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The article explores the fundamental principles of law and the principle of social security for ensuring a decent standard of living for individuals, viewed through the lens of implementing foundational ideas that form the basis of the legal system. These ideas are reflected in the guiding requirements for shaping the foundations and legal values that ensure an individual's right to social security at a level that guarantees dignified living conditions. The emphasis is placed on the fact that everyone's right to social security, as a natural human right, is a category of subjective rights and, at the same time, aligns with the fundamental principles of law. The interconnection between the fundamental principles of law and the principle of social security ensuring a decent standard of living for individuals is reflected in a legal relationship, according to which: 1) the fundamental principles of law embody socially and genetically formed values, which, interacting with each other, form the basis for the general regulation of social relations, acquiring sectoral interpretation within social security legal relations; 2) the principle of social security ensuring a decent standard of living is a fundamental principle of the corresponding branch of law. It stems from the fundamental principles and serves as the foundation for the entire field of social security law, with its social-value orientations regarding the value of human dignity and its materialized standards for meeting social needs and achieving social well-being for indivi duals. The interaction between the principle of social security ensuring decent living conditions and the fundamental principles of law is reflected in the following: 1) the principle of humanism is based on the recognition of human dignity as an inherent natural and social value, emphasizing the fundamental nature of the right to social protection as an objectively social right; 2) the principle of the rule of law is characterized by the recognition that the right to social security is a defining factor and criterion for the state's activities aimed at guaranteeing and protecting human rights and freedoms. The realization of this right should take into account a reasonable balance between the interests of the individual and the state as guarantor; 3) the principle of freedom envisions the social self-realization of individuals, including the fulfilment of obligations in the field of social security, ensuring inclusivity and barrierfree access to the right to shape one's own social well-being; 4) the principle of equality prohibits any discriminatory restrictions that may affect the content and scope of an individual's right to social security; 5) the principle of justice/social justice is oriented towards the solidarity-based distribution of public funds allocated for social purposes, with the exclusive application of objective criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article clarifies the actual issues of non-application of the law by the court on the grounds of its contradiction with the Constitution of Ukraine, in particular: the historical evolution of the legislative regulation of the possibility of non-application of the norms of the law on the grounds of their contradiction with the Constitution; peculiarities of modern regulation of this issue and key problems that arise in practice; proposals for improving legislation and judicial practice. It was concluded that one of the most typical forms of direct application of the provisions of the Constitution, along with the possibility of applying the Constitution in the absence of legislative regulation, is the possibility of law enforcement contra legem, i.e. law enforcement contrary to the law due to its (law’s) inconsistency with the Constitution. The fundamental possibility of not applying a law that contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine directly follows from the idea of the supremacy of the Constitution of Ukraine, the recognition of its provisions as norms of direct effect, and, ultimately, from the principle of the rule of law. Another issue is that such an opportunity should have an adequate procedural form of its expression, as well as be organically combined with the activities of the body of constitutional jurisdiction, the specialized body of constitutional control-CCU. Historically, initially, Ukrainian legislation required a stay of proceedings in case of doubt about unconstitutionality, however, the legislation itself was contradictory and conflicting, which made such a stay almost impossible in practice. At the same time, there was an approach that in the absence of doubt, that is, when there is a clear certainty of the unconstitutionality of the application of contra legem, it is possible and no suspension of the proceedings is necessary. Such ideas were partially embodied in the 2017 reform, when courts in all types of proceedings, except for criminal ones, received an explicit opportunity not to apply the law, at the same time turning to the Supreme Court (assuming that the latter would later turn to the CCU). At the same time, there was the problem of motivating such a conclusion, the actual practice of appeals to the Supreme Court, the role of the Supreme Court itself (which sends relevant submissions very rarely). In addition, the experience of foreign countries proves the need for courts to interact with the constitutional court without intermediaries. In practice, significant concerns about the possibility of non-application of the law arise in the field of social rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, many legal problems have arisen in the field of education related to the activities of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The specified problems were exposed in 2024, directly during the 2024 admission campaign, when the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine interfered in the process of admission to higher educational institutions of students who declared their desire to study full-time and on a paid basis in postgraduate studies for obtaining the third (academic and scientific) level of higher education. In March 2024, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine adopted a new Procedure for admission to higher education in 2024, to which within four months during the admissions campaign more than ten amendments were performed. After that, in May 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine made new changes to the resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on training and certification of scientific-pedagogical and scientific personnel, which also changed the conditions for admission to educational institutions. Subsequently, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine established some features of acquiring and renewing the status of a higher education recipient in 2024, which limited access to education for a certain category. As a result of the mentioned activity, a confrontation escalated in Ukrainian society, where the students and rectors of higher educational institutions, accusing the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine of exceeding their powers, appeared on the one hand. On the other hand, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine arose, defending its reforms, referring to the existence of martial law in Ukraine and problems in the process of mobilizing students for war. Considering the above, there was a general need for legal studies of the legal conditions of educational activity through the prism of generally accepted human rights and freedoms including martial law conditions in Ukraine. This article is the first article from the cycle of research. It contains the results of a legal study of the principle of the supremacy of law in education during the military emergency in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After receiving the results of the first study from the cycle of research on the principle of the supremacy of law in education under military emergency, it turned out to be necessary to conduct the next study on the accessibility of education in Ukraine during the mentioned period. It is also associated with the activities of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, which in 2024 changed the rules for admission to higher educational institutions and limited access to education for those seeking education who declared their desire to study full-time and on a paid basis in postgraduate studies for obtaining the third (educational and scientific) level of higher education. The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, as has always been the case, defended its discriminatory reforms regarding the availability of education, referring to the introduction of a military emergency in Ukraine and problems in the process of mobilizing students for war. At the same time, access to education was limited both for paid education recipients (at their own expense) and for free education recipients (at the expense of state and local allocations). In turn, taking into account the fact that in Ukraine the system of grant education at the expense of scholarships from universities, philanthropists, and sponsors practically does not operate, this situation became a certain cataclysm in the field of education, which negatively affected both students (who began to go abroad en masse) and higher educational institutions. First of all, it is connected with depriving a number of young scientists of the opportunity to continue their research through postgraduate study, and secondly, with depriving higher educational institutions of income, the absence of which can lead such educational institutions to bankruptcy. As a result, the legality of the actions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine regarding restricting access to education became acute in Ukrainian society. This article is the second article from the cycle of research. It contains the results of a legal study of education accessibility during the military emergency in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the formal and substantive interrelationship between the principle of proportionality and modern constitutionalism, elucidating the essence of the phenomenon of constitutionalism through its characteristics and the role of the principle of proportionality in its establishment and development. Based on the works of domestic and foreign researchers on constitutionalism, it has been assumed that the key value and feature of modern constitutionalism is the limitation of state arbitrariness, the inadmissibility of unjustified interference (restriction) of human rights and freedoms, and the partnership relations between the individual and the state. This, in turn, must be guaranteed, ensured, measured, and evaluated by specific legal instruments, one of the most important and applicable of which is the principle of proportionality. The impact of the principle of proportionality on the development of constitutionalism is analyzed through its function and purpose, demonstrating the direct dependence of the exercise of state power based on the constitution and in accordance with the principle of the rule of law on the adherence to the principle of proportionality by public administration. The provision that real constitutionalism can only be discussed when all its values are considered and protected in the process of law-making and law enforcement, not at an abstract-formal level, but in each specific case of interference (restriction) of human rights, subjected to a consistent and structured proportionality test, has received further development. It is concluded that the principle of proportionality plays a key role in the development of modern constitutionalism. Considering the contemporary challenges faced by human rights and freedoms, it has been concluded that the principle of proportionality is the safeguard intended to protect human rights and freedoms by addressing questions regarding the legitimate aim of certain state actions, the necessity of such actions, the adequacy and relevance of the means chosen by the state to achieve such an aim, the balance between the potential benefit for public interests and the extent of the restriction of rights, etc., which is a crucial factor not only in ensuring but also in developing modern constitutionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is indicated that the key problem in the activity of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is ensuring the implementation of its decisions. Without solving this issue, it is impossible to guarantee the supremacy of the Constitution, the principle of separation of powers and the existence of an independent judicial branch of government as a separate institution. Ignoring the decisions of the constitutional control body undermines the very system of checks and balances, the authority of the Basic Law and the constitutional order in the country in general. These principles underlie the implementation of decisions of constitutional courts, the purpose of which is to ensure constitutional legality. In Ukraine, the mechanism for the implementation of the decisions of the Central Committee of Ukraine has already been developed in general, but there are problems related to the non-implementation of some of its decisions for a long time. Therefore, the task of further improvement of this mechanism and its proper legislative regulation remains relevant. The authors claim that Ukraine has already developed a mechanism for implementing decisions of the Constitutional Court. However, this system is not perfect, which is evidenced by the fact of non-execution of individual court decisions. Therefore, the issue of continuing the work on improving the existing mechanism for implementing decisions of the body of constitutional jurisdiction, securing it properly at the legislative level, remains urgent. At the same time, the problem of the quality of such execution comes to the fore, for the solution of which it is necessary to develop criteria for the effectiveness of the execution of court decisions, which will allow to assess the quality of the legal acts that are introduced and the work of the responsible entities. Both outlined problems definitely need further thorough scientific research. In addition, according to the authors, it should be noted that the issues of the legal nature of the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the criteria for the effective implementation of its decisions remain interacting categories and, therefore, require thorough scientific study. At the same time, clarifying the legal force of the Court’s legal positions is complicated by the lack of their legislative definition, by a certain difficulty in understanding the role and place of the body of constitutional jurisdiction in the system of state power. At the same time, the legal positions have a normative and mandatory character, reflected in the acts of the KSU. The need to ensure their immutability follows from the principles of legal certainty and stability of the Constitution. However, the possibility of revising some legal positions in connection with the change in the socio-political structure of the state is gaining relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines access to justice as an element of the rule of law in a modern democratic state. The issue of securing access to justice in the legislative practice of countries is detailed. Practice is analyzed, where access to justice is considered as an opportunity for any interested person to go to court without hindrance and participate in the legal process at all its stages. At the same time, it is emphasized that such access implies access to national and international justice systems. This significantly contributes to a person’s ability to defend himself against encroachments on his rights, compensation for damage caused by offenses and self-defense in criminal proceedings. It is proven that access to justice is increasingly included in the international and national practice of states and begins to occupy an important place in the organization and functioning of the judiciary. It is noted that today the concept of access to justice does not have a unified approach to its understanding in the circles of the scientific community. The development of this issue continues for a considerable period of time. Long-standing discussions give reasons to testify that access to justice is an extremely broad concept that can be distinguished as a separate concept, principle or right. It is emphasized that in this context it is extremely important to emphasize the mechanisms of human rights protection, that is, its application to those categories of the population that do not have the opportunity and resources to go to court. In view of this, it is extremely important to apply the principle of equality before the court in practice. This will make it possible to ensure equal access to the trial for all participants in the process. The international experience of access to justice and its generalization in legal practice is analyzed. It is noted that international law has singled out an important component of access to justice, which is the right to access international mechanisms for ensuring the protection of human rights. It is emphasized that the justice system can use the norms of international law, including anti-discrimination norms. The key in this process is ensuring access to justice, which is an important basis for the conclusion of international treaties and the effective functioning of international human rights organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue explores Latin America's recent wave of militarism across countries, the militarization of the rule of law, and its consequences on everyday life. It draws on the region's recent history of giving militarized responses to seemingly intractable social, political, and economical problems. We argue that the presence of military values, beliefs, and mentalities have permeated processes in which nations absorb and aspire to military practices, modes of organization, and martial discourses that require greater scholarly attention. The articles address a series of issues including various forms of militarism and the militarization of family, culture and education, diplomacy, policing, and public security in urban and rural settings. The contributions engage systematically with the roots of militarism and give evidence of militarization at the individual, national, and international levels, including a variety of case studies from across the Western Hemisphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hayek and Buchanan endorsed Böhm's "private law society" as expressive of the ideal of a government of laws, and not of men. But they also acknowledged that among the many, the enforceability of legal custom, adjudication, and legislation must be politically guaranteed by a state. Due to unavoidable state‐involvement, risks of excessive rent‐seeking and authoritarian arbitrary government loom large once "rules of rule change" enable sophisticated forms of ruling by law. Even if in WEIRDS (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Societies) legal rules are enacted, modified, and derogated exclusively according to legal "rules of rule change," the prevalence of the key attributes of "generality, certainty, and equality of enforcement" of the Rule of Law is in no way guaranteed. — The paper addresses this and the role, nature, and significance of constraining ruling by law through practicing the "political ideal of the Rule of Law". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2023 election in Poland brought to an end the rule of the Law and Justice (PiS) party. With an extraordinary turnout of 74%, the highest in recent Polish history, 13.2 million voters cast their vote in support of parties other than PiS, with four liberal-democratic parties alone attracting over 11.6 million votes. This shift indicates a departure from the period of selective demobilisation of the liberal-democratic camp and selective overmobilisation of the right-wing camp inclined to protect the traditional-religious world in decline. The campaign deviated from 'normal politics', focusing instead on the principles of constitutional democracy, as the 8-year PiS rule marked the erosion of the rule of law. The election itself, while free, was unfair and unequal, attributed to the actions of the outgoing political camp. Paradoxically, however, the camp responsible for these violations failed to secure enough support to form a government. The new government now faces a complex array of challenges. It must restore the constitutional order, manage two electoral campaigns (local and European), and rebuild relationships with the EU as a pivotal objective. It also faces the necessity to foster Western support for Ukraine, which requires careful navigation of domestic and international challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the institutional environment, corruption, and FDI highlights an important facilitating relationship between these factors. The effect of corruption on FDI vis-à-vis the grabbing hand vs. the helping hand hypotheses has been previously examined with suggestions that both hypotheses can co-exist under the assumption that the FDI-corruption relationship depends on the level of institutions. This study revisits this relationship for 34 African countries over the 2005 to 2019 period using the dynamic panel threshold model, which allows for an endogenous threshold variable. Previous studies that have examined this relationship using a threshold regression approach are either not based exclusively on African countries (where the implication of this relationship is more salient) or use a threshold regression that assumes exogeneity of the threshold variable. This study examines the facilitating nature of governance measures – political stability, government effectiveness, rule of law and regulatory quality – on the corruption-FDI relationship. The results indicate significant threshold effects and shows that while the grabbing hand hypothesis is consistent with the data irrespective of the institutional proxy used, the helping hand hypothesis is sensitive to the choice of governance. These results agree with the strand of literature that supports a weak helping hand hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-2010 economic and more recently pandemic shocks opened the path for re-invigorating Greek authoritarianism while undermining democratic institutions. This paper examines the ways in which the authoritarian conundrum reshapes progressively, on the ashes of the socio-economic and health crises, the cultural and political foundations of the rule of law in Greece.The paper consists of the following sections. First, it tries to discuss critically patterns on authoritarian rule by, first, drawing on its socio-historical origins and analyses in theoretical terms the rise of Greek neo-authoritarianism with an emphasis on COVID-19. Second, it discusses how pandemic laws and subsequent policy processes opened the path for controversial repressive law fostering neoliberal policies. Third, it sheds light on the institutional dimensions of the public health crisis, declared in March 2020 that required public authorities to establish a restrictive and mainly preventive state of emergency, while discussing the political and social consequences of the exacerbation of executive dominance. Fourth, it shows that in moving from a provisional state of emergency—which in principle is not constitutionally unconditional—to a state of (permanent) exception that defies the legal order, Greece has progressively developed an authoritarian apparatus of legal permissiveness, a new form of authoritarian legality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the important aspect of India's democratic decline, the ascendance of the Hindu majoritarian state, and its relationship with the law. It argues that the law is central to the Hindu majoritarian project but often in obscurely informal ways. India's majoritarian state seeks to radically reconfigure the law in Indian social life by making the rule of law inapplicable to its minorities. Through a series of examples drawn from the everyday socio-legal life in contemporary India, the article shows how arbitrary and extralegal state violence is endorsed, affirmed, and acquiesced on grounds of serving ethnonationalist values and interests. It theoretically develops the novel interpretive framework of 'the irregular' to capture the practices of the ethnicization of the law, ethnonationalist legitimisation of extra-legality through intense political mobilisation, and the production of subordinated minority citizenship without the formal incorporation of graded citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the fate of the rule of law in India that is transitioning to an ethnocracy? Drawing on a 'thin' conception of the rule of law, this article argues that the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act responds to the emergence of a political ideal that constructs the Hindu ethnos as central to the Indian nation. Drawing on a variety of sources that include pronouncements by leaders of the RSS, the ideological fount of India's ruling BJP, analysis of right-wing periodicals that function as a conveyor belt of social ideas, and the provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), this article highlights the core themes that motivate the will of the Hindu ethnos in respect of the contentious legislation: (i) the persecution of the Hindu minorities in India's Muslim-majority neighbours; (ii) the discrimination faced by Dalits in particular and (iii) the establishment of India as a Hindu Zion. In the first section, I elaborate the concept of 'ethnocracy'. The second section reflects on the fate of the rule of law in an ethnocratic India by analysing the social justifications for the introduction of the contentious CAA. In the third section, I situate these dynamics within India's broader transition to an ethnocracy, the political ideals that shape this transition, and the shared social norms that emerge from this transition, which feeds back to the rule of law in an ethnocracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, significant academic attention has been devoted to the phenomenon of democratic backsliding, understood as a creeping assault on the rule of law and the fairness of elections, combined with efforts to capture the judicial system and state agencies to subjugate them to the executive power. At the same time, however, there has been a parallel political development affecting hybrid and authoritarian regimes that has been more consequential yet largely neglected. Identified in this essay as dictatorial drift, this process implies the transition from "soft" forms of authoritarian rule to hardcore authoritarian policies, characterized by the emergence of unconstrained leaders with dictatorial ambitions; an extreme concentration of executive power; the marginalization of parliaments and the elimination of political opposition; the end of competitive elections; a takeover or destruction of the judiciary, independent media, and autonomous civil society organizations; and worsening political repressions. This essay documents such drift as a global phenomenon and probes its causes and consequences. The essay notes the exhaustion of mechanisms that constrained shifts towards dictatorship in the past and highlight how autocratic hegemonies today drive regime change in much the same way as Western liberal democracies once did in the early post–Cold War era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, France, and Germany, political violence has been rising. Three factors are salient: Polarization convinces some people that violence is acceptable to keep opponents from power; extreme political parties normalize polarization and violence, leading to attacks from—and against—their supporters; and the democratically disillusioned use violence, not votes, to express themselves. Political violence can be reduced if: 1) leaders insist on nonviolence; 2) governments and politicians support the rule of law, accountability, and equitable policing; 3) voting systems dampen extremism; 4) communities organize across difference against violence; and 5) activists insist on nonviolence within their movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is the EU's rule of law crisis [ROLC] indicative of a deepening 'disunion' sparked by the rise of illiberal ideas? I sound a skeptical note, suggesting that disunion arguments exaggerate dissensus, overstate the role of ideology, and do not capture key events and political interactions shaping the crisis. Specifically, disunion arguments cannot explain the emergence of a pro-ROL consensus in the European Parliament, neglect member states repeatedly articulating and committing themselves to fundamental liberal values, understate the ideological opportunism and about-faces of self-styled 'illiberals,' and overstate dubious evidence of public support for illiberal ideas and backlash to EU enforcement. The evidence is more consistent with new intergovernmentalist claims that member governments across the ideological spectrum are willing to sacrifice the ROL to safeguard consensus in the European Council, and that the Commission retreats from its role as 'guardian of the Treaties' absent intergovernmental support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares different measures of democracy to determine how they impact breach of contract risk, especially in postcolonial states that are more likely to suffer from neopatrimonialism with their imported state apparatus. By demonstrating how the normative measure of democracy, which emphasises respect for civil liberties, is more impactful in reducing breach of contract risk than the procedural measure that emphasises institutions, this article highlights the nonoptimal consequences of institutionalised democratisation without the normative dimension. The main findings are that while there is significant variation between the normative and procedural measures of democracy, it is increases in the normative measure of democracy that better promote accountability and the rule of law, thereby more effectively reducing breach of contract risk. We conclude that democratic norms must parallel progress in democratic form so to enable better (lower) breach of contract risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following transitions from authoritarianism, newly democratic governments confront the challenge of dealing with individuals who served the former regime. A prominent argument in the transitional justice literature holds that it is best not to exclude such individuals and to take advantage of their expertise in rebuilding a democratic system. A critical question in this context is whether former collaborators will act in ways that are sufficiently similar to untainted officials. We examine this question by focusing on judges with ties to the Nazi regime in the West German judiciary. We demonstrate that accused Nazi criminals who were charged in courts staffed with a greater proportion of tainted judges had substantially higher odds of escaping conviction. We also show that the appeals process was not able to eliminate this bias. These findings have direct implications for the trade-offs involved in retaining individuals with ties to an authoritarian regime and the connection between transitional justice and the rule of law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constitutional constraints are undertheorized and overrated. Constitutions are routinely advertised as vehicles for constraining political decisions. Constitutions work when governing officials make decisions on the basis of constitutional rules rather than personal preferences. Officials protect religious liberty rather than advance what their faith teaches is the one true religion. Constitutional constraints are undertheorized because conventional accounts of constitutions as constraining mechanisms fail to explore the strategies available to unsympathetic constitutional decisionmakers bent on frustrating constitutional provisions inconsistent with what they believe to be desirable political arrangements, fundamental rights, vital interests, and cherished policies. President Trump's lawyers claimed that executive orders which Trump had described as a "Muslim ban" were designed to promote national security and not to discriminate against adherents of Islam. Constitutional constraints are overrated because even discounting disobedience, such strategies as invalidation, denial, neglect, off-the-wall interpretation, circumcision, circumvention, and capture frequently enable unsympathetic constitutional decisionmakers to frustrate constitutional provisions while maintaining nominal allegiance to the rule of law. Police officers frequently claim that evidence was "in plain sight" to frustrate implementation of the Fourth Amendment. Strong constitutional constraints work only when unsympathetic constitutional decisionmakers respect the rule of law and are compelled to interpret constitutional provisions as inconsistent with what they believe are desirable political arrangements, fundamental rights, vital interests, or cherished policies. Constitutional provisions constrain unsympathetic constitutional decisionmakers who have some respect for the rule of law only when they cannot invalidate, deny, neglect, interpret away, circumcise, capture, or circumvent the text. Constitutional reformers can preempt these strategies for frustrating constitutional constraints only by quite specific language that eschews appeals to broad values and is likely to be inflexible in response to political, social, and technological changes. One consequence of this narrowing is that constitutional constraints are poor vehicles for widescale social reform. Constitutional transformation requires empowering the faithful, not constraining the unsympathetic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advances in EU integration since COVID-19 and Russia's full-scale invasion have challenged the expectations of cross-cutting cleavages resulting in a 'politics trap'. This article addresses this puzzle through a case study of the Visegrád-4 (V4), a key coalition in EU politics which significantly influenced many policy areas but whose effectiveness has strikingly diminished post-Brexit. Borrowing insights from EU integration theories and the literature on transnational coalitions, the article contends that inter-state cooperation depends on salience and national politicisation strategies. Based on a survey of policy documents and secondary literature, it argues that the V4 group effectively shaped EU policy through issue-specific bargaining in low-salience areas and joint politicisation of high-salience issues when it fitted the political strategies of incumbent leaders. However, in the 'second polycrisis', V4 unity and influence in EU politics have frayed due to overlapping conflicts in high-salience, non-negotiable areas, prominently, security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ernst Haas initially formulated neofunctionalism as a theory of incremental regional polity formation, treating crises as anomalies. Subsequent revisions of the theory incorporated crises as recurring phenomena. This paper introduces a novel conceptualisation and analysis of recent European Union crises, framing them as effects of and challenges to its regulatory polity. It distinguishes between 'failures' and 'attacks', aligning them with the capacity and community-building dimensions of polity formation. Failures, rooted in capacity deficits, prompt capacity development to sustain common policies, varying with international interdependence among member states. In contrast, attacks arise from contestations of constitutive values, necessitating community demarcation through enhanced unity among defenders and exclusion of attackers. The speed and scope of demarcation depend on the attacker's membership position. Through a comparative analysis of the euro, migration, Covid, Brexit, rule of law, and Russia crises, the study illustrates and substantiates its theoretical argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The artificial general intelligence (AGI) industry, represented by ChatGPT, has impacted social order during its development, and also brought various risks and challenges, such as ethical concerns in science and technology, attribution of liability, intellectual property monopolies, data security, and algorithm manipulation. The development of AI is currently facing a crisis of trust. Therefore, the governance of the AGI industry must be prioritized, and the opportunity for the implementation of the Interim Administrative Measures for Generative Artificial Intelligence Services should be taken. It is necessary to enhance the norms for the supervision and management of scientific and technological ethics within the framework of the rule of law. Additionally, it is also essential to continuously improve the regulatory system for liability, balance the dual values of fair competition and innovation encouragement, and strengthen data-security protection systems in the field of AI. All of these will enable coordinated governance across multiple domains, stakeholders, systems, and tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short article on Peter Fitzpatrick's conception of "responsive law" analyzes the ambiguous temporality that Fitzpatrick discerned in modern law. On the one hand, law makes the claim of being fully present and therefore already and completely contained in itself. This aspect of law reflects the law's claim to "immanence," that is, its claim of always being able to rely strictly on its own operational terms without having to take recourse to any consideration not already contained within itself. It is this aspect of law that renders the ideal of the "rule of law" feasible. On the other hand, the law's claim to doing justice to every unique and therefore every new case also demands that it takes leave of that which is already settled within it. This aspect of law can be called its "imminence." The imminence of the law concerns the reality that law always finds itself on the threshold of that which has not yet been said and must still be said. The article shows how Fitzpatrick relied on Freud's concept of the totem to explain the "wondrous" unity of its immanence and imminence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past, the rule of law was largely overlooked by sociologists and other social scientists. However, recent years have seen an increasing number of empirical studies of the rule of law. I survey that diverse literature and identify three generations of empirical research, each based on a different approach: (a) the rule of law in action, (b) the rule of law index, and (c) the living rule of law. These studies give us a detailed, but often sobering, view of the rule of law in the real world. I critically review the emerging field and discuss challenges for future research. Developing a more coherent social science of the rule of law is important because it helps us to understand that the rule of law is defined not only by formal institutions and legal documents but also by the place of law in people's everyday lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rule of law has become all things to all people, which is precisely why it has been hard to define. Rather than attempt that feat, this article traces how the rule of law has developed as a set of specific governing practices both in the history of comparative law and in recent policy debates. Whereas national legal traditions blended ideas about the constraining effects of law with normative ideas about the organization of politics, the policy conversation has tended to depoliticize law altogether. As a result, it became possible for aspirational autocrats determined to undermine normative legal constraints to game the system and use law for autocratic ends. The rule of law is now beginning a new life, however, through a movement to deparochialize law and re-embed it in transnational norms. This rule of law writ large has become a new touchstone for holding political power accountable through law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses highlights of a lecture presented by Princeton University professor Kim Lane Scheppele, at the 25th Annual Grotius Lecture held on March 29, 2023. Topics include democracy through international law, constitutionalism, human rights, rule of law, post-communist transitions, right to democratic governance, autocracies, and inter-American system and European regional system for the protection of democratic infrastructure.

The article discusses the highlights of the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association (ABA), held in Chicago, Illinois from July 31 to August 6, 2024. Topics included safeguarding and protection of public officials, judges and civil servants, the rule of law, issues of concern to the legal profession, and the Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act, and the justice system.

Purpose: This study presents time-series data estimations on the association between the indicators of institutional environment and inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in India utilizing a comprehensive data set from 1996 to 2021. Design/methodology/approach: The study employs the nonlinear autoregressive distributive lag (NARDL) model. The asymmetric ARDL framework evaluates the existence of cointegration among the factors under study and highlights the underlying nonlinear effects that may exist in the long and short run. Findings: The significance of coefficients of negative shock to "control of corruption" and positive shock to "rule of law" is greater when compared to "government effectiveness, regulatory quality, political stability/absence of violence." The empirical outcomes suggest the positive influence of rule of law, political stability and government effectiveness on FDI inflows. A high "regulatory quality" is observed to deter foreign investment. The "voice and accountability" index and negative shocks to the "rule of law" are exhibited to have no substantial impact on the amount of FDI that the country receives. Originality/value: This study empirically examines the institutional determinants of FDI in India for a comprehensive period of 1996–2021. The study's findings imply that quality of the institutional environment has a significant bearing on India's inward FDI. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-05-2023-0375 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 terminated the country's democratisation. The crisis was more an outcome of the two-decade-long flawed state-building and democratisation, and the escalation of the insurgency than an overnight change in the country's politico-military landscape. This paper examines Afghanistan's failed democratization from 2001 to 2021 by focusing on five variables including stateness, welfare, rule of law, political regime, and political community. The paper explains how flawed progress in the five areas gradually eroded the democratisation process resulting in state collapse and the restoration of the Taliban's Islamic Emirate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During armed conflict civilians often inhabit areas of contested governance or areas where rebel groups, NGOs, and/or criminal syndicates vie for authority and challenge the control of the state. As non-state actors confront the authority and legitimacy of the state, civilians become central players in that competition asked to uphold or undercut these alternative governance claims. In this paper we examine the long-term impact of rebel governance for citizens living in spaces where state governance is challenged. Leveraging survey data from areas historically under PKK control in Southeastern Turkey, we focus on the ways in which contestation over governance during the conflict influenced future trust and engagement with the Turkish state. Specifically, we find that individual engagement with rebel governance institutions and personal conflict experience are important factors in understanding the effects of contested governance. Our findings increase our understanding of the long-term impact of armed conflict on civilians and the potential lasting impacts of rebel governance on the post-conflict state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Member States' support for rule of law (RoL) enforcement in the Council of the European Union (the Council). Existing studies regarding this topic produce puzzling findings: there is a stable pro-RoL enforcement coalition between older Member States, while the positions of the newer members appear to be more nuanced in relation to different RoL issues and instruments. This article seeks to elucidate the factors underlying these divergent positions and proposes a solution to this puzzle by introducing the conceptualisation of Member States' ‘differential support’ for RoL enforcement. Furthermore, it develops a theoretical framework to explain various factors influencing these positions. By analysing Member States' stances on five RoL instruments designed for the promotion and protection of the RoL in the Union, this article demonstrates that the positions of new Member States on RoL enforcement are more stable than often perceived. Additionally, an in-depth qualitative analysis of Member States' arguments reveals that strategic calculations largely influence their positions on RoL enforcement within the Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the protection of 'community interests' in international law includes intertemporal obligations of States, in cases where it is scientifically foreseeable that preserving the 'status quo' of a protected community interest is increasingly unlikely. The argument is developed for climate change as a 'common concern of humankind' and based on the premise that even if a temperature limitation of 1.5°C would be achieved towards the end of this century, future generations will nevertheless live in a world that has fundamentally changed due to current policy and law choices. The article introduces the new concept of 'intergenerational preparedness' to operationalise and expand the normative scope of the principle of intergenerational equity. While some argumentative structures will be examined where intergenerational preparedness can be given effect through legal interpretation, the expectation that States must adopt preparatory measures to account for their community interest obligations deserves a more explicit recognition. It is a matter of the (environmental) rule of law to protect community interests on a time continuum, and this encompasses measures to prevent the deterioration of protected interests and to prepare communities for foreseeable detrimental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper casts a spotlight on one of the manifold legal questions that arise with the proliferation of artificial intelligence. This new technology is attractive for many fields, including public administration, where it promises greater accuracy and efficiency, freeing up resources for better interaction and engagement with citizens. However, public powers are bound by certain constitutional constraints that must be observed, regardless of whether decisions are made by humans or machines. This includes the non-delegation principle, which aims to limit the delegation and sub-delegation of decisions affecting citizens' rights in order to ensure governmental accountability, reviewability, and contestability. This puts some constraints on the automation of decision-making by public entities, as algorithmic decision-making entails delegating decisions to software development companies on the one hand, and to algorithms on the other. The present paper reveals and explains these constraints and concludes with suggestions to navigate these conflicts in a manner that satisfies the rule of law while maximizing the benefits of new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do some states assist other countries to reach across national borders and repress their diaspora, while others do not? Transnational repression involves host countries (including democracies) working closely with origin states (typically autocracies) to transfer their citizens living abroad into their custody and silence dissent. We expect international cooperation on transnational repression to rely on a host country's domestic rule of law (opportunity to repress) and economic ties with the origin country (leverage to cooperate). To measure international cooperation on transnational repression, we present new data containing 608 direct physical cases of transnational repression from 2014 to 2020 involving 160 unique country dyads (79 host countries and 31 origin countries). We test our hypotheses using a dataset of 33,615 directed dyad-years that accounts for refugee flows between pairs of countries and find empirical support for our theoretical argument. Autocracies are better able to elicit cooperation on human rights violations from states that have shared economic interests and a weak rule of law. Our findings provide one of the first quantitative accounts of foreign complicity in extraterritorial repression and have policy implications for civil society activists that seek to prevent governments from committing future human rights abuses against foreign nationals living abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has witnessed material interest in the relevance of organisational purpose to organisational governance for both for‐profit corporations and charities. A purpose‐focus promises greater clarity for responsible person duties, as well as motivational benefits. However, despite its centrality, the nature of organisational purpose remains under‐theorised. This article first explores theoretical understandings of organisational purpose to provide a robust base for purpose‐based governance theories and to provide potential methods for identifying organisational purpose. This is a descriptive project. Second, it examines the extent to which that theoretical understanding is reflected in charity law. This is a mildly normative project – all else being equal, there are rule of law reasons (greater clarity and stability) for the law to reflect our best understanding of a phenomenon, such that theory may help guide choices between divergent legal approaches to matters like the relevance of organisational values and activities in characterising purpose. Third, the article employs organisational purpose theory to understand the duties applying to charity governors in the context of a change of purpose. This is a mildly normative step again – all else being equal, it would benefit the rule of law if governance obligations reflect our best understanding of organisational purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been researched, written about, and subjected to public enquiry with respect to the content of Australian family law arrangements. This study adds to current understanding by the examination of the records of all successful appeals of parenting orders under the recently adopted regime of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Division 1 Appellate Jurisdiction. Drawing on transcripts from this Court to the date of writing, 35% of applications to appeal parenting orders were successful in being granted a rehearing or variation by the Appellate Jurisdiction. It is these cases which form the basis for this analysis. Employing an inductive thematic analysis, it has been possible to identify the pattern of circumstances most likely to lead to the compromise of the delivery of the declared principles of clear, predictable, and accessible law. Learning from the record of successful appeals, it becomes evident that the Appeals Court plays a relatively unappreciated critical role in identifying the context and nature of risks in the delivery of these core principles and what should be a central focus for attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of populism's international links has grown significantly. Yet, there are gaps in conceptualizing potential implications for the international order. Our study contributes to filling this gap by asking: if a 'populist international order' (PIO) were to emerge, and populists could envision the world close(r) to their liking, what would this order look like? We pursue answers through a plausibility probe of three deductively-derived normative pillars: 1) cooperation under a PIO is characterized by more fractured, mostly symbolic, small-scale multilateralism; 2) a PIO relies on a narrow, selective embrace of the rule of law, to be respected only when seen as representing the wishes of the 'real people'; and 3) the commitment to pluralism in 'international society' is replaced by an anti-pluralist, monolithic notion of popular sovereignty as the primary behavioural driver. Our analysis is based on contemporary populist leadership from Latin America: Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and Mexico's Andrés Manuel López Obrador. We examine how these populists have addressed our proposed PIO pillars in different ways and shaped their world-order visions in relation to them. The lessons derived from this study can contribute to bridging gaps regarding the effects of global populism in International Relations, including prospects of mitigating the systemic impact of populism on the international order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 16 January 2024, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE ODIHR) published its Guidelines on Democratic Law-making for Better Laws. The creation of the Guidelines was driven by the acknowledgment that strengthening democratic institutions and processes is essential in the era of democratic and constitutional erosion and decay and the recognition that contemporary law-making displays several weaknesses. Based on its decades of experience in assessing legislation and legislative processes in the OSCE participating states, ODIHR intended to provide an overview of the guiding principles of the law-making process that ensure that both the process and the resulting laws comply with the requirements of democracy, the rule of law and human rights commitments. The Guidelines offer a new and rich source of inspiration for scholars devoted to strengthening democracy. This paper identifies new(er) avenues for research in democratic erosion and revival, institutional protection of the democratic legislative process, constitutional change, and the impact of constitutional rights. Further, based on some non-OSCE participating states related examples, it shows how the potential inspirational reach of the Guidelines and the research paths it potentially encourage might go beyond the geographic scope of the OSCE participating states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Brazil, police officers have increasingly competed in elections, mirroring expanded roles in government for coercive agents in cases such as the United States, the Philippines, and Mexico. In this paper, I develop a theory of how voters perceive these candidates. The symbol of the police officer represents the abstract idea of order and stability, more than just a crime fighter. Corruption scandals and insecurity in Brazil and Latin America have given rise to "order" in response to the chaos of politics as usual as a compelling electoral brand. I therefore expect that voters associate police officer candidates with strong, decisive leadership, social conservatism, a strong commitment to the rule of law, honesty in government, and a weak commitment to democracy. An image-based conjoint experiment fielded to a representative sample of Brazilian voters (N = 3,098) finds support for the theoretical framework, but respondents did not perceive the police officer candidate as less democratic than other professional profiles. The results help to inform our understanding of electoral politics in post-transition democratic regimes, demonstrating how armed agents of the state might remain popular and influential within the context of a consolidated democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most cases, researchers assume that control of corruption, rule of law, accountability, and government expenditure tend to have a positive impact on government effectiveness. Nonetheless, recent theoretical and empirical evidence supports a mixed relationship between these variables. The paper, therefore, seeks to answer the extent to which corruption, the rule of law, accountability, and government expenditure affect government effectiveness. We employed Johansen method of cointegration and vector error correction model to examine the long-run and short-run relationship between the variables under study. By using Sri Lankan data covering the period from 1996 to 2020, we find a significant and positive relationship only between the control of corruption and government effectiveness both in the long run and in the short run. Yet, rule of law has a positive and significant impact on government effectiveness only in the long run. Voice and accountability, and government expenditure affect the government's effectiveness negatively in the long run and positively in the short run. The article demonstrates that weak anti-corruption mechanisms and weak legal and criminal justice systems seem to have a detrimental impact on government effectiveness in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]