Legal System Research Articles

A didactic sequence to help legal translation trainees develop strategic and intercultural competence: macro-level textual consequences of micro-level decisions when dealing with legal culture-bound terms

ABSTRACT Translating legal culture-bound terms is one of the difficulties facing any legal translator due to asymmetries between national legal systems. To train trainees to deal with these terms, strategic and intercultural competences must be developed. This article focuses on how to pedagogically address the varying degrees of incongruity that may arise when translating legal culture-bound terms. The learning objectives set are for trainees to be able to apply the most appropriate translation technique to use in each instance, selecting it at a micro-unit level that is coherent with the macro-level approach determined by the communicative situation and target text purpose. A theoretical and pedagogical framework is presented, followed by the description of a didactic sequence that was created as action research to develop trainees’ strategic and intercultural competences. The didactic sequence includes 4 units with task-based learning activities and formative and summative assessment. The activities were piloted in a postgraduate specialisation course in legal translation at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Trainee responses to a follow-up survey and focus group show that the activities were perceived to be useful and helpful when dealing with the difficulty of translating legal culture-bound terms.

Whistleblowing and interpretation, addressing organizational challenges: a conceptual reflection from Nigeria

Purpose This study aims to explore the effect of whistleblowing and interpretation among practitioners in the Nigerian economy. The research puts a premium on understanding the relevance and critical issues in its practices and developing an improved model for the effective practice of whistleblowing and interpretation in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a conceptual approach, relying on extant literature to understand the management of whistleblowing incidents and identify the managers’ and other stakeholders’ responsibility in the whistleblowing process. It applied systems dynamics conceptual modelling and presented an improvement approach to addressing the complexities associated with whistleblowing and interpretation among Nigerian organizations. Findings This study contributed to the extant literature by developing a model for proper management of whistleblowing in the Nigerian context and enhancing the robust practice of whistleblowing and interpretation in Nigeria. The findings highlighted critical factors such as managers’ skills development, legal system support, institutional stakeholders’ function and ethical balance as key factors to effective whistleblowing management and interpretation. This implies that the act of identifying and developing responses to an emerging case of whistleblowing requires a process of developing underpinning assumptions, engagement and consideration of stakeholders’ interests while driving the sustenance of organizational focus. Originality/value This study emphasized the departure from absolute best practice to developing idea approaches that reflect stakeholders’ interests and the context of whistleblowing and interpretation. While the study acknowledges limitations in the sole focus on the Nigerian private sector and the Nigerian economic background, it recommends further exploration of whistleblowing and its interpretation on a comparative approach, to improving the current understanding of the topic.

Transitional Justice in Albania: The Politics of Truth Revelation about Past Human Violations Through Access to The Secret Files and Preservation of the Collective Memory

During 45 years of dictatorship in Albania, many people were accused, convicted imprisoned, exiled, or persecuted for “offenses” of a political nature thereby violating basic human rights. Victims of violence, their descendants, and society as a whole have a legal right, even a moral one, to learn the truth regarding past human violations. International law, through its mechanisms, has made a valuable contribution, not only through shaping the instruments that contribute to the unveiling of the truth about communist crimes but also through fostering progress in the respective jurisdictions. Within the scope of the state's responsibilities in unveiling the truth about communist crimes, Albania has built its model through the adaptation of a series of legal and institutional measures. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Albanian model of truth revelation, focusing especially on the politics of preservation of the archives providing access to them, and protecting historical collective memory. The study supports the hypothesis that transitional justice remains an open process because the relevant mechanisms created to make justice and reveal the truth about the bitter past have produced incomplete and insufficient results. The paper also argues that during these 33 years of democratic developments in Albania, the legal system of information on secret service files has been only recently properly contoured and the challenge remains its implementation in practice, meanwhile, the collective memory as a form of justice for the communist crimes in Albania has not yet served its basic mission.     Received: 17 January 2024 / Accepted: 12 April 2024 / Published: 5 May 2024

Changing Relations Between Chiefs and ‘Subjects’ in Zimbabwe and Botswana

The article historically analyses the changing relations between chiefs, ‘subjects’ and the state in Zimbabwe and Botswana. Entirely qualitative, it reviews published and unpublished sources. The article utilises three interrelated theories: bureaucracy, legal pluralism, and political clientelism. African chieftainship predates the colonial period, although this era has fundamentally altered it. The article argues that in colonial Zimbabwe and Botswana, chiefs were bureaucratised and became state functionaries. This weakened them and compromised the age-old relations with their ‘subjects’. To navigate this intricate situation, chiefs thrived on their clientelistic relations with the colonial state and their ‘subjects’. The colonial state created a legal dual system. The chiefs played a critical role as the intermediaries between their ‘subjects’ and the state in a legal dual system. For instance, they collected taxes and maintained law and order. In postcolonial Zimbabwe and Botswana, chiefs have also become more accountable to the state and ruling parties than their ‘subjects’. In both countries, the state appoints, recognises, de-recognises and can depose a chief. Chiefs often complain of state’s subjugation, but this is understandable given the protection and benefits they receive from the state.

Preponderant Relationships: Violent Crime, Premises Security Litigation, and Low-Income Housing

ABSTRACT This paper advances knowledge of the ways in which criminological research can assist the courts in rendering legal decisions. To do so, we examine case examples from premises security litigation involving low-income housing developments. We describe the investigative tasks of a premises security lawsuit, address the challenges of examining and explaining a criminal assault, and show how criminological scholarship can point to the importance of place management in suppressing or facilitating crime in low-income housing developments. We examine three preponderant relationships – offender and victim, security standards and proximate causation, and place management and crime opportunities – to provide insight into the translation of criminological knowledge into actionable legal outcomes. We address the nexus of environmental criminology and premises security litigation to strengthen the scientific foundation of criminological research and improve the quality of forensic social scientific research in the legal system.

Automating case assessment in Ecuador’s legal system: a web-based application for COIP consultation

Automating case assessment in Ecuador’s legal system: a web-based application for COIP consultation

Legal Tradition as a Subject and Method of Comparative Law of the BRICS Countries

This article is a review on the two-volume book called “Comparative History of Foreign Law” written by Dmitry Poldnikov, the Professor of the Theory of Law and Comparative Law Department at MGIMO University of Russia. The authors of this review are convinced that the book is a new word in Russian legal-historical editions because it presents an unconventional analysis of the development of state and legal systems of various jurisdictions through the prism of legal values, legal traditions and legal diversity.

Analyzing the Offense of Juvinile Khalwat in Aceh: Evaluation of Qanun Number 14 of 2003 from an Islamic Legal Perspective

Aceh presents an intriguing area of study for numerous researchers in legal domains, owing to its distinct legal system in contrast to other regions in Indonesia. This legal jurisdictional authority underscores the intricacies involved in delineating the jurisdictional boundaries within the overarching framework provided by the national regulations. This is evident in cases of khalwat, an offense where a man and a woman date in seclusion. This study delves into an examination of the offense of juvenile khalwat in Aceh, as stipulated in Qanun Number 14 of 2003, employing Islamic legal theory within a sociological context. The findings of this study suggest that the juvenile occurrence of khalwat in Aceh stems from a combination of factors. These include the enduring influence of religious teachings, the prevalence of casual relationships among adolescents coupled with insufficient parental supervision, and the impact of modern social structures on youthful behavior. As a result, they engage in the offense of khalwat in public spaces, disregarding societal moral norms and public decorum. This Qanun fails to explicitly delineate the parameters for imposing penalties such as ‘uqubat (corporal punishment), flogging, and fines. Consequently, it leads to legal disparities in enforcement by the Wilayatul Hisbah, particularly when the offender is a minor or immature individual.

Farmland transfer contract performance and green production technology adoption among farmers: evidence from a survey of four provinces in China.

The popularization and use of green production technology is the key to promoting the sustainable development of agriculture. Exploring the path of promoting farmers' adoption of green production technology has important theoretical and practical significance for promoting the green transformation of agriculture and realizing the high-quality development of agriculture. This study examined the impact of contract performance on the adoption of green production technology in the farmland transfer market based on the characteristics of green production technology. An empirical test was conducted using survey data from Heilongjiang, Henan, Zhejiang, and Sichuan Provinces, which differ in agricultural resource endowment and economic development. The results demonstrated that farmland area was positively associated with the number of green production technologies adopted by farmers and use of straw returning, subsoiling, and soil testing for formula fertilization technology. Moreover, improving the performance rates of farmland transfer contracts strengthened the promotional effect of operation scale on green production technology adoption. Using either contract execution or dispute resolution rates to measure contract performance promoted the adoption of green production technology, particularly for large-scale farmers. Therefore, in the publicity and promotion of agricultural green production technology, the government should not only formulate differentiated promotion strategies and support policies based on resource endowment, but also focus on the construction of rural legal systems, which are helpful for building and maintaining a good farmland market order and performance environment, and create conditions for the durability and stability of technology adoption.

Militant Rule of Law and Not-so-Bad Law

AbstractThe article provides intellectual arguments and tools from legal dogmatics that can help to counter the rule of law backlash. It argues that resilience can be boosted by a systemic militant rule of law approach. When it comes to restoring the rule of law, legal theory turns to the Radbruch formula (supra-statutory law). This approach remains contested by lawyers who are convinced – following the tradition of positivist legal theory – that invoking this formula is unacceptable because it violates a fundamental requirement of the rule of law, namely that of legality. Irrespective of the value of this concern, Radbruch’s formula is not applicable to the current demise of the rule of law, as the law resulting from cheating and abuse in illiberal regimes does not result in evil law (though it may facilitate such developments). Instead of evil law, we face not-so-bad law. Legal imperfections exist in every legal system, and militant rule of law necessitates the systemic revision of these shortcomings in order to preempt the abuses of an anti-formalistic populist regime. In illiberal regimes, the self-corrective mechanisms of the rule of law are gradually eliminated, but the name of the game remains the rule of law. It means that judges still have (some) power to counter the backlash using extant interpretive techniques (for a while). This article will begin by introducing the concept of not-so-bad (NSB) law as an imperfection of the rule of law. In Part Two, the validity of NSB laws is discussed by relying on the source theory. It argues that even if validity is a matter of conformity to the source, the source can be understood to contain a legal merit component as determined by the rule of law, and falling short on this legal merit component can constitute a ground for declaring the norm’s invalid. Part Three describes the abuses of the rule of law in illiberal democracies and describes how the NSB law of illiberal regimes does not satisfy the validity requirements of legal positivism. Part Four discusses the opportunities open to judges for resisting or undoing NSB law using existing techniques of legal interpretation and without violating rule of law principles.

Protecting women’s rights under the current criminal law of Vietnam

Enhancing women’s rights is a crucial matter globally and has been addressed in various legal documents. Vietnam has actively collaborated with the international community to bolster the safeguarding of women’s rights within its criminal justice framework. The 2015 Criminal Code of Vietnam underwent significant revisions to ensure the well-being and rights of women. However, certain provisions still require improvement to ensure comprehensive protection. This article thoroughly examines the shortcomings in safeguarding women’s rights within Vietnam’s criminal law system and proposes measures to enhance the relevant provisions in the 2015 Criminal Code. By refining and expanding regulations, providing stronger support and protection for victims, improving monitoring mechanisms, and ensuring effective enforcement, we can bolster the protection of women’s rights in the 2015 Criminal Code. A robust and logical legal system is essential for women to attain maximum rights and safety within society.

Status and trends of legislative and regulatory regulation of off-label use of drugs: A review

The off-label use of drugs is a common practice worldwide. The legal basis for off-label medical use varies from country to country. Regulatory control of the pharmaceutical market in the off-label preventive and therapeutic practice at the international and national levels has become a breakthrough with the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic. The prospects for off-label use in the context of innovations in the legislation of public health in the Russian Federation are crucial. Professionally significant aspects of the use of medicinal products outside the Summary of Product Characteristics and the off-label use have been introduced by supranational regulatory authorities for the common market of medicinal products of the Eurasian Economic Union. Special attention should be paid to the regulatory control of the use of extemporaneous medicines as part of improving the government regulation of drug compounding in pharmacies. The active development of pharmacy activities in drug compounding within the framework of improving regulatory practice determines the relevance of actual off-label prescriptions and the use of extemporaneous formulations. Aim – to perform a systematic analysis of national, transnational legislative and regulatory documents regulating off-label use of medicinal products, determine the main conceptual components of the current regulatory pool and directions for future development in this area. Systematic analysis of the national legislative and regulatory pool of documents and the regulatory framework of the common market of medicinal products of the Eurasian Economic Union on the regulation of various aspects of the off-label use of medicinal products. Study of the components and identification of the main trends in the regulatory practice of prescriptions outside the Summary of Product Characteristics and the off-label use. An analytical search was carried out in the reference legal systems "ConsultantPlus" and "Garant" on the official websites of the Ministry of Health of Russia, the Eurasian Economic Union, the RusMed information resource of the National Library resource of Russia in medicine and pharmacy "Central Scientific Medical Library" was used. A logical generalization of the results on the current state of the legal framework and the development of conceptual proposals on the key directions of the prospective development of regulation, control, and supervisory activities of the pharmaceutical off-label use of medicinal products was made.

Legal Obligation and Ability

ABSTRACT In Wilmot-Smith’s recent ‘Law, “Ought”, and “Can”,’ he argues that legal obligation does not imply ability. In this short reply, I show that Wilmot-Smith’s arguments do not withstand critical scrutiny. In section 1, I attack Wilmot-Smith’s argument for the claim that allowing for impossible obligations makes for a better legal system, and I introduce positive grounds for thinking otherwise. In section 2, I show that, even if Wilmot-Smith had established that impossible obligations make for a better legal system, his subsequent attack on OIC fails.

Analysing governments' progress on the right to health.

To examine the influence of varying articulations of the right to health under domestic constitutions, legislation and jurisprudence on the scope of legal protection for health. We investigated legal recognition of the right to health, by conducting a three-level search. First, we searched databases containing constitutional texts. Second, we did a thematic analysis of those constitutional texts with explicit constitutional recognition of health rights, employing NVivo for coding. For the 54 World Health Organization (WHO) Member States without explicit constitutional provisions, we explored statutory paths, judicial constructions and instances where both methods contributed to the acknowledgement of health rights. Lastly, we confirmed evidence of jurisprudence constructing a right to health based on a combination of domestic law and international human rights norms incorporated directly into the text. We identified 140 WHO Member States with a constitutionalized right to health. Our analysis suggests there are notable variations in the legal scope of protection for health, including breadth of entitlements and the possibility of enforcing these rights through the legal system. We also highlight the critical importance of constitutional acknowledgement, legislative measures, and judicial interpretations in shaping the legal entitlements to health-care services, affecting their accessibility and financial support. The analysis offers insights for policy-makers to assess different approaches to health-related entitlements, with implications for health financing and the evaluation of Member States' strides towards universal access to comprehensive care. This analysis also illuminates how distinct formulations of the right to health have varied effects on reducing health disparities.

Harmonization of State, Custom, and Islamic Law in Aceh: Perspective of Legal Pluralism

Indonesia recognizes several legal systems i.e., state law, customary law, Islamic law, and international law. Islamic sharia in Aceh is part of legal pluralism in Indonesia. This study aims to discuss the application of Islamic sharia from the perspective of legal pluralism. This normative legal study employed a legal pluralism theory analysis. Legal pluralism is a theory that views law not only as positive or written law made by the state but also as a recognition of the legal reality that exists in a pluralistic society. The study collected data by means of a literature review. Findings revealed that Islamic sharia in Aceh as part of the recognition of the concept of legal pluralism has been implemented well in the context of state law, custom, and Islamic law. The state has provided juridical legitimacy through laws in the context of legal substance and judicial institutions or sharia courts. Likewise, revitalization has also occurred in traditional institutions in terms of customary law and customary justice. The argument emphasized in this study is that Islamic sharia in the context of legal pluralism has succeeded in manifesting legal harmonization between the state, custom, and Islamic law

Adverse effects of criminal legal system involvement: a qualitative study examining the role of incarceration and reentry on substance use trajectories among women with opioid use disorders

BackgroundWomen with substance use disorders (SUDs) often experience adversity related to incarceration and reentry that can impact their substance use outcomes. This study aims to examine the adverse effects of incarceration and reentry on substance use outcomes among women with a history of opioid use disorder (OUD).MethodsWe carried out 42 semi-structured interviews (May–July 2022) with women with a history of criminal legal involvement and OUD (n = 20), criminal legal professionals (n = 10), and SUD treatment professionals (n = 12). The interviews focused on women’s substance use trajectories, barriers to treatment, and the intersection of the criminal legal system and treatment. None of the women were presently incarcerated during their interviews.ResultsParticipants expressed the severe adverse impact of criminal legal involvement on women with OUD. Many women felt traumatized by experiencing detox while incarcerated, especially as they received minimal aid for withdrawal symptoms. Women seeking recovery while incarcerated felt unsupported, being afforded few treatment options, and experiencing stigma. Reentering society after incarceration also posed significant challenges to women’s individual recovery goals. Reentry-related challenges such as returning to unsupportive environments, facing difficulties finding employment, lacking secure housing, and facing the stigma of incarceration triggered adverse outcomes, such as relapse among those who were seeking to avoid illicit substances.ConclusionsFindings suggest a need to evaluate detox protocols, medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) access, and stigma in the criminal legal system. Interventions facilitating women’s reentry, reducing the combined stigma of incarceration and OUD, and restoring agency for women with OUD are also needed.

Artificial intelligence for legal system: Jurisprudence in the digital age

Artificial intelligence for legal system: Jurisprudence in the digital age

Foreign experience of legal regulation of criminal liability for violation of the procedure for transplantation of human anatomical materials established by law

The article examines the experience of individual countries in matters of legal regulation of criminal liability for violation of the procedure for transplantation of human anatomical materials in order to determine important legal assets of foreign legislation, which could be discussed for the purpose of further implementation in Ukrainian legislation. Within the framework of the article, we will analyze national and international legislation, namely, we will compare the content of Articles 143 and 144 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine with the content of the corresponding articles and provisions in the legislation of several countries from the perspective of the used terminology, interpretation of concepts, descriptions of crimes, measures of criminal liability, etc. The Constitution of Ukraine guarantees every person the right to life. However, experts increasingly raise questions about various violations of this right from the perspective of transplantation of human anatomical materials. Today, criminal offenses in relation to both donors and recipients become difficult to detect due to high self-interest and profitability, disguised nature, network systematicity, extensive illegal infrastructure and fast mechanisms for its recovery, group organization and strong connections with other criminal groups, use of deception, coercion, intimidation and other methods of forced donation, corruption in the field of donation, large-scale latent level of crimes related to transplantation. Detection of illegal transplantation is also burdened by their contradictory geography, when potential donors are recruited in the so-called "depressed" countries around the world, and anatomical materials are seized in countries that are highly developed in the field of transplantology, having loyal legislation to carry out such operations. In Ukraine, the detection of such crimes is also aggravated by the fact that people who are ready to illegally donate their organs for payment, travel to remove the organ outside the country and carry out their plans in other countries ("transplant tourism"). Due to the low level of information and enlightenment of the society in matters of transplantation, the detection of crimes in this area is also complicated by the so-called "victimhood" of people (both donors and recipients) – a set of personal traits that cause a high probability of becoming the object of a criminal attack (a tendency to become a victim of crime). These grounds contribute to a dynamic increase in the number of violations of the law-enforced procedure for the transplantation of human anatomical materials, which constitutes a high public danger. At the same time, the legal regulation of criminal liability for such violations still has certain differences. Therefore, the study of foreign experience in matters of transplantation, the comparison of the norms of articles in the Criminal Codes of different countries, and the analysis of concepts used in normative legal documents and their interpretations help to identify gaps in Ukrainian legislation, clarify the wording, expand the range of crimes and facilitate the qualification of their composition, adaptation of the Ukrainian legal system according to European standards.

The association between criminal legal attitudes and healthcare utilization among adolescents: differences by gender and race

System avoidance is a concept that individual contact with the criminal legal system causes avoidance of other social institutions. Negative attitudes about the criminal legal system and subsequent mistrust in healthcare systems or providers have only been studied in adults. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the association between healthcare utilization and youth-reported negative criminal legal attitudes stratified by gender and race in adolescents. Adolescents from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study self-reported attitudes involving legal cynicism, police legitimacy, and healthcare utilization. Logistic regressions were estimated to examine the associations between youth-reported criminal legal attitudes involving legal cynicism and police legitimacy, healthcare utilization, and sociodemographics. Only among non-white girls were negative criminal legal attitudes significantly associated with reduced likelihood of healthcare utilization during the previous 12 months (aOR = 0.55, p ≤ 0.01). Negative criminal legal attitudes in non-white girls reduced the odds of healthcare utilization, which supports the concept of system avoidance of institutions. This has implications for policymakers as they enact laws on crime and surveillance, especially in minority communities, as views on the criminal legal institution can impact other facets of life. More research is needed to directly explore this relationship beyond cross-sectional studies.

Regulation of Corporate Criminal Liability According To Law Number 1 Year 2023 On The Criminal Code

Corporation as a subject of criminal law that can be held criminally responsible is not known in the old Criminal Code. This is because the old Criminal Code is a legacy of the Dutch colonial government whose legal system adheres to the Continental European legal system (civil law). Countries that adhere to the civil law legal system are a little behind in terms of regulating corporations as subjects of criminal law, in contrast to countries that adhere to the common law legal system, which has regulated corporate liability and this has started since the industrial revolution. In Indonesia itself, the regulation on corporation as a subject of criminal law is regulated in the Law outside the Criminal Code. Meanwhile, the new Criminal Code has regulated corporations as legal subjects that can be held criminally liable. As regulated in Article 45 to Article 50, Article 56, and Articles 118 to 124 of Law No. 1 of 2023 on the Criminal Code. Although prior to the enactment of Law No. 1 of 2023 on the Criminal Code there was already Perma No. 13 of 2016 concerning Procedures for Handling Criminal Cases by Corporations and Regulation of the Attorney General of the Republic of Indonesia Number PER-28/A/JA/10/2014 concerning Guidelines for Handling Criminal Cases with Corporate Legal Subjects. Prior to the issuance of the regulation, the Attorney General's Office had first issued Circular Letter of the Attorney General of the Republic of Indonesia Number B-036/A/FT.1/06/2009 regarding Corporations as Suspects/Defendants in Corruption Crimes addressed to the Head of High Prosecutors throughout Indonesia. Thus, Corporations as a subject of criminal law can already be held criminally liable with the strength and legal certainty stipulated in the New Criminal Code.