Legal Exemptions Research Articles

Moderation in Worship and Its Applications in Al-Mawardi Al-Shafi’i Thought: An Analytical Study

One of the characteristics of the Islamic religion is moderation. An obvious benefit of Islamic law. People have become somewhat confused about this truth in several different ways. They are situated between extreme and negligence, as well as between radical and careless. Certain laws and rituals of worship may not make sense to many individuals when it comes to moderation. To extract moderation and its genuine position from this religion, this research aims to elucidate the notion of moderation and expose its applications in worship through the writings and thoughts of Imam Al-Mawardi Al-Shafi'i. This study relies on extrapolating from Al-Mawardi's works, where he defined and outlined the many forms of moderation. The most significant finding of this study is that Islam is moderate in every aspect. In terms of worship, moderation is fulfilling one's obligations to worship without sacrificing anything and refraining from superfluous acts that one cannot stand. Applying the following strategies will help attain this balance, as demonstrated by Al-Mawardi: a) combining simultaneously the needs of the body and the spirit, prioritizing the required in worship before moving on to the optional, taking into account the progressive fulfillment of each from less to more; considering the legal exemptions and what is acceptable to maintain the establishment and propagation of the faith; considering the religious practices that are closest to the heart, in addition to avoiding radicalism in worship by selecting the simplest option in accordance with Sharia.

The legal framework for the production of alcohol for personal use within the European Union.

Aim: This paper provides an overview of the legal framework for alcohol produced for personal use in European Union (EU) Member States. Methods: We reviewed the national excise duty legislations of EU Member States and conducted an online mapping survey, in which 10 alcohol experts from seven EU Member States plus Iceland participated. Results: We found that the production of alcohol for personal use is tax exempt in 12 jurisdictions, with four countries stipulating a maximum volume of alcohol that can be produced for personal use. The most common alcoholic beverages concerned were beer and wine, while only one country set a tax exemption for spirits. The results were complemented by the alcohol expert mapping survey; tax exemptions were reported for two additional Member States. Conclusion: Legal exemptions for the production of alcohol for personal use were established in every second EU Member State and may therefore contribute to the unrecorded consumption of alcohol in these countries. In light of the detrimental health effects of alcohol, economic interests to support the local small-scale production of alcohol have to be carefully evaluated against public health interests.

К вопросу применения термина «стабилизационная оговорка»: ретроспективный анализ

The article is devoted to the study of the stabilization clause as a phenomenal legal phenomenon. The dynamic development of legislation indicates the relevance of studying such a term as a "stabilization clause". This relevance is understandable, since the stabilization clause contributes to the mitigation of current legislation and the development of effective integration processes. The role and significance of this phenomenon are considered, the author's interpretation of the concept is given, a new term "temporary legal exemptions" is proposed.

TROUBLED WATERS : CROATIAN SEASHORE AS RES EXTRA COMMERCIUM IN COMMERCIO

This paper seeks to examine the special legal nature of the Croatian seashore as a common good and the challenges of its commercial use. It was Roman law that first recognized the seashore as a thing that was res communes omnium – common property of all men under natural law. Roman jurist Marcian defined it as all air, running water, sea, and the seashore as far as the high-water mark. In Croatia, based on this Roman doctrine, the seashore is considered a maritime domain, the welfare of which is of interest to and under special protection of the state. Although maritime domain should not be presumed as a subject of ownership or commerce (extra commercium), due to numerous legal exemptions, its common good-character has become a point of contention.Contemporary legal solutions in Croatia (especially the Act on Ownership and Other Real Rights (Zakon o vlasništvu i drugim stvarnim pravima), the Maritime Domain and Seaports Act (Zakon o pomorskom dobru i morskim lukama), and the Concessions Act (Zakon o koncesijama)) grant exclusive rights to commercial exploitation of the maritime domain for up to 99 years, as well as provide for pledging or transferring of concession. In doing so, this paper reasons, the Croatian legal system has to a certain extent alienated the legal nature of the maritime domain and de facto created a new ‘quasi-real right’ on the common good.

What happens when working time is not recorded. Social policy lessons from a Swiss case study

The assessment of working time recording practices and their impacts on the workers’ well-being, work-life balance and health is lacking in the scientific literature with only rare exceptions. Nevertheless, this issue is becoming increasingly important especially in Switzerland. Despite the fact that the Labour Law requires to record all working hours, some categories of workers are released from this legal obligation, in particular those who benefit from more autonomy and flexible working schedules. This paper assesses the potential risk that differentiated working time regimes can have on workers’ health. The analyses are based on a sample from eight companies that apply these legal exemptions. The main outcome is that long working hours represent the main health risk factor for workers that do not record all their working hours.

Circulation and containment in the knowledge-based economy: Transnational education zones in Dubai and Qatar

Our analysis focuses on evolving global capitalism's production of high-skilled temporary migrant labour through the technology of special economic zones. Drawing on debates in economic geography on zones as globalised spaces of production and interdisciplinary scholarship on economic transformation in the Arabian Peninsula, we interrogate a relatively new type of zone that agglomerates foreign higher education institutions: transnational education zones. We conceptualise these zones as a distinct form of exceptional space produced by aspirations for a knowledge-based economy. Transnational education zones provide financial benefits and legal exemptions to state territory for international higher education investors who operate offshore campuses. By conducting a situated empirical analysis of transnational education zones’ logics and mechanisms in Dubai and Qatar, we show how these zones function as sites of circulation and containment that allow governments to harness globally circulating people and institutions for building a knowledge-based economy, while aiming to contain their social and political impact locally. While the underlying contradictions of simultaneous circulation and containment of knowledge and knowledge workers are modulated by the exceptional character of the zones, they cannot be fully resolved. In many ways, transnational education zones constitute a continuation of established strategies for economic development by exception that have been pursued by governments in the Gulf, which aim for global connectivity and rely heavily on controlling a temporary and contingent migrant workforce.

Ethnic Distinctions, Legal Connotations: Chinese Patterns of Boundary Making and Crossing

This study analyzes, from a comparative and historical perspective, the clash between state statutory law and native customary law and the consequential effects of that rivalry on ethno-legal categories. It adopts a long-term perspective on Chinese society, with a particular focus on its history over the last three centuries. Although the imperial Chinese state had a centralized legal code, many non-Han subjects followed different legal standards and systems. Such conditions became the basis of legal pluralism and the structural constraint for full-fledged legal uniformity. It is argued that state-imposed ethnic categories in China have been institutionalized to determine those who should be protected, or even privileged, by their own native law. This is especially true during the alien dynasties of conquest, which purposely emphasized the principle of personal law to preserve legal prerogatives of ruling ethnicity. Similarly, indigenes on the frontier carried a variety of legal exemptions on grounds of the principle of territorial law. Such conditions could leave room for individual agency and provide incentives for both acculturated Han settlers and sinicized indigenes to claim native status. Several examples, including an 18th-century homicide case in China’s southwestern frontier, substantiate how individuals manipulated their ethnicity for their self-advantage and how these behaviors complicated the personality and territoriality principles of imperial law. In this sense, ethnic law served as an institutionalized distillation of ethnic group boundaries, which were realigned by shifts in self-identity. The legacy of China’s imperial practices of particularistic jural relations continues today.

Napoleonic Conscription in Indre-et-Loire 1798-1814

Scholarship around Napoleonic conscription has often focused on the contest and resistance with which the state’s quest to impose compulsory service was met, and has emphasised the broad means by which conscripts sought to avoid or evade military obligations. This article will focus on outlining the experience of conscription in the Napoleonic department of Indre-et-Loire, and will argue that while open evasion was a clear challenge to the authority of the state, the largest numerical challenge to filling the ranks of the army came from those who complied with conscription legislation in order to seek legal exemptions.

The family and community nurse-led proactive management of COPD patients: experience of an Italian health district

Integrated care management for COPD may reduce healthcare utilisation, improving cost-efficiency. To assess the primary outcomes of a family and community nurse-led proactive management of COPD patients of an Italian health district. Target population comprised men and women >60 years, resident in the municipalities of Collegno and Grugliasco (metropolitan area of Turin). Administrative databases (hospital discharge records, drug prescriptions, legal exemptions) were first used to identify patients with diagnosis of COPD; the cases were validated by the General Practitioners (GPs). The 335 patients were enrolled from July 1, 2015 to November 30, 2016. Family and community nurses were responsible for anamnesis, spirometry, assessment of adherence to therapy, counselling and healthy lifestyles education. GPs were responsible for the clinical staging and revision of therapy. Patients were followed-up to 12 months. Improvements were observed in smoking cessation (prevalence of smokers from 23.9% to 20%), BMI normalization (in 13.4% of patients out of standard), physical activity (from 32.5% to 64.5% of patients), and pneumococcal vaccinations (from 14.9% to 58%). The last two outcomes were statistically significant. Patients showed high levels of satisfaction; 12-months compliance was 62.1%. A family and community nurse-led proactive management of COPD patients in primary care is feasible and effective. Interventions should be structured, personalised and multi-component, oriented at motivating, engaging and supporting the patients. Positive results led to continue and extend the programme.

Unjustified Asymmetry: Positive Claims of Conscience and Heartbeat Bills

In 2019, several US states passed “heartbeat” bills. Should such bills go into effect, they would outlaw abortion once an embryonic heartbeat can be detected, thereby severely limiting an individual’s access to abortion. Many states allow health care professionals to refuse to provide an abortion for reasons of conscience. Yet heartbeat bills do not include a positive conscience clause that would allow health care professionals to provide an abortion for reasons of conscience. I argue that this asymmetry is unjustified. The same criteria that justify protecting conscientious refusals to provide abortion also justify protecting positive conscientious appeals regarding abortion. Thus, if the law provides legal exemptions for health care professionals who, as a matter of conscience, refuse to provide abortions where it is legal, it should also provide exemptions for health care professionals who, as a matter of conscience, feel obligated to provide abortions where it is illegal.

Liability Limits of Transport Commission Agent

Considering the importance of transport commission agent's work and through the examination of transport commission agent's liability, the intensity and burden of transport commission agent's liability is shown. The legal nature of a transport commission agent's obligation is an obligation to achieve a result, thus he usually has to contract out of liability, either through the legal limits of liability where the law established the legal exemptions that the transport commission agent would benefit from, as well as the agreement limits of liability through the cases in which the law allowed the transport commission agent to establish a condition under the agreement exempts him from liability or specify his damage liability.
 Since the law prohibited the transport commission agent from establishing any condition that exempted him from liability in the cases of damage and injury, thus he is bound by compensating his agent fully for the occurring damages, except the cases in which the transport commission agent establishes a condition to limit his liability within the limits permitted by the law. 
 Lastly, the development and importance of the transport commission agent's trade and profession and its resulting legal conflicts and problems are the reason behind conducting this study in order to identify the liability limits of the transport commission agent.

The Merits and Limits of Conscience-Based Legal Exemptions

Exemption claims remain a tangled and divisive moral and legal issue both in academia and in the public sphere. In his book Exemptions: Necessary, Justified, or Misguided?, the constitutional scholar Kent Greenawalt zeros in on the vexed question of whether exemptions from rules of general applicability based on the conscientious convictions of individuals or groups are sometimes justified or prudent by discussing a wide range of cases drawn from the American jurisprudence. Although he does not engage in a significant way with political and legal philosophy and comparative law, his contextualist and pragmatic approach is a powerful antidote against oversimplification and dogmatism with regard to exemption claims. Unsurprisingly, Greenawalt’s approach comes at times dangerously close to casuistry, and some of his analyses and normative recommendations would benefit from a firmer footing in moral principles and rational argumentation. In this review, I flesh out some of the strengths and limits of Greenawalt’s valuable book.

Enabling Exit: Religious Association and Membership Contract

This paper investigates the right of exit from religious associations. The liberal state has a compelling interest in overseeing exit, even if it implies some loss in religious group autonomy. Members should not be bound by rules they find unconscionable. They should be free to leave and able to do so. To enable exit, the paper advocates the use of membership contracts. Religious associations should issue a contract for members working for, residing in, or donating money to the association under a regime of legal exemptions. The membership contract publicises the right of exit and offers a basis for negotiating and contesting its terms. It makes exit less “unthinkable” to members and helps tackle unreasonable economic costs to exit.

FINTECH REGULATORY SANDBOXES IN AUSTRALIA AND MALAYSIA: A LEGAL ANALYSIS

With the era of digitalization, regulatory sandboxes have been the trend adopted by most financial regulators around the world in regulating financial technology (fintech). Regulatory sandboxes act as a pilot programme to regulate fintech services and products with several legal exemptions given to the service providers within established parameters. In 2016, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Malaysian Central Bank followed the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to introduce regulatory sandboxes within their legal framework. To date, previous literature has only provided a minimal analytical overview of the Malaysian and Australian regulatory sandbox. Hence, this article aims to fill that gap in literature. The methodology used for this study is both doctrinal and comparative legal analysis. The main objective of this study is to analyse the key characteristics of fintech regulatory sandboxes by comparing the Australian and Malaysian regulatory structures of these sandboxes. Due to nascent nature of Malaysian and Australian fintech regulations, this contributes to the growing knowledge in the financial regulation literature. Moreover, the findings on the operation of the regulatory sandboxes in both jurisdictions is expected to bring practical value for further research.

Products in a Pandemic: Liability for Medical Products and the Fight against COVID-19

A multitude of medical products are being developed and produced as part of efforts to tackle COVID-19. They are varied in nature and range from test kits to tracing apps, protective equipment, ventilators, medicines and, of course, vaccines. The design, testing and manufacture of many of these products differs from production in normal times due to the urgency of the situation and the rapid increase in demand created by the pandemic. This article considers the legal issues arising as a result of the production of emergency products, particularly from a products liability perspective. To what extent do existing concepts under the European Product Liability Directive, such as defect, causation and the various defences, permit the pandemic to be taken into account when a Court is considering issues of liability? What is the impact on liability of the modified regulatory regime? In light of that discussion, the case for alternative responses is examined from a comparative and European perspective, including the issue of Government indemnities for the manufacturers of products, legal exemptions from liability and alternative no-fault compensation schemes.

An evaluation of property tax base in Nairobi city

PurposeThis study aims to evaluate the property tax base under the local government property taxation in Nairobi City and its implication on revenue adequacy of the city. Nairobi has grown both in population and in physical extent resulting to increased demand for urban services. The city faces challenges of adequate infrastructure service provision against increasing demand. Property taxation if fully exploited can be a major source of city government revenue, which has been dwindling.Design/methodology/approachLiterature review of property tax bases in the world and examination of best practices was done to highlight the inadequacies of property tax base administration in Nairobi. Primary data were gathered through interviews of officers in Nairobi City involved in the land rating process. Secondary data were obtained through documentary search and field survey of the study area.FindingsThe study established that Nairobi relies on a dual system of taxation, namely, site value rating and area rating. Tax is on vacant land only and excludes improvements. There are many legal exemptions and administrative exclusions from the tax base. The property tax registers do not include all the taxable properties and there is no regular updating of the tax registers. Nairobi relies on an outdated valuation roll whose values have no relation to the current market values.Research limitations/implicationsThese factors have resulted to a narrow tax base, which affects the revenue potential of the city and its ability to adequately provide infrastructure services.Originality/valueThis is an original research, which relied mainly on primary data. To establish the property tax bases and the exempt properties in Nairobi, the researchers interviewed the officers at the Nairobi city land valuation and property management directorate using structured questionnaires. To address the third objective on whether the property tax base is complete and all-inclusive, the research relied on primary data. The research population was residential properties in Buruburu, Kilimani and Riruta areas of Nairobi city. The sample data on property details were collected from the Ministry of Land and Physical Planning (MLPP). The researchers then examined the records at the Nairobi City to evaluate whether the properties, which are registered at the MLPP, are charged land rates at the city level and at what amounts. This included properties under site value rating and area rating.

Group Rights in Liberalism's Religion - Cécile Laborde: Liberalism's Religion. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017. Pp. 344.)

Chapter 5 of Laborde’s incredibly rich analysis engages with the question of religious group rights. Laborde argues that the politically liberal state should grant (some) religious associations legal exemptions and protections, on the basis of their freedom-of-association-related interests: first, their coherence interest in living “by their own standards, purposes and commitments,” and second, their competence interest in being allowed to “interpret their own standards, purposes and commitments” (175). Accordingly, religious associations may be exempt from gender discrimination laws, if compliance would prevent them from acting as their religious doctrine requires them to (189). I offer two critical comments on Laborde’s account. My first concerns her treatment of ontological issues as irrelevant to group rights. The second concerns the scope of rights she is willing to grant religious associations.

“I Have to Write a Statement of Moral Conviction. Can Anyone Help?”: Parents’ Strategies for Managing Compulsory Vaccination Laws

Laws requiring evidence of vaccination before children can enter schools or child care have been key to public health. However, as parents increasingly reject vaccines for their children, they rely on legal exemptions that allow children to access these settings without vaccination. Using qualitative data from interviews, ethnographic observations, and analyses of online forums, this article traces parents’ understandings of legal regulation and their strategies for navigating vaccine laws. Specifically, it shows how parents resent the lack of information about vaccine exemptions available, how they laboriously manage information about their children’s care to protect access to exemptions, and how they strategize how to use exemptions in ways they see as in their children’s best interests, but not necessarily as the laws were intended. It then shows how these efforts represent a way to challenge state power, which parents see as limiting individual freedoms. It concludes by considering the meanings for communities.

Migrant Rights and Extraordinary Law in India: The Cases of Assam and Jammu & Kashmir

ABSTRACTThis paper provides a new and original perspective on the plight of migrants in India. It incorporates an in-depth and practical analysis of Indian legal policies through the lens of migrant and refugee rights. In examining the extra-legal provisions operating in two of India's borderland states—Assam and Jammu & Kashmir—I show how special legal exemptions in Indian law inherently undermine efforts to protect migrant rights. I argue that these extraordinary laws hinder pathways to justice in three distinct ways: by circumventing international principles of non-refoulement; challenging the jurisdiction of India's Supreme Court; and delegitimising migrant-friendly laws. In highlighting an often overlooked aspect of migrants’ rights issues, this paper brings the human element of India's regional border disputes and related legal mechanisms to the fore.

The Golden Thread of Religious Liberty: Comparing the Thought of John Locke and James Madison

The views of the American founders on religious liberty provide fertile ground for a range of different interpretations of the extent of legal protections for religious liberty and how religious liberty is justified. Although John Locke’s arguments for religious liberty were influential on the American founders, several founders, including James Madison, departed from or developed Locke’s arguments in a way that emphasizes how a human being’s religious obligations can limit the power of civil government. Contemporary religious liberty scholars have emphasized Madison’s apparent departure from Locke in order to help justify legal exemptions for religious practices. Although Locke did not directly link the duty of human beings to worship God according to one’s conscience to the right of religious liberty, I argue that each part of Madison’s argument is already present in Locke.