Themis and Dike – Justice in Greek Myth and Tradition

The understanding of law in Ancient Greece was based on the religious interpretations of human nature and natural laws. Two Greek goddesses were representatives of justice and fairness. In the ancient sources Themis is presented as a goddess and prophetess, one of the Titans and the daughter of Gea and Uranus. She is a symbol of divine order, justice, natural law and good customs. Dike, the daughter of Themis, is the goddess of justice and truth, the protector of rights and courts of justice, the arbiter, the symbol of honor, the goddess of revenge and punishment. In early Greek culture and poetry, the terms themis and dike represented justice in the meaning of cosmic order, natural law, and legality. The paper analyses the Hellenic notions of justice, fairness and legality embodied in the phenomena of themis and dike. Nomos (law) is just only if it is in harmony with themis, and law is valid only if it is just. The paper presents the doctrines of Hellenic writers, poets and playwrights on justice and law, with special reference to the influence of mythology on Hellenic law. Publius Ovidius Naso’s work „Metamorphosis”, which speaks about Themis’ role in the creation of the world and the salvation of the human race is one of the greatest sources about this goddess. In Homer’s „Iliad” and „Odyssey”, epics that sing of the heroic spirit, justice is shown in the motives, intentions and behavior of the participants in the event, mostly heroes. The poet Hesiod, famous for the poems „Theogony” and „Works and Days”, moves away from the heroic virtues of people and portrays the gods as bearers of moral power and guardians of justice. In the light of legislative reforms, Solon’s dike represents the progress and well-being of society through economic reforms, which is why justice and injustice refer only to legal and illegal acquisition of wealth and its effect on the community. Aeschylus’ „Oresteia” shows the principle of justice based on talion, according to which the punishment has to be identical with the committed crime. One of the greatest Ancient Greek playwrights, Sophocles, based his play „Antigone” on the conflict between the laws of men and the laws of gods. According to Herodotus, the greatest Ancient Greek historian, the actions of the gods govern human destinies and historical events. The idea of justice in Ancient Greece was all throughout its transformation based of the universial concept of natural balance.

Formalizing Clientelism in Kenya: From Harambee to the Constituency Development Fund

Why does clientelism persist? What determines how politicians signal responsiveness to voters and exert effort towards fulfilling campaign promises? This article explores how state capacity, legislative institutional strength, and established ideas about what politicians can do structure the political market in legislative elections. The argument herein is that campaign promises must be credible to have any currency. Therefore, programmatic campaign promises are likely to be more credible in countries with strong states and legislatures, while clientelism predominates in weak states whose legislatures cannot compel the executive branch to implement legislators’ campaign promises. Historical experience also matters in shaping shared expectations of what politicians can do and the feasible sets of credible campaign promises. I support these arguments with a historical institutionalist analysis of Kenya’s Harambee Movement and the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), as well as evidence from a nationally representative survey. Findings corroborate the claim that clientelism persists when it is the most credible means of fulfilling campaign promises. This article also shows that rising costs can precipitate legislative reforms away from clientelism – as happened with the creation of Kenya’s CDF in 2003. Overall, this article increases our understanding of the origins and persistence of clientelism in low-income states and potential avenues for reform towards programmatic politics.

Beyond accident: A model for the compensation of work-related harm in New Zealand

<p>This thesis examines the compensation of work-related injuries and illnesses under the Accident Compensation Act 2001 (ACA). It proposes a set of legislative reforms to enable fairer and more equitable access to compensation for workers and improvements to work health and safety. This thesis approaches the development of a model for reform as an endeavour within labour law (rather than welfare or insurance law) and adopts a labour law theoretical framework for analysis. This thesis argues that the current coverage problems are a product of the scheme’s unique political history, and starts by outlining the historical origins of the scheme and the political compromises, theoretical tensions, and ideological shifts that have led to the current ACA. It also examines the challenges posed by changes in the nature of work, the workforce, and the ways workers are engaged to perform work. This thesis focusses on the cover of chronic work-related health problems, and, in particular, the complex relationships of causation in work-stress related depression, cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal conditions. While particular attention is paid to the complexities associated with work-stress-related illness the model proposed is intended to improve the cover of, and data collection on, all work-related health problems in New Zealand. This thesis proposes a new Act to replace the ACA, with a new structure, new purpose section and definitions, new cover test, and the creation of a new work-health review panel. The reform proposal is intended to achieve fairer coverage of work-related health problems, and contribute to improvements in work health and safety in New Zealand, ensuring compensation, treatment and rehabilitation is available to the increasing numbers of workers affected, and making those conditions more visible within the workplace injury and illness statistics.</p>

Beyond accident: A model for the compensation of work-related harm in New Zealand

<p>This thesis examines the compensation of work-related injuries and illnesses under the Accident Compensation Act 2001 (ACA). It proposes a set of legislative reforms to enable fairer and more equitable access to compensation for workers and improvements to work health and safety. This thesis approaches the development of a model for reform as an endeavour within labour law (rather than welfare or insurance law) and adopts a labour law theoretical framework for analysis. This thesis argues that the current coverage problems are a product of the scheme’s unique political history, and starts by outlining the historical origins of the scheme and the political compromises, theoretical tensions, and ideological shifts that have led to the current ACA. It also examines the challenges posed by changes in the nature of work, the workforce, and the ways workers are engaged to perform work. This thesis focusses on the cover of chronic work-related health problems, and, in particular, the complex relationships of causation in work-stress related depression, cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal conditions. While particular attention is paid to the complexities associated with work-stress-related illness the model proposed is intended to improve the cover of, and data collection on, all work-related health problems in New Zealand. This thesis proposes a new Act to replace the ACA, with a new structure, new purpose section and definitions, new cover test, and the creation of a new work-health review panel. The reform proposal is intended to achieve fairer coverage of work-related health problems, and contribute to improvements in work health and safety in New Zealand, ensuring compensation, treatment and rehabilitation is available to the increasing numbers of workers affected, and making those conditions more visible within the workplace injury and illness statistics.</p>

What gender legislative reforms have meant for women in South Africa

South Africa is a much better place to live in today than before 1994. Having witnessed a largely peaceful transition from a pariah apartheid State to a democratic State where equality is guaranteed before the law, the country offers rights and justice for all. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa , 1996 set out to rectify the injustices of the past and eliminate the various forms of discrimination that were the hallmarks of an apartheid State. Gender equality was a focal point in the reforms introduced in legislation and government programmes in a new democratic society. In this article I explore what these gendered legislative reforms and measures have meant to South African women, and whether these measures have brought about a positive change in their lives. Framed within a feminist epistemological and methodological approach, I draw on the results of a qualitative study of South Africa women. The results form part of a larger mixed methods study employing both qualitative and quantitative components. Qualitative individual interviews as well as focus groups were conducted. For the majority of women interviewed, the promulgation of legislation was viewed as positive and progressive. Women are now recognised as full citizen, have access to various opportunities, and experience more autonomy and choice. However, participants raised numerous shortcomings in legislation, and challenges that they experienced in their daily lives. For some of the participants, the transformative changes anticipated in the social and economic spheres have not been realised.

Unholy Matrimony: Forced Marriage in New Zealand

<p>This study explores the issue of forced and underage marriage in Aotearoa New Zealand. It documents the stories of survivors of actual and threatened forced marriage. It also records the survivors‟ analyses of their experiences and their recommendations for changes that may deter the practice in New Zealand. This study postulates that forced marriage is not a cultural issue per se, but a form of violence against women, shaped by socio-political forces and practised by some. It examines notions of „honour‟ and „shame‟ which are often inextricably linked to the issue of forced marriage. The study goes on to provide an overview of genderbased violence in Asia, Africa and the Middle East as well as diaspora communities internationally and in New Zealand. This research study is heavily influenced by GAD thought and by various epistemologies including postcolonial feminism, subaltern studies and participatory action research. As such, it emphasises self-reflexivity and focuses on „gender relations‟ than „women‟ as the category of analysis. The views and potential contributions of eleven stakeholder agency participants in terms of addressing the issue of forced marriage are also included in this study. The study also examines relevant existing New Zealand legislation in light of the country‟s international obligations regarding marriage. Specific recommendations on both social and legislative reforms are provided in an attempt to promote a collaborative, multi-sector response to address the issue from the perspectives of both intervention and prevention. In conclusion, this study, which is the first of its kind in New Zealand, hopes to shed light on an issue that is a human rights violation. It aims to promote action to deter the practice and to progress the rights of ethnic minority women in New Zealand without fuelling an anti-minority discourse. Finally, it attempts to fill a number of knowledge gaps in academic, policy and legislative literatures.</p>

Unholy Matrimony: Forced Marriage in New Zealand

<p>This study explores the issue of forced and underage marriage in Aotearoa New Zealand. It documents the stories of survivors of actual and threatened forced marriage. It also records the survivors‟ analyses of their experiences and their recommendations for changes that may deter the practice in New Zealand. This study postulates that forced marriage is not a cultural issue per se, but a form of violence against women, shaped by socio-political forces and practised by some. It examines notions of „honour‟ and „shame‟ which are often inextricably linked to the issue of forced marriage. The study goes on to provide an overview of genderbased violence in Asia, Africa and the Middle East as well as diaspora communities internationally and in New Zealand. This research study is heavily influenced by GAD thought and by various epistemologies including postcolonial feminism, subaltern studies and participatory action research. As such, it emphasises self-reflexivity and focuses on „gender relations‟ than „women‟ as the category of analysis. The views and potential contributions of eleven stakeholder agency participants in terms of addressing the issue of forced marriage are also included in this study. The study also examines relevant existing New Zealand legislation in light of the country‟s international obligations regarding marriage. Specific recommendations on both social and legislative reforms are provided in an attempt to promote a collaborative, multi-sector response to address the issue from the perspectives of both intervention and prevention. In conclusion, this study, which is the first of its kind in New Zealand, hopes to shed light on an issue that is a human rights violation. It aims to promote action to deter the practice and to progress the rights of ethnic minority women in New Zealand without fuelling an anti-minority discourse. Finally, it attempts to fill a number of knowledge gaps in academic, policy and legislative literatures.</p>

Disposable Menstrual Products as Law's Objects

During the past few years, scholars and activists have increasingly engaged with law as a means to challenge stigma, silence, and disadvantages associated with menstruation. Menstrual items (predominantly in the form of disposable menstrual products) are becoming increasingly prominent in this “legal turn.” There have been legislative reforms to provide access to free menstrual items, litigation and legislative reforms to remove taxes on menstrual products, legislative reforms on product safety and environmental sustainability of menstrual items, and water and sanitation hygiene (‘WASH’) policies and guidelines in the context of international development interventions that focus on access to menstrual items. As regulation of disposable menstrual products assumes greater prominence in legal doctrine, feminist legal scholars are increasingly evaluating the impacts of such laws on menstruators, including in the context of diverse experiences of menstruation and menstrual injustice. But what can disposable menstrual products themselves tell us of law? In this Essay we take an object-informed approach to law in the specific context of disposable menstrual products. What insights about law might these objects provide, and how do these insights deepen our understanding of law’s relationship to menstruation, menstruators, and the worlds in which menstruators are situated? What can we appreciate about law’s role in defining, as well as recognizing and responding to, the diversity of experiences related to menstruation? How do menstrual items nuance our understanding of agency in relation to menstrual injustice? And what do these objects tell us about the limits and challenges of using law to achieve justice in relation to the embodied experiences of people who menstruate? Part II introduces some key contributions to feminist legal thinking on materiality and objects, which informs our analysis of disposable menstrual products as law’s objects. Part III introduces some of the critical threads in scholarship on disposable menstrual products, including how they relate to diversity and materiality of experiences of menstruation. Then, we turn in Part IV to explore what disposable menstrual products tell us about law’s role in menstruation, using the recent laws introduced in Scotland as a case study.

‘It’s a Gendered Issue, 100 Per Cent’: How Tough Bail Laws Entrench Gender and Racial Inequality and Social Disadvantage

Women’s rates of remand, or pre-trial detention, have grown dramatically in Australia and the rates at which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are incarcerated without conviction are particularly high. However, there is little research examining bail and remand practices and their relationship to social inequalities. This article presents findings from research on the drivers behind women’s increasing rates of custodial remand in Victoria—a jurisdiction that has significantly restricted access to bail through legislative reforms. Drawing on data derived from interviews with criminal defence and duty lawyers, we outline how bail and remand practices systematically disadvantage women experiencing housing insecurity and domestic and family violence (DFV), increasing their risk of becoming trapped in longer-term cycles of incarceration. Our analysis reinforces the need to move away from ‘tough on crime’ approaches to bail. It also highlights unintended consequences of DFV reforms, including further marginalising and punishing criminalised women who are victim-survivors.

Public School Teacher Contracts and State-Level Reforms: Assessing Changes to Collective Bargaining Restrictiveness Across Three States

In many school districts, the policies that regulate teaching personnel are governed by collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). While there is significant policy attention that has affected the scope of these agreements, there is relatively little research on how CBAs vary over time, or whether they change in response to states’ legislative reforms. Using a panel data set of over 1,200 CBAs across three states, we compare CBA change before and after reforms in two states (Michigan and Washington) relative to a state with no statutory changes (California). We show that the state policy reforms lessened the restrictiveness of CBAs, as intended. The results suggest when reforms limit bargaining negotiations, unions are unable to compensate for the substantial reductions in working conditions.