Rule of Law Commons^™

The Environmental Emergency And The Legality Of Discretion In Environmental Law, Jocelyn Stacey

Jocelyn Stacey

This article argues that environmental issues confront us as an ongoing emergency. The epistemic features of serious environmental issues – the fact that we cannot reliably distinguish ex ante between benign policy choices and choices that may lead to environmental catastrophe – are the same features of an emergency. This means that, like emergencies, environmental issues pose a fundamental challenge for the rule of law: they reveal the necessity of unconstrained executive discretion. Discretion is widely lamented as a fundamental flaw in Canadian environmental law, which undermines both environmental protection and the rule of law itself. Through the conceptual framework …

The Promise Of The Rule Of (Environmental) Law: A Reply To Pardy's Unbearable Licence, Jocelyn Stacey

Jocelyn Stacey

This short reply clarifies and defends the argument presented in "The Environmental Emergency and the Legality of Discretion in Environmental Law." It responds to the arguments that were made, and that could have been made, in Pardy's critique "An Unbearable Licence".

Reason-Giving, Rulemaking, And The Rule Of Law, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Incumbent Landscapes, Disruptive Uses: Perspectives On Marijuana-Related Land Use Control, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Syllabus-2014-Cclsaarcn-Monsoon Semester-Llm-Dna-Fls-Sau-Comparative Constitutional Law Of Saarc Nations, Dr Nafees Ahmad

Dr Nafees Ahmad

The Constitutional Law is the part of the core curriculum that every student should study. The course aims to equip students for comparative analysis of major constitutional principles and institutions. In order to do so the course will introduce students into the methods of comparative constitutional law and comparative politics of constitution. It is hard to imagine functioning as a judge or jurist or lawyer etc. anywhere in the world without a basic knowledge of a nation’s charter of government and repository of individual rights. But South Asian University is a unique and rare concept that is unprecedented and has …

A Case Study On Burying Alive Of Two Women In Balochistan, Sohail Ahmed Ansari Advocate

Sohail Ahmed Ansari Advocate

Violence against women is present in a variety of forms in Pakistan. From domestic abuse & sexual harassment to child marriages and honour killing; a range of anti-women atrocities are carried out. Pakistani women face systematic discrimination from the day they are born. The patriarchal mindset of society refuses to recognize them as human beings deserving of equality, human rights and justice. Unfortunately in some parts of Balochistan a brutal custom of justice prevails; where the women are treated as trading objects. They are being tried without hearing their cause. They are not allowed to plea their case. They are …

Introduction: Law, Torture, And The “Task Of The Good Lawyer” – Mukasey Agonistes , Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

Following September 11, 2001, there was a challenge to the role of law as a regulator of military action and executive power. Government lawyers produced legal interpretations designed to authorize, legitimize, and facilitate interrogation tactics widely considered to be illegal. This raises a fundamental question: how should law respond to such flawed interpretation and its consequences, even if the ends might have seemed necessary or just? This Symposium examines deep tensions between competing visions of the rule of law and the role of lawyers. Spurred by a controversy over the selection of then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey as commencement speaker, the …

On “Waterboarding”: Legal Interpretation And The Continuing Struggle For Human Rights , Daniel Kanstroom

Daniel Kanstroom

While some aspects of the “waterboarding” debate are largely political, the practice also implicates deeply normative underpinnings of human rights and law. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has steadfastly declined to declare waterboarding illegal or to launch an investigation into past waterboarding. His equivocations have generated anguished controversy because they raise a fundamental question: should we balance “heinousness and cruelty” against information that we “might get”? Mr. Mukasey’s approach appears to be careful lawyering. However, it portends a radical and dangerous departure from a fundamental premise of human rights law: the inherent dignity of each person. Although there is some lack …

The Uniport Saga And Appointment Of Vice Chancellors, Ondotimi Songi

Ondotimi Songi

The article looks at the regime for the appointment of Vice-Chancellors in Federal Universities in Nigeria following the politicisation of the process and the resultant conflicts. it is suggested that as a way to end or minimise these VC appointment-related conflicts, it is time the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003 be further reviewed or amended to adequately and expressly state guidelines for appointment of a VC as there are growing and profound fears in leaving or throwing the guidelines to the Governing Council. This should be done with a view to upholding the principle of merit contained in the …

State Laws And The Independent Judiciary: An Analysis Of The Effects Of The Seventeenth Amendment On The Number Of Supreme Court Cases Holding State Laws Unconstitutional, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

In recent years, the Seventeenth Amendment has been the subject of legal scholarship, congressional hearings and debate, Supreme Court opinions, popular press articles and commentary, state legislative efforts aimed at repeal, and activist repeal movements. To date, the literature on the effects of the Seventeenth Amendment has focused almost exclusively on the effects on the political production of legislation and competition between legislative bodies. Very little attention has been given to the potential adverse effects of the Seventeenth Amendment on the relationship between state legislatures and the federal courts. This Article seeks to fill part of that literature gap, applying …