Government Lawyers Research Articles

Protecting Digital Assets: Government Initiatives and NGOs Participation

Digital assets are an indispensable part of human life and have taken shape as valuable assets in sentimental and monetary forms. Being valuable, these digital assets need to be protected with a specific security set-up including a trained army of technocrats, government machinery, NGOs and experts engaged in similar activities. This army of all stakeholders will help to protect the people and motivate them to protect their digital assets. The number and role of NGOs have grown dramatically in a welfare society and they have become a bridge between government and the common people. These NGOs are generally formed by like-minded persons and organisations such as government machinery, technocrats, private organisations, lawyers, academicians, techno-savvy people, police personnel and students to bring awareness to the common people on protecting digital assets. The present research article shows that in future, a new set of institutional linkage between state agencies and NGOs needs to be explored and researched into.

Stakeholders’ engagement with law to address gender-based violence in Southwest Nigeria: a qualitative study using normalisation process theory to explore implementation challenges

BackgroundSexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is a significant issue in Nigeria. In 2015, the Federal Government of Nigeria enacted the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP) to address all forms...

U.S. Commercial Diplomacy Toward Turkey: Ambassador George C. McGhee’s Role in the Privatization of the Oil Business in the 1950s

Abstract American diplomats occupied an important place in Turkish politics in the 1950s. They were not only highly valued by Turkish governments; they also participated in decision-making processes as advisers, especially in matters of commerce and privatization. This article focuses on one of these influential actors, George C. McGhee, who played a significant role in the denationalization of Turkey’s oil operations in March 1954. With a degree and business background in the oil sector and experience in the Turkish mission, McGhee was an effective commercial diplomat. Throughout his short tenure as ambassador, McGhee influenced Turkish leaders to privatize the oil sector. He mediated between the Turkish government and American lawyers specializing in oil bills, alongside American companies as possible investors. Shortly after he left the Turkish post, Turkey passed a law that privatized the oil sector.

Electronic documents as resources for sociological research on the level of security of financial and legal relations

Electronic documents, such as contracts, court decisions, financial reports, etc., can contain valuable information about social factors that affect the security of financial and legal relations. Analysis of these documents helps to identify the interrelationships between public trust, power, technology, and other social phenomena in the context of their impact on the security of individuals and society as a whole. The purpose of the article is to determine the possibilities of using electronic documents as resources for sociological research to assess the level of security of financial and legal relations. The study uses historical and logical methods to highlight the current state of affairs in the field of digital data analytics, and the methods of comparison and generalization form the basis for classifying risk indicators available in the texts of electronic documents. It is indicated that in the context of the spread of digital interaction between people, understanding the sociological aspects of their behaviour reflected in electronic documents becomes key to assessing the risks of illegal financial transactions. The article substantiates the important role of electronic documents as a valuable resource for sociological research. The study is based on an interdisciplinary approach, highlighting the possibilities of integrating sociological analysis, network research, linguistic pattern recognition and data mining methods to obtain meaningful information from large amounts of electronic documents. The main results of the study include the classification of indicators of illicit financial transaction behaviour present in the texts of electronic documents. The study highlights the practical value of using electronic documents in sociological research, offering practical guidance for government officials, lawyers, and analysts to improve risk assessment and develop security measures. The materials systematized in this study demonstrate the potential of open-source intelligence (OSINT) and advanced data analytics to build meaningful sociological models using electronic documents, highlighting their importance in addressing contemporary security analytical challenges

Fabricated Legality

Abstract In the wake of the increased regulation of armed conflicts, legal interpretation by government lawyers has become crucial in shaping state policies, particularly during times of war. This article explores the scenarios where state policies that have been positively sanctioned by legal professionals potentially amount to international crimes, raising questions of accountability. By examining historical and contemporary instances, the article explores if and to what extent government legal advisers may be considered accomplices in such crimes. It suggests that their responsibility could be framed within the mode of liability of aiding and abetting, as outlined in Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute. Additionally, the article addresses alternative modes of liability specified under Article 25(3)(a) and 25(3)(d). It finally expands to the further consequences of legal advice on the liability of the principal perpetrator, questioning whether the latter may invoke a defence of mistake of law or a breach of the principle of legality. In an attempt to embrace the revolutionary potential of international criminal law, this article aims to make legal interpretation itself the object of scrutiny, through the lenses of international criminal responsibility.

Human Rights at the Edges of Late Imperial Britain: The Tyrer Case and Judicial Corporal Punishment from the Isle of Man to Montserrat, 1972–1990

AbstractIn Tyrer v. United Kingdom (1978), the European Court of Human of Human Rights ruled that judicial corporal punishment contravened Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which proscribed “degrading treatment or punishment.” The case unfolded at a formative moment in British legal activism, as left-wing civil-liberties lawyers who had been wary of human rights discourse began taking cases to Strasbourg. The case also involved tactical challenges for British politicians and government lawyers. The case originated on the Isle of Man, which is close to the British mainland but constitutionally not part of the United Kingdom: it is a “crown dependency” with its own executive, legislature, and judiciary, and it persisted with judicial corporal punishment long after the practice had been abolished in Great Britain. By convention, the British government respected the island's laws and criminal-justice policies, but Britain was responsible for the island's compliance with international agreements—including the European Convention on Human Rights. How the British government dealt with the Isle of Man during and after the litigation had direct implications for a host of other small territories in what remained of the British empire—in particular, Britain's remaining Caribbean territories. The Tyrer case's protracted endgame was an object lesson in how much Britain's “unwritten” constitution depends on negotiation, manipulation, and avoiding the overt exercise of powers that might crumble upon use.

Twenty Years After Krieger v Law Society of Alberta: Law Society Discipline of Crown Prosecutors and Government Lawyers

Krieger v. Law Society of Alberta held that provincial and territorial law societies have disciplinary jurisdiction over Crown prosecutors for conduct outside of prosecutorial discretion. The reasoning in Krieger would also apply to government lawyers. The apparent consensus is that law societies rarely exercise that jurisdiction. But in those rare instances, what conduct do Canadian law societies discipline Crown prosecutors and government lawyers for? In this article, I canvass reported disciplinary decisions to demonstrate that, while law societies sometimes discipline Crown prosecutors for violations unique to those lawyers, they often do so for violations applicable to all lawyers — particularly extraprofessional misconduct. Further research remains necessary on the patterns and incentives underlying law society discipline of Crown prosecutors and government lawyers. Nonetheless, the relative rarity of disciplinary proceedings involving Crown prosecutors and government lawyers does not necessarily mean that law societies are neglecting their statutory mandate as it applies to those lawyers. At the same time, law societies may indeed be overly reliant not only on internal discipline of these lawyers by governments as their employers, but also on criminal proceedings as prompts for investigation and discipline.

Analysis of the harmonization of contract law Ukraine with the law of the European Union

The introduction of European norms into national legislation can cause certain problems and disagreements.The reasons that can lead to such disagreements, which are mentioned in the statement of the problem, are primarily cultural and historical differences. Countries have their own cultural and historical characteristics that affect their legal systems. European norms may not always take these differences into account, which may lead to differences in the interpretation and application of the law.The reason is the needs and peculiarities of the national economy, because each country has its own economic structure and needs. European norms may not take into account the specifics of the national economy, which may lead to disagreements and cause difficulties in the implementation of certain provisions.European norms may be formulated ambiguously or leave certain aspects uncertain. This can lead to differences in the interpretation and application of the law, as well as to different approaches in court decisions, which is legal ambiguity.Time constraints and the accelerated process of harmonization are also one of the reasons due to differences between Ukrainian and European law. The implementation of European norms can take place at a fast pace, which can make it difficult to adapt and ensure full compliance with national legislation. This can lead to ambiguities and inappropriateness in the legal system.And integration with European law can create challenges in ensuring a unified mechanism for control and dispute resolution. Differences in the interpretation and application of European norms can create problems in resolving disputes between the parties. Therefore, the lack of a single control mechanism is also a reason.Ukrainian contract law needs legislative adaptation. After all, the implementation of European norms requires significant changes in national legislation. This can cause difficulties and require time and resources to implement the necessary reforms.One of the reasons is the lack of full compliance. Ukraine may have difficulties in achieving full compliance with European norms due to various factors, such as backwardness in the development of the legal system, corruption, insufficient legal culture, etc. This can lead to unresolved issues and disagreements with European law.The next reason is the implementation of requirements and standards. Harmonization of contract law with European norms requires the introduction of new requirements and standards. This can be a challenge for government bodies, lawyers, courts and other participants of the legal system, who must familiarize themselves with the new rules, acquire the necessary skills and abilities to apply them.Harmonization of contract law to European standards may also require significant financial costs. This is due to the need for reforms, training of specialists, development and implementation of new laws and legal instruments. The government and other stakeholders must commit sufficient resources to ensure successful harmonization, which is a challenge.The reason for the discrepancy between domestic and European law is the interaction with other branches of law. Harmonization of contract law can affect other areas of law, such as economic, civil and labor law.Changes in one area may necessitate changes in the corresponding areas, which may cause complications and disagreements in their interaction.Harmonization of contract law requires broad public support and involvement. This means the need to inform citizens, businesses and other interested parties about the changes, hold consultations and take into account their opinions and suggestions. Support and involvement of society is needed. Despite these challenges, the harmonization of contract law of Ukraine with European law remains important and necessary. This will contribute to the creation of a single legal space, increased protection of the rights of citizens and enterprises, development of trade and investments, and improvement of justice.However, it is important to take into account the specificities and needs of the country when implementing European norms, ensuring a balance between global standards and national realities.

Registering Cosmetics? The Constitution of Legal Form and Injurious Substance in Canada (1945-1946).

In midcentury Canada, legislative drafters, government lawyers, food and drug officials, and ministers grappled with cosmetics. Faced with constitutional concerns about cosmetic licensing, these actors drafted legislative amendments that would instead require cosmetics to be registered. In contrast to people or land, the registration of products, substances, or things has received little attention in sociolegal scholarship. Building on work investigating law's temporalities and materiality, this account traces how in-formed by the constitutional doctrine that apprehended substances through the legal form of prohibition, cosmetics were rendered in draft legislation as constituted of ingredients that may cause injury. Injury, in this account, is a material-temporal regime. Yet cosmetic injury was neither static nor singular, as it was catalysed differently by distinctive regulatory devices. This is shown by last-minute changes to the bill which retooled cosmetic registration, from an information extraction device for anticipating future harms, into a recording device for capturing latent harms.

Settling Russia's Imperial and Baltic Debts

AbstractThe 1918 Soviet default is the longest and most complex sovereign debt dispute in history. The first settlement with a major Western power came with the United Kingdom in 1986. It followed a settlement almost twenty years earlier for claims arising from the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states. We show how the two negotiations became intertwined and prompted both states to take pragmatic positions on international law. Whereas the Soviet Union showed little interest in legally justifying its inconsistent positions on debt succession, the United Kingdom developed contested legal arguments on state recognition to justify using gold belonging to the Baltic States to settle Soviet claims. In addition, we document how UK government lawyers admitted internally that Britain's involvement in the Russian Civil War had been illegal, which in turn justified very limited compensation to British claimants.

Government Lawyers May be Prime Candidates for College and University Presidencies

Government Lawyers May be Prime Candidates for College and University Presidencies

The Democracy Effects of Legal Polarization: Movement Lawyering at the Dawn of the Unitary Executive

The success of the conservative legal movement in reshaping the Supreme Court has unquestionably helped transform the substance of constitutional law in ways that advance the movement’s longstanding political agenda: reverse the civil rights-era constitutionalization of civil and social equality rights, and reduce government regulation of private sector business enabled by the modern administrative state. Less well understood is the movement’s role beyond the courts, and the range of ways it has shifted once shared norms that helped distinguish the practice of law from the practice of politics in the United States. This Article surfaces one example of that phenomenon, tracing the movement’s efforts beginning in the 1980s to advance a unitary exec-utive theory of constitutional power inside the Executive Branch. Inside the Department of Justice, these efforts functioned to kneecap a suite of post-Watergate ethics reforms designed to guard against cor-ruption or other misconduct by government lawyers. Outside the Department, aided by an increasingly polarized system of professional incentives the movement likewise pioneered, inadequate ethics ac-countability at the top of the profession functioned to undermine acceptance of professional norms more broadly. Among the norms most damaged: the belief that lawyers are bound by professional duties that transcend commitments to partisan loyalty. This recovered history in part underscores the extent to which judicial rulings are at best lag-ging indicators of legal revolutions. It likewise offers a case study of the structural consequences of theories of constitutional power engineered around circumstantial partisan interest. Above all, it illustrates how de-stabilizing the norms that support rule-of-law systems can weaken constitutional democracy across the board.

Agendas, Decisions, and Autonomy: How Government Lawyers Shape Judicial Behavior

Agendas, Decisions, and Autonomy: How Government Lawyers Shape Judicial Behavior

An Interview with Daniel Olivas

An Interview with Daniel Olivas Frederick Luis Aldama Daniel Olivas is a real modern-day superhero. Land use and conservation attorney by day and poet, playwright, fiction author, editor, and essayist by night, Olivas works relentlessly to transform our world for the better. In his fiction (short and long form and kid's picture book), poetry, and plays he dances between genre, tone, voice—as well as Spanish and English, myth and everyday gritty reality. Reading Olivas, I think of authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Nelida Piñon, and Sergio Pitol who masterfully reframe everyday interpersonal relations and interactions in new and often uncanny ways that reverberate across our imagination and soul. And, when Olivas leans into storytelling modes like the fantastic or magical realist, he does so in ways that revitalize and never repeat or onerously duplicate these forms. In each of his fictional works (long or short) we see an elasticity of form and voice as well as deft ability to slow down time and space in ways that open our hearts to experience the minutiae of quotidian Chicano life: complex layers of faith in our lives, intergenerational language conflicts and confusions, blue-versus white-collar clashes within families, the full lives of those whom society has written off, Latinx elderly. He takes us into those unexpected sweet everyday coincidences and human moments of subtle exchange that reveal something deep about Latinx life—and the human condition generally. In addition to publishing of books of fiction and poetry, his writing appears in the New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Guardian, La Bloga, BOMB, High Country News, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, El Paso Times, and the Jewish Journal. His first play, Waiting for Godínez, was selected for the Playwrights' Arena Summer Reading Series and The Road Theatre's 12th Annual Summer Playwrights Festival. A shorter pandemic version of that play had its world premiere in 2021, produced by Playwrights' Arena under the title Waiting. I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Daniel Olivas about his latest collection of short stories, How to Date a Flying Mexican, and so much more. [End Page 43] frederick luis aldama: Daniel, you've published a children's book, a poetry collection, numerous books of short fiction, longer form novel and novella, and edited two anthologies. Taken as a whole, how do you see your work adding to and innovating Latinx literature—and intervening in the world generally? daniel olivas: Borders are imposed throughout our world, not only politically but also creatively. My writing bends genres. It has no borders. It's political because it's deeply rooted in my Chicano heritage and identity. They shout from rooftops: Our stories matter. fla: In the introduction to How to Date a Flying Mexican, you mention your deep need to write into existence stories about the Latinx experience. do: The stories are about my people. They are our stories. They also aim to bring joy to the reader—and to resonate deeply with the human condition. fla: We're not bad hombres, as the mainstream might have people believe. Your fiction breathes sensitivity and nuance into all walks of Latinx life. Is this your legacy? do: As I grow older, I do think deeply about what I'm going to be leave behind. There's a concept in Judaism, tikkun olam, that refers to our acts of repairing and making better the world. We can do this in small ways like showing kindness to people. We can do it in big ways through politics and activism. I try to do this in my day job as a government lawyer practicing land use and environmental enforcement and affordable housing law. I try do to this in my creative work. fla: You and a handful of other Latinx author-attorney nepantlera warriors—I think readily of Michael Nava, Sonia Sotomayor, Alfredo Véa, and Yxta Maya Murray—serve as role models, showing future generations of Latinxs that there can be a confluence of the creative with the practical in one's everyday life. do: Thank you for putting me in such extraordinary company, Fede. Every time I give a reading in an...

Legal Ethics for Government Lawyers: Confronting Doctrinal Gaps

Despite the recent growth in the Canadian literature on legal ethics for government lawyers, the leading conceptual models have yet to be applied to resolve many of the most important legal questions facing government lawyers. In this article, I identify four key situations where the obligations of government lawyers as lawyers appear to clash with their obligations as public servants. I provide both a doctrinal analysis of how the current law applies in those situations and proposals for how the law can be clarified and improved. This analysis both provides much needed guidance to government lawyers and promotes a greater understanding by law societies as regulators, as well as other key stakeholders, of the unique challenges facing government lawyers and the need for legislative and regulatory reform.

When Violence Is neither “Personal” nor “General”

AbstractIn this essay, I use a case of testifying as an expert witness to argue that the anthropological focus on multicausality, context, and the social/cultural origins of persecution is useful and necessary in asylum cases. The government attorney argued that the persecutor's violence was “personal,” related only to his alcoholism, not the victim's identity as his wife. I argued that regardless of his personal history, the violence and the “excuses and justifications” that he used were patterned and based in cultural ideologies about gender. In a criminal case this might provide a “cultural defense” to avoid culpability. However, in asylum cases the social/cultural origins of violence help meet the legal criteria for asylum.

The Fate of Liberal Democracy under Donald Trump

The Trump administration directly attacked and indirectly subverted liberal democracy in many ways. This article describes several pivotal attacks and evaluates the efficacy of efforts to defend liberal democracy. It begins by analyzing how the administration continued to wage the US “war on terror,” contrasting its behavior with that of the Bush and Obama administrations with respect to indefinite detention in Guantánamo Bay, torture, electronic surveillance, civilian casualties, criminal prosecutions for terrorism, courts martial, military commissions, habeas corpus petitions, and civil liberties. Judicial decisions in civil liberties cases correlated significantly with the party of the appointing president in all three administrations, most strongly among those by Trump appointees. I then turn to two of Trump’s central preoccupations: immigration and the Russia investigation. Having based his 2016 campaign on demonizing immigrants, President Trump sought to execute his threats through executive orders and other actions. Almost all were struck down by courts in cases where judges divided along political lines, most dramatically in the Supreme Court. Frustrated by his inability to block the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump sought to intervene in the prosecutions of his underlings that emerged from that inquiry. He attacked the FBI, appointed a compliant Attorney General (who substituted his subordinates for independent prosecutors, changed sentencing recommendations and withdrew successful prosecutions), dangled the prospect of pardons to ensure the silence of the accused, and granted them after conviction. The central lesson of this appalling era of American history is that law is inescapably political. Where politicians appoint judges and government lawyers, the defense of liberal democracy ultimately rests on the ballot box.

Public Client Contingency Fee Contracts as Obligation

Contingency fee contracts predicate an attorney’s compensation on the outcome of a case. Such contracts are widely accepted when used in civil litigation by private plaintiffs who might not otherwise be able to afford legal representation. However, such arrangements are controversial when government plaintiffs like attorneys general and local governments retain private lawyers to litigate on behalf of the public in return for a percentage of any recovery from the lawsuit. Some commentators praise such public client contingency fee contracts, which have become commonplace, as an efficient way to achieve justice. Critics, however, view them as corrupt, undemocratic, and unethical. This Comment contributes to this debate by arguing that public client contingency fee contracts are not only permissible, as some have argued, but that certain legal doctrines obligate government entities to form these contracts. First, this Comment contends that the principle that government litigators have a special duty to “seek justice” obligates government actors to enter into public client contingency fee contracts. The obligation to form such contracts is triggered when civil justice requires enforcement, but constraints prevent government attorneys from pursuing litigation. This contention undermines critics’ claim that the “seek justice” principle means public client contingency fee contracts are impermissible. Second, this Comment argues that the public trust doctrine also obliges government entities to form public client contingency fee contracts in some instances. These arguments undermine attacks on public client contingency fee contracts and demonstrate the existence of a heretofore ignored obligation in public civil litigation.

The ACWL’s Secondment Programme: Reflections by Three Former Seconded Lawyers

The Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL’s) Secondment Programme for Trade Lawyers provides government lawyers from developing countries and least-developed countries (LDCs) a unique opportunity to gain practical experience and additional theoretical training in WTO law. Since 2005, about fifty government lawyers from ten different LDCs and eighteen different developing countries have participated in the Secondment Programme. This article reviews the criteria for participation in the Programme and the selection process. It also reviews feedback from former participants, and notes that the vast majority of former seconded lawyers continue to work for their governments, and have found the work experience and skills gained from the Secondment Programme have contributed to their government’s capacity to understand and manage WTO issues. They also found that their participation in the Programme enhanced their professional development and career advancement. The article reviews the individual reflections of three former junior counsel from India, Malawi and Viet Nam who joined the Secondment Programme in 2014–2015, and found the experience to be enriching. ACWL, WTO law, international trade law, disputes, training, junior counsel, ACWL lawyers, Secondment Programme, government officials

Complicity and Lesser Evils: A Tale of Two Lawyers

Government lawyers and other public officials sometimes face an excruciating moral dilemma: to stay on the job or to quit, when the government is one they find morally abhorrent. Staying may make them complicit in evil policies; it also runs the danger of inuring them to wrongdoing, just as their presence on the job helps inure others. At the same time, staying may be their only opportunity to mitigate those policies – to make evils into lesser evils – and to uphold the rule of law when it is under assault. This Article explores that dilemma in a stark form: through the moral biographies of two lawyers in the Third Reich, both of whom stayed on the job, and both of whom can lay claim to mitigating evil. One, Helmuth James von Moltke, was an anti-Nazi, and a martyr of the resistance; the other, Bernhard Losener, was a Nazi by conviction who nevertheless claimed to have secretly fought against the persecution of Jews from the improbable post of legal adviser on Jewish matters. The Article critically examines their careers and self-justifications. It frames its analysis through two philosophical arguments: Hannah Arendt’s stern injunction that staying on the job is self-deception or worse, because like it or not, obedience is support; and a contemporary analysis of moral complicity by Chiara Lepora and Robert Goodin. The chief question, with resonance today as well as historically, is whether Arendt is right – and, if not, under what conditions lesser-evilism can succeed. This article will appear in a symposium with comments by Leora Bilsky and Natalie Davidson, Kathleen Clark, Erica Newland, and Shannon Prince.