The present paper analyzes the impacts of judicial activism on public policies. First, it studies constitutionalism under the prism of social rights; then, the different doctrinal currents regarding the role played by the Judiciary Branch aroun social rights. Here concept of judicial activism is scrutinized and after, concrete cases before the Federal Supreme Court of...
Tag: <span>WEDNESDAY JUNE 27 2018 10:45 AM – 12:15 PM</span>
New technologies as an instrument for citizen engagement and enforcing the participatory dimension of the democratic principle
The incorporation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into politics introduced fundamental changes to democratic societies and new formats in the relationship between citizens and elected officials, allowing a rekindling of their interactions. New technologies enable faster and easier communication and governments have been moving towards an Internet of Things (IoT) based framework, enabling citizen...
Neoliberal and Welfare Interpretation of Social Development and Global Crisis
This paper deals with neoliberal and welfare conception of social development as dominant but mutually contrasted ones in contemporary political debates, and as crucial ones for interpreting global crisis. Their basic differences concern relation between state and economics in modern capitalism, with essential implications for an issue of actual global crisis. Policies based on one...
National parliaments and information asymmetries in the European Semester
This paper analyses information asymmetries in relevant procedures in the European Semester. The paper seeks to map the consequences for parliaments’ standing and provide a contribution on the role of parliaments for checks of executive institutions in issues of finance in light of the many changes driven by the economic and financial crisis. Several measures...
National Security and Human Rights in the Courtroom
Does Australian law provide any tangible protection for human rights in the context of national security cases? For better or worse, human rights and national security are often portrayed as two social aims locked in an inevitable tug-of-war. In Australian courtrooms, basic rights to procedural fairness, legal counsel, proportionate punishment and so on have been...
National Security Concerns in Trade Disputes: An Analysis of Art. XXI (b) (iii) GATT
The paper elaborates on a legal issue of the GATT which has remained essentially unsolved so far: the security exceptions of Art. XXI (b) (iii) GATT and its potentially abusive application in trade-related conflicts between WTO Members. The invocation of Art. XXI (b) (iii) GATT regularly results from political reluctance to international cooperation and is...
Militarization by Infra-constitutional Means: How the Mexican Supreme Court Paved the way for the Ley de Seguridad Interior and How It Should Invalidate It
In December 2017, President Peña enacted the Law of internal security. It empowers the military to counter any threat to internal security, including organized crime. Article 129 of the Constitution forbids the military, during peacetime, to perform any functions not linked to military affairs. Moreover, social movements and NGO‘s have argued that militarization failed. Also,...
Privacy, Data Protection and National Security: The EU-Canada PNR Agreement Before the CJEU
This analysis examines the balance between the right to privacy and national security, as framed in Opinion 1/15 of the CJEU on the draft agreement between Canada and the European Union dealing with the transfer of PNR data. Moving from this case-study and taking into account previous landmark judgments on personal data (Digital Rights Ireland,...
Pre-legislative authorisation of interception of communication – a genealogy of the warrant
This archival study of the interception warrant offers a history of a secret governmental practice. Despite the lack of a coherent archival record of interception warrants, some traces remain. They reveal the changing organisational structure in which secret surveillance was operationalised. Moreover, recurrent memos and policy notes reveal the organisational steps taken to preserve official...
Poly-parenting
A handful of jurisdictions (California and Canada) have recently passed laws that allow a child to have three or four legal parents; other jurisdiction have reached similar results through judicial decisions. This paper considers legal and philosophical arguments for and against “poly-parenting“ and suggests that these recent laws make good public policy sense for various...