When legal rights are not a reality: do individuals know their rights and how can we tell?

Public knowledge of rights has been the subject of a number of empirical enquiries over the last decade. In England and Wales, knowledge of rights and its relationship with an individual's capacity to ‘self-help’ and ‘self-represent’ when faced with a civil justice problem has become the subject of renewed attention following changes to legal aid which, from March 2013, will see the availability of legal advice and representation dramatically reduced. Previous studies focusing on public knowledge of rights in this (and other) jurisdictions have illustrated a lack of knowledge amongst the general population and more specifically, a widespread tendency of individuals to assume that the law aligns with their own moral, ethical or social attitudes. However, many of these studies have also suffered from methodological shortcomings. In attempting to address some of these shortcomings this study uses an open-ended format to ask individuals with one or one or more civil or social justice problems to describe their rights/legal position. We find that whilst an open-ended question approach to exploring knowledge of rights yields insight not acquired by other formats, its utility is constrained by difficulty reconciling articulation and actual knowledge of rights. We discuss the implications of these findings as they relate to the development of future research in the field of family and social welfare law, Public Legal Education (PLE) and access to justice post-March 2013.     

论程序正义与现代法律文明——一种基于程序正义理念的法哲学思考

在现代法律文明之中,程序承载着对于法治、自由、人权等价值目标的功能意义;而程序正义作为一种法律理性价值在公共领域的应用,保障着公民的平等自由,同时也是公民诉讼权利实现的前提之一。在这种意义上,程序正义可以说是现代法律文明的理性价值之渊薮。     

文化法的定位、原则与体系

文化法属于社会法的范畴,旨在保障公民文化权益的实现和满足人民群众精神生活需要。建立公民文化权利与政府责任之间的关联性,确立和维护产业文化与事业文化形态,促进文化体制改革、社会核心价值体系建设和文化繁荣发展,需要加强文化法治建设。文化法治建设应当遵循文化权利保障、政府主导与公众参与结合、市场化与政府规制协调以及综合效益原则,构建由宪法文化权利与宪法文化政策两块坚实基石、文化事业法制与文化产业法制两个基本侧面、中央文化立法与地方文化立法两个对应层面、文化政策与文化法律两个互动方面有机构成的文化法制体系。     

‘Fat cat’ lawyers and ‘illegal’ migrants: the impact of intersecting hostilities and toxic narratives on access to justice

ABSTRACT

This article examines how three spheres of hostility intersect to prevent effective access to justice for those living with insecure immigration status. The neoliberal governance model, the barren justice landscape and the hostile environment are supported by the cynical construction of the ‘fat cat’ lawyer and the toxic ‘folk devil’ narrative of the ‘bogus’ asylum seeker. To the extent that the judiciary have frustrated the more obvious, ideologically driven, attempts to restrict access to justice for migrants, the austerity predicated measures pursuant to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) have completely altered the legal landscape. The analysis is informed by the findings of the ‘Legal advice and support for persons with insecure status’ project (hereafter LAPIS) in Nottingham which explores the challenges faced by service providers and the lived experiences of those with insecurity of status. It is clear that access to justice is a passport to the realisation of other rights, yet participants struggled to access a remedy because legal advice is too often out of reach.     

实现正义——公平审判权在中国的发展

文章强调了一个有效的辩护援助体系对保障公平审判权的必要性。为了保障穷人能够平等地享有正义,一个国家必须拥有一套提供给他们律师的机制。文章分析了促使一个国家为她的公民建立有效公平审判权的关键因素。文章首先论述了,中国的法律援助体系在其公民权利保护进程中扮演的关键角色和继续发展法律援助对中国长远利益的必要性。其次,本文表明了,国际组织怎样通过培训和能力培养方式在支持权利保护的进程中发挥巨大作用。最后,文章指出只有充分尊重中国的自治,国际合作才能发挥更大作用。文章特别展示了IBJ的经验,以显示国际组织如何与中国政府开展合作,成功地提高中国公民权利保护水平。     

Lost in space? the role of place in the delivery of social welfare law advice over the telephone and face-to-face

ABSTRACT

Advice that is provided exclusively over the telephone has been promoted by government as more convenient and accessible than face-to-face appointments. The resulting push towards telephone-only provision, as implemented by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, challenges the long history of association between social welfare law advice and local delivery within disadvantaged communities. This article reports on qualitative research comparing telephone and face-to-face advice which uncovers the continuing relevance of place in the dynamics and mechanics of social welfare law provision. Familiarity with the geographical location, knowledge of local policies and procedures, relationships with opponents and allies, and an understanding of the ‘local legal culture’ mean that face-to-face advisers are often able to conduct their legal casework more effectively. Conversely, local knowledge is unlikely to be available to Community Legal Advice telephone advisers. This research suggests that, in addition, telephone-only advisers may be developing a more narrow understanding of the essential qualities of casework. These findings are particularly significant in view of the likely future expansion of remote methods of delivery in legal aid work.     

Getting Schooled: Legal Mobilization as an Educative Process

This article explores the role of formal education and specific legal knowledge in the process of legal mobilization. Using survey data and in‐depth case narratives of workplace disputes in China, we highlight three major findings. First, and uncontroversially, higher levels of formal education are associated with greater propensity to use legal institutions and to find them more effective. Second, informally acquired labor law knowledge can substitute for formal education in bringing people to the legal system and improving their legal experiences. The Chinese state's propagation of legal knowledge has had positive effects on citizens' legal mobilization. Finally, while education and legal knowledge are factors that push people toward the legal system, actual dispute experience leads people away from it, especially among disputants without effective legal representation. The article concludes that the Chinese state's encouragement of individualized legal mobilization produces contradictory outcomes—encouraging citizens to use formal legal institutions, imbuing them with new knowledge and rights awareness, but also breeding disdain for the law in practice.     

论我国公民的免于匮乏权

美国前总统富兰克林.罗斯福面对经济危机提出了包括公民应该享有"免于匮乏的自由"的著名四大自由。我国的法学理论中虽然没有这一概念,但宪法中关于"国家合理安排积累和消费,兼顾国家、集体和个人的利益,在发展生产的基础上,逐步改善人民的物质生活和文化生活"的规定,实质上就是关于公民免于匮乏权的表述。本文从现代国家的职责、国家权利(义务)与公民权利(义务)关系的角度论述了保障公民免于匮乏权是国家的法律义务,不能将此任推给公民家庭及个人,并通过对我国实践的剖析,提出应当避免过度从政策层面、经济层面及公民个人努力层面对公民进行免于匮乏权保障的路径选择,而应靠国家义务性、实践路径上的法律制度性来实现。     

Citizenship,Belonging and Attachment in the ‘War on Terror’

The ‘war on terror’ has had an enormous impact on citizens’ legal rights and legal status. Using data from interviews with British Pakistani Kashmiri Muslims, this paper explores how the change to citizens’ legal rights and legal status in the ‘war on terror’, the legal dimension of citizenship, has impacted the psychological dimension of citizenship. Through denoting legal rights, equality and status the study revealed the powerful role of the state and the police in shaping citizens’ perceptions of the legal dimension of citizenship. The paper explores how changes to participants’ perceptions of their legal status and legal rights are instrumental in shaping the psychological dimension of citizenship—participants’ sense of loyalty, belonging and attachment to their British identity and their Islamic identity.     

Cause Lawyers,Political Violence,and Professionalism in Conflict

This article examines how cause lawyers in conflicted and authoritarian societies balance their professional responsibilities as lawyers with their commitment to a political cause. It is drawn from extensive interviews with both lawyers and political activists in a range of societies. It focuses on the challenges for lawyers in managing relations with violent politically‐motivated clients and their movements. Using the notion of ‘legitimation work', it seeks to examine the complex, fluid, and contingent understandings of legal professionalism that is developed in such contexts, offering three overlapping ‘ideal types’ of cause lawyers in order to better understand the meaning of legal professionalism in such sites: (a) struggle lawyers (b) human rights activists and (c) a ‘pragmatic moral community'. The article concludes by re‐examining how law is imagined in the legitimation work of cause lawyers in such settings and how that work is remembered in the transition from violence.     

民法上“法益”概念的探源与本土化

《民法总则》第126条中的"利益",与我国民法学界持者甚众的狭义法益说中的"法益"含义大致相同,指的是权利之外应当受到法律保护的客体,是立法者为解决其预见性不足的弹性规范设计。上述界定与"法益"概念的原意不符,和刑法学界的惯常用法存在明显差别,属于概念移植过程中的本土化改造。"民事权利和利益"的二分法和狭义法益说在法理、逻辑上都不能成立,也不具备法益理论应当具备的分类、区分保护和评价功能,必然会造成立法表述与司法裁判说理中的冲突。"法益"概念的本土化界定,应当建立在共识的基础上,寻求统一的、适用于包括刑法、民法等在内的各个部门法的"法益"概念。"法益"是应当受到法保护的利益,此处的法既包括实然意义上的法律,也包括应然意义上的法。法益是权利的上位而非平行概念,《民法总则》第126条中的"利益"实质上是未被立法明文规定的未上升为权利的法益,未来修法时应将该条修改为"民事主体享有其他民事权利和未上升为权利的法益"。     

专业法律知识的媒体供给与社会正义的维护——基于昆山案中舆论、司法、媒体互动的考察

维护社会正义是舆论、媒体与司法实践的共同目标。从系统论看,三者之间的良性互动有助于社会正义的实现。司法案件舆论引导是三者互动的一种常见状态。在司法案件舆论引导中,供给专业法律知识能够促进三者的良性互动。本文以极具代表性的昆山案为例展开案例研究,发现新闻媒体通过法学专家向公众供给专业法律知识、司法机关自媒体向公众供给专业法律知识,能够促进舆论与司法的良性互动,实现司法案件舆论引导效果。社会正义的维护并非仅靠法治实现,司法与舆论、媒体的互动能够更好地落实法治的正义精神。     

Citizen's psychological knowledge,legal knowledge,and attitudes toward participation in the new Japanese legal system,saiban-in seido

A new procedure, saiban-in seido, was introduced in the Japanese criminal court in 2009.1 1. This article was written before the Saiban-in seido started. A mixed tribunal of three professional judges and six lay people selected from a list of voters deliberate the verdict in serious criminal cases such as murder, rape, and arson. This study researched lay people's attitudes toward the new system, their psychological knowledge (e.g. the reliability of eyewitness testimony) and legal knowledge (e.g. ‘presumed innocent’), and the relationship between attitude and knowledge. Study 1 examined the responses of 294 citizens to a questionnaire; 90 responses were examined in Study 2 (both samples consisted of two age groups, i.e. (1) 20s and (2) 40s and 50s, and two education levels, i.e. (1) college or below and (2) university or more. In both studies, respondents showed concerns about their lack of ability and knowledge to become a lay judge. Although legal knowledge was related to attitude – i.e. the more legal knowledge, the less negativity – no relationship was found between psychological knowledge and attitude. Relevant support for citizens to become lay judges was discussed.     

Citizenship and justice: public prosecutors in social contexts in Portugal

All over the world judicial systems are under tremendous pressure as the instruments used by citizens to access their full rights. The erosion of other state powers has transferred expectations of social intervention or, at least, protection for the rights of the weak and vulnerable, to the sphere of justice. Hence, in some countries the social role of judges or public prosecutors has become more important and their work is publicly scrutinised to ensure that their duties are performed correctly and fairly. In addition to criminal law, social areas of justice (concerning workers and children) have become more central to judicial systems, conferring a new public responsibility on these professionals.

In several countries, including Portugal, public prosecutors are unusual within the legal profession given that they have equal status in both social and criminal areas of law. In certain systems, public prosecutors may act as a party, defending the rights of powerless citizens and leading them through the judicial process. Such powers offer great potential for fairness and justice but at the same time can lead to dangerous professional controversies. Through an analysis of the Portuguese model, one of the more advanced of its kind (in terms of intervention), some of the main features will be described and identified.

Public prosecutors in Portugal have, for many years, been in charge of a set of very varied responsibilities within the context of the Family and Juvenile and Labour Courts which far exceed what is publicly acknowledged, particularly in criminal matters. However, their functions are not limited to those of the ‘public prosecutor’ or ‘coordinator of the investigation’ typically associated with responsibilities in criminal matters.

Within the context of these two major and socially sensitive areas, public prosecutors act as intermediaries between the different parties and entities involved in litigation, a fact which, in professional terms, endows them with features which are atypical of magistrates and places them in close contact with citizens. Thus, taking a case study based on the Coimbra Family and Juvenile and Labour Courts as its starting point, this paper aims to map out these formal and informal functions, which create a level of importance that is probably much higher than would have been expected, particularly given the lack of truly credible and effective alternatives that enable citizens to access law and justice.     

Strict Compliance versus Commercial Reality: The Practical Application of EC Public Procurement Law to the UK's Private Finance Initiative

Abstract: The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) has been described as the largest cultural change for decades in the way the public sector operates in the United Kingdom. Most of these projects have to be delivered within the framework of public procurement law. This article investigates whether the divergence between the legal framework and the commercial requirements of PFI has resulted in the development of a ‘PFI procurement practice’. If so, it is aimed to examine the reasons for developing the practice and whether it deviated from procurement law. The results of the qualitative empirical study, on which the article is based, are not limited to PFI procurement, but have wider implications for EC procurement law and the general debate over whether it is suitable for modern procurement practice. The findings are also of interest to legal sociologists and European Union lawyers as they describe circumstances under which addressees of the law deviate from supra‐national rules.     

论行政强制执行的法律救济

行政强制执行,作为行政强制的一方面,关系到行政相对人的人身、财产等重要权利。在强调法治和人权的今天,这些属于公民的重要权利越来越受到统治者的重视。同时,行政权存在被滥用的危险,行政强制执行中也可能出现不法或不当情形。因此,法律应当对行政强制执行进行有效控制,从而维护公民合法权益。为实现此目的,法律应运用多种调整方法,法律救济就是其中的重要部分。在很多行政法治国家,行政强制执行的法律救济制度都比较完善,并各具特色。对于国外的一些成功经验,我国应当在立法过程中予以关注和参考。鉴于我国目前的法律救济制度存在某些方面的问题和不足,提出相关的立法构想。     

以检察室为载体延伸检察机关法律监督职能问题的思考

检察机关是国家的法律监督机关,对基层司法执法活动进行监督是其法定职责。然而,当前检察机关缺少更多的在基层的机构设置,直接影响了检察机关法律监督职能的蔓有效发挥。在当前推进三项重点工作的背景下,检察机关应当以推进检察室建设为载体延伸法律监督职能,服务基层基础建设,维护人民群众权益。法律应当明确检察室的设置、赋予检察室独立的编制以健全基层司法体系,同时检察机关应明确检察室的职责地位,加强对检察室的物质人员保障,对其执法活动进行监督制约,促进其工作规范开展。     

The impact of GDPR on European Name & Shame tax defaulter lists

This research analyses and compares tax defaulters’ lists in Europe from the legal perspective arising from the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation. We examined various regulatory systems which reflect a cross section of these ‘Name & Shame’ lists in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. Our findings indicated some legal aspects that contravene the GDPR rules. As a solution we propose a minimum standard model that allows for the publication of tax defaulter information without impinging on citizens’ fundamental rights.     

Granting the Right to Vote for the European Parliament to Resident Third‐Country Nationals: Civic Citizenship Revisited

The EU grants rights to third‐country nationals (TCNs) and strives to approximate their rights to those of Union citizens. Up to now, the approximation has extended to social and economic matters. This article investigates whether political rights, notably voting rights for the European Parliament (EP), should also be approximated. To this end, the analysis applies Dahl's democratic principles of ‘coercion’ and ‘all affected interests’ as well as Bauböck's principle of ‘stakeholding’ to the position of TCNs in the EU. Against that background, it explores the relevance of arguments for and against granting TCNs the right to vote in European elections and submits that voting rights should be granted to long‐term resident TCNs. The author then proposes including TCN voting rights in the legal framework for EP elections and concludes by suggesting the use of the concept of civic citizenship to express political approximation of TCNs to EU citizens.