ICL

This article deals with one of the perennial questions of legal and political philosophy, i. e., how the state should relate to religion? It makes a distinction between five models: (i) the atheist state, (ii) the theocratic state, (iii) the model of an official state church, (iv) the multiculturalist state, and (v) the agnostic state (or secular state). The authors reflect on the legitimacy of each of these models. Some states reclaim their right to adopt an official religion as their state religion or as the religious Leitkultur of their country (model iii). Others favor the support of religion as long as this is premised on the equal rights of all religions (model iv). And others think that the state can only support equal citizenship if the state does not support any religion whatsoever (model v).

Oedometer tests were performed on one clay and one marl reconstituted at various initial water contents and consolidated from slurry-like form, in order to investigate the properties of Intrinsic Compressibility and the Intrinsic Compression Line. The properties of Intrinsic Compressibility are found to be very ‘robust’ relative to the initial water content of the slurries. It is also shown that the relationship between Void Index and the logarithm of vertical stress providing the Intrinsic Compression Line can be derived analytically. Finally the time-settlement curves were studied and oedometer tests with reduced time intervals between changes in load were performed in order to study the differences in the values of the properties of Intrinsic Compressibility obtained from the two kinds of tests.

Resumen

Este ensayo aborda la discusión de cómo el derecho internacional de los derechos humanos (DDHH) ha influenciado humanizando a otras disciplinas del conocimiento en derecho internacional como lo es el derecho internacional humanitario (DIH) y el derecho internacional penal (DIP). Se arriba a la conclusión de la noción de humanidad bien sustentada en la costumbre internacional como el punto de conexión entre estas tres disciplinas diferenciadas en derecho objetivo, subjetivo y procesal.
Se sostiene conforme a derecho internacional penal que las violaciones de derechos humanos incluso flagrantes no son crímenes internacionales porque las conductas delictivas se constituyen en tipos penales distintos, con elementos del tipo y del crimen diversos.
De los ámbitos de aplicación en el trabajo de la Corte Penal internacional ratione materiae y ratione personae, se llega a la conclusión de la existencia independiente y paralela de las disciplinas, aunque no excluyente, donde el DDHH es el nuevo watch dog de la sociedad global cuyo escrutinio condiciona inescapablemente al DIH y al DIP. 
Summary

This essay addresses the discussion of how international human rights law (IHRL) has influenced humanizing other disciplines of knowledge in international law such as international humanitarian law (IHL) and international criminal law (ICL). We come to the conclusion of the notion of humanity well supported in international customary law as the point of connection between these three disciplines differentiated in objective, subjective and procedural law. It is held in accordance with the law that even flagrant human rights violations are not international crimes because the criminal conducts are constituted in different criminal types, with elements of the different type and crime. From the fields of application, ratione materiae and ratione personae in the work of the International Criminal Court, we come to the conclusion of the independent and parallel existence of the disciplines although not mutually exclusive, where IHRL is the new “watch dog” of the global society whose scrutiny inevitably conditions IHL and ICL.

In a period of less than a year, two decisions of the newly established Constitu­tional Court of the Republic of Kosovo resulted in the resignation of two Presidents of the new State. Ruling on the unconstitutionality of the act of simultaneously holding the position of the head of State and that of his political party, in one case; and ruling on the unconstitutionality of his election due to procedural irregularities in the other, the Court prompted fundamental changes to the political landscape of Kosovo that in the first case led to new and extraordinary elections, whereas in the second to a political arrangement that would ultimately lead to constitutional reforms. Following the Court’s decisions, both Presidents (Sejdiu and Pacolli) resigned from their posts.This article offers a textual analysis of the merits and controversies surrounding both decisions, which will be situated in the broader context of the seemingly powerful role of Constitutional Courts in certain societies i...

This paper analyzes the path paved by the Italian Constitutional Court (ICC) in order to reconcile the series of its inconsistent judgments dealing with free trade, right to economic initiative, and freedom of competition. For this purpose, this article aims at investigating the role of the Italian Constitutional Court in the ‘constitutionalization’ of free trade and freedom of competition and at assessing the relationship between European Union policies and the Constitutional Court interpretation thereof.The last decade demonstrates, on the one hand, that the European Union law has influenced the domestic case law and, on the other hand, that, in turn, the European Union legal system has been ‘constitutionalized’ through the introduction of social and constitutional principles deriving from the Member States’ Constitutions.

The social contract in Egypt has changed dramatically five times in the past decade. Mubarak made substantial amendments in 2005 and 2007, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) ratified the 2011 Constitutional Declaration, the Muslim Brotherhood adopted the 2012 Constitution and, finally, Al-Sisi/Mansur proclaimed the 2014 Constitution. Currently, Egypt faces social, economic, political and legal problems. The Egyptian judiciary plays a vital role in the inability to respond to these problems. This research argues that the call for judicial reform should be revived to face contemporary challenges. These challenges are the result of the absence of serious judicial reform in the past four decades. The 1973 Judicial Authority Law was a result of the social contract presented in the 1971 Constitution. The research lists the reasons for adopting a new judicial authority law. In the first section, the social aspect is embodied in the protection of freedoms, judicial transparency ...

This research aims at analysing the Constitutional Court’s case law in respect of restrictions on the fundamental rights of convicted individuals in correlation with society’s view of convicts. To do so, along with the methods of legal science, ie analysis of legal provisions and case law, the research uses sociological concepts, methods, and sources. The fundamental rights of an individual require the State to protect every individual’s human dignity in equal measure. However, even modern-day society still stigmatises particular groups of individuals, restricting their rights without good reason. The case law of the Constitutional Court of Latvia marks convicted individuals as a stigmatised group with limited rights. In the cases analysed, not even the minimum standards of fundamental rights protecting personal privacy were applied to persons serving a sentence for serious offences, with no individual assessment provided for, because society’s opinion, among other things, denies pr...

The current Romanian constitutional system, established in 1991, has undergone numerous formal and informal developments in the last 25 years. The main issues that arose in the decade since the country’s adhesion to the European Union were the respect for the rule of law, independence of the judiciary and the fight against corruption. In this context, the Constitutional Court has been one of the central elements of the rule of law guarantee in Romania. This paper intends to present a critical overview of the actual role of the Constitutional Court in the Romanian constitutional system, in the different contexts that link the Court with ‘others’, ie mainly with State powers (the Court itself being and independent organ, placed outside the judicial power).

This article deals with one of the perennial questions of legal and political philosophy, i. e., how the state should relate to religion? It makes a distinction between five models: (i) the atheist state, (ii) the theocratic state, (iii) the model of an official state church, (iv) the multiculturalist state, and (v) the agnostic state (or secular state). The authors reflect on the legitimacy of each of these models. Some states reclaim their right to adopt an official religion as their state religion or as the religious Leitkultur of their country (model iii). Others favor the support of religion as long as this is premised on the equal rights of all religions (model iv). And others think that the state can only support equal citizenship if the state does not support any religion whatsoever (model v).

Purpose To dynamically assess variations in pupil diameter induced by changes in brightness in myopic eyes implanted with an implantable collamer lens (ICL, STAAR Surgical) with a central port. Methods This prospective, observational single-center case series study comprised 65 eyes from 65 consecutive patients undergoing ICL implant. A modified commercially available swept-source Fourier-domain anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) device was used for imaging and performing dynamic pupillometry under changing light conditions before and after a mean follow-up interval of four months after surgery. Results Preoperative mean pupil size under photopic conditions was 3.38 ± 0.64 mm; after surgery, this increased to 3.48 ± 0.61 mm. Mean pupil size under scotopic light conditions was 5.72 ± 0.79 mm before surgery and 5.84 ± 0.77 mm postoperatively. The differences between preoperative and postoperative pupil diameter in miosis and mydriasis were 0.10 ± 0.44 mm (P = 0.078...

Adam Smith, a leading thinker of the British Enlightenment, is universally known as the author of the ‘Wealth of Nations’ and an economic theorist. He is less well known as the author of ‘The Theory of Moral Sentiments’ and an ethicist. And known almost not at all for his ‘Lectures on Jurisprudence’ or as a legal theorist.This essay looks at Smith’s thought through the lens of his Lectures on Jurisprudence. It highlights the almost paradoxical positions Smith had on self-interest, markets, govern­ment, and economic expansion. Obscured by his reputation and these paradoxes are his views on justice, equality, and power. This essay concludes that Smith’s ‘justice’ is deficient and no substitute for the ‘bread nexus’ of the moral economy.

Legislatures sometimes interfere in judicial proceedings when they expect the outcome to be politically undesirable. The resulting ad hoc laws are applicable in cases known in advance, although they may appear to be neutral, general and prospective. Such laws force the courts to decide the case in favor of the State, making continued litigation pointless for the other party. Legislation of this kind may seriously threaten the rule of law, fundamental rights, including the right to a fair trial and the separation of powers. In this article, recent examples will be presented, explaining and comparing the position of the European Court of Human Rights and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Constitutional Court found that Article 48 of the Constitution of Romania enshrines and guarantees the right to marriage and family relations resulting from marriage, apart from the right to family life/respect for and protection of family life, a concept with a much broader legal content, which is also embodied and protected by Article 26 of the Constitution. Insofar the analysis is limited solely to the scope of the right to marriage, the proposed amendment of Article 48 of the Constitution, ie replacement of the words ‘of the spouses’ with the words ‘between a man and a woman’, constitutes a mere indication as regards the exercise of the fundamental right to marriage, namely the specific determination of the fact that marriage is concluded between partners of different biological sex. The amendment proposed is not likely cause the disappearance, removal, deletion or cancellation of the concept of marriage. Furthermore, the safeguards of the right to marriage, as enshrined in ...

The Constitutional Court ascertained the unconstitutionality of the provisions of National Education Law which established the possibility that pupils may not attend Religion classes provided that a request in this respect is made in writing by parents or the legal guardian, because these provisions constituted an infringement of the constitutional provisions of Article 29 on freedom of conscience. The Court stated that in adopting its regulations in education, the legislature must take into account that Article 29 para 6 of the Constitution guarantees the right to religious education and not the obligation to attend Religion classes. In this respect, free expression of options necessarily involves the person’s own initiative to attend the subject of Religion and not the tacit consent or the express refusal to attend Religion classes.

The significant powers given by the Romanian Constitution to the Constitutional Court represent various and effective instruments to achieve its main role, meaning to guarantee the supremacy of the Constitution. Since the Constitutional Court’s decisions are generally binding, and given their role to ‘remodel’ the entire legal system, for the purposes of its constitutionalisation, it is vital to make them known and understood, also with reference to the underlying decision-making process. In this regard, the configuration of the procedure to settle the cases referred to the Constitutional Court represents in itself a framework ensuring the transparency in the decision-making process, in particular through the involvement in this process of public authorities representing the three State powers which are asked, according to the law, to express their written opinions in almost all cases judged by the Court. There are also other professionals, bodies, and authorities that may be requested to submit information and opinions and, furthermore, we have to underline the legal duty of publication of the decisions of the Constitutional Court in the Official Journal of Romania. This framework, as well as other instruments such as the system which provides for an online, direct access of the media, or the viewing/listening of Constitutional Court’s public sessions, press releases, other tools and practices aiming at informing on the activity of the Constitutional Court provide openness and transparency to its activity.

Implementation Studies on the European Level represented a steadily growing field of political science research during the last decade, focusing mainly on the implementation of EU directives on the national level. Empirical work in this field of research mainly concentrates on broader comparative studies regarding transposition of EU directives in European Union member states. On the other hand, detailed research – including the aspect of enforcement and appliance of the corresponding directives – concentrates on analysis of selected policy fields. The following illustration shall therefore give a brief overview over the most important concepts and definitions in the field of implementation research. In the following article and this illustration the English expression "states" is synonymously used with its German equivalent "Bundesländer" or "Länder" (short form).

The issue of unconstitutional constitutional amendments encompasses several major topics of constitutional law and legal theory, such as the relationship between constituent and constituted powers; the scope and limits of the amending power (or competence), as well as the role of constitutional adjudication in these processes. Yaniv Roznai's book will certainly foster scholarly debate on constitutional identity and constitutional change, as well as the role of constitutional courts in the enforcement of limits to the amending power. Overall, the text is interesting, well-written and enjoyable for the reader. The reasoning is divided into three main blocks and I will construe my review according to this threefold partition, delving into the topic progressively more in detail, as my expertise concerns, to a greater extent, the jurisprudence regarding constitutional amendments from a comparative perspective. I will draft some remarks on each part of the book and propose general observations on the core concepts and questions. Finally, I will link and contrast Roznai's arguments to European scholarship on comparative methodology and specifically to my own work concerning constitutional adjudication on constitutional amendments published since 2011. 1 I. The core concept of the book being 'unamendability', the author starts the research with the examination of this phenomenon, both theoretically and in practice, from a comprehensive comparative perspective. He adopts a reasoned classification based on explicit, implicit and supra-constitutional limits to the amending power, spanning different jurisdictions and interpretations. First, he analyzes the case of eternity clauses explicitly included in the constitutions