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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
The Emergence Of Constitutionalism As An Evolutionary Adaptation, Fabio P L Almeida
The Emergence Of Constitutionalism As An Evolutionary Adaptation, Fabio P L Almeida
Fabio P L Almeida
The emergence of modern societies is an evolutionary puzzle. Homo sapiens is the only animal species capable of cooperating in large-scale societies consisting of genetically unrelated individuals. From a biological point of view, this feature leads to enormous questions. Social scientists typically assume that human life is lived in large-scale societies as a result of cultural, social and institutional history. In this perspective, social institutions such as law, economy and religion enhance cooperation to higher levels. Gene-culture coevolutionary theories have studied this issue in an integrated framework that accounts for social and biological theories of cooperation. These theoretical approaches have …
Judicial Activism: An (Un)Expected Result Of Legal Interpretation In Complex Societies?, Fabio P L Almeida Mr, Alexandre A. Costa Dr
Judicial Activism: An (Un)Expected Result Of Legal Interpretation In Complex Societies?, Fabio P L Almeida Mr, Alexandre A. Costa Dr
Fabio P L Almeida
Judicial activism has been accused of being an undue activity of judges, who should restrict themselves to the interpretation of the law. In this article, we argue that this conception is wrong: judicial activism does not imply a distortion in political and judicial structures, but it should be understood as an expected feature of legal interpretation in complex political systems. In contemporary liberal democracies, legislation cannot regulate all situations, and thus the only way to affirm its universality is through flexible interpretation, which grants to society the ability to adapt its legal system to new circumstances without the need to …