Religious freedom is now widely accepted as fundamental to any liberal democracy. It is recognised in domestic, regional, and international human rights instruments and its importance is lauded by philosophers, lawyers, judges, clergy, and even politicians. While it is easy to support religious freedom in the abstract, tensions can arise between the activities of religious organizations and the law that challenge this general commitment to religious freedom. Should religious organizations be permitted to discriminate against women or gay people in their employment practices, when admitting members, or in providing goods and services? Should the courts interfere in these organizations to protect the interests of a disaffected member or to resolve internal property disputes? Should the state allow religious tribunals to determine or advise on family matters? While much has been written about religious individuals and the law, there has been a discernible lack of literature on organizations and the law. Jane Norton fills this gap with Freedom of Religious Organizations. By exploring potential conflicts between the law and religious organizations, and examining whether the current British response to such conflicts is justified, this book will consider when English law ought to apply to religious organizations and how these conflicts should be dealt with.

This book develops a theory of tort law that integrates deontic and consequential approaches by applying justificational analysis to identify the factors, circumstances, and values that shape tort law. Drawing on Kantian and Rawlsian philosophy, and on the insights of game theorist Ken Binmore, this book refocuses tort law on a single theory of responsibility that explains and justifies the broad range of tort doctrine and concepts. Under this theory, tort law asks people to appropriately incorporate the well-being of others into the decisions they make, explains when that duty applies, and explains the scope and limits of that duty. The theory also incorporates a theory of the evolutionary development of social values that people use, and ought to use, in meeting that duty and explains how decision-making from behind the veil of ignorance allows us to evaluate the is in light of the ought.

Following the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2020, and the creation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, there is increased interest in and a need to develop national human rights' bodies for children's rights. This book provides an in-depth look at one domestic independent children's rights institution: the Irish Ombudsman for Children's Office, to highlight the learnings for an international audience and the methodologies that can be used to promote and protect children's rights at a national level. Co-authored by Ireland's first Ombudsman for Children and a children's rights professor, the book will present an original and informed analysis of how a national human rights institution can advocate, most effectively, for the rights of children. By using illustrative case studies, the book will highlight how the powers of a national human rights institution can be put to strategic use to address specific children's rights deficits in areas of child protection, youth detention and public awareness about children's rights. Each chapter focusses on a case study, identifies a problem, the approach or intervention by the Ombudsman for Children, the outcome and reflects on lessons learned. It ensures that the cases can be extracted, examined and replicated in other jurisdictions by an international community interested in the promotion, monitoring and protection of children's rights. It speaks to those interested in Human Rights; Children's Rights; Socio-legal studies, Social Work; Childhood Studies; Administrative Law, Constitutional Law and International Law, and to practitioners and policy-makers in this field.

There are approximately 150 million people of African descent in Latin America yet Afro-descendants have been consistently marginalized as undesirable elements of the society. Latin America has nevertheless long prided itself on its absence of US-styled state-mandated Jim Crow racial segregation laws. This book disrupts the traditional narrative of Latin America's legally benign racial past by comprehensively examining the existence of customary laws of racial regulation and the historic complicity of Latin American states in erecting and sustaining racial hierarchies. Tanya Kateri Hernandez is the first author to consider the salience of the customary law of race regulation for the contemporary development of racial equality laws across the region. Therefore, the book has a particular relevance for the contemporary US racial context in which Jim Crow laws have long been abolished and a 'post-racial' rhetoric undermines the commitment to racial equality laws and policies amidst a backdrop of continued inequality.

This book is the first interdisciplinary study of the rule of law in an environment of complementary culture. It argues that the rule of law should not be defined solely through the development of institutions, but also through the mobilization of existing culture towards support for law and its enforcement. Recognizing that the rule of law is most often misunderstood by many, the book describes the benefits of the rule of law and exposes its weaknesses and limitations. It summarizes the history and practice through case studies where culture has played an essential role in achieving a sustainable rule of law in practice. It incorporates the unique challenges to rule of law in regions like the Middle East, and addresses the nexus of law culture and institutions in the context of policing in the United States. Appropriate for researchers, professionals, and practitioners of law, policing, cultural criminology, and sociology, this book identifies practical and actionable elements of culture that can be mobilized, even in states that are only in the initial stages of developing the rule of law.

The last sixty years witnessed an unprecedented expansion of international trade. The system created by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and later by the World Trade Organization (WTO) has proved to be an efficient instrument for the elimination of trade and tariff barriers. This process coincided with increased national regulatory controls, which were particularly visible in the area of risk regulation. Governments, responding to the demands of their domestic constituencies, have adopted a wide range of regulatory measures aimed at protecting the environment and human health. Although, for the most part, the new regulatory initiatives served legitimate objectives, it has also turned out that internal measures might become an attractive vehicle for protectionism, taking the place that was traditionally occupied by tariff barriers. Regulating Health andEnvironmental Risks under the WTO Law examinesthe WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement). In which it is an attempt by the international community to limit possible abuses while assuring WTO Members of an extensive margin of regulatory discretion.
The central problem that the book tackles is whether the system established by the SPS Agreement can address the existing and potential challenges of a new interdependent world. In answering this question, the author provides a comprehensive and critical examination of the substantive provisions of the Agreement and corresponding case law. In this context, the book particularly focuses on two issues: the consistency in the interpretation of the SPS Agreement and the appropriateness of its various requirements. This analysis leads the author to conclude that despite some interpretative failures of SPS case law, the system established by the SPS Agreement seems to provide an effective solution for the supervision of domestic SPS measures.

This collection of essays interrogates how human rights law and practice acquire meaning in relation to legal pluralism, ie, the co-existence of more than one regulatory order in a same social field. As a social phenomenon, legal pluralism exists in all societies. As a legal construction, it is characteristic of particular regions, such as post-colonial contexts. Drawing on experiences from Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, the contributions in this volume analyse how different configurations of legal pluralism interplay with the legal and the social life of human rights. At the same time, they enquire into how human rights law and practice influence interactions that are subject to regulation by more than one normative regime. Aware of numerous misunderstandings and of the mutual suspicion that tends to exist between human rights scholars and anthropologists, the volume includes contributions from experts in both disciplines and intends to build bridges between normative and empirical theory.

This book explores the nature and impact of stalking and criminal justice system responses to this type of abuse based on the experiences and lived realities of victims. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 26 self-defined victims of stalking in England and Wales, it explores the psychological and social effects of this hidden and misunderstood form of interpersonal violence. Korkodeilou's work seeks to improve understanding regarding this type of abuse, contribute to feminist criminology and gender-based violence literature, and expand scholarly knowledge with her research's theoretical, methodological and practical implications. Victims of Stalking will appeal to academics in the fields of victimology, victimisation, gender-based and interpersonal violence, criminal justice system responses to victims and to criminal justice system professionals (e.g. police officers, probation officers, and lawyers).

Conversation and argument concerning laws and legal situations take place throughout society and at all levels, yet the language of these conversations differs greatly from that of the courtroom. This insightful book considers the gap between everyday discussion about law and the artificial, technical language developed by lawyers, judges and other legal specialists. In doing so, it explores the intriguing possibilities for future synthesis, a problem often neglected by legal theory. Analyzing the major components of law and legal procedure across both common and civil law, this book reveals how legal conversation on the `street' contributes to our understanding of law as well as our democratic citizenship. Jan M. Broekman and Frank Fleerackers consider the impact of multiculturalism and the threat of terror on our impressions of legal conversation and the importance we place upon it, arguing that anarchism and legalism are hostile neighbors sharing many themes and motives. Exploring the meaning and sense of the concept of `street' in ancient and modern times, the authors pose the question: is law just a discourse or should it be classified as one of the major narratives in human life? Unique and discerning, this book will appeal to anyone interested in the language of law. Legal educators will find their scope broadened whilst researchers, activists and politicians will find themselves captivated by the focus on social activism and citizen motivation.

At present, corporate social responsibility (CSR) for some may be not much more than an attitude. Can it be more? What degree of commitment can we reasonably expect of corporations in the struggle to eradicate poverty, promote human rights, halt climate change, and reverse ongoing environmental destruction? It is not a question of power; more than half of the world's top 100 economies are corporations, not nation-states. Whatever can be done to 'fix' the world's problems, corporations are in the best position to do. That they should act accordingly does not seem unwarranted, and for more and more corporations CSR is in fact a stated objective. In this impassioned work the well-known international lawyer Ramon Mullerat suggests that one of the root problems faced by CSR is one of definition. Various interested parties define the term differently, and their definitions clash. However, Dr Mullerat clearly shows in these pages that this very multiplicity of perspectives in fact enhances our ultimate comprehension of CSR. It is through an honest appreciation of the motivations and hopes behind each point of view - and of the nature of their conflict - that the way forward emerges. And as we examine these various perspectives, we inevitably come to a clear awareness of the role of corporations in the 21st century world order. Among the perspectives the author brilliantly elucidates are the following: - Ethics, philanthropy and CSR - sustainable livelihoods (provision of drinking water, health care, literacy); - opportunity (jobs, training, education); - legal and regulatory reform; - human rights; - the triple bottom line - the perception of CSR as 'virtue in the service of avarice'; - the efficacy of 'codes of conduct'; and - the problem of corruption and corporate criminal behaviour. Although this book will attract any general reader concerned with the state of today's world, it is sure to be taken up and pondered by lawyers, business executives, investors, and officials in positions to engage productively with its many powerful insights and ideas.

Current Legal Issues, like its sister volume Current Legal Problems, is based upon an annual colloquium held at University College London. Each year leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloquium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyses points of controversy in the use, and abuse, of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice.
Law and Anthropology, the latest volume in the Current Legal Issues series, offers an insight into the state of law and anthropology scholarship today. It focuses on the inter-connections between the two disciplines and also includes case studies from around the world.

While scholarly writing has dealt with the role of law in the process of European integration, so far it has shed little light on the lawyers and communities of lawyers involved in that process. Law has been one of the most thoroughly investigated aspects of the European integration process, and EU law has become a well-established academic discipline, with the emergence more recently of an impressive body of legal and political science literature on 'European law in context'. Yet this field has been dominated by an essentially judicial narrative, focused on the role of the European courts, underestimating in the process the multifaceted roles lawyers and law play in the EU polity, notably the roles they play beyond the litigation arena. This volume seeks to promote a deeper understanding of European law as a social and political phenomenon, presenting a more complete view of the European legal field by looking beyond the courts, and at the same time broadening the scholarly horizon by exploring the ways in which European law is actually made. To do this it describes the roles of the great variety of actors who stand behind legal norms and decisions, bringing together perspectives from various disciplines (law, political science, political sociology and history), to offer a global multi-disciplinary reassessment of the role of 'law' and 'lawyers' in the European integration process.

This book explores victims' views of plea negotiations and the level of input that they desire. It draws on the empirical findings of the first in-depth study of victims and plea negotiations conducted in Australia. Over the last 50 years, the criminal justice system has seen major changes in both the role that victims play in the justice process and in how the vast majority of criminal cases are finalised. Guilty pleas have become the norm, and many of these result from negotiations between the prosecutor and the defence. The extent to which the victim is one of the participating parties in plea negotiations however, is a question of law and of practice. Drawing from focus groups and surveys with victims of crime, Victims and Plea Negotiations seeks to privilege victims' voices and lived experiences of plea negotiations, to present their perspectives on five options for enhanced participation in this legal process. This book appeals to academics and students in the areas of law, criminology, sociology, victimology and legal studies, those who practice in the criminal justice system generally, those who work with victims, and policy makers.

In 2009 and 2010, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights underwent significant reforms to their respective judicial appointments processes. Though very different judicial institutions, they adopted very similar - and rather remarkable - reforms: each would now make use of an expert panel of judicial notables to vet the candidates proposed to sit in Luxembourg or Strasbourg. Once established, these two vetting panels then followed with actions no less extraordinary: they each immediately took to rejecting a sizable percentage of the judicial candidates proposed by the Member State governments. What had happened? Why would the Member States of the European Union and of the Council of Europe, which had established judicial appointments processes that all but ensured themselves the unfettered power to designate their preferred judges to the European courts, and who had zealously maintained and exercised that power over the course of some fifty years, suddenly decide to undermine their own capacity to continue to do so? This book sets out to solve this mystery. Its point of departure is that it would be a mistake to view the 2009-2010 establishment of the two vetting panels in isolation from other European judicial developments. Though these acts of institutional creation are certainly the most notable recent developments, they actually represent but the crowning achievement of a process of European judicial appointments reform that has been running unremittingly since the 1990's. This longstanding and tenacious movement has actually triggered a broad set of interrelated debates and reforms, encompassing not only judicial appointments per se, but also a much wider set of issues, including judicial independence, judicial quality, judicial councils, the separation of powers, judicial gender equity, and more.

Reflexive Labour Law in the World Society investigates trends in labour and employment law from the perspective of modern social systems theory.It uses Niklas Luhmann's theory of the world society and Gunther Teubner's reflexive law concept for an analysis of modern employment law and industrial relations. Areas investigated include: reflexive employment protection; the reflexive regulation and deregulation of labor market policies and labour law; reflexivity in labor and employment conflict resolution; reflexive coordination and implementation of EU social and employment law; and reflexive global labor law. Contents: Preface Part I: Theory 1. The World Society Context: The Globalisation of Labour Law 2. Reflexive Labour Law: A General Introduction 3. Industrial Relations as a Social System Part II: Reflexive Trends in Modern Labour Law 4. Reflexive Employment Protection 5. Reflexive Regulation of Labour Market Policies 6. Reflexive Deregulation of Labour Market Policies and Labour Law 7. Reflexive Regulation of Labour and Employment Conflict Resolution Part III: Reflexive European and International Labour Law 8. Reflexive Coordination of European Social and Employment Policies 9. Reflexive Implementation of EU Employment Law - A Case Study of the Working Time Directive 10. Reflexive Global Labour Law Bibliography Index

Marriage is ordinarily a public practice, supported by, as well as supportive of, society. But it need not fall within the purview of the state. Public Practice, Private Law articulates a conception of marriage as a morally rich and important institution that ought to be subject to private rather than legislative or judicial ordering. It elaborates a robust understanding of marriage that captures what both different-sex and same-sex couples might see as valuable about their relationships. It explains why sexual ethics won't yield a normative model of marriage, and why the kind of marital love worth wanting, can. It goes on to show how an understanding of marriage as rooted in demanding commitments can allow for divorce before arguing that the state should cease to sponsor marriages. It concludes by suggesting that both state and non-state institutions should acknowledge the marriages of same-sex couples.