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This paper aims to bring the reader closer to the issue of the loss of opportunity doctrine in its application to the fi eld of late diagnosis. Despite its growing popularity, due to the specialty of the subject, it is a great unknown to most legal operators. As a result, they are often in doubt as to whether any delay constitutes malpractice, as to what requirements are necessary to apply this doctrine or what steps should be taken to quantify the compensation to which the victim of the damage is entitled to. All these questions are dealt with at this paper from a practical point of view and connected to the reality of our courts, because this approach is essential to deal with such a highly casuistic matter as this one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supreme Court judgment no. 1692/2020 of 10 December 2020 has set a precedent on the limits to substantial modifications of port concessions. This paper takes a first glance at this figure's regulation taking into consideration the Supreme Court's conclusions and principles. This precedent confirms the singularity of the concession modification regulation established in the Spanish ports law, as it is not governed by the same rules and principles as public contracting regulations. In fact, the purpose of a concession can be modified if, following the modification, it is still "recognisable" as compared to the originally awarded concession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human dignity is a central value in all legal traditions. It also plays an essential role in the universal and regional protection of human rights. This paper recovers Kantian classic treatment of dignity and offers a contemporary reading that will help us to deal with current problems. The jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights uses the idea of human dignity to justify many of its decisions. The Latin American democracies, in spite of some fragilities inherited from their recent turbulent history, show strength and importance of dignity for guarantee of human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the aims of this study is to analyze the relationship between Law and morality through Eugenio Bulygin and Robert Alexy who could be considered two of the most important legal theorists and legal philosophers. First, the paper considers characteristics of the fundamental features of the controversy between Law and morality. Then, the focus turns to Alexy's non-positivist thesis about the argument of the claim of correctness as a necessary element of the Law and his arguments in favor of a connection between Law and morality. Next, on the contrary, Bulygin, a positivist, emphasizes the separation between Law and morality. Criticisms formulated by Eugenio Bulygin affirm the conception of the Law as a purely descriptive and non-evaluative science, in addition to an ethical skepticism. Undoubtedly some of the characteristics of Alexy's and Bulygin's philosophies and some of their writings on legal philosophy have caused frequent questioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on a requirement of self-defense, the second legally stated in article 20.4.° penal code, which to this day is still not peaceful as to whether the rational need of the means used to prevent or repel illegitimate aggression must be interpreted (or not) according to the principle of proportionality. From this perspective, after offering a brief review of jurisprudence and scientific doctrine in this regard, the key aspects are analysed to determine the rationality of defence, among which the examination of the principle of least harmfulness and the criteria to assess such rationality. Finally, an approach is made to those cases in which the defense is irrational for breach of the analyzed requirement and that technically give rise to the appearance of the figure called intensive or own excess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Article 31.1 of the Spanish Constitution states that everyone must contribute to sustaining public expenditure in proportion to their ability to pay. Over the last forty years, this duty has given rise to many judgments of the Constitutional Court in which it analyses the different functions that the ability to pay principle carries out in our tax system and its double-faceted nature as both a right and duty. This paper intends to review that jurisprudence in order to lay out the limitations of the ability to pay principle and the impossibility of using it as the only reference when interpreting the tax rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a work in progress, dealing with property rights regarding the human body. This paper tackles conceptions of property, and approaches the possibility of considering the human body or its parts as such. If this is indeed the case, as is suggested by some decisions of the jurisprudence of a number of different countries, we have to ask about the rights of individuals whose bodies were the origin of these properties. What exact entitlements should these people have, and what are the possible consequences of these entitlements becoming legally recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to highlight the dialectical tension between the recognition of reproductive rights as human rights and, therefore, underpinned by the principle of universality, and the progressive and growing widening of the margin of appreciation that European Court of Human Rights is recognizing to the Member States in order to allow the access to the assisted reproductive technologies. This case-law tendency to expand the space for national manoeuver seems to be consolidated after the adoption in 2013 of Protocol No. 15 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which for the first time states the jurisprudential doctrine of the margin, and after the recent ECtHR judgment of 24 January 2017 concerning the case Paradiso and Campanelli versus Italy. Contrary to this position, we advocate for the redressing of the current derivation of ECtHR jurisprudence, narrowing the national margin of appreciation in order to avoid undesirable effects such as the ambiguity and unpredictability of ECtHR case-law and reproductive elitism. From this perspective, we clearly defend a harmonization of minimum common standards for access to assisted reproduction techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal Scholars have not paid much attention to the study of concept formation as a method of legal construction. This paper represents an attempt to analyze concepts as a methodological tool that leads to distinguish between different methodological units of legal abstract thinking and to define dogmatic concepts, as an autonomous category. From this category some keys for the formation of this kind of concepts are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]