Law Commons^™

¿Qué Es Transparencia?, Rafael Ramírez Villaescusa

Rafael Ramírez Villaescusa

El reciente proceso de consolidación democrática experimentado por México en la última década ha estado acompañado de una serie de políticas públicas encaminadas a fortalecer la participación ciudadana dentro de la toma de decisiones, así como la rendición de cuentas gubernamental. Una de esas acciones consistió en la promulgación, durante el sexenio del Presidente Fox, de la Ley Federal de Transparencia y Acceso a la Información Pública Gubernamental. Lo anterior, además, se inscribió en el contexto de un movimiento global a favor del derecho a saber, impulsado por diversas organizaciones internacionales. Parece ser que la transparencia llegó para quedarse, lo …

Replacing And Amending Constitutions: The Logic Of Constitutional Change In Latin America, Gabriel L. Negretto

Gabriel L. Negretto

Since 1978, all countries in Latin America have either replaced or amended their constitutions. What explains the choice between these two substantively different means of constitutional transformation? This article argues that constitutions are replaced when they fail to work as governance structures or when their design prevents competing political interests from accommodating to changing environments. According to this perspective, constitutions are likely to be replaced when constitutional crises are frequent, when political actors lack the capacity to implement changes by means of amendments or judicial interpretation, or when the constitutional regime has a power-concentrating design. It is further argued that …

After Privacy: The Rise Of Facebook, The Fall Of Wikileaks, And Singapore’S Personal Data Protection Act 2012, Simon Chesterman

Simon Chesterman

This article discusses the changing ways in which information is produced, stored, and shared — exemplified by the rise of social-networking sites like Facebook and controversies over the activities of WikiLeaks — and the implications for privacy and data protection. Legal protections of privacy have always been reactive, but the coherence of any legal regime has also been undermined by the lack of a strong theory of what privacy is. There is more promise in the narrower field of data protection. Singapore, which does not recognise a right to privacy, has positioned itself as an e-commerce hub but had no …

Gandhi's Ideas On World Government, Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan

Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan

No abstract provided.

Migration And Disaster-Induced Displacement: European Policy, Practice, And Perspective, Michael D. Cooper

Michael D. Cooper, Esq.

Over the last decade, a series of devastating natural disasters have killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions, and decimated the built environment across wide regions, shocking the public imagination and garnering unprecedented financial support for humanitarian relief efforts. Some suggest that disaster migration must be supported by the international community, first as an adaption strategy in response to climate-change, and second, as a matter of international protection. This study surveys the current state of law as it relates to persons displaced by natural disaster, with a specific focus on the 27 member states of the European Union plus …

Ethical And Privacy Impact Assessment In The Big Data Era: An Oxymoron ?, Antoinette Rouvroy

Antoinette Rouvroy

No abstract provided.

El Precedente En El Tribunal Constitucional: ¿Doctrina Judicial O Compromiso Con Votos Particulares?, Sergio Verdugo Sverdugor@Udd.Cl, Nicolás Galli

Sergio Verdugo R.

Se propone una metodología para evaluar la predictibilidad de las sentencias del Tribunal Constitucional considerando la coherencia experimentada en los votos individuales de sus ministros. Tomando algunos casos considerados especialmente relevantes por especialistas consultados, y observando que los ministros disidentes no suelen modificar sus posiciones para seguir las posiciones de la mayoría en casos futuros, se concluye que la mantención de las doctrinas del Tribunal Constitucional dependerá en gran medida de la composición del mismo, y no solamente de lo que se haya expresado en sentencias precedentes.

In Dedication To Chief Justice Christine M. Durham, Jess M. Krannich

Jess M. Krannich

No abstract provided.

Radiography To The Chilean Human Rights Institution: Between Law And Politics, Sergio Verdugo Sverdugor@Udd.Cl, José Francisco Garía

Sergio Verdugo R.

The article examines the fundamental recommendations for the national human rights institutions (NHRI) to function with proper autonomy against the state and, also, against NGOs that try to capture the commission´s agenda. The authors analyse the institutional design of the Chilean Human Rights Institution (INDH) and evaluates the profile and the nomination process of its membership. The paper provides evidence that demonstrates that the INDH´s research agenda is associated with a partial political view. Then, the authors suggest certain changes to strengthen the independence of the INDH.

Aspectos Democraticos De La Ley De Ordenamiento Territorial Y Usos Del Suelo De La Provincia De Mendoza Nª 8051, Luis Gabriel Escobar Blanco

Luis Gabriel Escobar Blanco

In these times when direct forms of democracy burst before formal institutions, the Land Use Planning Law in the Province of Mendoza is presented as valid and democratic alternative, which integrates direct citizen participation with the constitutional representative principle, contemplating identity cultural as a valid indicator for the management modelThis Law Nº 8051 formalizes and concrete the spirit of the quintessential democratic in three principles: government of the people, by the people and for the people. And we add our tradition the principle "the people want to know what it is"

¿Quién Fue El (La) Gran Ausente En El #Debate2012?, Norma E. Pimentel

Norma E Pimentel

Reflexión personal sobre el "debate" del día 06.05.2012

Argumentación Constitucional, Leonardo García Jaramillo

Leonardo García Jaramillo

No abstract provided.

Freedom To Achieve: The Future Of Student-Led Organizations Within The Public School System, Braden W. Johnson

Braden W Johnson

On-campus religious organizations have received special protections according to their First Amendment rights and the Equal Access Act of 1984. As more controversial organizations have been incorporated within the public school system, school administrators have found it increasingly hard to control the effects of these groups. This article argues for a revision to the Equal Access Act which strengthen's a school's ability to place restrictions on the formation of controversial clubs.

The Gentleman From New York: Congressional Discipline In The Light Of Powell V Mccormack, Braden W. Johnson

Braden W Johnson

In this article, I examines the seating controversy between Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and the House of Representatives, and describe the Supreme Court's protection of Powell's right to be seated. Furthermore, I argue that this precedent influenced the Senate to seat Roland Burris, the embattled Illinois Senator appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, without delay.

The Alternative Forms Of Dispute Settlement And The Essential Difference Between These And Arbitration, Michael Diathesopoulos

Michael Diathesopoulos

The paper examines the characteristics of some common alternative forms of dispute settlement and their key differences from arbitration regarding their nature and scope. Its purpose is to explore each mechanism's suitability for specific types of disputes.

Business In The Bulls-Eye? Target Corp. And The Limits Of Campaign Finance Disclosure, Taren Kingser, Patrick Schmidt

Patrick Schmidt

No abstract provided.

European Integration And National Courts: Defending Sovereignty Under Institutional Constraints?, Arthur Dyevre

Arthur Dyevre

The present paper examines the response of national high courts to the ECJ’s integrationist agenda and tries to uncover the logic behind their qualified acceptance of EU law supremacy and direct effect. Drawing on the legal and political science literature, I discuss and develop several possible explanations for the observed inter-court variation: the courts’ type and organisation; their power to review legislative acts under domestic law; the rules governing access to the judicial forum; the monistic tradition of the legal system and the level of public support for European integration. I then assess the empirical validity of these hypotheses using …

Webs Of Faith As A Source Of Reasonable Disagreement, Gregory Brazeal

Gregory Brazeal

Contemporary political theorists and philosophers of epistemology and religion have often drawn attention to the problem of reasonable disagreement. The idea that deliberators may reasonably persist in a disagreement even under ideal deliberative conditions and even over the long term poses a challenge to the common assumption that rationality should lead to consensus. This essay proposes a previously unrecognized source of reasonable disagreement, based on the notion that an individual's beliefs are rationally related to one another in a fabric of sentences or web of beliefs. The essay argues that an individual's beliefs may not form a single, seamless web, …

A New Index Of Legislative Oversight, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

The purpose of this paper is to present a new index of legislative oversight. Building on the work by Stapenhurst (2011), who argued that a proper index of legislative oversight capacity should reflect not only legislatures’ internal oversight capacity but also the impact of contextual factors, we devise and propose a modified version of the Stapenhurst. The results of the empirical analyses presented in the paper sustain the claim that when properly operationalized and measured, legislative oversight capacity is a good predictor of legislative oversight effectiveness and other policy relevant results.

Willful [Color-] Blindness: The Supreme Court's Equal Protection Of Ascription, Aaron J. Shuler

Aaron J Shuler

Rogers Smith in his "Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions in America," warns of novel legal systems reconstituting ascriptive American inequality. The post-Warren Courts' approach to Equal Protection, specifically their unwillingness to consider disparate impact and the difference between invidious and benign practices, betrays an "ironic innocence" as described by James Baldwin to a history of racial discrimination and domination, and a disavowal of a hiearchy that the Court perpetuates.

Grumpy Old Men: A Correlation Between Irritation And Intolerance For Marriage Equality, Aaron J. Shuler

Aaron J Shuler

The Gay Equality Movement has made expeditious strides in the last few decades. Most progress in accepting attitudes toward homosexuals has been made in groups that are traditionally associated with liberal views toward minority groups: the young, the educated, and, to a lesser extent, women. This paper seeks to use membership in those groups as control variables to determine whether another less understood independent variable bears on tolerance. Specifically, this paper uses data from the American National Election Survey from 2008-09 and Alan Gerber’s work on the “Big Five” personality traits to determine whether irritated or less agreeable citizens are …

El Tribunal De Los Militantes: El Control Judicial De Los Conflictos Intrapartidistas En México, Javier Martín Reyes

Javier Martín Reyes

The Party Members’ Court: Judicial Control over Intraparty Disputes in Mexico.

This paper explains how the Electoral Court of the Federal Judicial Branch (TEPJF) of Mexico, without a supporting legislation, was able to establish a direct and far reaching control over intraparty disputes such as the election of party leaders, the selection of candidates, or the punishment of party members. Following a strategic behavior approach, I will provide empirical evidence to prove that there was a negative correlation between the level of judicial control over the parties’ internal life, on the one hand, and the vulnerability of the TEPJF from …

Africa, Mark J. Calaguas

Mark J Calaguas

The Africa Committee's contribution to the 2011 Year-in-Review issue of the American Bar Association Section of International Law's quarterly journal, The International Lawyer.

Model Švajcarskog Federalizma, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Sa širenjem Evropske unije ka jugoistoku, odnosno u pravcu mnoštva članica bivše Jugoslavije, vrlo je verovatno da će se njene institucije, koje se karakterišu suprotnostima i nejednakošću, pokazati kao nesposobne za suočavanje sa teretom koji sa sobom nosi jedna efikasna i demokratska vladavina. Evropska unija moraće da reguje brzo kako bi se rešila inherentnog demokratskog deficita koji postoji u njenim političkim institucijama. Ako želi da ukloni jaz koji je nastao između njenih institucija i biračkog tela, Evropska unija (EU) moraće suštinski da reorganizuje strukturu datih institucija. Približavanjem ideje proširenja EU stvarnosti, ovaj fundamentalni zahtev postaće neizbežan, ukoliko nova, proširena EU …

Post-Citizens United: Using Shareholder Derivative Claims Of Corporate Waste To Challenge Corporate Independent Political Expenditures, William Alan Nelson Ii

William Alan Nelson II

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Citizens United v. FEC allows companies to spend unlimited sums from their treasuries on advertisements that promote or oppose political candidates. This issue has taken the main stage in American politics, especially with the current Republican primary race and the Presidential election in November. This article discusses how shareholders may use derivative claims of corporate waste to challenge independent political expenditures that they believe are detrimental to the corporation. The article begins by discussing the history of the corporate waste doctrine and looks at the standard for pleading a claim of corporate waste. The …

Godsdienst Als Hype, Wouter H. De Been

Wouter H. de Been

No abstract provided.

El Individuo Y La Comunidad. Aeon J. Skoble, Mario Šilar

Mario Šilar

No abstract provided.

El Fracaso: Su Utilidad Personal Y Social, Mario Šilar

Mario Šilar

No abstract provided.

The Role Of The Law In The Availability Of Public Transit And Affordable Housing In Atlanta’S West End, Elliott Lipinsky

ELLIOTT LIPINSKY

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation that administers federal funds and provides technical assistance for the support of locally operated public transit systems. MARTA / Atlanta metro area are part of FTA Region IV (the Southeast). FTA would be involved, for instance, in financing the federal grant monies discussed above. But actual regulation of operations (i.e., what MARTA does each day, or what MARTA will plan to do regionally) is more closely regulated by Georgia agencies.

Until recently, the Atlanta metropolitan area had no powerful central agency to coordinate regional transit. The …

American Stewardship: A Path Already Laid (Conference Draft), Colin W. Maguire

Colin W. Maguire

The United States of America continues to be a global leader in many economic and social areas. However, the environmental movement has been given a lukewarm response in America. Far from being a global leader, the United States lags behind in the implementation of green building technology, efficient automobile use, and renewable energy technology. It is a tragedy that is slowly being addressed but one that is often an issue divided along political lines. American conservatives, whether calling themselves Republicans, Libertarians, or Independents, often lament the progressive underpinnings of the green movement and fail to give full support to green …