Protection Of Individual Freedoms Research Articles

What are the causal conditions that lead to high or low environmental performance? A worldwide assessment

This study focuses on causal conditions that lead to high or low environmental performance (EPI) using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis for 156 countries in 2018. Data for the EPI, economic growth, labor share of GDP, political freedom, the role of women, press freedom, corruption, and urbanization were used. Research findings allow us to conclude that no individual causal condition meets the necessary condition (thresholds) for high or low EPI. Five sufficient configurations for high EPI were found: (i) high GDP per capita is sufficient for high EPI; (ii) highly urbanized countries where corruption is absent; (iii) urbanized countries that protect individual rights and liberties and women's economic opportunities; (iv) high labor share of GDP coupled with the protection of individual freedom and women's economic rights; and (v) countries with high individual and press freedom where corruption is absent. Four sufficient configurations for low EPI were found: (vi) lack of protection of women's economic rights; (vii) lack of press freedom; (viii) low GDP per capita and high corruption rates, and urbanization as a peripheral condition; and (ix) low GDP per capita and high corruption rates and labor as a peripheral condition. Policymakers must acknowledge that there are many paths to improve environmental performance, contingent on the country's initial environmental development level.

Framing the Market: The Unexpected Commonalities between Karl Polanyi and the Ordoliberals

Abstract There has been a resurgence in scholarship on Karl Polanyi in recent years, against the backdrop of rising populism and critiques of globalization and financialization. In these works, Polanyi is typically portrayed as critic of the contested notion of ‘neoliberalism’. In this paper I demonstrate that, to the contrary, Polanyi’s Great Transformation (1944) shares many of the themes central to the contributions of the early neoliberals, specifically the ordoliberal thinkers. Polanyi and the ordoliberals did not only seek to analyze the origins of the same social crisis of the 1930 s and 40 s, but their analysis of the deficiencies of nineteenth-century liberalism as well as the subsequent disintegration through rapidly growing interventions in favor of powerful groups in society has much in common. This paper explores these similarities and demonstrates that they also extended to the way they perceived the responsibility of scientists as well as the interdependence of the various orders in society. It is argued that the ordoliberals, their fellow-traveler F. A. Hayek and Karl Polanyi all perceived the interdependence between the state, civil society and the market somewhat differently, but agreed on the need to conceptualize the relationship between the three. Finally, it is suggested that even the normative ideal of Karl Polanyi, the realization of ‘freedom in a complex society’, has important commonalities with the ordoliberal program: the protection of individual freedom from concentrated forms of power in society.

ЗАРУБІЖНИЙДОСВІДДЕРЖАВНОЇПІДТРИМКИІННОВАЦІЙНОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ (МАКРО-ТА МІКРОЕКОНОМІЧНИЙ АСПЕКТИ)

The foreign experience of state support for innovative activities of enterprises at both the macro and micro levels is discussed in the article.An important condition for the dynamic development of the country at the macro level is the accelerated introduction of modern innovative technologies in the economic, social and other spheres with the wide use of the achievements of science and technology.All rapidly developing spheres of public and state life of the country require close support of the reforms on the basis of modern innovative ideas, developments and technologies that ensure a quick and high-quality breakthrough of the country in this area of activity.State regulation of the economy and innovation processes on the macro level,according to scientists, is one of the main conditions for transferring the functioning of the economy to market relations. The main function of the state in the conditions of market relations is the protection of individual freedom, property and entrepreneurship. The government is obliged to work with the market in one harness.To overcome the crisis on the macro level, it is necessary to develop a strategy for maintaining and developing the scientific, technical and innovative potential of the country in the following areas: restructuring the scientific and technical potential in various sectors of the economy, taking into account the concentration of material, financial and intellectual resources; creation of a science and innovation property fund; development of a system for the use of leasing as an effective market mechanism for subjects of innovative activity; improving the mechanisms of the system for attracting bank loans to expand innovation and create conditions for the development of the capital market; creation in financial and industrial groups along with the system of consolidation of financial and production potentials of special innovation centers coordinating and implementing innovative projects; formation of an institute of developers of innovative projects from among scientific and technical workers, scientists and specialists; formation on the basis of funds supporting innovative activity, associations of funds with developed financial capital to help innovative projects; formation of a system for the targeted use of depreciation fund funds to finance activities related to R&D, experimental and other types of work, development of innovations, patenting of new solutions; improvements in tax legislation, which will increase innovation activity.In recent years, in the economically developed countries of the world, there has been a trend towards the widespread use of indirect stimulation methods on a par with direct ones. This is due to the fact that tax benefits involve much less intervention by the state in the economic life of an enterprise and they encourage already embodied actions, while subsidies only those that have yet to be implemented.An important role on the macro and micro level is played by tax incentives, which are used to develop the activities of enterprises that are aimed at stimulating scientific and technological progress and innovation.Some foreign countries use both types of tax discounts at the same time – both volumetric and incremental, but in relation to different types of expenses:in the USA, for private sector expenditures on fundamental research funding, the general incremental discount was supplemented by a volume discount of 20%;in France, newly established small and medium-sized companies are temporarily exempted from paying income tax or have a «tax holiday» with a reduction of 50% of the income tax they pay for the first five years of their activity;in Great Britain, the tax for innovative startups has been reduced from 20%to 1%.The experience of the USA, where the state encourages the interaction of enterprises and higher education institutions in the field of scientific and research work by providing tax benefits, should be used in Ukraine.Businesses provide necessary equipment to universities free of charge and are able to deduct the cost of this equipment from their gross income. This will make it possible to create powerful research centers on the basis of higher educational institutions of the country.In France, the state encourages personnel training:25% of the increase in personnel training costs are exempt from taxes;personnel training costs are not taxed at all if there is high unemployment.One of the methods that has the greatest value as a benefit is the accelerated depreciation method:in Germany, accelerated depreciation is applied in agriculture (up to 50% of the cost of equipment is written off in the first year, up to 80% in the first three years).Among the indirect economic measures of state regulation of innovative activity in the EU countries is the policy of industrial protectionism for the protection and implementation of innovations in the country.Keywords: state support, micro-macroeconomic aspect, innovation activity, strategy, world economy.

The Concept of Freedom in liberalism’s Thought, for Instance: Friedrich .A. Von Hayek's Vision

Liberalism thus views the concept of freedom as a fundamental element of its intellectual foundation and without access to and defense of freedom, there is no meaning for the existence and survival of liberals. Due to the wide range of views of liberalism and the differences of opinion of liberal thinkers and different trends, attitudes and views on different freedoms, for example some of the thinkers believe in the interference of the state power in personal freedoms with the goal of creating social justice and economic justice and so on..., such as the thinkers of the Social liberal trend in the thought of liberalism, But some other thinkers believe in the protection of individual freedoms from interfering of the power of the state, and reject any form of interference in freedom, such as thinkers of the Libertarians trend in the thought of liberalism, including (Friedrich A. von Hayek).
 These two views of liberalism are expressed in terms of freedom, as: positive freedom (when the state intervenes in freedoms), and negative freedom (that freedom is protected from the interference of state power). (Hayek) rejects positive freedom and believes that any interference in the freedom, economy, and property of individuals, commodities, and markets, leads to the deterioration of the security and stability of individuals on one hand, and the creation of an oppressive, tyrannical and dictatorial power or regime on the other hand. This condition becomes the cause and means of the departure of individuals and the coexistence of the living system to slavery.

Improving the practice of Competitive Strategies for the protection of Intellectual Property: the law and economics approach

The article contains analyze of the legal regulation of the protection of intellectual property rights and practice of competitive strategies for the protection of intellectual property using best legal practices of EU countries and Eurasian Economic Union. Legal confirmation of intellectual property right, in fact, means that the state realizes the importance of culture and progress for the preservation and development of society. Protection of the results of creativity, intellectual activity is associated with the protection of individual freedom, human rights. The features of the competitive environment and competitive mechanism in the innovation economy has been analyzed as well as influence of competition on the behavior of economic agents in the innovative economic system. The paper includes analyzes the logic and economics of non-competitive behavior of companies and states in the EU single market and examines the functions of the Directorate of the European Commission for Competition. The EU competition policy tools are flexible and that they take into account the most diverse interests of the single market. The policy of the Eurasian Union as a whole is aimed at the implementation by the member states of measures in competitive policy and contributes to the launch of joint research and industrial projects, allows to increase the competitiveness of products, reduce production costs, ensure joint access to the external market.

Political Representation as Collective Representation. Considerations Based on the Brazilian Case

ABSTRACTScholars of electoral democracy and democratisation have tended to map political representation onto a relationship between individuals. In this article I introduce the concept of collective representation in order to encapsulate the idea that in the nineteenth century and, to a lesser extent, at the start of the twentieth, voting was a collective rather than individual act. I investigate whether the transition to a modern form of representation—denominated individual representation—took place with the protection of individual freedom. The secret ballot and combatting electoral fraud comprise the two dimensions of freedom that explain this transition. The case of Brazil—a country that initially presents the characteristics of collective representation and adopts a series of electoral reforms that provide the incentives for the transition to individual representation to occur—provides the preliminary basis for showing that this transition is not automatic and that we need to take into account the capacity of elites to adapt to changes in the electoral rules. This new form of thinking about political representation has important theoretical and empirical implications for scholars of democracy.

Anticipating health innovations in 2030–2040: Where does responsibility lie for the publics?

Considering that public engagement is pivotal to the mission of Responsible Research and Innovation, this article's aim is to examine how members of the public conceive of the relationship between responsibility and prospective health technologies. We organized four face-to-face deliberative workshops and an online forum wherein participants were invited to comment on scenarios involving three fictional technologies in 2030 and 2040. Our analyses describe how participants anticipated these technologies' impacts and formulated two conditions for their use: they should (1) be embedded within professional care and services and (2) include social protection of individual freedom and privacy. By clarifying what technological direction shall be avoided and who shall act responsibly, these conditions emphasize our participants' understanding of society as much as their understanding of science. For new technologies to be deployed in socially responsible ways, public engagement methods should be developed alongside public governance and regulatory strategies.

Protection of Personal Data Requirement of Modern Times for the Functioning of the Security, Individual Freedoms and the Rule of Law

Rule of law, human rights, freedoms, and security; are the three main pillars to the new trend of global developments, especially in the development of democratic values, where the protection of individual freedoms is among the fundamental principles that have data protection as the center point. In the years 2015-2016 we have seen the major cases of confrontation regarding the wiretapping to that point as the intervention even in the system of the "US election campaign by the Russian hackers", then sending of Macedonia to the "early elections, due to the extraction and publication of wiretaps by Zaev", the review of the "Safe Harbor" Agreement, of the EU and the US regarding the transfer of personal data during free "transatlantic" trade among EU and USA, etc. In this time of globalization, and developments of major movements is been said: "no home", "no time", "no limit", by digitized devices and social networks, privacy of the individual is excessively violated through abuse of personal data, personal security is violated and security of the systems vital to society. Therefore, this way, the national security of a country is been violated and endangered as well. Therefore, the development of institutions for protection of personal data, their independence and empowerment are of particular importance due to the vital interests of the country; where security, justice and freedom have a leading role in the development of a free and democratic society, where the individual human rights and freedoms, have a main place in modern developments of our time, in the society with the rule of law and the diversity of values. Freedoms and human rights, data and privacy protection; according to the European Convention of freedoms and human rights and the 108 Convention of the protection of personal data in automated processing, even though Kosovo has still not signed them. These rights are guaranteed by the constitution. On May 26, 2018 New Rules for the Protection of Personal Data of the EC and the European Union, will be no binding power for all EU countries. The entire legal measures of protection of personal data of the new Rules of PPD, should be forwarded to legislation interior PPD of EU member states and the EC and those who are already signatories to Convention 108 of PPD during the automatic processing of personal data. Among other things, we will give our assessments in question, where Kosovo really stands in this direction, with its commitment and aspirations for integration into European institutions and mechanisms.

International law and the rule of law

The rule of law cannot achieve its main goal – the protection of individual freedom and well-being - without international law. The peculiar characteristics of international law and international legal order do not harm the rule of law. There is nothing inherent in international law that is an obstruction to the rule of law. International human rights law plays a particular role in strengthening the rule of law. The revolt of the European Court of Justice against the arbitrary interference of the UN Security Council in human rights has opened a new horizon for the rule of law in relationships between individuals and international organizations.

Freedom and identity

As show the partly violent clashes between liberal secularists and Islamists in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the two factions certainly defend two diametrically opposite political points of view. For liberals, politics finds its ultimate justification in the protection of individual freedom. For Islamists, only the application of the moral code and religious law codified in the shariah can justify politics. Contrary to what is sustained by a theory of situated agency, there is no easy and definite reconciliation between the two positions. And this depends precisely upon the fact that both political models are based upon the very same idealist conception of the individual, namely the assumption that we, as persons, have a free will and are not determined by the law of causality. Paradoxical as it might sound, it is our freedom that gives rise to the problem of identity and lends force to the Islamist argumentation. If freedom as such cannot bring about practical reason and also liberals recognize that the ultimate source of normativity is identity, there is a point in the Islamist and, more general, communitarian claim that we are not free to choose our identity. In order that identity does the normative work it is supposed to do, it must be given and not chosen. What remains, however, unclear in the communitarian picture is how the norms of our community can come to constitute our will without a process of active identification. If we cannot identify voluntarily with our community’s norms, then only emotional attachment to our community can explain identification and the normative grip communitarian norms have upon us. Yet, attachment is conditioned by the effective satisfaction of our psychological and physical needs. The problem is that our need for freedom and liberty can become overshadowed by our more immediate needs based, for example, upon resentment and revenge and that today makes Muslims in particular to be so hostile towards liberal ideas. I suggest that conciliatory trust-building measures can help to surmount the anger, fear, mistrust and suspicion Muslims feel vis-à-vis the West and that are at the origin of today’s conflict between freedom and identity in the Muslim world.

Guest Foreword from Michael Thomas CMG QC

Essex Court Chambers, London Email: Michael@thomasdunn.co.uk I am delighted to be invited to attend upon this launch of the International Review of Law, conceived and now delivered into the world by the College of Law of the University of Qatar under Dr. Jon Truby’s leadership. This new and most welcome contribution to global academic writing and contemporary legal criticism, should be of the greatest interest outside Qatar, if only for its provenance. The State of Qatar has become widely known and respected for its vision, its progressive outlook, and its determination to look beyond Arab culture and traditions for new ways of working with the rest of the world for the good of the region as a whole. It has made a bold commitment to engage with the accepted legal principles and processes that have served the needs of global mercantile and commercial activity so well over the last two centuries. This is demonstrated by the generous support given by His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, to the Qatar Law Forum 2009, to be repeated in May this year, in which jurists and lawyers of great eminence are brought together in Doha to expound, explain and exchange ideas upon the importance of the rule of law, the universal key to principled and effective government, and the protection of individual freedom and dignity. One may also cite the recently established Civil and Commercial Court, served by appointed judges of international repute from many jurisdictions, that has opened its doors in Doha for dispute resolution and adjudication. I am privileged to chair the Regulatory Tribunal, an independent statutory body composed of lawyers from overseas with specialist experience in market regulation, to which incoming investors can appeal any disputes they make with Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Institutions such as the QFC Regulatory Authority and QFC Authority. In the same way, the founding of Qatar University College of Law in 2006 has shown Qatar’s determination to train future generations of Qataris to build on the best of legal precedents and thought in a unique legal market in which ideas drawn from Islamic law, civil law and common law can intermingle and blend. It is not surprising therefore to see that this new publication will be dedicated to the subject of international law, both public and private. Its laudable aim is to promote legal discourse around the world, and to promote a wider international understanding of contemporary legal issues for the common benefit. As an open access, bilingual journal, addressing topics concerning any jurisdiction, I hope it will reach a wide audience, and fulfil its aim of promoting understanding between different cultures. I am sure that the journal will not only benefit Qatar’s legal community by advancing academic and practice-based legal discussion. I am also confident that it will stimulate thought in the global legal community at large. May I wish it every success and a long life.

The Center for Liberal-Democratic Studies as an NGO Promoting Economic Neoliberalism in Serbia

This article presents a study of the basic ideas of the Center of Liberal-Democratic Studies (CLDS) Belgrade and its main activities as a non-government research-educational organization. At present, CLDS is the most important NGO in Serbia, which, starting from the liberal point of view, primarily deals with economic, political and legal issues of development. This article is about an NGO that promotes “the culture of capitalism” in the sense of the “new right”, that is, the neoliberalism or liberianism. Its goals are the following: the protection of individual freedoms, free trade market and economic development, the governance of law, responsible and restricted state and liberal democracy. The research results are based on the analysis of approximately 20 studies published by the Center, the articles appearing in its monthly journal Prism, and interviews with 8 CLDS members regarding their cooperation and exchange of ideas with the West.

The Kantian Liberal Peace (Revisited)

Democratic peace studies have traditionally identified Kantian “republicanism” with procedural democracy and largely ignored liberalism and constitutionalism, which are even more fundamental for Kant's reasoning behind the liberal peace. A closer look into his major political works reveals that peaceful relations are expected from states with the protection of individual freedoms (liberalism), the rule of law and legal equality (constitutionalism), and representative government (democracy). Only when all three constitutive elements are jointly considered can we uncover the multifaceted nature of Kant's approach to the domestic sources of international peace. In this way, we not only find that monadic and dyadic expectations are consistent with Kant's theory, but also that both normative and interest‐based explanations for international peace can equally draw on Kant as their theoretical precursor. We further demonstrate that it is plausible to infer that the Kantian legacy is related to civil peace as well. The propositions we derive from our theoretical reexamination of the Kantian legacy are strongly supported in our quantitative empirical test. Moreover, constitutional liberalism, rather than democracy, shows to be both more central for Kant's theory and empirically more robustly related to international as well as domestic peace.

The Three Dimensions of Freedom, Crime, and Punishment

Ever since the protection of individual freedom replaced justice as the primary criterion for the legitimacy of government, criminal punishment, as one of the most drastic exercises of governmental authority, has been held against that standard, too. As a result, any diminution of freedom through punishment must at the same time be justifiable as a realization of freedom. So long as the loss of the criminal's freedom is traded off against gains in the protection of everyone else's freedom, consequentialist accounts provide an appealing strategy of vicarious justification. But once we require that for complete justification freedom must not only be realized for everyone else but also in the person of the criminal, a more sophisticated and inclusive strategy is required. Michael Pawlik, professor of criminal law and philosophy of law at the University of Regensburg, Germany, takes up the challenge of disentangling the paradox of punishment and freedom in his latest book Person, Subjekt, Burger (Person, Subject, Citizen), in which he presents a highly original retributive theory of punishment. Pawlik's theory is rooted in the legal philosophy of Hegel and Fichte, whose concepts of recognition and of the subject he recasts in a framework of communication theory, inspired by the works of Gunther Jakobs and Niklas Luhmann. By applying his theory to questions of criminal law doctrine such as self-defense, defense of others, provocation, and inchoate crimes, Pawlik succeeds not only in providing a plausible solution to the problem of vicarious justification, but also in bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Felix Morley on Freedom and Federalism

Federalism was central to Felix Morley's political thought because he regarded federalism as being essential to the protection of individual freedom in the United States. Federalism protects freedom, argued Morley, by limiting government, constraining the potential tyranny of a national majority, and reserving control over local affairs to local citizens. In turn, he believed that freedom is necessary for the maintenance of federalism. Freedom, however, was being threatened by the rise of the social-welfare state and a militaristic foreign policy, both justified in the name of a centralizing Jacobin democracy destructive of American federalism. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

"FREEDOM'S CHARTER'D AIR

Felicia Hemans's tragedy The Vespers of Palermo (1823) dramatizes the Sicilians' struggle to free their island from the foreign domination of Charles of Anjou, culminating in their successful popular uprising of 1282. The play's narrative of events in medieval Sicily, however, also constitutes a commentary on the situation of post-Napoleonic Europe. In effect the play reßects on more general notions of liberty and tyranny, revolution, patriotism, political representation, and the roots of the national compact. More speciÞcally, it complicates issues such as the democratic process, patriotic allegiance, and an idea of community which is in many ways related to what JŸrgen Habermas would term the "public sphere." The tragedy is particularly relevant because its revision of these principles took place at a time when liberal ideas were starting to take shape in the Spanish and Italian constitutional revolts of 1820-21 and in British politics. In this essay I approach Hemans's verse-drama as yet another instance of a Romantic-period displaced representation of topical political issues; but I also propose this work as a critical reßection on its own ideological materials and on the obstacles besetting any practical realization of liberal principles. Moreover, in The Vespers of Palermo this ideological elaboration is rooted in speciÞc structural and formal strategies, the most conspicuous of which is an insistence on the semantic and metaphoric Þelds of voice and sound. Through its interweaving of ideological and formal features, Hemans's tragedy throws light on the difÞculties in separating an imperializing police state from a community based on tolerance and the respect and protection of individual freedom. Hemans thus teaches her public to read the liberal project as a developing and unÞnished process.

Danger to the life and health of the woman: Introduction to Aborto No Punible, Alicia de Santos, Martha Ines Rosenberg (editors), Foro por los Derechos Reproductivos, Buenos Aires, 1999

HIS book is the outcome of a national essaywriting competition on abortion and the law. The competition was initiated by the Foro por los Derechos Reproductivos (Reproductive Rights Forum) of Argentina. Authors were invited to submit an essay on how national laws on abortion are interpreted in ways that limit women's reproductive rights. We decided to put together some of the best essays we received into a book, and this collection is the result. We made a special effort to encourage the participation of academics and other intellectuals who are actively committed to broadening the democratic framework in relation to the social construction of gender and the protection of individual freedom. The day before our awards ceremony for the winning essays, 26 September 1999, the essayist and university professor Horacio Gonzalez offered this definition of the essay in an article published in Clarin:

DEMOCRACY IN REFORMING COLLAPSED COMMUNIST ECONOMIES: BLESSING OR CURSE?

From a political standpoint, post‐communists systems include both democratic and non‐democratic nations. From an economic standpoint, they include both collapsing and expanding economies. All four logical possibilities exist for post‐communist political and economic systems. The Czech Republic is an example of a democratic political system and an expanding economic system. Russia is an example of a democratic political system and a collapsing economic system. China is an example of a non‐democratic political system and an expanding economic system. North Korea is an example of a non‐democratic political system and a collapsing economic system. The fact that all four logical possibilities exist suggests that democracy is neither necessary nor sufficient for good economic performance. However, democracy is certainly a value in itself that requires certain basic institutions, including free and fair elections, the orderly transfer of power to those elected, the rule of law and the separation of powers, and the protection of individual freedoms and basic liberties, including those of speech, press, religion, assembly, property, and economic opportunity.Economic policies, rather than the form of government, determine the results for an economy. Russia and China, the two largest socialist economies, followed very different economic policies and experienced radically different outcomes. The failure of “shock therapy” economic policies for transition to a market economy in Russia is related to its use of the Washington Consensus SLP package of stabilization, liberalization, and privatization, as recommended by the World Bank and the IMF. The success of Deng's economic policies for transition to a market economy in China is related to its rejection of the SLP in favor of the ICG approach of institutions, competition, and government. Other interesting cases are those of the Czech Republic and North Korea.Those nations in which both political and economic reforms have been simultaneously successful, such as the Czech Republic, are generally small, homogeneous European nations with a historic work ethic, with a relatively short period of socialism, and with support from neighboring advanced industrialized nations. There is great difficulty in simultaneously establishing both democracy and a market economy without a very special set of circumstances. Thus, it is necessary to determine a sequence for political and economic reform. Ultimately, however, the ideal of both democracy and a market economy may be attained even in nations without special circumstances and external assistance, with Russia eventually turning its economy around and with China eventually reforming politically into a democratic nation.

Forging New Freedoms: Nativism, Education, and the Constitution, 1917-1927

In several landmark decisions during the mid-1920s, the U.S. Supreme Court significantly expanded the scope of the Constitution's protection of individual freedom by striking down state laws designed to repress or even destroy private and parochial schools. Forging New Freedoms explains the origins of nativistic hostility toward German and Japanese Americans, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and other groups whose schools became the object of assaults during and shortly after World War I. The book explores the campaigns to restrict foreign language instruction and to require compulsory public education. It also examines the background of Meyer v. Nebraska and Farrington v. Tokushige, in which the Court invalidated laws that restricted the teaching of foreign languages, and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, which nullified an Oregon law that required all children to attend public elementary schools. Drawing upon diverse sources, including popular periodicals, court briefs, and unpublished manuscripts, William G. Ross explains how the Court's decisions commenced the Court's modern role as a guardian of civil liberties. He also traces the constitutional legacy of those decisions, which have provided the foundation for the controversial right of privacy. Ross's interdisciplinary exploration of the complex interaction among ethnic and religious institutions, nativist groups, public opinion, the legislative process, and judicial decision-making provides fresh insights into both the fragility and the resilience of civil liberties in the United States. While the campaigns to curtail nonpublic education offer a potent reminder of the ever-present dangers of majoritarian tyranny, the refusal of voters and legislators to exact more extreme measures was a tribute to the tolerance of American society. The Court's decisions provided notable examples of how the judiciary can protect embattled minorities who are willing to fight to protect their rights. William G. Ross, a graduate of Stanford and the Harvard Law School, is a professor at the Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, Alabama. He is the author of A Muted Fury: Populists, Progressives, and Labour Unions Confront the Courts, 1890-1937.

The European Court of Human Rights and the Protection of Civil Liberties: an Overview

It is doubtful whether there is a more famous court in Europe than the European Court of Human Rights. The town in which it is located, Strasbourg, has become a rallying cry for disappointed litigants from Iceland to Istanbul. Through its application of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Court is seen to have played an important role in the protection of individual freedom in western Europe, and its case-law has ballooned dramatically in recent years. So successful has it been that the Court's jurisdiction is coveted by the newly emerging democracies in eastern and central Europe as a badge of legitimacy and a bulwark against future tyranny. Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Bulgaria already have judges on the Court and representatives from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are expected in the not too distant future. There is even talk of Russian membership. Moves are afoot to rationalise the Court's procedures, and to incorporate its law within the European Community.1Some- time in the next few years it will have a fine new building, designed by Sir Richard Rogers. All the signs are that its jurisprudence will continue to grow at a hectic pace. It is not improbable that the Court will emerge over time as a supreme court of Europe, at least so far as human rights are concerned.