Gustav Radbruch vs. Hans Kelsen: A Debate on Nazi Law*

Abstract. Can the label “law” apply to rules as amoral as the enactments of the Nazis? This question confronted the courts in Germany after 1945. In dealing with it, the judges had to take sides in the philosophical debate over the concept of law. In this context, the prominent voices of the legal philosophers Gustav Radbruch and Hans Kelsen could not go unheard. This paper draws on what could have been the “Radbruch‐Kelsen debate on Nazi Law.” In examining the debate, it will argue for a substantive account of the morality of the law, as expressed in Radbruch's Formula.     

CLUMSY SOLUTIONS FOR A COMPLEX WORLD: THE CASE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Successful solutions to pressing social ills tend to consist of innovative combinations of a limited set of alternative ways of perceiving and resolving the issues. These contending policy perspectives justify, represent and stem from four different ways of organizing social relations: hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism and fatalism. Each of these perspectives: (1) distils certain elements of experience and wisdom that are missed by the others; (2) provides a clear expression of the way in which a significant portion of the populace feels we should live with one another and with nature; and (3) needs all of the others in order to be sustainable. ‘Clumsy solutions’– policies that creatively combine all opposing perspectives on what the problems are and how they should be resolved – are therefore called for. We illustrate these claims for the issue of global warming.     

WHY IS INVOLVEMENT IN UNSTRUCTURED SOCIALIZING RELATED TO ADOLESCENT DELINQUENCY?*

The relationship between unstructured socializing (peer‐oriented activity without supervision) and adolescent delinquency is widely established and recognized, but less is known about why this relationship exists. The present study integrates the unstructured socializing perspective with insights from social learning theory and other theoretical perspectives on peer influence and empirically investigates four possible explanatory processes. The study applies time diary data to operationalize accurately the concept of unstructured socializing and survey data to capture mediating variables and self‐reported delinquency (a general frequency measure of various offenses, as well as specified measures for violence, theft, and vandalism). Data were collected longitudinally with two waves of surveys and space–time budget interviews among 610 adolescents (11 to 20 years of age). A multilevel‐path model was estimated to analyze within‐individual changes over time. The findings indicate that three of the four proposed explanatory processes contribute to the explanation of the relationship between unstructured socializing and delinquency.     

Why the democratic nation-state is still legitimate: A study of media discourses

Focusing on media discourses, this article maps the communicative reproduction of legitimacy in Great Britain, the United States, Germany and Switzerland. It argues that political communication constitutes a distinctive dimension of legitimation that should be studied alongside public opinion and political behaviour. Research on legitimation discourses can help us understand why the legitimacy of established democracies remains stable in spite of the challenges of globalisation: Delegitimating communication tends to focus on relatively marginal political institutions, while the core regime principles of the democratic nation-state, which are deeply entrenched in the political cultures of Western countries, serve as anchors of legitimacy. These democratic principles also shape the normative benchmarks used to evaluate legitimacy, thus preventing a 'de-democratisation' of legitimation discourses. Finally, the short-lived nature of media interest as well as ritualistic legitimation practices shield the democratic nation-state from many potentially serious threats to its legitimacy.     

The Responsibility of the Police Command for Street-Level Actions

This article examines federal judicial doctrine concerning the responsibility of police officials for patrol misconduct. The current standard requiring a showing by plaintiffs of an "affirmative link" between street-level action and the intention of commanders is challenged in two ways. First, through the application of organizational analysis to the premises of leading cases in the doctrine, and, second, by considering three suits alleging patterns of patrol misconduct, in which the elements of a new standard of command responsibility can be discerned. The authors argue that a standard based on a strengthened doctrine of respondeat superior will help insure the preservation of due process rights in citizen encounters with the police. The article recommends the imposition of departmental record keeping requirements for personnel evaluations and for allegations and investigations of patrol misconduct. A further recommendation would require departmental regulations on the use of force.     

Regionalisation in Belgium

Abstract. Despite recent decentralisation moves, Belgium continues to face a constitutional crisis involving problems of identity and legitimation amongst the Flemish and Walloon communities. These problems not only involved habitual difficulties of language, but also the effects of industrial decay in traditional primary economic sectors and a concern with the legitimacy of central government power. These difficulties are reflected in the complex constitutional and administrative arrangements designed to increase the autonomy of sub-national levels, in which dominant regional parties have seen power shift to regional levels at the expense of municipalities. This development of the regional level has produced pressures which encourage the emergence of a federal state, whilst pressures from the municipalities support the continuance of a unitary state. In the absence of any clear solution, the small Belgian state remains in crisis.