scholarly journals When Courts do Politics: Public Interest Law and Litigation in East Africa by J Oloka- Onyango

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-116
Author(s):  
Melissa Mungai
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Public Interest Law ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Waves

An all-too-simplistic appreciation of the relationship among the three arms of government should be excluded in order to get the gist of Oloka’s writing. He pulls apart the idea that courts simply interpret the law, keeping off from legislative and executive duties. Instead, the author introduces the notion that courts are not insulated from the ‘waves of politics’. In this regard, he invites scrutiny of their powers: of judicial review, to declare a law invalid, to appoint and vet judges, and to interpret the constitution. These defy a purist understanding of the classical separation of powers theory which holds that ‘judges should just judge’ and in this sense avoid upsetting the status quo.

The Police Scandal Syndrome

1964 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Ingersoll
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Police Leadership ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
The Public ◽  
Management Ability ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Law ◽  
High Standards

Police scandals have shocked public conscience, have produced public outcry, and have diminished public confidence in those to whom it looks for protection. But all the tumult has done nothing to relieve the same public from its share of the responsi bility. True, in those few communities visited by clouds of scan dal, police leadership must accept its responsibility for its lack of management ability, failure to control personnel, and failure to safeguard the public interest vested in their agencies. But the public also has failed in large measure to recognize and acquit its own responsibility in the process of obtaining justice. When police leadership does not select men on the basis of quality instead of quantity and does not educate neophytes and veterans in the ideals, philosophies, ethics, and techniques of police serv ice, the public has failed to demand high standards. Where vice, corruption, and scandals have prevailed, the public has failed to demonstrate its intolerance of conditions inimical to its safety. Where the police have failed to improve the law enforce ment image and articulate needs adequately, the public, con tent with the status quo, has usually failed to invite such action. The public and the police alike must be aware of their responsi bilities and together be intolerant of what ought not to be.

State contestations in constructions of 1Malaysia

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-65
Author(s):  
Mary Varghese ◽  
Kamila Ghazali
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Public ◽  
Malaysian Population ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This article seeks to contribute to the existing body of knowledge about the relationship between political discourse and national identity. 1Malaysia, introduced in 2009 by Malaysia’s then newly appointed 6th Prime Minister Najib Razak, was greeted with expectation and concern by various segments of the Malaysian population. For some, it signalled a new inclusiveness that was to change the discourse on belonging. For others, it raised concerns about changes to the status quo of ethnic issues. Given the varying responses of society to the concept of 1Malaysia, an examination of different texts through the critical paradigm of CDA provide useful insights into how the public sphere has attempted to construct this notion. Therefore, this paper critically examines the Prime Minister’s early speeches as well as relevant chapters of the socioeconomic agenda, the 10th Malaysia Plan, to identify the referential and predicational strategies employed in characterising 1Malaysia. The findings suggest a notion of unity that appears to address varying issues.

Omnipotence and the Law: A Psychoanalytically Oriented Analysis

1988 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-458
Author(s):  
C. G. Schoenfeld
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Dred Scott ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Law ◽  
Infants And Young Children

This article seeks to illuminate the effect of unconscious infantile omnipotence fantasies upon the law and some of its major officials. First, psychoanalytic discoveries about the omnipotence ideas of infants and young children are detailed, and an attempt is made to relate these ideas to the current overestimation of the status and effectiveness of international law. Then the possible relationship between such infantile notions and today's incredible litigiousness is discussed. Considered next in the light of infantile omnipotence beliefs is a series of landmark Supreme Court decisions since 1793—including the disastrous Dred Scott decision that helped to precipitate the Civil War. One of the possibilities raised is that the acceptance of the antimajoritarian concept of “judicial review” reflects the displacement of unconscious omnipotence fantasies from parents onto judges. Discussed next is the implicit logic of currently popular (but clearly unsound) Critical Legal Studies doctrines that, in effect, assign “omnipotence” both to judges and to the law they are presumably free to manipulate in the service of political goals. Finally, an attempt is made to understand why the public tends to ascribe “omnipotence” to judges and prosecutors and why the unconscious omnipotence notions of judges, prosecutors, and policemen are likely to affect their own official behavior.

Understanding Dynamic Transactions Between Personality Traits and Partner Relationships

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 411-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Mund ◽  
Christine Finn ◽  
Birk Hagemeyer ◽  
Franz J. Neyer
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
The Status ◽  
Partner Relationships ◽  
The One ◽  
Analysis Models ◽  
The Relationship

When examining the associations between personality traits and partner relationships, the majority of studies have focused on the one-way effects of personality traits on the quality and stability of relationships. Recent work, however, has shown that relationships likewise retroact on personality traits and their development. Apart from these mutual influences, recent studies have also emphasized the necessity of considering both members of a couple in order to understand how their personalities and perceptions of the relationship interact. We review the status quo of research on personality-relationship transactions and outline suggestions for future research that move the focus from predicting the interplay between the two domains to explaining how personality traits and partner relationships dynamically interact. Specifically, we propose the need for (a) a functional perspective on personality traits, (b) a differentiated view of behavior, and (c) acknowledgment of the dynamic nature of traits and relationships in appropriate analysis models.

Government Legitimacy and Religion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
First Century ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
The Status ◽  
Democratic Rule ◽  
Theological Differences ◽  
Infinite Variety ◽  
The Relationship

Despite the predictions of Marxists and secularization theorists alike, the relationship between religion and government legitimacy is mixed. Religion, in its various forms, can serve to promote regimes of virtually any type—democratic or otherwise—and can just as easily undermine such regimes. Observers hoping for a one-size-fits-all account of the link between religion and legitimacy will surely be disappointed; the reality is far more complicated. Religion, encompassing a nearly infinite variety of beliefs, behaviors, and actors, exercises a diverse set of influences on its political context. For regimes, this diversity can be either helpful or dangerous. Religion is neither inherently pro-status quo nor revolutionary; it can be either one depending on the context. Likewise, religion is neither necessarily pro- nor anti-democratic. Political and theological conditions influence the ways in which religion interacts with politics, and in particular, the role it plays in building or undermining legitimacy. Twenty-first-century research highlights the Janus-faced relationship between religion and political legitimacy. In some settings, religion has been the foundation of non-democratic rule. In others, it has been a crucial catalyst for unseating dictators in favor of democratic alternatives. Theological differences can only explain part of this variation. The same religious tradition may serve as a defense of authoritarianism in one instance but a spark for democracy in another. Political factors play a key role in explaining why religion sometimes supports the status quo but in other instances may fuel revolutionary fervor.

PUBLIC INTEREST AS A DETERMINANT OF TERRITORIAL AUTONOMY

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (XX) ◽  
pp. 223-233
Author(s):  
Przemysław Niemczuk
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
National Interest ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Relative Term ◽  
The Law ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
The Relationship

The article aims to explore the concept of territorial autonomy. The research assumption is that public interest is one of the fundamental determinants of territorial autonomy. Territorial autonomy has not been defined by law. It is a general and relative term, and thus difficult to define (if such an enterprise is possible at all). However, one thing is certain - the idea behind this term determines the law regulating the organizational and territorial form of the state, i.e. the distribution of power between the centre and the territory. Further attempts to specify territorial autonomy are met with serious difficulties. Therefore, it is crucial to look at it through the prism of public interest. The term public interest has a relative meaning, because it depends on the constantly changing social conditions. This variability is, among others, a result of the territorial context. The national interest and the territorial interest will be defined in different ways. It seems, therefore, that in order to explicate the notion territorial autonomy, one should refer to the concept of public interest and then take into account the relationship between the interest of a territory and the interest of the whole state. This will make it possible to outline territorial autonomy through the prism of its determinant – the public interest.

Wildlife and Farming: Towards a Reconciliation

1996 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
R. Thornton Smith ◽  
M. A. Atherden ◽  
S. R. Eyre
Keyword(s):  
Community Participation ◽  
Organic Farming ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Ecological Approach ◽  
Agricultural Systems ◽  
The Status ◽  
Environmental Measures ◽  
Organic Produce ◽  
The Relationship

Aside from the views of pioneer thinkers and romantics, perception of the relationship between agriculture and the countryside by the general public has changed this century from acceptance of the status quo, to increasing consciousness of environmental problems. Recent global and European initiatives now form the basis of a strengthened package of anti-surplus and agri-environmental measures, which give some support to the enhancement of biodiversity, for instance by the redesign of fields. More fundamentally, there needs to be a more ecological approach to agricultural systems, and in particular a shift towards organic farming. Prospects for the latter must depend on an increased market share for home-grown organic produce, while both organic farming and wildlife initiatives will in the longer term depend on wider community participation, thus reversing a trend set at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Called to Become a Blessing

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-411
Author(s):  
Martin Prudký
Keyword(s):  
Public Domain ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The Status ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
European Civilization

The religious traditions and texts of ancient Israel have shaped European civilization and culture in a fundamental way. One of the key motifs that the Hebrew Bible has contributed to the formation of the spiritual traditions of this culture is the conception that faith entails a ‘stepping out’ of the status quo on the new journey to which God calls a person. An archetypal story in this respect is the narrative concerning the call of Abram (Gen. 12:1–3). This paper presents the basic motifs of Abram’s call in the context of the book of Genesis and sketches their impact on subsequent religious traditions. It pursues the question of the relationship of vocation and mission (of ‘stepping out’ and ‘charting a course’), which are two fundamental aspects of Abraham’s role as ‘the father of the faith’. In addition, this paper reflects on these motifs’ potential to impact the public domain.

The Church of England and the Law of Divorce since 1837: Marriage Discipline, Ecclesiastical Law and the Establishment

1994 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-641
Author(s):  
Bruce S. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Essential Point ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
The Status ◽  
Practical Reality ◽  
State Changes ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

Ever since Henry VIII, the law of marriage has occupied a special place in the relationship between the Church of England and the state. Changes made to the law since 1857 have raised far-reaching and difficult questions about the nature of this relationship, involving the status of canon law. Marriage in church has remained, perhaps even more than the other rites of passage, an essential point at which the Church of England still touches the lives of great numbers of the otherwise unchurched, and these questions have thus impinged on the practical reality of the Church's work.

THE LIMITS OF POSSIBILITY IN ENGLAND'S LONG REFORMATION

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 1049-1070
Author(s):  
LUCY BATES
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
English Reformation ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Status ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTInterpretations that solely emphasize either continuity or controversy are found wanting. Historians still question how the English became Protestant, what sort of Protestants they were, and why a civil war dominated by religion occurred over a hundred years after the initial Reformation crisis. They utilize many approaches: from above and below, and with fresh perspectives, from within and without. Yet the precise nature of the relationship of the Reformation, the civil war, the interregnum and the Restoration settlement remains controversial. This review of recent Reformation historiography largely validates the current consensus of a balance of continuity and change, pressure for further reform and begrudging conformity. Yet ultimately it argues that continuity must form the foundation for any interpretation of the Reformation, for controversial or dramatic alterations to the status quo only made sense to contemporaries in the context of what had come before. Challenging ideas, like challenging individuals, did not exist in a vacuum devoid of historical context. The practical limits of possibility, constrained largely by the established norms and procedures, shaped the course of English Reformation. As such, practicality seems a unifying and central theme for current and future investigations of England's long Reformation.

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