portable Home: The Domestication of Public Space

2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krishan Kumar ◽  
Ekaterina Makarova
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Privileged Site

Much commentary indicates that, starting from the 19th century, the home has become the privileged site of private life. In doing so it has established an increasingly rigid separation between the private and public spheres. This article does not disagree with this basic conviction. But we argue that, in more recent times, there has been a further development, in that the private life of the home has been carried into the public sphere—what we call “the domestication of public space.” This has led to a further attenuation of public life, especially as regards sociability. It has also increased the perception that what is required is a better “balance” between public and private. We argue that this misconstrues the nature of the relation of public to private in those periods that attained the greatest degree of sociability, and that not “balance” but “reciprocity” is the desired condition.

scholarly journals PUBLIC INTEREST IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 1039-1062
Author(s):  
Vitaly V. Kikavets
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Public Interests ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Government

The basis of legal relations in public procurement are private and public interests. The purpose of the study is a substantive assessment of the authors hypothesis that the purpose of legal regulation and financial support of public procurement is to satisfy the public interest expressed in the form of a public need for goods, works, and services. The methodological basis of the study rests on historical and systematic approach, analysis, synthesis and comparative-legal methods. The results of the analysis of normative legal acts regulating public procurement, doctrinal literature and practice showed that public interest denounced in the form of public need is realized through public procurement. Public and private interests can be realized exclusively jointly since these needs cannot objectively be met individually. In general, ensuring public as well as private interests boils down to defining and legally securing the rights and obligations of the customer and their officials, which safeguards them in the process of meeting public needs through public procurement. The study revealed the dependence of the essence of public interest on the political regime, which determines the ratio of public and private interests. Public interest in public procurement is suggested to understand as the value-significant selective position of an official or another person authorized by the government, which is expressed in the form of the public need for the necessary benefit; gaining such benefit involves both legal regulation and financial security. The purpose of legal regulation of public procurement is to satisfy public interest. These concepts should be legally enshrined in Law No. 44-FZ.

scholarly journals Liminal Publics, Marginal Resistance

IDEA JOURNAL ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 88-101
Author(s):  
Menna Agha ◽  
Els DeVos
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Spatial Justice ◽  
The Public ◽  
Liminal Spaces ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Definition Of

In 1964, indigenous Nubians were displaced from their original land – the land between what is now Egypt and that of Sudan – to modernised settlements built by the Egyptian state. The Nubians dissatisfaction with the novel built environment translated into transgressive public spaces. One of the most common transgressions was the addition of an external bench called Mastaba. Since power relations between men and women have changed, the built environment now acts as a catalyst in the exclusion of women from formal public spaces such as conventional coffee shops and squares. Mastabas function as liminal spaces, spaces which blur the boundaries between public and private spheres. As these spaces do not suit the formal understanding of public spaces, we investigate these liminal spaces in order to reveal the spatial tactics of the marginal. We argue that the existence of these spaces raises issues of spatial justice and spatial resistance.    The behaviour of liminal public spaces varies; they have the ability to transform adjacent spaces. This research investigates the role of the Mastaba in opening up the public space for women, thereby giving them the ability to contribute to the writing of their social contract. We base our analysis on extensive fieldwork, consisting of auto-ethnographic observations and participation, informed by a feminist epistemology. We use tools of spatial analysis to explore an alternative public space offered by liminality. To question the binary notions of private and public space, we ask ourselves: where does that space start? As spatial professionals, we also wonder: can we contest the hegemonic definition of public space and contribute to spatial resistance? Drawing lessons from the case of the Mastaba, we propose contingencies for designing the liminal that serve the marginal.

scholarly journals Public Interest in Private Law Relations of Transition Democracies: A Modern View from the Standpoint of a Systemic Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 430-439
Author(s):  
Iryna E. Berestova ◽  
◽  
Olha V. Verenkiotova ◽  
Natalii Serbina ◽  
Svitlana V. Seminoh
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The State ◽  
General Nature ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Public Interests ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Law

The study investigates the legal nature of the category of "public interest" in private law relations from the standpoint of a systematic scientific approach to law in the countries of post-Soviet society in the modern period. The study states the affiliation of public and private law to the means of achieving the purpose of the law: the recognition of a person, their rights and freedoms as the highest social value of the state. The unsuitability of the theory of the branch belonging to public law has been proved using the universal criterion of separation: the use of the category of "public interest" in the development of the subject and method of the branch in private legal relations. It is concluded that the division of law into private and public is inconsistent in terms of their differentiation of the criterion "method of protecting the rights of their participants", which is activated only after the violation of the latter, while subjective law also exists before the violation, during the existence of regulatory legal relations, and it is the subjective law that forms the affiliation to the relevant industry. During the study, signs of public interest as a legal category were formed. In addition, modern features of public interest as a legal category were outlined from the standpoint of a systematic approach: the general nature of public interests; connectedness with large-scale involvement; recognition by the state and the provision of the law; the possibility of their implementation through measures of state power.

Intimacy and exposure – the Armenian “tun” and Yerevan’s public space

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 513-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Helma Christiane Fehlings
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
The State ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public

Purpose – In contrast to the dominant accounts in post-Soviet studies that see public and private as two spheres existing in parallel, the purpose of this paper is to argue that in Armenia the public-private dichotomy can be better understood as a spectrum of different kinds of interactions between the state and private actors/social groups representing different sets of socio-cultural values, which are mirrored in Yerevan’s city planning and housing. Design/methodology/approach – The data derives from long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Yerevan. To analyse the data set the author used methods common in social and cultural anthropology. The theoretical background derives from urban anthropology (Liu), theories on housing (Carsten and Hugh-Jones), the anthropology of values (Dumont), and the anthropology of states (Herzfeld) linked to the debate on modernity. Findings – The author demonstrates that basic cultural concepts, norms, expectations, rules, beliefs, and values currently take effect on both sides (public and private/state and people), and that personal networks in Armenia are no longer used to trick an alien state, but also used by the state elites to gain advantage. The degree of intimacy of social relations thereby structures urban space and behaviour. Originality/value – The paper looks at the public-private dichotomy in post-Soviet states from a new perspective, which is inspired by the anthropology of (socio-cultural) values, and argues that cultural intimacy (Herzfeld) is – simultaneously – a unifying and a separating fact in the relationship of states and people.

scholarly journals The possibilities of consensual resolution of judicial conflicts with the Public Administration

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (72) ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Gabriel Perlingeiro
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Studies

This text endeavors to define the theoretical limits of the capacities of the public administrative authorities to reach consensual solutions to disputes within the framework of judicial review. It is motivated by the lack of a clear understanding in Brazilian law of the border area between the legal relations of public and private law involving the public authorities, and the expressions “inalienable right” (or “inalienable interest”) and “public interest” as shown by the inexplicable asymmetry between what the public administrative authorities can do within a judicial proceeding and outside one. Based on a comparative study of common law versus civil law legal systems and an examination of the treatment of the subject in Brazilian statutes, case law and legal studies, this article reviews the relationship between the public interest and inalienability, demonstrating, in conclusion, that the possibility of the administrative authorities to enter into settlements or follow similar practices should not be rejected a priori, even in cases of public law. According to the author, there are three possible scenarios in which public administrative authorities may resort to consensual dispute resolution in the context of the judicial review: in private-law relationships, in public-law relationships with respect to the exercise of administrative actions prescribed by law and public-law relationships with respect to the exercise of discretionary powers.

scholarly journals Przestępstwo naruszenia autorskich praw osobistych z art. 115 ust. 3 Ustawy z dnia 4 lutego 1994 r. o prawie autorskim i prawach pokrewnych w świetle zasady określoności

2019 ◽  
pp. 29-48
Author(s):  
Piotr F. Piesiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Criminal Liability ◽  
Moral Rights ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Law System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Constitutional Tribunal

The Act of February 4, 1994 on Copyright and Related Rights, which regulates issues related to the protection of copyrights, belongs to the private law system (its provi- sions protect the private interest). However, the Act includes both administrative and criminal law provisions aimed at protecting the public interest. The literature rightly points out that the systemic division into public and private law is becoming increasingly less pronounced, due to the permeation of legal domains belonging to both systems. An example of such interpenetration are the provisions of copyright law. This statement is significant for the considerations made in this article due to the statutory method of penalising certain behaviour contained in the provisions of the Copyright and Related Rights Act. Criminal law provisions, systemically related to public law and protecting the public interest, contain references to the provisions of the Copyright and Related Rights Act regulating the scope of copyright protection, i.e. private law norms. In the context of the requirements that should be met by criminal law, such a reference raises doubts, which are particularly highlighted in Art. 115 para. 3 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act. This issue is impor- tant because the Constitutional Tribunal in its judgment of 17 February 2015, Ref. K 15/13 recognised this provision as constitutional. Therefore, he concluded that the principle of the specificity of a criminal act does not preclude the legislator from using terms that are imprecise or vague if their designations can be determined. At the same time, the Constitutional Tribunal has not presented any arguments indicating that in this case the determination of the designates of Art. 115 para. 3 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act does not cause any difficulties. The author of this article attempts to determine the extent of criminal liability in the event of a violation of author’s moral rights (Article 115 section 3 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act), at the same time indicating the difficulties that are associated with the unambiguous determination of behaviour which Art. 115 para. 3 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act penalises.

scholarly journals Virtual Origins of Public Law

Lex Russica ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
I. A. Isaev
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Public Law ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Landscapes ◽  
Private Individual

The paper analyzes the main processes that gave rise to such a phenomenon as “public law”. The problem of public law is one of the fundamental problems of jurisprudence. A classical dichotomy of public and private law will never lose its significance, and the search for their harmonious interaction only heightens the interest of thinkers around the world in this issue. We should agree that addressing such issues is always secondto-none, as it gives grounds for the development of the best legal regulation acceptable for a particular society. The very notion of “publicness” has gone a long way to finally gaining a foothold in the political and legal lexicon. In the Digestas of Justinian, the famous Roman jurist Ulpian writes: “Public law, which (refers) to the position of the Roman state, private law, which (refers) to the benefit of individuals; there is the useful for the society and the useful for a private individual. Public law includes the sacreds (sacra), the ministry of priests, the position of magistrates” (D.1.1.1.2). Thus, from the ancient Roman forum through medieval corporations to the political parties of modern times, the public space was certainly controlled by the state in some way or another. It was the intervention of the state in the private sphere that determined the nature of “public” in general and public law in particular. These processes have defined both modern political landscapes and the system of public legal institutions. Although, to a large extent, the motivations that affected the formation of public law were dogmatic, formal and virtual, or imaginary in nature, their influence adopted quite real features and led to practical political and legal consequences.

In the Public Interest: Protections and Risks in Whistleblowing to the Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Ananian-Welsh ◽  
Rose Cronin ◽  
Peter Greste
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Public Accountability ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Legal Frameworks

Whistleblowing and a free press are vital to facilitating public accountability for powerful institutions and thereby improving integrity across the public and private sectors. But when is a whistleblower permitted to disclose information to the media? Once a whistleblower speaks to a journalist, what protections and assurances will they be entitled to? This article addresses these questions by examining existing protections for private and public sector whistleblowers and, relatedly, journalists’ confidential sources under federal law. In this way, it explores the intersection between whistleblowing and press freedom and reveals gaps and weaknesses in existing legal frameworks.

Cultural diversity, human rights and inconsistency in the English courts

Legal Studies ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Urfan Khaliq ◽  
James Young
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Cultural Conflicts ◽  
The Public ◽  
International Dimension ◽  
Child Abduction ◽  
The Uk

Ethnic and cultural diversity within the UK has ensured that English courts regularly have to resolve cultural conflicts. This paper concentrates on cultural conflicts in the courts where there is an international dimension to this issue and where persons not resident in the UK seek the help of the English courts. The paper does this by reference to two areas of law, asylum and child abduction, which also allows a comparison between the approach to human rights by judges in the public and private law spheres. The paper aims to highlight the in consistency of the approach among judges in child abduction cases, where the role of human rights is unclear. It contrasts this with the judicial approach in asylum cases and English law in general, where we argue human rights are increasingly influencing the attitudes to various practices justified on a cultural or religious basis.

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