Baltic Journal of Law and Politics最新文献

{"title":"Administrative Processes as an Anti-Corruption Tool? A View from Public Employees in the Baltic States","authors":"K. Pedersen, L. Johannsen","doi":"10.2478/bjlp-2018-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/bjlp-2018-0006","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Many studies have documented the negative effect of corruption on development, economic growth, and democracy. Independent anti-corruption agencies are often recommended as the tool to curb corruption. However, their efficiency depends on the political will to allocate authority, powers, and resources. Moreover, setting up new institutions is always costly and accordingly problematic to low and middle income countries. The present study suggests that public administration processes in their own right are a tool to combat corruption. The article uses a survey with responses from 1706 public employees in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Using OLS regression, the study confirms others findings that strengthening meritocracy is an important factor in curbing corruption. It adds to this that enhancing monitoring is a factor just as effective against corruption as meritocracy. It adds attention to the reverse effect associated with hierarchical organizations, norms accepting rule bending, and network decisions. Finally, addressing salaries’ and performance payment’s impact on corruption the study finds no relation.","PeriodicalId":38764,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Journal of Law and Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47927854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Step Forward in the Minimization of Political Corruption in Financial Support of Political Parties: The Experience of Ukraine and Lithuania","authors":"A. Kulish, N. Andriichenko, O. Reznik","doi":"10.2478/bjlp-2018-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/bjlp-2018-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Political corruption as a negative phenomenon hampers the democratic and economic development of any state. The experience of foreign countries across the world testifies to the existence of number of reasons conducive to the spread of political corruption. Its study is important both for Ukraine, which is actively taking measures to combat political corruption, and for other countries with a high level of political corruption. The article begins with a study of various approaches to understanding the concept of “political corruption”, the reasons for its emergence and determination of the level of citizens’ trust in political institutions in Ukraine and foreign countries. The main obstacles to minimizing the phenomenon of political corruption in Ukraine are the existence of an effective mechanism for financial support of political parties and control over their financial activity. Based on the analysis of scientific literature, international acts, and legislative acts of Ukraine and Lithuania, the authors disclose the experience of Ukraine and Lithuania in the sphere of state financing of political parties and control over their financial activity. The methods of descriptive comparative analysis and observation of the latest scientific research on this issue guide the work. Proceeding from the existing problem of minimizing the phenomenon of corruption in the funding of political parties in Ukraine and taking into account the development of Ukraine’s legal system, the article presents a number of proposals on improving the legislation of Ukraine on financial support of political parties. The authors also provide a proposal on the need to improve the legislation in Lithuania in the area of indirect state funding of political parties. This article aims to disclose the notion of “political corruption”, to study experience of Ukraine and Lithuania in the sphere of minimizations of corruption in the funding of political parties and control over the use of such financial support, to determine the areas for improving the legislation of Ukraine and Lithuania in this issue, and to show the optimal mechanism of overcoming corruption in political parties, since Ukraine is not the only state where this phenomenon reaches its peak.","PeriodicalId":38764,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Journal of Law and Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2478/bjlp-2018-0005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48436575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Necessity of Satire in Media Literacy: Stephen Colbert’s Use of Sophistic and Socratic Irony","authors":"A. C. Jones","doi":"10.2478/BJLP-2018-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/BJLP-2018-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Media literacy campaigns champion systematic thinking and high elaboration in the fight against fake news. However, they often overlook an ancient tool for discrediting demagogues and destroying disinformation: satire. This essay explores how satirist Stephen Colbert used irony in his 2010 congressional testimony, arguing that Colbert’s shift from Socratic to Sophistic irony encouraged listeners to think for themselves through a more central information-processing route. The essay concludes that irony increases recognition of fake news, but warns that an overreliance on Sophistic irony undermines an appreciation of truth, and requires the reintroduction of Socratic irony as a counter balance.","PeriodicalId":38764,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Journal of Law and Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49381543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Towards a Permanent Consultation Mechanism for Persons with Disabilities. A Study from the Perspective of the Un Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities","authors":"Riku-Heikki Virtanen","doi":"10.2478/BJLP-2018-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/BJLP-2018-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) stipulates an obligation for states to consult persons with disabilities in the development and implementation of legislation and policies with respect of implementing this Convention. Consultations with persons with disabilities have not as yet become a widespread practice in national legal orders. When it comes to EU member states, for example, not all of them incorporate the said obligation in national legislation. In its Concluding Observations the CRPD Committee suggests that the obligation to consult is a cross-cutting duty covering all rights guaranteed in the UN CRPD. Eventually, the draft General Comment No. 7 to the UN CRPD has arrived at a wider interpretation of the scope of an obligation to consult. Although a much wider scope of opportunity to be consulted is provided for the indigenous peoples by the ILO Convention No. 169, it has become a matter of consideration in several cases before regional human rights organs while the convention has not got a significant number of ratifications. Provided that the UN CRPD is much more broadly ratified by the states, will the adoption of this General Comment exert influence on empowering persons with disabilities? In order to find an answer to this question, this article explores the genesis of a general legal obligation to consult persons with disabilities on a permanent basis which would be wider in scope than matters of implementing the UN CRPD in international human rights law.","PeriodicalId":38764,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Journal of Law and Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48617573","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"‘Access to Justice’ and the Development of the Van Gend En Loos Doctrine: The Role of Courts and of the Individual in EU Law","authors":"N. Daminova","doi":"10.1515/bjlp-2017-0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2017-0015","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The ‘access to justice’ within the meaning of the Treaty of Lisbon and the pertinent CJEU jurisprudence is primarily seen as access to the EU judicial system, i.e. to the EU Member States’ national courts applying the EU Law or/and the CJEU. The concept of ‘access to justice’ is therefore developing such premises of the Van Gend en Loos judgment as direct effect, vigilance of the EU individual, and the symbiotic relationship between the CJEU and national courts via the preliminary reference procedure. This work aims to explore the development of two basic ideas of Van Gend en Loos, i.e. granting directly enforceable EU rights to individuals and authorizing national courts to protect those rights, in light of the ‘access to justice’ concept within the meaning of the Lisbon Treaty – considering their importance for the realization of EU individuals’ substantive rights and uncertainty surrounding this issue. The paper develops a critique of the theory of justice in EU Law, analyzing if and how the Van Gend en Loos premises influenced the role of individuals making an attempt to claim their EU rights and the role of the EU courts responsible for the enforcement of ‘access to justice’ in the European Union. The claim of this paper is that the new concept of ‘access to justice’ brought by the Lisbon Treaty may be seen as the further development of the Van Gend ‘federalizing effect’ for greater integration through law and an enhanced protection of the individual within the EU multilevel system of Human Rights protection.","PeriodicalId":38764,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Journal of Law and Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44996616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Corporate Forms Facilitating Non-Profit Networking: Formalizing the Informal","authors":"L. Jakulevičienė, Regina Valutytė","doi":"10.1515/bjlp-2017-0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2017-0017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Cooperation and networking among a variety of organisations for the purpose of research, projects, and other activities ranges from ad hoc to long term organisational relationships, formalised or based on informal cooperation. Although informality is frequently much valued and drives organisations to partner on substance rather than bureaucracy, formalisation of networks and cooperation might be indispensible for effective partnerships and activities, as well as representation of mutual interests beyond the national level. How shall such networks be formalised at European and/or national levels so that they are flexible enough, involve minimum bureaucracy, and engage the maximum scope of possible activities? This article focuses on the analysis of possible legal structures facilitating the work of a group of entities and individuals engaged in cross-border activities. This study examines the potential of national legal opportunities in five countries: Belgium, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and the Netherlands, and the proven legal form of EEIG in reducing the barriers for cooperation, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of these legal forms for a formalized network and the purposes it serves.","PeriodicalId":38764,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Journal of Law and Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42625446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Regional Courts as Judicial Brakes?","authors":"Katrin Nyman Metcalf, Ioannis Papageorgiou","doi":"10.1515/bjlp-2017-0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2017-0016","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The article examines how regional integration courts can act as judicial brakes, at a time when “constitutional coups” – leaders staying in power past constitutional time limits or other forms of actions against the spirit if not always the letter of the constitution – are alarmingly common. The article discusses how regional courts can be used to modify or protect national rule of law and the constitutional order from the outside (i.e. from the regional integration aspect) and the extent to which this can be valid particularly to promote a uniform interpretation and application of human rights. Although this trend is visible in Europe, it is more striking, because less expected, on other continents, in particular Africa and the Americas, where the developments take place in less than perfect democratic environments. The article contains evidence from cases dealt with in the various regional courts, supporting that a system of political and judicial oversight, especially in regions with weak or fragile democratic systems, can be a useful addition to national judicial or other mechanisms of protection of rule of law and control of the executive. Action by regional courts helps defeat perceptions of majoritarian politics, which in many countries allow for the winner to take all. Under a system of regional oversight, states become aware of the limits they themselves have set and citizens become aware of their possibilities to challenge political power.","PeriodicalId":38764,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Journal of Law and Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41652540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Protection of Legitimate Expectations in Administrative Law: A Horizontal Perspective","authors":"Jerzy Parchomiuk","doi":"10.1515/bjlp-2017-0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2017-0010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The term “protection of legitimate expectations” in administrative law traditionally draws our attention to vertical relationships between the State and an individual. In my text I propose a non-traditional approach to the issue of protection of legitimate expectations in administrative law. Instead of analysing the problem from the perspective of the relationship between the administrative body and the individual, I have attempted to tackle the problem from the perspective of entities involved in peer relationships. The subject of my analysis is the principle of good faith as the axiological foundation for the protection of legitimate expectations in administrative law. Next the article addresses the specific legal institutions that express the protection of legitimate expectations in horizontal perspective: prohibition to make assertions contradictory to prior position (estoppel), institutions that express the protection of legitimate expectations in administrative contracts, as well as the principle of good faith in relationship between administrative bodies. The principle of good faith is a universal legal construct that forms the foundation of the legal system. Thus it is applicable in the sphere of administrative law, especially in the case of the relationship between equal-level entities.","PeriodicalId":38764,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Journal of Law and Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42162092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Website Operators’ Liability for Offensive Comments: A Comparative Analysis of Delfi as v. Estonia and MTE & Index v. Hungary","authors":"Jūratė Šidlauskienė, Vaidas Jurkevičius","doi":"10.1515/bjlp-2017-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2017-0012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In 2013 and 2015, the ECtHR in the famous case of Delfi AS v. Estonia recognised the possibility for a website operator to be liable for the delayed removal of illegal comments of internet users. In this case the ECtHR formulated criteria for a website operator’s liability for damage caused to a third party by its visitor comments. The judgment of 2016 in the case of MTE & Index v. Hungary the ECtHR modified the criteria for a website operator’s liability, interpreting it to the benefit of web managers. This article seeks to reveal the criteria for the liability of a website operator and to draw some general guidance that can be applied in similar cases.","PeriodicalId":38764,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Journal of Law and Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49525443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Regulation of Unmanned Aerial Systems and Related Privacy Issues in Lithuania","authors":"Aurelija Pūraitė, Daiva Bereikienė, Neringa Šilinskė","doi":"10.1515/bjlp-2017-0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2017-0014","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the past few years the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in Lithuania has significantly increased. However, enjoying the advantages of this technology, which improves society’s socio-economical safety (public safety in a broad sense), raises some privacy concerns. This article analyses European Union and national legal regulations regarding the use of unmanned aerial vehicles as well as legal tools for defence of the right to privacy or prevention from its breaches in the Republic of Lithuania. Unmanned aerial vehicles have become popular only recently; thus, legislation regarding their use has not yet become a common topic among lawyers. Furthermore, case law of the Republic of Lithuania is silent about it. Thus, the authors model a situation of breach of privacy using an unmanned aerial vehicle and analyse possible defence mechanisms.","PeriodicalId":38764,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Journal of Law and Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43357802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}