This volume assembles hundreds of cases and studies to provide the most accurate and comprehensive picture of the status of pornography in the criminal justice system. Presenting high-level research in an accessible and organized manner, it explores a range of topics, including investigating and prosecuting a case, arguments favoring and opposing decriminalization of pornography, and relationships between pornography, mental disorders, and crime. It also examines criminal justice responses and international laws, policies, attitudes, and definitions of pornography in comparison to those of the United States.

Jewish law is a singular legal system that has been evolving for generations. Often conflated with Biblical law or Israeli law, Jewish law needs to be studied in its own right. An Introduction to Jewish Law expounds the general structure of Jewish law and presents the cardinal principles of this religious legal system. An introduction to modern Jewish law as it applies to the daily life of Jews around the world, this volume presents Jewish law in a way that answers all the questions that a student of comparative law would ask when encountering an unfamiliar legal system. Sources of Jewish law such as revelation, rabbinical and communal legislation, judicial decisions, and legal reasoning are defined and analyzed, and the authority of who decides what Jewish law is and why their decisions are binding is investigated.

The introduction of self-assessment for income tax collection in the late 1990s marked a striking moment of cultural convergence between the UK and the US. This book analyses the socio-political factors leading to and resulting from this fundamental change in the relationship between taxpayers and the Inland Revenue, using perspectives in comparative law and the new outlooks of modern tax and cultural theory. It will be of interest to those studying theories of compliance, cultural legal studies, and law and society.

This major collection contains selected papers from the second Public Law Conference, an international conference hosted by the University of Cambridge in September 2016. The collection includes contributions by leading academics and judges from across the common law world, including senior judges from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. The contributions engage with the theme of unity (and disunity) from a number of perspectives, offering a rich panoply of insights into public law which significantly carry forward public law thinking across common law jurisdictions, setting the agenda for future research and legal development. Part 1 of the volume contains chapters which offer doctrinal and theoretical perspectives. Some chapters seek to articulate a unifying framework for understanding public law, while others seek to demonstrate the plurality of public law through the method of legal taxonomy. A number of chapters analyse whether different fields such as human rights and administrative law are merging, with others considering specific unifying themes or concepts in public law. The chapters in Part 2 offer comparative perspectives, charting and analysing convergence and divergence across common law systems. Specific topics include standing, proportionality, human rights, remedies, use of foreign precedents, legal transplants, and disunity and unity among subnational jurisdictions. The collection will be of great interest to those working in public law.

Contingency planning and resilience are of prime importance to the late modern risk society, with implications for law and for governance arrangements. Our risk society continues to seek ever more complex and detailed risk mitigation responses by law, including the UK's Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and the US Homeland Security Act 2002, which respond to counter-terrorism, natural catastrophes, and other risks. This book seeks to analyse and criticise the legal developments in contingencies and resilience on a comparative basis, which engages with not only law and constitutionalism but also political theory and policy, including relations between public and private, national and local, and civil and military. Two transcending themes are of interest. One is institutional or structural - what bodies and power relations should we establish in a late modern world where Critical National Infrastructure is mainly held in private hands? The second is dynamic and concerns the grant of powers and arrangements for live responses. Both aspects are subjected to a strong critical stance based in 'constitutionalism', which demands state legitimacy even in extreme situations by the observance of legality, effectiveness, accountability, and individual rights. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights.

In the years since 9/11, counter-terrorism law and policy has proliferated across the world. This handbook comprehensively surveys how the law has been deployed in all aspects of counter-terrorism. It provides an authoritative and critical analysis of counter-terrorism laws in domestic jurisdictions, taking a comparative approach to a range of jurisdictions, especially the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, and Europe. The contributions to the book are written by experts in the field of terrorism law and policy, allowing for discussion of a wide range of regulatory responses and strategies of governance. The book is divided into four parts, reflective of established counter-terrorism strategic approaches, and covers key themes such as: Policing and special powers, including surveillance Criminal offences and court processes Prevention of radicalisation and manifestations of extremism Protective/preparative security The penology of terrorism In addressing counter-terrorism laws across a broad range of topics and jurisdictions, the handbook will be of great interest and use to researchers, students and practitioners in criminal law, counter-terrorism, and security studies.

The focus of the essays in this book is on the relationship between compensation culture, social values and tort damages for personal injuries. A central concern of the public and political perception of personal injuries claims is the high cost of tort claims to society, reflected in insurance premiums, often accompanied by an assumption that tort law and practice is flawed and improperly raising such costs. The aims of this collection are to first clarify the relationship between tort damages for personal injuries and the social values that the law seeks to reflect and to balance, then to critically assess tort reforms, including both proposals for reform and actual implemented reforms, in light of how they advance or hinder those values. Reforms of substantive and procedural law in respect of personal injury damages are analysed, with perspectives from England and Wales, Canada, Australia, Ireland and continental Europe. The essays offer valuable insights to anyone interested in the reform of tort law or the tort process in respect of personal injuries.

Written by distinguished legal and linguistic scholars and practitioners from the EU institutions, the contributions in this volume provide multidisciplinary perspectives on the vital role of language and culture as key forces shaping the dynamics of EU law. The broad spectrum of topics sheds light on major Europeanization processes at work: the gradual creation of a neutralized EU legal language with uniform concepts, for example, in the DCFR and CESL, and the emergence of a European legal culture. The main focus is on EU multilingual lawmaking, with special emphasis on problems of legal translation and term formation in the multilingual and multicultural European context, including comparative law aspects and an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of translating from a lingua franca. Of equal importance are issues relating to the multilingual interpretation of EU legislation and case law by the national courts and interpretative techniques of the CJEU, as well as the viability of the autonomy of EU legal concepts and the need for the professionalization of court interpreters Union-wide in response to Directive 2010/64/EU. Offering a good mix of theory and practice, this book is intended for scholars, practitioners and students with a special interest in the legal-linguistic aspects of EU law and their impact on old and new Member States and candidate countries as well.

Legal lexicography or jurilexicography is the most neglected aspect of the discipline of jurilinguistics, despite its great relevance for translators, academics and comparative lawyers. This volume seeks to bridge this gap in legal literature by bringing together contributions from ten jurisdictions from leading experts in the field. The work addresses aspects of legal lexicography, both monolingual and bilingual, in its various manifestations in both civilian and common law systems. It thus compares epistemic approaches in a subject that is inextricably bound up with specific legal systems and specific languages. Topics covered include the history of French legal lexicography, ordinary language as defined by the courts, the use of law dictionaries by the judiciary, legal lexicography and translation, and a proposed multilingual dictionary for the EU citizen. While the majority of contributions are in English, the volume includes three written in French. The collection will be a valuable resource for both scholars and practitioners engaging with language in the mechanism of the law.

European integration is an open-ended, ongoing process which has been deeply challenged by integral world capitalism. This study explores the present EU foundational dilemma, looking at the problematic relationship between the ideal model of integration and the reality of the 21st century. Including contributions from leading theorists, this volume explores the ways and extent to which the present European crisis could create a politico-legal space for new possibilities and opportunities for action. The authors discuss the current role of the EU, and whether it aspires to be a democratic polity or a functional organization based on inter-governmental bargaining. The chapters question whether the future of European integration after the crisis will be paved by decisions which conflict with its Treaty basis, and how it might come up with alternatives which would do more than echo the compulsions of the global market. Issues are analysed from a historical perspective to see what can be learnt from its past and to explore the options for the future. With contributions from prominent international legal and political scholars, the book will be of interest to academics, students and policy-makers working in these areas.

Debates surrounding the concept of law are not new. For a wide variety of reasons and in a wide variety of ways, the meaning of 'law' has long been an important part of Western thought, both within legal scholarship and beyond. The contributors to Concepts of Law are international experts from the fields of comparative law, legal philosophy, and the social sciences. Combining theoretical analyses with case studies, they explore various legal concepts and contexts from diverse national and disciplinary perspectives. Legal and normative pluralism is a theme throughout. Some chapters discuss the development of state law and legal systems. Others wrestle with law's rhetoric and the potential utility of alternative vocabularies, e.g., 'governance' and 'governmentality'. Others reveal the rich polyjurality of the present, from the local to the global. The result is a rich picture of both present scholarship on laws and norms and the state of contemporary legal complexity, each crossing traditional boundaries.

Children of almost any age can break the law, but at what age should children first face the possibility of criminal responsibility for their alleged crimes? This work is the first global analysis of national minimum ages of criminal responsibility (MACRs), the international legal obligations that surround them, and the principal considerations for establishing and implementing respective age limits. Taking an international children's rights approach, with a rich theoretical framework and the vitality of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, this work maintains a critical perspective, such as in challenging the assumptions of many children's rights scholars and advocates. Compiling the age limits and statutory sources for all countries, this book explains the broad historical origins behind most of them, identifying the recurring practical challenges that affect every country and providing the first comprehensive evidence that a general principle of international law requires all nations, regardless of their treaty ratifications, to establish respective minimum age limits.

This volume presents a comparison of the experiences of NGOs in China and Europe. The chapters on China contain the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of various types of NGOs currently active in the country. The contributions on foreign NGOs in China, non-governmental think tanks, public interest legal organizations, labour related NGOs and charity organizations, are the first in English to discuss successful experiences as well as the difficulties they face in the post-Mao era. The European studies draw examples from countries where the experiences of NGOs are at various stages of development. The section on NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe examines the rapid expansion of civil society and their pivotal role in promoting political change and building democracy in a transitional society, as well as the challenges they confront in advancing a strong civil society. Those chapters on NGOs' experiences in Western European countries, especially in the Netherlands and the UK, provide insightful information and examination of the most contentious issues concerning NGOs' accountability, governance and relationship with the government.

International sentencing has become significant given the numerous events on the world stage which have focused attention on the justifications and adequacy of punishment for heinous crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity. In addition to providing a detailed evaluation of the philosophical and theoretical difficulties raised by this rapidly developing area of international criminal justice, this book provides an integrated socio-legal analysis of the law and process of international sentencing. It considers the rationale and development of international sentencing structures and processes, the nature and scope of legal and procedural constraints on decision-making, as well as access to justice and rights issues. The book discusses sentencing within the context of international criminal law and examines internationalized trial processes and alternative mechanisms for resolution. In seeking to comprehend the punishment of international crimes through the comparative contextual analysis of trial processes, it challenges our present understanding of how and why particular sentencing outcomes are produced and the perceived legitimacy of international trial justice.

Democracy in the Courts examines lay participation in the administration of justice and how it reflects certain democratic principles. An international comparative perspective is taken for exploring how lay people are involved in the trial of criminal cases in European countries and how this impacts on their perspectives of the national legal systems. Comparisons between countries are made regarding how and to what extent lay participation takes place and the relation between lay participation and the legal system's legitimacy is analyzed. Presenting the results of interviews with both professional judges and lay participants in a number of European countries regarding their views on the involvement of lay people in the legal system, this book explores the ways in which judges and lay people interact while trying cases, examining the characteristics of both professional and lay judging of cases. Providing an important analysis of practice, this book will be of interest to academics, legal scholars and practitioners alike.

Gender equality and the importance of the law in combating discrimination are issues explored by this insightful work. Gender Injustice allows readers a better understanding of the issue of inequality and aims to increase the likelihood of achieving gender justice in the future. It investigates equality in employment for men and women in terms of the law, at both national and international levels, and looks at the primary role of legislation, which has an impact on the court process. It also discusses the two most important trade agreements of our day - namely the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Union Treaty - in an historical and compelling analysis of women and equality. By providing a detailed examination of the relationship between gender and the law, the book will be an important read for those concerned with equal pay and equal access to employment.

Global Perspectives on Subsidiarity is the first book of its kind exclusively devoted to the principle of subsidiarity. It sheds new light on the principle and explores and develops the many applications of the principle of subsidiarity. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the principle in all its facets, from its philosophical origins in the writings of Aristotle and Aquinas, to its development in Catholic social doctrine, and its emergence as a key principle in European Union Law. This book explores the relationship between subsidiarity and concepts such as sphere sovereignty and social pluralism. It analyses subsidiarity in light of globalisation, federalism, democracy, individual rights and welfare, and discusses subsidiarity and the Australian, Brazilian and German Constitutions.

This volume provides a comprehensive overview of business law in Russia. It presents an introduction to the Russian legal system in general before going on to provide a thorough analysis of the key aspects such as regulation, taxation, competition, contracts, intellectual property law, among many others. Where appropriate, cases and international comparisons are included to help illustrate the practical workings of this complex system. The book will be an invaluable guide for students, researchers and practitioners who want a clear understanding of legislation relating to business in contemporary Russia.

In recent years, the wearing of the full-face veil or burqa/niqab has proved a controversial issue in many multi-cultural European societies. Focussing on the socio-legal and human rights angle, this volume provides a useful comparative perspective on how the issue has been dealt with across a range of European states as well as at European institutional level. In so doing, the work draws a theoretical framework for the place of religion between public and private space. With contributions from leading experts from law, sociology and politics, the book presents a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to one of the most contentious and symbolic issues of recent times.

This book, one of the first of its kind, explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on modern Western democracies from a comparative constitutional law and policy perspective. Through 11 scholarly contributions, it tackles cutting-edge topics for the liberal state, such as emergency legislation, judicial scrutiny of COVID-19 measures, parliamentarism and executive decision-making during the pandemic. The book examines these topics both from a microscopic national constitutional angle, with a focus on European states, and from a macroscopic regional and comparative angle, on par with the American example. The COVID-19 pandemic is thus treated as an international state of emergency that has enabled far-reaching restrictions on essential human rights, such as freedom of movement, freedom of religion or even major political rights, while giving rise to the 'administrative state.' This edited volume explores each of these pressing themes in this exceptional context and evaluates different liberal states' responses to the pandemic. Were these responses reasonable, effective and democratic? Or is the COVID-19 pandemic just the beginning of a new era of global democratic backsliding? How can liberal democracies manage similar crises in future? What lessons have we learned? The institutional knowledge gained turns out to be the key for the future of the rule of law.

The Routledge Handbook of Corporate Law provides an accessible overview of current research in the field, from an international and comparative perspective. In recent years there has been an explosion of corporate law research, as this area of law continues to develop rapidly throughout the world. Traditionally, Anglo-American corporate law theory has dominated debates and publications; however, this handbook readdresses the balance by exploring the treatment of corporate law in both Europe and Asia, as well developments in the US and UK. Bringing together a wide range of key thinkers in the field, this volume is divided into three main parts: Thinking about corporate law Corporate law principles and governance Some cross-cultural comparisons Providing up-to-date and authoritative articles covering all the key aspects of corporate law, this reference work is essential reading for advanced students, scholars and practitioners in the field.

This book scrutinizes the new legal nature and stipulations of International Public Works Agreements and provides an in-depth analysis of new forms of infrastructure agreements which have been created in developing countries, such as PPPs. The volume also examines the direct impact of the new legal environment upon infrastructure transactions such as dispute resolutions and ADR mechanisms, in particular, arbitration. It provides an analytical perspective on international public works agreements in developing states in the light of ICC rules of arbitration and FIDIC forms of contracts. As globalization significantly influences le contrat administratif in civil law legal culture, this book examines the legal cultures of civil and common law from a comparative perspective. The author argues that harmonization and integration of the two cultures, in infrastructure agreements, are the way forward. The book will be a fundamental guide for researchers and academics working in this area as well as judges, lawyers and international arbitrators in both common law jurisdictions and civil law legal systems.

Legal Practice and Cultural Diversity considers how contemporary cultural and religious diversity challenges legal practice, how legal practice responds to that challenge, and how practice is changing in the encounter with the cultural diversity occasioned by large-scale, post-war immigration. Locating actual practices and interpretations which occur in jurisprudence and in public discussion, this volume examines how the wider environment shapes legal processes and is in turn shaped by them. In so doing, the work foregrounds a number of themes principally relating to changing norms and practices and sensitivity to cultural and religious difference in the application of the law. Comparative in approach, this study places particular cases in their widest context, taking into account international and transnational influences on the way in which actors, legal and other, respond.

This book contributes to a critical reflection of current legislative and jurisprudential developments in Non-Discrimination Law, focusing on the European Union. The book is focused on intersectionality between gender, race and disability and the question of whether, and to what extent, this intersection can be adequately addressed in (EU) law. The discussion rests on two basic assumptions. First, the multiplication of 'discrimination grounds' in EU law and other legal regimes should not result in a dilution of the demands of equality law. Accordingly, the book focuses on the three key grounds - race, gender and disability. These constitute nodes around which other discrimination grounds can be grouped. Second, any multi-ground non-discrimination law framework needs to engage with the question of discrimination on several grounds. This book provides a critical evaluation of some of the problems presented by such intersectionality and an opportunity to explore the issues in depth. This collection offers some new proposals relating to the regrouping of identity categories and to the general approach to socio-legal research in the field. It also contains a comparative section, which expands on practical experiences with intersectionality and law, and a section dedicated to juridical responses to intersectionality. The book will be a valuable resource for researchers, academics and those working in the area of EU non-discrimination law and policy.

This groundbreaking book contributes to, and refocuses, public debates about the incorporation of plural approaches into the English legal system. The book specifically advances the recent, largely theoretical, discussions of Sharia legal practice by examining a secular method of dispute resolution as practised by the Kurdish Peace Committee in London. Following migration to the West, many Kurds still adhere to traditional values and norms. Building on these, they have adapted their customary legal practices to create unofficial legal courts and other forms of legal hybridisation. These practical solutions to the challenges of a pluralistic life are seen by Kurdish communities in the UK as applicable not only to British and transnational daily life, but also as a training ground for institutions in a possible future Kurdish state. The study provides a substantive evidence base using extensive ethnographic data about the workings of the Kurdish Peace Committee, examining detailed case studies in the context of the customs and practices of the Kurdish community. Based on an ethnographic and interdisciplinary approach, this book will be of interest to policy makers, socio-legal professionals, students and scholars of legal anthropology, ethnic minority law, transnationalism, diaspora, Kurdish, Turkish and Middle Eastern studies.