<p>The question of whether there is soft law in international law has been as much the subject of contemporary debate as whether or not there is private legal authority in the international society. The legal boundaries seem to be blurred by the process of globalisation and the recent shift in international law. The traditional definition of international law has been outdated as new forms of treaties has introduced new subject of law to the judicial arena. At the same time a supplementary map of law has been added to the cartography of international law, soft law. These correlating processes have comprehensive political and legal consequences at both the international and national levels. This essay examines and identifies soft law from a legal-political perspective and locates and explores private forms of legal authority on the map of contemporary international law. In respect to theory, it accounts for an interdisciplinary approach involving issues of both international law and international relations. In the process this study examines issues regarding the relative legal normativity and the blurring of legal authority in international law. The focus is on the legal character, the constitutive practices and the legal and political influence of soft law. It discusses the influence and power exerted by soft law over state actors in the international system and at the national level. The essay finds that soft law is of substantial relevance in the international ambit. To some extent a limited normative force of certain norms is recognized in soft law even though it is conceded that those norms would not be enforceable by an international court or other international organ. To say that it does not exist because it is not of the enforceable variety, might blind students of international law to another dimension of the landscape of international practice. Soft law does not translate to soft obligations in the reality of international society, and it seems to be some confusion surrounding the obligations conceived by it. The research here presented suggests that its political and legal power is substantial. The researched examples do not display any real private legal authority in soft law. This is because soft law is found to be a separate phenomenon from international law proper. However, soft law’s impact on national governments combined with the wider acceptance of the presence of private actors in the creation of soft law suggests that private power is noteworthy in comparison. In one of the studied examples, the soft law is concluded by private business representatives solely, but in requiring the status of soft law it is dependant on the recognition of the international and national legal bodies.</p>

In order to analyze advertising messages from a legal and ethical standpoint, this research delimits the object of study to the category that corresponds to medicines not subject to prescription. Medicines as a specific type of product that can be commercially promoted and in relation to its advertising activities, produce an object of study with its own characteristics which is usefull to several industries and interest groups such as pharmaceuticals, advertising, education, health, consumers and users. This study is divided into the following major sections: First the theoretical and regulatory framework is analyzed. This framework provides the basis and contextual data to define and focus the specific inquiry, which is centered on the analysis of advertisements from the legal and ethical standpoint. The characteristics of non-prescription medicines and their regulations are examined to serve as preliminary stages in the research. This section delves into legislation affecting the advertising message and into professional ethics and codes of conduct that have been developed in order to solve and prevent possible conflicts of interest involving consumers and/or competition. The analysis of legal provisions and applicable codes of conduct allows us to extract a synthesis of elements and principles which will be added to the interpretation of a sample of one hundred ads, which is representative of the sector under examination. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used in the research. Through sixteen in-depth interviews conducted to professionals in the pharmaceutical and health industries, advertising agencies, and consumers, a number of qualitative variables that serve to accurately define the components and characteristics of advertisements that are analyzed according to the method of content analysis, are distilled. Through triangulation of perspectives, the combination of both types of methodologies will allow us to obtain a set of conclusions regarding which are the keys to interpreting the messages from the advertising sample, and to what extent there is a set of elements that can be analyzed from a legal and ethical standpoint. / Amb l’objectiu d’analitzar els missatges publicitaris des d’un punt de vista legal i ètic, aquest treball d’investigació delimita l’objecte d’estudi en la categoria corresponent als medicaments no subjectes a prescripció mèdica. Tant pel què fa als medicaments, com a tipus de producte específic dels que es pot fer promoció comercial, com en relació a la seva activitat publicitària, ens trobem amb un objecte d’estudi amb unes característiques pròpies i d’interès per a diversos sectors com són la indústria farmacèutica, la publicitat, l’àmbit educatiu, el de la salut, i el dels consumidors i usuaris. Aquest treball està estructurat en els següents grans apartats. En primer lloc s’analitza el marc teòric i regulatiu que serveix de base i ofereix dades contextuals per definir i enfocar una investigació específica que es centra en l’anàlisi dels missatges publicitaris des del punt de vista legal i ètic. Com a etapes prèvies a la investigació, s’estudien les característiques dels medicaments no subjectes a prescripció i la seva regulació. En aquest apartat s’aprofundeix en la legislació que afecta al missatge publicitari, en l’ètica professional i els codis deontològics que s’han elaborat amb la finalitat de solucionar i prevenir eventuals conflictes d’interessos amb els consumidors o entre la competència. L’anàlisi de les disposicions legals i els codis deontològics aplicables ens permet extreure una síntesi d’elements i principis que s’afegiran a la interpretació d’una mostra de cent anuncis, representativa del sector que s’estudia. En la investigació, s’utilitza una metodolgia qualitativa i quantitativa. A través de setze entrevistes en profunditat realitzades a professionals dels sectors de la indústria farmacèutica, la publicitat, la salut i els consumidors, s’estreuen una sèrie de variables qualitatives que serviran per definir amb precisió els elements i característiques dels missatges publicitaris que s’analitzen d’acord amb el mètode de l’anàlisi de contingut. La combinació d’ambdós tipus de metodologies ens permetrà, gràcies a la triangulació de perspectives, obtenir una sèrie de conclusions en relació a quines són les claus per a interpretar els missatges publicitaris de la mostra, i fins quin punt hi ha una sèrie d’elements que podran ser analitzats des del punt de vista legal i ètic.

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Gyvename įvairovės ir neapibrėžtumo, o kartu ir būdravimo, kritiškumo, kūrybos laikais, kai reikia daugiau individualių įžvalgų, nuovokos, refleksijos, atsakomybės už teisingus pasirinkimus. Teisinis ugdymas bendrojo lavinimo mokykloje yra ta terpė, kuri ugdo sąmoningus, suprantančius savo teises ir pareigas, gebančius išmoktas teisines žinias pritaikyti konkrečioje situacijoje, konstruktyviai dalyvauti nuolat kintančios visuomenės gyvenime, mokinius – piliečius. Ugdymo realybėje kylančios problemos susijusios su visuomenės gyvenimo pokyčiais, ugdymo turinys, kaip socialinio užsakymo raiška, atspindi šiandieninės visuomenės poreikius, lūkesčius, problemas. Visuomenei ir asmenybei prasmingas toks ugdymo turinys, kuris atitinka konkrečios visuomenės materialinę ir dvasinę kultūrą. Todėl modernioje visuomenėje yra svarbios ir reikšmingos teisinio ugdymo programos bei jų turinys, nes tik tikslingai ir kompetentingai sudarytos programos ir jų turinys sąlygos progresą tarp besimokančiųjų bendrojo lavinimo mokykloje. Kalbant apie sparčią socialinę kaitą, tuo pačiu ir apie teisinio ugdymo turinio kaitą, reikia pabrėžti kompetencijos reikšmę Bendrosiose programose (ugdymo turinyje). Šis globalizacijos laikmetis yra pažymėtas ypatingu ženklu, kai globali ideologija, žadanti patogesnį, kokybiškesnį, įdomesnį gyvenimą, persmelkia visų valstybių politiką, kultūrą, švietimą, socialinį gyvenimą, siūlydama tvarkytis pagal tuos pačius principus, t.y. kompetencijas. Kompetencijos samprata... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / We live in the world that is full of variety and uncertainty together with subterfuge, criticism and creativity and it is the time that we need more individual abortions, perception, reflection and responsibility for the legal choices. Legal education at secondary school is the environment that educates students, namely citizens that are conscious, realizing their rights and duties, able to adjust legal knowledge in certain situations, constructively participate in changing society life. The obstacles that appear in education reality are associated with social life changes, the education content as social expressions, reflects the changes of today’s society, as well as expectations and problems. Education content will be meaningful only when it will correlate with society and person’s material and emotional culture. As a consequence, modern society should take into consideration education syllabus and their content as only the competent and meaningful syllabus as well as content may be useful and influence the progress among secondary school students. As far as quick social and legal education content change is concerned, it is important to note the significance of competences in General syllabus. This globalization era is marked with exceptional mark when global ideology assuring easier, of more quality and interesting life pierces the politics, culture, education, social life of every country suggesting living according common principles, namely, competences. The... [to full text]

This legal study approaches the problems of legal entity’s participant’s civil liability under the legal entity’s obligation. In the first part of this work a historical evolution of a legal entity and its participant is being revealed, author introduces to the variety of the theoretical doctrines of a legal entity, a conception and main features of legal entity are presented. Hereafter, a conception of a juridical person’s participant is analyzed, also the peculiarities of the participant’s legal status is passed in review in light of the limited and unlimited liability. This study also presents general conditions upon which the liability of legal person’s participant may arose. Thereinafter the problematical aspects of the limited liability juridical person’s participant liability under the juridical persons’ obligation are being discussed, attention is paid to the advantages and drawbacks of the limited liability and also to the doctrine of piercing the corporate veil in Lithuanian and foreign jurisprudence and judiciary practice. This work also reveals the positive and negative features of unlimited liability in the context of social and economical life, brings up problems concerning unlimited liability legal entity’s participant liability under legal entity’s obligation in exaction, insolvency and liquidation procedures. Finally, conclusions and suggestions to the legislator and judicial bench are being brought up.

Lithuania gained independence fifteen years ago. But still the understanding of human rights (as rights of citizens) and responsibilities among young people is interpreted in a wrong way. This wrong perception impedes the development of democracy at the civic society. A special attention should be paid to a person, like a full-fledged member of society. Due to this reason, legal education should be one of the main aims of civic society. In this work the features of youth legal education are explored by analyzing the conceptions of youth legal socialization and legal education.

<p>The protection of the rights of sexual minorities in Africa is a controversial issue. It is not unusual to find newspaper reports on gross violations suffered by this minority group. Gays and lesbians are victims of violence, sometimes resulting in death. Sexual minorities in Africa are often confronted with government actions such as those of the Nigerian government that recently submitted to the parliament a Bill to make provisions for the prohibition of relationships between persons of the same sex, celebration of marriage, registration of gay clubs and societies and publicity of same sex relationships. The objective of this study was to suggest possible legal protection and recognition of sexual minority rights under the African human rights system.</p>

A body of critical legal scholarship argues that, by the time they have completed their studies, students who enter legal education holding social ideals and intending to use their legal education to achieve social change, have become cynical about the ability of the law to do so and no longer possess such ideals. This is explained by critical scholars to be the result of a process of ideological indoctrination, aimed at ensuring that graduates uphold the narrow and conservative interests of the legal profession and capitalist society, being exercised by law schools acting as adjuncts of the legal profession, and exercised upon the passive body of the law student. By using Foucault’s work on knowledge, power, and the subject to interrogate the assumptions upon which this narrative is based, this thesis intends to suggest a way of thinking differently to the approach taken by many critical legal scholars. It then uses an analytics of government (based on Foucault’s notion of ‘governmentality’) to consider the construction of the legal identity differently. It examines the ways in which the governance of the legal identity is rationalised, programmed, and implemented, in three Queensland law schools. It also looks at the way that five prescriptive texts to ‘surviving’ law school suggest students establish and practise a relation to themselves in order to construct their own legal identities. Overall, this analysis shows that governance is not simply conducted in the profession’s interests, but occurs due to a complex arrangement of different practices, which can lead to the construction of skilled legal professional identities as well as ethical lawyer-citizens that hold an interest in justice. The implications of such an analytics provide the basis for original ways of understanding legal education, and legal education scholarship.

This thesis critically assesses the design and operation of the corporate legal adviser (“CLA”) system for state-owned enterprises (“SOEs”) in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”). / The study of in-house legal advisers (commonly known as corporate counsel) in Western jurisdictions has developed as its own subfield of studies of the legal profession. That literature shows that the roles that in-house legal advisers in Western corporations should and can play is heavily influenced by their corporate environments, corporate policies and attitudes of the corporate leaders with whom they work. There are a range of complex organizational and ethical issues faced by Western corporate counsel in discharging the functions of effective gatekeepers, advisers and preventive law practitioners. However, as compared with the abundant published works on corporate counsel in the era of post-Enron corporate America, there is little academic literature on in-house legal advisers in China. / In the face of the challenges and risks caused by the intensifying economic reforms in the PRC since the early 1990s, and China’s entry into the WTO in 2001, the PRC Government has been attempting to strengthen measures to preserve and protect those state assets that are managed and operated through SOEs. The supervisory body for SOEs is the powerful and well-known State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (“SASAC”) which is directly under the control of the State Council. / SASAC has perceived that corporate counsel in Western corporations have been playing a critical role in corporate risk management and decision-making, and have been accorded a high status within their organizations. Therefore one of the measures implemented by SASAC under its risk management framework for SOEs is the CLA system. The CLA system requires SOEs to engage licensed CLAs as part of the corporate governance and risk management system. Pursuant to the Administrative Measures for State-owned Enterprise Corporate Legal Advisers (2004) (the SASAC document governing the system), the role, rights and obligations of CLAs are set out. The policy objective is to ensure that SOEs are managed and operated in compliance with law and with proper legal advice. / SASAC leaders have claimed that the CLA system in SOEs has made great achievements in improving the risk management performance of SOEs. However, this thesis finds that SASAC has not properly addressed the ethical and role dilemmas commonly faced by Western corporate counsel. On the basis of the Western literature on corporate counsel and analysis of SASAC’s policies and the practice of SOEs, this thesis identifies the following key concerns with the CLA system of SOEs: the status and independence of CLAs, the qualification system for CLAs, the legal and professional regulation of CLAs, and the management structure and corporate culture of SOEs where CLAs work. Finally, the inherent problems caused by the power structure in SOEs, especially the role of senior cadres of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in SOEs, has not been resolved. / This thesis concludes that CLAs as corporate watchdogs in SOEs are still at the developmental stage. More empirical research of CLAs of SOEs is warranted to better understand how China, as an emerging world economic power, is to play on the international stage.

This thesis critically assesses the design and operation of the corporate legal adviser (“CLA”) system for state-owned enterprises (“SOEs”) in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”). / The study of in-house legal advisers (commonly known as corporate counsel) in Western jurisdictions has developed as its own subfield of studies of the legal profession. That literature shows that the roles that in-house legal advisers in Western corporations should and can play is heavily influenced by their corporate environments, corporate policies and attitudes of the corporate leaders with whom they work. There are a range of complex organizational and ethical issues faced by Western corporate counsel in discharging the functions of effective gatekeepers, advisers and preventive law practitioners. However, as compared with the abundant published works on corporate counsel in the era of post-Enron corporate America, there is little academic literature on in-house legal advisers in China. / In the face of the challenges and risks caused by the intensifying economic reforms in the PRC since the early 1990s, and China’s entry into the WTO in 2001, the PRC Government has been attempting to strengthen measures to preserve and protect those state assets that are managed and operated through SOEs. The supervisory body for SOEs is the powerful and well-known State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (“SASAC”) which is directly under the control of the State Council. / SASAC has perceived that corporate counsel in Western corporations have been playing a critical role in corporate risk management and decision-making, and have been accorded a high status within their organizations. Therefore one of the measures implemented by SASAC under its risk management framework for SOEs is the CLA system. The CLA system requires SOEs to engage licensed CLAs as part of the corporate governance and risk management system. Pursuant to the Administrative Measures for State-owned Enterprise Corporate Legal Advisers (2004) (the SASAC document governing the system), the role, rights and obligations of CLAs are set out. The policy objective is to ensure that SOEs are managed and operated in compliance with law and with proper legal advice. / SASAC leaders have claimed that the CLA system in SOEs has made great achievements in improving the risk management performance of SOEs. However, this thesis finds that SASAC has not properly addressed the ethical and role dilemmas commonly faced by Western corporate counsel. On the basis of the Western literature on corporate counsel and analysis of SASAC’s policies and the practice of SOEs, this thesis identifies the following key concerns with the CLA system of SOEs: the status and independence of CLAs, the qualification system for CLAs, the legal and professional regulation of CLAs, and the management structure and corporate culture of SOEs where CLAs work. Finally, the inherent problems caused by the power structure in SOEs, especially the role of senior cadres of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in SOEs, has not been resolved. / This thesis concludes that CLAs as corporate watchdogs in SOEs are still at the developmental stage. More empirical research of CLAs of SOEs is warranted to better understand how China, as an emerging world economic power, is to play on the international stage.