Previous research has indicated that disparities in sentencing exist within legal systems depending on social characteristics such as ethnicity, gender, and age. The purpose of this study is to investigate what kind of disparities in sentencing are present within the Swedish legal system. It hypothesizes that variations in sentencing are affected by stereotypical perceptions of offenders in regard to ethnicity, gender, and age as well as a legal system that is governed by Swedish norms and values. The data of the study derive from 164 previous convictions from the 2017 issue of Stockholm’s Tingsrätt. The data were analyzed through Ordinary Least Square analysis (OLS) and binary analysis to identify the best predictor of ethnicity, gender, and age in sentencing outcomes as well as examine interaction effects within the social groups. The results of the study are in line with those of previous research and illustrate tendencies toward disparities in sentencing outcomes depending on the social characteristics of ethnicity, gender, and age. In addition, the interaction effects indicate that the social features of youth, non- Swedish nationality, and male gender in combination reflected the highest risk of harsh sentencing compared to other combinations. Sentencing disparities are arguably outcomes of stereotypical perceptions of offenders and an “ethnically” Swedish legal system that is governed by Swedish norms and values. Further research is required to enhance knowledge of disparities in sentencing due to the effect of an “ethnically” Swedish legal system. Such research is needed to determine how provisions that concern equality can become actual conditions.

This thesis examines the effect of combating of human trafficking as a crime. Special emphasis has been placed on forced labour and the rights of trafficked victims and their protection. The study explores various legislations undertaken at regional, national and international levels and considers rights of trafficked victims under international human rights and Islamic rights. The aim of the thesis is to provide a critical and comparative analysis of the legal systems of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Kingdom (UK) in terms of human trafficking. The thesis consists of eight chapter; each covering a different aspect of the study. It begins by providing background information regarding the issue of human trafficking and proceeds to examine developments of legal frameworks across the two jurisdictions to combat this crime and penalize the criminals. It seeks to examine the legal system pertaining to human trafficking for forced labour and analyse the three distinct platforms, that is, prevention, protection, and punishment, by comparing the legal systems of the KSA and the UK. The examination of both countries aims to identify the strength and weaknesses of the KSA system as compared to the UK system. Thus, it concludes that the KSA can improve its ranking from Tier 2 watch list to Tier 1 if reforms are introduced in the legislation and enforcement domains. The study also demonstrates how the UK and the KSA portray ‘human trafficking’ in their regional laws. A problem often faced during the information-gathering and investigation stages is the lack of available evidence against traffickers, a particular issue in the KSA. The thesis concludes that the transnational aspect of this phenomenon makes it necessary to establish a thorough and comprehensive legal framework to cover all matters pertaining to this crime, including the protection of victims and punishment of criminals in the KSA and the UK, including immigration and ‘kafala’ strategies that may be of value in future researches.

Doc. dr. J.Machovenko habilitacijos procedūrai pateiktoje mokslo darbų apžvalgoje „XIII-XX a. Lietuvos teisinės sistemos istorija“ apibendrinami 1999-2009 m. VU Teisės fakultete atliktų tyrimų rezultatai, paskelbti 2 mokslo monografijose ir 20 mokslo straipsnių. Šių tyrimų metodologinis pagrindas yra sociologinė teisės samprata, leidžianti į teisę žvelgti ne tik kaip į pozityviosios teisės normų visumą, bet ir kaip į kur kas platesnį socialinį reiškinį - teisinę visuomenės sistemą. Autorius laiko teisinę sistemą autonomine visuomenės, kaip savavaldės sistemos, subsistema, gebančia savarankiškai nustatyti savo vidinę raidą, kad galėtų tinkamai atlikti jai aukštesnės sistemos priskirtas funkcijas. Pagrindinėmis funkcinėmis teisinės sistemos subsistemomis autorius laiko teisėkūros (institucijų ir procedūrų, teisės normų ir jų šaltinių), jurisdikcijos (teisės taikymo) ir jurisprudencijos (teisės pažinimo bei mokymo) subsistemą. Apžvelgiami darbai apima visų trijų Lietuvos teisinės sistemos subsistemų problematiką. Remdamasis gausiais istorijos šaltiniais, Lietuvoje ir užsienyje paskelbtais mokslo darbais, autorius kompleksiškai nagrinėja nesulaukusius atidesnio teisės istorikų dėmesio klausimus. Lietuvos teisinės sistemos elementai tiriami Vakarų teisės tradicijos, kurioje susiformavo ir plėtojasi Lietuvos teisinė sistema, istorijos kontekstu. Autorius supranta teisės istoriją kaip tam tikriems dėsningumams pavaldų kryptingą įprasmintą teisės „įkopimą“ į kokybiškai vis aukštesnį... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In the present work the author reviews the two scientific monographs and twenty scientific articles in which the history of the Lithuanian legal system is investigated. The author aspires to elucidate how did the main subsystems of the Lithuanian legal system – legislation, jurisdiction and jurisprudence – appeared and developed up to the end of the 20th century in the context of evolution of the Western legal tradition. The basic methods of research used in the works are historical, comparative and teleological. The main theses of the reviewed scientific monographs and articles are these: The law of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) was created by the Government on the basis of the national Lithuanian law and some elements of the custom Slav law. Substitution of the custom Slav law for the Lithuanian public and private law took place in those provinces in the 14th-16th centuries. The custom Slav law hampered forming of the system of law of the GDL. It was created finally in the middle of the 16th century. The law of the GDL was a medieval estate law. Estate is a legal phenomenon and law determines signs and features of any estate. Main sign of any estate is rights leaved to him by law and protected by state. Estate system, that is an organization of society into classes rigidly divided for political purposes and defined primarily by law, is based on a legal inequality of estates. Any estate is a stable order closed to outsiders. In order to belong to estate any person must... [to full text]

Several studies have examined the effect of gang affiliation on jury decision-making. However, none of such studies have examined how jurors perceive female gang members in the legal system, and how such perceptions may differ based on the geographic location of jurors. In the proposed study, jury-eligible participants from Chicago or Los Angeles will read a vignette about a gang member defendant, whose race and gender will vary. After reading the vignette, participants will be asked about the defendant’s guilt, sentence length, verdict confidence, aggression, and their familiarity with gang laws. It is hypothesized that while male gang members will be perceived as guiltier than females, they will receive shorter sentences. Additionally, while racial minority gang members will be perceived as guiltier, they will receive shorter sentences. Lastly, given the differing racial compositions of Chicago and Los Angeles, the combined effect of race and location will be examined on jury decision-making. These results may help in further understanding how certain types of gangs are perceived, and how these perceptions shape the legal outcomes of gang members.

There are two tasks of this dissertation. Firstly, it will make a contribution from a theoretical perspective. Some Western scholars conclude that rules and institutions transplanted from Western jurisdictions have not worked well in the Chinese legal system so far. This is because the level of consistency between the transplanted rules or institutions and the local context is still at a low level. However, this dissertation takes a different position. By solving a series of unanswered questions, it will make a theoretical contribution to the scholarship on comparative corporate governance in the context of the transitional economy. By and large, it will answer the question: "why can China, as representative of a transitional economy, not escape from the faith of legal transplant in its legal reform of corporate governance". Secondly, this dissertation will make a contribution from a practical perspective. Many Chinese lawyers and Western scholars complain that Chinese company law is suffering deeply from the problem of ambiguity. Indeed, it is poorly and inconsistently drafted. There is, nevertheless, no systematic study on how to solve this problem in a pragmatic manner. In light of the proposed theoretical research, this dissertation will provide an important response on this issue. It rebuilds the director's fiduciary duties and shareholder's fiduciary duties by inserting some workable legal rules from the UK into the existing legal regime in China.

The purpose of this thesis named 'Civil procedure in continental law and the Anglo- American legal system' is to provide an overview of the regulation of civil procedure in both mentioned systems, to compare them, highlight the most significant differences between them, and give the information about their convergence on international, mainly European level. The reason for the choice of this topic was my interest in the field of Civil Procedure, but also my belief in the benefit of comparisons of various legal orders in favour of improving them. Because of the on-going process of introducing uniform arrangements of some institutes of civil procedure on the European level, it is undoubtedly useful to compare national legislations in some respective countries. The research is based on study of legislation in Czech Republic and Germany as representatives of the continental system and in particular England and Wales as representatives of the Anglo-Saxon system. A shorter chapter is also devoted to U.S. law. There are aims of the thesis, methods of research and brief structure described in the introduction. The second chapter deals with the explanation of basics concepts necessary for proper understanding of the research. The third chapter is devoted to brief sketch of the history of civil procedure in...

The purpose of this paper is to observe and analyze whether the value system and political structure of a nation, gauged through its legal configuration, impacts its response to IMF debt and consequently impacts its GDP growth rates. This paper also analyzes whether involvement in the fund through a loan relationship affects the country’s real interest rate, inflation, exchange rate and import and export volume and whether this relationship is causal in that we can explain a nation’s loan relationship with the Fund through observance of the aforementioned variables. In this paper, we observe 34 emerging markets as defined by Dow Jones in 2010. The general consensus of the literature is that participation in IMF loan programs retards the economic growth of developing economies. In light of this, the contribution of this paper is to illustrate that some of the slowed growth experienced by these countries seeking out IMF debt is explained by their value system and general attitude toward debt. To carry out a comparable analysis we segment and group the emerging markets based on their current credit status with the IMF (as of Oct 2012) as well as by the origin of their legal system, a measure we use to assess their value system with respect to creditor and debt protection laws. We will observe the growth rates that these countries’ economies experience categorized by their involvement with the Fund, the amount of their loan and whether they fully repaid their debt or are currently indebted to the Fund. We will also identify the size and frequency of the loan in order to observe the impact that these variables have on the delayed growth rates that they experience. Furthermore, we will examine the impact on their GDP growth rates, imports of goods and services, inflation, exchange rates and real interest rates. We expect to find that there is not a generic relationship between involvement in a loan relationship with the Fund and GDP growth rates. In other words, having a loan from the IMF does not directly result in delayed growth rates, contrary to popular belief. However, we hypothesize that the legal system of the borrowing countries is an explanatory variable in determining their growth rates, alongside their loan relationship with the Fund. In addition, we expect to find empirical evidence that supports the claim that inappropriate and unmonitored involvement in the Fund can adversely affect emerging markets. Inappropriate and unmonitored involved is measured in this paper by the borrowers creditor and debtor protection laws. We aim to expand the current line of literature by analyzing whether a decline in economic growth prior to completion of an IMF loan program is a generic attribute of all participants or whether these traits are more pronounced in countries with a more unmonitored business and economic legal system.

El presente trabajo de investigación, tiene como premisa principal el análisis de la libertad testamentaria en el Perú, es decir, los limites que se encuentran contemplados en nuestro ordenamiento jurídico así como su posible modificación o eliminación. Teniendo ello en consideración, dicho análisis será realizado en seis capítulos. El primer capítulo versara sobre la Libertad para Testar y contendrá el marco conceptual necesario para entender el tema de fondo. El segundo capítulo tratara sobre la legítima y la porción de libre disposición así como la finalidad, naturaleza y fundamentación. Por otro lado el tercer capítulo contendrá los límites que existen en nuestro ordenamiento jurídico. Por su parte, el cuarto capítulo contendrá jurisprudencia tanto nacional como internacional referente a la materia sucesoria materia del presente trabajo. En concordancia con ello, el quinto capítulo realizara un análisis a fondo de lo plasmado en los capítulos anteriores y contara además con la propuesta que se considere necesaria establecer como modificación de la normativa. Finalmente, en el sexto y último capítulo, se apreciaran las conclusiones y sugerencias que se puedan hacer sobre el tema. / The following thesis, has as its main purpose the analysis of the freedom of will in Peru, ergo, the limits that legally exist in our legal system and therefore its possible modification or elimination. Having that in consideration the analysis made in this thesis will be divided in six chapters. The first of these chapters will be about the freedom of will and the main concepts, required to understand the thesis. The second chapter will be about the concept of “legitima” and the concept of free disposition, its purpose, nature and foundation. On the other hand, the third chapter will be about the limits that exist in our legal system. Likewise, the fourth chapter will verse about both national and international jurisprudence. In accordance with all mention above, the fifth chapter will make a deep analysis of the previous chapters ant therefore will contain the proposal of a modification to our legal system. Lastly, the sixth chapter will contain the conclusions of the thesis. / Tesis

Le résumé en français n'a pas été communiqué par l'auteur. / Le résumé en anglais n'a pas été communiqué par l'auteur.

Submitted by Mariana Dornelles Vargas (marianadv) on 2015-06-08T14:08:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 indeterminacao_social.pdf: 1716414 bytes, checksum: d51db9c9c4bfb96fb399ec9685e84901 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-08T14:08:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 indeterminacao_social.pdf: 1716414 bytes, checksum: d51db9c9c4bfb96fb399ec9685e84901 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-09-01 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O presente trabalho se apresenta como uma proposta de observação das relações (in)existentes entre indeterminação social, teoria das organizações e decisão jurídica. Para tanto, adotar-se-á como referencial teórico o pensamento do sociólogo alemão Niklas Luhmann, cuja obra efetua desdobramentos nos três temas referidos. Num primeiro momento, a pesquisa procura analisar a formação do paradigma da indeterminação social, que surge ao longo do século XX a partir da emergência de novas epistemologias construtivistas que acabam por questionar os pressupostos do modelo científico herdado da modernidade. Neste momento, procurar-se-á posicionar a sociologia de Niklas Luhmann como a primeira teoria pós-ontológica, bem como a sua relevância para a formação de uma teoria social suficientemente complexa e apta a observar a sociedade contemporânea. Posteriormente, procurar-se-á expor a co-relação existente entre a formação de organizações sociais e a necessidade de assimilação de contextos altamente contingenciais, isto é, defenderemos a tese luhmanniana de que as organizações surgem como aquisições evolutivas voltadas para absorção de incertezas sociais. Essa concepção parte da ideia de que as organizações sociais são constituídas por processos de tomada de decisão e, ao mesmo tempo, os viabiliza. Por fim, descrever-se-á algumas das principais teorias da decisão jurídica, com o escopo de demonstrar um possível desencontro entre a sustentação epistemológica destas, e a contribuição da teoria das organizações. Dessa forma, pretendemos comprovar a manutenção de muitos dos pressupostos do individualismo metodológico nas teorias da decisão jurídica contemporâneas e, portanto, uma desconexão destas com os avanços ofertados pela sociologia das organizações, em especial, na acepção autopoiética de Niklas Luhmann. / This paper presents a proposal for observation of the relationship (in)exisisting between social uncertainty, organizational theory and legal decision. To do so, will adopt the theoretical thinking of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmannn, who work possessed developments in these three areas, thus facilitating the articulation and development. Initially, the research seeks to analyze the formation of the paradigm of social uncertainty, which arises during the twentieth century with the emergence of new constructivist epistemologies, that questioning the assumptions of the scientific model inherited from modernity. At this time it will seek to position the sociology of Niklas Luhmann as the first modern post-ontological theory and its relevance to the formation of a social theory complex enough to observe the shape of today's society. In the second part, it will expose the correlation between the formation of social organizations and the need for assimilation contexts highly contingent, that is, an attempt will be to defend the thesis luhmannian organizations to emerge as evolutionary acquisitions aimed at absorbing social uncertainty. This concept starts from the idea that social organizations are formed, and at the same time, enable processes of decision making. Finally, it will describe some of the main theories of legal decision, with the scope to demonstrate a possible mismatch between these epistemological support and contribution of organization theory. This way it will can prove the maintenance of many of the assumptions of methodological individualism in contemporary legal Comp's decision, and its disconnection from the advances offered by the sociology of organizations, particularly in the sense of Niklas Luhmann’s autopoietic.