scholarly journals Introduction: Pluralism, Contestation, and the Rule of Law

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Cherry
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Indigenous Nations ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Democratic Election

Around the world, the current political conjuncture is one of profound challenges for constitutionalism and the rule of law. In the United States, the executive has willfully engaged in a prolonged attempt to weaponize the machinery of the state and radicalize public opinion in order to undermine a democratic election. In the European Union, the increasingly authoritarian relationship between the executive and the judiciary in Poland and Hungary is posing the most profound threat to European constitutionalism in decades. In Hong Kong, the Chinese state is actively seeking to undermine legislative and judicial independence in the face of unprecedented pro-democracy mobilizations. In India, Lebanon, Bolivia, and elsewhere mass mobilizations are challenging, and being suppressed in the name of, the rule of law. Here in Canada, the Wet’suwet’en and their supporters, as well as the Tsleil Waututh, Haudenosaunee, L’nu (Mi’kmaq), Inuit, and members of countless other Indigenous nations are contesting the very nature of the rule of law, as they assert Indigenous laws against the law enforcement of the colonial state. Around the world, the use of emergency powers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is also raising profound constitutional concerns.

scholarly journals Obama's National Security Exceptionalism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudha N. Setty
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Norms ◽  
Global Community ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
War Criminals ◽  
The World ◽  
International Obligations

Published: Sudha Setty, Obama's National Security Exceptionalism, 91 CHI.-KENT L. REV. 91 (2016).This Article discusses how continued national security exceptionalism engenders a view of the United States as considering itself to be above international obligations to investigate and prosecute torturers and war criminals, and the view by the global community that the United States is willing to apply one standard for itself, and another for the rest of the world. Exceptionalism not only poses real challenges in terms of law, morality, and building useful relationships with allied nations, but acts as a step backward for the creation of enforceable international norms and standards, and in efforts to restore a balance in the rule of law when it comes to national security matters.

scholarly journals CORRUPTION, CAPITAL ABUNDANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vlatka Bilas ◽  
Mile Bošnjak ◽  
Sanja Franc
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of this paper is to establish and clarify the relationship between corruption level and development among European Union countries. Out of the estimated model in this paper one can conclude that the level of corruption can explain capital abundance differences among European Union countries. Also, explanatory power of corruption is higher in explaining economic development than in explaining capital abundance, meaning stronger relationship between corruption level and economic development than between corruption level and capital abundance. There is no doubt that reducing corruption would be beneficial for all countries. Since corruption is a wrongdoing, the rule of law enforcement is of utmost importance. However, root causes of corruption, namely the institutional and social environment: recruiting civil servants on a merit basis, salaries in public sector competitive to the ones in private sector, the role of international institutions in the fight against corruption, and some other corruption characteristics are very important to analyze in order to find effective ways to fight corruption. Further research should go into this direction.

scholarly journals The Responsibility of Courts in Maintaining the Rule of Law: Two Tales of Consequential Judicial Self-Restraint

2021 ◽  
pp. 155-181
Author(s):  
Pál Sonnevend
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Legislative Power ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Law

AbstractModern constitutionalism is based on the paradigm that courts are inherently entitled and obliged to enforce the constitution of the respective polity. This responsibility of courts also applies in the context of the European Union to both the CJEU and national constitutional courts. The present chapter argues that in the face of constitutional crises the CJEU and the Hungarian Constitutional Court shy away from applying the law as it is to the full. The reasons behind this unwarranted judicial self-restraint are most different: the CJEU aims to avoid conflicts with national constitutional courts whereas the Hungarian Constitutional Court has been facing a legislative power also acting as constitution making power willing to amend the constitution to achieve specific legislative purposes or to undo previous constitutional court decisions. Yet both courts respond to expediencies that do not follow from the law they are called upon to apply. It is argued that rule of law backsliding requires these courts to abandon the unnecessary self-restraint and exploit the means already available.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Pfeifer
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Self Help

This introductory chapter discusses how the origins of American lynching can best be understood as a national, and a transnational, process of cultural and legal formation. Diverging significantly from England and western Europe, the United States' transition to a capitalist economy was not accompanied by the emergence of a strong, centralized national state that claimed and enforced an exclusive monopoly over violence and the administration of criminal justice to secure the rule of law. Rather, American criminal justice developed along a distinctive path that emphasized local authority and opinion, self-help and ad hoc law enforcement practices, and the toleration of extralegal violence. Lynching was an important aspect of this distinctive American trajectory from the late eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries.

THE POLITICAL FRONTIERS OF EUROPE AS A CIVIL SOCIETY: J. HABERMAS’ REJECTION OF A EUROPEAN VOLK AND M. FOUCAULT'S BALANCE OF POWER AS PROTECTIONS AGAINST EUROPEAN NATION‐STATE

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Machiel Karskens
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
European Institutions ◽  
The World ◽  
The Ideal

With the help of J. Habermas and M. Foucault, it is argued that the idea of Europe is, first of all, the ideal of an unlimited civil society. Human rights, the rule of law and the legal European institutions are its political backbone. The European Union itself is somehow the realization of this ideal conception of a borderless, unlimited society. It is argued that the European Union in this respect is a heterotopia within the bordered and sovereign member states themselves. Seen from the outside, however, and in the world of geopolitics, Europe is a political power with closed borders and excluding frontiers. In this respect the European Union is a continuation of the old European Balance of Power.

scholarly journals Human Rights and Law Enforcement

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Fransiska Novita Eleanora ◽  
Andang Sari
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government

Humans born into the world have declared their rights and naturalrights as gifts from the Almighty, God and every State must recognize them aslegal subjects who must always be respected and protected to realize human valueswell. Therefore; no one can or can act negatively, including the state or even theauthorities or the government. Conceptually, a country that is expected to realizeit is only a legal state that is considered legitimate and adheres to the notion ofdemocracy, namely democracy will become a rule and law. The realization of therule of law is to take action against perpetrators who are proven to have committedcrimes and human rights violations. This paper explains that there are still manycases of gross violations of human rights that have not been clearly revealed andthe perpetrators have not been given appropriate punishment, by giving sanctionsto the perpetrators, so that law enforcement is not realized. The embodiment ofthe rule of law is that it can capture cases of gross violators of human rights andconvict the perpetrators in accordance with the laws that apply in accordance withthe characteristics of the rule of law. The problem is whether law enforcement hasbeen realized especially in human rights violations and can be resolved throughnegotiation, conciliation and mediation.

scholarly journals Constitution-Making in Bhutan: A Complex and Sui Generis Experience

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venkat Iyer
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Meaningful Role ◽  
Constitution Making

Abstract The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which had remained isolated from the rest of the world until the 1970s, embarked on a series of transformational reforms in the new millennium that included the replacement of the country’s century-old absolute monarchy with a parliamentary democracy and the enactment of a written constitution based on Western principles, such as the separation of powers and the rule of law. The ‘democratization’ process was unique, not least for the fact that the impetus for change came from the monarch, who pressed ahead with his modernization agenda in the face of palpable opposition from his people, arguing that popular democracy was the only viable way forward for Bhutan in the modern age. The process of constitution making involved the striking of a delicate balance between tradition and modernity and ensuring that the monarchy continued to play a meaningful role in the country’s affairs. This article argues that, although the process itself ran smoothly, it is too early to judge the durability and long-term success of Bhutan’s new constitutional arrangements.

Japan’s Grand Strategy for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Narushige Michishita
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
The Face ◽  
Universal Values ◽  
Rising China

There are two major objectives in Japan’s grand strategy: to maintain the balance of power in the face of a rising China, and to bring about economic prosperity, peace, and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. To achieve these objectives, Japan is strengthening its defense capabilities, security ties with the United States, and security partnerships with the countries such as Australia, India, Southeast Asian nations, and South Korea; it also seeks to promote the rule of law, freedom of navigation, and free trade; enhance connectivity; and provide capacity-building assistance to regional partners. Japan’s vision of Free and Open Indo-Pacific has evolved over time. In 2018 the Japanese government desecuritized its FOIP concept in order to ease China’s concern and to make the policy more acceptable to China’s neighbors. It also stopped emphasizing the importance of “universal values” so that countries such as Vietnam and Myanmar could sign up for it. Those decisions indicate that Japan’s guiding principle is based more on realist calculations than liberal ideologies.

Beneath the Backbone of the World

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Hall
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
The United States ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Western History ◽  
Indigenous Nations ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
First Time ◽  
The U.S

For the better part of two centuries, between 1720 and 1877, the Blackfoot (Niitsitapi) people controlled a vast region of what is now the U.S. and Canadian Great Plains. As one of the most expansive and powerful Indigenous groups on the continent, they dominated the northern imperial borderlands of North America. The Blackfoot maintained their control even as their homeland became the site of intense competition between white fur traders, frequent warfare between Indigenous nations, and profound ecological transformation. In an era of violent and wrenching change, Blackfoot people relied on their mastery of their homelands’ unique geography to maintain their way of life. With extensive archival research from both the United States and Canada, Ryan Hall shows for the first time how the Blackfoot used their borderlands position to create one of North America’s most vibrant and lasting Indigenous homelands. This book sheds light on a phase of Native and settler relations that is often elided in conventional interpretations of Western history, and demonstrates how the Blackfoot exercised significant power, resiliency, and persistence in the face of colonial change.

scholarly journals “The Rule of Law Mechanism” and the Hungarian and Polish Resistance: European Law Against National Identity?

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 49-67
Author(s):  
Christoph J. Schewe ◽  
◽  
Thomas Blome ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Economic Recovery ◽  
Adoption Process ◽  
European Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The World ◽  
The Eu

Similarly to the rest of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has also hit the European Union (EU) severely. In order to foster the process of the economic recovery of EU Member States, the EU Member States agreed on a financial aid package combined with a regulation – the conditionality mechanism – that provided for financial sanctions in the event of a breach of the rule of law. Given that the positions of Poland and Hungary in the adoption process of this regulation caused a controversy, this article examines general questions on the rule of law, the regulation and the background to the controversy.

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