Groups seeking legal equality often take a victory as the end of the line. Once judgment is granted or a law is passed, coalitions disband and life goes on in a new state of equality. Policy makers too may assume that a troublesome file is now closed. This collection arises from the urgent sense that law reforms driven by equality call for fresh lines of inquiry. In unintended ways, reforms may harm their intended beneficiaries. They may also worsen the disadvantage of other groups. Committed to tackling these important issues beyond the boundaries that often confine legal scholarship, this book pursues an interdisciplinary consideration of efforts to advance equality, as it explores the developments, challenges, and consequences that arise from law reforms aiming to deliver equality in the areas of sexuality, kinship, and family relations. With an international array of contributors, After Legal Equality: Family, Sex, Kinship will be an invaluable resource for those with interests in this area.

Judicial networks have proved effective in influencing recent judicial policies enacted by both old and new EU member states. However, this influence has not been standard. This volume seeks to improve our understanding of how networks function, as well as the extent they matter in the governance of a constitutional democracy. The authors examine the judicial function of networks, the way they cross the legal and territorial borders that confine the jurisdiction of the domestic institutions, and whether or not they are independent of the capacity and the leadership of their members. A highly salient issue in contemporary law and politics, judicial networks are now qualified actors of governance. With the aim to understand how, to what extent, and with what consequences networks interact with hierarchical institutions that still exist within the States, this book is essential reading for legal experts, policy makers engaged in promoting the rule of law, members of the judicial networks in the EU and extra EU countries, as well as academics and students.

In the last decade or so, China and India have emerged on the global stage as two emerging free market economies. The tremendous economic growth in China and India has meant that they have been able to lift millions of people out of the poverty trap. This growth has not, however, been without problems. A significant number of people are still struggling for development as they do not have adequate access basic needs such as food, health services, education, water, and housing. The traditional old age support mechanism is collapsing amidst push for urbanisation and the practice of nuclear families, while the alternative social security system has not been put in place. Both China and India stress the importance of socio-economic rights and have in place a strong legal framework for the realisation of such rights. Both countries have ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Constitutions of China and India accord significant importance to socio-economic rights and the countries both have numerous laws, regulations and policies that seek to implement various socio-economic rights.This book examines the realisation of socio-economic rights in China and India. It investigates how the gradual adoption of free market ideology has impacted on the realisation of socio-economic rights in both India and China and how the constitutional and legal frameworks have made necessary adjustments. The role played by courts in India and China in the protection and realisation of socio-economic rights is considered along with the use and limitations of public interest litigation in achieving socio-economic goals. Chapters are written by academics of international standing and explore how China and India have tried to overcome certain common challenges in realising socio-economic rights. The effectiveness of measures in realising socio-economic rights are evaluated in relation to specific rights such as the rights to food, health, education, gender equality, social security, and the rights of workers.

Providing a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the legal approach to key areas of law within different legal systems, this book offers a blueprint for comparative legal study by evaluating the current epistemological debate on comparative law and comparative legal research methods. Substantive law, the law of obligations, commercial and corporate law within the major legal systems of the world are all examined and compared. While France and Germany are generally used as the archetypal civil law jurisdictions and English law as the main common law comparator, this third edition also examines the Russian Federation in the post-Soviet era and socialist legal influences as well as non-Western legal traditions. Fully updated and revised to include all recent developments, this edition also includes a broad historical introduction and outlines changes in EC Law. It assesses the possibility of Europeanization of national legal systems and certain legal topics, the impact of the globalization of legal institutions and the evolving 'new world order' in the early twenty-first century. Written in a clear, user-friendly style, Comparative Law in a Changing World is an accessible source for undergraduates and postgraduates wishing to trace the influence of common law and civil law legal traditions on jurisdictions across the world.

Medical confidentiality is universally recognised as a value worth protecting. However, difficulties arise when confidential medical information becomes relevant in the context of crime prevention and criminal prosecution. Should medical confidentiality be upheld where the physician holds information which is essential for the investigation of a serious crime; for establishing the truth in a criminal trial; for an accused's defence; or for the prevention of a criminal offence? And according to which criteria should such decisions be made? Based on an examination of different approaches in medical ethics and a comparison of the relevant law of France, Germany, England and Wales and the US, this book analyses how a balance of the competing interests can best be struck.

The national-conservative government of Hungary has been heavily criticised for its violation of EU values, primarily, the rule of law in recent years. This book looks to the bigger picture in examining the rule-of-law debate between Hungary and the EU. It explores how certain elements of various Hungarian constitutional reforms are interrelated and how the EU has failed to address the situation properly. It is argued here that the reason the EU has been unable to enforce its values effectively in Hungary stems from the misunderstanding that Hungary kept the institutional design of liberal democracy but made it dysfunctional. The debate with the EU is characterised as a dialogue of the deaf as the EU insists on advancing the rule-of-law agenda, while the Hungarian government defends itself by alluding to its democratic legitimacy. The author contends that the Hungarian government is in fact playing a charade, while the actions of the EU maintain this drama. The book will be of interest to students, academics, and policymakers working in the areas of constitutional law and politics, EU law, and populism.

In an era marked by processes of economic, political and legal integration that are arguably unprecedented in their range and impact, the translation of law has assumed a significance which it would be hard to overstate. The following situations are typical. A French law school is teaching French law in the English language to foreign exchange students. Some US legal scholars are exploring the possibility of developing a generic or transnational constitutional law. German judges are referring to foreign law in a criminal case involving an honour killing committed in Germany with a view to ascertaining the relevance of religious prescriptions. European lawyers are actively working on the creation of a common private law to be translated into the 24 official languages of the European Union. Since 2004, the World Bank has been issuing reports ranking the attractiveness of different legal cultures for doing business. All these examples raise in one way or the other the matter of translation from a comparative legal perspective. However, in today's globalised world where the need to communicate beyond borders arises constantly in different guises, many comparatists continue not to address the issue of translation. This edited collection of essays brings together leading scholars from various cultural and disciplinary backgrounds who draw on fields such as translation studies, linguistics, literary theory, history, philosophy or sociology with a view to promoting a heightened understanding of the complex translational implications pertaining to comparative law, understood both in its literal and metaphorical senses.

Fully updated and revised to fit in with the new laws and structure in the Commonwealth Caribbean law and legal systems, this new edition examines the institutions, structures and processes of the law in the Commonwealth Caribbean. The author explores: - the court system and the new Caribbean Court of Justice which replaces appeals to the Privy Council - the offshore financial legal sector - Caribbean customary law and the rights of indigenous peoples - the Constitutions of Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions and Human Rights - the impact of the historical continuum to the region's jurisprudence including the question of reparations - the complexities of judicial precedent for Caribbean peoples - international law as a source of law - alternative dispute mechanisms and the Ombudsman Effortlessy combining discussions of traditional subjects with those on more innovative subject areas, this book is an exciting exposition of Caribbean law and legal systems for those studying comparative law.

E-voting is the use of electronic means in the casting of the vote at political elections or referendums. This book provides an overview of e-voting related case-law worldwide and explains how judicial decisions impact e-voting development. With contributions by renowned experts on thirteen countries, the authors discuss e-voting both from controlled environments, such as voting machines in polling stations, and uncontrolled ones, including internet voting. Each chapter examines a group of country-specific leading judicial decisions on e-voting and their likely impact on its future development. Reference is made to emerging standards on e-voting such as the Recommendation Rec(2004)11 of the Council of Europe, the only international instrument on e-voting regulation, and to other countries' case-law. The work provides a broader, informative and easily accessible perspective on the historical, political and legal aspects of an otherwise very technical subject, and contributes to a better understanding of the significance of case law and its impact in shaping e-voting's future development. The book will be significantly useful to anyone with an interest in e-voting, in particular decision makers and officials, researchers and academia, as well as NGOs and providers of e-voting solutions.

This volume is the first comprehensive study of the Polish history of law and Christianity written in English for a global audience. It examines the lives of twenty-one central figures in Polish law with a focus on how their Christian faith was a factor in molding the evolution of law in their country and the region. The individuals selected for study exhibit wide-ranging areas of expertise, from private law and codification, through national public law and constitutional law, to international developments that left their mark on Poland and the world. The chapters discuss the jurists within their historical, intellectual, and political context. The editors selected jurists after extensive consultation with legal historians looking at the jurists' particular merits, contributions to law in general, religious perspective, and period under consideration. The collection will appeal to scholars, lawyers, and students interested in the interplay between law and religion. Political, social, legal, and religious historians, among other readers, will find, for the first time in English, authoritative treatments of essential Polish legal thinkers and authors.

Film censorship has always been a controversial matter, particularly in jurisdictions with restrictive state-based censorship systems. This book reviews the film censorship system in the Asia-Pacific by comparing the systems used in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Australia. It identifies the key issues and concerns that arise from the design and implementation of the system by examining the censorship laws, policies, guidelines and processes. The book evaluates film practitioners' and censors' opinion of, and experience in, dealing with those issues, and goes on to develop reform proposals for the film censorship system.

This work investigates the challenges of enforcement of patent rights in geographically divisible inventions. It considers aspects of technological progress which pose challenges to the established system of patent protection based on the territorial limitation of rights. The analysis focuses on substantive patent law, especially on the infringement provisions. It is carried out in the context of Internet-related inventions, which demonstrate an extraordinarily construed technical nature, namely geographical divisibility. This leads to the inquiry of whether the infringement standard is appropriate in relation to the technological development in ICTs.

This book considers the issue of free speech in transitional democracies focusing on the socio-legal developments in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. In showing how these Central and Eastern European countries have engaged with free speech models imported from the Council of Europe / EU and the USA, the book offers valuable insights into the ways States have responded to challenges associated with transformation from communism to Western democracy. The book first explores freedom of expression in European and American law looking particularly at hate speech, historical revisionism, and pornography. It subsequently enquires into the role and perspectives of those European (mandatory) and US-American (persuasive) models for the constitutional debate in Central and Eastern Europe. The study offers an original interpretation of the "European" model of freedom of expression, beyond the mechanisms of the Council of Europe. It encompasses the relevant aspects of EU law (judgments of the Court of Justice and the harmonised EU instruments) as mandatory standards for courts and legislators, including those in transitional countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The book argues for de-criminalisation of historical revisionism and pornography, and illuminates topics such as genocide denial, the rise of Prague and Budapest as Europe's porno-capitals, anti-Semitism and anti-Gypsyism, religious obscurantism and homophobia, virulent Islamophobia, and the glorification of terrorism. The research methodology in this study combines a descriptive case law assessment (comparative constitutional, public international, and EU law) with a normative critique stemming from post-structuralist scrutiny, rhetoric, postmodern legal movements, legal history, history of ideas, and art criticism. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of, comparative constitutional law, law and society, human rights and European law as well as political philosophers.

This book explains the challenge of constitutional pluralism and its importance, showing its theoretical and practical relevance, and giving a sense of why the existing scholarship on the matter is unsatisfactory. The work explores how legal practitioners and theorists have faced the challenge of a society living under two constitutions at the same time. This comes as the European Union, which legally and politically integrates Europe and seems to challenge the view that no State can simultaneously abide by both the venerable national constitutions and the ever-developing EU constitutional law, is increasingly torn between calls for closer integration to face collective challenges and mounting Euroscepticism and nationalism. This work employs a strongly pluralist perspective and a comparative methodology, and looks at constitutional crises outside the EU to ground the claim that pluralism and conflicts are essential elements of modern constitutions. It shows how the challenge of constitutional pluralism depends on a mistaken interpretation of positivist theory and how the latter, reinterpreted in a manner close to legal realism, has the resources to explain pluralism. Finally, the book addresses the issue of constitutional conflicts within the EU: it examines in detail recent cases of open disobedience to EU law by national courts and distinguishes physiological conflict from constitutional pathology. This work will be of particular interest to students and academics in Law and Political Science. It will also be compelling reading for scholars in general jurisprudence, EU law, constitutional and comparative constitutional law, and the history of European integration.

This book analyses the dichotomy between the goal of social inclusion and the effect of social exclusion through over-indebtedness since 2008 in Europe. Filling a vital gap in the current literature on the effects of the financial and economic crisis, this volume puts into context academic discussion with the real-life dimension of over-indebtedness. Reports from six European countries provide socio-economic and legal information on over-indebtedness as well as the regulatory and judicial responses to the problems entailed by over-indebtedness. They form the empirical background for five analyses of different aspects of the inclusion-exclusion dichotomy. It becomes clear that in the context of credit expansion, individual over-indebtedness has turned into a social issue, which the current design of the consumer credit and mortgage system in Europe has helped to produce while disregarding the consequential danger of social exclusion.

While in the past family life was characterised as a "haven from the harsh realities of life", it is now recognised as a site of vulnerabilities and a place where care work can go unacknowledged and be a source of social and economic hardship. This book addresses the strong relationships that exist between vulnerability and care and dependency in particular contexts, where family law and social policy have a contribution to make. A fundamental premise of this collection is that vulnerability needs to be analysed in a way that gets at the heart of the differential power relationships that exist in society, particularly in respect of access to family justice, including effective social policy and law targeted at the specific needs of families in mutually dependent caring relationships. It is therefore crucial to critically examine the various approaches taken by policy makers and law reformers in order to understand the range of ways that some families, and some family members, may be rendered more vulnerable than others. The first book of its kind to provide an intersectional approach to this subject, Vulnerabilities, Care and Family Law will be of interest to students and practitioners of social policy and family law.

The promulgation of the Fifth French Republic Constitution in 1958 marked the end of a complex constitutional history that has since 1789 seen more than twenty constitutions and five Republics. Lasting now for more than fifty years, the Fifth Republic Constitution has proven to be the right settlement for the French people; a consensual text. However, while offering the appearance of stability, the Fifth French Republic Constitution has often been reconsidered and changed, not least in the year of its fiftieth anniversary, when the Constitution was 'modernised'. These dynamics of the Fifth Republic Constitution are neither a recent matter nor entirely the result of the successive constitutional amendments. Instead, the history of the Constitution has involved the resurgence of repressed archaic elements from the ancient regime, while the social, economic and environmental contexts have penetrated not only the text itself but more extensively its spirit, and behind it, the philosophy and our perception of the Republic. In Dynamics in the French Constitution, David Marrani questions the foundations of the French Fifth Republic. In using specific themes, current and traditional debates, contemporary and archaic factors, that have enlightened the road of long lasting Republic, the book explores some of the changes of the last fifty years and the tensions that are present within the constitutional text. In combining theoretical concepts of constitutional law with key contemporary and historical developments, such as the European integration, the response to environmental challenges, the practice of human rights and the pillars supporting French republicanism, this book offers varied and creative tools for a better understanding of the Republic of today.

The volume brings together a group of renowned legal experts and activists from different parts of the world who, from international and comparative perspectives, consider the right of indigenous peoples to reparations for breaches of their individual and collective rights.
The first part of the book is devoted to general aspects of this important question, providing a comprehensive assessment of the relevant international legal framework and including overviews of the topic of reparations for human rights violations, the status of indigenous peoples in international law and the vision of reparations as conceived by the peoples concerned. The second part embraces a comprehensive investigation of the relevant practice at the international, regional, and national level, including some pertinent, in-depth case-studies, offering a comparative perspective on the ways in which the right of indigenous peoples to reparation is realized worldwide. The contributions forming the second part also examine the best practices for granting effective reparations, according to the ideologies and expectations of the communities concerned. The global picture painted by these contributions offers a view of the status of relevant international law that is synthesized in the final chapter, which also prescribes the best practices and strategies to be adopted in order to maximize concrete opportunities for indigenous peoples to obtain effective redress.
As a whole, the volume offers a comprehensive vision of its subject matter in international and comparative law, with a practical approach aimed at supporting legal academics, administrators, and practitioners concerned in improving the avenues andmodalities of reparations for indigenous peoples.

Over the last decades, provisions for direct democracy have increasingly been added to new constitutions around the world, including in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Using a comparative legal approach, this book identifies a large set of direct democratic instruments in the Baltics that are being activated either automatically, by public authorities or by the citizens. Although direct democracy should empower the people to share state power and to take political decisions over the heads of their representatives, the results of its practical use between 1991 and 2014 do not confirm these assumptions. Besides informal aspects there are many procedural obstacles in each country that restrict not only the use of such tools but also the chance that the referendum will pass.

Trademarks play a fundamental role in our everyday lives as consumers, helping us to quickly choose the products we like and avoid those that we don't. Trademarks are also essential elements in a competitive market, allowing companies to build brand loyalty without fear of free-riding by competitors. Trademark laws thus diminish customer confusion, make "communication" between seller and buyer simple, and prevent unfairness. However, expanding legal protection, coupled with commercial "bullying", have served to restrict, rather than promote, competition. The paradox lies in how we have dealt with the conflict: in our quest to promote competition, we have failed to adequately balance private interests (e.g., protection of business goodwill) with public interests (ensuring a robust, competitive market without restraints on trade). This book examines trademarks' conflicting legal and commercial boundaries. It concludes by suggesting principles and guidelines to help resolve the imbalance.

This book examines the effects of transitional justice on the conditions for peace and democracy. Ordinarily, the anticipated contribution of transitional justice mechanisms is stated in universal terms, with little regard for the historically specific context. Yet a truth commission, for example, will not have the same function in a society torn by long-term civil war or genocide as in a society where conflict has taken the form of authoritarian repression. Addressing trials, reparations and amnesties, as well as truth commissions, the book systematically addresses the experiences of four very different contemporary transitional justice cases: post-authoritarian Uruguay and Peru and post-conflict Rwanda and Angola. Its analysis, which not only demonstrates that context is a crucial determinant of the impact of transitional justice processes, but also identifies specific contextual obstacles and limitations to these processes, will be of considerable interest to scholars in the fields of transitional justice and peace-building, as well as students generally concerned with human rights and democratisation.

This book explores the regulations, goals and functioning of preparatory proceedings in four Nordic countries and eight former communist countries. The contributions discuss whether, and how the regulation and practice of preparatory proceedings enhance swift civil justice that is both inexpensive and has quality outcomes. A central question is whether the main hearing model of civil justice, in which preclusion of new evidence and claims occur at the end of the preparatory stage, results in greater efficiency, or whether the functioning of civil proceedings largely depends on other factors. It also examines regulation and use of court-connected mediation and judicial settlement efforts. This book offers comparative insights into the functioning of the preparatory civil proceedings in the countries covered. Preparatory proceedings are considered a key tool for achieving efficient civil proceedings. The claims and factual background of the case are clarified at an early stage, and the main hearing is focused. Judicial settlement efforts and court-connected mediation contribute to early resolution of cases, and are important elements of Nordic civil procedure The Nordic countries have used the main hearing model of civil proceedings for some decades, and recent reforms have further enhanced the role of the preparatory stage. Former communist countries are reforming their earlier piecemeal- format civil proceedings by introducing and strengthening written and oral preparation, as well as court-connected mediation.

This volume presents a new approach to today's tax controversies, reflecting that debates about taxation often turn on the differing worldviews of the debate participants. For instance, a central tension in academic tax literature - which is filtering into everyday discussions of tax law - exists between 'mainstream' and 'critical' tax theorists. This tension results from a clash of perspectives: Is taxation primarily a matter of social science or of social justice? Should tax policy debates be grounded in economics or in critical race, feminist, queer, and other outsider perspectives? To capture and interrogate what often seems like a chasm between the different sides of tax debates, this collection comprises a series of pairs of essays. Each pair approaches a single area of controversy from two different perspectives - with one essay usually taking a 'mainstream' perspective and the other a 'critical' perspective. In writing their contributions, the authors read and incorporated reactions to each other's essays and paid specific attention to the influence of perspective on both the area of controversy and their contribution to the debate. With contributions from leading mainstream and critical tax scholars, this volume takes the first step toward bridging the gap between these differing perspectives on tax law and policy.

This open access book presents twelve unique studies on mediation from researchers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, respectively. Each study highlights important aspects of mediation, including the role of children in family mediation, the evolution and ambivalent application of restorative justice in the Nordic countries, the confusion of roles in court-connected mediation, and the challenges in dispute systems. Over the past 20-30 years, mediation has gained in popularity in many countries around the world and is often heralded as a suitable and cost-effective mode of conflict resolution. However, as the studies in this volumes show, mediation also has a number of potential drawbacks. Parties' self-determination may be jeopardized, affected third parties are involved in an inadequate way, and the legal regulations may be flawed. The publication can inspire research, help professionals and policymakers in the field and be used as a textbook.

Recent cases of corporate failures, including the fixing of LIBOR rates and money laundering issues in the banking industry, highlight how behavioural issues on the part of company directors are significant contributory factors in corporate governance and the success or failure of companies. This book examines how personality and behavioural issues have contributed to major corporate failures, and how this risk may be managed. The book examines behavioural risks in corporate governance, and evaluates the extent to which risk management mechanisms have acknowledged various aspects of behaviour. Drawing from cases in the UK, the US and Australia and research in psychology and the behavioural sciences, Ngozi Vivian Okoye argues that current corporate governance mechanisms lack provision for identifying and managing personality risks, and suggests how constituent elements of behaviour should be engaged with when developing preventive mechanisms for corporate failures. Okoye presents a conceptual framework for identifying and managing personality risks, and explores how personality risk may be built into corporate governance regulation. The book will be of great use and interest to researchers and practitioners in business and company law, corporate governance, and critical management studies.