Shaping Presidential Powers in Hungary: Convention, Tradition and Informal Constitutional Amendments

There was no tradition of a republican president in Hungary before the fall of communism, and the transitory constitution of 1989 was unclear about the exact role the President should play in the constitutional system of Hungary. Some provisions even resembled those of presidential or semi-presidential systems; some ambiguities were clarified during the first two decades after the transition. Conventions, however, were established to some extent and sometimes very quickly. This period gave rise to guidelines as to how the powers of the President should be exercised. Some other powers were concretized and interpreted foremost by the Constitutional Court. These conventions and judicial interpretations formed the character of the Presidency to the extent of informal constitutional change. Some of these elements have even been incorporated into and formalized by the new Fundamental Law of Hungary. The present contribution will point out how the originally broad competencies of the President have been narrowed in the practice, and what role the Constitutional Court and political actors played in this process.

On the Jurisdiction of Foreign Divorce Cases in China

This article takes China’s jurisdiction over foreign-related divorce cases as an entry point, and systematically expounds the provisions of China’s foreign-related divorce jurisdiction. According to my country’s regulations, my country’s jurisdiction over a foreign-related divorce is vertically divided into direct jurisdiction and indirect jurisdiction, and horizontally divided into personal Jurisdiction, territorial jurisdiction, exclusive jurisdiction, and jurisdiction by agreement. In my country’s Civil Procedure Law and related judicial interpretations, the domicile of the “plaintiff is the defendant” and the location of the plaintiff under certain circumstances is the main focus. The general solution path of the case; At the same time, my country's regulations on foreign-related divorce cases still have shortcomings, and there are still many areas that need to be improved. This article analyzes the shortcomings and the areas to be improved.

The Legal Defect in the Conditional Prohibition of Manual Scavenging in India

This article problematizes the definitional discourse of manual scavenging in Indian legislative interven-tions and its judicial treatment by the Supreme Court of India. It assesses the evolution of the definition of manual scavenging and the judicial treatment of it to cull out the insufficiency of legal doctrines and judicial interpretations in its elimination. It is argued that the career of legal prohibition of manual scavenging, despite deploying new measures to promote the elimination and rehabilitation, is antithetical to the very objectives of the legislations due to a paradoxical definitional discourse. The paradox is discerned by problema-tizing the condition-based permissibility of manual scavenging, where the usage of protective gear is the excluding criterion for identifying manual scavengers and perpetuates the practice. This condition-based permissibility has been a key burden on the discourse of elimination, as no such measures, it is argued, can mitigate discrimination, humiliation and stigma faced by manual scavengers. After identifying the conditional prohibition of manual scavenging, the article makes normative suggestions towards the adoption of a non-condition–based complete prohibition approach rooted in the understanding of human dignity. This must be complemented with the complete rehabilitation of individuals and complete mechanization of sewage work.

Pendidikan Profesi dan Pengabdian Masyarakat di Indonesia

This paper presents for the first time the results of research related to the professional training of judges. The research method presented in this paper is a case study. Thirty-one judges, in the City and District Courts, were included to obtain various perspectives through interviews. The results of the study show that the influence of training can shape judicial interpretations of justice. We found that trainee judges studied the three most important forms of justice: legal justice, moral justice, and social justice. Judges will also learn from the training that judges will be asked to harmonize various dimensions of justice in the context of public service.

Old wine in a new bottle? Assessing the injunction remedy for intellectual property disputes in China

The landmark eBay case in the US has noticeably influenced Chinese judicial practices concerning intellectual property injunctions. The injunctive relief in intellectual property infringement cases in China has witnessed a change from a traditional automatic-granting approach to a more equitable approach. However, there are still some issues, namely: the standards of awarding injunctive relief in intellectual property cases are unclear; the civil law tradition and procedure can create issues when applying for injunctions; and the scope of the injunction could be disproportionate in certain cases. In order to address these concerns, China needs to publish judicial interpretations to clarify that the eBay test can be applied to both preliminary injunctions and permanent injunctions. China should further polish up its civil procedure legislation to enable a permanent injunction to be effective immediately, even at the first instance, and to allow the parties to an intellectual property contract to have agreements on conditions of applying for injunctive relief. Additionally, Chinese courts should adopt a proportionate method in determining cases regarding intellectual property injunctions.

Engaging Contract Labour: Learnings from Landmark Judgements

Despite debates on its hiring, contract labour is a growing form of employment in India. Establishments usually maintain a workforce composition of both regular workers and contract labour for optimizing their available resources and ensuring financial prudence. However, in the process, they often get embroiled in compliance issues related to regularization and ‘equal pay for equal work’ in the context of contract labour. In this article, we have explored the different judicial interpretations of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, on contract labour. For this, we have referred to the landmark judgements passed by the Supreme Court of India on the deployment and regularization of contract labour, and also their entitlement to equal pay for equal work. A scrutiny of these judgements directs us to advise establishments to avoid engaging contract labour in their core and perennial activities. Considering the statutory provisions and the possible legal complications, we have recommended some measures to establishments to mitigate the underlying risks in deploying contract labour alongside regular workforce in similar kinds of jobs or activities. We propose that the legislative framework grants flexibility to industries to generate employment to contract labour, without compromising on the rights of these workers.

Interpretation and construction: An addendum to the discussion about creation and application of law

As part of their regular activities, courts attach meaning to legal texts to determine the normative situation of the parties to the dispute. The activity of attributing meaning to legal texts by the courts is commonly called authoritative interpretation of law. In many cases, the meaning attributed to the text by the court deviates significantly from what laymen and even lawyers would expect, and the deviations themselves are explained in different ways in legal theory. In the purpose of explanation, the terms creation and application of law, extensive and restrictive interpretation, secundum, praeter and contra legem adjudication are used. This paper introduces and explains the concepts of interpretation, construction and their relationship, as possible explanations of situations in which authoritative judicial interpretations deviate from the expectations of the professional and lay public. For this purpose, contemporary textualist and intentionalist (cognitivist) conceptions of interpretation and construction are presented and compared with contemporary skeptical (realist, antiformalist) conceptions. Despite the simplicity and intuitive acceptability of some cognitivist views, skepticism is shown to provide a better theoretical basis for considering the application and creation of rights by courts. The very distinction between interpretation and construction proves to be a useful theoretical tool for explaining the actions of courts, as well as for specifying existing theoretical distinctions.

Confrontations and Limitations on the Freedom of Expression in Pakistan

The significance of the right to free speech is evident from the fact that the societies that curb and limit the freedom of expression are more prone to crimes and incidents of torture, ill-treatment and disappearances. Almost every state has imposed restrictions on the right to free speech on account of national security, defamation, religious hatred, extremism or radicalism. This article starts with the general discussion on the topic of free speech under the Pakistani laws and current regime. It examines the limitations on the freedom of speech under judicial interpretations. The article explores the confrontations in the context of defamation, blasphemy laws and contempt of court in Pakistan. It concludes that the limitations and restrictions imposed on the right to free speech must be clearly defined and reasonable.

1 Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of arbitration in China, as well as the arbitration and other dispute resolution services provided by the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (‘CIETAC’). The legal framework governing arbitration in China consists of: (1) statutory law; (2) judicial interpretations; and (3) international treaties. In addition, special provisions have been put into place to deal with arbitration matters involving China and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao; these special provisions are promulgated in mainland China as judicial interpretations. The chapter distinguishes between domestic and foreign arbitration, and looks at the framework of institutional arbitration in China. It then details the important features of CIETAC arbitration. The CIETAC is China’s pre-eminent arbitral institution and has played the dominant role in the arbitration of Chinese-foreign business disputes for over sixty years.