State Doctrine Research Articles

The post-2010 ‘Democratic Rule of Law’ practice of the Hungarian Constitutional Court under a rule by law governance

AbstractThe paper focuses on the democratic rule of law principle as it appeared in the practice of the Hungarian Constitutional Court under the 1989 Constitution and the 2012 Fundamental Law. The rule of law doctrine had a paramount role in the argumentation of the Court in the 1990s as a normative fact and a programme of the Hungarian state. Under the Fundamental Law introduced in 2012, however, it has been somewhat relegated to the background in case law. The study first recalls the main achievements and characteristics of the democratic rule of law state interpretations of the Constitutional Court and then focuses on developments since the introduction of the Fundamental Law. On the one hand, it outlines the constitutional and institutional capacity of the court regarding the protection of the rule of law principle. On the other hand, it reveals the characteristics of the post-FL interpretation through case studies in the field of legal certainty and judicial independence, both of which were representative elements of the pre-2010 constitutional practice from the point of view of the democratic rule of law state doctrine.

War Song in a Service of Ideology. Comparative Essay on the Example of Yugoslav and Ukrainian-Russian Conflicts

Both the official army music and combatants’ informal folk songs have always played a noteworthy role in their respective societies regardless whether this music was created as means of actual propaganda or subsequently as part of reinvented commemorative culture. This article focuses on comparison of the two most recent European armed conflicts, namely 1) the ethnically motivated conflicts in former Yugoslavia between 1992 and 1995/1999, and 2) the interethnic violence followed by Russian military intervention in Ukraine in 2014; the Russo-Ukrainian conflict has not yet been settled and still threatens to escalate. Building on wide range of primary and secondary sources (mainly of Western, Central and South-Eastern European provenience) that has been ignored by a regional scholarship, the paper seeks to provide a contextual background behind the war songs and to compare their prevalent patterns and typology of their inner dynamics and transformations. This paper will not inquire into international, economical or military implications of the aforementioned armed conflicts; it will focus specifically on textual and contextual analysis of those songs. Study brings completely new insights on phenomenon of war songs in East European and former Yugoslav environment and brings much-needed light on the intertwined social, cultural and identity relations that can be established between the former Yugoslav and post-Soviet countries. This topic is very important since state doctrine, national narratives, historical memory affect current and also future development of both regions what is clearly visible on elaborated material.

Aristotelian and Stoic Syllogistic in the Anonymous Commentary on Plato’s Theaetetus

Abstract The present paper investigates the question as to how and for what purposes the Middle Platonic author of the Anonymous Commentary on Plato’s Theaetetus uses Aristotelian and Stoic syllogistic in his interpretation of the Platonic text. This investigation shows that the commentator employs Aristotelian categorical syllogistic as an exegetical tool for reconstructing arguments in the Platonic text, enabling him not only to uncover doctrinal statements that are in his view hidden in the Platonic text, but also to dissociate Plato from unwelcome propositions. By contrast, the commentator uses Stoic hypothetical syllogistic as a polemical tool for constructing ad hominem arguments against the Stoics. More precisely, the author exploits the Stoic type of deductive reasoning to draw anti-Stoic conclusions from premises that are accepted by the Stoics, and in doing so, he manages not only to refute Stoic doctrines, but also to corroborate the corresponding Platonic theories.

The Final Chapter of the Demise of the Pure Absolute Doctrine of State Immunity in English Law: A Swedish vignette

Abstract A comment on the insight Johnny Veeder’s historical sense and the insight he derived from his research in archives gave him in understanding the final chapter of the story of the demise in the common law of the UK of the pure, absolute, doctrine of state or sovereign immunity in the I Congreso del Partido

Between Basilea and Utopia: Exploring the Impact of Kingdom Theology in US Latinx Pentecostalism

This article is a general exploration of US Latinx Pentecostalism’s explicit and implicit theology of the Kingdom of God and how it can contribute to US Latinx Pentecostalism’s socio-political engagement. An overview will be provided of traditional, US Pentecostal Kingdom theology and Kingdom theology in Latin American Liberation Theology. These will be contrasted with US Latinx Pentecostal perspectives. To locate US Latinx Pentecostal theology of the Kingdom of God, this paper will first provide a wide-ranging description of a traditional evangelical hermeneutical process. Afterward, an understanding of the Kingdom that is generally taught and accepted in most evangelical contexts will be discussed. This will be followed by a survey of dominant US Pentecostal theology of the Kingdom of God through the lens of the Assemblies of God doctrinal statements and Pentecostal scholars. The life and work of various Pentecostal ministers and author Piri Thomas will provide a Kingdom perspective of US Latinx Pentecostal practitioners. I will provide an analysis based on their life experiences and some of their writings. The writings of Orlando Costas will set the stage in order to examine the works of other US Latinx Pentecostal scholars. Thereafter, the theologies of Latin American Liberation Theologians Clodivis and Leonardo Boff and others will be surveyed. Before concluding, the article will provide a historical overview of Latinx Pentecostal social engagement in the northeast US with the goal of identifying Kingdom values and priorities.

Brief of Comparative Constitutional Law Professors as Amici Curiae in Support of Plaintiffs-Counter-Defendants-Appellants in Petroleos de Venezuela et al. v. MUFG Union Bank, N.A.

This amicus brief of Comparative Constitutional Law Scholars was filed with the Second Circuit in Petroleos de Venezuela et al. v. MUFG Union Bank, N.A. The Venezuelan Constitution contains two provisions, Articles 150 and 187(9), that constitute an important legislative check on the abuse of executive power. These provisions require Venezuelan executive branch organs and entities 􏰁to ob􏰁tain prior approval􏰅 from the National Assembly before entering into national public interest contracts with foreign companies. Provisions like this are common in developing countries that have attempted to confront and reign in a history of hyper-presidentialism. They are designed to prevent dictators from squandering valuable national assets, by requiring any significant financial encumbrances to first receive the affirmative consent of a democratically elected body. In the case of Venezuela􏰇--where the National Assembly is the only democratic body recognized by the United States--􏰇these provisions create a critical limitation on the executive branch'􏰃s ability􏰁􏰆 􏰁to dissipate 􏰁the country's most􏰁 important asset, petroleum. The district court's analysis failed t􏰁o appreciate􏰁 the historical and regional context of Articles 150 and 187(9). Instead of giving effect to these vital constitutional provisions, the district court relied on New York contract law and an incorrect application of the act of state doctrine. Amici submit that this approach was seriously flawed and that, if adopted by other courts, it could create a damaging loophole to anti-authoritarian constitutional provisions around the world.

ІДЕОЛОГІЧНА КРИТИКА В УКРАЇНСЬКОМУ РАДЯНСЬКОМУ ІСТОРИКО-ПЕДАГОГІЧНОМУ НАРАТИВІ (1920–1980)

The purpose of the article is to single out and analyze the manifestations of criticism of different ideologies in the Ukrainian historical and pedagogical narrative of the Soviet era (1920 – 1980’s). The study of the methodological foundation of Ukrainian historical and pedagogical science is not possible without considering the influence of ideological doctrines on the scientific work of domestic scientists who have studied the history of pedagogical thought and education. In the ХХth century the largest influence on the historical and pedagogical texts of Ukrainian researchers was exerted by the socialist ideology of the Marxist model, being, in fact, the only state doctrine in the Soviet Union in general and Soviet Ukraine in particular. The ideological dictatorship of pedagogical and historical-pedagogical science, being under totalitarianism, among the defense of the basic theoretical constructs of socialist ideology (so-called “Marxism-Leninism”), provided an uncompromising struggle against other ideological systems. Ukrainian researchers who lived and worked in Soviet Ukraine criticized liberal, social democratic, nationalist, fascist, and National Socialist ideas and their representatives, even the researching of history of education and pedagogy.In addition, the influence of the complex intra-party struggle in the USSR on the work of historians of pedagogy has been studied. In particular, it is investigated that the critique of the ideas of L. Trotsky, M. Bukharin, the views of M. Skrypnyk, O. Shumskiy appeared in the works of researchers of the history of education and pedagogical thought.We consider the identification and analysis of other aspects of the influence of socialist ideology and propaganda to be a promising area of further research.

Shifting the Meaning of Democracy: Race, Politics, and Culture in the United States and Brazil by Jessica Lynn Graham

Reviewed by: Shifting the Meaning of Democracy: Race, Politics, and Culture in the United States and Brazil by Jessica Lynn Graham Travis Knoll Shifting the Meaning of Democracy: Race, Politics, and Culture in the United States and Brazil. By Jessica Lynn Graham. Oakland: University of California Press, 2019, p. 392, $29.95. This richly sourced and concisely written expansive diplomatic and cultural history brings the growing scholarship on Black internationalism (Keisha Blain 2018, 2021; Sarah Azaransky 2017) in conversation with the vast national literatures on race relations in two countries with the world's largest African diasporas. Graham's traces "the co-constitutive emergence of racially inclusive nationalisms as Brazilian and US state doctrine" (2) during the presidencies of Getúlio Vargas and Franklin Roosevelt. These doctrines responded to Communist and fascist efforts to undermine liberal democracy as incapable of delivering for its citizens. She divides fascist, Communist, and liberal democratic treatments of race into four categories: racial realism, racial denial, racial dissuasion, and racial obstructionism (8). Communist competition drives the first chapter, beginning with the Third Communist International (1919-1943), or the Comintern's, efforts to bring U.S. and Brazilian Blacks into worldwide struggles, especially in Asia (43). The Comintern exploited the new racial rhetoric ushered in by the New Deal even as it clashed with rival organizations like with Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, which preached self-sufficiency and conservative bourgeois values. While US communists made racial struggle a cornerstone of their anti-imperialist agenda, the Comintern had to pressure the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) to admit Brazil had a racial problem, something it only did after stiff competition from Brazilian Integral Action (AIB) and Arlindo Veiga dos Santos' Brazilian Black Front (FNB). The second chapter lays out how Getúlio Vargas' Estado Novo and US government officials made racial plurality central to their anti-Communist efforts. Graham counters traditional scholarship that says the United States incorporated racial democracy in the 2000s, centers important right-wing actors, and shows elements of the Vargas regime highlighting racial plurality in a more forceful and confident manner than its US counterpart. The United States' response to Communism's assertion of a more racially equal society suffered from divisions embodied by the struggle between New York Rep. Hamilton Fish, who acknowledged racial inequality, and Texas Rep. Martin Dies, who denied it. Blacks in turn sought to cast the Ku Klux Klan and other rightist domestic terror groups as more dangerous than either German fascism or the Soviet Union. Architects of the Estado Novo, such as Francisco Campos, sought to frame democracy as stability, the state's defense of itself (90-91), through cultural events like the Estado Novo Exposition and books like Brazil is Good (92-93). [End Page 583] Chapter Three explains how pre-war fascists Plínio Salgado and African-American Lawrence Dennis claimed the democratic mantle and contested US definitions of democracy. As portrayed in works such as the National Socialist Handbook for Law and Legislation (1934/5) and Hitler Speaks (1939), US-style democracy was a sham that neither provided order nor lived up to the multi-racial ideas for which the system ostensibly advocated. The Nazis believed that this contradiction would lead Brazil into their camp, but Brazilian Integral Action (AIB) was put off by the Nazis' racial exclusivity and instead mixed Italian fascist ideas with homegrown discourses of racial harmony. This racially plural fascism influenced Black activists like Veiga dos Santos (and, in his early years, Abdias de Nascimento). Dennis longed for a modified version of US fascism which would embrace efficient government, discard racial superiority, and reject imperialistic ambitions. Other Brazilian and US Blacks such as Júlio Romão, Joel Augustus Rogers, and Adam Clayton Powell dissented from these fascist organizations but lamented that the sad example of race relations in liberal democracies was a poor counterpoint to fascist pretentions. Chapter Four covers the use of New Deal-era radio programs such as Harold Ickes' Radio Education Project and the Estado Novo's support for samba schools to juxtapose democracy's racial tolerance with fascism's racial chauvinism. Though centering Blacks, these programs often celebrated formal abolition while absolving the two...

Disability Rights and Religious Liberty in Education: The Story Behind Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District by Bruce J. Dierenfield and David A. Gerber

Reviewed by: Disability Rights and Religious Liberty in Education: The Story Behind Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District by Bruce J. Dierenfield and David A. Gerber Gabrielle M. Girgis Disability Rights and Religious Liberty in Education: The Story Behind Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District. By Bruce J. Dierenfield and David A. Gerber. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2020. 248 pp. $27.95. This book tells a story that will serve scholarship in many fields. It also resonates with my personal experience. As a hard-of-hearing Catholic, I heard echoes of my life in the story of Jim Zobrest, a deaf young man whose parents fought—all the way to the Supreme Court—to have his interpreter in a Catholic high school funded by the local public school district. Historians Bruce Dierenfield and David Gerber offer a meticulous account of the Zobrests' life. Special attention is paid to a dilemma facing Jim's parents, Sandi and Larry: whether to send him to a school for the deaf or disabled, or enroll him instead in a standard school with accompanying speech therapy and sign-language interpretation. In choosing to "mainstream" Jim, Sandi and Larry departed from a growing capital-D Deaf culture, which sees deafness as a cultural identity, and celebrates its isolation from the hearing world. As the authors show, hard questions about how to raise and teach deaf [End Page 110] children were tragically overshadowed by the Zobrests' legal dispute over the public funding of services for Jim at a religious school. Countless interviews with the Zobrests and others give a moving picture of the challenges facing parents of deaf and hard-of-hearing children then as now. The authors transition seamlessly from the Zobrests' early decisions about Jim's education to the Supreme Court case at the book's center. In Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District (1992), the Zobrests argued that under disability rights law and the Constitution's guarantee of the free exercise of religion, the local public school district had to continue paying for Jim's sign-language interpreter even after he began attending a Catholic school. The school district argued that this public funding would amount to an unconstitutional establishment of religion. The Court sided with the Zobrests. Although the authors' work is chiefly historical—an effort to retell the story with accuracy and rich detail—their scholarship raises questions that could bear fruit in law, disability studies, philosophy of education, and political theory. To take one example: Dierenfield and Gerber's careful description of competing perspectives in the litigation highlights a common dispute in establishment-clause cases. The question is about how much a law's incidental effects should matter. The Zobrest majority held that a neutral disability rights law creates no unlawful establishment if it simply aims at equal services for disabled students in secular and religious schools alike. By contrast, the school district, and the Court's dissenting justices, concentrated on the law's effects: if the state is de facto paying for Jim's interpreter to sign the content of all his classes—including doctrinal statements in a theology class (e.g., "Jesus Christ is the Son of God and died for our sins")—then the First Amendment's prohibition of religious establishments has been violated. The authors admirably try, but occasionally fail, to tell the Zobrests' story with impartiality. They are forthright about their interest in the issues raised by the case and remind us that it's nearly impossible for the historian to have no feelings about the outcomes she reports. But a subtle bias against the Zobrests' choice to mainstream their son appears in the authors' language and selections of detail. For example, their account of a conversation between Sandi and a school district representative portrays Sandi as a highly emotional woman prone to outbursts of anger, and the representative as a calm and pleasantly rational male. And in a litany of Jim's school's failures to support him, we hear the implication that Jim's young life in the mainstream is a tragedy, in which he was always the victim, never a protagonist. [End Page 111] The book also presents Jim's parents as...

“ПРОСВІТИ” ВОЛИНСЬКОГО ВОЄВОДСТВА У ПРОТИСТОЯННІ З ПОЛЬСКОЮ ВЛАДОЮ (1921 – 1934 рр.)

The article focuses on the analysis of the national policy of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which resulted in the persecution of the Ukrainian public organizations and the Ukrainian national movement, in particular in Volhynia Voivodeship, during the interwar period. The political situation in the lands of Western Ukraine after their entry into the Polish state and the peculiarities of the formation and implementation of Promethean policy in these areas are studied. The national idea promoted by “Prosvita” was considered to be hostile by the Polish administration in Volhynia because it contradicted the state doctrine of transforming the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth into a unitary state. Advocacy by «Prosvita” of the Ukrainian language and culture contradicted the visions of the nation-state's national policy. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze comprehensively the causes and features of the Polish authorities' persecution of «Prosvita” in Volhynia Voivodeship during the 1920s and 1930s and to analyze the consequences of the liquidation of “Prosvita”. The methodological basis is the principles of historicism in the combination of all its components, systematics and scientificity. Interdisciplinary research is focused on the involvement of historical comparative and historical system methods, techniques of microhistorical analysis. The Scientific Novelty. The dynamics of the relations formation between the national and cultural organization of the people of Volhynia “Prosvita” and the Polish state administration has been traced on the basis of the new discovered archival documents. It has been found out that it was during the voivodship of Heinrich Yuzevsky in Volhynia that a purposeful policy of oppression and persecution of «Prosvita” by the Polish authorities began, which eventually caused the complete liquidation of one of the most popular and respected public organizations in the region. The liquidation meeting of “Prosvita” took place in Lutsk on July 1, 1934, after which the majority of the society's branches ceased to operate. On the basis of the researched archival documents the authors came to the conclusion that as a result of the implementation of the “Volhynia experiment” the voivode Heinrich Yuzevsky destroyed the cultural and educational society “Prosvita” under various pretexts in the region and created societies to implement the voivode's political programme. These societies became the “Prosvita Houses”. Key words: “Prosvita”, the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Volhynia Voivodeship, public organization, oppression, national policy, persecution, the Ukrainian hromada, national idea.

Roma aeterna: the religious basis of the “autocrat” in Russian and Western European state doctrines

Roma aeterna: the religious basis of the “autocrat” in Russian and Western European state doctrines

Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya

In Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to dismiss a series of customary international law claims brought by Eritrean refugees against a Canadian mining corporation for grave human rights abuses committed in Eritrea. In doing so, the Supreme Court opened the possibility of a novel front for transnational human rights litigation: common law tort claims based on customary international law. Under the doctrine of adoption, customary international law is directly incorporated into the Canadian common law. However, Canadian courts have not yet upheld a private right of action for violations of customary international law. Writing for a divided court (5–4), Justice Abella allowed the plaintiffs’ claims to proceed, finding that it is not “plain and obvious” that the plaintiffs’ customary international law claims are bound to fail under either Canada's burgeoning “transnational” or “foreign relations” law, or international law itself. In reaching this conclusion, she offered a unique and overdue reflection on the role of national courts in identifying, adopting, and developing custom. A larger majority of the court (7–2) also rejected outright the application of the act of state doctrine in Canada, tracking several common law systems in limiting the doctrine in favor of human rights litigants.

O obowiązywalności wczesnych dekretów Papieskiej Komisji Biblijnej

Wczesne „Odpowiedzi” Papieskiej Komisji Biblijnej miały rangę dokumentów doktrynalnych, a ich celem było wyznaczenie granic katolickiej ortodoksji w studiach Pisma Świętego. Dekrety te nigdy nie utraciły swojego znaczenia formalnego, choć zostały niemal całkowicie zapomniane i unieważnione przez teologów. W 1955 roku ukazał się anonimowy artykuł, którego celem było ograniczenie autorytetu „Odpowiedzi” i uznanie ich za przestarzałe. Jednak za artykułem tym nie stał żaden formalny autorytet Kościoła. Obecnie wypada spojrzeć na te dokumenty jako na świadectwo nieustannie aktualnego Magisterium Kościoła zgodnie z zasadą „hermeneutyki ciągłości”.

ASSESSMENT OF THE REGIONAL POTENTIAL OF RECREATION AND HEALTH-PROMOTING NATURAL RESOURCES

Recreational and health tourism is essential for the development of a system of global resort-tourist relations. Every year, the flow of tourists traveling with recreational and therapeutic purposes to the Russian regions is increasing. Currently, the industry of recreational and health tourism is constantly developing in Russia and it offers a variety of developed services and comfort in the field of health tourism. The modern development stage of tourism and recreation in Russia is characterized by in-depth transformations in all spheres of public life. A market for recreational and recreational services is being formed in the country, and a new state doctrine for the development of tourism activities is being developed. International tourist flows are increasing, and the geography of tourist routes is expanding. The presence of recreational natural resources as a whole determines the territorial landmarks of tourism and recreation. In addition to the resource potential, there are many significant factors such as socioeconomic factors, the type, and level of economic development, the volume and structure of recreational needs that influence the development dynamics of health tourism. Recreational resources usually include both natural and cultural-historical objects, complexes, and their elements, each of which has its specifics. The regions of Russia have unique recreational and health-improving potential, for example, the Marcial waters of Karelia, the radon waters of Pyatigorsk and Belokurikha, the narzans of Kislovodsk, the therapeutic mud of Lake Karachi, the hydrogen sulfide of Matsesta. Such diversity is not found in any other country in the world. This article is devoted to the development of recreational or health tourism, approaches to the assessment of the natural and recreational potential of the territory; identification of factors affecting the natural and recreational potential of the region; formulation of the advantages and disadvantages of the management and development of the regional natural and recreational complex; assessment of the impact of the management of natural and recreational resources on the development of the region and analysis of the recreational natural potential of the Altai Territory of the Russian Federation.

Особенности утопических учений в средневековой исламской философии

The paper aims to trace the origins of the Islamic utopian philosophy, in particular, the Muslim doctrine of an ideal state. The authors examine utopian social-philosophical doctrines developed in the Arab East in the Middle Ages. Scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that the researchers trace continuity of three doctrines: the doctrine of autonomy of mind by Abu Yusuf Al-Kindi, the conception of Virtuous City by Abu Nasr Al-Farabi and the doctrine by Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali on improvement of social and personal morality through cognition of good. The conducted research allows concluding that the medieval Islamic utopian thought, which had originated as a commentary on the ancient classics (Plato and Aristotle), acquired its own epistemology in Al-Kindi’s works and created original social-philosophical doctrines.

Papel del artículo 8 CEDH en la construcción del margen de apreciación nacional y la doctrina de las obligaciones positivas del Estado

El artículo 8 del Convenio Europeo de Derechos Humanos –que protege los derechos al respeto la vida privada y familiar, el domicilio y la correspondencia– se ha configurado en estos setenta años de Convenio como uno de los escenarios habituales del desarrollo del margen de apreciación nacional y la doctrina de las obligaciones positivas del Estado. Esto parece justificarse en el contenido y estructura de este artículo y en las restricciones y limitaciones al ejercicio de estos derechos establecidas por su párrafo segundo.
 En este marco, el objetivo de este artículo es analizar cuál ha sido el papel del artículo 8 CEDH en el desarrollo de estos estándares interpretativos y cómo ha influido en la jurisprudencia del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos. Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights –which protects the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence– has been configured as a traditional place for the development of the margin of appreciation and the doctrine of State’s positive obligations. The scope and structure of this article and its limitation clause in the second paragraph seem to justify these developments.
 In this context, the objective of this article is to analyse the role of Article 8 ECHR in the development of these interpretative standards and its influence in the European Court of Human Rights case-law.

Altered States of Consciousness and Charismatic Authority

Charisma is an unstable basis upon which to build authority. Charismatic leaders need their followers to perceive them as being endowed with extraordinary, even supernatural, gifts. Detractors can in turn question whether the leader actually possesses these unique qualities. Using Judith von Halle and her conflicts with the Anthroposophical Society as a case study, we address the question of how charismatic authority can be constructed and deconstructed in polemical texts. At various points throughout her career, Von Halle has made extraordinary claims. She presents herself as being clairvoyant and as having received stigmata. Anthroposophists who believe these claims cite them as their reasons for regarding her doctrinal statements as being trustworthy. Skeptical Anthroposophists, on the other hand, question her experiences and motives. Using a theoretical framework inspired by Foucault and Bourdieu, we discuss how both camps discuss von Halle’s charismatic status in terms that are opaque to outsiders unfamiliar with Anthroposophical discourse.

The reception of Chalcedon in the West: a case study of Gregory the Great

AbstractGregory illustrates the complex reception of Chalcedon in the West in the way he dealt with the Istrian Schism caused by the Fifth Ecumenical Council of 553. At issue was whether Chalcedon's decisions in their entirety or its doctrinal statements alone were inviolable. Gregory strongly urged the latter, influenced by initial papal support for the Fifth Council, his conviction that only those within the church would be saved and pastoral anxiety about the imminence of the eschaton. However, his literary legacy also demonstrates his commitment to the soteriological significance of the Chalcedonian definition of the two natures of Christ.

Jacob Burckhardt as a State's theoretican: the fade of a work of art

O presente trabalho pretende analisar o pensamento político de Jacob Burckhardt, identificando as nuances de suas formulações acerca do Estado. Por meio da revisão de sua bibliografia clássica, bem como de seus comentadores, observaremos o emergir de uma peculiar posição acerca da formação dos Estados modernos pós-revolucionários, a qual, no contra fluxo de seus contemporâneos, mostra uma desconfiança característica com relação ao militarismo e a centralização do poder. Ademais, a sua formação, que mescla história da arte com filosofia política, possibilita a elaboração de uma doutrina estadista que comunga elementos culturais, históricos e políticos. De obra de Arte no paradigma renascentista à artefato tecnológico na aurora de seu tempo, Burckhardt - um homem de contrastes - vai encampar uma das mais interessantes, apesar de pouco exploradas, Teorias do Estado da modernidade oitocentista.

Public law adjudication, international uniformity and the foreign act of state doctrine

Should courts, when applying foreign law, assess the validity or legality of foreign legislative or executive acts therein? The foreign act of state doctrine answers that question in the negative, but is often criticised as lacking a sound theoretical basis. This article argues, however, that the doctrine remains defensible if reconceptualised as a rule of private international law, which furthers the modest goal of international uniformity within the choice-of-law process. Assessing the validity or legality of foreign legislative and executive acts necessarily requires courts to address questions of foreign public law. Given the fact-specific and flexible nature of public law adjudication, courts cannot answer these questions, and thus cannot carry out such assessments, in a manner that loyally applies foreign law. The doctrine, then, makes the best of a bad situation, by sidestepping that problem with a clear rule of refusal which, if consistently applied, furthers international uniformity.