Legitimate Goal Research Articles

Judicial Reforms in Eastern Europe: Ensuring the Right to a Fair Trial or an Attack on the Independence of the Judiciary?

The right to a fair trial is one of the essential elements of the rule of law – a fundamental value of the modern constitutional state. Among the systems of institutional, organisational, and substantive guarantees for ensuring this right, which stem from the European Court of Human Rights case law, there is ‘a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law’. This requirement is organically linked to the principle of the separation of powers, which is a central tenet of constitutionalism and provides for the functioning of the judiciary as a separate, independent branch of power. Therefore, any changes in the judicial systems of modern constitutional states, or, moreover, judicial reforms, should not only avoid contradicting these principles but, on the contrary, should be aimed at ensuring the right to a fair trial. However, the experience of such reforms in a number of Eastern European countries, despite the declaration of their perfectly legitimate and positive goals, raises questions about their true direction. As a result, not only does the institutional mechanism for the protection of human rights (which is the immediate goal of proclaiming the right to a fair trial) suffer, but also the constitutional systems of the countries concerned become unbalanced and unable to respond adequately to political challenges. This paper examines the essence of judicial reforms in a number of Eastern European countries (Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine) and analyses them in terms of their impact on ensuring the right to a fair trial and the functioning of constitutional systems. Keywords: judicial reform, the right to a fair trial, independence of the judiciary, separation of powers.

نموذج بيئة اللغة العربية بمعهد الإرشاد سمارانج جاوى الوسطى إندونيسيا ودورها في اكتساب المهارات اللغوية

The Arabic language is the language of the world that Muslims use. Every person must teach Arabic in schools and universities, even though they have obstacles and problems that interfere without reaching the desired legitimate goal. Teaching the Arabic language has many difficulties, including the language itself, society, teacher, and learner. This research aims to know the model of the Arabic language environment at the Guidance Institute Semarang Central Java and its role in acquiring language skills. The researcher is based on the descriptive study. The method of data collection was conducted in a way of observation, interview and documents. As for the way to analyze the data using a descriptive analysis that deals with description and focus. And its results are the integrated environment that combines the artificial environment with the natural environment. As for its role, it is to create the linguistic atmosphere in the places that are in the school and the residence so that the teacher can fix the linguistic mistakes made by students and deepen the repetition and strengthening of the language that they got from the school and the residence and encourage their spirit and enthusiasm in applying the language

A Qualitative Study of NIMBYism for Waste in Smaller Urban Areas of a Low-Income Country, Mzuzu, Malawi.

When waste management infrastructure is built, there can be resistance from the local affected populations, often termed the Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) phenomenon. This study aims to understand the forms of resistance that may develop in such contexts, focusing on 2 solid waste and 1 liquid waste management site within Mzuzu City, Malawi. At the newest solid waste site, community resistance had grown to the extent that the site was reportedly destroyed by the local community. Interviews and observations of the sites are complemented by examining historic and recent satellite images. It was found that, at the new solid waste site, community engagement had not been conducted effectively prior to construction and as part of ongoing site operations. This was compounded by poor site management and the non-delivery of the promised benefits to the community. In contrast, at the liquid waste site, the community could access untreated sludge for use as fertilizer and were happier to live within its vicinity. While NIMBYism is a frustrating phenomenon for city planners, it is understandable that communities want to protect their health and well-being when there is a history of mismanagement of waste sites which is sadly common in low-income settings. It is difficult for government agencies to deliver these services and broader waste management. In this study, an unsuccessful attempt to do something better with a legitimate goal is not necessarily a failure, but part of a natural learning process for getting things right.

Proportionality of Interference with the Right to Peaceful Enjoyment of Property During the Seizure of Property in Criminal Proceedings in Ukraine

This article considers relevant science and law enforcement practice issues of state intervention’s legitimacy in the right to peaceful property enjoyment in criminal proceedings during property seizure. These issues are considered everywhere through international instruments’ prism, particularly the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights (ECHR) and Fundamental Freedoms, Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and the ECtHR case-law. Based on the ECtHR case law, the authors analyze the conditions under which the state may interfere in exercising a protected right, often called criteria for intervention. Based on the fact restrictions are permissible if they are prescribed by law, necessary in a democratic society and pursue a legitimate goal, the authors consider these conditions through the lens of national law enforcement practices of Ukrainian criminal proceedings. The authors emphasize the relevance of these criteria of the legality of individual rights restriction in criminal proceedings since when applying for property seizure, the Ukrainian legislator requires investigating judges to consider reasonableness and restriction proportionality of property rights, and apply the least onerous seizure method, not suspend or excessively restrict a person’s lawful business activities, or other consequences significantly affecting others’ interests. Due to the amendment of the Ukrainian criminal procedure legislation, the practice is slowly approaching the European Court of Human Rights practice’s European standards. However, proper systematic, logical and consistent court decisions limiting the human right to peaceful property possession remain critical. Based on the study, the authors offer a model of logical reasoning, following which the investigating judges can correctly formulate the motivational part of the decision to satisfy or deny the request for property seizure. Particular attention is paid to the reasonableness, suitability, necessity, and proportionality of the means of restricting the right to peaceful enjoyment of the property and describes each of them.

Appropriate and inappropriate polypharmacy-Choosing the right strategy.

Prescribing of medicines is one of the most common and important healthcare interventions that will be experienced by most patients, particularly those who are old, and have multiple medical conditions. The prescribing of multiple medicines has been described as polypharmacy, but there is no precise or accepted definition of this term. Numerical thresholds have often been used, but increasingly, this is not seen as helpful. Gurwitz has stated that the use of larger numbers of medicines would always be a key part in the medical management of older (American) patients, and stated that polypharmacy could be a 'new paradigm for quality drug therapy'. Increasingly, there has been a move to differentiating between inappropriate polypharmacy (too many medicine) and appropriate polypharmacy (many medicines), with the legitimate goal of managing multiple medical conditions in the same patient. So how do we reach the optimal balance between the prescribing of many medicines (appropriate polypharmacy) and the prescribing of too any medicines (inappropriate polypharmacy) and what strategies should we adopt?

Girls Will Be Girls, in a League of Their Own – The Rules for Women’s Sport as a Protected Category in the Olympic Games and the Question of ‘Doping Down’

ABSTRACT Recent debate by feminist scholars in philosophy of sport has been focused on the status of women’s sport as a protected category. Positions have varied significantly, from no need for a protected category anymore—to allow women’s sport to flourish and to give them a fair opportunity, given that men’s sport still dominates, just as it has in the past. It will be argued that: i) the concept of a ‘protected category’ is tied logically to the concept of fair play and has been defined and enforced through the rules in sport and generally requires some kind of certification for inclusion. These specific rules will be analyzed in detail. Having separate women’s events means that logically it must be possible to exclude, and exclusion is not a popular stance as many have argued that the onus is on inclusion from a human rights perspective. Thus, sport policy makers are truly in an intractable position. On the one hand, no qualifying athlete should have to ‘dope down’ (or ‘dope up’) to compete in the Olympic Games. On the other hand, women athletes have argued that sex equality in competitive sport is a legitimate goal and that separating athletes in competition by biological sex traits is the only way to achieve this goal. It seems criminal to ask athletes to ‘dope down’ to be able to compete in the Olympic Games, however, although a new auxiliary rule creating new sub-classification of women athletes with testosterone higher than the stipulated cut off seems logical on the face of it, these cases are statistically rare. It is concluded that the community of women athletes should have the most significant voice, as historically, the criteria for the women’s sport-protected category have been predominantly determined by men. That is not to say that men’s voices, or voices outside of the women’s sports community of practitioners, cannot be heard, but they should not be the deciding factor.

Klimaatbeleid in de krant

Abstract The legitimacy of climate policy is a necessary condition for the broad acceptance of government interventions and civic participation. News media are an important source of information for public perceptions and beliefs concerning climate change and climate policy, which people will use to grant or deny legitimacy. In this article we apply the theoretical perspective of media framing to analyse Dutch newspaper coverage of climate change and climate policy during April and May 2019, by means of systematic manual content analysis. We use these empirical findings to further reflect on their potential significance for policy legitimacy as experienced by their readership. Overall, the newspapers pay little attention to climate change as a contested phenomenon and to humanity’s contribution to its cause and solution. In the fight to reduce CO2-emission, the Dutch government is portrayed as the principal agent. The responsibility of individual citizens is less often highlighted. Hence, newspaper coverage does not seem to challenge the fight against climate change as a legitimate policy goal. It does, however, pay ample attention to specific policy interventions to reduce CO2-emission and the controversies that surround them. In line with, or as a reflection of these findings, differences within public opinion are to be expected concerning the legitimacy of policy interventions, both with regard to their desirability on paper (input) and their actual (side) effects (output).

RIGHT TO RESPECT FOR PRIVATE AND FAMILY LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICE: PRACTICE OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The article studies the application of Article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which guarantees the right to respect for private and family life, to the professional activities of civil servants. To summarize and analyze the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in this domain, a dialectical method of cognition was used, as well as such scientific methods as logical, formal legal and other methods, provided that in general the systematic approach was observed. The two approaches to the analysis of interference with private and family life in connection with professional activities: one is based on reasons and the other one – on consequences, were studied. It was concluded that restricting this right in relation to civil servants is admissible if there is a relevant law, a legitimate goal, the need for a democratic society. The correlation of the right to respect for private and family life of civil servants and the right to freely express your opinion guaranteed to everyone was analyzed. It was concluded that it is necessary to search in each case for a fair balance of these rights, taking into account both the interests of society and individuals.

Interrogating urban projections in audio-visual ‘smart city’ narratives

Heeding calls to broaden the scope of smart city discourse analysis to include visual representations and building on Regina Queiroz's notion of “publicity without a public”, this article scrutinizes audio-visual smart city narratives from an actually existing (aspiring) smart city. A meticulous analysis of the interplay of different expressive modes within those narratives is followed by a contextual analysis and discussion with a view to reconstructing underlying notions of sustainability and security as key aspects of increasing claims to citizen-centred smart urbanism. The results provide concrete illustrations of the maxim of “pursuing neoliberal goals by letting people think (wrongly) that other legitimate goals are being pursued”.

The Internet As a Speech Machine and Other Myths Confounding Section 230 Speech Reform

A robust public debate is currently underway about the responsibility of online platforms. We have long called for this discussion, but only recently has it been seriously taken up by legislators and the public. The debate begins with a basic question: should platforms should be responsible for user-generated content? If so, under what circumstances? What exactly would such responsibility look like? Under consideration is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—a provision originally designed to encourage tech companies to clean up “offensive” online content. The public discourse around Section 230, however, is riddled with misconceptions. As an initial matter, many people who opine about the law are unfamiliar with its history, text, and application. This lack of knowledge impairs thoughtful evaluation of the law’s goals and how well they have been achieved. Accordingly, Part I of this Article sets the stage with a description of Section 230—its legislative history and purpose, its interpretation in the courts, and the problems that current judicial interpretation raises. A second, and related, major source of misunderstanding is the conflation of Section 230 and the First Amendment. Part II details how this conflation distorts discussion in three ways: it assumes all Internet activity is protected speech; it treats private actors as though they were government actors; and it presumes that regulation will inevitably result in less speech. These distortions must be addressed in order to pave the way for clear-eyed policy reform. Part III offers potential solutions to help Section 230 achieve its legitimate goals.

Methods of Financing Waqf Development in Singapore

The Waqf sector in the Muslim world is in general neglected. It lacks tactics and strategies due to various conflicting and overlapping factors. Remarkably, Singapore Waqf is a pioneer and successful endowment project in the Muslim world on organizational and investment scales. The sector has impressively expanded and embraced effective methods and advanced techniques. The study addresses Singapore's experience by pinpointing the diversity of its Waqf funds: funds for mosques, funds for the disabled, memorization of the Quran, funds for education and for scientific and innovative research. Unlike the Waqf of immovable assets, the monetary Waqf has gained popularity in Singapore. It has contributed to social security and welfare through its ultimate and legitimate goal to serve the public interests. Its role consists of channeling social savings and turning them into social capital. The Waqf administration in Singapore has used Sukuk to develop some of its endowments (Waqfs). Therefore, the research aims to analyze this new funding technique and weigh its impact on funding important projects such as: The Beach Road 1- construction project and the Street Bencoolen-Waqf development and refurbishment project. The study relies on a case study and uses a descriptive-analytical approach.

Pravo na život i apsolutno nužna sila - standardi Evropskog suda za ljudska prava i stanje u Srbiji

The right to life falls under the category of fundamental human rights, which are guaranteed to every person, under all circumstances and in all places. Nevertheless, the right to life is subject to certain restrictions required by reasons considered justified according to standards prevalent in a democratic society. After laying special stress on the relevant provisions set forth in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the paper further tackles the basic viewpoint of the European Court of Human Rights on the Protection of the Right to Life and implementation of the "absolutely necessary force" criterion, after which it addresses the compliance of domestic law with the European legal standards in this area. The legal standard concerning absolutely necessary force means a higher degree of necessity in relation to the standard detailing on what is "necessary in a democratic society" and therefore represents the ultima ratio for achieving a legitimate goal. As a last resort intended for the protection of human life, the force has to be aimed at protecting physical integrity and thus it is proportionate to the threatening violence, i.e., clear and imminent danger to human life. The European Court of Human Rights assesses whether the force that was used is proportional to the achievement of legitimate goals and thereby absolutely necessary according to the criteria of a democratic society by applying a more stringent necessity and proportionality tests in each specific case. The legal standards of the European Court of Human Rights, especially the standards on the use of absolutely necessary force, both support and affirm the protection of the right to life and concurrently shape the practice of the Constitutional Court of Serbia. The establishment of a normative and institutional framework has created elementary prerequisites for effective protection of the right to life in the Republic of Serbia, whilst breach of its procedural obligation is the most common reason for its responsibility with respect to violations of the right to life.

Corporate governance reporting: Compliance with upper limits for severance payments to members of executive boards in Germany

We examine how corporate governance reporting corresponds to actual conduct regarding severance payment caps for prematurely departing members of executive boards in Germany. Firstly, we evaluate the declarations of conformity for all companies listed in the CDAX between 2010 and 2014, which we use to determine conformity and deviation rates, and analyse the reasons for deviation, contributing to current research on comparative corporate governance, which focuses on when, why and how companies deviate from legitimate corporate governance goals (Aguilera, Judge, & Terjesen, 2018). Secondly, we assess the compensation amounts of all severance payments made and published by DAX companies to compare the respective severance ratio with the cap recommended by the German Corporate Governance Code (GCGC). We find that more than 20% of companies listed in the CDAX declared deviation in the declaration of conformity. Moreover, in 57% of actual severance cases where DAX companies had previously declared their conformity, the cap was exceeded. Yet, none of the companies that had exceeded the cap disclosed this in the following declaration of conformity. In most cases, the corporate reports deviated from reality and therefore could not serve as a suitable basis for decisions by the capital market.

ОБМЕЖЕННЯ ПОЛІТИЧНИХ ПРАВ І СВОБОД: НОРМАТИВНІ ПІДСТАВИ, МЕХАНІЗМ РЕАЛІЗАЦІЇ

The article examines the problem of restriction of political rights and freedoms. It is emphasized that the protection against unlawful restrictions on political rights and freedoms is particularly important for the functioning of direct and mediatory democracy. The meaning of the concept of «restriction of rights and freedoms» is analyzed. The article addresses the basic principles which should not be violated when the restriction of rights and freedoms is applied. To achieve this goal, the author analyzes the rules of domestic law, the practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the rules of international law governing these issues. The author differentiates political rights and freedoms into those that may be restricted in accordance with the provisions of the Basic Law of Ukraine and those that are not subject to any restrictions; features of realization of political rights and freedoms in comparison with other groups of rights, such as social and economic, cultural are defined. Some of the political rights and freedoms that may be restricted are analyzed and ways to restrict them are identified, in particular: the right to join political parties, suffrage, the right to peaceful assembly, rallies, marches and demonstrations, the right to equal access to public service, freedom words, thoughts, views and beliefs. It is noted that from the standpoint of the ECHR it is important to check whether the possibility of restricting the exercise of the right was provided by law; whether the purpose of such a restriction is legitimate; whether such a restriction is necessary in a democratic society. The legitimate grounds for restricting human rights enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine have been identified: public health; social necessity; rights, freedoms and dignity of citizens; public order; economic well-being; national security; territorial integrity; morality of the population. It is emphasized that in accordance with the practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the restriction of the content and scope of rights and freedoms should be considered as a restriction. It is important that all restrictions were established exclusively by the constitution; were not arbitrary and unjust; the law restricting human rights must be of a general nature; restrictions must be proportionate and justified; they must optimally achieve a legitimate goal with minimal interference in the exercise of rights or freedoms, not to violate the essential content of the relevant right. It is determined that special qualification requirements for holding public positions, as well as participation in the electoral process (implementation of active and passive suffrage) cannot be considered restrictions. It is emphasized that the state, represented by its organs, should refrain from unjustified interference with political rights (for example, from discriminatory restrictions on the suspension of political rights of prisoners, violation of electoral secrecy of the ballot); take measures against possible violations of political rights by third parties (individuals, companies, etc.). It is concluded that restrictions on the exercise of political rights of individuals can be introduced either in favor of guaranteeing the rights of other individuals, or in favor of ensuring the functioning of the state. The legitimate exercise of political rights can be restricted only if the general conditions for interfering with fundamental human rights are met.

Cultural patterns of corrupt decision-making in Russian organizations

The persistence of corruption in Russia is seen in path-dependent political structures on the one hand, while, on the other hand, concrete corruption-promoting mechanisms can be theoretically described at the level of the actor. The former approach lacks a general explanation of corruption, while the latter lacks the immanent possibility of embedding corrupt practices in specific cultural patterns. Recent approaches in organizational research promise a fruitful connection of both via the idea of organizational corruption, which explains corruption as a normalization process in an organizational context. The present article aims at extending this approach by an analytical model of decision-making in organizations based on a neo-institutional framework. Decision-making situations will be constructed in the activity structure of organizations as the tension between formal-legal requirements and the legitimate goals of the organization as set out in the formal structure. Depending on whether decisions are oriented in accordance or or against legal requirements and the legitimate goals of the organization, a compliant decision, individual corruption, organizational corruption or whistle blowing becomes more likely. Thus, the link between different cultural concepts in Russia and corruption are systematically highlighted and integrated into the present model. It is shown that culturalhistorical patterns cannot be generalized to Russia, but often only promote corruption when specifically embedded in organizations.

Constitutional Protection of Public Figures’ Personal Data on the Internet

The article presents the issue of constitutional protection of public figures’ personal data on the Internet. The authors claim that the use of the Internet is not always aimed at achieving legitimate goals, in some cases it leads to violation of the person’s human rights. Most often, the right to protect public officials’ and celebrities’ personal data is violated on the Internet. Analysis of the examples of illegal use and distribution of public figures’ personal data on the Internet results in the conclusion that there are three types of offenses in the field of public figures’ personal data protection in information networks. The research proves that the public figures’ personal data protection on the Internet is still at the stage of its formation

When Healthcare Goes up in Tobacco Smoke: A Selective Healthcare System from a (European) Human Rights Perspective

This contribution sets out to answer the question to what extent fundamental rights may act as a constraint for states to employ lifestyle differentiation, particularly between smokers and non-smokers, regarding the access to their healthcare systems. In human rights treaties a tension is palpable between the obligations of states, which represent the general interest, and the rights of smokers, who attempt to hold on to their individual freedom. On the one hand, states have to guarantee the health of their citizens. On the other hand, they are unable to mandatorily enforce health standards as smokers do not have to tolerate unbridled state interference in their private lives. However, this right to self-determination is not absolute. If the smoker persists in using tobacco products, states are granted a broader margin of appreciation in their socio-economic obligations, which in itself is already wide, out of respect for that individual choice beyond their control. As a result it is possible that a state differentiates between lifestyles and imposes mandatory conditions for the right to healthcare, which require smokers to alter their behaviour, even though the right to healthcare should be guaranteed to all without discrimination. For example the Belgian state explicitly settles the tension between the individual and the general interest by viewing the solidarity of the social security system as a double-edged sword. Every individual, including smokers, has to contribute to the realisation of equitable rights for all. With rights, come responsibilities. As always, however, state interference has to be proportional to the desired, legitimate goal.

Red Tape, Rule Burden, and Legitimate Performance Trade-Offs: Results from a Vignette Experiment

Goals in the public sector are complex and managers can face situations in which pursuing one legitimate goal necessitates performance trade-offs in other areas. This study tests how knowledge of legitimate performance trade-offs shapes the perception of red tape. Using a vignette experimental design and a sample of university students, between group t-tests and regression analyses suggest that, when evaluating increased rule burden, individuals that are provided with information about how objectively burdensome rules serve alternative values such as equity and effectiveness associate them with lower levels of red tape. A series of Monte Carlo simulations suggest that this effect is substantial.

Medical Methods: What Makes them Necessary? Part I: Medical Methods, medical Necessity and its Main Criteria

"Medical necessity" (MedN) is a fuzzy term. Our project aims at concretising the concept between medical ethics, social law, and social medicine to support health care regulation, primarily within Germany's statutory health insurance system. In a previous publication we identified MedN as a tripartite predicate: A specific clinical condition requires a specific medical intervention to reach a specific medical goal. Our two-part text searches for and discusses criteria to classify medical methods as generally medically necessary (medn), provided a non-trivial clinical condition and a relevant, legitimate, and reachable goal actually exist. In this paper we present the first part of our results. Based on an extensive ethical, sociolegal and sociomedical body of literature, and starting with an non-controversial case vignette (thrombolysis in acute stroke), we generally followed a critical reconstructive approach. First we defined the term "medical method". In several interdisciplinary rounds, we then collected and discussed criteria from three sources: methods to develop clinical practice guidelines as compendia of indication rules, the National Model of Prioritisation in Swedish Health Care, and the HTA Core Model of the European Network for Health Technology Assessment as an instrument of political counselling. We identified general clinical efficacy and benefit as the 2 main "medical" criteria of MedN. As a third - epistemic - criterion, the corresponding bodies of evidence are always to be considered. Since clinical and prioritising guidelines grade their recommendations, the question arises whether MedN should be conceptualised as a dichotomous or finer graded predicate. In accord with German social law we advocate for the binary form. Further discussions focused on multifactorial MedN-configurations, the range of the term, and the variability of evidence requirements. No matter how the content of MedN is conceptualised, it seems impossible to include its criteria in an algorithm. So deliberative effort is indispensable at any stage of developing a programme to classify medical methods as medically necessary.

Embracing complex social problems

PurposeThis paper aims to expose the inadequacy of social marketing to tackle complex social problems, while proposing an expansion in the discipline’ conceptual repertoire. The goal is to incorporate complexity tools, in particular from the system dynamics field, and the promotion of mindware within a true transdisciplinary paradigm.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses literature review to support the proposed theoretical development. It also presents a short case study.FindingsMost problems that plague our modern societies have a distinctive complex nature that is not amenable to traditional social marketing interventions. Social marketing has simplified the problem of bringing about societal change by thinking that upstream social actors can be influenced in the same way as downstream individuals. This paper shows that this is not the case while proposing a framework to close this gap.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed framework is a theoretical one. It depends on further refinements and actual application to wicked problems.Practical implicationsComplex social problems – or wicked problems – remain widespread in modern societies. Moreover, they are getting worse over time. The paper presents a proposal to redefine the limits of the social marketing discipline so it can be more useful to tackle such problems. Practical approaches such as measuring the success of mindware in the marketplace of ideas are implied in the proposed framework.Social implicationsThe increase in complexity of social problems has not been accompanied by an evolution in the discipline of social marketing. The lack of proper conceptual tools has prevented the discipline from contributing to tackling these problems effectively. Some interventions may actually worsen the underlying problems, as illustrated in the paper.Originality/valueThis paper identifies two major gaps associated with the social marketing discipline, in particular the lack of complexity and systems thinking and the forsaking of ideas (mindware) as a legitimate goal of the discipline. This realization corroborates the claim that boundaries among disciplines are often artificial, hindering the proper understanding of complex social problems. In turn, only the use of adequate conceptual lenses makes it possible to devise interventions and programs that tackle actual causes (instead of symptoms) of complex social problems.