This study sets out to examine whether the "new'' provincial governments in South Africa are in practice functioning as "quasi-federal" power bases. The study starts with an appraisal of the core constitutional concepts critical to provincial government as a prelude to the enquiry into the practical status of the provincial governments. An enquiry is made into the application of certain provisions of the interim Constitution pertaining to provincial government. Thereafter certain provisions of the final Constitution pertaining to provincial government are compared with the corresponding provisions of the interim Constitution. The issue of provincial powers in practice and the problems experienced by provincial governments are also dealt with. The study concludes that provincial governments are currently not functioning as "quasi-federal" power bases and that it is even doubtful whether that situation will present itself in the foreseeable future. / Law / LL. M.

Les femmes autochtones vivent une discrimination intersectionnelle, en ce qu’elle provient d’au moins deux sources: le genre et la race (ou la culture), et qu’elle est plus complexe que la somme de ses sources. Par conséquent, les revendications des femmes autochtones se situent sur au moins deux plans: elles ont des revendications comme autochtones au sein de la population canadienne et comme femmes à l’intérieur de leurs communautés. Partant de la prémisse que l’État canadien doit reconnaître le droit à l’autodétermination des peuples autochtones et par le fait même le droit autochtone, nous nous interrogeons sur les moyens qui permettraient aux femmes autochtones d’exercer l’influence nécessaire pour faire reconnaître et accepter leurs revendications politiques et juridiques dans les processus décisionnels de leurs communautés. Féminisme et revendications autochtones sont-ils nécessairement antinomiques? Pour certaines auteures autochtones, une approche libérale fondée sur la « structure des droits » est incompatible avec les valeurs autochtones. Comment surmonter ces objections en apparence inébranlables? Le problème des femmes autochtones est-il simplement une affaire de « droits » non reconnus? N’est-ce pas plutôt un problème de rapports de pouvoir à l’extérieur, mais également à l’intérieur, des communautés? Nous tentons dans ce qui suit de démontrer qu’au-delà d’un cadre théorique basé sur les droits de la personne, une approche basée sur le principe démocratique permettrait aux femmes autochtones de faire valoir leurs revendications en tant que femmes et en tant qu’autochtones d’une manière plus efficace. En effet, la participation démocratique de tous les membres de la communauté permettrait de contourner les problèmes théoriques liés à une dichotomie entre droits individuels et collectifs, en mettant l’accent sur le processus décisionnel plutôt que sur la valeur des décisions en découlant. Dans cette perspective, féminisme et revendications autochtones peuvent s’allier avantageusement. / Indigenous women live an intersectional discrimination, in that it comes from at least two sources: gender and race (or culture), and is more complex than the sum of its sources. Therefore, the claims of indigenous women are on at least two fronts: as Aboriginals, they claim their right to self-determination, but they also claim their rights as women inside their own communities. Starting from the premise that the Canadian state must recognize the right of self-governement to indigenous peoples and thereby indigneous law, we question the ways in which indigenous women are to exercise influence to gain recognition and accept their political and legal claims in decision-making process of their communities. Are feminist and indigenous claims necessarily contradictory? For some indigenous authors, a liberal approach based on human rights is incompatible with indigenous values. How to overcome these apparently unshakable objections? Is the native women's problem simply a question of unrecognized rights? Is it not rather a problem of power relations outside, but also inside communities? In what follows, we try to show that beyond a theoretical framework based on human rights, the democratic principle-based approach would allow indigenous women to assert their claims as women and as an indigenous in a more efficient manner. Indeed, the democratic participation of all community members would bypass the theoretical problems related to a dichotomy between individual and collective rights, with an emphasis on decision-making rather than on the value of the resulting decisions. In this perspective, feminism and native claims can ally advantageously.

Vladimir S. Soloviev (1853-1900) était un philosophe russe, poète et dissident de la période prérévolutionnaire. Comme celle de beaucoup de ses contemporains prérévolutionnaires russes, la pensée de Soloviev fut constamment sollicitée par la réfection imminente de l’État russe dans un futur très proche. Dans le contexte de cette époque, un examen des fondements théoriques du système juridique était peut-être inévitable. Néanmoins, dans la pensée russe, c’est seulement avec Soloviev que le droit cessa d’être un sujet spécialisé dans le domaine de l’administration, ne concernant guère les grands enjeux de société, et devint intimement lié au développement même de la philosophie morale et sociale. Au sein du projet philosophique systématique que propose Soloviev, le concept de l’unitotalité est envahissant, en termes épistémologique et social. Une pierre d’assise également fondamentale est le concept philosophico-religieux de la divino-humanité, à travers lequel la source de la dignité humaine est ultimement exprimée. La philosophie juridique de Soloviev, contenue pour l’essentiel dans un traité intitulé La Justification du bien : essai de philosophie morale (1897), a pour principal objet l’interaction entre le droit et la morale. Alors que l’objet et la portée du droit peuvent être directement déduits de principes moraux, le droit ne peut pas coïncider exactement avec la morale, compte tenu de son caractère plus limité, fini et coercitif. Pour Soloviev, le droit doit imposer un niveau minimum du bien en fournissant les conditions de base (par ex. la primauté du droit, le droit à une existence digne, la liberté de conscience) pour le libre développement des facultés humaines sans transposer directement en lui la plénitude complète du bien. La principale motivation de Soloviev réside dans la prémisse théologique sous-jacente que le bien ne peut jamais être complètement subsumé sauf par un acte conscient de liberté personnelle. En tandem, Soloviev souligne le rôle progressiste de l’État pour favoriser le libre perfectionnement humain. En tant que tel, Soloviev nous fournit certaines voies innovatrices dans le façonnement de la relation tant théorique que pratique entre le droit et la religion. À l’encontre d’un compromis entre objets, c’est-à-dire un arrangement de type interculturel situé entre fragmentation culturelle (multiculturalisme idéologique) et assimilation antireligieuse (laïcité militante), l’analyse de Soloviev présente la nécessité d’une conciliation temporelle, dans une perspective historique beaucoup plus large, où la laïcité est considérée non pas comme une finalité ontologique en soi, figée dans le temps, mais comme un moyen au service d’une destinée humaine en cours d’actualisation. Le cadre philosophico-juridique de Soloviev peut être utilement mis en dialogue avec des auteurs contemporains comme Stephen L. Carter, Charles Taylor, John Witte Jr, Ronald Dworkin et Jürgen Habermas. La contribution potentielle de Soloviev sur la place de la religion dans la société russe contemporaine est également mentionnée, avec un accent particulier sur le réexamen critique de l’héritage durable de la notion byzantine de la symphonie entre l’Église et l’État. Enfin, une théorie du fédéralisme inspirée par Soloviev est développée en appliquant, sur une base comparative, des avancées théoriques dans le domaine de l’histoire juridique global à l’évolution constitutionnelle du Canada et d’Israël. / Vladimir S. Soloviev (1853-1900) was a prerevolutionary Russian philosopher, poet and dissident. Like that of many of his contemporaries in prerevolutionary Russia, Soloviev’s thought was constantly prompted by the impending future remaking of the Russian state. Against this backdrop, a consideration of the foundations of the legal system may have been inevitable. It was nonetheless with Soloviev that law in Russian thought ceases to be a specialty subject matter in the area of administration, disconnected from wider societal issues, and becomes inextricably linked to social and moral philosophy. Within Soloviev’s larger systematic philosophical project, the concept of all-unity is pervasive, both in its epistemological and social dimensions. An equally fundamental cornerstone of Soloviev’s thought is the concept of Godmanhood, through which the source of human dignity is ultimately expressed. Soloviev’s legal philosophy, for the most part contained in a treatise entitled The Justification of the Good: An Essay on Moral Philosophy (1897), is primarily concerned with the interplay between law and morality. While the object and scope of law can be directly deduced from moral principles, law cannot exactly coincide with morality given its limited, finite and compulsory nature. For Soloviev, law should enforce a minimum level of good in providing the basic conditions (e.g. rule of law, right to a dignified existence, freedom of conscience) for the free development of human faculties, without directly transposing into itself the complete fullness of the good. Soloviev’s primary motivation lies in the underlying theological premise that the good can never be fully subsumed except as a conscious act of personal freedom. In tandem, Soloviev emphasizes the progressive role of the state in liberally furthering human development. As such, Soloviev provides certain innovative pathways in working out the practical and theoretical relationship between law and religion. Unlike a compromise between objects, that is to say an intercultural type of arrangement lying somewhere between cultural fragmentation (ideological multiculturalism) and anti-religious assimilation (militant secularism), Soloviev presents us with the need for a temporal reconciliation, in the context of a much wider historical perspective, where secularism is not an ontologically crystallized finality as such, but part of the means with which the human destiny in the process of being actualized can be facilitated. Soloviev’s legal philosophical framework can be fruitfully placed in dialogue with contemporary authors such as Stephen L. Carter, Charles Taylor, John Witte Jr., Ronald Dworkin and Jürgen Habermas. Soloviev’s potential contribution to the place of religion in contemporary Russian society is also noted, with particular emphasis on critically reassessing the enduring legacy of the Byzantine notion of Church-State symphony. Finally, a theory of federalism inspired by Soloviev is developed based on comparatively applying theoretical advances in the field of global legal history to the constitutional evolution of Canada and Israel.

The thesis "Role of the U.S. Supreme Court in American system of government and the importance of Court's decisions for the political process in the United States of America" deals with the institutional role U.S. Supreme Court has in American system of government and puts emphasis on Court's decisions and their practical consequences on the politics in the United States. In history of the country the Court was an influential decision-making body on many occasions. Although shortly after the federation was established many intended to put the Court in position where weak powers given to it would not enable the institution to fully play its role of the guardian that keeps an eye on the constitutionality of adopted laws, at the beginning of the 19th century the Court found its place and became exactly what it was originally intended to be. Decision in Marbury v. Madison gained the Court the crucial power of judicial review. The power of judicial review completely changed the role of the institution that finally became the guardian of the Constitution. This thesis outlines the institutional position of the judicial branch and especially the position of the Supreme Court in American system of government. It also focuses on the political aspects of the nomination process of Supreme Court Justices and...

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis analyses the causes and evolution of the conflict in the Republic of Moldova and capabilities of three conflict-regulating mechanisms to facilitate the final political solution of this conflict. The leading cause of the conflict is the competition among post-Soviet politicians, fighting over the division of the Soviet state and redistribution of politico-economic benefits. In their fight for power, the elites mobilized instrumental and primordial grievances of the population, thus giving an ethnic aspect to the confrontation. As an important intervening variable for the conflict escalation into a military confrontation is Russian interest in maintaining politico-economic and military domination over the region. Over time, all ethnic causes had been eliminated, thus creating the necessary conditions for the final political settlement of the conflict. However, the status quo, created around this conflict, suits the politico-economic interests of the Transdniestrian elites, and reinforced by the Russian interest in keeping the region under its influence, is encouraging them to promote a radical position toward the process of negotiations and to demand anything but independence, a fact that cannot be accepted by the legal Moldovan Government. In such circumstances, the final solution depends on the attitudes of the external players. However, the international players are dispersed over the methods of resolving this conflict, thus reinforcing the deadlock situation in the process of negotiation. This thesis argues that under the current circumstances, none of the conflict regulating mechanism, partition, confederation and federation will solve that particular conflict. However, the federalism has the most potential to serve as a tool for unification and conflict-resolution, but only if the international community and internal players will promote democratic values, rule of law and free marked orientation in the region, will reduce the benefits of the status quo situation and, finally, will offer substantial politico-economic and cultural autonomy combined with fair representation at the central level to the Transdniestrian region. / Lieutenant Colonel, Armed Forces of the Republic of Moldova

The thesis describes realization effects of the project "Třeboň - rozvoj lázeňské infrastruktury" on the ammount of tax income in the city, especially with focus on the development of the part of tax incomes. These incomes receives the city as a share of tax incomes from self-employed persons (by law of budget determination of taxes No 243/2000 Sb.). According to this law each commune receives 30 % of tax from self-employed subjects, which have place of residence in the territory of this commune. This share of the tax is called as "motivation component" and it should motivate communes to create new business opportunities to increase own incomes. The focus of this thesis is an effect assessment of realization of this project on the size of tax incomes in the city Třeboň. There is the model of fiscal federalism introduced in the theoretical-methodological part. This model is used wide in the whole Czech republic to describe incomes of comunes - especially tax incomes. In the practical part there is a description of the implemented project and its effect on particular targets, for example effect on size of income of local taxes and effeck on growth of employment. The main section of the practical part is the evolution analysis of the "motivation component". This evolution of "motivation component" is compared with the evolution of business subjects, which are registered in the city Třeboň (including the description of the regressive evolution).

Les entités fédérées sont de plus en plus actives au-delà des frontières nationales. Leurs stratégies de projection internationale dépendent en partie du contexte institutionnel et de la dynamique fédérale dans laquelle ces entités fédérées s’inscrivent. Les cas du Québec, au Canada, et de la Wallonie, en Belgique, illustrent les différentes manières dont ces acteurs peuvent participer à la politique extérieure de leur fédération et développer leurs propres marges de manœuvre pour agir directement sur la scène internationale. Au Canada, la faible institutionnalisation des relations entre Ottawa et les provinces et le silence des textes constitutionnels sur le partage des responsabilités internationales ont laissé la mainmise au gouvernement fédéral sur la politique étrangère de la fédération. Dans ce contexte, le Québec a pu se tourner vers la paradiplomatie pour agir de manière autonome sur la scène internationale, en parallèle à Ottawa. En Belgique, au contraire, les responsabilités en matière de relations internationales ont été partagées entre le gouvernement fédéral et les entités fédérées au fil des réformes institutionnelles. Les communautés et les régions disposent d’une grande autonomie en vertu du principe « in foro interno, in foro externo » et sont intimement associées au développement de la politique étrangère belge. Ces éléments éclairent les stratégies contrastées de ces deux entités fédérées pour s’impliquer dans les discussions internationales sur le climat. Alors que le Québec a privilégié la paradiplomatie, la Wallonie a surtout choisi de s’impliquer dans la coordination intra-belge pour défendre ses intérêts via la voix de la Belgique. / Federated units are increasingly active beyond their national borders. The strategies they employ depends in part on the federal context and political dynamics of the Federation these units belong to. The cases of Quebec, Canada, and Wallonia, Belgium, offer a contrasted glimpse on how federated units can take part in the foreign policy of their federation and develop their own autonomous actions abroad. In Canada, the weak institutionalization of intergovernmental affairs and the gaps of the Canadian Constitution on the sharing of external policy responsibilities has effectively given Ottawa control of Canada’s foreign policy. In this context, Quebec has used paradiplomacy to develop its own actions abroad. In Belgium, by contrast, the responsibilities with regards to external affairs have been shared among the federal government and the federated units as the country moved from a unitary system to a federal organization. In accordance with the “in foro interno, in foro externo” principle, Belgian Communities and Regions enjoy a vast autonomy regarding external affairs and are deeply involved in the making of Belgium’s foreign policy. These elements help to understand the different strategies picked by Quebec and Wallonia to get involved in the international talks on climate change. Whereas Quebec primarily relied on paradiplomacy, the Walloons chose to focus on the Belgian internal cooperation to defend their interest through the voice of Belgium.

English abstract Constitutional consequences of the Lisbon treaty Work analyses constitutional implications of changes brought by the Lisbon treaty. In the first chapter, the beginning of the European integration is briefly described as well as the evolution of the European Union along with more detailed description of the negotiations and ratification of the Lisbon treaty. Second chapter contains information on constitutional characteristics of the European Union before the effect of the Lisbon treaty. Third chapter is aimed on the formal elements of the Lisbon treaty and contains thorough description of the global changes it has on the legal systems of the member states. Subject of the closing chapter is the effect the treaty have caused on the constitutional order of the Czech Republic. Foremost, integration provisions are analyzed, mainly with regards to the issues of state sovereignty, process of the ratification and approach of the Constitutional court of the Czech Republic to the preliminary assessment of the questions of mentioned sovereignty leading to the conclusion that even with the Lisbon treaty in effect, Czech Republic will remain sovereign country. Work is closed with short treatise on constitutional effects of respective changes enforced by the treaty approval on primary national legal...

À la veille d'une journée de "deuil absolu" pour l'anniversaire des attentats tragiques de Madrid du 11 mars 2004, afin de lutter contre le terrorisme, l'ancien secrétaire général de l'ONU, Kofi Annan, a proposé une stratégie globale respectueuse des droits de l'homme et de la primauté du droit. Cependant, la stratégie prévue par l'ONU ne semble s'adresser qu’aux pays dans lesquels l'arsenal juridique contient déjà une protection des droits de l'homme, car toutes les résolutions adoptées appellent les États à ne pas restreindre les droits de l'homme au nom de la lutte contre le terrorisme. Le problème en Irak est cependant beaucoup plus grave. En effet, la protection des droits fondamentaux y est encore lacunaire du fait de la genèse d’un système démocratique naissant et ajouté à cela, la dangerosité du terrorisme le plus brutal. L'importance croissante de la protection des droits de l'homme dans ce pays tient au fait que celle-ci représente un havre de paix pour calmer la brouille qui nourrit le terrorisme entre les diverses communautés de ce pays. Il s’agit essentiellement d’instaurer un climat favorable à une conciliation nationale. La lutte contre le terrorisme en Irak ne peut ainsi porter ses fruits sans l’adoption d’un État de droit et d’une loi qui affronte ce phénomène tout en conservant les droits fondamentaux. De même, depuis 2003, en dépit du fait que l’ONU et les nouveaux dirigeants s’efforcent d’ancrer les notions des droits de l’homme dans la société irakienne, leur tâche semble encore très difficile. En effet, l’échec continu de la communauté internationale dans ses diverses tentatives destinées à formuler une définition unanime du terrorisme s’est reflété négativement sur l’Irak. Le manque d’une définition juridique a permis à certaines puissances mondiales d’en donner une définition politique afin de servir leurs propres intérêts dans le cas irakien, ce qui a provoqué des violations des droits de l’homme au nom de la lutte contre le terrorisme en Irak, en entravant les étapes vers une considération efficace des droits fondamentaux. / On the eve of a day of ‘absolute mourning’ for the anniversary of the tragic attacks in Madrid on March 11th, 2004, in order to fight against terrorism, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan proposed a comprehensive strategy respectful of human rights and the rule of law. However, the UN strategy seems to be addressed solely to countries in which the legal arsenal already contains a protection against human rights, as all the adopted resolutions call on states not to restrict human rights in the name of the fight against terrorism.The problem in Iraq is however much more serious. Indeed, the protection of fundamental rights in this country is still incomplete due to the genesis of a nascent democratic system, as well as to the dangerousness of the most brutal terrorism. The growing importance of the protection of human rights in this country is that the latter represents a haven of peace to calm the quarrel upon which terrorism thrives, between the different communities of this country. It is essentially a question of enabling a positive climate for a national conciliation.The fight against terrorism in Iraq cannot therefore bear fruit without a rule of law and a law which confront this phenomenon while maintaining fundamental rights. Similarly, since 2003, despite the fact that the UN and the new leaders have been striving to give a foothold to the concepts of human rights in the Iraqi society, the task still seems very difficult. Indeed, the continued failure of the international community in its various attempts to formulate a unanimous definition of terrorism was reflected negatively on Iraq. The lack of a legal definition allowed some world powers to establish a political definition in order to serve their own interests in the Iraqi case, which has caused violations of human rights in the name of the fight against terrorism in Iraq, by impeding the steps towards effective respect for fundamental rights.

O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar a dinâmica política da reemergência do federalismo brasileiro no Governo Geisel, qual seja, no princípio da abertura política. Isto porque é neste momento que se dá início à redefinição das relações entre as esferas de poder a serem consolidadas no processo constituinte e cristalizadas na Constituição. A nossa hipótese central baseia-se na premissa de que, no Governo Geisel, os rumos do federalismo serão condicionados pela ação do Estado brasileiro. Mais especificamente, pela forma como o Estado conduziu dois projetos complementares: a liberalização política controlada e o II Plano Nacional de Desenvolvimento. De forma que a questão do federalismo será abordada em sua dupla dimensão, enquanto projeto econômico e enquanto projeto político de distensão. / The aim of this work is to study the political dynamic of the reconstruction of federalism in Brazil during the Geisel Government, at the very beginning of the Brazilian transition to democracy. During this period it took place the redefinition of the intergovernmental relations which were consolidate in the constituent process and crystallized in the Constitution. Our main hypothesis is based on the assumption that the path of federalism, during the Geisel Government, might has been affected by the action of the Brazilian State. Mainly by the way which the State has conducted two complementary projects: the controlled political liberalization and the Second Brazilian Plan for Development. Thus, the question of federalism will be studied in its double dimension: as a political and economic project.