We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
Athens in the classical period of Hellenic history was by far the most developed city of Helena, and its democratic system of making important decisions in the Assembly as well as their implementation, was a role model not only in the Hellenic world. Aristotle does not follow his teacher Plato nor Xenophon who do not discern difference between the system of government in the household and the polis. Polis is the community of equal people where relationships create free citizens who are also representatives of their own households, families or the territorial units (topics). Aristotle in the Rhetoric shares laws into general (natural) and specific, those which individual nations defined to themselves and for themselves which could be written and unwritten. Constitution of Athens is the only surviving piece of the rich Hellenic and legal history. In the following lines we will try to explain what this work contains and why it is important even nowadays after two and a half millennia.
More...
In the past few decades I have begun to examine the role that magic played in the lives of village and small town societies in the early modern period, in their mentality, religiosity and belief system. The examination was based on sources related to witchcraft. It is commonly known that the minutes of the witchcraft trials which took place throughout the 16th to 18th centuries are valuable sources with regard to the rural communities of the early modern period, in fact they constitute the only early modern source, which gives a detailed account of the communal role and social background of magic. The witness accounts of these trials reflect almost directly the ‘rural witchcraft’, which took place in the background of the official events and preceded these trials. Contrary to the accused, who may even have been forced by the expectations of elite demonology to make a false statement, the witnesses reconstructed the goings on of their village in the context of traditional witchcraft belief. They relate those of their memories, which can be interpreted as malefactions of a witch in the light of their beliefs. This allows us to gain what might near enough be called direct evidence regarding bewitchment (‘maleficium’) or black magic (or, in fact, its absence, as we shall see in what follows).
More...
Federalism applied in Bosnia and Herzegovina is very original, starting with the constitution adopted in the form of an international treaty, all the way to a constitutional court composed of foreign nationals. This unique arrangement, which is a combination of the elements of two forms of federalism - the confederation and the federation, has been functioning for almost a quarter of a century. The first subject of analysis in this paper is the legal nature of constitutional arrangement in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thereafter, attention is directed to the way it has originated and an attempt to answer the question of whether it arose by unification of independent entities (association) or by changing the internal structure of an earlier unitary state (devolution). After considering older, dichotomous theories about the emergence of federal systems, more recent, trichotomous theories are also considered. At the very end, there are some reflections on the future of federalism in multinational communities in general and especially Bosnia and Herzegovina.
More...
Als von allen Richterkollegen gewähltem berichterstattenden Richter im Fall Nr. U-5/98 des bosnischen Verfassungsgerichts war mir bereits klar geworden, welche Schwierigkeiten die Umsetzung der Dayton-Verfassung mit sich bringen. So hatte das Friedensabkommen von Dayton-Paris eine duale verfassungsrechtliche Struktur mit sich gebracht, die auf einem politischen Kompromiss beruhte. [...]
More...
Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina defines that Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, shall continue its legal existence under international law as the Bosnia and Herzegovina with modified internal structure with its internationally recognizes borders. So it can be concluded that transformation of Bosnia and Herzegovina from unitary state to complex state has been result of devolution (changing internal structure of state). But, ever since the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed there has been continuous disagreements about the way that Bosnia and Herzegovina has originated. Despite precise constitutional provisions, some theoreticians consider Bosnia and Herzegovina as a “new” state, result of unification of independent states (Republic Srpska and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and on that premise they define Bosnia and Herzegovina as confederation or union based on idea of entity statehood. So the main focus of this paper is to analyze question of identity and continuation of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina with “Dayton” Bosnia and Herzegovina and to determine mode of origin of Bosnia and Herzegovina as devolution or association.
More...
Нов швајцарски устав; Уредништву ''Гласа Јавкости''; ОПШТИНА; ИЗ НАРОДА; ИЗ СРЕЗА АЕПЕНИЧКОГ; Одзив на чланак у 18-ом бр. ''Гл.Јавности“, Каква нам је летина?; Политички преглед; КРАГУЈЕВАЧКЕ ВЕСТИ; НАЈНОВИЈЕ;
More...
НАШИМ ЧИТАОЦИМА; ОПШТИНА; Нов швајцарски устав; ЈАВНА ЛАЖ; ИЗ НАРОДА; Како стоимо с летином? Са Тимока; Политички прегдед; ОГЛАСИ; ОБЈАВА; ЧИТАЈ; ОБЈАВА; ОБЈАВА!;
More...
O datumu kraja Jugoslavije može se raspravljati. Mnogo je svojevrsnih prekretnica indikativnih za taj raspad. U stvari, mnogo je činjenica koje se mogu objasniti samo dugotrajnim procesima. Na primer, slovenačko zalaganje za minimum zajedničkih funkcija federacije i srpsko nastojanje da se ostvari Jugoslavija sa što manje decentralizacije, dugotrajna su nastojanja (vidljiva još 1962. na sednici politbiroa SKJ). Ali su ona 80-ih godina dospela u širu javnost delatnošću etničkih preduzetnika, različitih političkih mutivoda koji su pecali u jugoslovenskoj krizi. Među njima je bilo raznih primeraka, od automehaničara sa Kosova do sveštenika iz Hercegovine.
More...
U ovoj, 2021. godini, navršavaju se dva jubileja od značaja za srpsko-hrvatske odnose. Prvi je stogodišnjica od usvajanja i proglašenja Vidovdanskog ustava 1921. godine (koji je imao širi značaj, ne samo u kontekstu srpsko-hrvatskih odnosa, ali je obuhvatao i njih), a drugi je trideseta godišnjica od početka ratnih sukoba u Hrvatskoj 1991. godine (pri čemu ni taj sukob nije ostao samo srpsko-hrvatski). Dva jubileja, oba ispunjena mnogim nepomirljivo suprotstavljenim stanovištima, od toga kakva je Jugoslavija trebalo da bude do toga da uopšte nije ni trebalo da je bude. Između dve okrugle godišnjice nalazi se čitava jedna istorija u kojoj su postojali kvalitativno najrazličitiji vidovi međusobne interakcije: od savršene irelevantnosti srpske odnosno hrvatske etničke identifikacije za međusobne odnose do njenog podizanja na pijedestal najvažnijeg sadržaja.
More...
In constitutional democracies, constitutional courts are established in order to support the establishment and maintenance of democratic regimes, being devised as a last resort mechanism to protect both human rights and the integrity of constitutions. The leitmotiv behind the establishment of the constitutional courts in Austria and what was then known as Czechoslovakia, in the period between the World Wars, has traditionally been explained in this manner. According to Tushnet, many countries have established ‘[…] specialized constitutional courts on the German model, rejecting the older U.S. system of having the nation’s highest court for ordinary law also serve as the highest court for constitutional law’. Tushent argues that until the late twentieth century there were two ideas about the means of policy control that are arguably inconsistent with the constitution’s limits. The first ‘…was parliamentary supremacy which allowed for democratic self-governance surrounded by some institutional constraints on power-holders and many more normative ones. The second was judicial review, that is, the creation of a separate institution, removed from the direct influence of politics and staffed by independent judges charged with the job of ensuring that the legislature remained within constitutional bounds’. Constitutional courts, through the jurisdiction entrusted to them, have had direct impact upon the consolidation of newly-established democracies around the world. Vanberg notes that the constitutional review has become an inherent part of the constitutional democracies in many western states. While operating at the heart of politics, constitutional courts continuously face challenges that directly impact their work, including their independence. Boulanger, for example, argues that ‘…judges have to consider the political effects of their actions, they have to strategically choose opponents and allies, and this will in turn have an influence on their decisions. Starting from a rational choice approach, we can predict that no court will decide cases with complete disregard for daily politics.’ In that context, it could be reckoned that the final outcomes may be determined by both ideological and political motives. In light of this, Waluchow did not reject the possibility that the judicial review sporadically assists in confirming political decisions ‘…by judges pursuing, consciously or not, their preferred political agendas’. In this paper, however, we analyse whether and, if yes, how, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo has influenced and guarded the essentials of the nascent democracy. While we strive to assess the Constitutional Court’s role in the democratic transition of Kosovo, various external factors, such as political influence and the legitimacy of the Court, will necessarily be part of the equation. The first section of this paper briefly reviews the role of constitutional courts in transitional democracies, and identifies the common denominators which explain their endeavours to influence democratic developments. The second section focuses on the jurisdiction, functioning and organisation of the Court, and its relationship with public opinion. The third section analyses internationalised constitutionalism and its impact on the legitimacy and integrity of the Court in Kosovo. The fourth and fifth sections assess specific indicators, including the perceived level of confidence in the Court by political actors and the public at large, the role of international actors, and the perceived outside pressure on judges, doing so through analyses of the most notable cases and their impact upon societal and political life in the country. The final section provides a brief conclusion.
More...
This work reviews the judicial process directed against Catholic priests in Osijek in the period immediately following the Second World War. The main characteristics of Church-State relations at the time of these trials is described in the introductory part of this article, and a short review of criminal law in postwar Yugoslavia is provided, which was the legal basis by which the regime carried out its revenge against people who did not share its political views. In the next part of the work the author presents six individual cases substantiated by available archival documents, of which the authentic transcripts of the court are particularly interesting.
More...
If we observe the crime as an integral part of the social reality, then we certainly have to bear in minds its changing phases and its general incorporation into a wider picture of social movements. Therefore, my intent is to demonstrate in which way crimes have (not) followed the rhythms of labor, leisure, and public celebrations of medieval Dubrovnik, especially regarding their typology and frequency. Thus, the analysis includes crime distribution in relation to the location where the wrongdoing has occurred, together with investigation of social provenance of perpetrators and victims within this cheerless statistic of everyday life. Given the fact that the total number of the extant criminal records of the medieval Dubrovnik would be too huge “bite” for a case study of this kind, author analyzes preserved judicial records from only one year (1415).
More...
The topic of the paper is the analysis of the types of criminal offenses mentioned in the earliest preserved judicial notary documents of Kotor (1326 - 1337), and which are defined and sanctioned by the Statute of Kotor. Protection of interests of the community and principles of good administration were the priorities upon which the criminal justice system of Kotor was based. On the other hand, protection of private property was the most common topic because of which civil litigations were initiated.
More...
This article focuses on the position of women in medieval Slavonian towns regarding their right to possessing real estate and disposing with their immovable property. Even though there were many towns in the territory of medieval Slavonia or present-day north-western Croatia, be it free royal towns, which were directly subjected to the crown, or marketplaces, which formed a part of noble estates and enjoyed only limited autonomy, my research primarily focuses on Zagreb’s Gradec and Varaždin, mostly because their sources have been best preserved.
More...
The paper deals with the criminal law education at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. It focuses on person of professor František Štorch, teaching criminal law at the Czech Law Faculty of Karl-Ferdinand University in Prague at that time. It pays its attention to the form of the then used learning tools as well as to the integration of crimes against the state into the system of criminal law back then.
More...
The history of law indeed refers to persons handing down judgments and often offers interesting stories, such as the story of a judge working under various political regimes Dr. Pavel Korbuly (1906–1970). On May 4, 1934, Korbuly was appointed a single judge in criminal matters, after 1948 he became an instrument of justice under the communist regime and was one of the most active judges of the State Court in Bratislava. Prior to the Vienna Arbitration, he was a judge in the Czechoslovak Republic, then in Hungary, and after 1948 he was one of the judges who tried and sentenced victims of the communist regime (more than 500 people) in Slovakia. By the same communist regime, however, Korbuly was later prosecuted due to his active support of the anti-communist uprising in Hungary in 1956. Unlike others, he was one of the judges who had realized their responsibility for convicting the innocent and committed public repentance. From this perspective, his life story is unique in Central Europe as well as worldwide.
More...
The issue of the legal regulation of criminal offenses against the republic is interesting and concise, as it points to the importance of protection and security of the societal interests of the Slovak Republic. Defining the individual facts of crimes against the republic ensures protection against crimes that may threaten the very democratic establishment of the republic, its sovereignty, security, defense, as well as its territorial integrity. In the Slovak Republic, the area of crimes against the republic has undergone several changes, in particular the recodification of criminal law. The main crimes related to the ideology and organization of the socialist state were changed after 1989. The basis of the recodification changed the system of the Criminal Code, which expressed a change in the priority of protection of basic human rights and freedoms of individuals over the interests of the state. This change points out the position of the values of the citizens of the Slovak Republic in today’s modern state and at the same time regulates the obligations that the citizen of the whole society has.
More...
The year 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of the Palermo Convention and its Protocols, the main instruments in the fight against transnational crime. Both authors, one as an active participant in the Palermo system treaty-making and the other as a prosecutor passionate about human rights, revisit, rethink and sum up the first 20-year period after the creation of these important international instruments on organized crime and corruption. The following lines are a brief assessment of the central institutions and instruments relevant to universal criminal justice. A due reference is made to corruption, trafficking in human beings, migrant smuggling, and terrorism. The present text appeared in 1999 for the first time (in a considerably shorter form, as the working paper dealing only with the critical similarities and differences between ‘smuggling of’ and ‘trafficking in’) before the ICMPD Steering Board – Ministerial.
More...