Special Issue “The Reasonable Interpreter. Perspectives on Legal and Non-Legal Semiotics”. Introduction

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

“The Unnamed Third”: Roberta Kevelson's Legal Semiotics and the Development of International Law

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

Defending the Accused: The Impact of Legal Representation on Criminal Trial Outcomes in Victoria,Australia 1861–1961

Access to legal representation by accused felons was entrenched as part of the adversarial system from the early nineteenth century, but a substantial minority of defendants remained undefended at superior court level well into the twentieth century. Using a sample of criminal trials collected across a crucial hundred-year period that saw the development of incipient legal assistance schemes, this article seeks to examine what effect the presence of defence counsel had on individual trial results. It is shown that there was a significant association between defence status and a variety of outcomes, including pleas, verdicts, trial length, bail status and sentencing. This relationship was to some extent affected by the specific offence with which the accused was charged, but remains evident across various other factors, including defendant ethnicity, sex, occupation and age, and lawyer assigned to the case. The results suggest that representation was highly desirable for defendants throughout this period.     

The Review of the Development of Legal Science in China (1949–2009)

The legal science of the People’s Republic of China has experienced the stages of formation, reinstating and innovation over the past 60 years. Today, the legal field is flourishing. While the construction of different branches of law has been accomplished, there is still a long way to go in realizing democracy and rule of law in China. Jurists need to develop a heightened awareness of their social responsibility and the urgency with which to adapt the development of law to Chinese societies. Only under these circumstances can we effectively promote democracy and rule of law in China.     

Localization Path of the Research Paradigms of Legal Commentary in China — Focusing on the Public Legal Service Function of the Case-Commentary Research on the Style of Civil Litigation Documents

Conducting case-commentary research on the style of civil litigation documents is a key method for judges to produce legal documents, develop professional writing and creative skills, and enhance legal thinking. Such a study is an important way to deepen the reform of the judicial power operation mechanism and to improve the trial management mode. Considering the background of the judicial responsibility system reform, the localization of the research paradigms and case-commentary methods of the style of litigation documents can help reach the consensus of the legal professional community. It also helps promote judgment rules and the spirit of the law. Legal commentaries convey the important functions of public legal services to the public. It is necessary to integrate the Style of Civil Litigation Documents, the “one-stop” litigation service with the reform practice of judicial committees in China, and conduct detailed research on the procedural ruling function and guiding function of the style of civil litigation documents. By studying the guiding function of civil litigation document style for judicial behavior, litigation procedure, and entity processing, it is good for judges to broaden their ideas and methods to write civil litigation documents, enabling an examination of the localization path and method of the legal commentary research paradigm and demonstrating how to continue using the paradigm within the context of the comprehensive reform of the judicial system. Moreover, the study emphasizes how to exert the function of public legal services integrated with the style of civil litigation documents.     

Use the Purpose by Which All May Benefit: The Semiotics of ‘Public Use’

This paper applies semiotic analysis to issues arising from the recent Supreme Court decision of Kelo v. City of New London [545 U.S.469] (2005). The author uses the tools of semiotics to explore the evolution of language and speech and their relationship to the terms, “private property” and “public use” as used by the Supreme Court and the general public in the years leading up to the Kelo decision. This paper will first provide an overview of the field of semiotics, describing the prevailing thought and the methods utilized by semioticians to find meaning. Second, the tools of semiotics will be applied to Supreme Court cases, beginning with Bauman v. Ross [167 U.S. 548] (1897) and continuing to Kelo v. City of New London. Utilizing these tools, the author will show how, within the span of approximately 100 years, the speech of the court has affected the language of legal discourse. The signs to which both Bauman and Kelo seek to attach meaning are found in the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, which provides, in relevant part, “…nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”(emphasis added) (U.S. Const. Amendment 5). This dialectic activity resulted in the development of two different languages. One was used by the layperson, whereas the other was found in relevant legal/political institutions such as the US Supreme Court. This paper will focus on the fundamental change in the meaning of the sign/expression “public use.”     

The role of the Portuguese parliament based on a case study: The discussion of the budget, 1983–95

Barely studied, the Portuguese parliament is a young institution which has undergone numerous and deep changes in its first 20 years of democratic existence. This article looks into those changes during a fundamental period of Portuguese political life: from 1983 to 1995, after the so‐called transition to democracy, in the years that Portugal became a member of the European Union and in the period that saw the occurrence (and repetition) of an absolute majority. To understand the changes in parliament's role, a case study has been chosen: the consideration of the budget bill. This article is based on three main aspects: procedural rules, debate styles and votes. The analysis of the budget discussions shows how the Portuguese parliament has undergone a strong rationalisation process, as well as a change in the role of parliamentarians; from a loss of decisional power, the parliamentarians found new ways of exercising influence in Portuguese politics. The votes on the budget bill and its amendments are an excellent indicator of the role of parliament in policy making, showing a very strong institution in the years preceding the absolute majority. Simultaneously, the votes are also revealing of the determinant position, during the IVth legislature, of the short‐lived Renewal Democratic Party (PRD). Finally, this article looks at data showing the existence of stronger links between Portuguese MPs and their constituencies than is generally expected.     

The Interpretation of Matching Trace Evidence: A Legal Perspective

本文描述了用于规范法庭科学证言的英美证据法,这些法庭科学证言主要是解释微量物证之匹配的重要性。本文根据即将出版的维基百科全书法庭科学卷部分改编。     

The Changing Position of Legal Academics in the United Kingdom: Professionalization or Proletarianization?

This article analyses changes to United Kingdom (UK) university law schools during the period coinciding with Phil Thomas’ career as a law teacher – the latter part of the twentieth century and the first two decades of the twenty-first – in part illustrating the analysis with other examples from Thomas’ career. We will focus specifically on the way in which what it means to be a legal academic has altered, with UK legal academics having been professionalized as a community during this era. Yet, seemingly paradoxically, it is also an era during which, many have suggested, academics in UK universities have become a proletariat.     

Taking Care of Strasbourg: The Status of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Case-Law of the European Court of Human Rights in Kosovo’s Domestic Legal System

This paper addresses the position of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case-law in Kosovo’s domestic legal order. To begin with, it reviews the background of the issue of human rights in Kosovo highlighting its distinct position and perspective. This article then analyses the position held by the European Convention on Human Rights and its protocols in Kosovo’s legal order while also addressing the ECHR’s constitutionalization, its direct effect and the constitutional review on basis of it. The paper then examines whether the case-law of the ECtHR is binding in Kosovo, whether it is directly effective, and whether Kosovo’s Constitutional Court can use it as a ground in the conduct of constitutional reviews. This paper argues that the ECHR and the case-law of the ECtHR both hold a privileged status under Kosovo’s constitutional law, despite Kosovo not being a party to the ECHR and, therefore, having no international liability to implement the ECHR. In addition, the paper offers certain arguments regarding the relative positions of the ECHR and the case-law of the ECtHR within the current practice of Kosovo’s judicial system. This paper concludes with the argument that the ECHR and the case-law of the ECtHR hold a privileged status in the context of Kosovo’s domestic legal order—one which could serve as a precedent in respecting human rights and freedoms.     

The role of justice in the North–South conflict in climate change: the case of negotiations on the Adaptation Fund

Justice, by and large, implies greater legitimacy and can persuade parties with conflicting interests to cooperate more closely on collective actions. Therefore, the aim of this article is to investigate the role that ethical arguments have played in restoring mutual trust between the developed and the developing countries in negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund and in transforming the patent failure of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation Bonn May 2006 meetings on its management into the encouraging success of the Nairobi December 2006 round. These meetings are analysed from the perspectives of procedural and distributive justice in order to interpret the negotiating dynamics and their outcomes. More specifically, procedural and distributive justice are, respectively, sought in the Bonn and Nairobi formal meetings through reference to, and the emergence of, principles and criteria of participation, recognition and distribution of power among Parties, and of Parties’ responsibility for, and vulnerability to, climate impacts.     

The Standard of Legal Definition of the Small and Medium Enterprise——From the aspect of comparative law

西方各国对“中小企业”的立法界定标准差异显著,在其本国内每一部政府扶持立法通常都规定了自己的“中小企业”定义.我国对“中小企业”的立法界定标准先后进行过几次大调整,但目前的立法仍存在诸多缺陷,需要进一步加以完善.立法界定“中小企业”,应以“小”的本质涵义为起点,以“相对随意性”为指导理论.     

The Distorted Jurisprudential Discourse of Nazi Law: Uncovering the ‘Rupture Thesis’ in the Anglo-American Legal Academy

It has been remarked that the ‘rupture thesis’ prevails within the Anglo-American legal academy in its understanding of the legal system in Nazi Germany. This article explores the existence and origins of this idea—that ‘Nazi law’ represented an aberration from normal legal-historical development with a point of rupture persisting between it and the ‘normal’ or central concept of law—within jurisprudential discourse in order to illustrate the prevalence of a distorted (mis)representation of Nazi law and how this distortion is manifested within the discourse today. An analysis of the treatment of Nazi law in two major 50th anniversary publications about the 1958 Hart–Fuller debate, and a review of representations of the Third Reich within literature from the current discourse, demonstrates that the rupture thesis continues to be reproduced within jurisprudence. An examination of the role of Nazi law in the Hart–Fuller debate itself shows that it can be traced back to the debate, where it was constructed through a combination of conceptual determinism and historical omission. It concludes that the historical Nazi law has great significance for the concept of law, but neither positivism nor natural law has properly theorised the nature of the real Nazi legal system.