The issue of who has the power to declare war or authorise military action in a democracy has become a major legal and political issue, internationally, and is set to become even more pertinent in the immediate future, particularly in the wake of military action in Syria, ongoing wars in the Middle East, and tense discussions between the United States and its allies, and Russia and China. This book comparatively examines the executive and prerogative powers to declare war or launch military action, focusing primarily on the United States, Britain and Australia. It explores key legal and constitutional questions, including: who currently has the power/authority to declare war? who currently has the power to launch military action without formally declaring war? how, if at all, can those powers be controlled, legally or politically? what are the domestic legal consequences of going to war? In addition to probing the extensive domestic legal consequences of going to war, the book also reviews various proposals that have been advanced for interrogating the power to commence armed conflict, and explores the reasons why these propositions have failed to win support within the political establishment.

The idea of 'the commons' is a long-standing concept in the English-speaking world and in English law. A similar concept occurs in China. How different from or similar to the English idea of 'the commons' is the idea in China; and how is the concept applied? This book explores this important subject. It examines the subject from a philosophical and theoretical perspective; considers 'the commons' widely, including tangible commons of resources, intangible commons of culture, identity and social capital, and institutional commons of welfare, security and public goods; and goes on to examine the concept as it applies to the hydropower developments along the Lancang River, outlining the different competing interests of local people, central and provincial government, and environmental considerations. It argues that the concept of 'the commons' in China is dual-dimensional, with a vertical dimension of 'public authority' and a horizontal dimension of 'commonly sharing', that power structures in China have often been flexible and polycentric, and that, correctly applied, this approach will do much to serve the common interest of the people, ensuring positive impacts for shared prosperity for multiple stakeholders, whilst mitigating the negative impacts involved in the delivery of such positive impacts.

Recent confrontations between constitutional courts and parliamentary majorities, for example in Poland and Hungary, have attracted international interest in the relationship between the judiciary and the legislature in Central and Eastern European countries. Several political actors have argued that courts have assumed too much power after the democratic transformation process in 1989/1990. These claims are explicitly or implicitly connected to the charge that courts have constrained the room for manoeuvre of the legislatures too heavily and that they have entered the field of politics. Nevertheless, the question to what extent has this aggregation of power constrained the dominant political actors has never been examined accurately and systematically in the literature. The present volume fills this gap by applying an innovative research methodology to quantify the impact and effect of court's decisions on legislation and legislators, and measure the strength of judicial decisions in six CEE countries.

This edited collection provides a comprehensive, insightful, and detailed study of a vital area of public policy debate as it is currently occurring in countries across the world from India to South Africa and the United Kingdom to Australia. Bringing together academics and experts from a variety of jurisdictions, it reflects upon the impact on human rights of the application of more than a decade of the "War on Terror" as enunciated soon after 9/11. The volume identifies and critically examines the principal and enduring resonances of the concept of the "War on Terror". The examination covers not only the obvious impacts but also the more insidious and enduring changes within domestic laws. The rationale for this collection is therefore not just to plot how the "War on Terror" has operated within the folds of the cloak of liberal democracy, but how they render that cloak ragged, especially in the sight of those sections of society who pay the heaviest price in terms of their human rights. This book engages with the public policy strand of the last decade that has arguably most shaped perceptions of human rights and engendered debates about their worth and meaning. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of human rights law, criminal justice, criminology, politics, and international studies.

This volume examines the success of the 9/11 attacks in undermining the cherished principles of Western democracy, free speech and tolerance, which were central to US values. It is argued that this has led to the USA fighting disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to sanctioning the use of torture and imprisonment without trial in Guantanamo Bay, extraordinary rendition, surveillance and drone attacks. At home, it has resulted in restrictions of civil liberties and the growth of an ill-affordable military and security apparatus. In this collection the authors note the irony that the shocking destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11 should become the justification for the relentless expansion of security agencies. Yet, this is a salutary illustration of how the security agencies in the USA have adopted faulty preconceptions, which have become too embedded within the institution to be abandoned without loss of credibility and prestige. The book presents a timely assessment of both the human rights costs of the 'war on terror' and the methods used to wage and relentlessly continue that war. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners and students in the fields of human rights law, criminal justice, criminology, politics and international studies.

This volume offers a diverse set of perspectives on transnational crime. Providing a wide-ranging overview of the legal and policy issues that arise in connection with various forms of transnational crime, the authors outline the criminal justice responses adopted across different jurisdictions. Including contributions from high profile Chinese and European academics and practitioners across a variety of disciplines and methodological backgrounds, the authors address some of the hitherto underexplored issues related to transnational crime. These range from trafficking in cultural objects derived from illicit metal-detecting and metal-detecting tourism in China to the European approaches to criminalising the denial of historical truth. The central theme of the book is that useful lessons can be drawn from each other's experiences, and that a cross-fertilisation of domestic approaches to transnational crime is essential to effective cooperation. This book will be of use to students and academics of comparative criminal justice and anyone interested in transnational crime.

Law's Political Foundations: Rivers, Rifles, Rice and Religion explains the development of the two basic systems of public and private law and their historical transformations. Examining the historical development of law in China, Japan, Western Europe, and Hispanic America, Haley argues that law is a product, rather than a constitutive element, of political systems.Four narrative chapters commence with the development of Chinese legal tradition as a public law order in which regulatory and penal rules were central, compared to the primacy of private law in Western Europe. China was not only among the earliest but also historically the most enduring example of public law order. The European Legal Tradition, in contrast, became the source of the private law structures of legal systems worldwide. The Japanese and Hispanic American experiences are explored as pivotal links that help to identify foundational factors that underpin the historical development of public and private law orders. Also explained in both contexts is the endurance of private ordering both within and beyond the law. These vivid comparisons and analyses in these stories of rivers, rifles, rice, and religion will serve as an excellent critical resource for scholars and academics of comparative law and legal theory.

This book critically examines the proper role of the law in protecting job security in the contemporary workplace. It provides a historical, theoretical, practical and comparative perspective on this under-researched, but fundamentally important, legal mechanism at a time when the pressure to deregulate and dilute worker-protective laws has taken on increased importance. The volume critically analyses both statute and case law from three advanced industrialised liberal democracies with a common law foundation, the UK, Australia and the USA, to understand the extent to which job security is realised. By applying a common approach and a conceptual framework that emphasises the complex relationships between law, the economy and society to analyse a series of national studies, the book is also designed to draw upon the insights of comparative analysis to deepen our understanding of the limits and possibilities of legal regulation of job security. The national case studies are supplemented by research that focuses on how supra-national organisations have sought both to develop and disseminate new legal norms around the practices and processes of dismissal. This study critically analyses and assesses the adequacy of the international regulatory framework for protecting the rights of employees in the dismissal process.

This book explores recent developments in the concept of hybridity through a multi-disciplinary perspective, bringing ideas about legal plurality together with the fields of peace, development and cultural studies. Analysing the concepts of hybridity and hybridization, their history, their application in law and legal studies, and their implications for thinking and rethinking legal plurality, the book shows how the concept of hybridity can contribute to an understanding of the processes that occur when different normative or legal orders or frameworks confront each other.

This book examines donor conception and the search for information by donor-conceived people. It details differing regulatory approaches across the globe, including those that provide for 'open-identity' or anonymous donation, or that take a 'dual-track' approach. In doing so, it identifies models regarding the recording and release of information about donors that may assist in the further development of the law, policy and associated practices. Arguments for and against donor anonymity are considered, and specifically critiqued. The study highlights contrasting reasoning and emphasis upon various interests and factors that may underpin secrecy, anonymity or openness. The book will be of value to academics, students and legal practitioners involved with this area. It is also relevant to policy makers, health practitioners and anyone with an interest in the subject.

What do different concepts like true lie, bad luck, honest thief, old news, spacetime, glocalization, symplexity, sustainable development, constant change, soft law, substantive due process, pure law, bureaucratic efficiency and global justice have in common? What connections do they share with innumerable paradoxes, like the ones of happiness, time, globalization, sex, and of free will and fate? Law in the Time of Oxymora provides answers to these conundrums by critically comparing the apparent rise in recent years of the use of rhetorical figures called "essentially oxymoronic concepts" (i.e. oxymoron, enantiosis and paradoxes) in the areas of art, science and law. Albeit to varying degrees, these concepts share the quality of giving expression to apparent contradictions. Through this quality, they also challenge the scientific paradigm rooted in the dualistic thinking and binary logic that is traditionally used in the West, as opposed to the East, where a paradoxical mode of thinking and fuzzy logic is said to have been cultivated. Following a review of oxymora and paradoxes in art and various scientific writings, hundreds of "hard cases" featuring oxymora and a comprehensive review of the legal literature are discussed, revealing evidence suggesting that the present scientific paradigm of dualism alone will no longer be able to tackle the challenges arising from increasing diversity and complexity coupled with an apparent acceleration of change. Law in the Time of Oxymora reaches the surprising conclusion that essentially oxymoronic concepts may inaugurate a new era of cognition, involving the ways the senses interact and how we reason, think and make decisions in law and in life.

'Opening a property law book often results in reading mere technical descriptions of enforceable rules within a given legal system. This book edited by Michele Graziadei and Lionel Smith breaks this tradition by providing a complete, high-level and up-to-date introduction to key issues in contemporary property law from a multidisciplinary and global perspective. Thanks to the diversity and the quality of the various contributions, it is a perfect gateway for anyone broadly interested in the field.' Mikhail Xifaras, Sciences Po Law School, France Comparative Property Law provides a comprehensive treatment of property law from a comparative and global perspective. The contributors are leading experts in their fields who cover both classic and new subjects, including the transfer of property, the public-private divide, water and forest laws and the property rights of aboriginal peoples. Incorporating contributions from a variety of countries, this handbook explores property law with a critical edge, viewing the subject through the lens of both public and private law theory and providing a springboard for further research. This unique coverage of new and emerging subjects in property law also examines developments in Africa, Latin America and China. This handbook maps the structure and the dynamics of property law in the contemporary world and will be an invaluable reference for scholars working across the breadth of the field. Contributors include: B. Akkermans, L. Alden Wily, R. Aluffi, M.R. Banjade, A. Braun, T. Earle, Y. Emerich, J.L. Esquirol, D. Francavilla, F. Francioni, M. Graziadei, A.M. Larson, A. Lehavi, F. Lenzerini, K. McNeil, I. Monterroso, E. Mwangi, S. Praduroux, S. Qiao, G. Resta, D.B. Schorr, L. Smith, B. Turner, F.K. Upham, A. van der Walt, L. van Vliet, F. Valguarnera, R.l. Walsh

'Armed mainly with tremendous scholarly energy, the University of Washington has developed into the premier center of Asian legal studies in North America. This volume is a tribute to the breadth and depth of activity at the Asian Law Center over its first five decades, and a treasure trove of substantive insights into comparative law in Asia. As Asian law continues to attract more attention around the world, we must all be grateful for the contributions of the innovators who built the field.' - Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago Law School, US 'Professors Haley and Takenaka have put together a wonderfully eclectic collection of essays to commemorate the founding of the Asian Law Center at the University of Washington School of Law in 1964. Written by leaders in their respective fields, the essays, which explore legal developments, innovations and transplants in Japan and its neighbours, will appeal to scholars and students of Japanese law, as well as comparative lawyers with an interest in Asian law.' - Jean Ho, National University of Singapore 'For fifty years now, the University of Washington's Asian Law Center has stood at the center of American scholarship on Japanese law. Its scholars have consistently produced the very best work in the field, and men and women associated with it have increasingly turned their attention to other legal systems in Asia as well. In this broad-ranging volume, the contributors explore the intriguing connections among the many legal systems at stake. They have produced a tantalizing blend of analytical depth and geographical breadth.' - J. Mark Ramseyer, Harvard Law School, US Legal Innovations in Asia explores how law in Asia has developed over time as a result of judicial interpretation and innovations drawn from the legal systems of foreign countries. Expert scholars from around the world offer a history of law in the region while also providing a wider context for present-day Asian law. The contributors share insightful perspectives on comparative law, the role of courts, legal transplants, intellectual property, Islamic law and other issues as they relate to the practice and study of law in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea and Southeast Asia. Students and scholars of Asian law will find this a timely and fascinating read, as will legal practitioners and colleagues of the Asian Law Center. Contributors: H. Baum, D. Clarke, J. Eddy, D.H. Foote, J.O. Haley, K. Ishida, K.S. Kim, V.I. Lo, C.B. Lombardi, S. Matsui, H.D. Nam, O. Phanraska, T. Takenaka, V.L. Taylor, K. Toha, T.S. Utomo, T.-S. Wang, R. Yamakawa, D. Zang

This collection brings together some of the most influential sociologists of law to confront the challenges of current transnational constitutionalism. It shows the constitution appearing in a new light: no longer as an essential factor of unity and stabilisation but as a potential defence of pluralism and innovation. The first part of the book is devoted to the analysis of the concept of constitution, highlighting the elements that can contribute from a socio-legal perspective, to clarifying the principle meanings attributed to the constitution. The study goes on to analyse some concrete aspects of the functioning of constitutions in contemporary society. In applying Luhmann's General Systems Theory to a comparative analysis of the concept of constitution, the work contributes to a better understanding of this traditional concept in both its institutionalised and functional aspects. Defining the constitution's contents and functions both at the conceptual level and by taking empirical issues of particular comparative interest into account, this study will be of importance to scholars and students of sociology of law, sociology of politics and comparative public law.

The transformations which are taking place in the Arab world are dynamic processes characterised by a number of variables that one can refer to as actors and factors. The implications of the Arab uprisings are important for the world at large; the Arab world's successes, and failures, at this crucial moment may well serve as a model for other nations. Political and Constitutional Transitions in North Africa focuses on five Northern African countries- Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Libya and Algeria- examining specific institutions and actors participating in the political upheavals in North Africa since 2011, and placing them in a comparative perspective in order to better understand the processes at work. This book addresses issues pertinent to North African and Middle Eastern Studies, comparative constitutional law, political science and transitional studies and it contains contributions by experts in all these fields. Providing a significant contribution to the understanding of events that followed the immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, this book is a valuable contribution to North African Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Comparative Constitutional Law and Transitional Studies.

While their use and significance have increased in recent decades, constitutional preambles have received only scant attention in academic literature. This book presents a uniquely quantitative and qualitative analysis of all the preambles currently in force around the world and addresses fascinating questions concerning their occurrence, content, style, function and legal status. Studying preambles not only helps us understand the phenomenon itself, but also teaches us more about constitutions and constitutional systems in which they are situated. Constitutional Preambles illuminates the great variety that constitutional preambles display. The authors discuss the different styles, legal and non-legal functions, and content of the preambles, as well as analysing their use in the courts. This work also contains a carefully curated anthology of the world's preambles in English.

Modern constitutionalism as an idea and practice is facing great uncertainty in current times. Scholarly debates focus predominantly on constitutions beyond the state, while the predicament of domestic constitutionalism is much less considered. This volume contributes to a theoretically informed analysis of the key challenges and changes affecting domestic constitutionalism in Europe and beyond, departing from the idea of 'constitutional acceleration' or the increased propensity of different actors to engage in (formal) reform of the constitutional order. The volume points to a fundamental change in the function of constitutions in that constitutions themselves are increasingly subjects of political contestation rather than framing political debates. The collection of essays addresses a range of critical challenges - including societal acceleration, depoliticization, civic engagement, multi-faceted constituent power, modernization, populism and nationalism, and transnationalization. The volume includes a variety of disciplinary, and in some cases interdisciplinary, approaches, including (political) sociology, political science, constitutional law, and constitutional and legal theory, and will be of interest to researchers and students in any of these areas. Case studies focus on the EU and the wider European context, and include highly relevant but little known or ill-understood cases, such as the recent constitutional events in Iceland, Italy, or Romania, and cases of democratic reversal, such as Hungary, while also engaging with traditional but rapidly changing cases of constitutional interest, such as the UK.

Delay and disruption in the course of construction impacts upon building projects of any scale. Now in its 5th edition Delay and Disruption in Construction Contracts continues to be the pre-eminent guide to these often complex and potentially costly issues and has been cited by the judiciary as a leading textbook in court decisions worldwide, see, for example, Mirant v Ove Arup [2007] EWHC 918 (TCC) at [122] to [135] per the late His Honour Judge Toulmin CMG QC. Whilst covering the manner in which delay and disruption should be considered at each stage of a construction project, from inception to completion and beyond, this book includes: An international team of specialist advisory editors, namely Francis Barber (insurance), Steve Briggs (time), Wolfgang Breyer (civil law), Joe Castellano (North America), David-John Gibbs (BIM), Wendy MacLaughlin (Pacific Rim), Chris Miers (dispute boards), Rob Palles-Clark (money), and Keith Pickavance Comparative analysis of the law in this field in Australia, Canada, England and Wales, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States and in civil law jurisdictions Commentary upon, and comparison of, standard forms from Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, USA and elsewhere, including two major new forms New chapters on adjudication, dispute boards and the civil law dynamic Extensive coverage of Building Information Modelling New appendices on the SCL Protocol (Julian Bailey) and the choice of delay analysis methodologies (Nuhu Braimah) Updated case law (to December 2014), linked directly to the principles explained in the text, with over 100 helpful "Illustrations" Bespoke diagrams, which are available for digital download and aid explanation of multi-faceted issues This book addresses delay and disruption in a manner which is practical, useful and academically rigorous. As such, it remains an essential reference for any lawyer, dispute resolver, project manager, architect, engineer, contractor, or academic involved in the construction industry.

Comprising an array of distinguished contributors, this pioneering volume of original contributions explores theoretical and empirical issues in comparative law. The innovative, interpretive approach found here combines explorative scholarship and research with thoughtful, qualitative critiques of the field. The book promotes a deeper appreciation of classical theories and offers new ways to re-orient the study of legal transplants and transnational codes. Methods of Comparative Law brings to bear new thinking on topics including: the mutual relationship between space and law; the plot that structures legal narratives, identities and judicial interpretations; a strategic approach to legal decision making; and the inner potentialities of the 'comparative law and economics' approach to the field. Together, the contributors reassess the scientific understanding of comparative methodologies in the field of law in order to provide both critical insights into the traditional literature and an original overview of the most recent and purposive trends. A welcome addition to the lively field of comparative law, Methods of Comparative Law will appeal to students and scholars of law, comparative law and economics. Judges and practitioners will also find much of interest here. Contributors: M. Andenas, S. Benedettini, C. Costantini, D. Fairgrieve, G. Frankenberg, J. Gaakeer, S. Glanert, P. Goodrich, J. Gordley, C. Lei, B. Luppi, A.L. Marasco, S. McEvoy, P.G. Monateri, H. Muir Watt, A. Nicita, F. Parisi, G. Samuel, G. Watt

"Law and Poverty: Perspectives from South Africa and Beyond" is a collection of essays by leading South African and international experts, as well as emerging young scholars. The collection focuses on key theoretical and strategic questions concerning the relationship between law and systemic poverty. The essays were first presented at a colloquium on Law and Poverty organised by the Stellenbosch Law Faculty, which took place from 29 to 31 May 2011. The range and richness of the essays illuminate the multifaceted nature and causes of poverty, as well as the possibility and limits of law in responding to the social injustice which poverty represents. By engaging with these questions, the book aims to deepen critical reflection and debate on law's ability to respond effectively to social and economic marginalisation. "The substantive content of law is influenced by how lawyers conceive and frame cases, by what theories we choose to advance, and what understanding of the legal process and the scope of judicial review we offer to the courts. Working on these questions is at best a modest contribution towards establishing a just society. But, as the learning, insight, imagination and intellectual daring on display in this collection of essays reveals, it is a contribution that should concern all those interested in the interrelationship between law and social justice." Prof Karl Klare, George J and Kathleen Waters Matthews Distinguished University Professor, Northeastern University School of Law The collection was edited by Sandra Liebenberg, HF Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights Law at the University of Stellenbosch Law Faculty, and Geo Quinot, Professor of Law at Stellenbosch Law Faculty and Editor of the "Stellenbosch Law Review." Professors Liebenberg and Quinot co-direct a newly formed research and postgraduate training project on Socio-Economic Rights and Administrative Justice (SERAJ) based at the Stellenbosch Law Faculty.

This book examines labour regulation and labour mobility in two professional baseball leagues: Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in Japan. Through vivid comparative study, Matt Nichol explores how each league internally regulates labour mobility and how this internal regulation engages with external regulation from the legislature, statutory authorities and the courts. This comparison of two highly restrictive labour markets utilizes regulatory theory and labour regulation and suggests a framework for a global player transfer system in baseball. Each system of labour regulation can be viewed as an autopoietic system of law that utilizes voluntary self-regulation as the basis for regulation. While the regulatory systems in each league govern labour mobility in a similar manner using labour controls such as the draft, the reserve system and free agency, the two systems operate differently in terms of the level of labour mobility enjoyed by players. Formal rules, informal rules and normative practice result in MLB having relatively high levels of labour mobility for free agent players while similar players enjoy limited mobility in NPB. The book's engaging, multifaceted focus and comparative nature make it an excellent resource for lawyers, academics and advanced students interested in labour law, sports law, and Asian and European law.

This work provides an analytical and comparative analysis of the development of charity law, as well as providing a critical commentary on a number of contemporary changes within the charity law field across a range of common law jurisdictions. The book follows earlier studies which cover a similar, and traditional, jurisdictional spread, but which are now dated. It further considers in detail charity law issues within Hong Kong and Singapore, about which there has been historically more limited charity law discussion. The area is growing in terms of practical legal and academic interest.

Although both Canada and the United Kingdom had experienced terrorism prior to the attacks of 9/11 and already had in place extensive provisions to deal with terrorism, the events of that day led to the enactment of new and expansive counter-terrorism legislation being enacted in both jurisdictions. This book explores these changes to counter-terrorism laws and policies in the UK and Canada in order to demonstrate that despite the force of international legal instruments, including the heavily scrutinized UN Security Council Resolution 1373, the evolution of counter-terrorism policies in different jurisdictions is best analyzed and understood as a product of local institutional structures and cultures. The book compares legal and political structures and cultures within Canada and the United Kingdom. It analyses variations in the evolution post-9/11 counter-terrorism measures in the two jurisdictions and explores the domestic reasons for them. While focus is primarily geared towards security certificates and bail with recognizance/investigative hearings in Canada, and detention without trial, control orders and TPIMs in the UK, the use of secret evidence in the wider national security context (terrorist listing, civil litigation, criminal prosecutions, etc.) is also discussed. The book reveals how domestic structures and cultures, including the legal system, the relative stability of government, local human rights culture, and geopolitical relationships all influence how counter-terrorism measures evolve. In this sense, the book utilizes a methodology that is both comparative and interdisciplinary by engaging in legal, political, historical and cultural analyses. This book will be particularly useful for target audiences in the fields of comparative law and criminal justice, counter-terrorism law, human rights law, and international relations and politics.

Migration policing experiments such as boat turn-backs and offshore refugee processing have been criticised as unlawful and have been characterised as exceptional. Policing Undocumented Migrants explores the extraordinarily routine, powerful, and above all lawful practices engaged in policing status within state territory. This book reveals how the everyday violence of migration law is activated by making people 'illegal'. It explains how undocumented migrants are marginalised through the broad discretion underpinning existing frameworks of legal responsibility for migration policing. Drawing on interviews with people with lived experience of undocumented status within Australia, perspectives from advocates, detailed analysis of legislation, case law and policy, this book provides an in-depth account of the experiences and legal regulation of undocumented migrants within Australia. Case studies of street policing, immigration raids, transitions in legal status such as release from immigration detention, and character based visa determination challenge conventional binaries in migration analysis between the citizen and non-citizen and between lawful and unlawful status. By showing the organised and central role of discretionary legal authority in policing status, this book proposes a new perspective through which responsibility for migration legal practices can be better understood and evaluated. Policing Undocumented Migrants will be of interest to scholars and practitioners working in the areas of criminology, criminal law, immigration law and border studies.

This volume addresses the central tension in debates between 'mainstream' and 'critical' tax theorists which reflects 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? 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.