Courts

This volume is dedicated to the study of the in- and outside of princely residences and of their setup as the stage for a developing European early modern court culture. At a time of increasing aristocratization (1400-1700) and with many new nascent princely courts, both the princely person and the performance of princely power required an appropriate type of elaborate backdrop as its setting. Even though such an interest in the palace interior and its functions is not entirely new, interior architecture and court culture have only recently come to be seen as two sides of the same medal: embodiment and expression of the princely presence. Therefore, the essays included focus in particular on diverse types of functions that palaces and apartments, state rooms and privy chambers had to fulfil at certain periods and in certain residential contexts between the ages of feudalism and absolutism at courts in London, Edinburgh, Neuburg am Inn, Karlstein and Prague, Červený Kameň and Ludwigsburg. They compare and contrast specific local examples with international trends such as, for example, the palace and court ceremonial developed at or adapted to diverse circumstances
in Burgundy, Spain or Lithuania.
Consequently, the aim of this volume consists of the combination of personal and
dynastic ambitions with fashionable trends and court etiquette followed by royalty and minor princes alike during a period of calculated magnificence. It considers processional routes towards the presence of the ruler or towards its image. Thereby, it helps to define the complementary roles of residential interiors and of the courtly personnel at the same time.
The ten papers collected in this volume were first presented at the PALATIUM colloquium The Interior as an Embodiment of Power―The Image of the Prince and its Spatial Setting (1400–1700), organized by Stephan Hoppe, Krista De Jonge and Stefan Breitling and held in Bamberg in October 2013.
The full volume is freely available in open access
on the PALATIUM website: http://www.courtresidences.eu/

From 1815 to 1831 the sabaudian court spent longer and longer periods in Genoa. Subsequently, Genoa became a sort of second State capital, and the Genoese aristocracy began to frequent the court: during the ancient Republic this representativeness did not exist. Only some families, however, were admitted to court. These few families were skilled to use the court to secure careers both in the army and in diplomacy. In mid 19th century these families were perfectly inserted in the service of the Sabaudian crown.

The massacre of almost 50 Maidan protesters on February 20, 2014 was a turning point in Ukrainian politics and a tipping point in the conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. This mass killing of the protesters and the mass shooting of the police that preceded it led to the overthrow of the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych and gave a start to a civil war in Donbas in Eastern Ukraine, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. A conclusion promoted by the post-Yanukovych governments and the media in Ukraine that the massacre was perpetrated by government snipers and special police units on a Yanukovych order has been nearly universally accepted by the Western governments, the media, and many scholars. The Ukrainian government investigation identified members of the special company of Berkut as responsible for killings of the absolute majority of the protesters, but did not release any evidence in support, with the exception of videos of the massacre.
              The question is which side organized the “snipers’ massacre.” This paper is the first academic study of this crucial case of the mass killing. It uses a theory of rational choice and a Weberian theory of instrumental rationality to examine actions of major actors both from the Yanukovych government, specifically various police and security forces, and the Maidan opposition, specifically its far right and oligarchic elements, during the massacre.
          The paper analyzes a large amount of evidence from different publicly available sources concerning this massacre and killings of specifics protesters. Qualitative content analysis includes the following data: about 1,500 videos and recordings of live internet and TV broadcasts from mass media and social media in different countries(some 150 gigabytes), news reports and social media posts by more than 100 journalists covering the massacre from Kyiv, some 5,000 photos, and nearly 30 gigabytes of publicly available radio intercepts of snipers and commanders from the special Alfa unit of the Security Service of Ukraine and Internal Troops, and Maidan massacre trial recordings. This study also employs field research on site of the massacre, eyewitness reports by both Maidan protesters and government special units commanders, statements by both former and current government officials, estimates of approximate ballistic trajectories, bullets and weapons used, and types of wounds among both protesters and the police. This study establishes a precise timeline for various events of the massacre, the locations of both the shooters and the government snipers, and the specific timeline and locations of nearly 50 protesters’ deaths. It also briefly analyzes other major cases of violence during and after the “Euromaidan.” This study includes two video appendixes.
            This academic investigation concludes that the massacre was a false flag operation, which was rationally planned and carried out with a goal of the overthrow of the government and seizure of power. It found various evidence of the involvement of an alliance of the far right organizations, specifically the Right Sector and Svoboda, and oligarchic parties, such as Fatherland. Concealed shooters and spotters were located in at least 20 Maidan-controlled buildings or areas. The various evidence that the protesters were killed from these locations include some 70 testimonies, primarily by Maidan protesters, several videos of “snipers” targeting protesters from these buildings, comparisons of positions of the specific protesters at the time of their killing and their entry wounds, and bullet impact signs. The study uncovered various videos and photos of armed Maidan “snipers” and spotters in many of these buildings. The paper presents implications of these findings for understanding the nature of the change of the government in Ukraine, the civil war in Donbas, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

DOI 10.13140/RG.2.1.4084.5682
MARIANO SILVA, Jeferson. (2016), Jurisdição constitucional em Espanha (1981-1992) e Brasil (1988-1997. Tese de doutorado (Ciência política). Rio de Janeiro: IESP-UERJ.
O trabalho apresenta um método de análise descritiva das jurisdições constitucionais, pensado como uma ferramenta que permita ampliar os estudos sobre comportamento judicial comparado e especialmente voltado à análise (a) das circunstâncias históricas particulares em que as jurisdições constitucionais são praticadas; (b) do significado político dos discursos que elas produzem; e (c) dos dissensos e consensos jurisdicionais que as constituem. Os procedimentos metodológicos apresentados são aplicados a dois conjuntos de decisões judiciais: as sentenças prolatadas nos julgamentos de Recursos de Inconstitucionalidade, realizados pelo Tribunal Constitucional de Espanha, entre 1981 e 1992, e as prolatadas nos julgamentos de Ações Diretas de Inconstitucionalidade, realizados pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal, entre 1988 e 1997. Os resultados decorrentes desses ensaios de aplicação do método inicialmente proposto indicam duas conclusões gerais. De uma parte, é possível distinguir, no comportamento dos juízes constitucionais, divergências consistentemente associadas à natureza política de suas indicações. De outra parte, as clivagens do comportamento judicial, mais ou menos coincidentes com as clivagens políticas presentes no momento de formação das composições dos tribunais constitucionais, não atrelam, necessariamente, o comportamento dos juízes constitucionais às preferências atuais dos atores políticos que os indicaram. Ou seja, as divisões mais gerais do espaço político se propagam no espaço da jurisdição constitucional, porém sofrem, neste último espaço, uma refração, por meio da qual os juízes constitucionais indicados por um grupo político agem, muitas vezes, diversamente dos – e mesmo contrariamente aos – interesses desse grupo.

Tanto la Corte Suprema de Argentina como la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos han desarrollado una doctrina sólida sobre igualdad ante la ley. Ambas han entendido que hay diferencias entre una noción de igualdad como no arbitrariedad y una de igualdad como no subordinación, sin embargo, no parecen haberse detenido la una en la doctrina de la otra, cuando ello hubiera sido muy positivo para el desarrollo hermenéutico de la noción de igualdad en sis tema jurídico argentino y regional

Appellant's challenge to the aforesaid Rules is mainly on the ground that
these Rules put an unreasonable restriction on his right to practice as an
Advocate and are also ultra vires the provisions of Section 30 of the
Advocates Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act'). The High
Court of Allahabad has framed the Rules in question which came into
force on 15.09.1952. Chapter XXIV thereof relates to “Rules Framed
under Section 34(1) read with Section 16(2) of the Advocates Act, 1961”.
As we are concerned with the validity of Rule 3 and Rule 3A of the said
Chapter, the same are reproduced below:
“3. Advocate who is not on the Roll of Advocates :
An advocate who is not on the Roll of Advocate or the
Bar Council of the State in which the Court is situated,
shall not appear, act or plead in such Court, unless he
files an appointment along with an advocate who is on
the Roll of such State Bar Council and who is ordinarily
practicing in such Court.
In cases in which a party is represented by more than
one advocate, it shall be necessary for all of them to file
a joint appointment or for each of them to file a separate
one.
3-A. (i) Unless the Court grants leave, an Advocate
who is not on the Roll of Advocates in the High Court at
Allahabad or Lucknow shall not be allowed to appear,
act or plead in the High Court at Allahabad or Lucknow
as the case might be unless he files appointment along
with an Advocate who is on such roll for Allahabad
Cases at Allahabad and for Lucknow Cases at
Lucknow.
We, thus, are of the opinion that Rules 3 and 3A of the Allahabad High
Court Rules, 1952 and perfectly valid, legal and do not violate the right
of the appellant under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India. The

appeal, therefore, fails and is hereby dismissed.

This article discusses from a critical perspective the issue of judicial specialisation. While accepting the assessment that judicial specialisation is a growing trend in a number of contemporary states, the author sets forth different perspectives and viewpoints on judicial specialisation which clearly show that the excessive enthusiasm should be subdued and that any attempt to specialise judges, court structures and procedures should be carefully balanced against the possible negative impact specialisation could have, both at the general level, and at the level of concrete gains related to administration of justice. The starting point of the analysis is the presentation of multiple forms that judicial specialisation can have. Aspects that are distinguished are judicial specialisation in narrow sense (jurisdictional specialisation) and broader sense (internal, personal and procedural specialisation). Based on the data of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), it is concluded that there is no coherent or consistent approach to judicial and jurisdictional specialisation in Europe, both in respect to the level of specialisation, and in respect to the forms of specialisation. A discussion of the Opinion no. 15 of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE) shows that the viewpoint of judges and their professional organisations is also sceptical on certain aspects of specialisation, and that specialisation is considered to be potentially harmful for the unity of judicial profession and its main professional and ethical foundations. From the perspective of judicial administration, as demonstrated on the examples of international expert assistance to judiciaries of the Netherlands and Croatia, judicial specialisation is attractive, but often for wrong reasons. There is so far little comparative research on judicial specialisation, and the methodology of assessing its concrete benefits and detriments is not developed. Most importantly, the excessive specialisation may have negative impact on the fundamental values of contemporary judicial systems. Therefore, judicial specialisation should be approached with extreme caution, always assessing its implementation from various angles and in the light of all possible side effects that it may have to good administration of justice and core judicial goals and values.

Purpose: This brief report presents preliminary survey data measuring attitudes of members of the U.S. public on the importance, existence, and potential legal use of biological risk factors for criminality.

Design/Method: Survey data was collected from an online sample of U.S. public in conjunction with an experiment not included in this report.

Findings: Data suggest that the public generally agrees there are certain biological characteristics that make one more likely to exhibit criminality. The public does not appear to agree on whether or not this type of evidence should be allowed in court, but the large majority of respondents were worried about its potential misuse.

Implications:
- Social risk factors were generally viewed by respondents as more important to explaining criminality, suggesting sociological views of crime may be still more prevalent in the lay public.
- Worries about biosocial risk factor evidence being misused in court have been previously discussed in academic literature, but the public also appears to share these concerns.
- The public especially worries that this kind of evidence could be used to incorrectly excuse an offender’s behavior, showing they may be weary of this evidence in court as potential jurors.
- Attitudes of many members of the public on these issues may be affected by academic disagreement in the criminology community on the importance of these issues.

Originality: Scholars have emphasized the need for discussion on how the U.S. public views biosocial risk factors for criminality. As there is no known data of this type, these data are the first of their kind.

Пособие посвящено обжалованию: 1) постановлений по делам об административных правонарушениях (Глава 12 ПИКоАП), 2) иных решений и действий судьи, должностного лица органа, ведущего административный процесс (Глава 7 ПИКоАП). Также разъясняются сопутствующие, обжалованию, вопросы: 1) исчисление процессуальных сроков, 2) вступление в законную силу вышеназванных постановлений и решений.

Настоящее пособие (сборник схем) не ставит перед собой целью заменить консультацию профессионального юриста (адвоката, юриста-лицензиата) с исследованием индивидуальных особенностей конкретного дела. Пособие представляет собой личное мнение автора, не претендующее на истину в последней инстанции.

При подготовке 2-го издания пособия использовалось законодательство по состоянию на 01.08. 2016 г. Размер базовой величины на тот момент составил 21 бел. рубль. 
Соответственно, при применении настоящего пособия следует учитывать возможные изменения законодательства Республики Беларусь и размера базовой величины, равно как иные релевантные изменения, существенные для понимания механизма обжалования согласно Процессуально-исполнительному кодексу Республики Беларусь об административных правонарушениях (ПИКоАП) и его практического применения.

Drawing on textual and ethnographic research conducted over the last five years, this article analyses an important genre of judicial practice in South and Southeast Asia that has been almost entirely ignored by socio-legal scholars: Buddhist systems of judging. Using the judicial system of one monastic group in contemporary Sri Lanka as a case study, it argues that Buddhist judging requires more than just the internalisation of moral principles, as is often assumed. According to Buddhist (monastic) principles of judging, legal procedures—similar to those used in state-legal settings—are equally essential. These procedures govern everything from making legal complaints, to the structuring of trials, to determining jurisdiction and many other topics. By examining Buddhist judicial systems, this article not only casts new light on the pluri-legal landscape of Asia, it also offers new reflections on the intersection of religion-based and state-based systems of law in the contemporary world.

Whereas previous studies of legitimacy and trust have mostly dealt with procedural justice and the police, this book focuses on other crucial understudied aspects of legitimacy within criminal law, policy and criminal justice. The chapters expand and develop current criminological, legal and socio-legal research by addressing conceptions of legitimacy linked to criminal law norms, criminalisation and sanctioning; by examining EU legal and policy aspects of the phenomenon; and by exploring some specific court-related issues of legitimacy and trust, hitherto neglected.
With contributions from across the EU, this interdisciplinary collection presents a valuable discussion on the importance of trust in legal institutions of modern democracies and suggests ideas for future research in this area to challenge ways of thinking about legitimacy.

This chapter provides a descriptive and analytical examination of the requirement for lay jurors to give reasons for their decisions. In the 2010 case of Taxquet v. Belgium, the European Court of Human Right announced a new right for criminal defendants “to understand verdicts.” This jurisprudence has prompted a number of Council of Europe countries to overhaul their criminal procedure, including France, which now requires that its mixed courts, in which professional and lay judges deliberate collectively, justify their decisions on guilt or innocence. Descriptively, the chapter presents the Strasbourg court’s position as well as the French response to it, which have both been heralded as moral advances for criminal defendants. Analytically, the paper considers the values and purposes of reason-giving. What is this turn to heightened reason-giving trying to achieve?

I argue that while both the European Court of Human Rights and French lawmakers depict reason-giving as an individual human right belonging to criminal defendants, in practice, reason-giving functions as an accountability device primarily designed to solve systemic issues within the criminal justice system. More specifically, as the French case illustrates, the European interest in reason-giving can be tied to hopes for tighter control over trial judges. The chapter concludes that it is hard, if not impossible, to disentangle two facets of reason-giving, namely, reason-giving as a way to achieve fairness to defendants and reason-giving as a way to provide checks on legal actors who might otherwise enjoy unfettered discretion.

The law is that evidence (whether oral or documentary) which is sought to be relied upon by a party in proving its case, must be adduced at the trial court stage, where, if the evidence is admitted, the trial court will have the opportunity of properly evaluating same before arriving at its final decision. Where a matter proceeds on appeal, the business of the appellate court will usually be to review questions of law so that little or no time may be permitted for the calling of fresh evidence at the appellate stage. Without prejudice to the power of the appellate courts to receive  fresh evidence on appeal, research shows that appellate review of evidence is strictly limited; and this is for a plethora of reasons which include to avoid the abuse of judicial process and to prevent endless litigation, etc. To this end, appellate courts have over the years laid down a number of coexisting conditions which an evidence sought to be
tendered on appeal must fulfil before it can deserve the appellate court’s review. The
first and apparently the major test is that the evidence must be such that it could not have been obtained with reasonable care and diligence for use at the trial. The other tests include that the evidence must be material, credible and could have influenced the judgment of the lower court if it was tendered at the trial stage. Now, given the coexisting nature of the tests, once the first test (due diligence test) fails, the application for leave to adduce further evidence on appeal will crumble like a pack of cards and there will be no need to consider the other tests. On the basis of the due diligence test alone, our courts have in a number of cases refused to grant several applications seeking to adduce further evidence on appeal. The object of this paper therefore is to briefly discuss the difficulties surrounding the due diligence test and to argue in  favour of some exceptions where the test should be relaxedly applied.

This study focuses upon the ruling court in medieval Bohemia, which is viewed as
a social system. The study also deals with the definition of a ruling court. Examples for
the conduct of court society are primarily drawn from the Court of the Bohemian and
Polish King Wenceslas II (1283–1305). The ruling court is shown as a place from which to
benefit and profit. These are based on the device of favours, with the ruler himself
determining the degree of them. Individuals’ quest for benefit and profit results in
permanent fluctuations in the ranks of the courtiers and increasingly destabilizes court
society. Consequently, these are the results of mutual interaction (communication)
between individuals and groups at court, which have to comply with mandatory norms of
court conduct. The structure of the court is the stabilizing factor of existence in this
changeable court society, perceived as a social system. To maintain the court functioning
as a social system, a certain degree of order is, therefore, necessary – namely internal
structures, i.e. individual offices or posts, including the fundamental sub-system of the
court, which is the ruler’s household. The structured system of the court with the ruler
and his family’s household is simultaneously the centre of administration for a governed
territory. The household represents the fundamental unit of the entire development of
court society. Despite the unsettled nature of terminology as far as the use of the words
curia minor and curia major are concerned, it has been shown, on the basis of local
written resources, that medieval scholars perceived the court circles around the ruler as
an everyday court, with the sub-system of the household, or as a minor court, when they
occasionally needed to define it against a wider court society. The latter met irregularly
on various occasions: administrative or legal affairs, for example when a diet was
convened, or a festive event, for example, a coronation and weddings. The ruler realized
governance through office bearers and those upon whom he bestowed his favours. Their
bearers, jointly with him, participated in the administration of his household and the
court itself. Simultaneously, the court supplied those who looked after administration
statewide and delegated it to lower constituent parts all over the country. This system
repeated itself in its structure and interaction, despite changeability in time and space, to
which every ruling court was exposed. In addition to the terminological analysis of the
concepts familia, curia minor and curia major, this study also applies system theory in
order to capture the ruling court as a social system, which is reflected in personalities,
structure, representation and space. The fundamental elements of the ruling court’s
social system, its structure and the interaction of individuals, have made it possible to
capture the paradigmatic manifestations of court society. At the same time they also
provided an opportunity to create a model of a ruling court, described in detail on these
levels and thus contribute to its definition.
Translated by Alena Linhartová

The Habsburgs and their Courts in Europe, 1400–1700: Between Cosmopolitism and Regionalism, ur. Herbert Karner, Ingrid Ciulisová, Bernardo J. García García, Palatium, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, KU Leuven, 2014, 349 str. in Historijski zbornik, LXVIII, Nr. 1, Zagreb 2015. (213-217) [language: Croatian]

What can be learnt about the idea and ideal of judicial independence in authoritarian regimes? While idealised international standards and declarations of judicial independence note the need for separation from the executive, there is more often silence on the relative position of the courts in relation to the military. Yet in country’s like Myanmar’s semi-military regime (2011-), discussions of judicial independence from the executive and legislature make little sense unless we first consider separation from military rule. Military involvement in the courts, both at a personal and institutional level, has become the norm over past decades in Myanmar. In light of this reality, this chapter considers the nature of judicial power of the Constitutional Tribunal and Supreme Court. It highlights debates raised over appointment and removal procedures, questions over which court should have jurisdiction on constitutional review matters, concerns of military-executive interference and the domineering attitude of the Parliament towards the courts. As a recent yellow ribbon campaign protesting against military transfers into the courts highlights, independence of the courts from military influence is a necessary yet difficult first step forward.

The dissertation clarified the definition of judicial jurisdiction and the Court’s jurisdiction to provide judicial assistance for commercial arbitration, pointed out the characteristics and contents of the Court’s jurisdiction to provide judicial assistance for commercial arbitration, and basic theoretical issues related to the concept of domestic commercial arbitration and foreign commercial arbitration, judicial jurisdiction and Court’s jurisdiction to provide judicial assistance for commercial arbitration.
The dissertation explained the necessity of the Court’s judicial assistance for commercial arbitration and the role of the exercise of the Court’s jurisdiction to provide judicial assistance for commercial arbitration.
The dissertation analyzed provisions of Vietnamese law on the Vietnamese Court’s jurisdiction to provide judicial assistance for commercial arbitration, put it in a comparison with the New York Convention and the UNCITRAL Model Law, and examined the practice of applying such provisions. The dissertation thus pointed out inadequacies of the law and limitations in exercising the Vietnamese Court’s jurisdiction to provide judicial assistance for commercial arbitration in practice.
The dissertation proposed detailed solutions to improve Vietnamese law on the Vietnamese Court’s jurisdiction to provide judicial assistance for commercial arbitration and solutions to efficiently exercise the Vietnamese Court’s jurisdiction over commercial arbitration in the coming time.

В рамках данной статьи рассматриваются проблемы, возникающие в настоящее время в работе мировых судей и сотрудников их аппаратов, на основе существующих научных наработок и зарубежного опыта предлагаются пути их решения, которые позволят повысить эффективность и доступность правосудия в России.

This article discusses the problems that currently arise in the work of justices of the peace and employees of their apparatuses, based on existing scientific developments and foreign experience, suggests ways to solve them that will improve the efficiency and accessibility of justice in Russia.

Андреев К. Г., Проблемы судопроизводства в деятельности мировых судей в Российской Федерации и способы их решения // Вестник Белого генерала. № 2. – СПб., АНО НИЦ «Белый генерал», 2020. С. 4–15.

This paper investigates and advocates for the potentials of a direct engagement with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) by constitutional courts through a comparative analysis encompassing six Western European countries. It first shows that, although it does not generally enjoy constitutional rank, the Convention serves as a standard for constitutional review, as constitutional courts have incorporated it into their constitutional yardsticks through various techniques. It then stresses that this has not molded constitutional courts into mere agents of the Strasbourg court, because they have also developed a series of limitations to avoid a mechanical transposition of Strasbourg case-law into the domestic legal order. Finally, it highlights the benefits of the Convention's integration into the constitutional yardstick by arguing that this enhances domestic compliance with the Convention, strengthens the legitimacy of the Convention system, and fosters judicial dialogue. Overall, by directly engaging with the ECHR and with Stras

Federal court confirmations in the United States have become openly political affairs, with partisans lining up to support their preferred candidates. Matters in the states are not much different, with once sleepy judicial elections changing into ever more contentious political slugfests, replete with single-issue interest groups and negative campaign advertising. Once on the bench, judges at every level find themselves dogged by charges of politically motivated decisionmaking. In Bench Press, a first-of-its-kind collection of essays, figures from the academy, the bench, and the press reflect on the state of the American judiciary. Using the results of a specially commissioned public opinion poll as a starting point, the contributors examine the complex mix of legal principle, political maneuvering, and press coverage that swirl around judicial selection and judicial decisionmaking today. Essays examine the rise of explicitly political state judicial elections; the merits of judicial appointments; the rhetoric of federal judicial confirmation hearings; the quality of legal reporting; the portrayal of courts on the Internet; the inevitable tensions between judges and journalists; and the importance of regulating judicial appearances. The Two Faces of Judicial Power is the introduction to Bench Press. It assesses popular conceptions of the courts and provides an overview of essays in the volume.

The order in which evidence is presented to a criminal court might influence the verdict. This study investigated the serial position effect in a judicial context. 1831 Swiss criminal judges received a filmed mock trial with a specific order stemming from the combination of 3 witnesses: a forensic expert, an eyewitness and an alibi witness. The evidence order was completely counterbalanced and each witness represented a different type of testimony chosen in accordance with the legal practice. If judges rendered their verdict on the basis of the first witness, a primacy effect would be observed. Conversely, if the last testimony would be preponderant, a recency effect would influence their judgment. Results showed a recency effect based on a defence eyewitness whose placement in the last position provoked significantly less condemnations. Furthermore, the probative value estimated by the judges for each piece of evidence was not associated with its serial impact. Results are discussed in relation to legal decision-making and the identification of a central witness mediating order effects.

In the past two decades, Canadian policies governing the structure and content of pre-sentence reports (PSRs) have shifted to focus more directly on the systematic identification of offender's criminogenic risk and needs. In this article, we (1) examine how risk-based approaches to offender management have altered the structure and format of the PSR in Canada, and (2) contrast the structure of risk-based PSRs to Gladue reports for Aboriginal offenders in Canada. Gladue reports are designed to identify the unique systemic race/cultural and historical factors specific to Aboriginal offenders and to recommend alternatives to incarceration. We argue that although risk-based PSRs incorporate recognition of race-related issues, their structure and emphasis on actuarially based risk assessments frames race and risk differently from Gladue reports. In Gladue reports, holistic approaches and cultural impact factors are documented and used to understand risk and need. Finally, we argue that the conceptualization and relevance of race is limited by actuarial risk logic. Sentencing is an important aspect of legal decision making, in which information about an offender's risk and needs is produced, contested and used to craft sanctions. 2 Risk information is clearly relevant to the judiciary during the sentencing process (Vigorita, 2003): to evaluate 'risk', judges use information from a variety of sources (i.e. criminal history, professional assessment, pre-sentence, 'Gladue reports' 3 and offender statements), and decisions based on risk are often informed by conflicting penal rationales (i.e. rehabilitation, deterrence, incapacitation). Scholars have recently raised concerns about how criminal law, and sentencing

هذا البحث يحاول تسليط الضوء على أهم وأبرز القواعد التي يقوم عليها الإعلان القضائي التقليدي، ومدى إمكانية تطويعها في استخدامات البريد الإلكتروني كأحد الوسائل الحديثة للإعلان القضائي، من ناحية القواعد الشكلية المقررة في الإعلان، وقواعد العلم اليقيني أو الحكمي بمضمون الإعلان، وقواعد الموطن بطبيعة الحال، وهو ما نتناوله في ثلاثة مباحث، على أن يسبقها مبحث تمهيدي يشكل مدخلاً مفاهيمياً لإعلان الأوراق القضائية عبر البريد الإلكتروني في ظل التطورات التكنولوجية الحديثة.

Principles of judicial notices via e-mail: An analytical study of Bahrain's civil and commercial procedure law

Published in: The Constitutional Court journal - Bahrain
volume(2), issue(4), January 2015

Zlatin has mounted a concerted attack on the scientific
basis of psychology and psychiatry and their ability to provide expertise to the courts. He has assailed both the clinical
methods and conclusions rendered by these mental health
professionals. To rebut expert testimony, Ziskin has proposed
general principles of cross-examination. We discuss
the limitations of this model and provide an initial study
of its effectiveness.

Balancing between sex equality and religious interests has been a challenge for Israel’s constitutional law from the state’s inception. In recent years, however, the expanding repertoire of practices known as women’s exclusion has brought forth this tension with new formulations, intensity, and public sensitivity. This article maps the three decades of Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ or “the Court”) adjudication on women’s exclusion. The modesty requirements and sex-based physical segregation that have become rampant in Israel, require re-articulations of the scope and status of the right to equality, as well as other constitutional rights such as dignity and liberty. The thirty-year database compiled for the purpose of this article encompasses all women’s exclusion cases decided by the HCJ. The database was built based on a novel definition of women’s exclusion cases as a legal field, developed and explained in this article. The database reveals what might be defined as diminishing constitutional adjudication. In the nineteen nineties, the Court has labored in elevating sex equality, developing a doctrinal structure that guards it against religion-based demands to legitimize exclusion norms. In contrast, in the past decade, the Court has almost completely refrained from reviewing cases on the merit or writing reasoned opinions, adopting ad-hoc problem-solving approaches or taking dispute resolution approaches prompting the parties to find compromise, without delineating the legal framework that should guide the disputes.

"Your Honor, perhaps you should have a little more faith in the laws that are designed to protect children rather than take it upon yourself to change the laws.  Certainly, Your Honor, if you have some autocratic ambitions that you're trying to coddle, I'd ask that perhaps you take up some other type of work other than being a judge; because as a judge you're bound by the law, and this child has come here to ask for the Rule of Law as have these parents.  So, Your Honor's offerings, you know, opinions about life and what constitutes a child and a winner and things like that, those things are irrelevant."
~Brian King, Jr.

Americans Against Foreclosures ( AAF ) with over 1,600 Homeowners across the United States have investigated and discovered that Banks, among them U.S. Bank specifically, have apparently bribed Judges in cases of foreclosure and evictions to rule in the Banks' favor. AAF has obtained the evidence from the Committee on Financial Disclosure. Judges with investments and mortgages taken out with these Banks in favorable conditions.

Das grundlegende Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Populismus und Konstitutionalismus wurde in der wissenschaftlichen Literatur schon oft diskutiert. Seltener finden sich aber theoretische Überlegungen, die die vielfältigen Kontakt-und Friktionspunkte zwischen populistischen Par-teien und den Strukturen und Institutionen der konstitutionellen Demokratie eingehend beach-ten. Dieser Beitrag zielt darauf, eine Systematik zu entwickeln, mit derer Hilfe die Interaktion zwischen populistischen Parteien und Verfassungsgerichten sowie die Widerstandsfähigkeit von Verfassungsgerichten gegenüber populistischen Angriffen untersucht werden können.

This is the Front Matter for my book 'The Alchemists: Questioning Our Faith in Courts as Democracy-Builders' (Cambridge University Press, 2017). It includes the preface of the book, titled 'Our Court Obsession'
- Publication date (UK & Europe): 2 November 2017
- Publication date (US): December 2017
- Order at: http://bit.ly/2yeU1jf

This is the Table of Contents for my book 'The Alchemists: Questioning Our Faith in Courts as Democracy-Builders' (Cambridge University Press, 2017).
- Publication date (UK & Europe): 2 November 2017
- Publication date (US): December 2017
- Order at: http://bit.ly/2yeU1jf