Our research on the operation of legal institutions related to the restriction of the legal capacity of adults (custodianship and supported decision-making) started in December 2019. Our present ...analysis of case law on custodianship and supported decision-making is based on cases published in the Collection of Court Decisions. The adoption of the new Hungarian Civil Code has clearly had a significant effect on the court decisions, as it made it compulsory to designate the categories of decisions to which a partial restriction on legal capacity applies. However, the change in regulation also implies a change of attitude that is considerably less apparent in the cases. In the context of international human rights expectations, any limitation of legal capacity should be applied as circumspectly as possible, and only in the most necessary cases. In the examined cases, the efforts of the Curia (the Hungarian Supreme Court) to reinforce this change of attitude in court practice may be detected but they are not extensive. At the same time, the spirit of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is not clearly reflected in court practice, and supported decision-making is not seen by courts as a real alternative to custodianship. Regarding the processes of the analyzed disputes, we found that the procedures in the published cases are relatively short, the higher courts in most cases upholding the decision of the lower courts, and that there is no legal or critical evaluation of any expert opinion. In a number of cases, the dominant function of custodianship is not the protection but the restriction of the rights of the given person and - against its declared goal - it serves to protect the interest of others. For example, property issues and the protection of the financial interests of family members are given priority in the published cases. In addition, there were several cases in which the authorities themselves sought to be ‘protected’ by limiting the capacity of the person to initiate official and judicial proceedings.
The study of constitutional courts (CCs) of post-communist Europe typically entailed the belief in CCs' transformative potential for the consolidation of democracy. Recently, this belief has been ...questioned, albeit the knowledge of why at least some CCs in the region failed to prevent the rise of non-democratic regimes remains limited. This article addresses this gap via the cases of Hungary and Slovakia, which have taken a different trajectory post-2010: the Slovak CC (SCC) remains an independent institution, while the Hungarian CC (HCC) has been packed by the executive. By combining contextual case law analysis of judgments referring to democracy and semi-structured interviews, the article shows that, during critical moments, the HCC did not perceive itself as responsible for Hungarian democracy, which resulted in its self-marginalisation. The SCC was largely spared from similarly critical moments, which, however, facilitated particular self-perceptions of its responsibility (or lack thereof). These findings offer empirical support for institutionalist scholarship that emphasizes the impact of ideas in calibrating the self-perceptions of political institutions and their positioning in the political system. Constitutional courts remain inseparable from the political regimes they are located in.
Multiparty constellations are on the rise in the labour market, and they can make the classification of contractual relationships exceedingly difficult. Recent case law on platform work provides an ...insight into the various problems resulting from this development. The article provides an overview of cases in which courts and/or administrative bodies across Europe were called upon to rule on platform workers’ rights in cases that involved relevant multi-party constellations. It establishes a typology of the different actors that have figured as defendants in cases on platform workers’ rights and explores the consequences for both procedural and material aspects. On the basis of these insights from case law, as well as a brief review of the European Parliament's suggestion of regulating subcontractor liability in the proposed directive on platform work, a number of regulatory implications are identified.
In this work we study, design, and evaluate computational methods to support interpretation of statutory terms. We propose a novel task of discovering sentences for argumentation about the meaning of ...statutory terms. The task models the analysis of past treatment of statutory terms, an exercise lawyers routinely perform using a combination of manual and computational approaches. We treat the discovery of sentences as a special case of ad hoc document retrieval. The specifics include retrieval of short texts (sentences), specialized document types (legal case texts), and, above all, the unique definition of document relevance provided in detailed annotation guidelines. To support our experiments we assembled a data set comprising 42 queries (26,959 sentences) which we plan to release to the public in the near future in order to support further research. Most importantly, we investigate the feasibility of developing a system that responds to a query with a list of sentences that mention the term in a way that is useful for understanding and elaborating its meaning. This is accomplished by a systematic assessment of different features that model the sentences’ usefulness for interpretation. We combine features into a compound measure that accounts for multiple aspects. The definition of the task, the assembly of the data set, and the detailed task analysis provide a solid foundation for employing a learning-to-rank approach.
While there is no European consensus on the most appropriate prostitution policies, in most European countries selling sex itself is not criminalised. Exceptions are most of the former ...communist/socialist countries of the Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including Croatia, where it is a misdemeanour/administrative offence against public order and peace, despite recommendations by human rights bodies to decriminalise sex workers. The legitimacy of protecting public order through criminalising selling sex has remained largely unchallenged and there is a lack of empirical studies examining the application of those provisions from a human rights perspective. This article addresses the gap and provides a human rights analysis of the case-law of the municipal misdemeanour courts in the two largest Croatian cities (Zagreb and Split), in the period from 2014 to 2019 concerning the offence of 'falling into prostitution'. We show how laws criminalising sex workers are not only ineffective, but are also harmful for public order. Not only does the indeterminacy of the offence and its different interpretations fail to fully respect the principle of legality, police and judicial practice show discrepancies with the human rights standards, which impacts primarily women in vulnerable situations, thus raising the questions of gender (in)equality and intersectional discrimination.
The Covid-19 narrative spotlights the necessity to conserve biological diversity (biodiversity) including ecosystems and wildlife. Biodiversity problems are global, and associated governance issues ...range beyond geographical and spatial boundaries. The globalisation and internationalisation of biodiversity concerns have resulted in the emergence of biodiversity legal frameworks designed to conserve and sustainably use our planet’s biological resources. As an “organic and evolving discipline,” biodiversity laws are increasingly important and affect the Earth’s natural systems that support human life. The article analyses the judicial space that makes, interprets and enforces laws that conserve and support the sustainable use of biodiversity. The proactive, creative judiciary, acting as amicus environment, has produced a major shift in the Indian environmental landscape. The use of public interest litigation (PIL) in both environmental and biodiversity matters is welcomed by the senior judiciary (Supreme Court and High Courts) and also by the specialised environmental tribunal, National Green Tribunal (NGT). The terminological reach of the popular descriptive words, environment, nature and ecology, on occasions including biodiversity, introduced matters litigated in the courts and tribunal. The combination of legal, scientific, and technical expertise in the three judicial fora recognize and consider conservation and protection of biodiversity as an inextricable part of life. The article follows the chronological path of biodiversity litigation, i.e. pre 1992–2002; then 2002–2010 and finally 2010–2020 and examines significant aspects of the three decades of biodiversity litigation.
The concept of human dignity is increasingly used in legal reasoning, albeit that we still lack a clear understanding of its function in that sphere. In European countries, its use is influenced by ...varying national and regional European applications in courts. This article conducts a theoretically oriented empirical analysis of the case law of the two supreme courts of Finland to canvass the use of human dignity in the argumentation of these courts. The analysis is based on 92 cases from the Supreme Administrative Court and 36 from the Supreme Court that refer to human dignity in the reasoning part of the judgement. Three different uses of human dignity in legal argumentation are recognised and defined: restrictive, enabling and compensatory. These uses are arguably also recognisable in other jurisdictions. However, the compensatory use of human dignity, in the context of tort law - in the form of damages for emotional suffering - in particular, appears not to have been extensively discussed before. The article argues that the different uses of human dignity in legal argumentation reflect many ideas traditionally connected with the concept. For example, the close connections between dignity and autonomy, and dignity and vulnerability, emerge from the case law.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a case study of a global challenge: the relationship between commercial development and the protection of eco-fragile systems particularly where ...river water is involved. It reviews and critiques the legal and political processes that underpinned the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010 in Delhi and the building of the accommodation Village on the floodplain of the river Yamuna. Design/methodology/approach - The paper covers the controversial modern history of the Yamuna river that runs through Delhi. The river is "dead" and has been subject to litigation concerning its usage and that of its flood plain. In particular, the controversy peaked prior to the CWG 2010 in Delhi and the required buildings associated with the games. The paper traces the history of the legal actions and the inter-related involvement of the various actors being the politicians, construction developers, the river bank dwellers and the local environmentalists. Close analysis is made of the statutory administrative procedures required for environmental clearance, the subsequent case law both in the High Court of Delhi and the Supreme Court of India. Additionally, usage is made of the media and its concerns over corrupt and negligent practices. Findings - The Indian judiciary in their willingness to promote the construction of the Village failed to apply its own environmental jurisprudence. There was a failure to "lift the veil" and review flawed administrative practices that violated governing statutes. National pride, time pressures, political support, economic interests and rapid urbanisation created a pressure that the courts could not challenge. It was left to investigative committees, after the Games had concluded, to expose these wrongdoings. Originality/value - The paper highlights the issue of the relationship of the courts and political and economic interests and how legally protected ecological interests are ignored.
Legal research is a time-consuming and complex task that requires a deep understanding of legal language and principles. To assist lawyers and legal professionals in this process, an AI-based legal ...assistance system can be developed that utilizes natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms. This system would be capable of conversing with clients, including lawyers or general users, and retrieving the most similar or matched laws related to the query given by the client. The retrieved laws would be ranked based on the number of hits and losses and retrieved according to their similarity. With the use of these algorithms, the system would be able to recognize pertinent terms, ideas, and connections among legal texts, which would be used to retrieve and rank the most pertinent laws. To evaluate the effectiveness of this system, an accuracy rate of over 80% has been achieved. This level of accuracy is significant as it reduces errors in legal research and improves the quality of legal advice. Overall, the proposed AI-based legal assistance system has the potential to revolutionize the legal industry and bring about significant positive impacts by providing fast, efficient, and accurate legal assistance. Further research could focus on developing additional features, such as case law analysis, contract review, and legal drafting, to improve the system's capabilities and expand its usefulness.
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