Legislative Branches Research Articles

The Constitutional And Legal Position Of National Minorities In Kosovo: Ahtisaari Package And The Privilege Of Minorities

Background: In this article, we address the legal and constitutional position, focusing particularly on the Serbian minority and other minorities in a broader context. We delve into their rights and privileges and Kosovo institutions' obligations and responsibilities concerning national minorities. Certainly, national minorities are an integral part of the population of Kosovo; they should enjoy rights and obligations arising from the Constitution and applicable laws. National minorities are an added value in every society; they enrich the mosaic of the country where they live and should be respected, promoting the values they carry and represent in society. The article pays great attention to the Serb community living in Kosovo, their rights identified by the Ahtisaari package, and the privileges that this package recognises as a minority. The Ahtisaari package acknowledges the Serbian Orthodox Church's unique status and explicitly outlines this community's representation within central institutions. This includes reserved and ensured seats in both the executive and legislative branches. At the local level, the package determines how they will be represented. Minorities are represented in the police, prosecutors' office, court, and all other public institutions. Attention has been paid towards instances of sabotage within the state and institutions of Kosovo by the Serbian community that lives in Kosovo and is influenced and directed by Serbia. Representatives of the Serbian community in Kosovo enjoy income and benefits from the state of Kosovo for the mandate they exercise. Still, their actions within the institutions tend to align with Serbia’s agendas rather than addressing the concerns of the community they are supposed to represent. Despite the absence of recognition from the state of Kosovo and partial acceptance by some Serbs living in Kosovo, it is crucial to acknowledge that Kosovo is an independent state and internationally recognised by 116 democratic states of the world. Notably, the Constitution of Kosovo, as a strong constitution, guarantees double rights in favour of the Serbian community living in Kosovo even though they constitute no more than 5% of the overall population. The research uses the descriptive analysis method, based on the precise description and in-depth analysis of the topic through gathering detailed data related to the research problem, analysing and interpreting legal texts and relevant information and privileging a certain community. These methods have been employed to compare the legislation in force with the international obligations that Kosovo has received through the comprehensive proposal for treating non-majority minorities. Results and Conclusions: Our research shows that national minorities in Kosovo are not treated equally. The Serbian community is constantly privileged and continues to be favoured by the international community, while other communities have substantial problems living in practical terms. The citizens of Kosovo understand the issue of minority rights best. Therefore, the state of Kosovo and its citizens should not allow national minorities to be discriminated against or their rights abused. Implementing the agreements reached in the dialogue, fulfilling international obligations, and advancing the rights of minorities in Kosovo is the obligation of Kosovo and its citizens. Kosovo institutions are obligated to dialogue with the Serbian community because they are part of society and must be integrated into it.

Free Speech Viet Nam through the War on Terror

AbstractIn the decades immediately following the Vietnam War, there were no significant conflicts with free speech resulting from major policy or military action. In contrast, the global war on terror following the events of September 11, 2001, mirror in many ways where prior conflicts and government action clashed with Free Speech. Forty-five days after the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, Congress enacted the USA PATRIOT Act. In the months and years that followed, American forces fought abroad and opponents of and advocates for the Act fought at home. This article will review the implementation of the Patriot Act and two provisions, section 215 and 805, to follow the actions of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the federal government and those of civil liberties advocacy groups to review America’s efforts to meet the challenges of providing security for the homeland and protecting Free Speech.

CONSUMER LAW IN THE SYSTEM OF MODERN RUSSIAN LAW AND LEGISLATION

The article is devoted to determining the place of consumer law in the system of Russian law and in the system of Russian legislation. Having formed in Russian civil law initially as a functional institution of civil law protection of consumer rights, it later, together with the norms of branches of public law, forms an intersectoral institute of Russian law, and under the influence of codified civil legislation, especially due to the reform of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, as well as the improvement of legislation on consumer protection and the practice of its application, occupies the place of a functional sub-branch in the structure of modern civil law. For more than thirty years, consumer law has also been formed as a complex branch of legislation, including normative acts containing norms of various branches of Russian law. Consumer law (consumer protection legislation) is characterized by a number of features (it includes numerous regulations of various hierarchical levels and combines legal regulation contained in codified civil legislation and special acts on consumer protection). This, on the one hand, seems to be a very progressive phenomenon, since the civil law regulation of contractual relations with the participation of consumers is elevated to the level of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, and, on the other hand, this is done in part two of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, as well as in certain federal laws, is often inconsistent or insufficiently successful.

How to ‘decaffeinate’ a legislative report: emerging discourses on the climate change-migration nexus within the European Parliament

ABSTRACT This paper examines the different discourses adopted concerning the climate change-migration nexus within the European Parliament (EP). It uses a critical discourse analysis approach to analyse a specific motion for resolution report, its amendments, and plenary debates, as well as an expert interview with the rapporteur to gain further insights into the political dynamics and challenges involved in the process. An own-initiative report is chosen for the analysis to reveal conflicting discourse-making processes between various political groups within the EP and to better understand the role of the EP in the legislative branch of the European Union. It is found that political ideology plays an influential role. Even though political groups agree on the aims of the report, they constantly debate and use amendments to change content and extent. Therefore, we claimed that political discourses in a parliamentary setting should be analysed by specifically evaluating diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational arguments of discourses.

From 30 percent to gender parity in everything: the steady route to raising women’s political representation in Mexico

ABSTRACT This article assesses 30 years of gender quota adoption and reform in Latin America through the lens of earlier theorizing about the incremental and fast tracks. Focusing on women political actors’ ongoing efforts to transform weak quota laws into comprehensive parity requirements, we argue that most fast-track countries follow a steady route. This route builds on Drude Dahlerup and Lenita Freidenvall’s landmark conceptualization of the fast track, introducing countries’ reliance on iterative quota reforms and demonstrating how innovation in quota design continuously raises the bar for what constitutes a “good” quota or parity law. We demonstrate this route using a case study from Mexico, focusing on the 2014 adoption of gender parity for the federal and state legislatures and the 2019 adoption of “parity in everything,” meaning parity for the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

The Administration of Justice: Justice Rosalie Abella’s Contribution to Canadian Administrative Law

Over the course of her impressive legal career, Justice Rosalie Abella has been a champion for the administration of justice – a constitutional paradigm in which the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government all share a fundamental duty to ensure that constitutional principles and values are sustained in practice. Thus, she has repeatedly urged judges to exercise restraint when assessing the legality of administrative decisions because administrative officials have valuable experience and expertise regarding the purposive interpretation of legislation. Understanding this constitutional paradigm helps one to identify unifying themes in Abella J’s administrative law jurisprudence and draw important connections between her work and other leading Canadian jurists like Justices Ivan Rand and Bora Laskin. Moreover, it helps one to distinguish this constitutional paradigm from another formalistic constitutional perspective that perceives the judicial role primarily in terms of maintaining an institutional hierarchy in which judges have an interpretive monopoly to determine the content of the law. While the tension between these two constitutional paradigms is apparent in Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v Vavilov, Abella J’s work provides important insights on how to grapple with this tension in a productive and principled manner.

NTERACTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW WITH CERTAIN BRANCHES OF PUBLIC LAW

The article analyzes the norms of public law that regulate certain aspects related to intellectual property. Intellectual property law, being a sub-branch of civil law, includes not only the norms of private law, but also the norms of public law, i.e. is a complex branch of legislation. Relations, in particular, relating to the provision of legal protection for claimed inventions, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, service marks, appellations of origin, breeding achievements (plant varieties and animal breeds) by the expert organization of the authorized body, are regulated by the norms of the administrative legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, based on imperatives. Moreover, persons who are denied the grant of a title of protection in the form of a patent or certificate for a particular declared object can file obligatory pre-trial objections with the Appeal Board under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan and only then can apply to the court with a claim to appeal the decision of the expert organization, which refused to recognize the declared objects as objects of intellectual property. And these relations are regulated by the norms of administrative procedural legislation. The right of intellectual property is also regulated by the norms of tax, customs legislation. Thus, the intellectual property right in content is a sub-branch of civil law, because has the same subject, the method of legal regulation, and in terms of form, intellectual property law is a complex branch of legislation, because includes both private and public law.

Use of Electoral Law Terminology in Normative Legal Acts Governing Other Legal Relationships: Theoretical Approaches and Practical Errors

On example of electoral terminology, the author examines the systemic aspects of the use of terms in various branches of legislation. As a specific object of study, the wording “electoral rights”, “the right to vote”, used in federal legislation and in the legislation of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, mainly in the field of regulation of various forms of democracy, was chosen. The context of the use of these terms, the completeness of the resulting legal norms are analyzed. In addition to considering the legal technique side of the issue, a theoretical assessment is made of the appropriateness of using electoral legal terminology to solve specific law-making tasks. The results of the study showed that there are violations of the systematic approach in the use of the terms. In other branches of Russian legislation, terms specific to the legal norms governing legal relations in the field of elections are often used either for purposes that are inadequate to the original meaning of the electoral legal term, or in a context that leads to the incompleteness of the legal norm. In some cases, these violations introduce distortions into the political and legal meaning of a form of direct democracy, and put artificial, unreasonable obstacles in relation to its implementation. These shortcomings are typical for both federal and regional legislation. The correction of such mistakes is not conceptually difficult and is limited only by the readiness of the legislator to properly take into account legal technique requirements when formulating legislative texts.

Inclusion of Law Ministers in Collegium

A judge is a lawyer who is a politician who has a friend. Our Supreme Court is also a political court not because judges are politician but because all political disputes are ultimately solved in the court of law. The judiciary should not be solely responsible for the appointment of judges, which is a crucial component of government. The government has made an effort to demonstrate its authority in the process, highlighting the need for a more inclusive framework that includes the executive and legislative branches. To understand the recent debate over our collegium system, it is important to dig deep the constitutionality, history and requirements of the system to be able to answer whether the law minister exclusively be included in the collegium system of India or not. The article aims at elaborating such issues to such context.

The Legal Concept of “Source of Increased Danger”

The work explores the concept of “source of increased danger”, the approaches to determining which, in the doctrine of civil law, are far from unambiguous. The article summarizes the existing approaches to the definition of the concept of “source of increased danger”. The reasons for the need to develop a definition of the concept under study and fix it at the legislative level are indicated. One of these reasons is the rapid complication of technologies, the introduction of innovations in all spheres of society. Despite the centuries-old discussion of civilist scientists, there is still no established, more or less unambiguous position on this issue. Due to the fact that there are no clear, specific explanations in the acts of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, we believe that changes in the law are long overdue due to the ambiguity of individual terms (namely, the guilt of the victim, the owner of a source of increased danger, activities that pose an increased danger to others) used in Article 1079 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The need to consolidate the concept of “source of increased danger” is thought by us as the most important goal of unifying terminology in all branches of Russian legislation. We proceed from subjective – objective conditioning of processes and phenomena, illustrating their interconnectedness due to forced close interaction. The Authors argue the need to adopt a separate federal law establishing the specifics of compensation for harm by activities that pose an increased danger to others. The development of new technologies, the activities of third parties, the behavior of the victim, the quality and characteristics of the causer of harm, conditions and conditions are the prerequisites for the situation itself as a source of increased danger. The generalization of judicial practice on the example of analyzing a specific case is an indicative example of the culprit of the incident avoiding responsibility and injustice of individual court decisions based on judicial discretion. Determining ways to improve the provisions of Article 1079 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, in our opinion, will ensure uniformity of judicial interpretation and, as a result, optimization of law enforcement in the field under consideration. However, our work outlines the common features of research for a number of new scientific problems that require further research work.

Adopting the Constructive Vote of No-Confidence

Abstract A constructive vote of no-confidence is more restrictive than a regular vote of no-confidence as it limits the ability of the legislative branch to challenge the government. Belgium and Israel are the only two countries to adopt the constructive vote of no-confidence while being established democracies. This paper focuses on these two highly interesting cases and asks two questions: 1) What were the circumstances and intentions that brought about the adoption of the cvnc in Belgium and in Israel? 2) What were the implications of the adoption of the cvnc on the Belgian and the Israeli political systems? The findings suggest that both Belgium and Israel adopted the cvnc out of a desire to stabilize their governments; however only Belgium has experienced a clear improvement in government stability after its adoption. In Israel the findings are mixed, depending on the measurement used to define government turnover.

Cooperation and mutual oversight between the legislative and executive authorities in the Iraqi parliament

ce of constitutional trust and the principle of separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary, as it is the constitutions that determine the form of the state, Cooperation and mutual oversight between the legislative and executive authorities play a vital role in achieving democracy and accountability in political systems. Countries need effective and balanced mechanisms that enable parliament to monitor and evaluate the performance of the government and achieve mutual balance between the two authorities in accordance with the state’s constitutions. In Iraq, cooperation and mutual oversight between parliament and the government is extremely important. To build a modern democratic state in accordance with the constitutional foundations and concepts and according to what was stated in the 2005 constitution of the Republic of Iraq. It has been shown that the existence of strong legislation issued by the House of Representatives through which control and the necessary mechanisms are provided to evaluate this performance of the government according to several methods, including those that are in accordance with the Constitution or the internal regulations of the House of Representatives Representatives, such as directed parliamentary questions, commissions of investigation, verification, interrogation, etc. Cooperation between the legislative and executive branches must be strengthened to ensure effective performance of mutual control.

DCI William Colby and the Constitution: Moral Leadership in the “Year of Intelligence”

This article explores the leadership ethics of Director of Central Intelligence William Colby within the context of the release of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “family jewels,” the internal record that listed how the CIA had been involved in a number of illegal activities, including domestic spying. It explores the moral dimension of bureaucratic leadership and illustrates its presence in Colby’s thinking and actions through three indicators: his understanding of the regime values of American democracy; his adherence to his oath of office as a high-ranking civil servant, which he viewed as a positive duty; and his recognition that, in a contest between the executive and legislative branches, counterintuitively, Congress is the party on which the future existence of the CIA rests. Beyond an assessment of Colby’s personal characteristics, this article explores issues of moral leadership in the realm of intelligence and contributes to an understanding of the role of accountability in a fraught political landscape.

Modern problems of qualification of personal data in the context of the doctrine of intangible benefits

The article deals with modern problems of qualification of personal data in civil circulation. In doctrinal sources, the prevailing point of view on this category is the view as an object of civil law, despite the fact that the concept of “personal data” was introduced by the federal law “On Personal Data”, which refers to public branches of legislation. Due to the absence of the category “personal data” in Article 128 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the problem lies in determining the place of personal data among the legally enshrined objects of civil rights; in establishing the legal regime of personal data. Taking into account the views known to the civil doctrine, the author substantiates the possibility of classifying the category of “personal data” and, accordingly, establishing a legal regime to the category of “intangible benefits”, subject to the requirements for the consent of the subject of personal data to the processing of his personal data; for an array of data (Big User Data) ...

PERTIMBANGAN AGAMA CALON KEPALA DAERAH DAN ANGGOTA LEGISLATIF BAGI PEMILIH MUDA

Religion-based identity politics is often carried out in the Pilkada and General Elections to accumulate support by the people. This study focuses on exploring religion considerations in the election of regional heads and legislative members for young voters by proposing two problem formulations, namely: 1) what are the views of young voters on religion and the state, especially on aspects of the implementation of elections and leadership in both the executive and legislative branches?; 2) what are the views of young voters on candidates for legislative members and Muslim or non-Muslim regional heads in the 2024 Simultaneous General Election and Regional Head Elections? Using qualitative methods with primary and secondary data sources which were then analyzed descriptively, concluded that: first, young voters view religion as a very important and main thing in determining candidates for regional heads and candidates for legislative members based on the relationship between state and religion in Indonesia which very strong, regardless of religion. Second, the criteria for Muslim or non-Muslim leaders for most young voters are not the first and foremost, because the important factor lies in the candidate's ability to carry out their duties. However, there are still more than 26 percent of respondents who will continue to prioritize Muslim leaders for reasons of Islamic doctrine and history in the past.

THE SEPARATION OF POWERS AND THE NON-DELEGATION DOCTRINE In re Constitutionality of the Mpumalanga Petitions Bills, 2000 2000 1 SA 447 (CC); 2001 11 BCLR 1126 (CC)

The modern concept of separation of powers was first introduced by Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de la Bréde et de Montesquieu (1689-1755), in his well-known work L’Esprit des Loix (1748). Since then this concept has developed into a doctrine made up of four basic principles, one of which is the principle of separation of functions (the other three being: the principle of trias politica; the principle of separation of personnel; and the principle of checks and balances – see Van der Vyver “Separation of Powers” 1995 SAPL 177).The principle of separation of functions – which provides that each branch of state may only exercise those powers which have been entrusted to it – gives rise to many complex issues. One of these is the extent to which the legislative branch may validly delegate lawmaking powers to another body or person. This issue has been considered by the Constitutional Court on a number of occasions, most recently in the case In re Constitutionality of the Mpumalanga Petitions Bill, 2000 (2002 1 SA 447 (CC); 2001 11 BCLR 1126 (CC)).This judgment is particularly interesting because it deals not only with the type of legislative power which may be validly delegated to another body or person – which was the focus in the Constitutional Court’s previous judgments on the issue – but also with the sorts of bodies or persons to whom legislative power may be validly delegated.Besides dealing with the sorts of bodies or persons to whom legislative power may validly be delegated, the judgment also clarifies a number of issues relating to the referral of a bill to the Constitutional Court by the president (or a provincial premier) in terms of section 79 (or s 121) of the Constitution.

Political representation of medical doctors in Switzerland’s executive and legislative branches in 2023

Background: Healthcare policy is an important societal concern in Switzerland, often dominating the national agenda. In other countries, studies have explored the influence of physicians in public office on healthcare policies, but little is known about the representation of medical doctors in Switzerland's political structures, despite ongoing health-related debates. Methods: In January 2023, we examined the proportion of registered doctors currently serving in Swiss governmental branches: the executive (the Federal Council) and the legislative (the Council of States and the National Council, together the United Federal Assembly). We used publicly available information to demarcate Federal, State, and National Councillors with professional medical backgrounds. We subsequently verified physician registrations using the Federal Office of Public Health’s “Register of Medical Professionals” (MedReg) Results: Six physicians registered in MedReg were identified across the Federal Council and the United Federal Assembly in 2023, equivalent to 2.37% of the total number of Councillors in these chambers. This corresponds to 14.20% of members in the Federal Council (the executive chamber) and 2.03% of members in the United Federal Assembly (the legislative chamber). Conclusions: Rates of physicians sitting in Switzerland’s Federal Council and United Federal Assembly are higher than general population trends for doctors per person. Nonetheless, physicians in Swiss legislative positions are proportionally lower than comparative data from the United States. We highlight how existing professional frameworks may already ensure medical doctors are sufficiently participating in Swiss healthcare debates outside of formal roles. We also suggest that more international evidence is needed to determine the benefits of physicians serving in public office.

Rulemaking Speed in the US States

Abstract This paper explores the speed of rulemaking in American state governments. Drawing on a unique data set of over 250,000 individual rules issued by states from 1993 through 2009, we introduce new measures of the speed and breadth of rulemaking in American state bureaucracies, providing a new way of evaluating the incidence of rulemaking delay within and across governments. We focus specifically on how professionalism and oversight powers of state legislative and executive branches affect rulemaking speed and find that states with more professionalized legislatures and governments with extensive legislative/executive oversight powers experience greater delays in rule adoption. These findings provide important new insights into the politics of regulatory delay and suggest disparate ways in which sub-national governments approach regulatory policymaking in a federal system.

Executive-Legislative Relations in Nigeria's Fourth Republic: Issues, Challenges and Prospects

This study examines the executive-legislative relations in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. The study's objective was to ascertain the extent to which Nigeria's democratic form of government was influenced by disagreements between the administration and the legislature. The study employed an ex-post facto design and also utilized qualitative methods and important information from literature research. Documentation was used to gather the majority of the data from secondary sources, and content analysis was used to give the information a complete and comprehensible explanation. Because of its ability to describe the pattern of relations between the legislative and executive branches in Nigeria's democratic system, Baron Montesquieu's theory of separation of powers, which was created in 1948, was chosen as the framework for examination. The study discovered that the relationships between the legislative and executive branches were unhealthy, antagonistic, conflictual, and dysfunctional during the study period, particularly from 2015 to 2022. Additionally, it is demonstrated that a variety of elements, including constitutional provisions, the capacity to pass laws, the administration of public funds, the perception of executive dominance, haughtiness, and a disregard for the law, among others, are to blame for the ongoing conflicts between the Legislative and Executive arms that have a detrimental effect on the development of democracy in Nigeria. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the connection between the executive and legislative arms of government be reinforced in order to promote a democracy that functions in Nigeria. Additionally, it is recommended that those in public office respect the law.

Constitutional reform of Ukraine in 2016 and its impact on the development of the legal system

It has been established that the constitution is the fundamental law of any modern state, which ensures the integrity of the country's legal system. The said legal act contains the most important provisions defining the basic guarantees for the protection of rights, freedoms and interests of a person and a citizen, as well as the key principles of functioning of the State as a whole and its legislative, executive and judicial branches. It is noted that the priority of the constitutional provisions is due to the fact that all other legal acts of different legal force are developed in accordance to it.
 Attention is drawn to the fact that the constitutional reform in Ukraine implemented in 2016 was important for our country, since: firstly, it was aimed at strengthening democracy and observance of the rule of law in Ukraine; secondly, the powers of the President of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to elect judges to office were adapted in accordance with international standards; thirdly, the requirements for the personality and professionalism of judges were significantly increased.
 It has been noted that the constitutional reform of 2016 had a significant impact not only on the activities of the judiciary, but also on the development of the legal system of the Ukrainian State. Thus, among the positive aspects of the relevant reform are the following: the content of the legal provisions enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine defining human rights and freedoms has become one of the broadest among European countries; the reform significantly changed the approach to the content of the principle of judicial immunity, in particular, a functional approach to ensuring judicial immunity was applied; the activities of the bodies responsible for the judiciary were reformed in accordance with European requirements and standards.