Underage abortion and beyond: developments of Spanish law in competent minor's autonomy

This paper examines the recent developments in underage abortion and related questions in Spanish law. Despite the prevalence of the language of autonomy, like in Britain, children's interests are not defined in Spain by relying exclusively on the competent child's views. Parental opinion and societal expectations are given due weight, although sometimes only implicitly. Calculated ambiguity in legal practice and in the relevant legal texts provides evidence of the pervasive influence of deeply rooted distrust as against clear-cut rules favouring a young person's autonomy.     

Freedom and choice in constitutional law

The constitutional rights of children, the mentally ill, and other legally incompetent persons have been the subject of much litigation in the past twenty years. In this Article, Professor Garvey develops a general theory to explain the different ways in which persons of diminished capacity can be said to enjoy constitutional protections. He first notes that, of the various constitutional provisions, only one kind - freedom, which protect the right to make choices - pose serious difficulties when applied to persons of diminished capacity. He then proposes a hierarchy of ways in which we can attribute freedoms to such persons: the laissez-faire notion that all persons (including incompetents) are to be treated identically, the instrumental idea that granting freedoms to incompetents achieves extrinsic goals such as training, and the surrogate notion that persons who cannot make choices for themselves should be able to have those closest to them choose on their behalf. Professor Garvey concludes that, when these options fail and the state takes an incompetent person under its control, the state owes to the incompetent the full package of duties owed by other guardians to those under their control, including treatment in the case of the mentally ill or education in the case of children.     

Uganda: constitutional law

The implementation of international humanitarian law (IHL) is a continuous and evolving process. As such, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) co-operates closely with the Commonwealth Secretariat with the aim to advise and support Commonwealth states on developments in IHL and to assist them in meeting their IHL treaty obligations. The present update highlights some of the key issues and recent developments in IHL that are of interest to Commonwealth states.     

德日刑法中的可罚性理论

在德日刑法中,作为犯罪成立要件的可罚性是在构成要件符合性、违法性和责任之外,对行为进行的"值得处罚"这种实质的评价.可罚性的要素包括客观的处罚条件和一身的处罚阻却事由.     

法治政府的宪政诉求与宪政途径

法治政府建设是我国人民政治生活中的一件大事，法治政府的终极归宿在于维护民权，保障民生，顺乎民意，法治政府所体现的“民本”思想与完政理念完全契合，宪法作为根本大法对法治政府建设具有支配和指导作用，构建法治政府必须遵循宪法精神，反映完政诉求，在完政的框架之内运行。