Law Continuum Research Articles

Legal bases of European interstate integration in the context of interfaith relations

Since ancient times religion has influenced not only the lives of individuals and societies but also world politics and international relations. The confessional factor plays a crucial role in relations between states. Since states often use the confessional environment to realize their geopolitical interests, the aim of this article is to analyze the role and place of state-church relations in the processes of European integration and determine the legal basis for the activity of interfaith organizations. The methodological framework of this article is based on an axiological approach which allows the authors to analyze the influence of religion on the law-making processes and the formation of a system of norms and values of society. The authors apply the dialectic method to examine the "civilization-culture" continuum of law and substantiate its dependence on religion in developing a common vector of European integration processes. The author also used the methods of analysis and synthesis to identify the interaction of legal and religious norms and to characterize the influence of the church on relations in society. In the framework of the study, the comparative legal method was also partially used, which played a key role in determining the influence of religion on the formation of legal norms. The article concludes that the church has become the activating factor for the formation of the axiological dimension of European integration.

Capital Markets and Law: Nigeria As a Case Study

The dynamism of law cannot be undermined rather it extends to new frontiers even as existence continues to unfold. In line with the aforesaid, it is no gainsaying that the continuum of law as extended into the distinctive aspects of financial markets most notably, capital markets. Undoubtedly, in the emerging capital markets Nigeria has a history and it strongly represents a growing proportion in the country’s economy. On this note, this paper seeks to review the evolution of the capital markets institution in tandem with law and regulation in Nigeria. As an objective, it further seeks to give a report on the legal and regulatory framework governing capital markets in Nigeria with attention to the inadequacies and possible solutions to improve the quality of regulations which will contribute to the growth and development of the capital markets and its legal regime. With this background, it is necessary to consider the legal regulations that oversees the Nigerian capital markets. Albeit, it is considerable to understand the nitty-gritties of capital markets in order to establish clearly its synergy with law. Sequel on these findings, this paper makes recommendations for the way forward.

The Efficacy of Regulation as a Function of Psychological Fit: Reexamining the Hard Law/Soft Law Continuum

Much of the legal literature discusses regulation and regulatory forms with a seemingly implicit assumption that "those to be influenced" are inherently self-interested and thus motivated to comply with legal structures only when there are sufficient external incentives to do so. This view of the person is inconsistent with recent perspectives in the field of psychology. A law and morality perspective, coupled with insights from the field of psychology, asserts that influence, compliance, and motivation are far more complex than this legal literature would suggest. In this Article, we map the varying influence structures, motives, psychological needs, emotional mechanisms, and levels of moral reasoning that various forms of regulation, from hard law to soft law, might appeal to. We provide examples from global banking and one soft law initiative, the Equator Principles, to illustrate reasons psychology would suggest why soft law may be more effective in some circumstances in influencing behavior within the firm than hard law, while recognizing important limits to such influence.

Astronomical X-ray spectroscopy—ten years on

In a wide-ranging review in 'Vistas' ten years ago, Holt (1980) described the impact that relatively crude spectroscopic techniques had already had in clarifying the physical processes occurring in cosmic X-ray sources. The broad-band, low resolution spectra from proportional counter instruments on the Ariel-5, OSO-8 and HEAO-I satellites had been able to establish galaxy clusters as powerful thermal sources of x-radiation, and to yield information on the temperature, composition and quantity of the emitting gas. The same instruments had demonstrated the complex continuum spectra emitted by optically thick plasmas in a variety of X-ray binary systems. At that time most of the more detailed spectra had come from the Einstein Observatory Solid State Spectrometer (SSS), with an energy resolution in the I-I0 keV band a factor of 3-10 better than the proportional counter. As Holt (1980) described, the SSS spectral resolution was sufficient to reveal characteristic thermal emission lines in the X-ray spectra of several bright stars and supernova remnants. Even the SSS resolution, however, left the X-ray spectra of the most powerful and enigmatic cosmic sources, the quasars and Seyfert galaxies (generically, hereafter, active galaxies or AGN) as 'featureless' power law continua.