State Legislatures Research Articles

Egzekucja roszczeń odszkodowawczych w związku z wywołaniem i prowadzeniem wojny napastniczej

The article presents key issues related to the assertion of claims for liability for damages resulting from the instigation and conduct of a war of aggression. These issues have become topical again not only due to revival of the discussion concerning claims for damages caused during the Second World War, but also due to the ongoing armed conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine since 2021. At present, there are no codified, uniform and well-established legal principles in this area regarding the claims themselves in general, or for their enforcement. Under international law, a war of aggression can certainly give rise to an obligation to provide compensation on the part of the state that caused or conducted it (the responsible state).In the twentieth century, the issue of liability for reparations was primarily regulated in acts of peace-making, most famously in the Treaty of Versailles. However, there is still an ongoing theoretical discussion as to whether and how liability for damages can be effectively claimed by the injured state, but also by individuals – on the basis of the rules of international law or even domestic law, since these entities do not, in principle, have international legal subjectivity. Indeed, individual claims are or at least can also be the subject of international agreements. In this context, the article points to a trend away from the principle of absolute jurisdictional immunity of states in favour of limited immunity, which should also be applied to immunity from enforcement. This leads to the question of the desirability of moving away from rigid rules of protection for states when, by provoking and waging a war of aggression, they can on this basis avoid liability for their own unlawful actions. Furthermore, given the limited framework of legal instruments of influence in relations between states, the question arises as to whether and which measures (including the long-known so-called precautionary measures) can be used unilaterally not only against a state, but also against its citizens and the assets of the legal entities subject to its legislation. In practice, it is precisely such measures that can serve to secure claims for damages through the seizure of property assets. However, it should not be forgotten that the application of such unilateral measures may be challenged in relations between Member States of the European Union. In addition, any expropriation or confiscation may be challenged as inadmissible not only under the constraints of Article 215 TFEU, but also in light of the protective norms of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the ECHR, and, at the level of state legislation, constitutional norms.

State Goals, Institutional Social Constructions, and Utah’s Postsecondary Education Governance Reform Efforts

State-level postsecondary education governance has experienced a lull in successful reform efforts since the turn of the century. However, in 2020, the Utah System of Higher Education and Utah System of Technical Colleges were formally merged following a multi-year effort by state legislators and higher education officials. Framed by the theory of social construction and policy design, this study considers underlying institutional considerations and statewide goals that led to Utah’s governance merger and how these changes impacted the public higher education sectors in the state, offering insights for research examining higher education governance and reform efforts.

Republican governor, unified government, and the U.S. states’ death penalty executions

ABSTRACT Currently, 24 states in the U.S. still permit the death penalty, along with three states temporarily suspending it. Nevertheless, there exists substantial variation in the extent to which each state actually carries out the executions. While studies have explored factors influencing this variation, little attention has been paid to the political role of state governors’ and legislatures’ support in the different tendencies toward death penalty executions across states. To fill this gap, we empirically tested how governors’ party affiliation and unified political support from the legislature affect death penalty executions in the U.S. We demonstrated that states with a Republican governor are more likely to execute the death penalty. Additionally, we found that this tendency is significantly stronger when both chambers of the state legislature are dominated by Republicans (i.e. Republican-unified government), which is consistent with the theoretical expectation of unified government discourse in the policy making and implementation contexts.

The concept of «complex-structural ownership» and the timeshare institute

The scientific article examines the concept of «complex-structural ownership», which is the basis of timeshare in foreign countries in order to choose the optimal legal basis for this institute in Ukraine. It was established that the concept of «complex structural property» gradually developed in parallel with the development of timeshare itself. In the early stages of development, the consumer bought an ownership interest in the property, which allowed him to use it for a fixed week during a certain season at the resort. Gradually, even more flexible products appeared on the timeshare market, even based on a point system. It was found that the state of development of this issue does not meet the needs of the recodification of the Central Committee of Ukraine and the improvement of the legal basis of timeshare in the conditions of the development of tourism.
 Examples of the legislation of foreign countries are given, which, regulating the institution of timeshare, the conclusion of relevant contracts, also consolidate the approach to understanding the concept of «complex structural property», in particular the provisions of the Law on the Distribution of California Lands, the Law of the State of Florida «On the Vacation Plan and Timeshare», the Statute of the State of Nevada etc.
 It was found that the concept of «complex structural property» in the legislation of various US states is connected with the concept of «undivided interests». This is quite an interesting approach, which is fully relevant to the legal nature of timeshare, which essentially also assumes the presence of «undivided interests» among several consumers, and in the context of the expansion of timeshare forms, the appearance of a point system, exchanges, cruise offers, the specified approach manifests itself even more pronounced. It was found that in the Romano-Germanic states, the legal nature of timeshare is considered through the prism of obligations and property rights.
 It is substantiated that the concept of «complex-structural property» is based on the non-exhaustive list of rights of the owner, which is widespread in the Anglo-American private law doctrine. In the national doctrine of private law, more and more scientific studies are appearing, which justify that the rights of the owner are not limited to the classic triad of powers.
 It has been proven that since complex-structural ownership is possible precisely in the case of property ownership by several co-owners, it is characterized by the features of joint ownership. It is proposed to distinguish between «simple joint ownership» and «complex structural joint ownership».

Цифровизация нотариата как фактор создания единого нотариального пространства в Евразийском экономическом союзе

The article discusses the need to create a Unified Notary Information System in the Eurasian Economic Union, which will allow advancement to a higher level of economic cooperation, lead to more effective development of civil legal relations, and allow for electronic exchange of information and documents. The procedure for reg-istration and execution of notarial acts has been studied; the amount of information to be recorded, as well as methods for recording it. A comparative analysis of the legislation of the member states of the Eurasian Eco-nomic Union regulating notarial activities was carried out. The procedure and method of collecting information, the level of security of documents, and the possibility of conducting verification activities to determine the au-thenticity of the submitted documents are considered. The subject of comparison is the degree of use of digital technologies within the framework of the electronic exchange of information and documents between partici-pants in civil transactions (notaries, citizens, legal entities). Attention is focused on analyzing the degree of im-plementation of digital technologies within the framework of storing notarial documents. The capabilities of notaries to provide notarial services are considered, including the ability to collect information necessary to per-form a notarial act, and information necessary to formalize inheritance rights. The powers of notaries in the framework of interaction with state registers have been studied, including the powers to carry out verification actions in relation to applicants, register rights to movable and immovable property, to introduce encumbrances on movable and immovable property, as well as to make changes to the information contained in state regis-ters. The subject of comparison was the degree of digital technology usage in the process of storage of notarial documents, as well as in the framework of electronic exchange of information between participants of civil turnover (notaries, individuals and legal entities). Prospects for further research in this area are defined.

“Sorry That Happened to You”: Testifying, Trauma, and the Politics of Child Marriage in the United States

ABSTRACT In the United States, the marriage of minors remains legal in 40 of 50 states despite evidence that the practice often leads to the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of girls. As a political issue, child marriage has failed to capture the attention of the public or media. Yet, over the past six years, a majority of state legislatures have put marriage age reforms on their legislative agendas, in some cases leading to policy adoption of a child marriage ban. Using archival data from 50 states and in-depth interviews, I argue that the advocacy of a small group of child marriage survivors precipitated progress on marriage age reforms. I find that legislators responded positively to narratives given by child marriage survivors and expressed a paternal need to protect girls. I also examine the limitations of placing survivors of traumatic life experiences at the forefront of policy action. This article contributes to our knowledge of how gender justice issues rise to the legislative agenda and how certain overlooked issues require a high level of personal traumatic disclosure to gain attention.

The Fundamental Concept of Death-Controversies and Clinical Relevance: The UDDA Revision Series.

When the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) was recently in the process of revising the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA), Neurology® ran a series of debates over certain controversial issues being deliberated. Omitted was a debate over the fundamental concept underlying brain death. In his introductory article, Bernat offered reasons for this omission: "It is not directly relevant to practicing neurologists who largely accept brain death, do not question its conceptual basis, …." In this article I argue the opposite: the fundamental concept of death is highly relevant to the clinical criteria and tests used to diagnose it. Moreover, most neurologists in fact disagree with the conceptual basis articulated by Bernat. Basically, there are 3 competing concepts of death: (1) biological: cessation of the integrative unity of the organism as a whole (endorsed by Bernat and the 1981 President's Commission), (2) psychological: cessation of the person, equated with a self-conscious mind (endorsed by half of neurologists), and (3) the vital work concept proposed by the 2008 President's Council on Bioethics. The first actually corresponds to a circulatory, not a neurologic, criterion. The second corresponds to a "higher brain" criterion. The third corresponds loosely to the UK's "brainstem death" criterion. In terms of the biological concept, current diagnostic guidelines entail a high rate of false-positive declarations of death, whereas in terms of the psychological concept, the same guidelines entail a high rate of false-negative declarations. Brainstem reflexes have nothing to do with any death concept (their role is putatively to guarantee irreversibility). By shining a spotlight on the deficiencies of the UDDA through attempting to revise it, the ULC may have unwittingly opened a Pandora's box of fresh scrutiny of the concept of death underlying the neurologic criterion-particularly on the part of state legislatures with irreconcilably opposed worldviews.

Private Life, Object of Criminal Protection in the European Context

The present action comes as a result of some recent legislative changes, at the level of Romania, more precisely the criminalization of "revenge pornography", but not as a distinct act, according to the provisions of the Criminal Code, but as a variant of committing the crime of violation of private life. Taking into account the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to private life, we want to analyse to what extent and how the national legislator of other Member States of the European Union understood to criminalize the behaviour mentioned above. Moreover, considering the criminalization of child pornography, from the European Council Convention on Computer Crime, as well as from the Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of December 13, 2011, we want to analyse the opportunity of the existence in Romanian legislation of a distinct criminalization, with the name of "revenge pornography", in the same title of the special part of the Criminal Code as the crime of child pornography, taking into account the protected social value, while observing whether such an orientation is found in the criminal legislation of other Member States. Another aspect that will be considered from the perspective of applying the law to different cases brought to justice is that related to international judicial cooperation when the object of criminal protection is private life.

The DEI slide: How colleges and universities are managing the cultural shift

Kentucky and Wisconsin are the most recent states to grapple with proposed bans of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives. While the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents originally voted against the proposed DEI bill, they eventually reached an agreement with state legislators. The UW system was granted $800 million from the state for employee pay raises and construction projects, in exchange for freezing DEI hiring, changing position titles of existing DEI staff to “student success” roles, and eliminating DEI statements from student applications.

Moving the electoral goalposts: State and local strategies of electoral intervention in the U.S.

Central to the partisan divide in American politics is disagreement over the fundamental legitimacy of American elections. Due to the decentralized nature of election administration in the US, these disagreements have led to a complex web of heterogeneous electoral institutions. Scholars have made impressive progress on untangling the effects of these different institutions — unfortunately, less is known about the sources of adoption of such proposals. Using time-series cross-sectional data on the adoption of various electoral policies by state governments from 2001–2018, I examine the role of politics and identity in shaping the types of electoral interventions adopted by state legislatures during an important period of increasing politicization of such interventions. Applying dynamic panel models and constructing a novel measure of the concentration of Black population within competitive congressional districts, I find that the effects of race, competition, and ideology on electoral interventions differ across both partisan lines and issue areas.

Legal regulation of human somatic rights: transplantation of human organs and biological tissues in Ukraine and foreign countries

The article examines the problems of legal regulation of transplantation of organs and tissues of the human body in Ukraine and foreign countries. Emphasis is placed on legal and ethical difficulties arising in the field of transplantology. It is noted that the right to «mechanize the body» has a number of specific features, namely: the specific nature of the object of these rights - the human body, which is the object of property rights and currently has mainly a monetary value expression; natural dependence on knowledge of biology, genetics, medicine, technology. Their existence and implementation are possible only with the help of achievements of scientific and technical progress; novelty, which has a different degree of expression, depending on the type of protected result of disposal of body or life; ambiguous attitude from the side of religion, morality, ethics, politics; inextricable connection with constitutional (fundamental) human rights in view of the special connection with personal (natural) rights and the peculiarity as an independent group of human rights; exclusivity in terms of its legal consequences in the process and as a result of their implementation. With any change in the physical embodiment of a person, the subjective aspect of legal relations changes, that is, many connections of various branches of legal regulation (civil, marital and family, constitutional, etc.) are affected; the degree of their recognition and implementation reflects the level of development of the state and society in general, etc. It is emphasized that individual somatic rights are reflected both in the legislation of Ukraine and in the legislation of foreign countries. For example, the right to transplant organs in national legislation is not used as a right to dispose of one's body, but as a certain necessity, a medical indication. In order to regulate the issue of organ donation, the legislation of individual states prescribes the practice of establishing special procedures for obtaining the donor's consent to extract a transplant from him (Belgium, Greece, Turkey). Given the lack of transplants for transplant operations, it is important to develop educational work at the state level, explaining to citizens the need to issue voluntary consents for the posthumous use of their donor material. It is worth making proposals for the development and adoption of the State Program of Ukraine aimed at the development of donation. This program should provide organizational, legal and preventive state measures for the promotion and development of legal donation in Ukraine; proposals for the development of a national legal mechanism aimed at encouraging voluntary posthumous donation, which would be based on the lifetime legally formalized consent of potential donors to the posthumous free use of their donor material.

MONITORING THE PERFORMANCE AND EFFICIENCY OF CUSTOMS CONTROL IN UKRAINE

Topicality. Ukraine is integrating into the global economic space and is an active participant in regional cooperation. This requires the abolition of certain restrictions on the free movement of goods. Customs control has a special place in this process. Advanced forms and methods of customs control, as well as measures to increase their performance and efficiency, ensure timely detection, prevention, disclosure and termination of offenses, as well as additional receipt of customs payments to the budget with the gradual introduction of European customs norms into the practice of our state.Aim and tasks. To analyze the performance and efficiency of customs control in Ukraine in order to substantiate the vectors for their further improvement.Materials and methods. Legislative and normative documentation, statistical data of the State Customs Service of Ukraine, legislative acts of the state authorities of Ukraine were used in the research process. General scientific and special methods of scientific knowledge, methods of generalization, analysis and synthesis, observation, comparison, grouping are applied - in the study of the categorical and conceptual apparatus of customs control, assessment of the performance and efficiency of control measures in the customs sphere.Research results. The choice of forms and methods of customs control depends on the goals set by the customs authorities for the management of customs risks from the implementation of foreign economic activities. Customs control can be effective, but not effective, if resources disproportionate to the achieved effect were spent to achieve the goals. The analysis of the customs audit in Ukraine proved that the main violations of the customs legislation related to the illegal receipt of tax benefits, violation of the requirements of the rules for the classification of goods in accordance with the UCT of the Foreign Trade and unreliable declaration of the customs value of goods. Today, due to the state of war, the emphasis in the work has been shifted to the organization of explanatory work by the customs, the provision of consultations on the practical application of certain norms of legislation on customs matters, and the conduct of a campaign of voluntary payment to the budget of customs payments in connection with the established signs of violation of the customs legislation. In most foreign practices, the customs audit is carried out by conducting a post-audit. This results in speeding up customs formalities and simplifying customs procedures, maintaining a balance between promoting international trade and effective customs control. On the basis of the analysis of the efficiency of the work of regional customs, the problems of their functioning have been identified according to a number of indicators, which indicates the need to focus on these areas during customs control.Conclusion. Prospective directions for increasing the performance and efficiency of customs control in Ukraine are:- increasing the effectiveness of customs audit and post-customs control;- increasing the effectiveness of control over the legality of the application of exemptions from payment of customs payments and the use of goods for their final destination, which will contribute to the increase of customs payments to the State Budget;- introduction of European practices in the field of customs control in Ukraine by building modern, flexible, reliable, service-oriented information and communication systems.Single indicators of performance and efficiency of customs control, which will be coordinated with the customs legislation of the EU member states, are required for further development and publication. They should reflect not only the quantitative indicators of additional revenues of customs payments to the budget, but also indirectly take into account the quality of changes taking place in the customs administration, due to the growth of international trade volumes, the activation of foreign economic activity.

Legislative success and collaboration in the Texas State House

ABSTRACT Women and racial and ethnic minority legislators achieve varying levels of legislative success due to the discrimination they face in elections and the legislature. To overcome these disadvantages, some scholars suggest that legislators employ cooperative strategies to achieve higher success. In a diverse legislature, we ask whether legislators cooperate with each other via bill cosponsorship as a strategy to increase their legislative success. We examine success rates and cosponsorship strategies within the diverse Texas House of Representatives to answer these questions. We find that while white women and women of color have success rates similar to white men, racial and ethnic minority men have lower success rates compared to other legislators. White women, women of color, and men of color all exhibit diverse cosponsorship patterns; yet these tactics do not lead to higher legislative success rates for women and minorities. These conclusions in the Texas House offer a hypothesis-building case study of legislative success and multi-group collaboration in a diverse state legislature.

Biochipping in forensic medicine as a technology for determining readiness to cause harm: a review

This article evaluated the issues of determining consent to harm as grounds for excluding crime through the prism of the totality of mental and physiological processes in the victim’s body, considering the analysis of the emotional attitude to the traumatic situation. Existing practice is based on the testimony and position of the injured party and the absence of physical signs of resistance as an indicator of consent to harm.
 The materials of the study were the norms of the criminal legislation of Kazakhstan and foreign states on the meaning of the victim’s consent to harm his or her peers and interests, particularly in cases of sexual inviolability. A literature review on this topic revealed the relationship between the subjective attitude of the victim of violence and chemical and physiological processes in the body.
 The achievements of scientists in determining chemical and physiological signs of stress in real time using bioanalysts-biochips were analyzed. Based on the results, generalization of scientific works, and analysis of legislation on the subject, the evidentiary value of these technologies to determine the consent of the victim in the absence of signs of stress at the time of exposure were considered.
 The use of biochips with analyzers of chemical and physiological changes in the human body in real time will not only determine the stress state of the victim at the time of the attack, as a sign of consent or refusal to act, but also expand the possibilities of forensic medicine and general practical medicine in early diagnosis of diseases and prompt treatment. Furthermore, a SWOT analysis of the use of biocyping to resolve the issue of determining the victim’s consent to harm, excluding the possibility of manipulation and falsification of evidence, was performed.

Investigating the politics and content of US State artificial intelligence legislation

AbstractThe rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and its application by businesses has created a potential need for governmental regulation. While the federal government of the United States has largely sidestepped the issue of crafting law dictating limitations and expectations regarding the use of AI technology, US state legislatures have begun to take the lead in this area. Nonetheless, we know very little about how state legislatures have approached the design, pursuit, and adoption of AI policy and whether traditional political fault lines have manifested themselves in the AI issue area. Here, we gather data on the state-level adoption of AI policy, as well as roll call voting on AI bills (classified on the basis of consumer protection versus economic development), by state legislatures and analyze the political economy of AI legislation. We find that rising unemployment and inflation are negatively associated with a state’s AI policymaking. With respect to individual legislator support, we find that liberal lawmakers and Democrats are more likely to support bills establishing consumer protection requirements on AI usage. The results suggest that economic concerns loom large with AI and that traditional political fault lines may be establishing themselves in this area.

State legislator views on funding 21st century Transportation:Important problems, missed connections

This paper asks how legislative elites—lawmakers serving on statehouse committees with jurisdiction over transportation and energy—set transportation policy and funding agendas and what factors matter for compelling lawmaker policy action or explaining inaction. The role of legislatures in federalist systems has broader implications for the setting of transportation policy agendas, but in this study, we focus on U.S. state legislatures. We report on five focus group discussions conducted with 23 legislative representatives from 19 different states to reveal untapped insights into committee members' perceptions and the factors that drive their attention to certain issues in contemporary U.S. transportation policy. We find that these state-level political elites almost universally see funding as the most important issue and recognize the sector's broad fiscal reliance on motor fuel taxes as structurally unsound, given growing vehicle fuel efficiency and electric vehicle adoption. We find further that, with respect to their own policymaking activities, state lawmakers understand transportation policy and energy transition as distinct issues and appear unable to meet these known challenges by crossing committees to redesign policy. We also see implications of these results more broadly for subnational and provincial governments that, regardless of country setting, must often work across multiple layers of government to set policy agendas in the context of an evolving energy and transportation landscape and that warrant greater attention from policy scholars.

Family Disaster: The Origins of Gender Violence Legislation in Turkey.

This article provides a case study regarding struggles over framing gender violence as a political issue. It looks at how gender violence initially entered political discourse and state legislation in Turkey. It identifies the main political actors as feminists, Islamists, and Kemalists, and examines their impacts on state policy-making processes and outcomes. It argues that, in the Turkish context, the Islamism-Kemalism divide contoured the limits and possibilities of frame institutionalization in legislation and characterized state responses to gender violence through familial ideology, which prioritized family privacy and unity over women's right to live free from violence.

The 2021 Sarawak State Election: The Rise of Gabungan Parti Sarawak and Prospects for Sarawak Politics

This article examines the results of the 2021 Sarawak State Election (SSE21) and explains Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s (GPS) major victory. Analysts had predicted an unassailable success for GPS but stopped short of giving the coalition more than 70 seats (out of the 82 seats contested). This was due to restricted candidates’ movements caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, political uncertainties at the federal level and the challenges posed by newcomers such as Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) and Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK). However, the results indicated otherwise: GPS did the unthinkable, winning more than 90% of the seats in the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly, including recapturing some of the traditional seats held by the opposition. Moreover, it turned out that the COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) were advantageous to GPS and disadvantageous to the opposition. The article also explores a host of other factors contributing to GPS’s rise such as the coalition’s incumbency advantage, low voting turnout and the unhappiness towards the opposition among some segments of voters. GPS’s sweeping win has cemented its position in local politics and has given it more leverage as a kingmaker at the federal level. Even though the future looks promising for GPS, the prevailing political conditions at the federal level and the changing mood of the electorates will set to test the coalition’s dominance in Sarawak.

Peranan Biro Wanita dan Sayap Pemuda dalam Politik Pilihan Raya Semasa Pilihan Raya Negeri Sarawak 2021 di Tamin dan Meluan

This article examines the electoral politics of the 2021 Sarawak State Election (SSE21), focusing on the Women’s Bureau and Youth Wing of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP). Using the framework of clientelism, the study investigates the interdependent relationships between the women’s bureau, youth wing and candidates. From the outset, it is evident that the provision of rewards and services by candidates both before and after the election played a significant role in consolidating the support of the women’s bureau and youth wing members, particularly towards the incumbent candidates. The research was conducted through observations and in-depth interviews with candidates, PRS and PDP representatives, women’s bureau and youth wing members, youth leaders, and community leaders, including tuai rumah and penghulu, in the State Legislative Assembly (SLA) of Meluan and Tamin.

Disposal of solid waste from civil construction: a screening proposal for a suitability system and case study in Nepomuceno, Minas Gerais

ABSTRACT Most Brazilian municipalities do not have regulated areas for solid waste disposal in civil construction. Usually, residues are disposed of vacant lots and dumps, posing risks to the population health and the environment. Soils are the primary means for the disposal or recycling of waste, highlighting the importance of well-characterized soils and their respective landscape. This study aimed to establish a land suitability system for solid residues in civil construction and apply such information in a case study in Southeastern Brazil. An unprecedented digital soil map with a resolution of 30 m was created using the random forest classifier algorithm and soil field prospection information. A guide listing favorable soil-landscape attributes that most prevent soil erosion, water bodies or water table contamination was elaborated and discussed. Thus, such information was linked through a suitability system to classify areas with potential for receiving waste on a daily volume basis as follows: large size: >500 m³ day -1 , medium size: >100 m³ day -1 and <300 m³ day -1 , and small size <100 m³ day -1 . Topography and soil depth were the most limiting factors of the areas in the case study. The proposed attributes as criteria for the suitability system complement the current state legislation. A total of 236 ha closer to the urban perimeter connected by roads in good condition were classified as suitable for managing medium- and small-scale daily volume, whose destination might reduce transportation and installation costs in the study area.