Court Proceedings Research Articles

Sulat Pasa: Its Implications to Local Divorce Practice among the Sama of Tawi-Tawi, Philippines

This study investigates Tawi-Tawi’s sulat pasa (traditional divorce paper), particularly as it relates to Sama divorcees, and if it provides a workable way to end their marriage. Through qualitative-descriptive research, it reviews the characteristics of local divorce documents, the processes involved in getting them, and their effects and implications on local divorce practice. With the institutionalization of the Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines, Muslim Filipinos should follow the divorce procedures laid in it. However, this legal hybridity is seen as inadequate because it looks insensitive to the long-standing customs and beliefs of the Muslims, jeopardizing their autonomy and self-instituting cultural traditions about divorce. Furthermore, because divorce conflicts and their resolution have been entirely integrated into the Philippine judicial system, the existing system does not provide speedy resolution to the satisfaction of the Muslim divorcee/s. Despite the implementation of the Muslim Code, the study found that Sama in Tawi-Tawi continued to present and bring their divorce cases to the traditional authority for enforcement. Given the Code’s lax implementation, local divorce cases outside Shari’ah court proceedings remain critical. The study proposes a measure through direct parliament action, such as adding a provision to the existing Bangsamoro Organic Law once the Muslim Code is upgraded, and, in the interim, this can be done through collaboration with the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs, local religious and elective officials, and women’s organizations to institutionalize the traditional divorce paper as also legal, and binding taking into account issues of accessibility, affordability, practicability, and feasibility.

Inequality threat increases laypeople's, but not judges', acceptance of algorithmic decision making in court.

Algorithmic decision making (ADM) takes on increasingly complex tasks in the criminal justice system. Whereas new developments in machine learning could help to improve the quality of judicial decisions, there are legal and ethical concerns that thwart the widespread use of algorithms. Against the backdrop of current efforts to promote the digitization of the German judicial system, this research investigates motivational factors (pragmatic motives, fairness concerns, and self-image-related considerations) that drive or impede the acceptance of ADM in court. We tested two hypotheses: (1) Perceived threat of inequality in legal judgments increases ADM acceptance, and (2) experts (judges) are more skeptical toward technological innovation than novices (general population). We conducted a preregistered experiment with 298 participants from the German general population and 267 judges at regional courts in Bavaria to study how inequality threat (vs. control) relates to ADM acceptance in court, usage intentions, and attitudes. In partial support of the first prediction, inequality threat increased ADM acceptance, effect size d = 0.24, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.01, 0.47], and usage intentions (d = 0.23, 95% CI [0.00, 0.46]) of laypeople. Unexpectedly, however, this was not the case for experts. Moreover, ADM attitudes remained unaffected by the experimental manipulation in both groups. As predicted, judges held more negative attitudes toward ADM than the general population (d = -0.71, 95% CI [-0.88, -0.54]). Exploratory analysis suggested that generalized attitudes emerged as the strongest predictor of judges' intentions to use ADM in their own court proceedings. These findings elucidate the motivational forces that drive algorithm aversion and acceptance in a criminal justice context and inform the ongoing debate about perceptions of fairness in human-computer interaction. Implications for judicial praxis and the regulation of ADM in the German legal framework are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Правовое регулирование и реализация механизма компенсации при развитии внутренней газификации регионов Российской Федерации

With the development of internal gas distribution in the Russian Federation, the question inevitably arises of the seizure of private lands of individuals and legal entities, as well as the demolition of buildings, structures and other buildings. However, there is no mechanism for legal withdrawal, which gives rise to the non-legal nature of these legal relations and excessive losses of private law subjects, as a result of which many court proceedings load the judicial system. The mechanism for calculating compensation or a percentage of the surcharge fixed by law in case of losses incurred by citizens and legal entities in the implementation of federal orders for the installation of gas pipelines will help protect the rights and interests of owners and third parties whose interests are violated or restricted.

Unregistered Polygamy Validation: Isbat Nikah, Polygamy Permit, and Due Process of Law in Indonesian Religious Courts

This article probes whether methods of validating unregistered polygamy in Indonesian Religious Courts have honored the due process of law. Judges have adopted two different methods in validating unregistered polygamy: first, by ordering concerned parties to apply for the issuance of a retroactive marriage certificate (isbat nikah), and second, by advising them to submit a polygamy permit application. Using the sociolegal approach in examining Ratio Legis and selected cases on unregistered polygamy validation across Indonesia, it finds that the existing methods have impacted protecting women’s and children’s rights and marriage law objectives. Opting for isbat nikah means perpetuating violations of the marriage law provisions and objectives, which restrict polygamy through court proceedings to be orderly administration and protect women’s and children’s rights. Meanwhile, requiring unregistered polygamists to remarry by applying for a polygamy permit could impact wives’ rights who are married without registration and their children’s. The 2018 Supreme Court’s Circular prohibiting the Religious Court from accepting applications for isbat nikah of unregistered polygamy shows its tendency to the formal application of the marriage law provisions. Even so, judges adopt the contentious isbat nikah to legalize unregistered polygamy, mainly when the parties involved accept their polygamy and live peacefully. This bottom-up approach arguably better meets the principles of fairness because all legal rights owed to concerned parties are respected.

Vliv případu Kardassopoulos proti Gruzii a případů investorů ropné společnosti Yukos proti Ruské federaci na prozatímní provádění Smlouvy o energetické chartě a na prozatímní provádění smluv z pohledu mezinárodního práva veřejného

The Energy Charter Treaty is a multilateral international treaty that contains regulations that, among other things, provide investors of other contracting parties with protection for their investments in the energy sector. Some States, including the Russian Federation, have provisionally applied the Energy Charter Treaty for several years in the wording of Article 45 of the Energy Charter Treaty. This provisional application under Article 45 of the Energy Charter Treaty raised issues that were considered in arbitrational and court proceedings. In this article, the author analyses several Awards on Jurisdiction and Admissibility of Tribunal, namely the Decision on Jurisdiction of Tribunal in the matter of Kardassopoulos v. Georgia and Interim Awards on Jurisdiction and Admissibility of Tribunal in the matter of investors of the former Russian Oil Company Yukos v. Russian Federation. The proceedings for annulment of Awards of the Tribunal in the matter of investors of former Russian Oil Company Yukos v. Russian Federation were brought before courts in the Netherlands, with the proceedings reaching the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, which decided the case on 5 November 2021. On the basis of the aforementioned decisions in the Kardassopoulos v. Georgia and Yukos oil company investors v. the Russian Federation cases, the author of the article focuses on the assessment of the effects of the provisional application of the Energy Charter Treaty, the interpretation of Article 45 of the Energy Charter Treaty, analysing the question of how the provisional application of the Energy Charter Treaty may be limited by the national law of the state that provisionally applies the Energy Charter Treaty.

The Role of the Advocate's Motions and Complaints in a Criminal Trial: A Scoping Review

Given the realities of criminal court development, motions and complaints for the protection of rights play an important role. However, the study of these advocacy tools is an under-researched issue. This requires further consideration, since these mechanisms can be really effective in different situations. The purpose of the study is to determine the importance of attorneys' motions and complaints for the purpose of implementing modern justice. For this Scoping Review, the PRISMA approach was used. Date range for inclusion of scientific literature: 2014-2024 (i.e., the last 10 years). To select the scientific literature, the following search databases were selected: Scopus and Google Scholar. The criteria for including literature were based on 5 items related to content, scientific novelty, methodology, and language. A total of 52 items of scientific literature, legislative acts and reports were included in the study. The results show that different countries use different models of advocacy, however, such tools as motions and complaints are common around the world. The purposes of attorneys' motions and complaints are not based on making a specific decision or performing a specific action, but on the realization of rights and legitimate interests existing in connection with the procedural or real status of a person. The conclusions determine that motions and complaints have an impact on further proceedings in a criminal court; in particular, they may affect the exclusion of inadmissible evidence, disclosure of additional evidence, protection of the rights of the accused, fulfillment of strategic tasks and recording of violations of procedural rights.

Právo vlastniť a pokojne užívať majetok aj v kontexte jedenásťročného sporu žalobcov

The main aim of this article is to introduce the reader to the system of the ownership right protection in the context of the national legislation as well as the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, using an illustrative example of spouses (plaintiffs), who have been seeking, for more than eleven years in court proceedings initiated by an action brought, issuance by a competent first instance court of a decision ordering the defendants to (i) remove the constructions and appurtenances thereto, which they are using illegally, and (ii) remove the movable assets from the real estate (i.e. from the land plots) which is the plaintiffs’ joint property. The plaintiffs consider that the essence of the violation of their right to own and peacefully enjoy their property, in the circumstances of the present case, is that for more than 11 years since the action was brought to the court, the plaintiffs have had no definitive legal title by virtue of which they could de facto dispose of their property, despite being de jure owners of the concerned real estate. Due to illegal constructions (or so-called “black constructions”) built on the land plots that are the plaintiffs’ joint property, the plaintiffs are prevented from the peaceful use, enjoyment of the fruits and benefits, or disposal of the subject-matter of their ownership.

Exploring litigation abuse in Ontario: An analysis of costs decisions

AbstractLitigation abuse is a pattern of conduct that misuses the Family Court process in a way that could reasonably be expected to cause emotional or financial harm to the other party or their children which is greater than would occur with the proper use of the family justice process. Litigation abuse may be motivated by a perpetrator's desire to gain an unfair advantage in the litigation or to control a former partner, or may be the result of anger, vengeance, or mental health issues. Litigation abuse is a particular concern in cases of coercive controlling violence that may victimize women and their children, or in cases that involve parental alienation. Previous empirical research has mainly involved studies of women who report that they have been victims of litigation abuse, with one study focusing exclusively on male victims. No previous study has considered both men and women as possible victims (or perpetrators) of litigation abuse, or the perspectives of neutral professionals like judges for assessing whether there has been litigation abuse. This empirical research project is based on an analysis of Ontario Family Court decisions over a three‐year period dealing with litigation costs, which under provincial law may be awarded at a higher level against a party whom the judge considers acted unreasonably, vexatiously or in bad faith during litigation (n = 222). Men were somewhat more likely to have engaged in litigation abuse than women (53% vs 47%). Self‐represented litigants were roughly twice as likely to engage in litigation abuse, though most cases of litigation abuse involved parties with lawyers. Women were more likely be victims of litigation abuse in economic cases, while men were more likely to be victims of litigation abuse in cases focused on parenting.

法庭中的机器人：人形机器人出庭作证对缓和证人出庭难的启示

Abstract: The real-time interactivity and autonomy of chatbot technology enable humanoid robots to appear in court and respond to judges’ inquiries. Nevertheless, the unpredictability and uncertain reliability of their statements raise the question of whether judges can accept the humanoid robot testimony in the same way as that of a human witness. If humanoid robots were allowed to testify in place of human witnesses, it would appear to significantly reduce the difficulty of securing witness attendance in court proceedings. However, according to the theory of virtue jurisprudence, humanoid robots are incapable of establishing social relationships or assuming legal responsibility. As a result, judges cannot derive justified beliefs from the statements generated by humanoid robot. Any judicial assertions based on such statements would lack justification. Moreover, since humans responsible for the humanoid robot cannot predict the content of the judge’s inquiries or the robot’s responses, requiring humanoid robots to testify may indirectly motivate those humans to appear in court themselves, mitigating the persistent challenge of securing witness attendance in court.

Prosedur Penyelesaian Perkara Wanprestasi Atas Perjanjian Pinjam Uang Yang Dilakukan Oleh Debitur Koperasi

Cooperatives which regulate the movement of business fields in the formation of capital from the savings of its members regularly and continuously and can also be lent to its members in a practical, easy and fast way are called Savings and Loans Cooperatives for welfare purposes. That way the aim of establishing it is to make it easier for the community to make financial transactions easier, with the existence of a savings and loan cooperative that provides small interest but opportunities in capital can be cheap. With normative law implemented in the method used in this study, allowances from sources such as principles, principles, and legal literature are used in resolving cases of default on borrowing money in cooperatives. The results of this study are the results of evidence in court proceedings, evidence can be submitted by the plaintiff and the truth of the lawsuit and the defendant does not deny it. The proof of the case made the judge declare that it was legal to have defaulted on borrowing money within the scope of the cooperative.

Contested Victimhood: (Un)Courting Victims of Terrorism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Despite the growing number of victims of terrorism globally, research is scant about a class of victims who, in theory, epitomize Nils Christie’s concept of the “Ideal Victim,” deemed worthy of public sympathy and social support. The difficult experiences of terrorism victims in Israel, particularly in military court proceedings as documented through interviews, court transcripts, and observations, highlight how the politicization of terrorism exacerbates secondary victimization for terror victims and their families. We postulate that, in addition to the adversarial legal system constraints victims experience in legal proceedings, victim identity in Israel is culturally eschewed in favor of a national(ist) meta-narrative that valorizes strength and self-reliance. A militarized Israeli society asserting its superior might is a symbolic rejection of a helpless victim status, historically forced upon Jews facing persecution and terror. We conclude that terror victims’ treatment mirrors a given society’s image of itself.

Suicide Prevention Effects of Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws in Four States.

More than half of suicide deaths in the United States result from self-inflicted firearm injuries. Extreme risk protection order (ERPO) laws in 21 states and the District of Columbia temporarily limit access to firearms for individuals found in a civil court process to pose an imminent risk of harm to themselves or others. Research with large multistate study populations has been lacking to determine effectiveness of these laws. This study assembled records pertaining to 4,583 ERPO respondents in California, Connecticut, Maryland, and Washington. Matched records identified suicide decedents and self-injury method. Researchers applied case fatality rates for each suicide method to estimate nonfatal suicide attempts corresponding to observed deaths. Comparison of counterfactual to observed data patterns yielded estimates of the number of lives saved and number of ERPOs needed to avert one suicide. Estimates varied depending on the assumed probability that a gun owner who attempts suicide will use a gun. Two evidence-based approaches yielded estimates of 17 and 23 ERPOs needed to prevent one suicide. For the subset of 2,850 ERPO respondents with documented suicide concern, comparable estimates were 13 and 18, respectively. This study's findings add to growing evidence that ERPOs can be an effective and important suicide prevention tool.

Control interno y cumplimiento de las tasas judiciales en una Corte Superior de Justicia de Perú

The objective of the investigation was to establish the relationship between internal control and compliance with judicial fees in a Superior Court of Justice of Peru. The methodology was quantitative, applied, non-experimental-cross-sectional and correlational, two questionnaires were administered to 35 employees of the administrative and accounting area of a superior court of justice, using the survey technique, allowing information on the variables to be collected. The results showed that, the values of sig. bilateral are 0.000, lower than the 0.05 threshold. This confirms that internal control is significantly and highly related to compliance with judicial fees in a Superior Court of Justice, according to the Rho of 0.661. It was concluded that a higher level of internal control in the management of court processes and resources is associated with better levels of compliance with payment obligations for court fees, and vice versa.

Ensuring the reasonableness of criminal proceedings’ terms

It is indicated that the current Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine dated April 13, 2012 for the first time at the legislative level established such a principle of criminal proceedings as the reasonableness of terms. Yes, in accordance with Article 28 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine during criminal proceedings, each procedural action or procedural decision must be performed or made within a reasonable time. The article is devoted to the analysis of criminal proceedings’ principle “reasonable terms”. During criminal proceedings, each procedural action or procedural decision must be performed or adopted within a reasonable terms. Terms that are objectively necessary for the execution of procedural actions and the adoption of procedural decisions are considered reasonable. Reasonable terms cannot exceed the terms of execution of individual procedural actions or adoption of individual procedural decisions provided for by the CPC of Ukraine. The pre-trial investigation is carried out within a reasonable terms by the prosecutor, the investigating judge (with regard to the time frame for consideration of issues falling within his competence), and the court conducts the court proceedings. The criteria for determining the reasonableness of criminal proceedings terms are: 1) the complexity of criminal proceedings, which is determined taking into account the number of suspects, accused persons and criminal offenses in respect of which the proceedings are being carried out, the volume and specifics of procedural actions necessary for conducting a pre-trial investigation, etc.; 2) behavior of participants in criminal proceedings; 3) the manner in which investigators, prosecutors, and courts exercise their powers. Criminal proceedings against a person in custody, a minor or a criminal offense committed against a minor must be carried out immediately and considered in court as a matter of priority. It is important to ensure the reasonableness of criminal proceedings terms to study this principle not only in science, but also in judicial practice, in particular, the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. Adhering to the reasonableness of the terms of criminal proceedings will contribute to the exercise of a person’s right to judicial protection, will ensure an effective and prompt investigation and trial, and thus will ensure the fulfillment of criminal proceedings’ tasks.

The right to a fair trial in the light of the minimum guarantee of legal assistance in the practice of the European Court of Human Rights

The research attempts to form the essence of the modern understanding of the right to a fair trial through the prism of the minimum guarantee of legal assistance. Attention is drawn to the fact that the European Convention itself does not define the mechanism of its application, which in turn complicates its application by different states with certain differences in legal systems. In this regard, it is substantiated that by ruling on the application of the European Convention, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) sets the direction for building one of the most effective systems of human rights protection, which is subsequently manifested in the national systems of the Convention member states. In view of this, the article analyses the most important, key and modern practice of the ECHR in relation to consideration of applications for violation of the minimum guarantee of legal assistance in the context of violation of the right to a fair trial and summarises it, as well as identifies the risks of such an approach. In addition, the paper analyses the current conceptual vision of such transformations from the point of view of legal scholars, both academics and practitioners. In the course of analysis of modern ECHR judgments, the author found that in a significant number of them the Court indicates that the mere violation of the minimum guarantee of legal assistance does not automatically mean a violation of the right to a fair trial, and the author emphasizes the possible risks of such an interpretation, in particular, for the States which are leaders in violation of the guarantee of legal assistance, where the specifics of national systems reflect a systematic violation of this right. It is determined that the application of the minimum guarantee of legal assistance is not limited to criminal proceedings, and the court is not the only institution that must comply with this guarantee to ensure fairness of the proceedings. It is also emphasised that the practice of applying this guarantee cannot be limited to court proceedings only. The author also suggests improving the legal technique of implementing the European Convention into national legislation by amending its translation into Ukrainian.

Participation of the Prosecutor’s Office in the Protection of Socio-economic Rights of Citizens in Bankruptcy Cases: the Problem of Procedural Interaction with Arbitration Courts

The analysis of the legal basis for the participation of the prosecutor’s office in court proceedings in order to protect the most important socio-economic rights of citizens, such as labor and housing rights, in bankruptcy cases. The research focuses on the Russian and Chinese practice of procedural interaction between the prosecutor’s office and the courts in bankruptcy cases. Based on a comparative legal analysis, the author assesses the trend towards increasing the activity of the Russian prosecutor’s office to participate in arbitration proceedings as promising, but requiring regulatory legalization in order to increase the effectiveness of protecting the socio-economic rights of citizens. In order to effectively ensure legality in the field of bankruptcy, it is necessary to legislate the participation of the prosecutor in part 5 of Article 52 of the Arbitration Procedural Code of the Russian Federation for cases when bankruptcy arbitration cases affect not only housing, but also the labor rights of citizens.

О компенсации морального вреда, причиненного решениями, действиями (бездействием) субъекта публичной власти

The article examines the issues surrounding the combination and joint consideration in administrative court proceedings of both administrative claims challenging the legality of public authority acts and civil claims for compensation of moral damage. The aim of this article is to identify and analyze the problems of legal regulation of compensation for moral damage in administrative proceedings. To achieve this aim and solve the tasks, general and special scientific methods such as analysis, synthesis, historical, systemic-structural, formal-legal, and comparative methods were used. As a result, the author came to the conclusion that it is advisable to normatively consolidate the possibility of combining a public-law administrative claim and a private-law claim for compensation of moral damage in administrative proceedings. Such an intersectoral transformation of public and private law will significantly enhance the level of judicial protection for citizens who have suffered moral harm due to a public-law violation, especially considering that a person in a dispute with the authorities is always the weaker party. The results of the study can be used as proposals for legislative changes and for shaping judicial practice regarding compensation for moral damage in administrative proceedings. The novelty of the study lies in the substantiation of scientific recommendations on the need to combine and jointly consider in administrative proceedings not only an administrative claim to declare an act of public authority illegal, but also a civil claim for compensation for moral damage.

SFormer: An end-to-end spatio-temporal transformer architecture for deepfake detection

Growing AI advancements are continuously pacing GAN enhancement that eventually facilitates the generation of deepfake media. Manipulated media poses serious risks pertaining court proceedings, journalism, politics, and many more where digital media have a substantial impact on society. State-of-the-art techniques for deepfake detection rely on convolutional networks for spatial analysis, and recurrent networks for temporal analysis. Since transformers are capable of recognizing wide-range dependencies with a global spatial view and along temporal sequence too, a novel approach called “SFormer” is proposed in this paper, utilizing a transformer architecture for both spatial and temporal analysis to detect deepfakes. Further, state-of-the-art techniques suffer from high computational complexity and overfitting which causes loss in generalizability. The proposed model utilized a Swin Transformer for spatial analysis that resulted in low complexity, thereby enhancing its generalization ability and robustness against the different manipulation types. Proposed end-to-end transformer based model, SFormer, is proven to be effective for numerous deepfake datasets, including FF++, DFD, Celeb-DF, DFDC and Deeper-Forensics, and achieved an accuracy of 100%, 97.81%, 99.1%, 93.67% and 100% respectively. Moreover, SFormer has demonstrated superior performance compared to existing spatio-temporal and transformer-based approaches for deepfake detection.

The Effectiveness of Electronic Trials in the Jurisdiction of the District Court Semarapura Class II Based on Supreme Court Regulation Number 7 of 2022

Electronic trials, also known as e-trials, represent a significant innovation in the judicial process by integrating technology into court proceedings. These trials utilize digital platforms to manage and conduct various aspects of the trial process, including the submission of evidence, witness testimonies, and legal arguments. However, the adoption of electronic trials also presents challenges that must be carefully considered. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of electronic trial in the jurisdiction of the Semarapura District Court Class II based on Perma Number 7 of 2022, and the obstacles experienced in its implementation. The research contributes to a deeper understanding of the challenges that courts may face in adopting such systems, thereby offering critical information that could inform future improvements and policy adjustments.

Implementation of Supreme Court Regulation No 7 of 2022 concerning electronic case administration and court proceedings at The Denpasar District Court

The implementation of electronic trials (e-Litigation) at the Denpasar District Court is a significant step forward in the modernization of the judicial system. This study aims to find out the implementation of the electronic trial and the obstacles encountered during its implementation. The research contributes by providing insights into the practical challenges of adopting electronic trials in a specific judicial context, potentially offering recommendations for overcoming these obstacles. The findings could be valuable for policymakers, legal practitioners, and other courts looking to optimize their own implementation of e-Court.