In this article, the author tell us about the job of the constitutional judge and the importance that this takes in a context of crisis. Also, he highlights the conventionalization of law as the central task of constitutional judges. Likewise, he details the difficulties involved in this task and the challenges to be faced for the consolidation of a common law in Latin America. / En el presente artículo el autor nos habla sobre la labor del juez constitucional y la importancia que adquiere está en un contexto de crisis. Asimismo, resalta la convencionalización del Derecho como tarea central de los jueces constitucionales. De igual manera, detalla las dificultades que acarrea esta tarea y los retos a enfrentar para la consolidación de un derecho común en América Latina.

A presente tese examina o papel do precedente judicial no sistema processual brasileiro, à luz das recentes reformas introduzidas na legislação, constitucional e infraconstitucional, com o duplo objetivo de dotar o precedente de maior valor e de uniformizar a jurisprudência, as quais demonstram que o momento é de desconstrução de paradigmas. Após delimitar o tema e discorrer sobre a sua importância, traçamos as premissas essenciais do estudo, definindo o que seja precedente judicial e jurisprudência, identificando as funções da jurisprudência e analisando a importância de uniformizá-la, para o fim de garantir maior isonomia e segurança jurídica aos jurisdicionados e de diminuir o tempo do litígio (CAPÍTULO 1). Em seguida, fazemos uma breve abordagem do assunto do ponto de vista histórico (CAPÍTULO 2) e sob a perspectiva da common law (CAPÍTULO 3). Passamos então para os dois capítulos centrais da tese. Analisamos o papel do precedente judicial no atual ordenamento, de acordo com a sua carga de eficácia, a saber, vinculante, quase vinculante e persuasiva (CAPÍTULO 4); e examinamos os demais meios de uniformização da jurisprudência, focando inclusive no problema dos Juizados Especiais Estaduais e Federais (CAPÍTULO 5). Finalmente, discorremos acerca de nossas conclusões, demonstrando que, apesar de o precedente judicial e a jurisprudência desempenharem papel relevante no nosso ordenamento (que configura um verdadeiro sistema misto, em que a lei reina, mas a jurisprudência governa), não há ainda premissas muito bem definidas, sendo necessárias alterações, de lege lata e de lege ferenda, para que seja conferido tratamento sistemático e harmônico ao assunto. / The present thesis analyzes the judicial precedent role within the Brazilian procedural system, in light of the recent reforms introduced in the legislation, either constitutional or infraconstitutional, with an aim at adding value to the precedent and standardizing jurisprudence, both of which make it evident that this is the moment for unbuilding of paradigms. After delimitating the matter and discussing its importance, we have outlined the assumptions which are essential for the study, defining what judicial precedent and jurisprudence are, identifying the functions of jurisprudence and analyzing the importance of standardizing it, so as to ensure greater isonomy and judicial assurance to those who are granted a jurisdiction and to reduce the litigation time (CHAPTER 1). Following, we have briefly approached the matter under a historical point of view (CHAPTER 2) and under the perspective of the common law (CHAPTER 3). And then we went to the two core chapters of the thesis. We have analyzed the role that the judicial precedent plays in the existing legal system, in accordance with its effectiveness, that is, binding, almost binding and persuasive (CHAPTER 4); and examined the other means for standardization of jurisprudence, with focus including on the issue of State and Federal Special Courts (CHAPTER 5). Finally, we have explained our conclusions, showing that, despite the judicial precedent and jurisprudence playing a relevant role in our legal system (which constitutes a real mixed system, where the law reigns, but the jurisprudence governs), there are no well-defined assumptions, yet, a few adjustments being necessary, lege lata and lege ferenda, so that a systematic and harmonic treatment can be given to the matter

This thesis aims to define the differences between the concept of self-defense under the criminal law of the Czech Republic and the United States of America, to assess their practical implications and propose possible recommendations de lege ferenda for the Czech legislation. Within the United States, the thesis further distinguishes between the concept of self-defense under the common law and the so-called Model Criminal Code, which together with the common law represents one of the most important sources of US criminal law. The thesis first compares the differences between the Continental and Anglo-American legal system, from which the respective national legal systems derive. Next part of the thesis further characterizes the Czech and American legal system, especially with regard to the status of criminal law and the role of jurisprudence within it. Particular attention is paid to the division of US legal system into federal and state, and the related issues of the organization of the judiciary and the system of precedents between various judicial bodies. This part then further introduces the aforementioned Model Criminal Code, which presents a compilation of the views of high-profile experts in the field of criminal law regarding the ideal form of criminal substantive law in the United States....

LL.M. / This research is a comparative study of the provisions for guardianship and custody, including maintenance of the South African common law and customary law. In customary law the emphasis is on the law of the Bafokeng people which is a tribe chosen as group of the research. The purpose of this research is to analyze the provisions of guardianship, custody and maintenance applicable to these legal systems. The analysis is divided as follows: • Guardianship and custody: (i) during the marriage; after divorce; after death of parent(s); of an extra-marital child. • Maintenance of children: (i) during the marriage; after divorce; after death of parent(s); born outside marriage (extra-marital children). The objective is to highlight the similarities and differences between the provisions of these legal systems and to come up with the conclusion whether the one is more favourable than the other in catering for the needs and interests of its subjects. The conclusion will be governed by the following issues: • Which legal system caters for the interests of its subjects? • Which legal system accords with the provisions of the Constitution Act? • Which legal system protects the interests of the child best? Having come to that conclusion, the researcher aims at indicating laws which should be considered for reform.

Many common accounts of natural law understand it in opposition to modern social welfare theory. Contrary to that wisdom, this article shows  how many of the fixed landmarks of the common law, including its rules on individual autonomy and the definition and acquisition of private property, comport with the natural law tradition. t he modern welfarist positions only emerge through key decisions in nineteen century law, which then help explain the choice among three welfarist positions: Kaldor-Hicks, Pareto and a more rigorous standard that requires pro rata gains among all parties. this essay uses a transaction costs framework to explain the proper deployment of these three rules. / Diversas versiones comunes del derecho natural lo conciben en contraposición a la teoría moderna del bienestar social. Contrariamente a dicha concepción, este artículo evidencia cuántos de los hitos del derecho común, incluyendo sus reglas sobre la autonomía individual y la definición de la adquisición de la propiedad privada, concuerdan con la tradición del derecho natural. Las posturas modernas del bienestar emergen a través de decisiones clave en el derecho del siglo diecinueve, que ayudan a explicar la elección entre tres posturas de bienestar: Kaldor y Hicks, Pareto, y un estándar más riguroso que requiere ganancias a pro rata entre todas las partes. Este ensayo utiliza un marco basado en los costos de transacciónpara explicar el despliegue estratégico de estas tres reglas.

In this dissertation I analyse the transformation of the South African law on the warranty against latent defects. I trace the development from pre-classical Roman law through to the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (“the CPA”). Society’s ever-changing economic requirements and moral ideals serve as the driving forces behind these continuous legal developments. Under Roman law the rules on latent defects initially applied to the sale of slaves. In contrast, modern South African law, as per the CPA and the values of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, specifically aims to protect the most vulnerable members of South Africa’s unequal society. The conservative approach adopted by the judiciary when adjudicating contractual matters hinders the transformation of the law of sale. Legal rules and legal thinking which reinforce traditional distributive patterns require reconsideration if societal-wide change, as demanded by the Constitution, can be imagined and accomplished. If the economic role of the contract and its power to divide and (re)distribute wealth is viewed as important, the link between poverty and the contract, and by association the consumer agreement, cannot be ignored. Contracts, and specifically basic consumer and credit agreements, are often concluded in order to facilitate survival in our current social reality. The law as it relates to consumer protection and the sale of defective goods is directly related to the contract’s role in wealth distribution. Where sales agreements are in question, the unequal bargaining power of the parties can impede the purchaser/consumer even further. The consumer’s right to good quality and safe goods creates uncertainty regarding whether or not the seller’s liability under the common law warranty against latent defects may be excluded in instances where the CPA and the common law apply simultaneously. This uncertainty, if addressed as being part of the national project of transformative constitutionalism, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that the exclusion of the seller’s liability is, paradoxically, detrimental to the very subject that the CPA and Constitution aim to protect, namely the purchaser. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Private Law / LLM / Unrestricted

The Elizabethan poor laws stand as a great work from a dynamic period. How and why they were formulated have been questions which historians have asked for centuries. The discussions of these questions have varied, depending on the personal values and biases which each historian brought to this study. It is generally agreed that a very important function of the historian is interpretation. The study of history is not only a study of the events, but a study of the historians and their differing interpretations of those events. In the past one hundred years, numerous historians have devoted themselves to studying the Elizabethan poor laws. Their interpretations varied considerably in some areas and very little in others. This essay examines some of those interpretations and attempts to find methodological and/or ideological differences which may account for the differing opinions. The study focuses upon four broad schools of historical thought-Whigs, legal historiains, economic historians, and social historians. The historians selected represent a wide range of interpretations. James A . Froude, C. J. Ribton-Turner, and George Nicholls represent the Whig interpretation. William Holdsworth and G. R. Elton represent the legal interpretation. William J. Ashley, R. H. Tawney, and Peter Ramsey were selected as the economic historians. E. M.Leonard, B. Kirkman Gray, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, A. L. Rowse, and W. K . Jordan are the social historians. Whig historians saw the poor laws as part of a continuing constitutional development. They interpreted them as representing the inevitable forward progress of the English system of government. Legal historians were concerned with the formulation of the law and with the machinery provided for its administration. Their interpretations focused on the law itself and its position in the legal system as a whole. Economic historians examined the factors behind the law and the economic factors in particular which they believed led to its passage. Thus, their interpretations centered upon discussions of the significance of such topics as enclosure, inflation, urbanization, and vagrancy. Social historians offered interpretations of the Elizabethan poor laws designed to explore the structural relationship between social classes.

El tema de la presente tesis es el del mestizaje de los sistemas de Derecho de Common Law y de Civil Law como elemento catalizador de la transnacionalización del Derecho, así como la recomposición de los fundamentos del Derecho, fruto de tal transnacionalización. El objetivo institucional de la misma es la obtención del título de doctor por el Curso de Doctorado en Ciencias jurídicas de la Universidade do Vale do Itajaí (UNIVALI), en el área “Constitucionalismo, Transnacionalidad y Producción de Derecho”, vinculándose a la línea de investigación “Estado, Transnacionalidad y Sostenibilidad”, con doble titulación por la Universidad de Alicante –UA/España - en la línea de investigación “Filosofía del Derecho”. El objetivo científico de esta tesis es la reformulación de los fundamentos, estructura y conceptos del Derecho ante el reto del Derecho transnacional, fruto del mestizaje de sistemas de Derecho, estableciéndose como objetivo general analizar la transnacionalización del Derecho como producto del mestizaje entre dos sistemas específicos, el Common Law y el Civil Law, y los posibles impactos de este mestizaje en la recomposición de los fundamentos del Derecho. Los objetivos específicos son: a) examinar el origen y formación del Derecho inglés y su influencia en la actualidad; b) verificar la proximidad, el intercambio y la armonización entre los sistemas de Common Law y de Civil Law; c) analizar el origen y la formación del Civil Law y la posible armonización de derechos; d) verificar la formación del Derecho posmoderno y el surgimiento de un Derecho transnacioanalizado; e) estudiar la influencia del Derecho inglés en países como Canadá, India y países africanos que se utilizan el Common Law y otros sistemas de Derecho; f) estudiar la influencia del Derecho inglés en el Derecho norteamericano; g) verificar la influencia del Derecho inglés en la construcción del Derecho transnacional; h) examinar la posibilidad de que países y entes supranacionales convivan con esos dos sistemas de Derecho y las alternativas encontradas para superar los problemas transnacionales; i) profundizar en los estudios sobre la importancia de un Derecho transnacional para la resolución de conflictos que implican a actores internacionales y transnacionales; j) identificar cómo el Derecho inglés y, posiblemente, el protagonismo judicial pueden contribuir a la transnacionalización del Derecho; y, por fin, k) analizar la influencia de la transnacionalidad en la recomposición, estructura y conceptos de los fundamentos jurídicos del Derecho. Para atender estos objetivos el trabajo se ha dividido en tres partes, en la primera se presentan los sistemas de Derecho del Common Law y Civil Law, así como el Derecho posmoderno, o sea, la cuestión del mestizaje propiamente dicha; en la segunda se analiza la influencia del Common Law en la formación del Derecho transnacional, en tanto que sistema de Derecho más flexible y adaptable a los cambios del Derecho posmoderno; y, la tercera y última parte, que trata de la transnacionalización del Derecho y la recomposición de los fundamentos del Derecho, con la creación de un eje trinario de Derecho y un nuevo orden jurídico mundial. La conclusión recupera los puntos cruciales, con énfasis en la afirmación de las hipótesis de la investigación propuesta. El Derecho inglés (Common Law) como catalizador del Civil Law contribuyó al desarrollo de un Derecho transnacional capaz de recomponer los fundamentos del Derecho, dando lugar a la creación de un nuevo eje y orden jurídico mundial. En lo que concerniente a la metodología, debe constarse que los resultados expuestos en esa tesis se han obtenido empleando una base lógica inductiva.

Au Canada comme dans nombre d’autres pays, la question des droits territoriaux des peuples autochtones demeure à ce jour d’une grande actualité. Les règles juridiques relatives à ces droits ont beaucoup évolué dans les dernières décennies et une littérature abondante s’est développée s’intéressant notamment à la source, à la nature et à la portée de ces droits. Toutefois, la mécanique de construction des droits territoriaux par les juges et les tribunaux n’a que très peu retenu l’attention des chercheurs. La présente thèse s’intéresse à ce processus de construction des droits territoriaux par les juges depuis l’angle des traditions juridiques, c’est-à-dire en cherchant à déterminer comment les décisions judiciaires de tribunaux issus de différentes traditions juridiques ont traité des droits territoriaux des peuples autochtones. Elle offre une analyse détaillée et comparative des décisions judiciaires en matière de droits territoriaux de trois tribunaux modèles présentant des ancrages dans différentes traditions juridiques, soit la Cour d’appel du Québec, la Cour d’appel de la Colombie-Britannique et la Cour interaméricaine des droits de l’homme. Cette thèse met en lumière des aspects de la mécanique interne des jugements en matière de droits territoriaux et dresse un portrait des méthodologies judiciaires déployées par les juges de différents tribunaux dans l’interprétation des règles juridiques et la construction du droit entourant les intérêts territoriaux des peuples autochtones.

Con la puesta en vigencia del Código Procesal Constitucional se introdujo al sistema jurídico peruano la figura del precedente constitucional vinculante. A la luz de dicha regulación, el Tribunal Constitucional ha emitido un sin número de precedentes vinculantes, los cuales demuestran ausencia de racionalidad en la formación de estos, principalmente por los siguientes aspectos: formación abstracta del precedente constitucional, esto es, un precedente creado al margen de los hechos del caso concreto; y a partir de la ausencia de conexión entre el precedente y los hechos, se fijan como extremos vinculantes aquellos razonamientos que no son la ratio decidendi. Bajo este contexto, cabe preguntarse: ¿Es racional el modus operandi del Tribunal Constitucional en la formación e identificación del precedente constitucional? ¿Se pueden interpretar los artículos VI y VII del Título Preliminar del Código Procesal Constitucional de manera distinta a la interpretación efectuada por el Tribunal Constitucional? Pues bien, con la expresión «precedente vinculante» se alude a la obligación que tienen los jueces y tribunales de seguir decisiones anteriores al tomar una decisión posterior. La doctrina del precedente, surgida en la tradición del common law, gira entorno a los hechos del caso particular. Así, las categorías que influyen en la comprensión de su significado y alcances -ratio decidendi, obiter dicta, distinguishing u overruling- solo pueden ser comprendidas a la luz de los hechos que configuran el caso en el que es creado, así como los hechos del caso en el que debe ser aplicado. A partir de ello, el precedente no es otra cosa más que la ratio decidendi construida para decidir un caso particular. Por eso, sin hechos no hay precedente. / With the enactment of the Constitutional Procedural Code, the figure of the binding constitutional precedent was introduced to the Peruvian legal system. In light of this regulation, the Constitutional Court has issued a number of binding precedents, which demonstrate absence of rationality in the formation of these, mainly by the following aspects: abstract formation of the constitutional precedent, that is, a precedent created regardless of the facts of the specific case; and from the absence of connection between the precedent and the facts, those arguments that are not the ratio decidendi are fixed as binding ends. In this context, it is worth asking: Is the modus operandi of the Constitutional Court rational in the formation and identification of the constitutional precedent? Can articles VI and VII of the Preliminary Title of the Constitutional Procedural Code be interpreted differently from the interpretation made by the Constitutional Court? Well, the term "binding precedent" refers to the obligation of judges and courts to follow previous decisions when making a subsequent decision. The doctrine of precedent, arising in the common law tradition, revolves around the facts of the particular case. Thus, the categories that influence the understanding of their meaning and scope -ratio decidendi, obiter dicta, distinguishing or overruling- can only be understood in the light of the facts that make up the case in which it is created, as well as the facts of the case in which it must be applied. From this, the precedent is nothing more than the ratio decidendi built to decide a particular case. Therefore, without facts there is no precedent.