WHAT DOES ACCESS TO JUSTICE REQUIRE? — OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO INVOKE THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

Persons with disabilities have a right to effective access to justice under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). This article provides insights on the parameters of that right, including a close examination of the history and text of Article 13, which directly addresses access to justice and other relevant UNCRPD provisions. In addition to the UNCRPD, this article discusses implementation guidance from the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, including its guidelines for State Party reports and jurisprudence. The initial reports by eleven States Parties — Argentina, Azerbaijan, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Hungary, Mexico, Peru and Turkmenistan — are also considered. The Committee’s feedback regarding implementation of Article 13 by these eleven States parties is critiqued for being limited and inconsistent. This article then attempts to clarify what effective access to justice actually requires. It does so by focusing on the insights that can be drawn from implementation of Article 13 since the UNCRPD was adopted as well as implementation guidance from the Conference of States Parties, the International Disability Alliance, the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry and the National Center for Access to Justice. This article concludes with recommendations on how the Committee can improve its guidance on access to justice to help ensure that equal rights will not be illusory for persons with disabilities.     

ON THE WAY TO THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREA： PROGRAMMES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AS FACTOR OF THE INNOVATION DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION IN UKRAINE

Within the framework of the FP7 project ＂START＂, the cooperation with European research centres has had a positive impact on raising the level of innovation researches and the introduction of innovations Institute for Superhard Materials of the National Academy of Sciences （ISM NAS） of Ukraine in the economy of Europe and Ukraine, which in turn permits to speed up the way for Ukrainian science to the European research area through the creation in Ukraine of the scientific organizations of innovative type.     

CHALLENGES OF DEVELOPMENT IN BURUNDI： A CASE STUDY OF PROTECTION OF REFUGEES AND IDPS IN POST-CONFLICT RECONCILIATION AND TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE

Violations of human rights and genocide in Burundi are among the most contentious issues which continue to attract the attention of academic discourse. This paper is concerned with the question of human rights violations in Burundi from a historical and comparative perspective. It seeks to trace the root causes of Burundi＇s sullied human rights record over 52 years since independence from Belgium in 1962, the role of the military in human rights violations, including mass killings of civilians and extra-judicial executions of political opponents and the fact that the post- conflict constitutional architecture has not succeeded in establishing accountability and responsibility for these violations; in providing truth, justice and reparations to the victims and in putting an end to the culture of impunity which seems to be entrenched in Burundian society. Moreover, by analyzing critically the results from interviewing 113 Burundians and 16 non-Burundians, this paper argues that there will be no political stability enduring peace without addressing these issues in a comprehensive manner.     

＂RAISING THE BAR＂ THE ROLE OF SELF- GOVERNMENTS AND ASSOCIATIONS OF LAWYERS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRO BONO ACTIVITIES

This article constitutes an extension of the speech delivered at the European Pro Bono Forum, organized by PILNET, which was held in Warsaw in October 2013. In the forum, representatives of the Council of Bar Associations from numerous European countries and representatives of NGOs around the world shared their experiences and ideas, designed to promote pro bono activities among lawyers, and discuss the problems faced when conducting said activities in their countries.     

IS ARTICLE 5.7 OF THE SPS AGREEMENT AN APPLICATION OF THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE?

The “Precautionary principle” is regarded as the new buzz phrase in the discussion of risk regulation relating to the areas of environment and health. Article 5.7 of the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measure (SPS Agreement) uses a similar approach to the protection of human, animal and plant life, and health. It is important to pay close attention to some of the relationships concerning the precautionary principle and Article 5.7. Firstly, when a member decides to take sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, they usually act from the perspective of prudence and precaution. In addition, the precautionary principle finds similar expression in Article 5.7. However, the precautionary principle has not been explicitly written in the SPS Agreement as a ground for justifying the SPS measures in situations that are inconsistent with the obligations set out in the Agreement. The case law shows that the Panel is very careful about the use of the language of precaution. The Appellate Body is reluctant to allow the precautionary principle to override the specific obligations in the Agreement. Whether Article 5.7 can be regarded as an application of the precautionary principle needs to be examined. Under the current discourse, however, this article finds that the precautionary principle cannot by any means be used as an interpretative tool for Article 5.7. Reliance on the precautionary principle to trigger Article 5.7 is supposed to be unsuccessful. As in situations where taking SPS measures threats the environment and health become irreversible, more attention should be paid to practical issues to ensure the necessity and efficacy of the measures.     

THE ACT OF THE PEOPLE＇S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE （ THE DRAFT PROPOSAL） I. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PEOPLE＇S REPUBLIC OF CHINA＇S ACTIONS ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE

I. The Necessity of Legislation. -- As the largest developing country, China has the most greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Therefore, the world, including America, pays close attention to China＇s policies regarding the control of greenhouse gas emissions. Considering the continuous growth of global warming, China＇s policies for controlling greenhouse gas emissions should be consistent and ruled by law. So it is necessary to enhance the establishment of laws and systems for standardizing settlement.     

THE EMERGENCE OF TRIAGE IN FAMILY COURT SERVICES: THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR MANDATORY MEDIATION?*

Mandatory mediation has, since its inception in the 1980s, been at the heart of family court service agencies. However, changing times, more complex family problems, and a lack of court resources have created significant service delivery challenges. This article examines the emergence of variations of triage processes in family court service agencies as a response and contends that it is time to consider replacing the tiered service delivery model.     

TOWARDS THE RULE OF LAW OR THE RULE OF THE BOOTS？ A LIBERAL PERSPECTIVE ON DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Since the beginning of the ＂war＂ on terror, governments have implemented counter-terrorism laws and policies, in breach of their obligations under international human rights law, on account of the necessity to protect democracy against its enemies. Reliance on the human rights discourse in order to justify the violations committed renders it difficult to criticise these drawbacks without rethinking the concepts of rights and democracy and reformulating them. The present article attempts to answer this challenge along the lines of the reconstruction of the notions of liberal democracy as the rule of law and liberty, and human rights as spheres of individual sovereignty.     

ARE WE REALLY LOOKING OUT FOR THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD? APPLYING THE NEW ZEALAND MODEL OF FAMILY GROUP CONFERENCES TO CASES OF CHILD NEGLECT IN THE UNITED STATES

This Note advocates for state laws to be amended to implement family group conferencing (FGC) as the first step in cases of alleged child neglect. FGC was developed in New Zealand nearly twenty years ago and have since become a realistic method of balancing the best interests of the children, families, agencies, courts, and communities involved in the child welfare system. A FGC is a meeting among family members and professionals that is conducted in order to develop a plan for a child who is the victim of neglect. FGC places the family at the center of the welfare proceedings and empowers them to reach a solution without having to resort to the often lengthy and expensive adversarial court system. If FGC is incorporated into the child welfare systems throughout the United States, communication between the parents, social services, and the courts could increase, helping families adequately address the problem of neglect and getting the children out of the child welfare system quickly and more efficiently.     

STUDENTS AS THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT FOR EDUCATION： AN INTROSPECTION OF PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT IN TAIWAN

A Zero Physical Punishmentpolicy had been adopted and enacted into law in 2006. Articles 8 and 15 of Educational Fundamental Act have made Taiwan become the 109th country which implements a Zero Physical Punishment policy. In the past years, people in Taiwan used to take physical punishment as a part of teachers＇ legitimate disciplinary power. However, physical punishment has profound impacts on students＇ personalities and is in contravention with educational fundamental right which centers upon students＇freedom of personality development and students＇right of being free from physical harms. For that matter, after the Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 382, students are not a part of Special Power Relationship anymore. Therefore, students, as the core of educational fundamental right, have the right to reject physical punishment or the right to seek for judicial remedies after being physically punished. Also, when teachers perform their disciplinary power, they must obey the core of educational fundamental right--students＇freedom of personality development. Besides, since the Zero Physical Punishment policy is the edueational prineiple in our country, the state, teachers, and parents must work together to carry it out and make schools become the appropriate places for students ＇freedom of personality development.     

WHO'S YOUR DADDY?: THE INHERENT UNFAIRNESS OF THE MARITAL PRESUMPTION FOR CHILDREN OF UNMARRIED PARENTS*

Many states have marital presumptions of legitimacy, which provide children born to married parents with protection against paternity lawsuits questioning their legitimacy. However, most states do not have legitimacy presumption statutes for unmarried couples. This lack of equality between married and unmarried couples makes it so that children born to unmarried parents, who have developed a psychological bond with a man they have always thought to be their father, are not afforded the same protection as other children in similar situations, simply because their parents were not married at the time of their birth. Therefore, this Note advocates for states to amend their paternity statutes to provide protection against nonpaternity lawsuits to psychological fathers and their psychological children. State statutes should provide a psychological father with the right to be declared the legal parent of his psychological child in cases where the child's legal father has been substantially absent from the child's life.     

THE MAINLAND OF CHINA’S PARTY DISCIPLINE INSPECTION COMMISSIONS: ANOTHER TYPE OF THE SPECIALIZED-ANTICORRUPTION-COMMISSION MODEL?

Given the comprehensive reforms of and the temporary good scores achieved by the Commissions of Party Discipline Inspection (CDIs), it is important to understand these reforms to answer how long this anticorruption movement could last and whether it could finally succeed. Targeted at the CDIs’ historical problems and the adapting problems of the specialized-anticorruption-commission model (SAC), this article is composed of five parts, including: the historical non-specialized mission and the structural three-transform reform of the CDIs; the historical non-independence of the CDIs within the dual leadership framework, and its recent reforms; a new understanding of the sufficiency of the CDIs’ capacity compared with China’s Hong Kong’s ICAC, a successful example of the SAC, to overcome the distance problem in adapting the SAC; recent reforms on the accountability and disclosures of the CDIs to overcome the time consistency problem; and the conclusions for current achievements, with brief discussions of recent anticorruption strategies and the limitations or unresolved issues, and the lessons to adapt the SAC.     

THE OMBUDSMAN AND THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN EUROPE： CASE STUDY OF ITALIAN ＂CIVIC DEFENDER＂

The paper is centered on the Ombudsman＇s role in the defense of individual human rights. The institution of the Ombudsman is based on the idea that citizens should be entitled to complain against specific acts and behaviors of their rulers and that their complaints should be investigated by an independent body. In Europe, the establishment of a specific office to investigate citizen complaints against public bureaucracy is relatively recent,     

AN OBSERVATION OF THE RUSSIAN POLITICAL HISTORY IN THE 20TH CENTURY： A NON- IDEOLOGICAL SYSTEM OF INTERPRETATION

Most of the foreign observers used to study Russia in the 20th century from the ideological point of view, praising or hating, no matter how they （claim） try to be non-ideological. But there is a big historical assumption： with or without ideology, would Russia have had a totally different path of development, or is there a unique path only for Russia？ What are the problems of Russia had to face and what is the right thing to make historical justice？ These questions become more and more urgent especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union when observers lost their ideological coordinate. This article tries to look ＂inside＂ Russia and ftnd out whether there is a historical discipline of the Russian path.     

THE REALITIES OF LAW ARE THE WINNING NARRATIVES — BASIC THESES FOR A REALISTIC AND RHETORICAL PHILOSOPHY OF LAW

This article begins explaining the Aristotelian reduction of rhetoric to persuasion, which came to determine Western tradition until modern times. To understand Aristotle’s methodology the author then wants to discuss the concept of enthymeme, the “rhetorical syllogism,” in Aristotle’s own words. In order to try a realistic critique on the Aristotelian rhetoric, more adequate to a rhetoric of modern law, the author will suggest three epistemological points of departure, three theses, and the three levels of rhetoric that support them.