scholarly journals The Question of Public Participation in the Procedure for Authentic Interpretation of Laws

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-154
Author(s):  
Gordan Struić
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
Rules Of Procedure ◽  
Working Groups ◽  
Legislative Procedure ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Working Bodies

Authentic interpretation of laws is an interpretation of legal provisions that, due to their lack of clarity or misinterpretation in their application, is provided by the parliament. Unlike the legislative procedure, which is conducted, as a rule, in two (exceptionally three) readings, a proposal for giving an authentic interpretation is discussed in one reading. Starting from the understandings of some authors that the act of authentic interpretation of laws is contrary to the principle of democratic pluralism, and that it lacks the necessary level of democratic control and citizen participation, the author examines whether the Croatian parliamentary law enables public participation in the procedure for authentic interpretation of laws and, if so, what legal instruments can be used to implement it in parliamentary practice. To this end, the paper analyzes several relevant constitutional, legal, and procedural provisions of the Croatian parliamentary law, with reference to a parliamentary practice. Given the fact that the procedure for authentic interpretation in the Republic of Croatia, the Republic of Northern Macedonia, the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Serbia is regulated in a similar way by the rules of procedure of their respective parliaments, the relevant regulations of the latter three countries on the possibility of public participation in this procedure are analyzed as well. It was concluded that Croatian parliamentary law enables public participation in the procedure for authentic interpretation, through the instruments of petition, information and involvement in working groups and working bodies, and the same instruments, with certain specifics, are recognized in the parliamentary law of the latter three countries.

scholarly journals Skutki prawne naruszenia terminów w postępowaniu legislacyjnym

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 249
Author(s):  
Robert Orłowski
Keyword(s):  
Time Limit ◽  
Independent Basis ◽  
Time Limits ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Rules Of Procedure ◽  
Constitutional Tribunal ◽  
Specific Activities ◽  
Legislative Procedure ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Republic

<p>The aim of the article is to present the issues related to the time limits set for individual organs of public authority (the Sejm, the Senate, the President of the Republic of Poland) for the performance of specific activities within the legislative procedure. These time limits should be calculated according to conventional rules, that is, from the beginning of the day following the day on which the act on which the legal provisions are binding begins. However, the action will also be effective if it is performed on the same day on which the said event occurred. Violation of the time limit in legislative proceedings is of fundamental importance for the act, as a normative act, within the scope of its validity. As part of the review of the constitutionality of the law, the Constitutional Tribunal also examines the correctness of the proceedings in which the law was adopted. According to the latest jurisprudence of the Constitutional Tribunal, violation of the minimum time limits required for the performance of individual activities, which have only been specified in the Rules of Procedure of the Sejm, may constitute an independent basis for declaring the entire act unconstitutional. This view differs significantly from the existing, well-established approach to this subject. The effects of violating the time limits of the legislative procedure can also be considered at the level of the rights (competences) of individual authorities within a specific proceeding. The signing of the act by the President after the expiry of the constitutional time limit should be deemed legally effective. The admissibility of issuing by the Constitutional Tribunal of scope judgements should be considered in cases of violation of the rules of correct legislation, leading to the omission or reduction of <em>vacatio legis</em>.</p>

A Call for Public Participation in the Treaty-making Process in South Africa: What can South Africa Learn from the Kingdom of Thailand?

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Retselisitsoe Phooko
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
International Treaty ◽  
Legal Implications ◽  
Future Situation ◽  
Rules Of Procedure ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government ◽  
Personal Jurisdiction

On 2 August 2002 South Africa signed the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Tribunal and the Rules of Procedure Thereof, thus effectively recognising and accepting the jurisdiction of the SADC Tribunal. Among the cases received by the SADC Tribunal was a complaint involving allegations of human rights violations by the government of Zimbabwe. It ruled that the government of Zimbabwe had violated human rights. Consequently, Zimbabwe mounted a politico-legal challenge against the existence of the Tribunal. This resulted in the review of the role and functions of the Tribunal in 2011 which resulted in the Tribunal being barred from receiving new cases or proceeding with the cases that were already before it. Furthermore, on 18 August 2014, the SADC Summit adopted and signed the 2014 Protocol on the Tribunal in the SADC which disturbingly limits personal jurisdiction by denying individual access to the envisaged Tribunal, thus reducing it to an inter-state judicial forum. This article critically looks at the decision of 18 August 2014, specifically the legal implications of the Republic of South Africa’s signing of the 2014 Protocol outside the permissible procedure contained in article 37 of the SADC Protocol on the Tribunal. It proposes that South Africa should correct this democratic deficit by introducing public participation in treaty-making processes in order to prevent a future situation where the executive unilaterally withdraws from an international treaty that is meant to protect human rights at a regional level. To achieve this, this article makes a comparative study between South Africa and the Kingdom of Thailand to learn of any best practices from the latter.

Remote Sessions of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia and its Working Bodies

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-206
Author(s):  
Maja Briški ◽  
Bojan Verbič
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Rules Of Procedure ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Working Bodies ◽  
Remote Participation ◽  
The Way

Abstract Regarding the situation related to Covid-19, the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia in the spring of 2020 wanted to change the way of participation in the sessions of the National Assembly and its working bodies by means of information and communication technology. The main purpose and gole was that even in the case of physical absence of some of MPs, the National Assembly could still perform its constitutionally determined role. With a view of remote participation (debate and voting), the rules of procedure had to be amended first. The article deals with legal dilemmas when changing the rules of procedure and with subsequent technical realisation.

E-Governance in Slovenia

2012 ◽  
pp. 173-187
Author(s):  
Suzana Žilic Fišer ◽  
Sandra Bašic ◽  
Dejan Vercic ◽  
Petra Cafnik
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Direct Communication ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Legislative Procedure ◽  
Citizen Initiatives ◽  
The Republic

Modern communication technology in principle makes political participation feasible. Information, consultation, and participation of citizens in the working of their highest political body – a parliament- should be easier than ever. This chapter analyses if this is really so on the case of Slovenia and its parliament, the National Assembly. Parliamentary website of the Republic of Slovenia is studied in terms of usability, usefulness and utility those are the key criteria in discussion about website performance. The analysis of e-democracy takes into account citizen participation in the legislative procedure, enabling direct communication with the members of the parliament, possibilities for citizen initiatives, and procedure and content transparency at each stage of the decision-making process. The chapter reports on limits of the current website of the National Assembly of Slovenia and proposes guidelines for better use of new technologies in the political process and for improving user experience.

scholarly journals Normative and strategic framework of foreign policy of the Republic of Serbia: “Europeanisation” and (non)transparency

2017 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 442-464
Author(s):  
Dragoljub Todic
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Political System ◽  
Regulatory Impact ◽  
Legislative Procedure ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Open Issues ◽  
Regulatory Impact Assessment

The aim of the paper is to determine the characteristics of the foreign policy of the Republic of Serbia (RS) based on the analysis of regulations and strategic documents relevant for foreign policy. The first part of the paper points out the general context of the discussion. In the second part of the paper, an overview of the most important regulations and strategic documents relevant to foreign policy is presented. The analysis shows that key characteristics of the foreign policy of the RS are the ?Eurocentrism? and (thus derived) ?Europeanization? as a process of reforming the legal and political system of the RS. The author emphasizes the importance of the foreign policy decision?making process. Two elements of the legislative procedure are analyzed from the point of view of the possibility of public participation in the decision?making processes. These are the following: 1) ratification of the international treaties, and 2) the process of harmonization of national regulations with EU regulations. The open issues and ambiguities in the way of regulating these issues are emphasized. In addition, in the legislative procedure, the regulatory impact assessment also takes a special place. However, there are some open issues in the application of the regulatory impact assessment. In conclusion, it is noted that the EU membership is a key foreign policy objective of the RS with a strong influence on the internal legal and political system. However, in the two analyzed formal procedures which represent the elements of the foreign policy of the RS (within the process of ?Europeanization?), guarantees for the transparent implementation, i.e. effective public participation in their implementation have not been contained. This can have a significant impact on the quality of the activities which are being carried out and the results of the process of ?Europeanization?, as a strategic foreign policy commitment of the RS.

scholarly journals EFFICIENT PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE LOCAL LAW-MAKING PROCESS

Yuridika ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
Ekawestri Prajwalita Widiati
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Discovery Education ◽  
Education Measurement ◽  
Local Law ◽  
Law Making ◽  
The Ideal

Getting the public to participate in the government’s policy reflects a sense of control in democracy. However, constructing a mechanism of participation in legal provisions could be dilemma. It is important to realize that involving citizen in local government decision making particularly in law-making process has a fundamental difficulties; the essence of participation itself (openness and transparency) and the need to be efficient. This essay formulated an effective mechanism of public participation by juxtaposing steps in the local legislative process with the criteria of efficiency. This discussion is trying to encompass citizen participation from the initiation of a policy until it is enacted as a local legislation. Then in the next step, it will assess the elements that constitute an efficient drafting process. This article will consider such factors that are; financial cost; human resources or effort; wasted time; risk of failure; progress. The hypothesis is that not all of the means of public participation are efficient. The ideal notion of public participation put weighs on Local Authorities. What is needed to be underlined in this discussion is, to maximize the advantage of citizen involvement, it is important to look at the sequence where it should be held and what is the content. Moreover, the process of public participation should reflects principles namely: discovery, education, measurement, persuasion and legitimization.

AGROTECNICAL SUBSTANTIATION OF THE SOWING METHOD AND WORKING BODIES OF THE GRAIN STUBBLE SEEDER

1970 ◽  
pp. 67-70
Author(s):  
D. N. Radnaev ◽  
S. V. Petunov ◽  
D-Ts. B. Badmatsyrenov
Keyword(s):  
Wind Erosion ◽  
Cutting Tools ◽  
Conservation Agriculture ◽  
Mineral Fertilizers ◽  
Continuous Rolling ◽  
Grain Crops ◽  
Feeding Area ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Arid Regions ◽  
Working Bodies

The paper presents the results of studies of grain crops row sowing method agrotechnical indicators after the modernization of the working bodies of the SZS-2.1 seeder-cultivator. The SZS-2,1 stubble cultivator seeder has found wide application in the arid regions of the Republic of Buryatia, whose soils are prone to wind erosion. This seeder provides a combination of pre-sowing cultivation, sowing grain crops, applying mineral fertilizers to the sown rows and rolling them on stubble backgrounds, that is, in fields that have been processed since autumn with flat-cutting tools or have not been cultivated at all. Sowing with these seeders with 23 cm row spacing in a row method is the main method of sowing spring wheat in the soil conservation agriculture system. Routine sowing on soils of light texture, subject to wind erosion, causes thickening of plants in a row, which leads to irrational use of the feeding area by plants, increased weediness of crops between rows and, ultimately, to a decrease in yield. A distributor for the coulter has been developed, where the seeds are fed to the distributor. Then, reflecting from the distributor, the seeds are evenly dispersed in the opener under the plow space. Also, instead of serial wedge-shaped packer rollers, ring-spur rollers of the 3KSH-6 type are installed on the seeder. In addition, continuous rolling provides the necessary contact of seeds with the soil, preserves soil moisture and helps to attract it from the lower layers. Thus, the modernization of the SZS-2.1 seeder made it possible to substantiate subsurface-spread strip sowing with continuous rolling, which ultimately led to an increase in grain yield by 10-15%.

scholarly journals Beyond Public Particpation: The disjuncture between South Africa's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Law and Sustainable Development

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
T Murombo
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Provisions

One of the key strategies for achieving sustainable development is the use of the process of evaluating the potential environmental impacts of development activities. The procedure of environmental impact assessment (EIA) implements the principle of integration which lies at the core of the concept of sustainable development by providing a process through which potential social, economic and environmental impacts of activities are scrutinised and planned for. Sustainable development may not be achieved without sustained and legally mandated efforts to ensure that development planning is participatory. The processes of public participation play a crucial role in ensuring the integration of the socio-economic impacts of a project into the environmental decision-making processes. Public participation is not the only process, nor does the process always ensure the achievement of sustainable development. Nevertheless, decisions that engage the public have the propensity to lead to sustainable development. The public participation provisions in South Africa’s EIA regulations promulgated under the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 show a disjuncture between the idea of public participation and the notion of sustainable development. The provisions do not create a framework for informed participation and leave a wide discretion to environmental assessment practitioners (EAPs) regarding the form which participation should assume. In order for environmental law, specifically EIA laws, to be effective as tools to promote sustainable development the laws must, among other things, provide for effective public participation. The judiciary must also aid in the process by giving content to the legal provisions on public participation in the EIA process.

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