What Future for the Eurozone After Karlsruhe?

The paper analyzes the decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court rendered on 5 May2020 (2 BvR 859/15,2 BvR 980/16,2 BvR2006/15,2 BvR 1651/15), wereby the latter heavily criticized the "democratic" legitimacy of the Public Sector Purchase Program of the European Central Bank (aimed, by purchasing negotiable debt securities issued by governments, public agencies and international institutions located in the euro area, to support the economy of the Member States and to increase the eurozone's inflation rate up to 2%), de facto disapplying the judgment of the CGEU of 11 December 2018, by which that Program had been instead previously "validated." The author places the decision in the context of the long-standing and conflicting relations, on the one hand, between Member States and European institutions and, on the other hand, between national constitutional courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union, outlining the possible repercussions of the decision on a legal, economic, political and institutional level and, ultimately, on the very survival of the eurozone

All-Pervasive Legacies of Socialist Constitutionalism? The Case of Judiciary

The success of the legal transitions occurring in the 1990s was quite dubious. Although, as a result of enlargement of the EU, much of the “other Europe” became part of the European Union, it would be too simplistic to assume that, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the region became part of Western European political and legal landscape. While the books of the old era were discarded, legislation repealed and new institutions created, one should not underestimate the continuing strength of the old values, principles and legal thought in general. After all, the authors of those discarded books remained in the academia, even if they seemingly started to produce – virtually overnight – new works, while defending new values and principles. Alongside with the academics, the entire legal personnel of the old era survived the systemic change, and this contributed to the persisting spirit of old legal culture. That is why the philosophies of the old socialist legal system were able, not only to survive, but to govern a substantial portion of the post-socialist legal and judicial discourse. The deepest layers of the old legal culture are resistant to sudden changes by their very nature. They seldom have a direct connection to the former official political ideology, and they are often clothed in the new legal vocabulary. Furthermore, the most persistent features of socialist legal culture are often those linked to the region’s illiberal pre-socialist past, although substantively modified during the era of socialism. I will show some examples of old socialist concepts which seem to be alive and well in the new legal system. First, I am going to deal with the authoritarian model of judicial process, which appears to prevail in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. The socialist conception of a judicial process continues to haunt the region even several decades after the fall of “existing socialism.” The parties continue to be viewed as passive objects in the post-communist litigation. Second, I am going to explain a specific socialist novelty, the concept of supreme courts’ interpretative statements, legislating from the bench without any real-life case pending before those courts. Last but not least, I will show the gradual decline of the activist role of constitutional courts in the region and the return to the tradition of self-restrained judiciary influenced by politics and politicians

China’s Socialist Unitary State and its Capitalist Special Administrative Regions: “One Country, Two Systems” and its Developmental Implementation

The People’s Republic of China is, according to its Constitution, “a unitary multi-national state” based on the socialist system. The Constitution also allows the state to establish “special administrative regions” in light of “specific conditions.” This provision backs the principle of “One Country, Two Systems” that China applies to achieve territorial reunification, through allowing the relevant territories to continue with their capitalist system and way of life. This principle was operationalised in the cases of Hong Kong and Macau, resulting in the establishment of two Special Administrative Regions, each of which governed by a “Basic Law” prescribing the systems of the relevant region, when China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over them on 1 July 1997 and 20 December 1999 respectively. This article considers the two decades of constitutional and legal interactions between the Chinese “Central Authorities” and these sub-national Special Administrative Regions, so as to highlight the socialist mechanisms of central control that have been applied constitutionally, politically, economically and socially in Hong Kong and Macau to ensure that “One Country, Two Systems” with not be “distorted,” that national sovereignty, security and development interests are safeguarded, and that these regions will play a positive role in national economic development. It is clear from this study that the implementation of “One Country, Two Systems” in the two regions has been “developmental,” with the law serving the interests of the “Centre” under the leadership of the Communist Party of China

Presumption of Consent or a Lack Thereof of the Victim and the Presumption of Guilt (Innocence) of the Accused in Cases of Sexual Offences: Emphasise What Is Necessary, Cross Out Everything Unnecessary

The article focuses on the significance and relevance of victims consent in sexual offenses cases. The case-law of national legal systems as well as of international judicial bodies demonstrates that consent is a conditio sine qua non for qualifying an act as a sexual offense. However, the recent examples of criminal cases raised from national and international jurisprudence allow authors to conclude that the non-consensual character of sexual acts is frequently complicated to prove in due to some peculiarities of the sexual offenses per se. This paper analyses the modern technique of sexual offenses criminalization which can be characterized by one of two possible approaches: first, the presumption of the alleged victim’s consent to sexual intercourse or, on the contrary, second, the presumption of the lack of thereof. Despite the fact that the second approach seems to be more favorable for alleged survivors, the implementation of this approach entails a number of difficulties. The main one is the hypothetical conflict with the metapresumption of criminal procedure (i.e. the presumption of innocence). In the paper this contradiction is analyzed from the perspective of the legislation and jurisprudence of different jurisdictions, as well as the practice of international judicial bodies (European Court of Human Rights, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda)

Socialist Constitutional Legacies in Regional Constitutions and Charters in Russia

Russia has a federated structure. It is quite complex, with five different types of subjects of the Federation: republics, territories, regions, an autonomous region, cities of federal significance, and autonomous areas. Each of these subjects of the Federation has its own constitutive law. For a republic within Russia, this document is called a constitution. For each of the other subjects of the Federation, it is called a charter (ustav). These “figurehead” constitutions and charters obviously have great significance for their respective subject of the Federation. However, there are interesting disparities between them. This article explores one aspect of these. It considers the legacy of the Soviet approach to law in the precise wording of the constitutions of Russia’s republics and charters of the other subjects of the Federation. This careful textual analysis reveals that there are a few – although only a few – traces of Russia’s socialist past in the wording of these constitutive documents. However, that may not be the only “remnant of the Soviet past” in the approach taken in relation to these important laws. It is argued that the scarcity of an enforcement mechanism which might allow judicial consideration of any breach of a republican constitution or subject of the Federation charter is strongly reminiscent of the situation of constitutional unaccountability which existed under the Soviet regime

Local Legislative Process in Russia: Perspectives and Barriers

The legislative process is an important tool of direct democracy for creating checks and balances on public authority. Making local laws is an essential function of the local government that is linked to direct communication between public officials and citizens. This paper sets out to evaluate the opportunities, constraints and challenges in the practices of local direct democracy in Russian municipalities, and to describe the frameworks and capacities that municipal authorities provide for citizens. The paper analyzes the political and legal circumstances for law-making initiatives at the local level and examines citizens’ activities in the local legislative process. The research question is whether citizens have the capacity and opportunity to participate in the local legislative process and to what extent barriers and challenges prevent them from doing so. To answer the research question the authors use methods of context analysis to study Russian legislation and municipal legal documents, a case study of several Russian municipalities and a survey with representatives of local communities in Tyumen, a Russian mid-sized city located in Western Siberia. The results of the study show a reluctance on the part of local residents to engage in the various aspects of direct democracy and a lack of the necessary skills, knowledge and willingness to participate in the initiative process. The results further show that the initiative process is frequently not well planned and lacks clear objectives, requirements and guidelines. The study concludes that seminars and professional training as well as roundtable workshops are effective ways to support local law-making initiatives. One promising step towards modernizing initiatives would be to organize them in e-forms. Many citizens demonstrate their ability to use electronic options that can expand the possibilities for their participation in the local legislative process

The Social Issue in Peruvian Constitutionalism of the 20th Century and in the Case Law of the Constitutional Court: Influence of Socialist Constitutionalism?

The socialist ideas of Russian Revolution were well-known in Peru, according with the struggles of working-class and student movements and the birth of socialist and communist parties. But the Peruvian Constitutions of 1920 and 1993 only opened someone social rights, not only for the workers, but also for the indigenous people to protect their community territories. Only with the Constitution of 1979 the leftwing constituents were almost one third of the constituents. In this way the Constitution included social ideas in the type of State as social and democratic Rule of Law, the equal rights between all persons, particularly between men and women, the employment was protect by the State, the public education cost-free, the property had a social function, the natural resources were of the Nation, and the indigenous and Amazonian communities were protected, etc. But, with the neoliberal Constitution of 1993 the economic model was liberalized in favor of the market and the international investors, reducing the social rights, and the national power was centralized in the Executive Power. But, since 2000, after the fall-down of Fujimori’s regimen, the Constitutional Court played a role of balanced the impact of this new model, according with the international treaties of human rights and social rights. In this sense, the Constitutional Court was able to give the Constitution of 1993 a social content

Mandatory Corporate Human Rights Due Diligence Models: Shooting Blanks?

The major stakeholders, including states (at least, in the global North) and transnational corporations (TNCs), have radically changed their attitude to the idea of mandatory human rights due diligence in the last decade. By asking what is behind these good intentions, and whether the mandatory corporate human rights due diligence models enforced so far are effective or represent an exercise in shooting blanks, and by combining a legal positivistic perspective with studies on governance and the production of knowledge, this article contributes to the legal and socio-legal assessment of these changes Assessing the effectiveness of mandatory corporate human rights due diligence, this article discusses the inherent or implied features of this regulatory tool which restrict its ability to serve as an instrument to protect human rights. A special focus is made on two main restrictions that are specific for human rights due diligence: the regulatory boundary revealed in the auxiliary character of due diligence and its limed ability to serve as a standard of conduct, and the epistemic boundary, deriving from the conflicting role of companies as the architects and executives of knowledge production. To a certain extent, the legislative process can counterbalance some of these restrictions by setting up the substantive, precise obligations of companies, and by creating mechanisms of control and remediation. However, the analysis of nine different instruments reveals that neither states, nor the EU have used the potential of the regulatory force

Reasonable Entrepreneurial Risk: Behavioural Criteria for Corporate Managers

This paper discusses the essence of the entrepreneurial risk, ethical and legal standards, which must be adhered to by the head of a commercial organisation. In the Russian legislation, there is debate concerning the boundaries of the responsibilities of the corporate manager. Existing literature doesn't contain many studies about the norms on the responsibility of persons authorised to act on behalf of a legal entity because it is new for Russian civil legislation, which shows the novelty of this study. We identify problematic aspects that arise both in the doctrine and judicial practice regarding the determination of the criteria of good faith and reasonable behaviour of the head of the corporation. Our study examines the legal nature of entrepreneurial risk and how it affects the formation of managerial decisions. As a result, we propose a basic model of the criteria for the good behaviour of a corporate manager within a reasonable entrepreneurial risk

The Russian Arbitration Reform: Between Lights and Shadows

Russian system of alternative disputes resolution has experienced relevant development over the last few years. On December 2015, the Russian President signed two laws, which entered into force on 1 September 2016 and substantially reshaped the legal framework for arbitration in the Russian Federation. These are the Federal Law on Arbitration and the Federal Law on Amending Certain Legislative Acts, which introduced amendments to various laws including International Commercial Arbitration Law, Arbitrazh (Commercial) Procedural Code and Civil Procedural Code. The present article provides a comment on the key changes introduced by the said reform, compared to the previous state-of-play. Special attention has been given to the validity of the arbitration agreement, the arbitrability of international disputes and the denial of enforcement of an arbitral award for matters of public policy. Starting from the evolution of the Russian Supreme Court’s approach to the ground for refusal of enforcement of an international award, the article discusses the recent judgments of the Russian courts in relation to the enforcement of an arbitral award to identify the lights and shadows of the international arbitration system in Russia