Insult of the Language as a Phenomenon of the Modern Bilingual Communication Space in Belarus

In Belarus the Belarusian-Russian bilingualism is legalized constitutionally and the existing language legal framework has a long-standing basis for civil agreement on the use and functioning of both state languages. However, in recent years there have appeared a number of negative phenomena aroused by certain shifts in the structure of the communicative interactions. This refers, in particular, to a recently defined offence of insult of the language. This phenomenon is new to the Belarusian linguistic-legal discourse and the interest in it predetermined the purpose of this research, namely, to study the phenomenon of insult of the language from the standpoint of modern Belarusian linguistic legal expertise. Materials and methods. The research is based on records of administrative offences that violate the language regulations. The methodological basis comprises the method of parameterization and the logical-linguistic, comparative and lexical-semantic analyzes. Results. The research carries out both the theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of insult of the language from the standpoint of linguistic expertise and the practical analysis of conflict-prone texts. Unlike personal insults, where the defining parameters are factfulness, attributiveness and non-normativity, insults of the language are only defined in legal practice by the parameter of attributiveness, i.e. by the presence of words in the remark that derogate the language and demean its status. The obtained results indicate that the Belarusian legislation system treats the language with a special regard. Firstly, acknowledgement of the fact that the language can suffer an insult proves its special role among other cultural artifacts. Secondly, the legal practice demonstrates respect for the language and regards it as a super entity that stands above the category of personality.

Law as Technique

This chapter challenges anthropologists’ long-standing antipathy to the study of legal technique. It highlights Max Weber and Karl Llewellyn’s early interest in legal experts and legal knowledge as objects of sociological study, but suggests that the impetus to produce an external critique of law or context for law has hindered subsequent generations of anthropologists and sociolegal scholars from engaging legal technique as an object of ethnographic inquiry. In response, this chapter argues for greater ethnographic attention to the aspect of legal knowledge that most captivates lawyers: the means. The chapter highlights a growing body of sociolegal scholarship that engages with legal technique by drawing variously on systems theory and science and technology studies (STS) to illuminate the recursivity of legal expertise, the materiality of legal knowledge, and the agency of legal technique. Ultimately, this chapter argues that anthropologists’ long-standing attention to the constraints of form inherent in exchange can serve as a productive starting point both for anthropological theory and methods to elucidate the workings of legal knowledge, and for ethnography of legal technique to serve as a source of theoretical innovation.

The Privacy Fix

Online surveillance of our behavior by private companies is on the increase, particularly through the Internet of Things and the increasing use of algorithmic decision-making. This troubling trend undermines privacy and increasingly threatens our ability to control how information about us is shared and used. Written by a computer scientist and a legal scholar, The Privacy Fix proposes a set of evidence-based, practical solutions that will help solve this problem. Requiring no technical or legal expertise, the book explains complicated concepts in clear, straightforward language. Bridging the gap between computer scientists, economists, lawyers, and public policy makers, this book provides theoretically and practically sound public policy guidance about how to preserve privacy in the onslaught of surveillance. It emphasizes the need to make tradeoffs among the complex concerns that arise, and it outlines a practical norm-creation process to do so.

The Politics of Legal Expertise in EU Policy-Making

Legal advisers working in the institutions of the European Union exercise significant power, but very little is known about their work. Notwithstanding the handful of cases where legal matters find their way into the news, legal advice remains invisible in EU policy making. For more than ten years Päivi Leino-Sandberg was a part of the invisible community of EU legal advisers, and participated in the exercise of their power. In this book, she shares her insights about how law and lawyers work in the EU institutions, and what their role and impact is on EU decisions from within the decision-making structure. She draws on interviews with over sixty EU lawyers and policymakers: legal experts who interpret the Treaties within the Institutions, draft legislation and defend the Institutions before the EU Court. Telling the true stories behind key negotiations, this book explores the interplay and tensions between legal requirements and political ambitions.

Legal Expertise and the Role of Litigation Risk in Firms' Conservatism Choices

Firms face a greater risk of lawsuits for overstated rather than understated earnings or net assets, suggesting conservatism can reduce firms' expected legal costs. Because managers with legal expertise are more likely than other managers to recognize the legal benefits of conservatism, this study examines whether legal expertise among members of senior management promotes greater conservatism. Consistent with this prediction, we find that firms with a general counsel (GC) in senior management (our proxy for legal expertise) report more conservatively. We also find that GC firms recalibrate their conservatism levels in response to changes in the legal environment-their conservatism choices are more responsive to litigation against peer firms and to two judicial rulings that affected the litigation risk for firms located in the Ninth Circuit. Overall, our findings suggest that populating senior management with legal experts affects the extent to which a firm's level of conservatism incorporates legal risks.

Legal expertise and legal experts in Athenian democracy

This essay refutes the view that the Athenians of the Classical period were hostile to legal expertise. The Athenians had much respect for the Areopagus and the Exegetai, who were experts in law and religion. The legal expert Phanodemus was often praised and entrusted with important responsibilities. Litigants in public cases often show their legal knowledge by copious citation of statutes. They sometimes accuse their opponents of deceitful use of rhetoric never attack them for legal expertise. In the speech of Lysias Against Nicomachus, the accuser charges the defendant with illegally modifying the rules about sacrifices but never arouses suspicions about his legal expertise.

Concept And Purposes Of Conducting Scientific-Legal Expertise Of Draft Laws

The article researches into the concept of scientific-legal expertise of draft laws, its goals and classification, as well as the role of expertise within the activity of the Chambers of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Also, there have been developed theoretical proposals aimed at revealing the essence and significance of scientific-legal expertise of draft laws, as well as its application in practice