scholarly journals Truth Revelation Procedures as a Rights-based Alternative to the Politics of (Non-)Memory

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-66
Author(s):  
Emilia Kowalewska
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Justice Theory ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Authoritative Knowledge ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right

This article offers a socio-legal reflection on the relation between law, state obligation, and attempts to institutionalize collective memory. As the question of memory institutionalization becomes most pertinent in the context of regime change that imposes on an incumbent government certain expectations for addressing the past, the article considers this research problem from the perspective of transitional justice theory. The transitional justice paradigm allows for an interdisciplinary consideration of the topic. Special attention is paid to legal norms and mechanisms directed towards establishing authoritative knowledge about the past. The emerging principle of the right to truth is presented as an integrating and rights-based perspective from which to approach societal demands for acknowledging injustices of the past. Measured against the fundamental rights that lie at the heart of transitional justice theory, three types of truth revelation procedures are presented. The article shows that the relationship between law and memory – which is often reduced to one of political instrumentalization – should, in accordance with the values of a liberal democracy, be reframed from the perspective of individual and collective rights. The article seeks to contribute to the field of memory studies in the social sciences by exposing functions of legal norms and mechanisms that are often overlooked when discussed from the perspective of the politics of memory.

The Perils of Vanguardism

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 947-968 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua C Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Causal Explanation ◽  
Unemployment Benefit ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Asylum Policy ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Right ◽  
Unexpected Outcome

AbstractOver the past 25 years, Sweden has gone from having one of the most generous unemployment benefit systems among the rich democracies to one of the least. This article advances a multi-causal explanation for this unexpected outcome. It shows how the benefit system became a target of successive right-wing governments due to its role in fostering social democratic hegemony. Employer groups, radicalized by the turbulent 1970s more profoundly than elsewhere, sought to undermine the system, and their abandonment of corporatism in the early 1990s limited unions’ capacity to restrain right-wing governments in retrenchment initiatives. Two further developments help to explain the surprising political resilience of the cuts: the emergence of a private (supplementary) insurance regime and a realignment of working-class voters from the Social Democrats to parties of the right, especially the nativist Sweden Democrats, in the context of a liberal refugee/asylum policy.

scholarly journals Designing the social estate of odnodvortsy of the western provinces in 1831

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140
Author(s):  
Constantin Vadimovich Troianowski
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Social Category ◽  
The Past ◽  
Imperial Russia ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Right ◽  
The 19Th Century

This article investigates the process of designing of the new social estate in imperial Russia - odnodvortsy of the western provinces. This social category was designed specifically for those petty szlachta who did not possess documents to prove their noble ancestry and status. The author analyses deliberations on the subject that took place in the Committee for the Western Provinces. The author focuses on the argument between senior imperial officials and the Grodno governor Mikhail Muraviev on the issue of registering petty szlachta in fiscal rolls. Muraviev argued against setting up a special fiscal-administrative category for petty szlachta suggesting that its members should join the already existing unprivileged categories of peasants and burgers. Because this proposal ran against the established fiscal practices, the Committee opted for creating a distinct social estate for petty szlachta. The existing social estate paradigm in Russia pre-assigned the location of the new soslovie in the imperial social hierarchy. Western odnodvortsy were to be included into a broad legal status category of the free inhabitants. Despite similarity of the name, the new estate was not modeled on the odnodvortsy of the Russian provinces because they retained from the past certain privileges (e.g. the right to possess serfs) that did not correspond to the 19th century attributes of unprivileged social estates.

scholarly journals Mexican Medical Students Protest During Covid-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Torres-Hernández ◽  
Patricio García-Espinosa ◽  
Edgar Botello-Hernández ◽  
Diego Ortega-Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
City Hall ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City ◽  
Precarious Situation

During February  2021, a protest was organized by Mexican medical students through social media. About 200 interns, social service physicians and physicians protested peacefully in front of the city hall of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, the capital of Mexico's second largest metropolitan area. Due to the current contingency situation, it was requested to attend with face shield and masks. The reason for the protest was to raise their voice due to the precarious situation where social service physicians are sent to rural areas of the country in which they have all the obligations of workers but without belonging to the working class - lacking the the benefits of this same as a living wage or fair working hours. The protesters were in limbo between student and worker. The protest also demanded justice for the sensitive death of young doctors due to malpractice situations of the Mexican authorities. We believe that a total reform of the social service in medicine is necessary. It is the responsibility of the authorities to cover the rural areas with permanently trained doctors without depending on recently graduated doctors. It is always important to assert our fundamental rights, including the right to protest in a peaceful manner.

Memory and Politics in Democratic Spain

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-61
Author(s):  
Omar G. Encarnación
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Franco Regime ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Right

This chapter explains the persistence of Spain’s ‘politics of forgetting’, a phenomenon revealed by the wilful intent to disremember the political memory of the violence of the Spanish Civil War and the human rights abuses of General Franco’s authoritarian regime. Looking beyond the traumas of the Civil War, the limits on transitional justice and truth-telling on the Franco regime imposed by a transition to democracy anchored on intra-elite pacts, and the conciliatory and forward-looking political culture that consolidated in the new democracy, this analysis emphasizes a decidedly less obvious explanation: the political uses of forgetting. Special attention is paid to how the absence of a reckoning with the past, protected politicians from both the right and the left from embarrassing and inconvenient political histories; facilitated the reinvention of the major political parties as democratic institutions; and lessened societal fears about repeating past historical mistakes. The conclusion of the chapter explains how the success of the current democratic regime, shifting public opinion about the past occasioned by greater awareness about the dark policies and legacies of the Franco regime, and generational change among Spain’s political class have in recent years diminished the political uses of forgetting. This, in turn, has allowed for a more honest treatment of the past in Spain’s public policies.

scholarly journals Diaspora Policies, Consular Services and Social Protection for Maltese Citizens Abroad

2020 ◽  
pp. 337-355
Author(s):  
Hillary Briffa ◽  
Alessandra Baldacchino
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Diplomatic Protection ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Domestic Law

Abstract This chapter assesses the social protection policies enacted by the Maltese government to support Maltese citizens living abroad. First, the current status of the Maltese diaspora and their engagement with the homeland is contextualized, and key infrastructure and policies outlined. In the Maltese legal system, there is no domestic law granting the right to consular or diplomatic protection, however this is offered as a matter of practice based on respect for the fundamental rights of the individual. The strength of historic ties with the destination countries of Maltese emigrants is mainly reflected in the number of Reciprocal Agreements signed between Malta and partner countries. An overview of these formal treaties and their assured benefits is provided. Thereafter, five areas of concern for the social security needs of Maltese diaspora are addressed: unemployment, healthcare, pensions, family-related benefits, and economic hardship. The chapter concludes by acknowledging the communication initiatives between the Maltese government and its citizens abroad; however, it recognises that there is still a long way to go in terms of ensuring democratic participation of citizens in elections. Throughout, the evidence has been compiled primarily as a result of consultation with primary source material, as well as interviews with a range of experts within relevant Maltese governmental bodies.

scholarly journals The past and perspective development of pasturing and tourism in the mountains: insights from Norway and Slovenia

2020 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Potthoff ◽  
Aleš Smrekar ◽  
Mateja Šmid Hribar ◽  
Mimi Urbanc
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
The Right ◽  
Two Sectors ◽  
Pastoral Farming

The paper aims to analyse the characteristics and trends in pastoral farming, tourism and recreation in the Norwegian and Slovenian mountains and resulting landscape changes. These land uses and related driving forces have been scrutinised in the context of economic, social, and political aspects. While pastoral farming has a centuries-old tradition in the higher altitudes of both countries, interest in mountains for tourism and recreational purposes dates back only to the nineteenth century but has been increasing steadily ever since. The findings of the study, based on a literature review and secondary data, suggest that the social, economic, and especially the political situation in Norway and Slovenia have been different, but the development of mountains in both countries in the field of mountain pasturing and tourism and recreation has shared more similarities than differences, although nuances and specificities should not be disregarded. It is evident that mountain pasturing in both countries is sensitive to societal changes. Further on, we can infer the synergy and the right balance between it and tourism and recreation can be an opportunity for a viable mountain economic situation and would preserve the long traditions of cooperation between the two sectors. //   Članek analizira značilnosti in trende pašništva in rekreacije ter posledične spremembe pokrajine v norveških in slovenskih gorah. Spremembe v rabi zemljišč in z njimi povezane gonilne sile smo preučili z ekonomskega, družbenega in političnega vidika. Planinsko pašništvo ima v obeh državah večstoletno tradicijo, zanimanje za gore iz turističnih in rekreativnih vzgibov pa se je začelo šele v 19. stoletju, vendar se od tedaj stalno povečuje. Ugotovitve te študije, ki temeljijo na pregledu obstoječe literature in sekundarnih podatkov, kažejo, da je bil družbeni, gospodarski in še posebej politični položaj na Norveškem in v Sloveniji sicer različen, vendar razvoj gorskih območij v obeh državah izkazuje več podobnosti kot razlik, pri čemur ne smemo zanemariti določenih razhajanj in posebnosti. Jasno je, da na planinsko pašništvo v obeh državah vplivajo družbene spremembe. Prav tako je očitno, da sinergija in ustrezno ravnovesje med planinskim pašništvom in turizmom ter rekreacijo nudita priložnost za vitalno gospodarsko stanje v gorah in obenem omogočata ohranitev dolgoletne tradicije sodelovanja med obema panogama.

scholarly journals Any Chance for the Enforceability of the Human Right to Subsistence?

2020 ◽  
pp. 140-162
Author(s):  
Celia Fernández Aller
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Policies And Programs ◽  
The Right

It is not true that the idea of the right to subsistence should not give rise to much controversy. In fact, social rights are not considered as fundamental rights by everyone. The aim of this paper is to analyze whether abstract social rights –and the right to subsistence in particular- should be put in constitutions and laws and if judges should be given powers to interpret them. The philosophical foundations and the content of the right are studied and five great challenges are presented, although the most powerful one is to focus on the social and political enforceability of the fundamental right to subsistence. Assessing the effectiveness of the right to subsistence, and the right to food particularly, is a complex issue. In the legal discourse, the question seems to be only suggested.  Even when the Constitutions expressly recognize this right in some countries, its implementation faces many constraints. The progressive realization of ESC rights requires a complex interaction of policies and programs in a wide range of sectors and institutions.The scientific method used in this work is the legal-sociological method, regarding the understanding of the rules, the lack of them, their effectiveness,  etc.   Several methodological techniques have been used, such as social and legal analysis, legal deduction and induction, description and interdisciplinarity.

scholarly journals Emenda Constitucional Nº 90/2015: do Direito ao Transporte à Questão da Efetividade dos Direitos Sociais

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-72
Author(s):  
Marcelo Ferreira Ribas
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Social Effectiveness ◽  
The Public ◽  
Federal Constitution ◽  
The Social ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
The Right

O presente artigo visa abordar a questão da efetividade dos Direitos Sociais a partir da análise da Emenda Constitucional nº 90/2015, que inseriu o transporte no rol dos Direitos Sociais da Constituição Federal. Para tanto, adota-se a metodologia de abordagem dedutiva, posto partir da análise doutrinária do direito material para compreender seus desdobramentos fáticos e, no desenvolvimento da pesquisa, emprega-se a técnica de documentação indireta, mediante o recurso à bibliografia de juristas que discorrem sobre o tema. Depreende-se que o reconhecimento do direito ao transporte como Direito Social apresenta-se como oportunidade para refletir acerca do conceito e da natureza jurídica dos Direitos Sociais e de seu lugar no ordenamento jurídico. Como Direitos Fundamentais, os Direitos Sociais privilegiam a igualdade material na sociedade e, para tanto, demandam prestações por parte do Estado em benefício da população carente. Juridicamente eficazes, a eficácia social ou efetividade encontra óbice na teoria da reserva do possível, por meio da qual o Estado alega insuficiência de recursos a serem dispendidos para a concretização desses direitos. Além disso, há também o poder de disposição do Estado para geri-los discricionariamente, por meio do qual age, por vezes, desconsiderando as expectativas da sociedade. Ao final, propõe-se o aprimoramento dos instrumentos que garantam a participação popular na gestão democrática do orçamento público e na tomada de decisões, em vista da superação dos problemas relativos à efetividade dos Direitos Sociais e, consequentemente, da distância existente entre a norma e a realidade.Palavras-chave: Transporte. Direitos Sociais. Reserva do Possível. Discricionariedade.AbstractThis article aims to approach the issue of the effectiveness of social rights from the analysis of Constitutional Amendment 90/2015, which inserted the transportation in the roll of social rights of the Federal Constitution. For that, the methodology of deductive approach is adopted, based on a doctrinal analysis of the material law to understand its unfolding events and, during the research development,the technique of indirect documentation is used, through the use of the jurists’ bibliography who discourse about the subject. It seems that the recognition of the right to transportation as a social right presents itself as an opportunity to reflect on the concept and legal nature of social rights and their place in the legal system. As fundamental rights, the social rights privilege the material equality in the society and, therefore, demand State provisions in benefit of the poor population. Legally effective, the social effectiveness or effectiveness finds obstacle in the reserve of the possible theory, whereby the State claims insufficient resources to be spent for the realization of these rights. In addition, there is also the State’s power to dispose of it at its own discretion, by means of which it sometimes acts in disregard of the society expectations. In the end, it is proposed to improve the instruments that guarantee popular participation in the democratic management of the public budget and in decisionmaking, in order to overcome the problems related to the effectiveness of social rights and, consequently, the distance between the norm and the reality. Keywords: Transportation. Social Rights. Reserve of the Possible. Discretion.

scholarly journals The asymmetric evolution of the social case-law of the Court of Justice: new challenges in the context of the European pillar of social rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-19
Author(s):  
Luis Jimena Quesada
Keyword(s):  
Case Law ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
The Past ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Charter Of Fundamental Rights ◽  
New Framework ◽  
The Eu

The author highlights the paradoxical evolution of CJEU’s case-law in the field of social rights and how in the past, it has played a praetorian role in a context of implied powers and modest EU primary legal provisions whereas now, it is showing clear self-restraint under explicit competences and an evolved EU primary law [including the Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFREU)]. From this perspective, the author proposes the opening of the CJEU to the new framework of the European Pillar of Social Rights, as part of the broader Turin process for the European Social Charter, through positive judicial willingness (by taking into account the synergies between the EU and the Council of Europe – including the case-law from the European Committee of Social Rights).

An Unsettled Past as a Political Resource

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svjetlana Nedimović
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Political Responsibility ◽  
Vital Part ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Resource

This chapter examines recent debates about transitional justice and argues against attempts at ‘overcoming the past’ or ‘settling the past’. Drawing on Cornelius Castoriadis's theory of the social-historical, it shows that engaging with the past is an inescapable dimension of societal existence and its self-creative process. It contends that such past is not necessarily a burden but can become a political resource in the (re)construction of political community. The resourcefulness of the past, however, is contingent upon standing or permanent political institutions and normative frameworks. The unsettled past, the chapter suggests, becomes a valuable political resource only if it remains unsettled and, as such, a vital part and live matter of everyday political processes through the interconnected workings of collective political responsibility and political imagination.

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