China's Evolution from Socialist Legality: The Expansion in the Role of Judges and the Redress of Grievances

The Chinese state implemented a conscious transfer to a market economy after 1977 when the Four Modernisations were inaugurated and the new Constitution promulgated in 1982 raised the possibility for the separation of powers. The new framework introduced judicial review into the structure of the legal system that was to provide redress of grievances from mal administration. The transition to a new leadership in 2011 allowed the National Peoples Congress to enact administrative reforms, and further amendments to the Chinese Constitution in 2018 have promulgated the Judges Law. The judicial reforms promote the values of an independent judiciary and there is an effective machinery of justice which promotes judicial review. This paper argues that the centralisation of power by the Communist Party does not preclude the functioning of judicial administration that conforms to rule of law and an emerging trend of public interest litigation and participatory justice.

Organized cybercrime in Ukraine: problems of formation of official statistics and its analysis

The article analyzes the types, forms and content of statistical reporting that reflects the state and structure of cybercrime in Ukraine. Ways to interpret statistical information and to use its capabilities in preventing and combating cybercrime are identified. The shortcomings of the structure of official statistical data, namely unsystematic character, inconsistency and incoherence of their formation, are generalized and revealed. It is noted that the national and international legislation lacks a generally accepted definition of cybercrime so far, and therefore a single approach to defining the grounds for classifying illegal acts as such crimes. The reports were developed without considering further analysis of cybercrime. And while the report of the National Police of Ukraine contains data on a number of criminal offenses that can be attributed to cybercrime, the official statistical reports prepared by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, except for Chapter XVI of the Criminal Code, are missing the mentioned data. Therefore, official statistics, which fully and accurately reflect the state and structure of cybercrime cannot be introduced today. It is possible to analyze only the dynamics of this type of crime, the structure of crime on the basis of recorded crimes. The number of criminal offenses under the articles of chap. XVI of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, is growing unevenly, and this growth in the last 4 years is insignificant. The share of these criminal offenses is growing more dynamically. But their share of the total crime rate in Ukraine today is insignificant and is less than one percent - in 2020 0.69. In the first quarter of 2021, employees of cyber police units of the National Police of Ukraine, for the first time detected 4 criminal offenses under Art. 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Creation of a criminal organization”). During 2013 –2010, 112 persons were found to have committed criminal offenses of this category as part of a group, 16 of them as part of an organized group. Also during this period, 171 persons who committed criminal offenses in the group in previous years were identified, including 68 in the organized group. The number of convicted persons who committed criminal offenses in the group during this period is 64, 9 of them committed crimes in an organized group.

La Coutume and la Législation

The reformation of customs aimed to bring the sources of law under royal authority and improve judicial administration. Through this process, the king reaffirmed the primacy of legislation in both public and private law. This chapter examines major provisions of the Nouvelle coutume de Paris of 1580 and also looks at judicial cases that were argued at the Parlement of Paris based on the coutumes of other localities. The efforts to reform customs took place in tandem with legislative measures. Most edicts and ordinances inspired by Chancellor Michel de L’Hôpital dealt with public law and procedural matters, but they also covered key private law matters like succession and marital property. Customary law campaigns and legislative activities together represented the royal effort to ensure coherence in the legal system.

Stepping Into the Same River Twice? Judicial Independence in Old and New Authoritarianism

The study seeks to answer the question of whether there are similarities between the methods used to limit judicial independence in Hungary during the last phase of the communist regime, i.e. before the democratic transition, and today, when many scholars believe that an authoritarian transition is taking place in this country. For this purpose, I argue that despite the undeniable fundamental differences between the political and legal system of these two periods, the mechanisms and ways as the independence of judiciary were and are influenced by the government can plausibly be compared. The analysis seems to support this presumption: both the formal instruments and the informal channels of influence in the hands of the ruling political forces show a number of similarities. Thus, even if there are differences in the degree of their application and result, from centralizing the system of judicial administration to replacing court leaders with politically loyal people there are a number of instruments that enable central government to influence the judiciary, while maintaining the appearance of judicial independence.

Judicial Administration: the Main Approaches to the Concept and Content

The article is devoted to the theoretical problems of administration in the judicial system. Based on the analysis of scientific literature and legislation, we consider the main approaches to the definition and normative consolidation of the term “judicial administration”, review the content of judicial administration and its assessment in scientific research of the Soviet and modern periods. We conclude that the refusal to use the term “judicial administration” in the post-Soviet period is due to the negative attitude toward it, which is caused by the command and administrative nature of administration in the judicial sphere in the Soviet period and the actual lack of independence of the court. The terms “ensuring the activity of courts” and “organizational support of courts” used in legislation and scientific literature do not cover the entire spectrum of managerial relations that develop in the judicial system. We emphasize the necessity of returning to the use of the term “judicial administration” and its theoretical development.

Postmodernism and judicial notice: How common is common knowledge?

This article considers how postmodernist thought can illuminate the doctrine of judicial notice. Specifically, it considers how postmodernist critiques of empiricism have challenged the idea of ‘indisputable’ facts which inform judicial decision-making. It argues that, while the practical realities of judicial administration must be borne in mind, increased sensitivity to the arbitrary nature of notorious facts will lead to more accountable decision-making.

Ahmad Ibrahim dan Sumbangannya dalam Perkembangan Islam di Malaysia

Ahmad Ibrahim was one of the key individuals who was responsible in developing the administrative legal system in Malaysia through judicial reform of the Sharia Court. Since colonial period, the Civil Court has been dominating the country’s legal system thus inhibiting the progress and contribution of Islamic law as well as limiting the jurisdiction of the Sharia Court. This article discusses the history of the Islamic law in Malaysia in the judicial administration context as well as analyses the achievement and development of the Sharia Court seen today as a result of the contributions and ideas conceived by Ahmad Ibrahim. This study uses the qualitative method by way of document analysis from books, journal articles, conference papers, newspaper excerpts and statutes such as the Federal Constitution, Acts, Enactments and related cases. The finding suggests that the modern and dynamic landscape of Malaysia Sharia Courts today is the result of Ahmad Ibrahim’s ideas and works through administrative, legal and educational approach which is organic and non-confrontational. This approach is indeed suitable and harmonious in the context of Malaysian multiracial and religious society.

Anti-Mafia Law Enforcement and Lending in Mafia Lands. Evidence from Judicial Administration in Italy

The paper analyses the impact of a preventive measure aimed at fighting the criminal organizations’ activities on the bank-firm relationship in the four Italian regions with the highest density of mafia over the period 2004–2016. Taking advantage of the staggered firm-level anti-mafia enforcement actions, we implement a difference-in-differences approach and find that after entering judicial administration mafia-infiltrated firms experience a 19 per cent contraction of bank credit and have a higher probability of being credit rationed than a matched sample of legal companies. We also find that firms confiscated from the mafia experience a negative change in some demand-driven (value of production) and supply-driven (profitability) determinants of loans. Finally, we study whether confiscation of infiltrated firms produces externalities on non-infiltrated companies, and show that banks do not reassess the overall credit risk in local markets.