The Challenge for the Harmonization of Law

Under globalization and the rapid development of international trade and economic relationships, it is necessary to find common rules in private law. Nonetheless, an aspect that must be taken into account is that law is a mirror of a respective society and therefore it should also be considered that juridical fragmentation reflects these differences among societies. Hence, a ‘glocalized’ approach seems to be more suitable and, for it to be put it into practice, the efforts should be devoted to seeking legal harmonization instead of unification. The former, beside all the other things, is to be preferred in terms of feasibility. Harmonization does not equally show the same degree of difficulty in all the fields: it seems to be easier (and more urgent) to be achieved in obligations-contracts and commercial law than in family law or in property and real rights law. Considering this, our research, contains an overview on the advantages of legal harmonization and a brief survey on methods that have been employed and that are being employed now to reach this goal. Even at this preliminary stage, we have noticed that we should pay attention to a theoretical principles-based logic-systematic method and to the role played by jurists of reaching this goal.     

Immigration reform in France and the United States: reflections and documentation

This paper analyzes similarities and dissimilarities in French and American efforts to come to grip with irregular migration. The symbolic importance of immigration reform is argued to be a key political concern in both nations, although the politics of immigration reform has assumed a more partisan flavor in France, particularly since the municipal elections of 1983. In France, the theme of control and security, associated with the notion of preventing "automatic" immigration which would endanger the cohesion of French society, was widely utilized for political ends prior to and after May 10, 1981 (the date of Francois Mitterand's investiture). The American government, on the other hand, is confronted with the unenviable task of obtaining a legislative consensus on legalization and employer sanctions through an approach seeking to harmonize and integrate the demands articulated by various groups: employers, unions, and alien and ethnic interest groups (principally Hispanic groups divided into a hierarchy along a recently arrived/established cleavage). The American situation most sharply differs from the French case in terms of the absence of a right/left political cleavage. The real effects of clandestine immigration are to be found at the local level. In France, as in the US, the ability of local actors to exert pressure raises the fear that legalization and sanctions will change little, except in terms of symbolic legitimacy.     

Made wrong,excluded, and ignored: Introduction to a special issue on lesbians and the law

Abstract

For some time now, the specific experiences that lesbians have with the law have been considerably overlooked. This is because there is a focus on how gay males have contact with the law, as gay males are the group whose same-sex intimacies are most often criminalized in legislative frameworks. It is rare for the same-sex intimacies of lesbians to be targeted explicitly in legislative frameworks. This special issue therefore focuses on how lesbians have contact with the law. It features articles focused on what the guest editors conceptualize as how lesbians are being made wrong, being excluded, and being ignored by the law, and each of these are outlined in further detail in this introduction. The articles highlight the relational nexus between lesbians and different frameworks, processes, rules, policies, institutions and applications of law, and the far-reaching impacts this nexus produces in the lives of lesbians around the world.     

Changing social responsibilities: the role of advocacy organisations in the construction of the Social Support Act in the Netherlands

This paper describes a study on civic participation in legislative processes. In January 2007 a new law on health and social care in the Netherlands was implemented: the Social Support Act (SSA). This law specifically aims at greater civic participation in the implementation of the law, in the provision of health and social care and in the social policy making process. This study focuses on civic participation in policy making, more specifically on civic participation in the legislative process of the Social Support Act. It examines whether national advocacy organisations were successful in their efforts to influence the legislative process and the final construction of the Social Support Act. The main conclusion is that the client and patient organisations were indeed successful in obtaining important changes in the law both through a well informed and professional individual lobby as well as by means of collective action. Yet questions concerning the justification of high expectations for successful local civic participation in the local policy-making process remain.     

Enclosure: Palestinian Landscape in a “Not‐Too‐Distant Mirror”

This article develops an explanation for the fractured and partitioned landscape in Palestine by comparing it to the early modern enclosures in England, and framing this comparison within a theory of “territoriality.” Territoriality is a practice of power and refers to the efforts of individuals or groups to reorganize the economic life, politics, and culture of a place by reshaping landscape. The argument is that the Palestinian landscape is part of a long‐standing narrative in which groups with power seek to transform the economy, demography, and culture of territorial space through the time‐honored territorial practice of enclosing land. Enclosure consists of two basic instruments: a legal element that redefines rights of property by reorganizing systems of use, access, and socio‐economic relations on the land; and architectural elements that reshape the landscape itself. English estate owners and Israeli Zionists are parallel actor groups using law and the built environment to remake life on the landscape. Mobilizing the institutional power of property law and the material power of the built environment, these groups reorder land ownership, use, and circulation on the landscape in an effort to consolidate systems of control over subalterns and reorganize socio‐economic life and demography in a place. By exploring the contours of this pattern, this article seeks to uncover a more general meaning in the enclosure landscape of Palestine today.     

The Power of Social Workers in the Creation and Application of Elder Protection Statutory Norms in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia

This research stems from a legal pluralism approach to law which postulates that different levels of law can operate simultaneously in a given situation. In the field of child or adult protection, professionals, legislative, and bureaucratic norms may interact. The objective of this research was to study the interaction between these three levels of norms at two distinct times: at the creation of legislation norms and their application. A history of the prevailing conditions at the time of the New Brunswick Family Services Act was enacted is presented, and a comparison of the application of the Act in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is made. Although the legislation of both provinces is similar, its application in New Brunswick was found to be influenced by social workers' professional norms, with the result that fewer intrusive intervention methods were employed and only a few cases were channelled through courts each year, while the number of court cases was on the increase in Nova Scotia.     

Reproductive rights or duties? The rhetoric of division in social media debates on abortion law in Poland

ABSTRACT

This study explores the argumentative schemas used in claim-making and the rhetorical resources for stance-taking in the online abortion law debate in Poland in late 2016. It shows how these discursive devices were used to divide and discredit the opponent in the social media by two social movements: the Stop Abortion coalition of conservative and religious organizations that sponsored the legislative proposal to considerably restrict abortion, and the Save Women committee that stood behind the ‘black’ protests opposing the project. The textual material is drawn from social media profiles of the two movements following a week of intense street protests and publicity activities (19–26 October 2016). It is subjected to contrastive argument analysis and critical discourse analysis of rhetorical resources. The analysis involves comparing (1) the discrepant premises underpinning arguments in the process of claim-making; (2) the reverse distribution of legitimization techniques deployed; and (3) the choices of name-calling devices aimed at discrediting antagonists.     

Das polnische Familienrecht im Reformprozeß der staatlichen Ordnung

In view of the political reform in Poland, the ratification of international conventions and Poland’s intention of joining the European Union, a revision of both civil law and family law, which has been codified separately hitherto, is required. The author analyses the proposals made by the commission for the codification of the civil law and presents further possibilities for a solution.As far as the family law reform is concerned, optional civil marriage has been introduced. The same law lays down that a marriage is void in the case of an error regarding the partner and the event that the marriage was concluded under threat. Whereas the principle of irretrievable marriage breakdown remains unchanged, the introduction of divorce on request of one partner without judicial control has been refused. Furthermore, the legal separation is to be introduced.According to the author, the main emphasis of the reformatory efforts is being placed on the matrimonial property law. He reports on the commission’s proposal on the introduction of the community of surplus as a new matrimonial property regime, the introduction of a matrimonial property register and the extension of the spouses’ rights to settle their marital property rights by contract.With regard to the parent and child law the author analyses the impications of new assisted reproduction technologies for the right to challenge paternity and questions of maintenance.Finally the author refers to the status of the child in the new constitution and points out the necessity of hearing the children in the course of divorce proceedings.     

新媒体视角下廊坊市社会舆情教育与管理研究

新媒体对社会舆情具有双重影响：一方面,公众可以借此学习各种知识,关注社会发展,推动社会进步;另一方面,新媒体使日常舆论引导难度逐渐增大,政府公信力受到影响,网络信息安全面临挑战。面对此种情况,针对新媒体认识不足等突出问题,廊坊市应采取有效措施,优化社会舆论环境,建立新媒体舆情监测预警系统,科学调解控制社会舆情,拓宽公众表达渠道,促进社会政治经济健康发展。     

Is collective bargaining a collective good?

This study argues that legislation imposes on collective bargaining an artificial collective goods characteristic as a legal property, which should be distinguished from collective goods in the economic sense. The law creates an artificial freerider problem. Congressional intent was to require compulsory unionism to the extent that all workers would be required to share in the expenses incurred by the union in the negotiation and administration of collective bargaining agreements. Recent court decisions have attempted to define the obligation of employees, employers, and labor unions in terms of this legislative intent.     

Summerhouse Dialogues between Mobilier and Immobilier

Abstract

Addressing processes of cultural memory and mental appropriation in leisure architecture, this study relies on the fact that, in Denmark, summerhouses are often sold with furniture and objects representing the former owners and their ways of life. The theoretical starting point is formed by a discussion of Gaston Bachelard’s notion of “childhood home.” A menaced phenomenon in today’s urbanized reality, the childhood home and its mental values may indirectly be cultivated and reinterpreted by way of summerhouses. Buying a partly furnished summerhouse involves a joint encounter with immobilier (real estate) and mobilier (movables). In this way, a dialogue between the actual residents and a larger cultural history comes about. Built 1960/1971, the summerhouse studied here belongs to the author and his family. Archival and photographic experiments carried out after the acquisition in 1998 support reflections on space and life, now and in the previous history of the house.     

Labor Force Trends and Immigration in Europe1

Labor force trends up to 2025 for the fifteen countries (before May 1, 2004) of the European Community are examined. Will demographic decline have an early effect on manpower volume? An estimation is made to determine whether present migratory flow levels in these countries will be sufficient to counter labor force stagnation. Manpower trend scenarios are proposed for each country. They show highly contrasting situations. These countries favor different policies for mobilizing and increasing their manpower volume. There is wide divergence between the various EU countries as concerns their demogra hic situation and labor force partici ation rate as well as their social security systems. labor force partici ation rate as well as their social security systems. Considering these highly diverse national characteristics, the difficulty in arrivin at a consensus on EU migratory policy harmonization is stressed     

Organizing to Amend Antidiscrimination Statutes in Maryland

SUMMARY

Federal law and statutes in most of the 50 states prohibit discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations on the basis of race, creed, sex, and national origin. However, only 12 states and the District of Columbia have statutes which include prohibitions of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Maryland became the twelfth state with such a provision when the State Legislature passed the Antidiscrimination Act of 2001. The road to passage of this legislation was long and winding, beginning in 1976. This article describes one of the organizations involved in the effort, Free State Justice, and the strategies that led to eventual legislative success; the article also discusses how the dynamics and processes involved in initiating such efforts can be generalized to other settings.     

Legislative Advocacy Under Competitive Authoritarian Regimes: The Case of Civil Society in Jordan

This article expands the limited literature on civil society legislative advocacy in the Arab world by examining the frequency of Civil Society Institutions’ (CSIs) legislative advocacy in Jordan, an Arab competitive authoritarian monarchy. The article explores the impact of authoritarian control and organizational factors on CSIs’ legislative advocacy. Based on 82 semi-structured interviews, this qualitative study finds that there is a low frequency of legislative advocacy among Jordanian CSIs. Financial resources, access to legislators, and perceptions of legislators’ interest in advocacy affect CSI legislative advocacy. In contrast, public funding and the law governing CSIs do not affect CSI legislative advocacy. The findings add to both the literature on advocacy in general and on legislative advocacy in particular, and open up new areas for research.     

The Endangered Empire: American Re- sponses to Transnational Organized Crime

Abstract

Transnational organized crime in the United States represents the dark side of globalization. This chapter attempts to identify the key problems that face US law enforcement in its efforts to cope with the challenges posed by transnational crime. While the realities of global crime require a broad, comprehensive law enforcement response, unfortunately, even in the United States, law enforcement agencies still tend to turn to local organizations and resort to local remedies to combat international criminal activity. In recent years the size of illegal markets and the resources of transnational crime networks have imposed financial burdens on governments that must devote resources to this struggle. Furthermore, the needs for flexible international trade initiatives and commercial investment frameworks makes the task of US law enforcement agencies engaged in criminal containment and control strategies more difficult to develop and sustain. US law enforcement is multi-layered with jurisdictional authority that is sometimes overlapping and reinforcing which in turn strengthens responses to crime. On the other hand, there are serious issues concerning decentralized enforcement authority that affects federal, regional, and state jurisdictions. Complicating matters still further are the external threats that transnational crime poses that lay beyond the official reach of U. S. criminal justice. Other US issues that complicate and indeed thwart adequate enforcement responses include: the politicization of law enforcement budgets and central government allocations of resources for law enforcement which too often depend upon political partisanship and party loyalties. And media-engendered fears about transnational crime phenomena are often confused with genuine social problems such as immigration and illegal aliens. Too frequently, media distort public attention about crime problems such as urban street gangs operating across national borders.     

Dementia Policy Revisited

Abstract

Even though state governments assume public responsibility for persons with dementia, formal analysis of state laws concerning individuals with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia has been rare. We responded to this by collecting and evaluating state legislation targeted towards individuals with dementia. These laws were collected by searching online statutory archives and were defined by the type of action, year of passage, and legislative purpose. Our research revealed that the legislatures have targeted an average of slightly more than five actions towards persons with dementia. We also discovered that the earliest legislative act targeting individuals with dementia was passed by South Dakota in 1939, and by the end of the 1997 sessions, 49 state legislatures had enacted at least one targeted law. We sorted the variety of legislative actions into eight categories and illuminated how the purposes of these laws differed from one state legislature to the next. This research expands knowledge concerning state policies targeting people with dementia, introduces a reliable method of collecting state laws, and contributes to the advocacy effort made on behalf of persons with dementia.     

The Sociology of the Family in Spain:

This paper analyses research undertaken in Spain on the sociology of the family. A set of intellectual and cultural condi- tions at the end of the 19th century suggested that there would be a rapid growth of this area of specialisation. Nevertheless, the disci- pline did not become institutionalised despite the efforts of Adolfo Posada, who had taken the initiative to formalise its status. Other factors which should have encouraged developments in this field such as the debate on the role of women in society, the survey of the Ateneo de Madrid of 1901 or the profound legal changes introduced by the Second Republic in fact made little impact. Although the emergence of empirical sociology at the end of the 1960s is related to the study of the Spanish family, it is in other fields of sociology where advances were more marked. With the death of Franco in 1975 and the legislative and social changes which followed, the sociology of the family acquired greater vigour, although many gaps remain to be covered by research.     

Toward A Renewed Sociological Jurisprudence: From Roscoe Pound to Herbert Blumer and Beyond

This article, based on the Distinguished Lecture presented on August 21, 2001, at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction in Anaheim, California, proposes a synthesis of Herbert Blumer's macrosociological perspective on the race question with Roscoe Pound's philosophy and science of law (i.e., his so‐called sociological jurisprudence), Joseph Tussman's and Jacobus tenBroek's juridical methodology, and Philip Selznick's sociology of responsive law. The compound so produced will help to establish a foundation for a praxiological sociology of American constitutional law. The article focuses on the problem of legislative‐made “classifications” and their relations to the legitimate public purposes entailed in the enactment of statutes, laws, and decrees. Such classifications become problematic when they are said to be “underinclusive,” “over‐inclusive,” or both in seeking to effect their aims. Strategic research sites for this issue are racial and ethnic classifications that single out one or a limited cluster of racial or ethnic groups for special benefits (“affirmative action”) or restitution (“reparations”). Calling for a reinvigoration of Pound's pragmatic approach to sociological jurisprudence, I show how Blumer's analysis of the “color line”—when seen in relation to the original intent of the makers of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth post‐Civil War Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and, using Tussman's and tenBroek's showing of how such categorizations might be both methodically evaluated and applied to the challenged classifications—provides grounds for reconsidering whether the latter are instances of “reverse discrimination” and, hence, violations of the constitutional requirement of “equal protection of the law.” The science of law is a science of social engineering having to do with that part of the whole field which may be achieved by the ordering of human relations through the action of politically organized society. —Roscoe Pound, Justice According to Law We did not hold it necessary to wait for nature to put a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, and we shall not much longer hold it necessary to wait for nature to dig the legal canals that will give security to neglected human interests which clamor for recognition and protection. —Roscoe Pound, “Juristic Problems of National Progress”     

Using Geographic Information System (GIS) Technology to Integrate Research into the Field Practicum

SUMMARY

This article reports on efforts to answer some basic questions arising in the introduction of technology into the social work curriculum. It involves an on-going project to integrate research into field instruction by training students to use Geographic Information System technology to identify and meet information needs of their field placement agency. Background on the project is given, with discussion of three concerns that shaped it. An explanation of how GIS works and how it can be used in the human service agency is provided, along with an account of the project's outcome. Preliminary conclusions regarding future efforts are offered.     

PARTNERS: a model program for special-needs adoptive families in stress

That adoption status, once begun, does not end for any adoptive family, and that agencies must be ready to help adoptive families whenever needed, has been generally agreed. For families that adopt special-needs children, the availability of help at all times is imperative and involves special considerations. This article sets forth the kinds of services that are needed, and describes a program particularly designed for this purpose.