scholarly journals Editorial

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Francois Venter
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
South African ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
The Common ◽  
The University

This issue opens with an oratio by one of South Africa's most senior judges, the Honourable LTC Harms who suggests that the South African criminal justice system should learn from the experience of international criminal courts regarding a merger of elements from accusatorial and inquisitorial systems.Shaun de Freitas and Georgia Myburgh of the University of the Free State argue that, if the protection of being human serves as the common denominator in the international discussion of human rights, and if human rights are deeply inclusive, however culturally and historically diverse, then failure to deliberate on the legal status and protection of the unborn may be seen as a failure to extend respect where it is due.Roger Evans of UNISA contends that modern society, socio-political developments and human rights requirements have necessitated a broadening of the classes of assets that should be excluded or exempted from insolvent estates.

scholarly journals THE RISE OF THE INFORMAL SECTOR IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTAL DISCOURSE

Politeia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-65
Author(s):  
Mark K. Ingle
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
South African ◽  
Informal Sector ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Economic Sector ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The World ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Government

This article documents the rise to prominence of the informal economic sector in academic developmental discourse. After a brief survey of the South African context, the article contrasts the new way of viewing the informal sector with the old. It shows how this shift in attitudes, ranging from grudging respect to outright advocacy, has generated new conceptual tools with which to theorise economic informality. A keen appreciation of the imperatives entailed by the different perspectives of the main protagonists is vital to any reconciliation of the divergent policy prescriptions being advanced for the informal sector.Bureaucrats and human rights activists view informality through very different lenses. The World Bank’s exit/exclusion philosophy recognises that economies at different stages of development will require customised approaches in coming to terms with economic informality. However, the common denominator of the theoretical views articulated in the article is a recognition that the informal sector cannot be dismissed out of hand, and that it has grown to the extent that it warrants serious attention and respect. Measures taken by the government to compensate for losses incurred due to informality could prove ultimately to be counter-productive. The informal economic sector has become a force to be reckoned with.

On Universals

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etienne Balibar
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Multiple Modernities ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Revolutionary Politics ◽  
The Future ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
The Common ◽  
Performative Contradiction

Many on the Left have looked upon “universal” as a dirty word, one that signals liberalism's failure to recognize the masculinist and Eurocentric assumptions from which it proceeds. In rejecting universalism, we have learned to reorient politics around particulars, positionalities, identities, immanence, and multiple modernities. This book builds on these critiques of the tacit exclusions of Enlightenment thought, while at the same time working to rescue and reinvent what universal claims can offer for a revolutionary politics answerable to the common. In the contemporary quarrel of universals, the book shows, the stakes are no less than the future of our democracies. The book investigates the paradoxical processes by which the universal is constructed and deconstructed, instituted and challenged, in modern society. It shows that every statement and institution of the universal—such as declarations of human rights—carry an exclusionary, particularizing principle within themselves and that every universalism immediately falls prey to countervailing universalisms. Always equivocal and plural, the universal is thus a persistent site of conflict within societies and within subjects themselves. And yet, the book suggests, the very conflict of the universal—constituted as an ever-unfolding performative contradiction—also provides the emancipatory force needed to reinvigorate and reimagine contemporary politics and philosophy. In conversation with a range of thinkers from Marx, Freud, and Benjamin through Foucault, Derrida, and Scott, the book shows the power that resides not in the adoption of a single universalism but in harnessing the energies made available by claims to universality in order to establish a common answerable to difference.

scholarly journals The Law and Practice of Criminal Asset Forfeiture in South African Criminal Procedure: A Constitutional Dilemma

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 1069
Author(s):  
Vinesh Basdeo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
South African ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
The South ◽  
European Court ◽  
Proceeds Of Crime ◽  
Asset Forfeiture ◽  
South African Constitution

The deprivation of the proceeds of crime has been a feature of criminal law for many years. The original rationale for the confiscation of criminal assets at international level was the fight against organised crime, a feature of society described by the European Court of Human Rights as a "scourge" so that the draconian powers which are a feature of confiscation regimes around the world have been approved in circumstances which otherwise might have caused governments considerable difficulties before the international human rights tribunals.[1] The primary objective of this article is to determine if the asset forfeiture measures employed in the South African criminal justice system are in need of any reform and/or augmentation in accordance with the "spirit, purport and object" of the South African Constitution.[2] This article attempts to answer three questions. Firstly, why is criminal asset forfeiture important to law enforcement? Secondly, in which circumstances can property be forfeited and what types of property are subject to forfeiture? Thirdly, how is forfeiture accomplished, and what are its constitutional ramifications? 

International Criminal Court

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 41-51
Author(s):  
Charles B.A Ubah ◽  
Osy E. Nwebo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Justice System ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Domestic Jurisdiction ◽  
National Governments

The principle of domestic jurisdiction in international law makes national governments responsible for protecting their citizens, investigating alleged abuses of human rights in their countries and bringing the perpetrators to justice. They governments may also extradite those accused of abuse of human rights to any other states prepared to give them a fair trial. Problem arises however, when governments are unable or unwilling to perform this duty or are themselves perpetrators of these crimes. Thus, millions of people have fallen victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of humanitarian laws. But only very few of these perpetrators have been brought to justice in national courts as many governments claim sanctuary under the principle of domestic jurisdiction. The need therefore arises for the international community to act in order to protect helpless or defenseless citizens from being victims of crimes against humanity and human rights abuses, by bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice. The thrust of this article therefore, is that the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) fills this void by fulfilling a central and pivotal goal in international jurisprudence. This article, therefore, provides insights and lessons into the history and prospects of the International Criminal Court. These are insights and lessons that are too important and too costly to ignore in the 21st century understanding of international criminal justice system.

scholarly journals ‘Too High’, ‘Too Low’, or ‘Just Fair Enough’?

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-368
Author(s):  
Joanna Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Fair Trial ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights Standards

Abstract That an accused receives a fair trial is essential to the legitimacy of international criminal courts and tribunals. However, how best to interpret the right to a fair trial in order to maximize the legitimacy of international criminal courts and tribunals’ decision-making? Some argue that international criminal courts and tribunals should aspire to the highest standards of fairness and should aim to set an example for domestic courts in this regard. Others argue that the unique context within which international criminal courts and tribunals operate allows them, at times, to interpret the right to a fair trial in a way which falls below minimum international human rights standards. This article examines both of these positions and finds both to be problematic. Rather, the article argues that international criminal courts and tribunals should aim for a middle path, the ‘fair enough’ standard, when interpreting the right to a fair trial. In situations where a different standard than that found within international human rights law is applied, international criminal courts and tribunals should expend greater effort in being open and clear as to why this is so, and should take care in communicating this to their audience, including victims and the accused. By doing so, the legitimacy of their decision-making will be enhanced.

Double Criminality in Extradition Law

1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 288-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lech Gardocki
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
The Common

1. The principle of double criminality is traditionally bound with institutions of international criminal law. Double criminality is a requirement not only with extradition, but also with the transfer of criminal proceedings and with execution of foreign sentences. International criminal law employs a range of “double conditions”, the common denominator of which is the requirement that two legal systems share a certain set of values or legal prescriptions. In addition to double criminality, international law uses such terms as “double punishability”, the “double possibility of criminal proceedings” and the “double possibility of the execution of penal judgment”. Among these concepts, double criminality is the most important and universal condition applied in the basic institutions of international criminal law, such as extradition, the transfer of proceedings, and the execution of foreign penal judgments.

Child Rights and the Movement from Status to Agency: Human Rights and the Removal of the Legal Disabilities of Vulnerability

2015 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-220
Author(s):  
Sevda Clark
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Child Rights ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
Legal Ideology ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Common ◽  
Universal Norm

Using ideology as heuristic, a legal sociological approach is employed to critically evaluate a child’s legal status and its evolution since the eighteenth century. Four principal phases are identified: (1) legal ideology of individualism in the common law tradition; (2) movement from status to contract; (3) movement from status to rights; and (4) movement from status to agency. To strengthen legal agency both status and capacity are addressed. In the fourth phase, legal status has evolved in ways capable of facilitating children’s legal agency; it has evolved from being static to being dynamic, and is now determined by reference to public international law, rather than territorially. This article advances a universal norm of legal capacity to sue for violations of human rights, which is derived from the recent developments in human rights law. In the evolution of children’s rights we are presently witnessing the movement from status to agency.

1. Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Hannibal ◽  
Lisa Mountford
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Criminal Procedure ◽  
Professional Conduct ◽  
Criminal Courts

This introductory chapter briefly sets out the volume’s purpose, which is to explain the legal, procedural and evidential rules governing how cases are dealt with by the criminal justice system. It then explains the philosophy of the text and its unique features; introduces the key personnel and organisations within the criminal justice system; introduces the Criminal Procedure Rules; explains the classification of offences according to their trial venue; summarizes the jurisdiction of the criminal courts; stresses the importance of the pervasive issue of human rights; and highlights professional conduct considerations in the context of criminal litigation.

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