As part of an ongoing discussion on the proliferation of the human rights judicial mechanism, this article critically analyses and unpacks the only two examples where the African Court had to decide on the application of the doctrine of res judicata under Article 56(7) of the African Charter. The Court declared both applications inadmissible on the grounds of their previous settlements by the ECOWAS Court of Justice and the United Nations Human Rights Committee. The article demonstrates that while the Court’s decision in the Gombert case appears to be correct in principle, its finding in the Dexter case is highly questionable and unconvincing.
{"title":"The Application of the Doctrine of Res Judicata in the Context of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights: Analysis of the Court’s Decisions in the Gombert and Dexter Cases","authors":"Ayyoub Jamali, M. Faix","doi":"10.12775/clr.2021.009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/clr.2021.009","url":null,"abstract":"As part of an ongoing discussion on the proliferation of the human rights judicial mechanism, this article critically analyses and unpacks the only two examples where the African Court had to decide on the application of the doctrine of res judicata under Article 56(7) of the African Charter. The Court declared both applications inadmissible on the grounds of their previous settlements by the ECOWAS Court of Justice and the United Nations Human Rights Committee. The article demonstrates that while the Court’s decision in the Gombert case appears to be correct in principle, its finding in the Dexter case is highly questionable and unconvincing.","PeriodicalId":36604,"journal":{"name":"Comparative Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48855588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The purpose of this article is to present the legal position of creditors and third parties secured by rights in rem. The analysis takes into consideration the situation when the bankruptcy of a debtor is declared. The purpose of the article is to present the regulation provided in European Union regulations. According to the European Union regulations, the opening of insolvency proceedings does not affect the rights in rem of creditors or third parties {to assets?} belonging to the debtor which are situated within the territory of another Member State at the time of the opening of insolvency proceedings. Therefore the question arises of whether the scale of protection of a secured creditor or of third parties' is too wide in comparison with other creditors. Moreover it is necessary to compare the European Union provisions with regulations of an international character. The provisions of the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law constitute a point of reference for a comparative analysis of this issue.
{"title":"Creditors' and Third Parties' Rights In Rem under European Union Regulations and the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law","authors":"Karolina Ochocińska","doi":"10.12775/clr.2021.015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/clr.2021.015","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this article is to present the legal position of creditors and third parties secured by rights in rem. The analysis takes into consideration the situation when the bankruptcy of a debtor is declared. The purpose of the article is to present the regulation provided in European Union regulations. According to the European Union regulations, the opening of insolvency proceedings does not affect the rights in rem of creditors or third parties {to assets?} belonging to the debtor which are situated within the territory of another Member State at the time of the opening of insolvency proceedings. Therefore the question arises of whether the scale of protection of a secured creditor or of third parties' is too wide in comparison with other creditors. Moreover it is necessary to compare the European Union provisions with regulations of an international character. The provisions of the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law constitute a point of reference for a comparative analysis of this issue.","PeriodicalId":36604,"journal":{"name":"Comparative Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48144080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Z. Khamzina, Y. Buribayev, Kuralay Turlykhankyzy, Zhanar Moldakhmetova, B. Koshpenbetov, Kalkayeva Nessibeli
The purpose of the study is to develop proposals for the modernization of the judicial form of protection of social and labour rights and interests of the individual. We are testing the hypothesis about the priority and universality of the judicial form of protection of rights in relation to other ways of applying for the restoration of violated labour interests; we assess access to justice as a criterion for the effectiveness of the judicial form of protection. The main method is a desk study of law enforcement practice, reports related to the functioning in Kazakhstan of a judicial form of protection of the social and labour rights of an individual, also the method of analysis of documents and statistical data of courts, a survey of examples of the best foreign practice in the work of specialized courts, and an analysis of international universal standards of access to justice in social and labour disputes.
{"title":"Unloading the Judicial System in Kazakhstan? Alternative Ways of Resolving Individual Labour Disputes","authors":"Z. Khamzina, Y. Buribayev, Kuralay Turlykhankyzy, Zhanar Moldakhmetova, B. Koshpenbetov, Kalkayeva Nessibeli","doi":"10.12775/clr.2021.011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/clr.2021.011","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of the study is to develop proposals for the modernization of the judicial form of protection of social and labour rights and interests of the individual. We are testing the hypothesis about the priority and universality of the judicial form of protection of rights in relation to other ways of applying for the restoration of violated labour interests; we assess access to justice as a criterion for the effectiveness of the judicial form of protection. The main method is a desk study of law enforcement practice, reports related to the functioning in Kazakhstan of a judicial form of protection of the social and labour rights of an individual, also the method of analysis of documents and statistical data of courts, a survey of examples of the best foreign practice in the work of specialized courts, and an analysis of international universal standards of access to justice in social and labour disputes.","PeriodicalId":36604,"journal":{"name":"Comparative Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42843779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The rising number of people “just living together”, people who are neither married nor in registered partnerships, clearly demonstrates that non-marital unions can no longer be ignored. To obtain an accurate picture of the situation of non-marital partners it was essential to conduct comparative research of multiple legal orders. This analysis threw a new light (at least from the Polish standpoint) on possible solutions to the problem of the regulation of legal aspects of “living together”. It appears that three different legal attitudes towards non-marital cohabitation may be distinguished in Europe. Firstly, there are legal orders in which by virtue of an explicit reference by the legislator – the regulations on marriage are applied to cohabitation (quasi-marriage cohabitation). Secondly, there also exist countries in which a law was adopted regulating selected aspects of actual cohabitation (implied model of cohabitation). And thirdly, there are legal orders in which any cohabitant-oriented legal regime exists.
{"title":"Three Different Legal Attitudes Towards Non-Marital Cohabitation in Europe","authors":"Ewa Kabza","doi":"10.12775/clr.2021.010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/clr.2021.010","url":null,"abstract":"The rising number of people “just living together”, people who are neither married nor in registered partnerships, clearly demonstrates that non-marital unions can no longer be ignored. To obtain an accurate picture of the situation of non-marital partners it was essential to conduct comparative research of multiple legal orders. This analysis threw a new light (at least from the Polish standpoint) on possible solutions to the problem of the regulation of legal aspects of “living together”. It appears that three different legal attitudes towards non-marital cohabitation may be distinguished in Europe. Firstly, there are legal orders in which by virtue of an explicit reference by the legislator – the regulations on marriage are applied to cohabitation (quasi-marriage cohabitation). Secondly, there also exist countries in which a law was adopted regulating selected aspects of actual cohabitation (implied model of cohabitation). And thirdly, there are legal orders in which any cohabitant-oriented legal regime exists.","PeriodicalId":36604,"journal":{"name":"Comparative Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44975892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The relationship between the judiciary and the political sphere and the dilemma over whether the judiciary has been a victim of politics, or whether politics has been a victim of the judiciary, have been hot topics for some time in Italy. Since a major scandal engulfed the High Council of the Judiciary, the courts have become the principal focus of the reform efforts of the Draghi Government, which took office in February 2021. The contribution briefly illustrates the figure of the Judicial Power within the Division of Powers and the evolution of the judge’s role within this system. Following a brief premise on the evolution of the role of judges during the last two centuries, the principle of the independence of the judiciary in the Italian Constitution will be outlined before final comments on the controversial relationship between the judiciary and politics.
{"title":"Some Brief Remarks on the Controversial Relationship Between the Judiciary and Politics in Italy","authors":"G. Mangione","doi":"10.12775/clr.2021.003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/clr.2021.003","url":null,"abstract":"The relationship between the judiciary and the political sphere and the dilemma over whether the judiciary has been a victim of politics, or whether politics has been a victim of the judiciary, have been hot topics for some time in Italy. Since a major scandal engulfed the High Council of the Judiciary, the courts have become the principal focus of the reform efforts of the Draghi Government, which took office in February 2021. The contribution briefly illustrates the figure of the Judicial Power within the Division of Powers and the evolution of the judge’s role within this system. Following a brief premise on the evolution of the role of judges during the last two centuries, the principle of the independence of the judiciary in the Italian Constitution will be outlined before final comments on the controversial relationship between the judiciary and politics.","PeriodicalId":36604,"journal":{"name":"Comparative Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42915340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper is devoted to the problem of the protection of minority rights in Poland in the interwar period in comparison with the contemporary situation. On the one hand, before the Second World War Poland was a very heterogeneous country, inhabited for generations by multiple and internally diverse religious, national, ethnic, or linguistic minorities. On the other hand, contemporary Poland is a country in which national and ethnic minorities constitute only a few percent of the population, and the proportion of such minorities in Poland compared to other European countries is one of the lowest in Europe. The duties of the Polish authorities towards national minorities were determined by internal legal acts: decrees of the Chief of State, and above all the March Constitution and national law, as well as many international legal acts, for instance such as the so-called Little Treaty of Versailles. The second part of the paper discusses the contemporary situation of the minorities in Poland, for instance the situation of the national and ethnic minorities and the situation of sexual minorities.
{"title":"Interwar and Contemporary Poland. A Comparison of the Protection of Minority Rights in the Second and in the Third Polish Republics","authors":"K. Witkowska-Chrzczonowicz","doi":"10.12775/clr.2021.018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/clr.2021.018","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is devoted to the problem of the protection of minority rights in Poland in the interwar period in comparison with the contemporary situation. On the one hand, before the Second World War Poland was a very heterogeneous country, inhabited for generations by multiple and internally diverse religious, national, ethnic, or linguistic minorities. On the other hand, contemporary Poland is a country in which national and ethnic minorities constitute only a few percent of the population, and the proportion of such minorities in Poland compared to other European countries is one of the lowest in Europe. The duties of the Polish authorities towards national minorities were determined by internal legal acts: decrees of the Chief of State, and above all the March Constitution and national law, as well as many international legal acts, for instance such as the so-called Little Treaty of Versailles. The second part of the paper discusses the contemporary situation of the minorities in Poland, for instance the situation of the national and ethnic minorities and the situation of sexual minorities.","PeriodicalId":36604,"journal":{"name":"Comparative Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45274154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
It has been sufficiently established in law and finance literature that an effective legal framework that governs non-possessory security transactions is a key component in the realization of financial inclusion and affordable access to credit in market economies. Recently, the Nigerian lawmakers enacted the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act 2017 (STMA), which was modelled after the United States’ Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC Article 9) and its unitary-functional approach to security interests. Arguably, some of the STMA’s provisions are defective: they do not reflect the local conditions in Nigeria and are likely to frustrate its section 1 aim of broadening access to credit for individuals and small businesses. The STMA recognizes registration as the main method of perfection: yet there are multiple but unlinked movable collateral registries in Nigeria which ultimately constitute a breeding ground for secret liens. This article argues that the relegation of other perfection methods, such as ‘possession’ and ‘control’, will diminish the economic success of the reformed law. It calls for a reconsideration of the rules governing publicity and the perfection of security interests under the STMA with insights and lessons from the UCC Article 9 and its underlying case law.
{"title":"The Defects of Nigeria’s Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act 2017 and Their Potential Repercussions on Access to Credit: a Comparative Analysis and Lessons from the Anglo-American Law","authors":"W. Iheme","doi":"10.12775/clr.2021.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/clr.2021.001","url":null,"abstract":"It has been sufficiently established in law and finance literature that an effective legal framework that governs non-possessory security transactions is a key component in the realization of financial inclusion and affordable access to credit in market economies. Recently, the Nigerian lawmakers enacted the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act 2017 (STMA), which was modelled after the United States’ Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC Article 9) and its unitary-functional approach to security interests. Arguably, some of the STMA’s provisions are defective: they do not reflect the local conditions in Nigeria and are likely to frustrate its section 1 aim of broadening access to credit for individuals and small businesses. The STMA recognizes registration as the main method of perfection: yet there are multiple but unlinked movable collateral registries in Nigeria which ultimately constitute a breeding ground for secret liens. This article argues that the relegation of other perfection methods, such as ‘possession’ and ‘control’, will diminish the economic success of the reformed law. It calls for a reconsideration of the rules governing publicity and the perfection of security interests under the STMA with insights and lessons from the UCC Article 9 and its underlying case law.","PeriodicalId":36604,"journal":{"name":"Comparative Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47248989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Events that took place in Ukraine in 2014 transparently demonstrated the maladjustment of the national legal and administrative system to the challenges of hybrid warfare in times of peace. Although it took into account the possibility of direct military threats, it proved not to be ready for withstanding unconventional pressure. This state of affairs significantly weakened the state’s ability to resist and led to a number of dramatic political miscalculations, organizational failures, and acute social problems. The subsequent update of the national public law and administrative system made it possible to improve the situation, but at the same time it revealed a number of pressing issues related to the need to strike a balance between the state’s commitment to ensure the protection of human rights and the necessity to protect national security. In this sense the experience of Ukraine is instructive for many countries of the world, especially for those that are the target of the geopolitical ambitions of the modern Russia. The paper discusses the public law of Ukraine in recent years with the view of highlighting some key problems of legal regulation, as well as identifying some promising ways to develop public administration so that it is capable of effectively coping with the threats of hybrid warfare.
{"title":"Public Law and Administration under Conditions of Hybrid Warfare (The Experience of Ukraine)","authors":"T. Gurzhii, A. Gurzhii, Adam Jakuszewicz","doi":"10.12775/clr.2021.007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/clr.2021.007","url":null,"abstract":"Events that took place in Ukraine in 2014 transparently demonstrated the maladjustment of the national legal and administrative system to the challenges of hybrid warfare in times of peace. Although it took into account the possibility of direct military threats, it proved not to be ready for withstanding unconventional pressure. This state of affairs significantly weakened the state’s ability to resist and led to a number of dramatic political miscalculations, organizational failures, and acute social problems. The subsequent update of the national public law and administrative system made it possible to improve the situation, but at the same time it revealed a number of pressing issues related to the need to strike a balance between the state’s commitment to ensure the protection of human rights and the necessity to protect national security. In this sense the experience of Ukraine is instructive for many countries of the world, especially for those that are the target of the geopolitical ambitions of the modern Russia. The paper discusses the public law of Ukraine in recent years with the view of highlighting some key problems of legal regulation, as well as identifying some promising ways to develop public administration so that it is capable of effectively coping with the threats of hybrid warfare.","PeriodicalId":36604,"journal":{"name":"Comparative Law Review","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66545892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The legal community in the United States has good reasons to be interested in the laws of other nations, but there are real barriers to finding and understanding comparative law. This article describes important differences in how law is envisioned in the United States: the pre-eminence of the adopted Constitution as the ultimate statement of rights and government powers, the interpretive role of judges in a unique federalist system, and the importance of case law in learning and talking about the law. This article also describes overarching obstacles that interfere with finding and reading comparative law: the influence of language and culture on formulating and carrying out research enquiries, and the increasingly bewildering array of interferences in accessing law authority and scholarship even when its existence is known.
{"title":"Herein Lies the Rub with Comparative Law Research – From an American Perspective","authors":"Emily Roscoe, Charles Szypszak","doi":"10.12775/clr.2021.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/clr.2021.004","url":null,"abstract":"The legal community in the United States has good reasons to be interested in the laws of other nations, but there are real barriers to finding and understanding comparative law. This article describes important differences in how law is envisioned in the United States: the pre-eminence of the adopted Constitution as the ultimate statement of rights and government powers, the interpretive role of judges in a unique federalist system, and the importance of case law in learning and talking about the law. This article also describes overarching obstacles that interfere with finding and reading comparative law: the influence of language and culture on formulating and carrying out research enquiries, and the increasingly bewildering array of interferences in accessing law authority and scholarship even when its existence is known.","PeriodicalId":36604,"journal":{"name":"Comparative Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46037412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The present article aims to critically describe and compare how two rather different legal fora – the United States Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights – address the same constitutional issue: the protection of property rights and legitimate expectations in the face of a legal change. According to the US Federal Constitution, the effects of a legal change over patrimonial interests can be treated under the due process of law clause or the takings clause. Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, alone or in conjunction with the right to a fair trial, plays the same role under the ECHR. Our concluding remarks will show that in both systems, property protection provisions amount to a guarantee against unfair governmental action. Regulatory takings and proportionality are areas of strong disagreement between the two systems, whereas retroactive legislation and patrimonial expectations reveal some interesting similarities.
{"title":"Property Rights and Legitimate Expectations Under United States Constitutional Law and the European Convention on Human Rights: Some Comparative Remarks","authors":"Marta Guillén Vicente","doi":"10.12775/CLR.2020.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12775/CLR.2020.002","url":null,"abstract":"The present article aims to critically describe and compare how two rather different legal fora – the United States Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights – address the same constitutional issue: the protection of property rights and legitimate expectations in the face of a legal change. According to the US Federal Constitution, the effects of a legal change over patrimonial interests can be treated under the due process of law clause or the takings clause. Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, alone or in conjunction with the right to a fair trial, plays the same role under the ECHR. Our concluding remarks will show that in both systems, property protection provisions amount to a guarantee against unfair governmental action. Regulatory takings and proportionality are areas of strong disagreement between the two systems, whereas retroactive legislation and patrimonial expectations reveal some interesting similarities.","PeriodicalId":36604,"journal":{"name":"Comparative Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44795475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}