The Evolving Executive: Provisional Decrees and Their Impact on Brazil\u27s Executive-Legislative Relationship

Comparatively, the lawmaking process in presidential systems is often comprised of negotiations between a legislative body, tasked with authoring and legislating laws, and an executive, who must authorize and administer the enactment of the law. While executives are often empowered with certain constitutional powers to help influence the lawmaking process, these powers are typically constrained and supervisory in nature. Presidents are rarely given broad-and-discretionary legislative powers, since lawmaking is ultimately the responsibility of the legislative body; however, this does not hold true for the case of Brazil. Following the adoption of Brazil’s 1988 Constitution, Presidents were empowered with the power of Media Provisória, or provisional decree. Conceived as emergency power to address national crises, provisional decrees provides Brazilian presidents with the ability to issue orders, rules, and laws that possess the immediate full effect and force of the law upon issuance, completely independent of the legislative process and the Brazilian National Congress. While these decrees carry the full effect of the law, they ultimately require Congressional approval within 45 days of passage. As an emergency power, provisional decrees ought to be used sparingly; however ideal, this has not been in the case in Brazil, where presidents have used provisional decrees extensively. Rather than work with Congress, Brazilian presidents have historically issued decrees to legislate their policies. In attempt to limit the provisional decrees and regain legislative control, Brazilian legislators adopted Constitutional Amendment 32, which drastically curtailed and reformed the usage of decrees. This has led Brazilian legislators, 3 political scientists, and constitutional scholars to believe that the use of provisional decrees has impacted the regular lawmaking process in Brazil, granting Brazilian executives extraordinary power and influence over the legislature. This paper sought to understand how the executive-legislative relationship in Brazil has changed as a result of provisional decrees and Amendment 32. This paper examined the issuance of provisional decrees, their reissuance, the number of decrees converted into law, and the number of laws passed under the traditional legislative process. The research and analysis in this paper indicates that while decrees have become a dominant tool of Brazilian executives, Amendment 32 has not completely reversed executive dominance in the executive-legislative relationship of the country

The 'four principles of bioethics' as found in 13(th) century Muslim scholar Mawlana's teachings

BACKGROUND: There have been different ethical approaches to the issues in the history of philosophy. Two American philosophers Beachump and Childress formulated some ethical principles namely 'respect to autonomy', 'justice', 'beneficence' and 'non-maleficence'. These 'Four Principles' were presented by the authors as universal and applicable to any culture and society. Mawlana, a great figure in Sufi tradition, had written many books which not only guide people how to worship God to be close to Him, but also advise people how to lead a good life to enrich their personality, as well as to create a harmonious society and a peaceful world. METHODS: In this study we examined the major works of Mawlana to find out which of these 'Four Principles of Bioethics' exist in Mawlana's ethical understanding. RESULTS: We have found in our study that all these principles exist in Mawlana's writings and philosophy in one form or another. CONCLUSIONS: We have concluded that, further to Beachump and Childress' claim that these principles are universal and applicable to any culture and society, these principles have always existed in different moral traditions in different ways, of which Mawlana's teaching might be presented as a good example

Books in Arabic Script

The chapter approaches the book in Arabic script as the indispensable means for the transmission of knowledge across Eurasia and Africa, within cultures and across cultural boundaries, since the seventh century ad. The state of research can be divided into manuscript and print studies, but there is not yet a history of the book in Arabic script that captures its plurilinear development for over fourteen hundred years. The chapter explores the conceptual and practical challenges that impede the integration of the book in Arabic script into book history at large and includes an extensive reference list that reflects its diversity. The final published version was slightly updated, and includes seven illustrations of six Qurans from the holdings of Columbia University Libraries, four manuscripts and two printed versions. Moreover, the illustrations are images of historical artifacts which are in the public domain - despite Wiley's copyright claim

Le savant et son époque à travers sa correspondance Seeger A. Bonebakker (1923-2005) et quelques notes sur Ḫalīl b. Aybak al-Ṣafadī (696-764/1297-1363)

This article proposes a survey of two great scholars’ in Arabic literature correspondences: a European of the 20th century, Seeger Adrianus Bonebakker, who is of special interest for us because he bequeathed all of his great library, personal notes and correspondence to Università Ca’ Foscari, and a subject of study of the former, Ḫalīl b. Aybak al-Ṣafadī, great littérateur and scholar of the first century of the Mamluk period. Letters sent and received are preserved in both cases and are primary sources on their network, but also on their personal life, personality and methodology

Pasang surut aliran tasawuf/ Arberry

vii, 173 hal.; 18 cm

Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam/ Arberry

144 hal. : 20 cm

Pasang surut aliran tasawuf/ Arberry

vii, 173 hal.; 18 cm