‘Our Enemies Are Swindlers’! Conceptualising Anti-Corruption Legalism as a Securitising Device

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-242
Author(s):  
Ugochukwu Ezeh
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Judicial Independence ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Considerable Extent ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Security Problem ◽  
Emergency Measures

This article seeks to conceptualise anti-corruption legalism as a symptom of a broader phenomenon: the securitisation of corruption. Securitisation refers to the complex social processes through which political actors frame corruption as an existential threat to valued referent objects; construct it as a security problem; and, in turn, acquire broad mandates to tackle it by recourse to emergency measures. By building on case studies from contemporary Nigerian legal history, this article argues that the securitisation of corruption is mediated, to a considerable extent, by anti-corruption legalism - defined as a repertoire of legalistic rules, discourses, and practices that perform a regulatory crackdown on corruption. As a constitutive element of the securitisation of corruption, anti-corruption legalism excises corruption from legal and other normative frameworks applicable to other crimes with a view to tackling it through a repressive national security paradigm. Securitisation, in turn, catalyses the decline of the rule of law through its corrosive effects on judicial power, judicial independence, and human rights. Taken together, securitisation and anti-corruption legalism are counterproductive approaches insofar as they undermine the evolution of democratic values, political accountability mechanisms, and independent constitutional institutions that form the bedrock of meaningful and sustainable anti-corruption strategies.

Prosecutors and National Security

2021 ◽  
pp. 538-558
Author(s):  
Kent Roach
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
National Security ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Third ◽  
Relative Rarity ◽  
The Many ◽  
Operational Aspects

This chapter examines the distinct operational and ethical challenges that prosecutors face in national security and especially terrorism cases. The second part of this chapter focuses on the operational challenges that prosecutors face. These include demands for specialization that may be difficult to fulfill given the relative rarity of national security prosecutions; the availability of special investigative powers not normally available in other criminal cases; exceptionally broad and complex offenses; and the demands of federalism and international cooperation. The third part examines ethical and normative challenges that run throughout the many operational aspects of the prosecutorial role in national security cases. These include the challenges of ensuring that often exceptional national security laws are enforced in a manner consistent with the rule of law and human rights. There are also challenges of maintaining an appropriate balance between legitimate claims of secrecy and legitimate demands for disclosure and between maintaining prosecutorial independence and discretion while recognizing the whole of government and whole of society effects of the many difficult decisions that prosecutors must make in national security cases.

Judicial independence as a precondition for mutual trust? The CJEU in Minister for Justice and Equality v. LM

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Bárd ◽  
Wouter van Ballegooij
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Judicial Independence ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Judicial Cooperation ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
State Compliance ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

This article discusses the relationship between judicial independence and intra-European Union (EU) cooperation in criminal matters based on the principle of mutual recognition. It focuses on the recent judgment by the Court of Justice of the EU in Case C-216/18 PPU Minister for Justice and Equality v. LM. In our view, a lack of judicial independence needs to be addressed primarily as a rule of law problem. This implies that executing judicial authorities should freeze judicial cooperation in the event should doubts arise as to respect for the rule of law in the issuing Member State. Such a measure should stay in place until the matter is resolved in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 7 TEU or a permanent mechanism for monitoring and addressing Member State compliance with democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights. The Court, however, constructed the case as a possible violation of the right to a fair trial, the essence of which includes the requirement that tribunals are independent and impartial. This latter aspect could be seen as a positive step forward in the sense that the judicial test developed in the Aranyosi case now includes rule of law considerations with regard to judicial independence. However, the practical hurdles imposed by the Court on the defence in terms of proving such violations and on judicial authorities to accept them in individual cases might amount to two steps back in upholding the rule of law within the EU.

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 RELEVANT PRINCIPLES IN THE ECHR AND CJEU JURISPRUDENCE REGARDING NATIONAL SECURITY

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-95
Author(s):  
Sorina Ana Manea
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Intelligence Services ◽  
European System ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Mass Surveillance

The European system ensuring the protection of human rights is nowadays one of the most advanced in the world. However, there are also areas of activity where clarification and improvement are constant demands. Counter-terrorism measures considered or adopted in Europe, in particular those that increase mass surveillance, the collection and storage of electronic information or the protection of personal data are such areas. Some of these measures give more intrusive powers to the intelligence services to channel decisions in the direction of the executive branch, without the necessary judicial guarantees being established in a state governed by the rule of law.   Keywords: community law; ECHR; CJUE; national security.

scholarly journals The independence and impartiality of the hybrid CETA Investment Court System: Reflections in the aftermath of Opinion 1/17

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Fanou
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Judicial Independence ◽  
Court System ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
The Right ◽  
Right Of Access ◽  
The Eu

In its recent Opinion 1/17, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) examined the compatibility of an external judicial body, the Investment Court System (ICS) under the EU–Canada Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), with EU law. At a time when judicial independence has arisen as one of the main challenges for the rule of law in the EU, this article discusses the Court’s findings in relation to the compatibility of the ICS with the right of access to an independent and impartial tribunal.

scholarly journals The Rule of Law and National Security in Nigerian Democracy: A Contemporary Issue under the Aegis of International Law

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-168
Author(s):  
Isaac O. C. Igwe
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
It Impacts ◽  
Contemporary Issue ◽  
The People ◽  
The Government

Although brutality can repress a society, it never assures the sustainability of that conquest. Tyranny steers the hopeless to despair, edges to rebellion, and could open the door for a new tyrant to rise. Law becomes a limiting factor that must act as a stopgap to the avaricious intentions of a dictator. A democratic leader must incorporate the supremacy of the law and honest officials into his government. He shall also create courts of law, treat the poorest citizens with fairness and build a hall of justice to bring the society to modernity with the operation of the rule of law enshrined in the constitution. Legislation is nothing without enforcement and Law is no law if not accepted and respected by the people. The rule of law cannot be said to be working in a country where the government continues to violate the orders of the court, unlawfully detain its citizens, abuse human rights including arbitrary and extra-judicial executions, unlawful arrests and detentions, embargo on freedom of speech and press, impunity and inhumane torture, degradation of people or exterminations. This treatise will argue on the supremacy of the “Rule of Law” as it impacts Nigerian democracy. Keywords: Rule of Law; Democracy; Judiciary; Supremacy; Government; Tyranny; Nigerian Constitution

INTER ARMA SILENT LEGES (NOTAS SOBRE DEL DERECHO DE EXCEPCIÓN)

2010 ◽  
pp. 285-294
Author(s):  
JOSÉ MANUEL CASTELLS ARTECHE
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Court Case ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Current Economic Crisis ◽  
Supreme Court Case ◽  
Emergency Measures ◽  
Structural Point

Se hace notar que en situaciones de excepción, sea en un aspecto coyuntural (la actual crisis económica), sea estructural (las medidas de emergencia justificadas en razones de necesidad), se afecta normalmente aunque no necesariamente a los principios propios de un Estado de Derecho. Se aportan ejemplos de la realidad actual o de momentos claves de la jurisprudencia del Tribunal Supremo de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica. Salbuespeneko egoeretan, dela egoera koiunturala (egungo krisi ekonomikoa), dela egiturazkoa (premiagatik justifikatuta dauden larrialdiko neurriak), gehienetan, baina ez beti, Zuzenbide Estatutuaren printzipio funtsezkoetara jotzen da. Ameriketako Estatu Batuetako Epaitegi Gorenaren jurisprudentziaren gaur egungo errealitatearen edo une gailurren adibideak aztertzen dira. It is pointed out that in exceptional circumstances, either from a temporary point of view (current economic crisis) or from a structural point of view (emergency measures justified by reasons of necessity), is normally affected albeit not necessarily the same principles of the Rule of Law. Some current real examples or key moments in United States¿ Supreme Court case law are provided.

Περιμένοντας τους Bαρβάρους. Law in a Time of Constitutional Crisis.

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
Judicial Independence ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
European Dimension

Περιμένοντας τους Bαρβάρους. Law in a Time of Constitutional Crisis is not a typical celebratory book offered to the dedicatee for an academic jubilee. The studies offered to Professor Mirosław Wyrzykowski present the readers with essays analysing the most pressing problems of modern constitutionalism in its European dimension. The primary themes of the book are topics dear to Wyrzykowski: the rule of law, human rights, the crooked paths of European constitutionalism, and last, but not least, one that binds them all: judicial independence and judicial review, as well as the role of the courts in upkeeping the rule of law.

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