Caste Discrimination: A Twenty‐First Century Challenge for UK Discrimination Law?1

Discrimination based on caste affects at least 270 million people worldwide, mostly in South Asia. Caste as a system of social organisation has been exported from its regions of origin to diaspora communities such as the UK, yet despite the prohibition of caste‐based discrimination in international human rights law caste is not recognised as a ground of discrimination in English law. The overhaul of its equality framework and the proposed new single equality act present the UK with an opportunity to align national legislation with international law obligations. The Government's decision not to include protection against caste discrimination in the new legislation leaves race and religion as the only possible legal ‘homes’ for caste. This article considers the argument for legal recognition of caste discrimination in the UK, the capacity of race and religion to subsume caste as a ground of discrimination, and the role and limitations of law in addressing ‘new’ forms of discrimination such as casteism.     

Alteration of the Death Scene After Self‐stabbing: A Case of Sharp Force Suicide Disguised by the Victim as a Homicide?

This paper reports a case of a 72‐year‐old woman who was found dead in her bedroom with a 4 cm vertical stab wound in the abdomen. A bloodstained knife was found in the top drawer of her bedside table. The clothes worn by the victim showed no damage. A bloodstained vest and a sweater with frontal incisions were found far from the victim, in the bathroom and in the bedroom respectively. Several bloodstains were found in every room of the apartment. The evidence found during the forensic examination and, in particular, the Bloodstain Pattern Analysis, led the investigators to determine the manner of death, being consistent with a suicide with a long‐lasting physical activity after self‐stabbing. This report describes an unusual case of “disguised suicide,” in which the victim tried to cover‐up the suicide by changing her clothes and concealing the weapon, in the last minutes of her life.     

‘Should I Stay or Should I Go ?’—A Critical Analysis of the Right to Withdraw from the EU

This article seeks to answer one of the key questions facing the EU in the future: what effect will the new right to withdraw have on the EU? Will it lead to a gradual fragmentation of what was supposed to be ‘an ever closer union of unlimited duration’? Or will it even mark the beginning of the end of the Union? In order to answer these complex questions, this article first briefly analyses the pre‐Lisbon situation regarding withdrawal. It then critically examines the newly inserted Article 50, which codifies the right to withdraw. Having done so, it will then examine whether non‐legal considerations, such as political and economic reasons, will render withdrawal a theoretical rather than realistic option.     

Self‐selection or Socialization? A Dynamic Analysis of Committee Member Preferences

Theories on committee power assert that legislators self‐select to committees and therefore have preferences regarding the policy issues under the committees' jurisdictions that differ from the preferences of noncommittee members. I argue that preference outliers may be shaped both by processes of self‐selection and by endogenous processes within committees. Contrary to previous examinations of committee member preferences, the study utilizes a dynamic approach to examine the development of preferences over time in order to separate self‐selection from endogenous processes. Analyzing the development in the spending preferences of 859 Danish local politicians over three different election periods, I find that politicians increasingly prefer spending on their committees' jurisdictions over time, but their preferences do not change to the same extent on policy issues beyond their committees' jurisdictions. The findings point to the importance of endogenous processes in committees. Hence, committees may be outliers for very different reasons than those proposed by mainstream theory.     

‘Stop the ECJ’?: An Empirical Analysis of Activism at the Court

This article uses a disaggregated approach to study the role of the Advocate General in the European Court of Justice (CJ). It presents original empirical material based upon interviews with Advocates General (AsG) and referendaires at the CJ to assess the question of activism at the Court. Using answers to specific questions, I conclude that while the AsG are entrepreneurs, neither they nor the Court can be described as ‘activist’per se.     

Hands‐Off or Hands‐On?: Deconstructing the ‘Test‐Case’ of Re G within a Culture of Children's Rights

This note challenges the so‐called ‘test‐case’ status of Re G in so far as it attempts to overturn the principle established in Re T that courts should adopt a neutral position when it comes to weighing the merits of different upbringings and the education provided by parents of minority religions. In determining the future upbringing and education of children who had been brought up in a minority religious community, Re G applies a principle of maximising educational opportunity in order to uphold the mother's proposed educational choice and way of life. This note argues that Re G was wrong to do so, should not be regarded as establishing any new principle and that the only relevant principle, both in determining this case and future cases, ought to rest on the psychological well‐being of the child.     

The Development of EU Case‐Law on Age Discrimination in Employment: ‘Will You Still Need Me? Will You Still Feed Me? When I'm Sixty‐Four’

This article addresses the development of age discrimination law in the Court of Justice and concludes that there is a marked difference in the level of discretion given to Member States in cases relating to mandatory retirement policies. The article will critique the approach of the Court of Justice to the legitimate objective test and the proportionality test in retirement cases. It will also argue that the decisions of the Court of Justice to date have all involved cases with very similar factual scenarios, and the article hypothesises how a different conclusion might be reached in cases with different factors. It also considers the impact of the Charter of Fundamental Rights on such cases. The article concludes by arguing that mandatory retirement policies may no longer be compatible with EU law and that there is a need to move towards more flexible retirement policies.     

European Human Rights Law and the Normalisation of the ‘Closed Material Procedure’: Limit or Source?

Once a legal abnormality that was criticised on human rights grounds, the closed material procedure (CMP) has now become the main mechanism for dealing with allegedly sensitive security information in the UK. This article considers the role of European human rights law in that process. It argues that the CMP can be conceptualised as the product of human rights law, which has developed so as to legalise and normalise its use, and that this process is symptomatic of a deeper inter‐relationship between human rights law and the preservation of states' security interests, which renders the former inherently unsuitable for dealing with security phenomena.     

‘The referring court asks,in essence’: Is reformulation of preliminary questions by the Court of Justice a decision writing fixture or a decision‐making approach?

The Court of Justice can rephrase or otherwise depart from the questions referred to it by national courts under Article 267 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union. It does so routinely: a practice known as reformulation. Legal literature often argues that reformulation is used to clarify national court questions and bring them within the scope of European Union law. The aim of the present article is to explore this claim systematically. To this end, it compiles a unique dataset consisting of the Orders for Reference, in which the referring courts embed the preliminary questions, and the judgments, in which the Court of Justice communicates the answers. The findings suggest that reformulation is a decision‐making approach rather than a fixture of decision writing. It's main function is to neutralize conflicts and Europeanise disputes. It underlines the Court's power to shape the preliminary ruling procedure and its outcomes.     

Cardiac Changes Due to Electronic Control Devices? A Computer‐Based Analysis of Electrical Effects at the Human Heart Caused by an ECD Pulse Applied to the Body's Exterior

Electronic control devices (ECDs) deliver high‐voltage, low‐current energy pulses temporarily paralyzing a person. For the ECD–human interaction, we have developed a computer model using the SEMCAD program within which to simulate the electrical effects throughout the body resulting from the imposition of an ECD pulse at a particular point on the body surface. Our human body models were based on cross‐sectional MRIs and CT scans, with the dielectric properties of the various tissues assigned based on previously published values. We simulated the application of a single ECD pulse and calculated the resulting electric field strength and current and charge densities at different body locations. The results were compared with corresponding values obtained by other researchers in similar simulations. Furthermore, we simulated an application of a pulse of 20‐millisecond duration equal to the European household current of 50 Hz and to the ventricular fibrillation threshold. The resulting current level indicated at the heart muscle was 1/5 the level considered the threshold for triggering ventricular fibrillation.     

Is It the What or the How? The Roles of High‐Policing Tactics and Procedural Justice in Predicting Perceptions of Hostile Treatment: The Case of Security Checks at Ben‐Gurion Airport,Israel

What affects perceptions of hostile treatment by police, characterized by feelings such as humiliation and intimidation? Is it what the police do to the citizen, or is it about how they do it? The important effects of procedural justice are well documented in the policing literature. Yet, it is not clear how high‐policing tactics, coupled with procedural justice, affect one's sense of hostile treatment: is it the case that what the police do does not matter as long as they follow the principles of procedural justice, or do some invasive or unpleasant tactics produce negative emotions regardless of the amount of procedural justice displayed by the officer? In the present study we examine this question in the context of security checks at Ben‐Gurion Airport, Israel. Using a survey of 1,970 passengers, we find that the behavioral elements of procedural justice are an important antidote, mitigating the negative effects of four “extra” screening measures on the perceived hostility of the checks. At the same time, two security measures retain an independent and significant effect. We discuss the implications of our findings and hypothesize about the characteristics of policing practices that are less sensitive to procedural justice.     

Legal Subjectivity and the ‘Right to be Forgotten’: A Rancièrean Analysis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Google</Emphasis>

This article discusses the right to be forgotten. The landmark Google ruling of the European Court of Justice gave this ambiguous right new weight and raised several urgent questions. This article considers what kind of person is presupposed and constructed when somebody invokes their right to be forgotten. The aim is to engage in an experimental reading of the ruling in the framework of contemporary political theory, namely, the philosophy of Jacques Rancière. The analysis shows that even though the right to be forgotten is a new legal and rhetorical instrument, there are good grounds for being critical of its underlying logic and sceptical of the novelty thereof. The judgment can be understood as a reiteration and consolidation of the same impotent human rights thinking that law often seems forced to contend itself with, no matter how radical our intentions may be.     

The Nomination of International Judges by ‘the Enlightened Few’: A Comment on the Royal Decree of 23 January 2020 Concerning the Establishment of a Dutch National Group at the Permanent Court of Arbitration

On 23 January 2020, the Government of the Netherlands adopted a Royal Decree concerning the Establishment of a Dutch National Group at the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The Decree aims to provide fairness, transparency and consistency in terms of the composition of the national group and its function of nominating candidates for election to international courts. This contribution puts the Dutch national group in context in the relevant international legal framework, analyses the specifics of the Decree and critically evaluates its strengths and weaknesses. It will be argued that while the Decree offers a number of welcome procedural specifications and innovations, it contains elements that deserve refinement and improvement in order to prevent that the Dutch national group acts (or is perceived to act) as a rubber stamp institution that simply carries out the will of the Government when making nominations for the international judiciary.