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European Journal of Law Reform

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Issue 1, 2014 Expand all abstracts
Article

Access_open The Values of the European Union Legal Order

Constitutional Perspectives

Keywords European Union, constitutional values, jurisprudence, rule of law, treaty objectives
Authors Timothy Moorhead
AbstractAuthor's information

    At the heart of the European Union legal order lie values directed collectively to the idea of European integration. As a body with significant governmental and lawmaking powers, the Union also presents itself as an institution based upon the rule of law. The Union ‘constitution’ therefore expresses both regulatory powers direct­ed towards European integration as well as rule of law principles whose scope of application is limited by the terms of the Treaties. In this article I consider how this distinctive amalgam of values operates as a constitution for the European Union, by comparison with domestic constitutional values within the Member States. I also consider how Union constitutional demands condition and inform the legal practices of the Court of Justice. Here I identify the interpretive effects of superior Union laws –‍ the core Treaty objectives as well as rule of law principles found within the General Principles ‍– as of particular significance in developing the legal influences of the entire Union project of integration.


Timothy Moorhead
Associate Lecturer, University of Kent.
Article

Access_open Negligent Prosecution

Why Pirates Are Wreaking Havoc on International Trade and How to Stop It

Keywords piracy, shipping, maritime law, universal jurisdiction, Somalia
Authors Justin Boren
AbstractAuthor's information

    The standard of living throughout the world has been on the rise thanks in large part to perhaps the greatest advance in the last hundred years: international trade performed by maritime traffic. Despite modern advances in shipping practice, the centuries-old problem of piracy has once again threatened advancement of international trade. Although piracy is not limited to a geographical area, the Horn of Africa has received much attention of late owing to a resurgence of pirate attacks. Using the failed state of Somalia as a base, pirates off the Horn of Africa have found piracy to be an extremely lucrative business in a part of the world ravished by famine, poverty and ongoing wars. This article calls for nations the world over to invoke universal jurisdiction and grant to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany, exclusive jurisdiction over claims of piracy. In doing so, the international community will no longer turn a blind eye to a crime that affects all nations equally.


Justin Boren
J.D. Candidate May 2014, Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Indianapolis, IN.
Article

Access_open Judicial Case Management and the Complexities of Competing Norms Occasioned by Law Reforms

The Experience in Respect of Criminal Proceedings in Botswana

Keywords case management, Botswana, criminal proceedings, law reform, subpoena
Authors Rowland J.V. Cole
AbstractAuthor's information

    The Botswana judicial and legal system has undergone a wave of reforms over the past few years. These reforms include judicial case management, which was introduced to reduce unnecessary delays and backlog in the hearing of cases. The introduction of judicial case management necessitates a revision of the rules of court. While the rules of the courts principally relate to civil proceedings, criminal proceedings are principally regulated by the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act. However, the revised rules of court contain provisions that seek to bring criminal proceedings in line with judicial case management. A number of these provisions are inconsistent with the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act. This presents problems for the implementation of these rules as the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act is superior to the rules in the hierarchy of laws. Consequently, the implementation of judicial case management in criminal proceedings may prove to be an arduous task, and urgent harmonisation of the competing provisions is required.


Rowland J.V. Cole
LLB (Hons) (Sierra Leone), LLM (UNISA), LLD (Stell), Senior Lecturer, Department of Law, University of Botswana.
Article

Access_open The Costs and Consequences of US Drug Prohibition for the Peoples of Developing Nations

Keywords U.S. drug policy, drug prohibition, War on Drugs, human rights, U.N. Declaration on the Right to Development
Authors J. Michael Blackwell
AbstractAuthor's information

    The widespread production and use of illicit drugs is a social phenomenon carrying enormous social, economic, and political significance. The United States stands as a vocal and forceful proponent of prohibitionist drug controls in international policymaking. However, strictly enforced US prohibitionist drug controls largely fail to effectively reduce the consumption of narcotic drugs and ultimately create a significant number of negative consequences for many peoples throughout the world. The increased violence, government corruption and community sequestration that result from the war against drugs are deleterious to economic development among rural communities in drug producing countries. In response to these concerns, this article examines the purpose, effects and consequences of the prohibitive drug controls routinely employed by the United States. Special attention is paid to an oft-overlooked repercussion of prohibitive drug controls: the marginalisation of developmental human rights for peoples in drug producing countries.


J. Michael Blackwell
J.D. candidate, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, 2013; A special thanks to family, friends and Dr. Frank Emmert for guidance and support.
Article

Access_open Implementation of Better Regulation Measures in the Internal Security Draft Legislation

The Case of Estonia

Keywords better regulation, internal security policy, impact assessment, participation, Estonia
Authors Aare Kasemets and Annika Talmar-Pere
AbstractAuthor's information

    The article analyses the implementation of better regulation measures in the internal security (IS) strategies, draft legislation and administrative routines of the Estonian Ministry of the Interior. The article includes the results of five substudies: (a) the research problem emerged from the studies of the explanatory memoranda of draft laws 2004-2009 according to which the Ministry has some deficiencies in fulfilling the better regulation requirements; (b) mapping of better regulation and internal security policy concepts; (c) content analysis of Estonian IS strategy documents; (d) systematization of Estonian IS laws; and (e) sociological e-survey of officials. Theoretical framework integrates the concepts of institutional theory, discursive democracy, realistic legisprudence and the adaptive strategic management.The main conclusions drawn by the article are as follows: the analysis of the knowledge of draft legislation and the excessive amount of laws in the IS field gives evidence of a lack of systematic regulatory impact assessment (IA); the concept of better regulation is not integrated into IS policy documents (insufficient planning and budgeting of IA); and a sociological e-survey of the officials of the Ministry indicates discontent with the management of the IA of policies and draft legislation. According to institutional analysis, this shows readiness for changes in the context of risk society challenges and adaptation with budgetary contractions.


Aare Kasemets
Estonian Academy of Security Sciences. Email: aare.kasemets@sisekaitse.ee.

Annika Talmar-Pere
Estonian Academy of Security Sciences.
Article

Access_open From a Soft Law Process to Hard Law Obligations

The Kimberley Process and Contemporary International Legislative Process

Keywords Kimberley Process, soft law, international law, legislative process
Authors Martin-Joe Ezeudu
AbstractAuthor's information

    Ever since its creation and coming into force in 2003, the Kimberley Process has elicited a number of academic commentaries coming from different backgrounds. Legal scholars who have contributed to the commentaries, simply projected the regulatory regime as an international soft law without further analysis, based on an evaluation of the text of the agreement. This article in contrast, explores its practical effects and the manner of obligations that it imposes on its participant countries. It argues that although the regime may have been a soft law by classification, its obligations are hard and are no different from those of a conventional treaty. Those obligations enhance its juridical force, and are a factor by which the regime on its own tends to nullify the traditional criteria for distinction between hard and soft law in international jurisprudence, because it has elements of both.


Martin-Joe Ezeudu
PhD (Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada); LLM (University of Birmingham, UK); LLB (Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria); Barrister & Solicitor, Nigeria; Solicitor, England & Wales. An articling student at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General (Legal Services Branch of the Ministry of Consumer Services), Toronto, Canada. I am grateful to Prof Ikechi Mgbeoji who introduced me to this line of research. My thanks to Mr Tom van der Meer for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. All errors and omissions remain mine. Dedicated to the loving memory of my brother, Chukwuemeka Innocent Ezeudu ‍–‍ a true brother and companion.
Article

Access_open A Thorny Path to the Spotlight

The Rule of Law Component in EU External Policies and EU-Ukraine Relations

Keywords rule of law, rule of law promotion, European Union, European Neighbourhood Policy, Ukraine
Authors Olga Burlyuk
AbstractAuthor's information

    The rule of law and its promotion abroad is currently at the core of EU external policies, specifically in the European neighbourhood. But has it always been the case? This article traces the rule of law component of EU external policies in general and EU–Ukraine relations as a case study, and reveals that in the last two decades the rule of law has followed a thorny path to the spotlight, emerging from a rather peripheral place in the 1990s to its currently central one. The article argues that this is a result of three processes: the legislative mainstreaming of the rule of law in the EU itself, the growing ambitiousness of EU–Ukraine relations, and the increased visibility of systemic shortcomings in rule of law application in Ukraine due to the trials of opposition politicians since 2010. The article concludes by suggesting that rule of law components of other EU bilateral relations in the European neighbourhood and beyond are subject to similar processes.


Olga Burlyuk
Recently awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations, Brussels School of International Studies, the University of Kent.
Article

Access_open Internet Trolling and the 2011 UK Riots

The Need for a Dualist Reform of the Constitutional, Administrative and Security Frameworks in Great Britain

Keywords UK riots, tort law, criminal law, dualism, Internet trolling
Authors Jonathan Bishop
Abstract

    This article proposes the need for ‘dualism’ in the legal system, where civil and criminal offences are considered at the same time, and where both the person complaining and the person responding are on trial at the same time. Considered is how reforming the police and judiciary, such as by replacing the police with legal aid solicitors and giving many of their other powers to the National Crime Agency could improve outcomes for all. The perils of the current system, which treats the accused as criminals until proven not guilty, are critiqued, and suggestions for replacing this process with courts of law that treat complainant and respondent equally are made. The article discusses how such a system based on dualism might have operated during the August 2011 UK riots, where the situation had such a dramatic effect on how the social networking aspects, such as ‘Internet trolling’, affected it.


Jonathan Bishop
Article

Access_open Strengthening Child Laws in Africa

Some Examples from the New Children’s Act of Angola

Keywords children’s rights, instruments, law reform, good practice examples, developments or advancements
Authors Aquinaldo Célio Mandlate
AbstractAuthor's information

    This article highlights some of the major contributions of the new Children’s Act of Angola (Act 25/12 of 22 August 2012) to the effect that they can be used to advance children’s rights in Africa. The article advocates that although the Angolan law is in many respects similar to other African children’s statutes, its drafters added certain remarkable aspects that can be utilised to advance children’s rights in other countries in the continent. In acknowledging these innovations and the need to strengthen child laws in Africa the contribution calls on African states to learn from the Angolan experience in their quest to advance children’s rights in their own jurisdictions. Other states are also encouraged to learn from the Angolan example.


Aquinaldo Célio Mandlate
Aquinaldo Célio Mandlate, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (UWC), LLD (Western Cape), LLM (Pretoria), is a practising lawyer registered with the Mozambican Bar Association. He also does consultancy works on several fields. His areas of interest include international human rights law, governance and rule of law, investment, corporate, tax law and banking regulations. Contact at aquinaldo101@gmail.com.
Article

Access_open Wrongful Testing and Its Lively Consequences

Keywords wrongful life, wrongful birth, comparative law, best interests of the child, balancing convictions
Authors W.Th. Nuninga
AbstractAuthor's information

    In this article a consecutive comparison will be made between the approaches taken towards wrongful birth and wrongful life cases in the Netherlands and in England and Wales. The systems will be evaluated in the light of the best interests of the child, the balance struck between all moral convictions involved, and legal fairness. It will be argued that the approach taken in the Netherlands is more favourable in most respects, but could improve the balance between all moral convictions involved and could enhance legal fairness by limiting the claim for material damages to costs associated with the disability of the child.


W.Th. Nuninga
W.Th. Nuninga is a Legal Research Master’s student at Utrecht University.