Genetic Identity: A Mereological Fallacy in the Law?
Genetic identity often differs from the established forms of cultural identity (ethnicity, gender, class, citizenship) or family law status. Over the past two decades, however, we can observe that genetic features have become more and more important elements of personal identity. Genetic testing and genetic screening, paternity testing and forensic identification have emerged as powerful...
Geographical Indication as National Identity
The identity of a nation can be determined from many things, one of them through geographical indication. Geographical indication is a sign indicating the origin of an item and / or product. As part of intellectual property rights, geographical indications can also be interpreted as the identity of a nation because the determining factors of...
Identity and Communitarian Constitutional Rights in Singapore
This paper presents a theory of an inclusive communitarian approach to constitutional rights that non-liberal, self-professed communitarian Singapore should adopt. Instead of prioritising the community over the individual and subjugating some identities to the collective will, the paper argues that, by adopting a pluralistic conception of ‘community’ as the communities that constitute our identity, a...
Legitimacy of identity claims in ‘free and democratic elections‘: A rule of law perspective.
Parliaments composition expresses the national identity. The establishment of grounds for access to Parliament is a considerable mechanism for shaping this identity. Traditionally, States enjoyed great latitude in establishing these grounds. Nowadays, while some grounds amount to blatant discriminations and are no longer tolerated in our societies (race, sex and religion), others are considered not...
Russia v ECtHR: protecting national identity using constitutional brakes
This paper builds heavily on Anchugov and Gladkov prisoner voting case – the Russian Constitutional Court‘s refusal to implement a decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) declaring prisoner voting ban contrary to the universal suffrage since the Constitution explicitly prohibited prisoner voting. This case is a result of Russian national measures designed...
The psychology of constitutional identity jurisprudence
Like other decision-making processes in which human beings are involved, judicial decision-making is subjected to certain biases that run counter the rationality assumption. A particularly visible and far-reaching example of this phenomenon can be found in the jurisprudence of domestic constitutional courts, particularly in the context of their interaction with the CJEU and with constitutional...