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Search result: 232 articles
Case Reports |
2020/52 An employer cannot compel an employee, without notice, to take deferred annual leave (FR) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Paid Leave |
Authors | Claire Toumieux and Susan Ekrami |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Article |
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Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Applicable Law, Posting of Workers |
Authors | Gautier Busschaert and Pieter Pecinovsky |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This article focuses on the posting of workers in the aviation industry. The main problem is that it is not clear in which situations the Posting of Workers Directive should be applied to aircrew (i.e. cabin crew and pilots). The aviation sector is characterised by a very mobile workforce in which it is possible for employees to provide services from different countries in a very short timeframe. This makes it, to a certain extent, easier for employers to choose the applicable social legislation, which can lead to detrimental working conditions for their aircrew. This article looks into how the Posting of Workers Directive can prevent some air carriers from unilaterally determining the applicable social legislation and makes some suggestions to end unfair social competition in the sector. This article is based on a research report which the authors drafted in 2019 with funding from the European Commission (hereafter the ‘Report’) |
Rulings |
ECJ 14 October 2020, case C-681/18 (KG (Missions successives dans le cadre du travail intérimaire)), Temporary Agency WorkJH – v – KG, Italian case |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Temporary Agency Work |
Abstract |
Article 5(5) of Directive 2008/104 does not impose specific measures on Member States, but it does require that they take certain measures to reach its aim. |
Article |
Digital Equals PublicAssembly Meetings Under a Lockdown Regime |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | COVID-19 regulation, temporary legislation, sunset clauses, digitalization, digital democracy, local democracy, experimental legislation |
Authors | Lianne van Kalken and Evert Stamhuis |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In this article we examine the Dutch emergency legislation for local democracy. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands, the Temporary Act for digital meetings for local/regional government tiers was enacted. The legislature introduced a system of digital debate and decision-making for municipal and provincial councils, the democratically elected assemblies at the local and regional levels. At the same time the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations set up an evaluation committee to monitor and evaluate the working of the local and provincial governments with this temporary legislation. |
Editorial |
Are Emergency Measures in Response to COVID-19 a Threat to Democracy? |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 4 2020 |
Authors | Franklin De Vrieze and Constantin Stefanou |
Author's information |
Article |
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Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | coronavirus, emergency law, emergency powers, autocratization, democratic deconsolidation, state of emergency, rule of law, transparency, accountability, legislative scrutiny |
Authors | Joelle Grogan |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The measures taken in response to the coronavirus pandemic have been among the most restrictive in contemporary history, and have raised concerns from the perspective of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Building on a study of the legal measures taken in response to pandemic in 74 countries, this article considers the central question of the use of power during an emergency: is it better or worse for democracy and the rule of law to declare an emergency or, instead, to rely on ordinary powers and legislative frameworks? The article then considers whether the use of powers (ordinary or emergency) in response to the pandemic emergency has ultimately been a cause, or catalyst of, further democratic deconsolidation. It concludes on a note of optimism: an emerging best practice of governmental response reliant on public trust bolstered by rationalized and transparent decision-making and the capacity to adapt, change and reform measures and policies. |
Article |
Emergency Measures in Response to the Coronavirus Crisis and Parliamentary Oversight in the EU Member States |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | states of emergency, parliamentary oversight, health crisis, Covid-19, European Union Member States |
Authors | Maria Diaz Crego and Silvia Kotanidis |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Covid-19 pandemic has become a true stress test for the legal systems of the worst hit countries. Faced with a health crisis situation, many national governments have become the protagonists in the adoption of difficult measures severely restricting their citizens fundamental rights to the detriment of the powers usually entrusted to the national parliaments. This article examines the normative response of the 27 European Union Member States during the “first wave” of the Covid-19 pandemic, a period that runs from the declaration of a pandemic (March 2020) to mid-June 2020. The intention of the authors was to describe the legal and constitutional mechanisms activated in order to contain the pandemic, focusing on the role of national parliaments in the management of the crisis. This article explores also the degree to which national parliaments have been involved and could exercise parliamentary oversight over the normative measures used by the executive to contain the pandemic in the EU-27. |
Article |
Governments as Covid-19 Lawmakers in France, Italy and SpainContinuity or Discontinuity |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Covid-19, emergency legislation, executive lawmaking, parliaments, decree-laws and ordinances |
Authors | Elena Griglio |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Executive dominance in Covid-19 lawmaking has been a major trend worldwide. Governments have leveraged emergency prerogatives to boost their legislative powers, often sidelining the role of parliaments. The impact of executive lawmaking on fundamental liberties has been unprecedented. However, government’s capacity to exercise full legislative powers is not absolutely new to many European countries. |
Article |
Legislative Scrutiny in Times of EmergencyA Case Study of Australian Parliaments |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | legislative scrutiny, sunset clauses, emergency laws, virtual parliament, parliamentary committee, trust |
Authors | Hon Kate Doust MLC and Mr Sam Hastings |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Citizens’ trust in Australian governments and parliaments has fallen in recent years, yet trust is critical for governments to do their job effectively and attack challenging issues. The coronavirus pandemic provides an opportunity for governments and parliaments to bridge the gap between citizens’ expectations and parliamentary and government performance and therefore rebuild trust. In doing so, parliaments need to balance their desire for speedy action with proportionate measures and mechanisms for review. |
Article |
Covid-19 Emergency Prison Release Policy: A Public Health Imperative and a Rule of Law Challenge |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | emergency prison release, rule of law, democracy, reducing prison overcrowding, prisoner rights, appropriate sanctions for white collar criminals, alternatives to custodial sentences |
Authors | Victoria Jennett |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Many countries are implementing emergency releases of people from prison to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. Such measures, while critical to public health, can enable the unjust release from prison of politically connected and wealthy individuals convicted of corruption offences, thereby undermining the rule of law and democratic values by weakening public trust in the justice system. To reduce overcrowding of prisons while ensuring that white-collar criminals are appropriately sanctioned, one strategy is to impose alternatives to custodial sentences that ensure appropriate sanctioning of convicted criminals while de-densifying prisons – an approach that could be considered for non-emergency times as well. |
Article |
Patience, LadiesGender-Sensitive Parliamentary Responses in a Time of Crisis |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | gender sensitivity, parliament, responsiveness, COVID-19, democracy, women |
Authors | Sonia Palmieri and Sarah Childs |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In early 2020, in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, numerous parliaments played their rightful democratic role by following the advice of health and economic experts and swiftly passing emergency legislation and relief packages. This was, in many countries, an attempt to reach an equilibrium between saving lives and saving economic livelihoods, on the understanding that both were in serious jeopardy. In the face of public health measures many parliaments also found themselves having to reform their own rules, procedures and practices. In both cases – policy interventions and institutional redesign – it appears that parliamentary responses to the Covid-19 situation were less commonly based on the advice of gender experts or informed by considerations of gender inequalities. Few, if any, emergency packages were designed following a systematic consideration of existing, deeply entrenched gender inequalities, despite continuous public analysis and commentary about the disproportionate gender impacts of the pandemic and the resulting lockdowns; and no parliaments instituted (temporary) rule changes that prioritized the voices of women parliamentarians or constituents. In this article, which draws on our work drafting the UN Women Covid-19 Parliamentary Primer & Checklist, we revisit the democratic case for gender-sensitive parliaments, highlighting their particular relevance to the 2020 pandemic. We introduce our model for gender-sensitive crisis responses across four key stages of the parliamentary process presented in the Primer – representation, deliberation, legislation and scrutiny – and offer an initial assessment of what transpired in the world’s parliaments based on an IPU survey. We suggest that if parliaments are to be gender-sensitive institutions in times of crisis, they must not only change how they do politics but also develop and sustain a robust political culture that values gender equality and an ethic of caring that supports new rules, procedures and practices that better redress institutional gender deficiencies. |
Article |
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Journal | Erasmus Law Review, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Migration, EU migration law, time |
Authors | Gerrie Lodder |
AbstractAuthor's information |
States apply different material conditions to attract or restrict residence of certain types of migrants. But states can also make use of time as an instrument to design more welcoming or more restrictive policies. States can apply faster application procedures for desired migrants. Furthermore, time can be used in a more favourable way to attract desired migrants in regard to duration of residence, access to a form of permanent residence and protection against loss of residence. This contribution makes an analysis of how time is used as an instrument in shaping migration policy by the European Union (EU) legislator in the context of making migration more or less attractive. This analysis shows that two groups are treated more favourably in regard to the use of time in several aspects: EU citizens and economic- and knowledge-related third-country nationals. However, when it comes to the acquisition of permanent residence after a certain period of time, the welcoming policy towards economic- and knowledge-related migrants is no longer obvious. |
Article |
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Journal | Erasmus Law Review, Issue 3 2020 |
Keywords | Positive obligations, sexual minorities, sexual orientation, European law, human rights |
Authors | Alina Tryfonidou |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This article seeks to examine the development of positive obligations under European law in the specific context of the rights of sexual minorities. It is clear that the law should respect and protect all sexualities and diverse intimate relationships without discrimination, and for this purpose it needs to ensure that sexual minorities can not only be free from state interference when expressing their sexuality in private, but that they should be given the right to express their sexuality in public and to have their intimate relationships legally recognised. In addition, sexual minorities should be protected from the actions of other individuals, when these violate their legal and fundamental human rights. Accordingly, in addition to negative obligations, European law must impose positive obligations towards sexual minorities in order to achieve substantive equality for them. The article explains that, to date, European law has imposed a number of such positive obligations; nonetheless, there is definitely scope for more. It is suggested that European law should not wait for hearts and minds to change before imposing additional positive obligations, especially since this gives the impression that the EU and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) are condoning or disregarding persistent discrimination against sexual minorities. |
Article |
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Journal | Erasmus Law Review, Issue 3 2020 |
Keywords | prejudice, soft paternalism, empathy, liberalism, employment discrimination, access to goods and services |
Authors | Ioanna Tourkochoriti |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This article argues that it is legitimate for the state to practice soft paternalism towards changing hearts and minds in order to prevent behaviour that is discriminatory. Liberals accept that it is not legitimate for the state to intervene in order to change how people think because ideas and beliefs are wrong in themselves. It is legitimate for the state to intervene with the actions of a person only when there is a risk of harm to others and when there is a threat to social coexistence. Preventive action of the state is legitimate if we consider the immaterial and material harm that discrimination causes. It causes harm to the social standing of the person, psychological harm, economic and existential harm. All these harms threaten peaceful social coexistence. This article traces a theory of permissible government action. Research in the areas of behavioural psychology, neuroscience and social psychology indicates that it is possible to bring about a change in hearts and minds. Encouraging a person to adopt the perspective of the person who has experienced discrimination can lead to empathetic understanding. This, can lead a person to critically evaluate her prejudice. The paper argues that soft paternalism towards changing hearts and minds is legitimate in order to prevent harm to others. It attempts to legitimise state coercion in order to eliminate prejudice and broader social patterns of inequality and marginalisation. And it distinguishes between appropriate and non-appropriate avenues the state could pursue in order to eliminate prejudice. Policies towards eliminating prejudice should address the rational and the emotional faculties of a person. They should aim at using methods and techniques that focus on persuasion and reduce coercion. They should raise awareness of what prejudice is and how it works in order to facilitate well-informed voluntary decisions. The version of soft paternalism towards changing minds and attitudes defended in this article makes it consistent with liberalism. |
Article |
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Journal | Erasmus Law Review, Issue 3 2020 |
Keywords | Transformative pedagogy, equality legislation, promotion of equality, law reform, using law to change hearts and minds |
Authors | Anton Kok, Lwando Xaso, Annalize Steenekamp e.a. |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In this article, we focus on how the education system can be used to promote equality in the context of changing people’s hearts and minds – values, morals and mindsets. The duties contained in the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 (‘Equality Act’) bind private and public schools, educators, learners, governing bodies and the state. The Equality Act calls on the state and all persons to promote substantive equality, but the relevant sections in the Equality Act have not been given effect yet, and are therefore currently not enforceable. We set out how the duty to promote equality should be concretised in the Equality Act to inter alia use the education system to promote equality in schools; in other words, how should an enforceable duty to promote equality in schools be fashioned in terms of the Equality Act. Should the relevant sections relating to the promotion of equality come into effect in their current form, enforcement of the promotion of equality will take the form of obliging schools to draft action plans and submit these to the South African Human Rights Commission. We deem this approach inadequate and therefore propose certain amendments to the Equality Act to allow for a more sensible monitoring of schools’ duty to promote equality. We explain how the duty to promote equality should then play out practically in the classroom to facilitate a change in learners’ hearts and minds. |
Article |
The Windrush ScandalA Review of Citizenship, Belonging and Justice in the United Kingdom |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 3 2020 |
Keywords | Windrush generation, statelessness, right to nationality, genocide, apologetic UK Human Rights Act Preamble |
Authors | Namitasha Goring, Beverley Beckford and Simone Bowman |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This article points out that the UK Human Rights Act, 1998 does not have a clear provision guaranteeing a person’s right to a nationality. Instead, this right is buried in the European Court of Human Rights decisions of Smirnova v Russia, 2003 and Alpeyeva and Dzhalagoniya v. Russia, 2018. In these cases, the Court stretched the scope of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, 1953 on non-interference with private life by public authorities to extend to nationality. The humanitarian crisis arising from the Windrush Scandal was caused by the UK Government’s decision to destroy the Windrush Generation’s landing cards in the full knowledge that for many these slips of paper were the only evidence of their legitimate arrival in Britain between 1948 and 1971. |
Article |
Building Legislative FrameworksDomestication of the Financial Action Task Force Recommendations |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 3 2020 |
Keywords | domestication, legislative processes, functionality, efficacy |
Authors | Tshepo Mokgothu |
AbstractAuthor's information |
As the international financial framework develops it has brought with it dynamic national legislative reforms. The article establishes how the domestication of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations directly affects national legislative processes as the FATF mandate does not have due regard to national legislative drafting processes when setting up obligations for domestication. The article tests the FATF Recommendations against conventional legislative drafting processes and identifies that, the proposed structures created by the FAFT do not conform to traditional legislative drafting processes. Due regard to functionality and efficacy is foregone for compliance. It presents the experience of three countries which have domesticated the FATF Recommendations and proves that the speed at which compliance is required leads to entropic legislative drafting practices which affects harmonisation of national legislation. |
Pending Cases |
Case C-40/20, Fixed-term WorkAQ, BO, CP – v – Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca – MIUR, Università degli studi di Perugia, reference lodged by the Consiglio di Stato (Italy) on 27 January 2020 |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Fixed-term Work |
Article |
Interstate Cooperation and Why a Horizontal Treaty Would Make a Difference for ICC Investigations |
Journal | African Journal of International Criminal Justice, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | cooperation framework, Draft Articles, international criminal law, International Criminal Court, interstate cooperation |
Authors | George William Mugwanya |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity contain an obligation to implement an interstate cooperation regime. This article argues that although this regime is ‘horizontal’, it also has the potential to enhance the efficacy of investigations by the International Criminal Court (ICC). It provides a brief overview of the regime as set out in the Draft Articles, and the ICC’s cooperation regime, before exploring how the Draft Articles can fill some gaps in the ICC system. It also makes suggestions to improve the Draft Articles and strengthen the cooperation regime. |
Article |
ILC Report on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity and Enforced Disappearance |
Journal | African Journal of International Criminal Justice, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | enforced disappearance, without prejudice clause, Draft Articles, crimes against humanity, commentaries |
Authors | Claudio Grossman |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This article values as an important milestone the Draft Articles on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity. They greatly contribute to the development of international law, inter alia, seeking to prevent impunity and to establish the duty to prosecute or extradite those who have allegedly committed crimes against humanity. They are a solid basis for a possible diplomatic conference designed to adopt a convention that will establish binding obligations for all ratifying States. The Draft Articles took as a point of departure the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to list and define crimes against humanity, and, considering current developments in international law, departed from the Rome Statute so far in two matters: the definition of gender and the treatment of persecution. This article argues why it is essential to follow a similar approach and adopt the definition of enforced disappearance currently used in international conventions that deal with such a horrendous crime. The article also shows why the ‘without prejudice’ clause currently proposed by the Draft Articles is unsatisfactory, depriving States that do not follow the restrictive definition incorporated more than two decades ago in the Rome Statute from the benefits of the proposed convention. |