Court Cases Research Articles

Enhancing the Statutory Roles of the Shariah Advisory Council of Bank Negara Malaysia through Technological Advancement: A Way Forward

The Central Bank Act of 2009 established the Shariah Advisory Council of Bank Negara Malaysia as the exclusive and highest authority responsible for issuing resolutions on Shariah matters pertaining to Islamic finance. An in-depth analysis of the Shariah Advisory Council’s legal standing is provided in this article. The Shariah Advisory Council’s legal obligations will also be clarified. To determine where the Shariah Advisory Council fits within the context of Malaysian law, quantitative analysis of content is employed with reference to parliamentary acts, directives, as well as judicial rulings through court cases. The investigation discovered that the use of digital technologies can strengthen the Shariah Advisory Council’s mandated duties. As a result, it is suggested that internal policies and processes, plans for empowering Shariah resolutions, and public reference bodies be established.
 Keywords: Islamic finance, Shariah advisory council, Shariah authority

Justice Bork, or, be careful which supreme court nominees you choose to fight

AbstractObjectiveThis study uses counterfactual analysis to assess whether a hypothetical Supreme Court with Robert Bork as a member would have decided cases differently than the actual Supreme Court.MethodsI utilize both a qualitative analysis, and a quantitative Bayesian counterfactual model to predict Supreme Court case outcomes from 1988 to 2012.ResultsThe results show that several salient cases would have been decided differently, most of the decisions decided over the time frame would have remained unchanged. I also find that a hypothetical Supreme Court with Robert Bork as an associate justice would not have radically shifted rightward. Rather, the results show a brief rightward shift from 1991 to 1994, and a much longer and stronger rightward shift occurring after 2001.ConclusionThe results suggest that scholars and pundits need to think more carefully about which Supreme Court nominees are should be contested in the advice and consent process – at least on political or ideological grounds.

An analysis of U.S. website accessibility court cases: are standalone websites subject to ADA requirements?

An analysis of U.S. website accessibility court cases: are standalone websites subject to ADA requirements?

Psychiatrists as forensic authorities: evaluation of dangerous habitual offenders in West Germany during the 1960s - the Helmut Hoinka case.

Preventive detention for highly dangerous habitual offenders has been in force in Germany for 90 years. The necessity of this measure is hotly debated from a legal perspective. However, the assignment of preventive detention is largely determined by the opinion of medical experts. This article discusses the role of medical experts and the issues they face in evaluating the dangerousness of habitual offenders using the case of the marriage swindler Helmut Hoinka, prosecuted several times in the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1960s. Helmut Hoinka's case was chosen for analysis because of the rare opportunity to access detailed materials that allowed us to follow in detail the reasoning of the medical experts who evaluated Hoinka: medical reports stored in the Gerd Huber Archive at the University of Ulm, and Hoinka's court case from the State Archive of North Rhine-Westphalia. To examine these sources, we implemented the historical-critical method. The medical experts who evaluated Hoinka were aware of the defendant's criminal record prior to the evaluation, which was a source of bias. In addition, the criteria for classifying the offender as a dangerous habitual offender were open to a wide range of interpretations. Hoinka's high level of intelligence was negatively emphasized. Some test results were considered unreliable because it was assumed that Hoinka had manipulated his answers. Personal value judgments were allowed in assessing Hoinka's personality. Hoinka's criminal behavior was considered a medical symptom of psychopathy because it violated general moral and social norms. The medical reports of both experts showed that the psychiatrists believed in the genetic nature of psychopathy and criminal behavior. Their criminological prognosis was fully supported by the court in imposing the sentence. Challenges to Hoinka's criminological prognosis were the experts' personal biases, their belief in the theory of genetic predisposition to crime, the lack of clear criteria for antisocial personality disorder, and the absence of forensic recommendations for "psychopathic" criminals. The experts' opinion on Hoinka's criminal predisposition was crucial to the imposition of the sentence.

Re-Imagining the Offender: Exploring the Victim-Offender Overlap in the Context of Women Perpetrators of Sex Trafficking

This article examines the involvement of female perpetrators in sex trafficking networks. Field studies, testimonies, and court cases from around the world are analyzed to demonstrate that most female perpetrators were once victims of sex trafficking; and that they turn to the "offender" side of trafficking because of coercion, manipulation, and psychological and socioeconomic vulnerabilities. In this regard, victimization and perpetration are inextricably linked, a fact that is captured by the victim-offender overlap framework. This framework has not yet been incorporated into international legal norms, which causes the past or current victimization experienced by female perpetrators to be dismissed in courts and used for harsher punishments. This article calls for international law to make increasing efforts to acknowledge the circumstances of female perpetrators' offenses and to broaden the scope of the non-punishment principle to break the cycle of violence.

Humour, Subversion and Voice of a Subaltern: Reading “Truth Vow” as LeitMotif in Habib Tanvir’s Play Charandas Chor

In the cultural and sociological context, “Truth” and “Vow” appear as crucial motifs in Indian myths, Vedas, and epics. Truth is believed to be a virtue and a vow is a solemn promise that we make in different social, cultural, political, and religious contexts, and a truth vow combidly becomes a virtuous promise. The most prominent example of a truth vow is used in court cases, where the witness proclaims that “solemnly I vow to speak only and only truth” in Indian law proceedings (no one can assure that it really happens but the court believes it so). Other examples of vowing include marriage communion, religious occasions, and constitutional and self-motivation. One such leitmotif of “Truth Vow” extrapolates the dramatic narrative of the play “Charandas Chor”(1975) written by playwright Habib Tanvir. The truth, as a leitmotif, ferments subversive humour for the spectator and reader of the play. Playwright Tanvir presented truth not only as a virtue but binds it with a vow, thus enlarging it as a characteristic trait of the Protagonist. This leitmotif becomes a subjugating tool and with this, the marginalised character locates his own voice in the end. Therefore, this paper discusses the role of “Truth Vow” as leitmotifs in the play “Charandas Chor” (1975) along with its humour and utterance. The play has previously been read as a social critic, for its folk elements, and its subaltern representation, but here, the aim is to read truth as a voice, which even when suppressed by the hegemonic powers, resists in its disappearance. Here, the method of textual analysis is used to evaluate the play. The text is read to locate instances of the truth and its positioning and to negotiate with masses subverting aspects.

APPLICATION OF MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHMS IN PREDICTIVE LEGAL ANALYTICS

Machine learning (ML) is a branch of artificial intelligence that enables computers to learn from data and make predictions based on patterns and statistics. ML applied to various domains, such as natural language processing, computer vision, and recommender systems. One of the emerging applications of ML is in the field of legal analytics, which aims to provide insights and guidance for legal professionals and stakeholders. Predictive legal analytics is a subfield of legal analytics that focuses on using ML to predict the outcomes of legal disputes, such as court cases, arbitrations, or negotiations. Predictive legal analytics can help lawyers and judges to assess the potential legal consequences of their actions, to align their decisions with past precedents, to identify the best strategies for resolving conflicts, and to improve the efficiency and quality of justice delivery. Predictive legal analytics can also help clients and policy makers to understand the legal risks and opportunities involved in their situations, to make informed decisions before initiating or pursuing a legal action, and to evaluate the impact of legal reforms and interventio

Українське селянство 19 ст. у матеріалах повітового суду: мікроісторичний вимір у контексті повсякдення

The object of the article is to systematically highlight the materials of the court archive of one of the largest districts of Kyiv province, namely Uman district, in particular the court cases in which peasants were involved. These materials complement the concept of everyday Ukrainian peasantry in the 19th century. The research methodology is based on the use of general scientific principles of historicism, objectivity and a systematic approach in the analysis of historical sources, which are used in this article. Such special historical methods as descriptive, problem-chronological, historical-systemic and heuristic ones have proven to be effective. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time the materials of the judicial and investigative practice of Uman County Court were used to highlight such an aspect of everyday Ukrainian peasantry as crimes and punishments. Chronological and thematic systematization of court cases in which peasants were involved showed a quantitative superiority of cases about abuse of peasants, peculiar forms of peasant protest in the form of escapes from serf owners and deviant acts in the pre-reform years. Dissatisfaction with the agrarian reform of 1861 created the basis for the deviant behavior of peasants in the everyday life of the post-reform years. Conclusions. During the functioning of Uman County Court (1800-1872), 1,817 cases were postponed in its archive, 269 of which are the materials of court proceedings on the claims of peasants or their prosecution. Most of the court cases date back to the pre-reform years and contain evidence of social tension in the villages. But the agrarian reform of 1861, despite its positive aspects, did not eliminate the reasons for such tension even in the post-reform era. In the everyday life of the peasantry of the first half of the 19th century, there was abuse of landowners, housekeepers and estate managers, which served as a reason for peasants to run away, commit suicide, commit crimes, and deviant behavior in everyday life. The materials of the district court’s judicial and investigative practice show that wealthy peasants appealed to the court regarding the purchase of land plots. The abolition of serfdom and the gaining of personal freedom by the peasants did not relieve social tension, and in the everyday life of the peasantry, illegal actions took place as a manifestation of despair, rudeness and violence.

A Step Forward in Identifying Socially Desirable Respondents: An Integrated Machine Learning Model Considering T‐Scores, Response Time, Kinematic Indicators, and Eye Movements

Context: In high‐stakes assessments, such as court cases or managerial evaluations, decision‐makers heavily rely on psychological testing. These assessments often play a crucial role in determining important decisions that affect a person’s life and have a significant impact on society.Problem Statement: Research indicates that many psychological assessments are compromised by respondents’ deliberate distortions and inaccurate self‐presentations. Among these sources of bias, socially desirable responding (SDR) describes the tendency to provide overly positive self‐descriptions. This positive response bias can invalidate test results and lead to inaccurate assessments.Objectives: The present study is aimed at investigating the utility of mouse‐ and eye‐tracking technologies for detecting SDR in psychological assessments. By integrating these technologies, the study sought to develop more effective methods for identifying when respondents are presenting themselves in a favorable light.Methods: Eighty‐five participants completed the Lie (L) and Correction (K) scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory‐2 (MMPI‐2) twice: once answering honestly and once presenting themselves in a favorable light, with the order of conditions balanced. Repeated measures univariate analyses were conducted on L and K scale T‐scores, as well as on mouse‐ and eye‐tracking features, to compare the honest and instructed SDR conditions. Additionally, machine learning models were developed to integrate T‐scores, kinematic indicators, and eye movements for predicting SDR.Results: The results showed that participants in the SDR condition recorded significantly higher T‐scores, longer response times, wider mouse trajectories, and avoided looking at the answers they intended to fake, compared to participants in the honest condition. Machine learning algorithms predicted SDR with 70%–78% accuracy.Conclusion: New assessment strategies using mouse‐ and eye‐tracking can help practitioners identify whether data is genuine or fabricated, potentially enhancing decision‐making accuracy.Implications: Combining self‐report measures with implicit data can improve SDR detection, particularly in managerial, organizational, and forensic contexts where precise assessments are crucial.

Legal Concerns and Risks Facing Project Managers: Small Macao versus Some Major Jurisdictions

From the viewpoint of a project management practitioner instead of a traditional comparative law researcher, this article attempts to analyze the legal concerns and risks facing project managers and project management in general and compare these legal concerns and risks between the small jurisdiction Macao and such major jurisdictions as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Hong Kong. Without being specific to any particular industry, these legal concerns and risks are identified and subsumed under three general perspectives, namely, contract disputes, liability for defects and delays, and labor and employment issues. Drawing on academic literature, statutes, acts, and court cases of relevance, this article dwells on these three perspectives as they matter to project management in general, cites the related key legal statutes and acts in these three perspectives in respect of project management, illuminates the statues’ and acts’ essence, and compares them across the aforementioned jurisdictions. Some salient findings are that Macao, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Hong Kong all appear to resemble each other in the legal regulation of the three aforesaid perspectives such that project management and project manager seem to be prone to rather similar legal concerns and risks across all these jurisdictions. However, in fact, it is more challenging in Macao for project managers to evaluate and manage legal concerns and risks than in the other jurisdictions above because of two reasons. First, Macao’s legal framework is so distinct and unique that project managers are not able to evaluate the impact, incidence, and probability of any legal risk’s happening by analogy with the precedent court cases elsewhere. Second, there is a key difference between Macao as a small jurisdiction and the other jurisdictions above in that the former is inevitably short of a substantial volume of local precedent court cases. This dearth of local precedent court cases substantively hinders a project manager from evaluating the impact, incidence, and probability of any legal concern’s or risk’s happening.

No Transfer? No Problem!: The Federal Circuit's Excessive Use of the Most Potent Weapon in the Judicial Arsenal for §1404(a) Transfer Appeals

Like all federal plaintiffs, patent owners who feel their patent has been infringed have the right to file suit in any federal court, so long as venue is proper. Patent plaintiffs often select plaintiff-friendly venues, like the Eastern and Western Districts of Texas. Usually, plaintiffs may select these venues because many of the alleged infringers are large companies with a national presence, which makes them susceptible to suit in many federal courts around the country. Defendants in patent cases often file a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) to transfer a case to a more defendant-friendly venue, on the basis that the destination venue is more convenient. If the district court denies the motion to transfer, that almost always ends the matter. The exception is that the defendant can petition the proper appellate court—the Federal Circuit in patent cases—for a writ of mandamus: an “extraordinary remedy” that directs the district court to transfer the case. The Supreme Court has mandated that this remedy is reserved for extreme circumstances and may not be used as an appeal. Despite this clear mandate, the Federal Circuit appears to treat such petitions as full-fledged appeals. This Comment seeks to address the ever-growing number of mandamus petitions being granted by the Federal Circuit. Specifically, this Comment focuses on patent cases filed in Texas federal courts. While patent cases in Texas federal courts, like all other patent cases, are appealed to the Federal Circuit, the Federal Circuit remains bound by Fifth Circuit law on motions to transfer under § 1404(a). The Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit have held that a mandamus petition should only be granted upon a clear abuse of discretion by the district court, but the Federal Circuit seems to misapply Fifth Circuit law. The Federal Circuit’s proclivities in determining the propriety of a petition for a writ of mandamus have caused confusion among Texas plaintiffs and uncertainty in the law. This Comment calls attention to the Federal Circuit’s tendency to: (1) misapply Fifth Circuit transfer law; (2) impermissibly add its own nuances to transfer law; and (3) substitute the district court’s judgment for its own, effectively giving defendants a de novo review; or in other words, a second bite at the apple in attempting to transfer a case. Finally, this Comment proposes solutions including: (1) an expansion of Fifth Circuit § 1404(a) jurisprudence; (2) the Supreme Court granting certiorari to provide clarity on the issue; or (3) a change in the Federal Circuit’s choice of law rule.

Broader Application and Implications: A Federal Court (Non-IRB) Case Law Year in Review for 2023

Broader Application and Implications: A Federal Court (Non-IRB) Case Law Year in Review for 2023

THE RIGHT TO ABORTION AND THE POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF THE DOBBS DECISION ON CONTEMPORARY LEGAL TRENDS

As a remarkably delicate issue, termination of pregnancy remains even today, in the second decade of the 21st century, firmly in the public eye. Nevertheless, in terms of legal regulation of abortion, over the last 50 years, we have witnessed continuous liberalization of abortion legislation. This contemporary trend of liberalization has been manifested mainly in Europe, in which most countries have legalized abortion on demand in the second half of the 20th century while constitutional courts of a number of European countries have upheld the constitutionality of such liberalized laws. However, in the aftermath of the United States Supreme Court ruling from 24 June 2022 in the Dobbs case, whereby it overturned constitutional protection of the right to abortion, essentially delegating abortion-related regulation to federal states, the question arose of (im)possible effects of this decision on said contemporary legal trends on the global, European and national levels. With that in mind, this paper aims to analyze comparative legal solutions and recent constitutional court case law of individual states, as well as the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, in order to assess possible changes in contemporary legal trends regarding termination of pregnancy.

In search of relevant Supreme Court case law: exploring current tools

In search of relevant Supreme Court case law: exploring current tools

ISSUES OF DIRECT EFFECT OF THE CONSTITUTION IN THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE EXPERIENCE OF ADVANCED COUNTRIES (USA, ITALY AND FRANCE)

The subject of this article is the analysis of the theory of direct action, the study of the experience of foreign countries, the study of the principles and practice of direct action of the Constitution in Uzbekistan, as well as their impact on the legal system and society. The purpose of this exploring is a comprehensive analysis of the principles of direct application of the Constitution in Uzbekistan, including historical development, judicial practice, and comparative analysis with other jurisdictions. Research methods: analysis of the theory of direct effect to explore the development of constitutional law in Uzbekistan, comparative legal method to analyze similarities and differences with other countries, cases for detailed analysis of specific court cases. Research results: based on the analysis, problems were identified in defining the theory of direct action and ineffective law enforcement. Scientific novelty: The study will provide a unique analysis of modern constitutional practice in Uzbekistan, especially in the context of the direct effect of the Constitution, and its comparison with international practices. Practical significance: The results may be useful for lawyers, legislators and researchers in the field of constitutional law, as well as contribute to improving law enforcement and legislative development in Uzbekistan conclusions At the end of the article, the main conclusions will be presented, emphasizing the importance of the direct effect of the Constitution in the legal system of Uzbekistan and proposals for further strengthening of constitutional principles.

The system of Chinese legal sources from the perspective of the platform economy legal regulation

Despite intensification cooperation with China, Russian legal science doesn’t provide comprehensive study of Chinese laws and regulations concerning entrepreneurial activity including e-commerce. Analysis of the concept “source of law” allows to demine a fairly wide range of Chinese legal sources. Basing on the analysis of the laws of the People’s Republic of China, regulations of the State Council, notices of the People’s Bank of China, notifications, notices of measures, regulations, letters from various Chinese public bodies and local regulations, this paper examines the sources (forms) of legal regulation of the platform economy in China from theoretical perspective. The purpose of this article is to reconstruct the system of sources (forms) of law in the sphere of the Chinese platform economy, to qualify sources and establish hierarchical relationships between them in order to identify contradictions and ways to overcome them. The paper concludes that in China there are no clear criteria for distinguishing between subordinate legislation and acts of interpretation, also legal provisions sometimes may be included in interpretational documents. Official replies and letters from government agencies in China like legal regulations may impose new responsibilities on lower-level public bodies. The paper concludes that China doesn’t have definite border between notifications and notices issued by ministries and departments. Authors also stress the discussion on the legal nature of judicial clarifications and guiding court cases of the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China.

Research on intelligent legal decision support system based on big data analysis

Abstract This paper constructs an intelligent decision support system using text combination feature extraction, case similarity, XBoost sentencing prediction model, and other related technologies. The performance of the smart decision support system is tested for grabbing responses and monitoring response reliability. The XGBoost algorithm is used to construct the sentencing prediction model to achieve the intelligence of sentencing prediction. The effectiveness of the sentencing prediction model is examined by comparing the XGBoost model with different algorithms (Random Forest, CBDT, CNN). The practical application of intelligent decision support systems was summarized, highlighting the positive and negative effects. The results show that the overall responsiveness performance of the intelligent decision support system’s magisterial document capture and retrieval is reliable, and the number of captured and retrieved magisterial documents rises as the capture time increases. In XGBoost’s sentencing prediction, nine overlapping parts of the ten keywords were extracted for sentence and fine. In contrast, the keyword similarities are all higher than 0.5, and the difference between the predicted and real sentence values and fine is small. The intelligent decision support system has resulted in a gradual decrease in the number of court cases and an improvement in efficiency. The re-sentencing and retrial initiation rate decreased by over 20% from 2019 to 2023.

Sorry you asked? Mayo, Myriad, and the battles over patent-eligibility.

Genetic testing for inherited cancer risk changed dramatically when the US Supreme Court handed down unanimous rulings in Mayo v. Prometheus (2012) and Myriad v. Association for Molecular Pathology (2013). Those decisions struck down claims to methods based on 'laws of nature' (Mayo) and DNA molecules corresponding to sequences found in nature (Myriad). Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Christopher Coons (D-DE) introduced legislation that would abrogate those decisions and specify narrow statutory exclusions to patent-eligibility in §101 of the US Patent Act. What would be the consequences of doing so? The Supreme Court decisions coincided with changes in how genetic tests were performed, reimbursed and regulated. Multi-gene sequencing supplanted oligo-gene testing as the cost of sequencing dropped 10,000-fold. Payers dramatically changed reimbursement practices. Food and Drug Administration regulation was proposed and remains in prospect. Databases for clinical interpretation made data freely available, augmenting a knowledge commons. The spectacular implosion of Theranos tempered investment in molecular diagnostics. These factors all complicate explanations of why venture capital funding for molecular diagnostics dropped relative to other sectors. Restoring patent-eligibility would put renewed pressure on other patent doctrines, such as obviousness, enablement and written description, that were not raised in the Supreme Court cases.

Don’t Forget to Like, Follow, and Regulate: An Argument for the Expansion of Protections for Child Social Media Influencers

Child social media influencers, colloquially known as “kidfluencers,” have skyrocketed to fame alongside the growth of social media. However, traditional child labor laws do not consider online influencing “work” or these kids to be “child performers.” Thus, these children do not receive any form of legal protection for their presence online, leaving them open to exploitation and severe harms. This Note explores the lack of protection provided to kidfluencers, ultimately proposing a new federal labor law to expand child actor protections to kidfluencers. Part I of this Note provides a brief history of the landscape by reviewing landmark Supreme Court cases on the rights of the child, detailing the introduction of child labor laws and child actor protections, and surveying the meteoric rise of social media and “family vlogging” in the field of child labor. Part II explores the potential harms that kidfluencers could face due to the lack of regulation in the “family vlogging” field. Part III proposes a reform for the current legal schema to protect child influencers, ultimately culminating in a new federal labor law expanding current protections to protect child actors and introducing a privacy aspect to preserve children’s right to consent.

Старообрядчество Ижевского завода в контексте взаимоотношений с заводской администрацией и духовенством в дореформенный период

The author analyzes the Old Believers of the Izhevsk factory of the Vyatka province. The focus of this study is the interaction between the factory administration, clergy and Old Believers. The author studied the situation of the plant's Old Believers in the context of the confessional policy of the Russian Empire and made several conclusions. Firstly, the Old Believers appeared in the factory district probably at the end of the 18th - early 19th century, when workers were recruited for weapons industry. Secondly, the laws of the Russian Empire regarding the Old Believers also applied in the factory district. The legislation was tightened during the reign of Nicholas I, especially since the 1840s, when the harm of sects to society was determined. The purpose of the legislation was to protect the monarchy, the Orthodox Church and the family. The measures of influence on the Old Believers were conversations, sermons, prohibitions of public prayers, closure of prayer houses, confiscation of objects of worship, initiation of court cases. The clergy of the Izhevsk churches cooperated with the factory administration. As a result, the number of Old Believers decreased in the Izhevsk factory by the end of the studied period. In turn, the Old Believer communities preserved the specifics of social and family life and rituals, polemicized with the clergy, submitted petitions, cited as an argument the importance of factory work as a civil service.