Procedural Reform Research Articles

Democracy, industrial modernity and the culture of parliamentary politics in Victorian Britain

ABSTRACT This article explores a transformation of parliamentary politics in Victorian Britain, from a participatory parliamentary system to one increasingly dominated by ministerial control. It reveals the nuanced impact of heightened public visibility on MPs. As the gaze of an expanding electorate intensified, MPs faced a dual imperative: appearing industrious to constituents and contributing to efficient national governance. This dynamic, shaped by societal changes and media evolution, resulted in a conceptual separation of parliamentary ‘work’ and ‘talk,’ culminating in procedural reforms heralding the emergence of a more controlled ‘parliamentary machine.’

Reforming School Choice Systems to Reduce Segregation in Schools: A Comparative Political Economy Study of Education Reform in Belgium, Chile, and the Netherlands

ABSTRACT This study offers a comparative examination of desegregation policy reforms in Belgium, Chile, and the Netherlands, addressing equity reforms to universal school choice systems. Through an analysis of the reform trajectories, we explore the evolution of policies, the causal mechanisms of change, efforts to institutionalize policies, and the sources of resistance to reform. We then undertake a cross-national comparison to discern trends and confirm or disconfirm theorized causes. Policy strategies from each context included nondiscrimination policies, fiscal incentives, and eventually reform of admissions procedures. Causal mechanisms facilitating equity reforms included shifts in political context, grassroots mobilization, generated focusing events through scholarly work and reports of civil society and transnational actors, and effective framing. Oppositional forces from non-state school networks and middle-class/white parents emerged in each context, affecting reform design and the path to institutionalization, but were unable to block reforms. The resulting reforms in each context were the products of compromise that retreated from deeper structural changes, likely mitigating the effects of reforms on school-based segregation.

Election administration harms and ballot design: A study of Florida's 2018 United States Senate race

AbstractWe introduce a typology of election administration harms and apply it to empirically study the consequences of ballot design. Our typology distinguishes between individual, electoral, and systemic harms. Together, it clarifies why ballot design can be a particular vulnerability in election administration. Using both ballot‐level and precinct‐level data, we revisit Florida's 2018 United States Senate race, in which Broward County's ballot design flouted federal guidelines and, according to critics, was pivotal to the outcome. We estimate that Broward's ballot design induced roughly 25,000 voters to undervote in a race determined by about 10,000 votes and that these excess undervotes were concentrated among low‐information voters. Broward's ballot did not, however, affect the outcome of the election. Nonetheless, flawed ballot designs are still concerning in an age of voter distrust. Given the risk that flawed ballots can cause systemic harm, we offer a roadmap for procedural reforms to improve ballot design.

The Fundamentality of The Right to Evidence in The Brazilian Legal System

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the fundamental nature of the right to evidence in the Brazilian legal system, aiming to analyze its importance for guaranteeing due process and the realization of justice. Theoretical Framework: This section presents the main concepts and theories that underpin the research. Key theories include the principle of adversarial proceedings, the principle of ample defense, and due process of law, providing a solid foundation for understanding the context of the investigation. Method: The methodology adopted for this research comprises a qualitative approach, with documentary analysis and case studies of landmark decisions in Brazilian law. Data collection was conducted through a literature review and jurisprudence analysis, focusing on higher court decisions addressing the right to evidence. Results and Discussion: The results revealed the crucial importance of the right to evidence for maintaining the balance between parties in judicial proceedings. In the discussion section, these results are contextualized in light of the theoretical framework, highlighting implications for legal practice and the protection of fundamental rights. Possible discrepancies and limitations of the study are also considered in this section. Research Implications: The practical and theoretical implications of this research are discussed, providing insights on how the results can be applied or influence practices in the field of civil and criminal procedural law. These implications may include the reformulation of judicial procedures and the training of legal professionals. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the literature by exploring the fundamental nature of the right to evidence in Brazil in a thorough and systematic manner, highlighting new findings and offering a critical analysis of judicial practices. The relevance and value of this research are evidenced by its potential to influence procedural reforms and improve the effectiveness of the judicial system.

Zagrożenia w pracy lekarzy orzekających zgon i przyszłych koronerów. Przegląd aktualnej sytuacji w Polsce

A physician’s work involves exposure to various harmful factors, mainly biological and psychosocial. Their source can be either living or deceased patients. In connection with the upcoming reform of the post-mortem procedure, it becomes important to present the risks affecting doctors involved in the determination of death. The purpose of this paper was to emphasize the psychological burden associated with constant dealing with death, which can reveal itself as a significant problem. The current legal regulations on the determination of death in Poland are contained in acts dating as far back as 1959 and 1961. Therefore, it is expected that the law will be amended to clarify the controversial aspects of the duty to declare death. Although the aspect of exposure to biological agents in the medical profession has been regulated by law, the psychological consequences of exposure, which revolve around post-traumatic stress syndrome and occupational burnout, are not covered by adequate prevention. Various forms of prevention of these phenomena through education and multidirectional self-therapy are currently under consideration. Determining death is an activity that requires not only knowledge but also appropriate emotional training. The dangers of contact with corpses are multifaceted, indicating the need for a thorough analysis of the occupational risks of coroners.

Assessing the Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Vietnam's Socioeconomic Development and Proposing Policy Recommendations

In recent years, Vietnam has emerged as one of the world's top 20 destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI). Since reforming its Foreign Investment Law in 1987 and joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007, the country has implemented numerous tax and investment procedure reforms. This influx of FDI has significantly boosted Vietnam's economic growth, job creation, and social welfare. However, challenges persist—complex legal procedures and weak links between FDI and domestic businesses have been ongoing issues for four decades. Moreover, new global economic trends such as the global minimum tax, sustainable development, digital transformation, and the shift towards a circular economy demand timely and appropriate government reforms. These reforms are crucial for developing suitable foreign investment policies and effective FDI attraction strategies. This article aims to examine Vietnam's current FDI landscape, assess its socio-economic impact in recent years, and propose recommendations for a more selective and effective FDI strategy moving forward.

Поправки в ГПК РФ о протоколе судебного заседания: анализ изменений

The article presents an overview and analysis of the amendments to the civil procedure legislation concerning the court hearing protocol, introduced by Federal Law No. 135-FZ of June 12, 2024. The author notes that the introduced changes aim to further improve and unify procedural legislation by mandating audio recording of court sessions. The article highlights the advantages, potential problems, and risks associated with abandoning traditional forms of court hearing protocols. The discussed procedural reform should be viewed positively in the context of the overall trend towards the digitalization of justice. However, its success will depend on the estab-lishment of adequate organizational foundations for the use of technical tools in maintaining court session pro-tocols and the development of an effective legal framework to regulate their application.

Fuel to the fire: Gender inequality in achievement in secondary school national examination in conflict-affected areas, North Wollo Zone, Northeast Ethiopia

Government reforms such as the general education quality improvement program for equity are implemented to address concerns about educational inequality. However, studies advancing understanding of the patterns of gender inequality in achievement in conflict affected areas are rare. The purpose of this article is to examine patterns in gender inequality in General Secondary Education Certificate Examination results in Math, English, and Aptitude for 2021, 2022 and 2023 academic years in conflict affected areas. The data consist of achievement scores from 45 schools and a total of 32,528 students, obtained from the Education office of North Wollo Zone, Northeast Ethiopia. Using multilevel modeling, within- and between-school inequalities, achievement inequalities in gender, effects of teacher qualifications on achievement, and variations in gender-achievement relationships are examined. Student performance has been found to have consistently declined in the last two years in math, English and aptitude scores. On average, boys perform significantly higher than girls on these subjects consistently during the normal and conflict seasons. Inequality has decreased in conjunction with declining student performance, and inequalities due to school characteristics are much lower than inequalities due to student differences. School inequality declines in years of conflict compared to normal ones. The relationships between gender and achievement also vary statistically from school to school, with the conflict exacerbating existing inequalities. Based on the results, it is suggested that equity strategies should consider inequalities with declining student performance as opposed to conventional inequalities with high and low performing groups. Future research may isolate the effects of conflict and reforms in national testing procedures to account for gender inequalities.

Statutory Review: The Need for Procedural Reform

Statutory Review: The Need for Procedural Reform

Identifying Problems of International Investment Law (IIL) and Evaluating the Focus of Reform Initiatives

The normative structure of international investment law is highly asymmetrical. Generally, current IIAs grant investors significant substantive and procedural rights, while States and affected communities often lack equivalent safeguard. In recent years, scholars have critcised and identified many problems including human rights concerns ingrained in the international investment law framework. The States and other stakeholders also raised many concerns regarding international investment agreements and investor-State dispute settlement. Moreover, there’s agreement on the need for comprehensive reform of IIL to make ISDS effective. Yet, issues with ISDS go beyond systemic flaws, also entrenched in substantive deficiencies in existing IIAs. Furthermore, the current legitimacy crisis provides a unique chance to amend the international IIAs comprehensively. However, the WGIII and ICSID reform initiative primarily focuses on procedural aspects of ISDS, avoiding substantive issues raised by various stakeholders. While procedural reforms are essential, resolving substantive issues is equally necessary.

A Survey of Judicial Effectiveness: The Last Quarter Century of Empirical Evidence

Abstract Courts around the world are often perceived to be ineffective in the delivery of justice. The resolution of cases takes too long, costs too much, and is biased in favor of the rich and politically connected. These stylized facts motivate judicial reform. With the benefit of a quarter century of empirical research, this paper finds that judicial reform is successful in improving court effectiveness when it coincides with or is motivated by periods of extraordinary politics. We study the four most discussed ingredients of judicial effectiveness—independence, access, efficiency, and quality—and find that transformative judicial reform is most likely to succeed in countries emerging from conflict and violence or those that are pursuing accession to regional or international groups. Absent such conditions, reformers are better off focusing on the adoption of procedural rules that increase the effectiveness of the existing judicial system. The survey highlights procedural reforms that deliver better outcomes.

Сonsiderations on the reform of summary procedures in the penal process

In order to improve the legal framework and to maintain the balance between the needs of society and the rules of law, the legislator seeks appropriate solutions, including by changing the procedural rules.In this respect, the recent summary procedures have undergone changes, even a reform in this regard. The objectives of this study were to analyze the new summary procedures introduced in the criminal procedural law and the amendments made to the existing ones. The premises of the legislative changes were analyzed, but also, directly, the summary procedures: the agreement for recognition of guilt, the procedure for judging the case based on the evidence administered at the criminal investigation phase, the public interest judicial agreement and the cooperation agreement

Новейший УПК Киргизии: акт контрреформы или очередной симптом законодательной инфляции?

The article is devoted to the newest Code of Criminal Procedure of Kyrgyzstan, adopted and entered into force in 2021. This act is particularly interesting because the code that preceded it remained in force for less than three years, which can be considered a kind of an anti-record. In this regard the new Code of Criminal Procedure represents the apotheosis of legislative inflation, which to a greater or lesser extent has gripped the entire post-Soviet space, including Russia. Given the permanent nature of domestic criminal procedural reforms, the experience of Kyrgyzstan may become a sobering example for us. In order to shed light on the general context, prerequisites and probable goals of the designated codification, the author of the article examines the chronology of the Kyrgyz Criminal Procedure Code adoption, analyses its most important novelties and identifies significant patterns of criminal procedure development in Kyrgyzstan, which in many respects are also typical for other post-Soviet countries.

Responsible Research Assessment requires structural more than procedural reforms

In their target articles, Schönbrodt et al. (2022) and Gärtner et al. (2022) propose new metrics and their practical implementation to improve responsible research assessment. Generally, I welcome the inclusion of open science and scientific rigor into evaluating job candidates. However, the proposed reform mainly focuses on the first stage of selecting candidates who then continue towards a second stage of in-depth evaluation of research quality. Yet, this second selection stage is underdeveloped but likely more critical concerning responsible research assessment and hiring decisions. I argue that an adequate assessment of research quality at this second stage requires the representation of specific knowledge in the subfield of a discipline that the candidate should be hired for by the hiring committee. This is rarely achieved given the current structural organization of departments, especially in German-speaking countries, and potentially explains the reliance on suboptimal indicators such as h-index and Journal Impact factor. Therefore, I argue that responsible research assessment requires structural reform to ensure that institutions have several researchers in permanent positions with specific knowledge in different subfields to provide an adequate and responsible assessment of research quality by hiring committees at all evaluation stages.

When voting no is not enough: Legislative brawling and obstruction in Korea

AbstractAlthough legislative brawling is a common occurrence—with 365 cases reported across the world between 1990 and 2018—we have a limited understanding of why members of representative bodies engage in violence. Does the lack of institutionalization or the violent nature of some legislators cause such behavior? This article argues that legislators with intense policy preferences engage in costly actions, such as brawling, as a means of signaling their policy commitment. To validate this claim, this article examines legislators' participation in legislative brawling and filibusters in Korea before and after the adoption of a filibuster procedure. I find that extreme members engaged in brawling before the adoption of procedural reform, while they engaged in filibusters after the adoption. This transformation of brawlers into filibusterers suggests that legislative brawling does not necessarily indicate a violent nature of some legislators but rather a desire by legislators to signal their policy commitments.

Inpatient experience and influencing factors at Ho Chi Minh city Blood Transfusion and Hematology hospital in 2022

Objective: Policymakers and healthcare managers globally are increasingly focused on collecting Patient Experience (PE) Data to identify information and issues that require improvement for enhancing service quality. For several years, the Ho Chi Minh City Blood Transfusion and Hematology Hospital has prioritized improving patient experience and satisfaction with its services. Methods: A cross-sectional study incorporating both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Quantitative data were gathered from 250 patients or their main caregivers in six inpatient departments. Quantitative data analysis employed descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. Qualitative information was obtained through six in-depth interviews with customers (patients and their family members) and seven in-depth interviews with medical staff (hospital leader, 02 clinical department leaders, 02 doctors, and 02 nurses). Results: The overall Patient Experience (PE) score was 8.5 (median) on a 10-point scale. PED at admission: the waiting time for admission to the inpatient department had the lowest rate of positive experiences (48.8%). Internal Audit on Facilities and Utilities serving patients: the criterion for positive experiences regarding hospital quietness had the lowest rate (65.2%). Internal Audit on the attitude and spirit of service by medical staff, medical examination and treatment activities, and hospital fee payment: all criteria received a fairly high positive evaluation rate of over 86%. Internal accounts before discharge: over 12% of respondents reported difficulties in hospital discharge payment. Factors influencing Internal Revenue Service: Positive factors included the correct application of medical examination and treatment regulations according to the Ministry of Health, administrative procedure reform, new facilities and equipment, training on codes of conduct, and appropriate treatment method selection according to the diagnosis. Negative factors included an incomplete call center for medical examination and treatment, long waiting times for admission to the inpatient department and medical examination, and a lack of methods for patients to pay hospital fees directly in the department or treatment room. Conclusions: The hospital's overall PED score is 8.5 points. Develop a plan to adjust the process to reduce waiting time for admission from the medical examination department and discharge time; Increase medical human resources to support patient fee collection directly in the treatment department/room. Keywords: Patient experience, inpatients, patients, hematology blood transfusion.

Administrative Procedure Code: a Controversial, but Feasible Idea

The subject of the study is the issues of codification of administrative procedural and administrative tort legislation. The complex issue of its codification requires a thorough analysis of a number of fundamental theses for further argumentation of the author's position regarding the improvement of the institutional foundations of codification both from the standpoint of scientific and methodological development and practical implementation. The need to codify administrative proceedings is due to the fact that the reform of the administrative procedure will be incomplete without improving the CAS of the Russian Federation in terms of including the provisions of the APC of the Russian Federation and the procedure for considering cases of administrative offenses and strengthening judicial control over the actions of administrative jurisdiction bodies by reforming the procedural mechanism for considering cases of administrative offenses by courts of general jurisdiction (option arbitration courts according to the rules of the RF PACS). The goals are achieved using the methods of historical, systematization, synthesis, and special legal methods. The scientific idea of the formation of the procedural form of administration is argued, the scientific idea of the formation of the procedural form of administrative legislation is documented, which means only the judicial procedure for the consideration of cases, including administrative proceedings and proceedings in cases of administrative offenses. Practical recommendations are formulated on reforming the legislative and organizational foundations in the field under study and the adoption of a basic law on the procedure for the implementation of administrative proceedings when considering and resolving administrative cases by courts on the protection of violated or disputed rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens and organizations, as well as other administrative cases related to the exercise of judicial control over the legality and validity of public powers, namely, the Administrative Procedural Code of the Russian Federation (as a variant of the Procedural Administrative Code of the Russian Federation - PAK RF). An invitation to the discussion is published.

Duality of Criminal Procedure Policy Trends in the New Criminal Procedure Reform in France

Duality of Criminal Procedure Policy Trends in the New Criminal Procedure Reform in France

Administrative silence as the challenge in regulation of administrative proceedings. Best practices and successful measures adopted by selected EU countries in the context of Ukrainian law "on administrative procedure"

The issue of administrative silence is a significant challenge not only for the countries undergoing structural legal reforms, but also in established democracies with stable rule of law systems. Administrative inaction or delayed activity pose serious problems for the citizens, impact their individual rights, but also questions the overall effectiveness of public administration. In general, two models of addressing this case of maladministration are adopted: the negative (where silence means tacit rejection) and positive (where silence means approval). However, in practice of many countries, the solutions are mixed and much more complex. The effective way of dealing with administrative silence seems to be a matter of practice of public administration bodies, good cooperation with administrative courts, and respectful approach to individual rights of the citizens. Ukraine is currently undergoing a major reform of administrative procedure. The newly adopted and currently implemented Law on Administrative Procedure (LAP) provides a comprehensive approach to regulation of administrative proceedings and addresses many challenges relating to the operation of public administration. It is important to test the new solutions and observe how they function in practice, as well as to identify potential weaknesses and possibilities for improvement. Administrative silence, as a substantial challenge to the proper functioning of public administration, needs to be effectively addressed by the legal norms and practice, possibly with the inspiration of the good practices from the other European countries.

The perceived problem‐solving potential of deliberative minipublics: Evidence from a survey of Belgian citizens

AbstractConcerns about widespread democratic dissatisfaction have prompted a search for remedies, such as increasing citizens’ role in politics. While the public seems supportive, it remains unclear whether such newly introduced procedures can effectively tackle citizens’ dissatisfaction with present‐day politics. This paper develops a problem‐solving approach to studying this question. It proposes that combining insights on what ‘pushes’ and ‘pulls’ people to support procedural reform is crucial: Only then can we uncover if and how people consider procedural reform as addressing the problem(s) they see in the representative system today. Using the example of deliberative minipublics and original, pre‐registered survey data from Belgium (n = 1,579), we find that respondents generally think of minipublics as problem‐solvers rather than problem‐creators, albeit to different degrees. For instance, this perceived problem‐solving potential is more pronounced among discontent citizens. This study sheds new light on the importance of studying citizens’ reasoning about the roots and remedies for political dissatisfaction.