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Contributors are: Mark D. Rosen, Jorge M. Farinacci-Fernós, Justin Collings, Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, Cem Tecimer, Ángel Aday Jiménez Alemán, Ana Beatriz Robalinho, Keigo Obayashi, Zoltán Szente, Shih-An Wang, and Diego Werneck Arguelhes.
Contributors are: Mark D. Rosen, Jorge M. Farinacci-Fernós, Justin Collings, Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, Cem Tecimer, Ángel Aday Jiménez Alemán, Ana Beatriz Robalinho, Keigo Obayashi, Zoltán Szente, Shih-An Wang, and Diego Werneck Arguelhes.
Part One explores the religious practice and persecution nexus, COVID-19’s effect on religious freedom, religious education, burqas/headscarves, and religious culture in civil law. Part Two explores the constitutional principle of secularism in Member States of the Council of Europe, US Religious Clauses, and religious freedom in South Africa, UK, Australia, and India.
Part One explores the religious practice and persecution nexus, COVID-19’s effect on religious freedom, religious education, burqas/headscarves, and religious culture in civil law. Part Two explores the constitutional principle of secularism in Member States of the Council of Europe, US Religious Clauses, and religious freedom in South Africa, UK, Australia, and India.
Abstract
This article investigates the formal and informal factors behind the persistence of judicial oligarchies in post-communist countries despite large-scale reforms. This case study on Georgia reveals that formal positions of power in these judiciaries can be monopolized by a close-knit group, with a handful of influential judges (i.e. judicial oligarchs) at the top of its hierarchical structure. Drawing on in-depth interviews with sitting as well as former judges and other stakeholders of reform processes, the article attributes the failure to dismantle the rule of judicial oligarchs at least partly to legislative flaws and loopholes. More importantly, it warns about the reliance of judicial oligarchs on informal rules and practices to undermine formal rules and procedures meant to facilitate the meaningful participation of all judges in governing the judiciary. It uncovers informal mechanisms allowing the network of powerful judges to suppress the emergence of competing judicial networks and cement itself into leadership positions. Finally, the article reflects on the implications of these findings for designing and implementing judicial reforms in Georgia and beyond.
Abstract
This article addresses the issue of rights consciousness in the context of the Hungarian legal culture. The paper first elaborates the theoretical and conceptual framework, then it describes the research design used for the empirical investigation. The empirical section of the article presents the findings about the Hungarian empirical analysis on rights consciousness with some comparative remarks, and then it reflects on the historically shaped socio-legal embeddedness of rights consciousness patterns in Hungary. In conclusion, the paper points out that the apparent broadening of rights consciousness as a normative pattern may counterbalance the widespread legal alienation rooted in the state Socialist past. Whether this transformation may mitigate the recent autocratic power aspirations is still an open question.
Abstract
This article examines the landmark Aliev case decided by the Russian Constitutional Court in 2020. In this case, the Constitutional Court was expected to determine whether jurors must be prohibited from testifying about the outside influence they were subjected to during deliberation. The paper discusses what is right and wrong with the Constitutional Court’s judgment and assesses the quality of its argumentation. The paper explores how the Constitutional Court’s approach compares and contrasts with other countries’ approaches and briefly outlines the structure of legislative reforms that need to be undertaken in Russia in the light of foreign experience. Overall, the author concludes that the integrity of jurors in Russia should be protected not by enabling jurors to testify at their discretion but by strengthening their legal immunity, which will strike an optimal balance between competing constitutional values.