Law Commons^™

The Normalization Of The Exception: The Nexus Of Emergency Powers And Criminal Justice In Colonial And Postcolonial Jamaica, Jermaine Ar Young

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the antiquity, the study of emergency powers has tended to revolve around the dichotomy between norm and exception, suggesting that governments follow established rules of law in ordinary circumstances and resort to extraordinary measures only in times of genuine emergency. My dissertation challenges this dichotomy by analyzing Jamaica’s colonial and post-colonial experiences with emergency powers in order to provide a different story about the norm-exception binary. In fact, Jamaica’s case shows there are no neat partitions between both spheres. Instead, what we see unfolding is the technical application of emergency provisions as legality, rule by law, rooted in continual …

Semi-Presidential Executive Branch Institutionalization And Personalization Under Cuba's 1940 Constitution, Daniel Pedreira

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ratification of Cuba’s Constitution of 1940 ushered hopes for democratic stability, most notably through the implementation of a semi-presidential system. Innovative for its time, semi-presidentialism sought to reduce the “perils of presidentialism” that plagued the early decades of the Cuban Republic. Yet, over the next two decades, the Cuban Republic declined and fell as it devolved into authoritarianism and totalitarianism.

This study analyzes the extent to which Cuba’s executive branch was institutionalized or personalized under the 1940 Constitution. Taking a close look at the presidential administrations of Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar (1940-1944, 1952-1954, and 1954-1959), Ramón Grau San Martín (1944-1948), …

The Syrian Refugee Crisis And The European Union: A Case Study Of Germany And Hungary, Simone-Ariane Schelb

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the impact of the Syrian refugee crisis on the Common European Asylum System. It evaluates the extent to which the European Union was able to implement a common asylum system, identifies discrepancies between different European countries, primarily Germany and Hungary, and briefly examines the roots of these differences. To this end, the structure of the international refugee protection regime and the German and Hungarian asylum systems are analyzed. Furthermore, the thesis explores how the governments of the two countries perceive the rights of refugees and how their views have affected their handling of the crisis. The case …