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In this report, the author summarizes her letters to government officials in 44 countries and the Gaza Strip regarding alleged human rights violations committed against judges and lawyers. The author also summarizes the responses of 18 governments to these letters. These cases were reported to her from 16 March 2010 to 15 March 2011. Cases are organized by country. The main areas of concern were threats to lawyers, including acts of interference in the discharge of their professional functions (28%). Issues relating to the fairness of judicial proceedings which include the right to be informed of the charges and undue delays in judicial proceedings, amount to 21% of the cases. In about 14% of the communications, a lack of access to a lawyer is alleged, often observed in places of detention. There were concerns on the independence of the judiciary in about 10% of the cases, in particular interference in the judicial functions and threats to lawyers and prosecutors. Lawsuits against lawyers relating to civil, criminal and disciplinary charges constitute 7% of the cases. 6% concern allegations relating to the lack of access to courts. Cases which raise issues regarding impunity amount to 5% of the communications. 4% of the cases relate to military courts trying civilians, and the same percentage concerns restriction on the freedom of expression of lawyers. Finally, 10% cover other issues, such as freedom of expression of lawyers, impunity, access to a lawyer in private, tenure, removal and appointment of judges, and disbarment of lawyers.
The book offers articles by senior jurists on important aspects of judicial independence and judicial process in many jurisdictions, including indicators of justice. It comes at the time of serious challenges to the judiciary, the rule of law and democracy.
The United Nations Special Procedures system is a key element of the evolving international framework for human rights protection and promotion. However, despite the system’s expansion, the range of roles and functions performed by mandate holders, and the mounting evidence of its strengths and limitations, there has been very little academic interrogation or analysis of Special Procedures. This lacuna is ever-more problematic given the growing profile and effectiveness of the Special Procedures’ work, as well as the increasing attention and challenges that they face, both externally from States and internally from within the UN system. Given the current ‘state of play’ of Special Procedures, it is essential that scholarly attention be focussed upon the system. How does it contribute to international human rights protection? How, when and why does it fail to do so? What steps can and should be taken to address shortcomings both within the system and in terms of the legal and political context within which it operates? Featuring expert contributions from key players within, and expert commentators on, the Special Procedures system, this volume addresses these questions in an in-depth and rigorous scholarly manner.
Civil-military relations establishes the civilian control over the military to protect democratic values. This book argues analysis of the CMR is distorted by the absence of consideration of the judicial arm, with the ‘civil’ seen as referring only to the executive and/or legislature. The civil courts approach to military discipline and the impact that has for CMR within — the United Kingdom, United States and Australia is investigated. The author concludes that by including the courts in the development of CMR theory militarisation of the civilian domain is discouraged. A paradigm shift acknowledging the fundamental role of all three organs of government in liberal democracies, for control of States’ power is essential for genuine civilian oversight.
Recovery of proceeds deriving from corruption is now increasingly recognized as a principle of contemporary international law. However, people's sovereign and ownership rights over their wealth and natural resources have remained more theoretical than real, especially in the global fight against corruption. As a result, the populations of victim-states often cannot hold their governments accountable for misusing proceeds of corruption, and do not benefit from the recovery, repatriation, management, and use of returned proceeds. In the first comprehensive study on the issue, Kolawole Olaniyan challenges the conventional notion that sovereign and ownership rights over wealth and natural resources - and by extension, the proceeds of corruption - should be exclusively exercised by states. Olaniyan's Ownership of Proceeds of Corruption in International Law examines the relationship between the right to wealth and natural resources, proceeds of corruption, and economic activities. Focusing on victims of corruption, the book argues that victim-states' populations ought to be empowered to pursue grand corruption and asset recovery actions against their governments. It proposes theoretical and legal remedies for recovering proceeds of corruption, encouraging the development of domestic laws.
This book examines the law and its practice in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The objective is to understand the logic of the legal system in the UAE through a rounded analysis of its laws in context. It thus presents an understanding of the system on its own terms beyond the accepted Western model. The book shows how the Emirati law differs from the conventional rule of law. The first section of the book deals with the imperial, international, and cultural background of the Emirati legal system and its influences on some of the elements of the legal system today. It maps the state’s international legal obligations according to core human rights treaties showing how universal interpretations of rights may differ from Emirati interpretations of rights. This logic is further illustrated through an overview of the legal system, in federal, local, and free zones and how the UAE’s diversity of legal sources from Islamic and colonial law provides legal adaptability. The second section of the book deals mainly with the contemporary system of the rule of law in the UAE but at times makes a detour to the British administration to show how imperial execution of power during the British administration created forerunners visible today. Finally, the debut of the UAE on the international scene contributed to an interest in human rights investigations, having manifestations in UAE law. The work will be a valuable resource for researchers and academics working in the areas of Comparative Constitutional Law, Legal Anthropology, Legal Pluralism, and Middle Eastern Studies.
The Right to a Fair Trial in International Lawbrings together the diverse sources of international law that define the right to a fair trial in the context of criminal (as opposed to civil, administrative or other) proceedings. The book provides a comprehensive explanation of what the right to a fair trial means in practice under international law and focuses on factual scenarios that practitioners and judges may face in court. Each of the book's fourteen chapters examines a component of the right to a fair trial as defined in Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and reviews the case law of regional human rights courts, international criminal courts as well as UN human rights bodies. Highlighting both consensus and divisions in the international jurisprudence in this area, this book provides an invaluable resource to practitioners and scholars dealing with breaches of one of the most fundamental human rights.
Judiciaries must be politically impartial and immune from political interference if democracy is to be consolidated in countries in transition from authoritarian rule. Without an independent judiciary there can be no rule of law, and without the rule of law there can be no democracy. Judges and Democratization is based on the premise that democracy cannot be consolidated without the rule of law of which judicial independence is an indispensable part. It pays particular attention to the restraints placed upon judicial independence, and the reforms which are being applied, or remain to be adopted, in order to guard against the different kinds of interference which prevent judicial decisions being taken in a wholly impartial way. It examines the paradox of judicial activism arising from the independence endowed upon the judiciary by post-authoritarian constitutions. The book asks how, in the context of this endowed authority, such accountability can be made compatible with the preservation of judicial independence when the concept of an accountable, independent judiciary appears to be a contradiction in terms. This text will be of key interest to teachers and students of politics, comparative government/politics, combined politics and law, democracy and governance, human rights and democratization, and democratic development.
The importance of the rule of law is universally recognised and of fundamental value for most societies. Establishing and promoting the rule of law in the Muslim world, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, has become a pressing but complicated issue. These states have Muslim majority populations, and the religion of Islam has an important role in the traditional structures of their societies. While the Muslim world is taking gradual steps towards the establishment of rule of law systems, most Muslim majority countries may not yet have effective legal systems with independent judiciaries, which would allow the state and institutions to be controlled by an effective rule of law system. One important aspect of the rule of law is freedom of expression. Given the sensitivity of Muslim societies in relation to their sacred beliefs, freedom of expression, as an international human rights issue, has raised some controversial cases. This book, drawing on both International and Islamic Law, explores the rule of law, and freedom of expression and its practical application in the Muslim world.