Equal Legal Status Research Articles

The Maetreum of Cybele

In 2008, a legal case, “The Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater, Inc. v. Nancy McCoy [tax assessor)] &c., et al., for recognition of tax-exempt status between the Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater Inc. and the Town of Catskill, New York” began. The court was asked to decide whether the pastoral work of a Pagan church could be viewed in the same way as the clerical work of other accepted religions. The court also needed to determine how much of the landholdings must be dedicated to worship space. The rulings have been cited as precedent in other cases. In addition, they can act as a rallying point for other new religious movements and Pagan groups to fight for equal legal status.

DIRECTIONS FOR FORMING AN INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISM FOR DEVELOPING A STATE GENDER POLICY

The article examines issues of the existing institutional mechanism for developing a national gender policy. Issues of equality for women and men are guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine and other legislative acts. The paper highlights the necessity for integrating the gender approach in all areas of state policy. The author analyzes functions of various state and local authorities responsible for implementing a standard policy on gender equality. The paper highlights that the institutional framework of the national gender policy is a complicated and complex issue that encompasses various areas. The author emphasizes that gender equality is the equal legal status of women and men and equal opportunities for its realization, which enables individuals of both sexes to participate equally in all the areas of public life. The paper contains a comprehensive analysis of the state mechanism for ensuring gender equality as a system of international, national, regional, and local institutions aimed at establishing the principles of gender equality in various areas of social life and guaranteeing the development of gender strategies and a corresponding state gender policy. The research results in developing ways for combating gender inequality in governmental institutions (statistical, sociological, normative, informational, and educational ones).

Judicial Decisions on Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights: An Appraisal of Its Effect

This paper highlights the impact of selected judicial decisions on the claims to land rights by the indigenous peoples in Malaysia. A judicial impact study is important because court decisions can alter the status of law that controls social and political behaviour and/or elicit responses from other political actors, thus influencing policy and political outcomes. The Malaysian Courts have played a significant role in developing law that acknowledges indigenous customary rights in Malaysia. For example, the case of Nor Anak Nyawai and Others v Borneo Pulp Plantation Sdn Bhd [2001] 6 MLJ 241 not only clarified the legal position of native customary rights but also had a profound impact in the Malaysian legal system. The judgment had aided in the reoccupation of the Iban’s territories. Sagong bin Tasi & Ors v. Kerajaan Negeri Selangor [2002] 2 CLJ 591 recognised that indigenous customary land rights were of equal legal status to full ownership or title to the land in Peninsular Malaysia. By applying doctrinal legal research, the three cases selected are, first, the landmark case of Director of Forest, Sarawak & Anor v. TR Sandah Tabau & Ors and Other Appeals [2017] 2 MLRA 91 which led to the amendment of the Sarawak Land Code 1958. The second and third cases are claims by the Orang Asli in Pos Dakoh and Pos Belatim against the government of Kelantan and in which consent judgments were entered. This study would be significant in emphasizing the impact of judicial decisions and the need for courts to ensure that the decision is carried out as well. Regardless of the courts’ findings, the government’s implementation of such decisions is still insufficient. Nonetheless, certain indigenous groups have re-occupied their territory without the state’s consent. As a result, the court decisions have provided people with a significant motivation to physically reclaim their land.

Christianity without Christ?

Ever since the publication of Dohm’s Ueber die bürgerliche Verbesserung der Juden (On the Civil Improvement of the Jews) in 1781, which argued for Jewish political equality on humanitarian grounds, more and more voices joined those demands. Prominent among them was David Friedländer, a friend and disciple of Moses Mendelssohn. One of the leading figures of the Berlin Haskalah, he worked towards establishing equal legal status for Jews in Prussia. Friedländer did not accept the given view of his times, the antithesis of Jew and German. For him only the antithesis Jew–Christian existed and even that he tried to reconcile by finding common ground in a religion of reason, the groundwork of which he laid out in an Open Letter in 1799. What he proposed at that time may have been illusionary, but it certainly met with approval in enlightened Jewish circles. Friedländer therefore not only stands for those who dared to break with the traditions, but also for the generation of those who consciously aimed at the denationalization of traditional Judaism – and thus decided in favour of the confessionalization and the Germanness of the Jews.

КОНСТИТУЦІЙНО-ПРАВОВИЙ АСПЕКТ ПРИНЦИПУ РІВНОСТІ ЯК ГАРАНТІЇ ПРАВ ТА СВОБОД ЛЮДИНИ І ГРОМАДЯНИНА В УКРАЇНІ

The article is devoted to the coverage of the concept and content of the constitutional principle of equality as a guarantee of the realization of human and civil rights and freedoms in Ukraine. Different approaches of scientists to the definition of the concept and structure of this principle are analyzed. Definitions such as "equality", "equality" or "equality", their content, relationship and meaning are highlighted. These concepts are considered from the point of view of constitutional law, in particular: equality implies equal legal status of man and citizen before the law, in other words equality of the whole spectrum of rights and responsibilities of all persons, while equality means only equality of human rights and freedoms. It is emphasized that the principle of equality in its content is a broader concept, revealing the indisputable unity of rights, freedoms and responsibilities of man and citizen. It is determined that the constitutional principle of equality belongs to the group of legal normative-legal guarantees of human and civil rights and freedoms, in particular, to the so-called norms-principles. The enshrinement of this principle in the Constitution of Ukraine is aimed at ensuring the rights and freedoms of man and citizen by guaranteeing equal opportunities for all persons to exercise their constitutional rights and freedoms, as well as ensuring equality before the law and the courts. Particular attention was paid to ensuring the equality of constitutional rights and freedoms of internally displaced persons. The issue of equality depending on regional affiliation is raised, along with racial, national, religious beliefs, disability and other grounds. Regional affiliation means the affiliation of a person by birth or residence to a region - part of the territory of Ukraine or the territory of compact settlement of Ukrainians outside the territory of Ukraine - which differs from other territories in a number of historical, geographical, linguistic and other features. Features of gender equality are described. Some aspects of ensuring the principle of equality in the realization of certain human and civil rights and freedoms in Ukraine are revealed.

News translation in a bilingual context: the case of news outlets in Kazakhstan

Based on interviews with journalism community members in Kazakhstan, this study examines the practical challenges the journalism community faces in news translation and reporting in a bilingual context and discusses how the findings relate to broader journalism practice. This article contributes to growing scholarship on news translation, especially in a bilingual context, a scholarly area still under-explored. This study took place in Kazakhstan, where the Kazakh and Russian languages are official and have equal legal status. News translation makes it difficult for some people to immediately access news in their native language. Journalists either have to delay the circulation of news until translation is available in both languages or circulate news in the initial language of news production and speakers of the other language wait. News delays happen because of the translation hurts some news businesses.

Scottish Gaelic revitalisation: Progress and aspiration

This review considers the revitalisation programme for Scottish Gaelic (referred to simply as ‘Gaelic’ [ɡalik] by its speakers) which has gathered pace since the 1980s. Gaelic is a minority Celtic language with approximately 58,000 speakers in Scotland (Scottish Government 2015) and 1,500 speakers in Canada (Statistique Canada 2016). Gaelic in Scotland developed from the Old Irish spoken by people moving back and forwards between Ireland and Scotland in the 4th-5th centuries and eventually became the language spoken across almost all of Scotland in the high medieval era (11th-12th centuries). Since this time, language shift has been taking place in Scotland and locations where the majority of the population speak Gaelic are now confined to north and west Highland areas such as the Western Isles (Outer Hebrides). Frequent waves of migration from Scotland have led to diasporic populations of Gaelic speakers including the substantial settlements in Nova Scotia, Canada, where many Gaelic speakers emigrated in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The texts reviewed here document the process of language shift but especially focus on revitalisation efforts undertaken in order to increase speaker numbers and also increase the contexts and usage of Gaelic. As both works demonstrate, the revitalisation programme has its origins in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries but really gained momentum in the 1980s with the advent of increased Gaelic broadcasting, education in Gaelic, and the subsequent Gaelic Language Act in 2005, which gave Gaelic in Scotland equal legal status to English. Each work takes quite a different approach to considering these issues: McLeod (2020) is a historical and legal analysis of language policy from 1872 to 2020 and McEwan-Fujita (2020) collects the outcome of several linguistic anthropological studies conducted with different Gaelic-speaking groups and organisations. Together, these works provided different angles and levels of analysis of the Gaelic revitalisation programme and offer substantial inspiration for future work. As well as giving a detailed picture of the Gaelic context, these works will be useful for those working in other minority language contexts, linguistic anthropology, and language policy.

СОВРЕМЕННОЕ ОБОСНОВАНИЕ ИСПАНСКОЙ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОЙ ИДЕИ «ЕSPAÑOLIDAD» И ПРОБЛЕМА ИСПАНСКИХ ИСТОРИЧЕСКИХ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОСТЕЙ

The main particularity of the Spanish civic collective identity is that its doctrine, Espanolidad, was initially formulated as theocratic, proclaiming the unity of the Spanish nation under the aegis of the Spanish Empire. However, after the Spanish War of Independence of 1808-1814, Espanolidad became the banner of opposite political forces: conservative on the one hand and liberal on the other. Espanolidad as the basic factor of the formation of the Spanish civic collective identity in the course of the 19th century favored Castelano-centrismo, which consisted in the centralization of the Spanish economy around Madrid and in the cultural Castilization of the Spanish state, the principal mechanism of which was the universal introduction of the Castilian language. Basque and Catalan regional nationalists being partial towards Castelanocentrismo considered the federalization of the Spanish state as an alternative to it already at the beginning of the 20th century. Conservative elements of Espanolidad received their distinct shape in the Francoist cultural doctrine of Nacionalcatolicismo, which had to justify the Spanish monoethnic state resting on the Christian unity. The Spanish “transition to democracy” is the transformation of the Francoist monoethnic state into the Spanish State of Autonomous Communities. Nevertheless, the rejection of Nacionalcatolicismo, symbolized by the slogan Spain is difference, put the unity of the Spanish nation into question and led to the intensification of regional separatist movements (Catalan and Basque). The criticism of the principle of ethnic nationalism, partly related to Nacionalcatolicismo, fostered the adoption of Constitutional Patriotism as the dominant Spanish cultural strategy. While postulating unity in variety, Constitutional Patriotism gives new breath to the old Espanolidad asserting national unity through the State of Autonomous Communities. The equal legal status of Spanish regions resting on the principles of solidarity and economic utility is upheld by the leveling of the inequalities of economic development between the rich and the poor autonomous communities.

GENDER SENSITISATION ANTIDOTE FOR SELF RELIANCE

"Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his own instincts and ideas. . The debate surrounding the self reliance will be meaningless if issues related to women in a large country like India will not only be inappropriate but sometimes even misleading. Women specific and women related legislations have been enacted to safeguard the rights and interest of women, besides protecting against discrimination, violence, and atrocities and also to prevent socially undesirable practices. Despite the constitutional mandate of equal legal status for the girl child, the same is yet to be realized. The de jure laws have not been translated into de facto situation for various reasons such as illiteracy, social practices, prejudices, cultural norms based on patriarchal values, poor representation of women in policy-making, poverty, regional disparity in development, lack of access and opportunity to information and resources etc. According to the Uttar Pradesh Govt. sources, female life expectancy is less than 55 years and the under-five mortality rate is as high as 141 per thousand. Australia was the first country to develop a gender-sensitive budget, with the Federal government publishing in 1984 the first comprehensive audit of a government budget for its impact on women and girls. Empowerment of women is essentially the process of upliftment of economic, social and political status of women, the traditionally underprivileged ones, in the society. It involves the building up of a society wherein in women can breathe without the fear of oppression, exploitation, apprehension, discrimination and the general feeling of persecution which goes with being a woman in a traditionally male dominated structure. One major therapy prescribed by woman empowerment advocates is empowering women through legislation for ensuring participation in political decision making. Such an approach provides the women with a constitutional platform to stand up to men, to raise their voice on issues concerning women oppression, subjugation and related issues and thus in effect, providing them with an identity in an orthodox male dominated socio-political set up, in addition to providing a much needed forum to seek redressal of problems directly affecting them: the true essence of empowerment. The present paper attempts to look into the dynamism of the process whereby women empowerment is achieved (?) through legislation or women participation in the Panchayati Raj Institution. KEYWORDS: Self Reliance, Gender Bugdeting, Women empowerment, Panchayati Raj Institutions.

Ukrainian vs. Russian? The Securitization of Language-Related Issues in Ukrainian Blogs and on News Websites

The transformation of the peaceful demonstrations, which started on November 21, 2013, against Yanukovych’s decision to suspend the signing of the association agreement with the EU, into the bloodshed in Kyiv and eastern Ukraine, has vividly demonstrated that the rhetoric of the “protection of Russian-speakers’ rights” can be easily transformed from the level of “discursive threats” to the real threat of Ukraine’s dissolution. Therefore, the article seeks to explain how language-related issues were securitized in public discussions in leading Ukrainian blogs and on news websites that function in the Russian language after the Revolution of Dignity. The analysis of journalistic articles and users’ comments encompasses the period of 2013–2015 when the Russian–Ukrainian conflict and the discussion of language issues reached its climax. It is argued that despite an extreme presence of anti-Russian (anti-imperialist) arguments and consolidation over the idea of Ukrainian as the only state language (“one nation–one language”), arguments that supported an equal legal status of Russian- and Ukrainian-speakers were also to be found in selected digital media outlets. The analysis has also demonstrated that for most online users of Ukrainian digital media that function in Russian, the state language is constructed as the language discriminated against in its own national state.

MODEL EDUKACJI RELIGIJNEJ W REPUBLICE ESTONII

Estonia jest przykładem państwa, które wprowadziło model niewyznaniowej fakultatywnej formy nauczania religii w szkołach. Uregulowanie tej kwestii ma istotne znaczenie z punktu widzenia relacji państwo – Kościół. Konstytucja Estonii sankcjonuje brak istnienia Kościoła państwowego, a także gwarantuje równy status prawny Kościołom i związkom wyznaniowym. Nauczaniu religii w szkole nie poświęcono uwagi w ustawie zasadniczej. Również w aktach niższego rzędu kwestia ta została potraktowana lakonicznie. W 2010 r. wprowadzono jednak istotną nowelizację obowiązującego prawodawstwa. Ujednolicono program nauczania dla przedmiotu, który odtąd stanowi wytyczne obowiązujące dla wszystkich szkół. Estonia jest uznawana za kraj silnie zlaicyzowany. Wpływ na to miały doświadczenia historyczne, które warunkują stosunek Estończyków wychowania religijnego. Jego rola jest marginalizowana w systemie nauczania, a równocześnie wzbudza liczne kontrowersje.

GENDER EQUALITY IN UKRAINE: ANALYSIS OF LEGALS ACTS

Today, in most countries, the equal legal status of women and men, as well as the equal opportunity to execute it in society, that is, gender equality, has long been a commonplace in public discourse and politics. In Ukraine, equality between men and women is declared at the constitutional level, which testifies to the approach of the Ukrainian state and civil society to the European and world level of solving gender problems. The execution of the legal regulation of the state gender policy in Ukraine is considered by the normative legal acts of two levels: supranational and national and the results of their implementation. The actual problem of not only creating a sufficient regulatory and legal field, but also its compliance is analyzed. Moreover, attention is paid to the facts of violation and neglect of the current legislation, which in turn leads to the preservation of gender inequality in Ukrainian society, where most property, power and general influence belong to men. There is a need to develop a new paradigm of state power, which should envisage the optimal use of human resources, in particular its female component and, ultimately, the achievement of gender equality as an important part of the development strategy, which is intended to enable all men and women to improve their living standards. It is argued that the relevance of gender equality in the contemporary historical context will be maintained in the short term. This is due to the fact that the problems of gender inequality, and therefore of socio-economic and political discrimination against women, cannot be solved solely by state reforms, since a system of rules that forbid any deterioration of women's rights is unlikely to operate without an effective system for monitoring of norms implementation.

Modern political activity in gender aspect

The article describes the main gender features of the implementation of political activities. We study the gender analysis as a process of assessing the different impact on women and men, which is implemented by existing or planned programs, legislation, public policy directions, in all spheres of society and the state. Moreover, the research proves the existence in society of discrimination based on sex, which means acts or omissions that express any distinction, exclusion or privilege on the basis of sex if they are intended to restrict or make it impossible to recognize, use or exercise on an equal basis human rights and freedoms for women and men. The article analyzes gender stereotypes in the social and political sphere that carried out on the example of a gender portrait of the Dnepropetrovsk region. Therefore, various forms of political activity are considered as a set of actions of individuals and social groups aimed at realizing their own political interests. We explore the effectiveness of the implementation of gender policy, which is manifested in the actions of political actors aimed at the adoption of the partnership of the sexes in the definition and implementation of political goals, objectives and methods for their achievement. It was stated that in the process of the democratic development of Ukrainian society, a social order for women engaged in active public and political activities and capable of holding high management positions should be met. This work reveals that the necessary component of the process of social development is the conduct of gender analysis, the introduction of gender analysis in the practice of assessing all social processes and the effectiveness of management of socio-economic and political development.In addition, the study proves that prerequisite for the development of society is gender equality, that is, the equal legal status of women and men and equal opportunities for its implementation, which allows individuals of both sexes to participate equally in all spheres of society’s life. Also noted that the existence of gender inequality slows down the opportunities for economic growth, weakens the system of public administration and reduces the effectiveness of human development strategies. Therefore, careful study of the gender features of contemporary political life and the definition of the directions of further social development is an important condition for ensuring gender parity in various spheres of Ukrainian society. Accordingly, we determine that it is necessary to reduce the influence on the public consciousness of gender stereotypes, that is, stereotypes about the role and place of women and men in society having a cultural and historical basis and, in the majority, restricting the rights of women in society and generating gender discrimination. The article demonstrates that the peculiarities of modern political processes require the search for new approaches to explain and predict the various conflicts between the branches of power, political crises, in order to design policies and to choose the means of state policy.

‘One nation, two languages’: representations of official languages on multilingual news websites in Belarus

ABSTRACTThis article analyses how two official languages of Belarus, Russian and Belarusian, are represented on the homepages of two national news websites through the analysis of media discourse within headlines and leads of news stories, and focusing on aspects of multimodality of websites. In view of the equal legal status of these languages, this study investigates the extent to which readers of news in Russian and Belarusian are exposed to different content, and how these differences are connected to existing language ideologies. Critical discourse analysis of textual contents of linguistic versions in combination with multimodal analysis of the websites’ layout revealed that Russian and Belarusian tend to be used differently in news on politics, culture and sports and, hence, are represented as having different values. More specifically, the media examined here present the same stories from different ideological perspectives and websites’ thematic sections include different news depending on the language of the webpage. This study demonstrated that multilingual websites represent a useful source of data for the study of language ideologies in the media. The methodological approach employed here can be replicated in other contexts characterised by bilingualism and diglossia [Fishman, Joshua A. 1967. “Bilingualism With and Without Diglossia; Diglossia With and Without Bilingualism.” Journal of Social Issues 23 (2): 29–38] linguistic situations.

Deontological Originalism: Moral Truth, Liberty, and, Constitutional 'Due Process'

Deontological Originalism: Moral Truth, Liberty, and, Constitutional 'Due Process'

An Analysis of the Legal Attributes of Human Dignity

Human dignity arises from the dignity and respect people enjoy as members of the human community. The law decrees that human dignity does not involve approbation of someone’s external qualities; rather, it is the acknowledgement of equal status. Human dignity is not determined by positive law, but is above positive law, belonging to the category of preexistent norms that exist independent of positive law. Such norms form the basis for integrating legal systems. These permanent norms cannot be amended at will; they represent the general ethical principles of modern law. Human dignity is not a matter of rights or basic rights; rather, it represents one’s position in society and equal legal status before the law. Many normative laws in China directly define humanity dignity, and affirm the guaranteeing of human dignity as the primary task of the state. Human dignity is related to people’s survival and livelihood; thus a material foundation for the realization of dignity can be provided by providing material assistance and improving public services.

Westphalia Waning? The Uneven Acceptance of International Courts

Is the uneven acceptance of international courts (ICs) an indication of different conceptions of state sovereignty? The conventional idea of the Westphalian model is that it involved the principles of state sovereignty, legal equality of states, and non-intervention in internal affairs. The 1648 Peace of Westphalia often serves as a historical reference, even though the modern conceptions of state sovereignty hardly goes back to the 17th century and the Westphalian treaties of Munster and Osnabruck (Osiander 2001; Beaulac 2004). The idea of sovereignty evolved during the 19th and 20th centuries, yielding several versions. The one relevant here is international legal sovereignty, which implies recognition of polity and territoriality by other states and domestic authority structures that exclude external actors (Krasner 1999). To explore whether different conceptions of sovereignty within the modern states system affect states’ acceptance of ICs, we categorize states according to a set of variables which includes colonial background, geopolitical position, political regime, legal system and resources. We then analyze how these factors correlate with the ratification of different types of ICs – two independent courts and two conflict resolution mechanisms connected to states’ broader acceptance of international organizations. We analyze the acceptance of four ICs with a global reach – the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC), the WTO dispute settlement mechanism (DSM), and the dispute settlement system under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), including the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). These ICs vary in interesting respect. Acceptance of the WTO dispute settlement follows from ratification of the treaty establishing the WTO, and similarly for dispute settlement under UNCLOS and for the criminal jurisdiction of the ICC. However, acceding to UNCLOS implies that states have the opportunity to use ITLOS, the ICJ or ad hoc arbitration for dispute settlement. The ICJ was established in 1945 as the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, but the UN member states are only bound by the competence of the ICJ if this is explicitly accepted by the relevant state. This selection allows us to explore the difference between accepting substantive treaty obligations sanctioned by an IC, and only accepting the IC. The motivation of states may be to ensure general acceptance of the substantive obligations, or of the IC – or both. We employ a full dataset for when or if a country accepted each of these four courts. Using logistic regression analysis, we look for the links between a selected number of independent variables and the tendency to join the treaty that established each court. Is there a systematic pattern that indicates how the uneven judicialization of international law works?

Constitution of Serbia and rights of opposition

The political opposition which is primarily organized in political parties, is a condition for existence of democratic political system. Special attention should be paid to guaranties of the position of political opposition in states which have renewed their multiparty system, or just initiated it. This guaranty means protection of oppositional political parties with rights and legal mechanism, enables the same legal treatment and real equality with ruling parties. This implies constitutional, statutory and executive rights and procedures through which opposition operates. The constitutional position of opposition in the Republic of Serbia was built just with the given order. Oppositional political parties have an equal legal status and, apropos, possibility to criticize, control and change the government through the election. However, a really low level of a political culture, lack of consistency of the political ideology, readiness for all kinds of coalitions, inferiority of the underdeveloped public opinion, makes so that the political opposition has slightly worse position in the relation to position of government.

The European Court of Human Rights and Same-Sex Marriage. The Consensus Approach

The European Court of Human Rights and Same-Sex Marriage. The Consensus Approach

The Zoning Map and American City Form

This paper investigates a common mode of visual communication in planning practice, the use of maps to regulate urban development. Holding equal legal status with the text, the zoning map was invented in the early twentieth century as a tool for implementing municipal policy and, although debated, modified, and sometimes repurposed over the past nine decades, it remains standard. Mundane and largely taken for granted, the zoning map itself has aroused little scholarly interest. However, as an image of the city and as a graphic intermediary used in administrative processes, it reveals how planning thought is embedded in planning tools.