Transitional Justice in Ongoing Conflicts and Post-War Reconstruction

Author(s): Tomasz Lachowski / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

The main aim of the paper is to analyse the potential transitional justice mechanisms, directed at reintegration of Donbas, a territory temporarily occupied by pro-Russian separatists, being under the combination of a direct and indirect control of Kremlin, with Ukraine. In the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and a remove of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych as a consequence of Euromaidan protests held in Kyiv, in the Winter 2013/14, Ukraine became a state involved in the international armed conflict covering its Eastern provinces as a result of an external aggression of the Russian Federation. Furthermore, since early-2014, Moscow is continuously using pro-Russian militants to form and uphold unrecognised, de facto regimes of the so-called ‘Donetsk’ and ‘Luhansk People’s Republic(s)’ affecting the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state. It is argued that Kyiv shall take into consideration some of the peace and restoration models applied in similar conflict or post-conflict environments, such as the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) or the experience of numerous disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programs, filled with the transitional justice component. Moreover, by emphasising the context of a military (semifrozen) conflict in Eastern Ukraine, the paper is going to shed more light on the possible application of transitional justice tool-kit in the ongoing conflicts scenarios and its potential contribution to the shift from a conflict to the postwar environment.

Корекционно-възпитателно въздействие при провеждане на програми за обществено въздействие с извършители на леки престъпления

Author(s): Daniela Petkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2013

This paper is a brief overview of the group correctional work through programs of public influence to the perpetrators of minor offenses. Described are the specifics of the basic principles, methods and approaches for conducting group work with sentenced to “probation” persons, on this basis are outlined several key conclusions and recommendations that allow optimization of psychosocial and educational intervention at blunt of the punishment and the development of workable strategies for combating criminal behavior in general.

Избирането на д-р Желю Желев за председател (президент) на Народна република България от Седмото Велико народно събрание

Author(s): Asen Tyutyundzhiev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2018

The article examines a number of specific political events and processes, which led to Dr Zhelyu Zhelev’s election, by the Seventh Grand National Assembly (GNA), as Chairman/President of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. It presents a brief historical overview and analysis of the emergence of a democratic opposition in Bulgaria and the opposition’s subsequent discussions with the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) at the National Round Table. Special attention is paid to debates within the most important anti-communist federation, the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), and its initial nomination of Dr Petar Dertliev for the presidency. The article considers the five voting rounds, which did not result in the election of head of state, as emphasis is laid on the motives and political views of the three candidates for the post. The reasons for the BCP’s unwillingness to support Dr Dertliev’s candidacy and his decision not to run are analysed at considerable length. Attention then focuses on Dr Zhelev’s nomination for the post by the UDF and the sixth round of voting by the Seventh GNA, which led to his election as President. The reasons for the BCP’s decision to support an opposition candidate are discussed as well as “the historic compromise” that was made in electing, for the first time in several decades, a head of state who was nor connected with the Communist Party.

Imperium tekstu kontratakuje. Refleksje socjologa. Recenzja książki Marcina Matczaka Imperium tekstu. Prawo jako postulowanie i urzeczywistnianie świata możliwego

Author(s): Lech M. Nijakowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2019

Правозащитници и природозащитници в медиен контекст

Author(s): Maria Deenitchina / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5/2019

Human rights defenders and environmentalists can be found in media content depending on the context which is influenced by different factors. We analyze 4 newspapers, oriented in different directions and showing different attitude towards the problems. Their implications may be hidden or more obvious and the role of the journalist in this field is of great importance. The final aim of the research is to find out if presenting of the problems is in public interest or it is influenced by different reasons.

Белгийските провинции в плен на европейската политика (1814 – 1815 г.)

Author(s): Svetla Glushkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2015

The political construct established in 1814 – 1815 by Napoleon’s victors aimed at uniting Belgians and Dutch in one country the Netherlands governed by William of the Orange-Nassau dynasty. The construct was theoretically useful for the European balance but at the same time it turned out to be anachronistic because it took into consideration neither the religious differences nor the continuous formation of two completely different nations.

Nieudane samobójstwo polityczne – ustawa o powszechnym głosowaniu korespondencyjnym w wyborach prezydenckich 2020

Author(s): Jarosław Flis,Wojciech Ciszewski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

The paper relates to main problems regarding the conducting of presidential election in Poland during the COVID-19 lockdown. The presidential elections in Poland were originally scheduled for May 2020, that is at the time when COVID-19 restrictions were in force.The ruling party in Poland – Law and Justice – decided to hold the elections in the form of universal postal vote. Unfortunately, due to many complications, the elections were finally postponed. In this paper the authors, firstly, describe the legal context of the election, and secondly, introduce a taxonomy of problems involved in the organization of the election.

The Corona warning APP of the German Federal Government

Author(s): Robert Müller-Török,Alexander Prosser / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2021

Since June 17th, 2020 the Corona Warn App of the German Federal Government has been available for download. After a sharp increase downloads stagnate around a total of 20 million, which is roughly one fourth of the population. Whether everyone who downloaded it actually uses it, is questionable. Objectives We want to show that the underlying concept of an app is questionable, even if each inhabitant with a smartphone downloads and uses it, it would cover barely half of each encounter where COVID-19 could actually be transmitted. Prior work This work is the scientific, extended version of a short article we published in the September 2020 issue of the “Behördenspiegel”, a monthly magazine covering German public administration issues. Approach We use statistical methods to show that, (i) even in the very best case with a perfectly working app the coverage would have been roughly half of all relevant encounters (ii) and that the voluntary usage of this app as well as the free decision of the infected individual to publish its (anonymized) data to warn others in fact reduces any effectiveness considerably. In addition we show that (iii) due to the design of the app there is a likely limit where the app will not be able to warn its users for mathematical and cryptographical reasons. Results We demonstrate by statistical means that this app could never have worked and why similar apps neither would work, let aside probably the “Trace Together” initiative of Singapore, which is based on a combination of an app plus physical tokens for those who do not own nor use smartphones (https://www.tracetogether.gov.sg/). We define some requirements a successful COVID-19 tracing solution must fulfill. Implications We show that such apps are not a solution for the problem, rather an obstacle to a real solution, because they lull their (few) users into a false sense of security which is obviously wrong, based on real figures. Value The paper contributes to transparency of government action during the COVID-19 pandemic. We show that other ways of contact tracing must be pursued in order to be effective and hinder the pandemic from escalating rather than providing a false feeling of safety.

THE INFLUENCE OF ROMAN TRADITION ON THE HERITAGE IN KOSOVO

Author(s): Berat Aqifi,Ardian Emini / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

The heritage was born in a certain period of historical development of society, but over time it has evolved like any other legal institution in terms of inheritance law system in part of legislation, in relation to different countries, but also numerous similarities between their systems, but always maintaining the basis in Roman law. Inheritance as one of the institutions of private law in general and civil law in particular is considered one of the oldest institutions that was initially regulated by customary norms, where the inheritance measure presents the basis for inheritance call. Roman inheritance law, which had gone through three stages of its development from the Lex XII Tabullarum until the final regulation of inheritance law within the framework of the Justinian Code, when often with the development of productive forces and the raising of human consciousness in the community primitive, where in contrast to slave owning society there was the right of inheritance based on customs inherited primarily by boys, while unmarried girls were entitled to dowry and only legitimate children. Inheritance is one of the most important institutes of civil law, and constitutes one of the ways of gaining property due to death or mortis causa, compared to all other ways of gaining property, which are between the living or inter vivos. It follows that our law in general Albanian law has been influenced for centuries starting from the customary Kanun law to the modern inheritance law.

THOU SHALT NOT KILL EXCEPT... ABORTION, EUTHANASIA, SUICIDE AND THE DEATH PENALTY – JUSTIFICATION IN RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR POPULATIONS OF LATVIA

Author(s): Agita Misāne,Ivars Neiders,Ritma Rungule,Silva Seņkāne / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

United Nations and Council of Europe documents recognize human life as a universal value. However, there are differences in the application of this principle in practice, since exceptions are allowed by the laws of different countries allowing medical abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, and the death penalty. In addition, citizens are not unanimous on the question of when the ending of one’s own life or that of another is justified. The aim of the article is to find out the relationship between the religious identity of the Latvian population and attitudes towards four morally controversial phenomena such as abortion, euthanasia, suicide, and the use of the death penalty, using data from the European/World Values Studies of 1996 and 2021. The article uses cluster analysis and linear regression. This study finds that in 2021, society has demonstrated less justifiability of abortion, euthanasia and suicide compared to 1996. Statistically significant differences between religious and non-religious populations are observed in attitudes towards abortion and euthanasia, while differences in attitudes towards suicide and the death penalty are less pronounced.

Protection of Children's Cognitive Integrity - a Legal and Educational Context. TikTok case

Author(s): Dana Volosevici,Dragoş Grigorescu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

In the paper we propose to analyze both from the point of view of the legal provisions in force, but also from the educational point of view, the cognitive situation of children in the face of exposure to applications such as those with a wide audience dedicated to socialization. Among the social interaction tools widely used by young people and children, we have chosen the TikTok application, as an illustration of the ways of legal and educational regulation with the aim of protecting the cognitive integrity of children. In the absence of effective legal actions and educational interventions by the decision-makers regarding children's development, in our opinion, the cognitive autonomy of children is seriously affected. At the same time, we present sufficient legal and educational ways to preserve the academic well-being of children.

Concept of Liability, Legal Liability, and Budgetary Responsibility

Author(s): Ivana Pařízková / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Responsibility is a concept used in common communication but also as a technical term, especially in the legal sciences, but also in psychology, ethics and sociology, philosophy, and theology. In many languages, the etymology of the term is based on the Latin respondeo, which means answering someone, giving an account, or simply giving an answer to a question. In law, responsibility is understood as the necessity to bear the consequences foreseen by law for the actions of the responsible entity or for the result attributed to the responsible entity. And at the same time, we can also state that legal responsibility is a legal relationship in which a secondary obligation arises for the responsible subject by violating his primary obligation.

O nouă reglementare - Statutul lucrătorului cultural profesionist

Author(s): Alis Vasile / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2023

The paper presents a new regulation issued in Romania, in April 2023, regarding the Status of the professional cultural worker, following the E.U. and UNESCO recommendations on the matter of the precarity of artists and cultural workers activity; although not all the UNESCO recommendations are observed by the Romanian regulation, it represents a first step in supporting the independent cultural sector, namely professionals outside the „employee” legal framework, based on a regular „work contract”, offering tax reductions, right of fee negotiations and recognition of work experience. The paper also analyses the international recommendations in force, current national regulations on the status of the artist and the cultural worker, as well as data from recent research on the subject. A special section of the article refers to the present situation of specific occupations in the field of cultural heritage in Romania, indicating the potentially low impact of the new regulation in this particular sector, due to the current national institutional and legal context that favours the regular „work contract”.

Virtual Professional Identity, Legal and Ethical Aspects. A Conceptual Framework

Author(s): Dragoş Grigorescu,Dana Volosevici / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The text uses two tools to interpret the relationship between employee and employer. The first tool is anthropological, while the second is a legal one. In this way, the complex relationship between an employee and an employer is analyzed in the larger context of doubling the real identity of the two participants with a virtual identity for each of them. Therefore, the relationship will include two levels of reporting from the employee to the employer and vice versa. The employee will be viewed by the employer both as a natural person, therefore real, but also as a virtual person with the virtual identity or profile. In turn, the employee will refer to the employer both as a legal person and as a virtual legal person. In the following lines we propose to establish a possible ethical boundary between the employee and the employer as virtual entities capable of orienting the anthropological and legal analysis.

Юридическото образование като фактор за обществена сигурност

Author(s): Maria Neikova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2023

Security in modern society has meaning more than just protecting territory and sovereignty. The dynamics of the existing and emerging new threats in modern world, require ensuring security in society. Security is closely related to legality. Achieving security is directly related to the presence of trust and respect for the rule of law as a factor of fundamental importance for citizens to have confidence in public institutions. Without the existence of such trust, democratic societies cannot function. Legal education is the one that provides knowledge but it also forms personalities. Individuals who can be a provider of guarantees for stability and security in our society.

ALTERNATIVE MEASURES RELATING TO THE DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY OF JUVENILE OFFENDERS DURING THE CRIMINAL TRIAL

Author(s): Ștefan - Tiberiu Ciurea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 36/2024

The present article addresses the importance of alternative measures to deprivation of liberty in the context of the evolution of the criminal phenomenon in terms of the offences or crimes committed by minors, so that the impact on the personality and development of the young people in question are not disproportionate to the purpose pursued by taking the measure, namely ensuring the smooth conduct of the criminal process, preventing the commission of other crimes, child rehabilitation and his/her reintegration in society.

Kultura opozycyjna. Między jurodiwymi a instytucjonalizacją

Author(s): Roman Bäcker / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2023

The aim of this text is to create a conceptual apparatus (a categorial grid) that would make it possible to explain all possible manifestations of oppositional culture in autocratic regimes. I distinguish two basic understandings of oppositional culture: social and domain-specific. The first is the totality of disapproval attitudes towards an autocratic political regime. The latter includes all manifestations of artistic creativity that are critical of the existing political regime. I distinguish three basic typologies of opposition cultures in the latter sense due to the following criteria: organizational shape, place of artistic expression and levels of negation of a given regime. The first typology concerning the organizational shape allows for the differentiation of opposition culture entities due to their numbers and the strength of social bonds created while performing this social role. The second typology makes it possible to define the space of freedom for the subjects of the opposition culture, and the third one – the level of refutation of a given political system.

Fidelity and Integrity in the Relationship between Employee and Employer

Author(s): Dana Volosevici,Dragoş Grigorescu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The present text aims at a conceptual analysis of the legal and moral bases involved in building and understanding the employment relationship between employer and employee from the point of view of the idea of employee fidelity to the employer. That is why the text contains, on the one hand, a legal analysis of the presumptive primacy of the employer's interest in the employee in the partnership assumed by the employment contract, especially when the employee's obligation to fidelity to the employee is associated with the idea of loyalty, and on the other hand, the article goes beyond the legal framework of the employment relationship to that of the social and moral philosophy that the employee-employer relationship assumes. For example, in the core of the moral philosophy analysis is debated the theoretical basis on which a tacit assumption of the organizational values that the employee accepts by signing the employment contract can be based and by virtue of which the employer in turn can justifiably request from the employee a fidelity and loyalty beyond the explicit provisions of the employment contract. Finally, the article tries to show that an integrative concept such as integrity, borrowed as an extension from the field of business ethics (codes of ethics and professional integrity), can be a useful solution in the balanced distribution and understanding of obligations and permissions between employee and employer in the case of the unwritten moral area of the employment contract.

ANALYSIS OF PROCEDURAL GUARANTEES OF MINORS IN THE ANGLO-SAXON LAW SYSTEM. COMPARATIVE ASPECTS WITH THE LEGISLATIVE SYSTEM CONCERNING MINORS IN ROMANIA

Author(s): Ștefan-Tiberiu Ciurea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 40/2025

This article analyzes the procedural guarantees and the fundamental rights granted to minors in the context of deprivation of liberty in Great Britain and the United States of America, compared in some instances with Romania, as well as the legislative framework and practices applied in each jurisdiction. Through the comparative analysis, the article identifies significant similarities and differences in the approach to the protection of the rights of minors deprived of their liberty, highlighting good practices and legislative or practical gaps. The conclusions argue in favor of the adoption of common minimum standards at the international level, which would ensure respect for the fundamental rights of juveniles deprived of their liberty, regardless of jurisdiction.

CALL THE ATTENTION OF THE PUBLIC TO AN EVIL: THE CASE OF THE BATTERED WIFE. THE DOCTRINE OF THE JUDICIAL PRECEDENT IN ENGLISH COURTS

Author(s): Adriana Dana Listeş Pop / Language(s): English Issue: 40/2025

The precedential authority, be it vertical or horizontal, must be respected as a norm to guarantee stability, fairness, and predictability of the law and the way it is perceived by the general public. Rupert Cross explains the precedent in terms of binding: “a court is bound to follow any case decided by a court above it and appellate courts (other than the House of Lords) are bound by their previous decisions”2. This very definition and its consequential approach was cited in the case of Willers v Gubay, the precedent being acknowledged as “fundamental” to maintaining “coherence, clarity and predictability”3 meant to avoid anarchy. Duxbury describes the procedure of following the precedent as establishing “an analogy between one instance and another”4 because decision-making seems to be a kind of analogical reasoning. At the same time, the act of following the precedent is perceived as a retrospective-looking gesture which can develop a “consequential”, rather “historical dimension”.