The legalization of marijuana in Canada represents a significant change in the course of Canadian drug policy. Using a semiotic approach based on the work of Roland Barthes, this dissertation explores marijuana’s signification within the House of Commons and Senate debates between 1891 and 2018. When examined through this conceptual lens, the ongoing parliamentary debates about marijuana over the last 127 years are revealed to be rife with what Barthes referred to as myths, ideas that have become so familiar that they cease to be recognized as constructions and appear innocent and natural. Exploring one such myth—the necessity of asserting “paternal power” over individuals deemed incapable of rational calculation—this dissertation demonstrates that the processes of political debate and law-making are also a complex “politics of signification” in which myths are continually being invoked, (re)produced, and (re)transmitted. The evolution of this myth is traced to the contemporary era and it is shown that recent attempts to criminalize, decriminalize, and legalize marijuana are indices of a process of juridification that is entrenching legal regulation into increasingly new areas of Canadian life in order to assert greater control over the consumption of marijuana and, importantly, over the risks that this activity has been semiologically associated with. Although the government’s legalization decision seems to be a liberalization of drug policy at odds with processes of juridification, it is shown that legalization’s transformation of irrational and criminal marijuana users into legitimate consumers subject to a strict regulatory framework is entirely compatible with a neo-liberal perspective that is saturated by the myth of irrationality and the necessity of paternal power. The reaching of this counterintuitive conclusion helps demonstrate this dissertation’s primary contribution: the illustration of the value of Barthesian semiotics as a means of producing new and alternative insights into seemingly familiar criminological issues.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O início da década passada foi marcado por um importante evento relacionado ao tratamento das questões urbanas no Brasil. Em dez de julho de 2001, foi promulgada a Lei Federal n 10.257, conhecida como Estatuto da Cidade, que regulamenta o capítulo da política urbana da Constituição de 1988. O Estatuto da Cidade provê suporte legal consistente para aquelas municipalidades comprometidas com o enfrentamento dos problemas sociais e urbanos que afetam diariamente as condições de vida dos habitantes das cidades. São princípios que o norteiam: a função social da propriedade e a gestão democrática das cidades. A lei, que tramitou por mais de dez anos no Congresso Nacional, pode ser vista como uma conquista de um movimento multissetorial de escopo nacional que vem lutando há décadas pela causa da reforma urbana e pela criação de um marco regulatório federal para a política urbana. São objetivos desta tese investigar o processo que levou à promulgação dessa lei, bem como seus impactos já observáveis. Ao tratar desse processo, o estudo aqui proposto se insere no campo das análises sobre a relação entre a sociedade civil e o Estado, refletindo sobre as formas como as demandas sociais são processadas na esfera pública e causam impactos nas ações do poder público. Além disso, uma vez que aborda a transformação de uma demanda em legislação, esta tese inclui-se na área de estudos da juridificação das relações sociais, observando o Estatuto da Cidade a partir de referenciais teóricos que tratam de um processo amplo de inclusão de mais e mais áreas da vida ao rol dos temas justiciáveis. Busca-se, assim, lançar um olhar sobre os limites e potencialidades da interação entre sociedade civil e Estado e tratar das possibilidades de leis que tratam de direitos sociais alcançarem força normativa em um país marcado por profundas desigualdades. Para a consecução deste trabalho, procedeu-se a uma revisão da literatura sobre os movimentos por acesso a moradia e infraestrutura urbana e o movimento pela reforma urbana no Brasil; à leitura de documentos produzidos pelo Fórum Nacional de Reforma Urbana e de publicações de entidades ligadas ao Fórum notadamente do Instituto Pólis e da Federação de Órgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional (FASE); e à realização de entrevistas com atores envolvidos com a luta pela reforma urbana. Visando a, de alguma forma, medir os impactos do Estatuto da Cidade, recorreu-se ao estudo dos planos diretores feitos ao longo da última década no país sob a égide da Lei n 10.257. A fonte básica consultada foi o material produzido sobre a elaboração e aplicação dos planos diretores em cidades de todos os estados brasileiros no projeto Rede de Avaliação e Capacitação para a Implementação dos Planos Diretores Participativos. Fez-se também uma análise de decisões judiciais que envolviam os preceitos previstos no Estatuto da Cidade, obtidas junto aos sites dos tribunais de justiça estaduais e da Justiça Federal. / The beginning of the last decade was marked by an important event in the realm of the treatment of urban problems in Brazil. In July of 2001 the Federal Act number 10.257, known as City Statute, was enacted. The act provides the legal basis for city governments committed to face the urban and social problems that affect its inhabitants. The two main principles of this act are the social function of land property and democratic urban management. The act, which took more than ten years to be approved by the federal congress, can be seen as an achievement of a multisectoral social movement of national scope, which fought for decades for the cause of the urban reform and for the creation of a federal regulation for urban policy. In this thesis we discuss the process that leads to the enactment of the act, as well as analyze its impacts. In so doing, this thesis aims to contribute to the major debate about the relationship between civil society and the state, discussing the ways social demands are processed in the public sphere and impact on the actions of the public authority. Insofar as it also addresses the transformation of a social demand into a legislation, the proposed discussion places itself in the field of studies of the juridification of social relations. It analyses the City Statute based on theories that deal with a broad process of inclusion of more and more areas of social life to the cathalog of justiciable themes. The aim is to shed a light on the limits and potentialities of the interaction among civil society and the state and address the possibilities of acts related to social rights, in order to achieve normative power in a nation coined by deep social inequalities. The execution of this thesis included the following steps: review of the literature on the theme; analysis of documents produced by the Fórum Nacional de Reforma Urbana and the associations connected to this Fórum, such as Instituto Pólis and Federação de Órgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional (FASE); interviews with actors involved with the urban reform movement; analysis of city master plans aproved after the enaction of the City Statute; and analysis of court rulings mentioning the City Statute.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O início da década passada foi marcado por um importante evento relacionado ao tratamento das questões urbanas no Brasil. Em dez de julho de 2001, foi promulgada a Lei Federal n 10.257, conhecida como Estatuto da Cidade, que regulamenta o capítulo da política urbana da Constituição de 1988. O Estatuto da Cidade provê suporte legal consistente para aquelas municipalidades comprometidas com o enfrentamento dos problemas sociais e urbanos que afetam diariamente as condições de vida dos habitantes das cidades. São princípios que o norteiam: a função social da propriedade e a gestão democrática das cidades. A lei, que tramitou por mais de dez anos no Congresso Nacional, pode ser vista como uma conquista de um movimento multissetorial de escopo nacional que vem lutando há décadas pela causa da reforma urbana e pela criação de um marco regulatório federal para a política urbana. São objetivos desta tese investigar o processo que levou à promulgação dessa lei, bem como seus impactos já observáveis. Ao tratar desse processo, o estudo aqui proposto se insere no campo das análises sobre a relação entre a sociedade civil e o Estado, refletindo sobre as formas como as demandas sociais são processadas na esfera pública e causam impactos nas ações do poder público. Além disso, uma vez que aborda a transformação de uma demanda em legislação, esta tese inclui-se na área de estudos da juridificação das relações sociais, observando o Estatuto da Cidade a partir de referenciais teóricos que tratam de um processo amplo de inclusão de mais e mais áreas da vida ao rol dos temas justiciáveis. Busca-se, assim, lançar um olhar sobre os limites e potencialidades da interação entre sociedade civil e Estado e tratar das possibilidades de leis que tratam de direitos sociais alcançarem força normativa em um país marcado por profundas desigualdades. Para a consecução deste trabalho, procedeu-se a uma revisão da literatura sobre os movimentos por acesso a moradia e infraestrutura urbana e o movimento pela reforma urbana no Brasil; à leitura de documentos produzidos pelo Fórum Nacional de Reforma Urbana e de publicações de entidades ligadas ao Fórum notadamente do Instituto Pólis e da Federação de Órgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional (FASE); e à realização de entrevistas com atores envolvidos com a luta pela reforma urbana. Visando a, de alguma forma, medir os impactos do Estatuto da Cidade, recorreu-se ao estudo dos planos diretores feitos ao longo da última década no país sob a égide da Lei n 10.257. A fonte básica consultada foi o material produzido sobre a elaboração e aplicação dos planos diretores em cidades de todos os estados brasileiros no projeto Rede de Avaliação e Capacitação para a Implementação dos Planos Diretores Participativos. Fez-se também uma análise de decisões judiciais que envolviam os preceitos previstos no Estatuto da Cidade, obtidas junto aos sites dos tribunais de justiça estaduais e da Justiça Federal. / The beginning of the last decade was marked by an important event in the realm of the treatment of urban problems in Brazil. In July of 2001 the Federal Act number 10.257, known as City Statute, was enacted. The act provides the legal basis for city governments committed to face the urban and social problems that affect its inhabitants. The two main principles of this act are the social function of land property and democratic urban management. The act, which took more than ten years to be approved by the federal congress, can be seen as an achievement of a multisectoral social movement of national scope, which fought for decades for the cause of the urban reform and for the creation of a federal regulation for urban policy. In this thesis we discuss the process that leads to the enactment of the act, as well as analyze its impacts. In so doing, this thesis aims to contribute to the major debate about the relationship between civil society and the state, discussing the ways social demands are processed in the public sphere and impact on the actions of the public authority. Insofar as it also addresses the transformation of a social demand into a legislation, the proposed discussion places itself in the field of studies of the juridification of social relations. It analyses the City Statute based on theories that deal with a broad process of inclusion of more and more areas of social life to the cathalog of justiciable themes. The aim is to shed a light on the limits and potentialities of the interaction among civil society and the state and address the possibilities of acts related to social rights, in order to achieve normative power in a nation coined by deep social inequalities. The execution of this thesis included the following steps: review of the literature on the theme; analysis of documents produced by the Fórum Nacional de Reforma Urbana and the associations connected to this Fórum, such as Instituto Pólis and Federação de Órgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional (FASE); interviews with actors involved with the urban reform movement; analysis of city master plans aproved after the enaction of the City Statute; and analysis of court rulings mentioning the City Statute.

The last two decades have witnessed a period of constitutional change without precedent in the United Kingdom’s contemporary history, and prominent constitutionalists have suggested that these transformations signified primarily a legalisation of the British constitutional settlement. The present research hence offers a review of the most salient and impactful instances of constitutional change since 1997 with the aim of assessing in what ways the UK could be transitioning from a more political to a more legal constitutional framework. It highlights a greater reliance on legal devices to regulate constitutional processes and more frequent resort to judicial mechanisms of constitutional control. Indeed, the virtual entrenchment of various classes of norms (ECHR rights, common law constitutional rights and principles, Thoburn-‘constitutional statutes’) suggests the formation in British public law of a ‘bloc de constitutionnalité’ that could serve as basis for increasingly genuine forms of constitutional review. Concurrently, British courts are performing more of the functions of constitutional courts and appear willing to assume the role of constitutional guardian ascribed to the judiciary in a legal-constitutional model. Overall, the political constitution and its core principle of parliamentary sovereignty seem to be under challenge, particularly in judicial and jurisprudential debates grounded in the influential theory of common law constitutionalism. We therefore argue that the British constitution can no longer be described as exclusively ‘political’ and that there is at least some evidence of a trend towards legal constitutionalism in the UK.

Three years after the Bosman case, it was decided that a socio-cultural approach on sports be introduced in Europe. EU presented a formulation for the same purpose – The European Model of Sport. The purpose of this formula was to maintain the socio-culture and traditional ap¬proach to all kinds of amateur and professional sports in Europe. If we were to com¬pare this model with the American model of sport, it shows many different ways of thinking in terms of organised sport. However, both models show that they have to adjust to the processes that are on-going in western societies. The development of civilisation, professionalisation, com-mer¬cialisation, commodification, and globalisation are all processes to which sports have to adjust.Because of the adjustments mentioned above, another process was introduced, this was called “ju¬ridification”, which is very prevalent today. The process of “juridification” involved all legalities in the sports system. The purpose of introducing this process was mainly to question the sports autonomy. The autonomy in sport defines itself as a self-regulator and is not part of the civil law. A ma¬jor part of the “ques¬tion¬ables” to the sports autonomy is, that sports of to-day have a symbiotic relationship with the media industry and the commercial market, which means that there is a huge in-flow of cash into elite sports. However, this has become a ques-tionable aspect, as to why sport should not be part of the competition law as any other busi-ness. As a result of this, several legal cases relating to sports are ending up in courts.EU has a divided and vague approach when it comes to handling these matters. On the one hand it de¬clares clearly that economic activities should be part of the EU law and on the other hand, if sports cases go to trial to the Competition Law, it would be decided on a case-to-case basis. In the US, pro¬fessional sports are part of the Common Law and their sports, had on a much earlier stage become involved with the judicial system. The American Model of Sport, have also a clear distinction be¬tween amateur and professional sports. Together, these two aspects show that the model in the US is bet¬ter adjusted to the present on-going processes in contempo¬rary societies.

The overall aim of the thesis is to explore legislators’ perceptions of unaccompanied children in the development of migration law, and how case-officers transform the policy in arguments for and against residency in asylum-cases. More specifically, this thesis explores how Swedish legislators experienced parliamentary work when putting in place the 2005 Aliens Act and the new system for appeals and procedures. In addition, it explores legislators understanding of the concept of unaccompanied minors, and how the Swedish Migration Agency (SMA) case-officers understand unaccompanied minors’ credibility. It draws on interview data with 15 legislators of the Swedish parliament and an analysis of 916 decisions in asylum cases concerning unaccompanied minors. The thesis is theoretically informed by interpretative phenomenology and social constructionism. The method used builds on detailed coding procedures in qualitative social research as they are applied in interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), thematic analysis and text analysis. Study 1 examines the experiences of 15 legislators when negotiating migration reform in parliament. The findings indicate that the preceding political negotiations can be one of the reasons for unclear aims when politicians’ propose new legislation. In addition, it seems that other policy areas, such as fiscal considerations and state-municipality relations, took precedence in the negotiations when the legislators were attempting to make sense of their experiences in discussing asylum policy. Study 2 explores legislators’ perceptions of unaccompanied minors arriving in Sweden. The findings show that chronological age is a key reference point concerning how legislators understand unaccompanied minors’ claims for asylum and other needs. In addition, the findings suggest that legislators perceive unaccompanied minors as an ambivalent category and that this understanding is influenced by deep-rooted welfare ideology. Furthermore, the findings indicate that legislators develop policy concerning unaccompanied children without considering that they need to be recognised as individuals with different backgrounds, agendas and needs. Study 3 scrutinises how SMA case-officers construct unaccompanied minors credibility in asylum decisions. It shows that case-officers use similar techniques both when approving and rejecting decisions. These techniques consistently question the competence and political agency of the chid in such a way that the element of individual assessment in asylum procedure can become severely restricted. In brief, this thesis identifies that the connection between migration and child policy is complex as legislators appear to struggle with “drawing the limits” of who to include or exclude in policy aims. Hence, the juridical field was seen as the answer to improve legitimation. This also means that the concept of asylum has become de-politicised. In addition, case-officers also seem to use a limited repertoire of arguments when drawing the limits for unaccompanied minors’ credibility in asylum decisions. This thesis points to possible dilemmas in asylum policy and procedure concerning unaccompanied minors. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Accepted. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

Social service’ information is crucial for a client’s possibilities to participate and influence. In this survey study we focus on the social workers’ relation to information:  What are the prerequisites for informing and how do they use their discretion? Previous research has shown communication problems due to insufficient or inadequate information material. Organizational support and social worker/client relationship have been shown as important factors for participation. The meaning and use of concepts such as participation and influence has also changed over time. No similar study has been carried out before, which makes the present study explorative. Through a mixed method questionnaire, we have tried to capture 125 respondents’ experiences of and attitudes to the clients' need for information. The study shows previously unidentified circumstances. One is that the vast amount of information provided to the client is perceived as a problem in itself. Another is the social workers’ emphasis on the clients’ understanding of the information. We perceive these circumstances as a sign of a juridification of social work, partly as a result of a cooptation process. Social service incorporate new elements in a way that strengthens the organisation's power at the expense of the street level bureaucrats’ discretion.

The past decades New Public Management (NPM) reforms in the public sector have changed how the mechanisms of accountability work. One type of reform is the privatization of public service provision. These services are today often procured with extensive regulations involved. Many academics argue, under the concept of juridification, that legal institutions have a bigger impact than policies in these activities today (Magnussen &amp; Nilssen, 2013; Blichner &amp; Molander, 2008; Laughlin &amp; Broadbent, 1993) and that the legal contract plays an important role in governing them (Camén, 2011; Brown &amp; Potoski, 2005). In this study we explore how the actors involved in provision of public services perceive accountability. We do this by investigating how politicians, civil servants and service providers involved in the provision of public bus services in Sweden perceive their roles, the procurement regulations’ roles and the legal contracts’ roles. We conclude that, in the case where the service provider is a private company, the legal contract plays an important role in how the accountability is perceived by the actors involved. Further research is needed to see if our results also apply to the contexts of other provisions of public services.

Despite being similarly concerned with the legitimacy of law under conditions of diversity, political and legal theorists currently seem to differ significantly in the role they would reserve for religious reasons in public decision-making processes. Religious arguments that would generally be considered inappropriate if not inadmissible in a courtroom are increasingly viewed as acceptable and even desirable contributions to debate in the political public sphere. The author argues that the existence of this disconnect can be explained by the special challenges that religion poses for constitutional adjudication which in turn should inform our understanding of the judicial decision-making function. Constraints inherent to constitutional courts that make them effective institutions for concrete dispute resolution significantly limit their ability to engage seriously with the normative challenges posed by religious diversity. We should thus properly understand the role of constitutional adjudication as peripheral in matters of public policy that intersect with questions of religious difference. / Graduate

A study of silences: as a metaphysics of the law, juridification silences the text of the law in order to enable an allegorical reading of the law. This silencing of the legal text can only be avoided through a non-metaphysical archaeological reading. Similarly, the programme of comparative labour law is silent at its most pivotal points, leaving some concerns of the programme indeterminate and indeterminable. As context, the dominant discourses of the labour law systems of the Federal Republic of Germany (Tarifautonomie), Great Britain (collective laizzesfaire) and South Africa (fairness) are identified and the agents of the jurisprudence (the courts) are briefly outlined. The silence operating within the phenomenology of the labour judiciary and the concept of a 'court' is also examined. The study then proceeds to read, in an archaeological manner, the industrial action jurisprudence in Germany, Great Britain and South Africa, such readings again yielding silences within the discourse of the law. The silences occurring throughout (and the resulting normative breaches in the rationality of the legal discourse) are the prerequisites for juridification, a process in terms of which the metajuridical standard is imported into the legal normative system and thereby rendered part of the archival discourse of the law. / LL.D.