1,720,964 research outputs found
Principles of good governance and the ombudsman: A comparative study on the normative functions of the institution in a modern constitutional state with a focus on Peru
No full textThe main purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which, through the performance of (indirect) normative functions and the application of principles of good governance as assessment standards, the ombudsman institution can contribute to improving the legal quality of government while enhancing the legitimacy of the administration and the democratic system as a whole. The study has been conducted from a comparative perspective, exploring the performance of the Dutch, UK, Spanish and Peruvian Ombudsmen. However, the main focus is on the examination of the Peruvian Ombudsman, the Defensoría del Pueblo, and the situation of maladministration in Peru. First, the three national ombudsman institutions operating in the European context are analysed. The purpose is to determine how far these ombudsmen, although of different types and belonging to different legal traditions, share the same values and apply similar normative standards that can be traced back to principles of good governance. Then, the Defensoría del Pueblo is analysed as a case study of the ombudsman’s evolving role in new democracies in Latin America. This reflects the wider process of the institution’s hybridisation worldwide, and how its functions and assessment standards have been adapted to the evolution of the constitutional state, not least through application of the principles of good governance as a new source of legitimacy. The primary focus is centred on the steering function of the ombudsman with regard to the promotion of good administration rather than the (human rights-oriented) protective function of the institution. The aim is to demonstrate that the ombudsman’s activities result in changed and improved public administration in modern constitutional states. The legal approach to good governance provides the conceptual framework for evaluating the performance of the ombudsman institution and analysing the standards and principles it applies. In order to identify the values protected and the standards applied by the ombudsman, which are considered as central elements for good governance, the five principles of good governance (properness, transparency, participation, accountability, and effectiveness) are used to frame the analysis. The general conclusion is that despite the specific legal context in which the ombudsman institution operates, it applies similar standards of assessment that can be regarded as standards based on principles of good governance. The ombudsman is an evolving institution that contributes to improving the legal quality of the government. The development of the institution is characterised by the mutual cohesion and hybridisation of its assessment standards and the subsequent hybridisation of the ombudsman institution as such. Hence, the contemporary ombudsman performs a dual function: the protection of human rights and the promotion of good administration. The hybridisation process of the ombudsman institution is led by the development of good governance norms as assessment standards. In this regard, the ombudsman is contributing to developing the legal content of the values associated with the principles of good governance
The principle of transparency in EU law
No full text‘The principle of transparency in EU law’ explores a variety of transparency obligations in European law, and offers a comprehensive framework to classify and understand those obligations. The principle of transparency is ubiquitous and multifaceted. The obligations derived from it range from a duty to allow access to documents held by the EU-institutions to a prohibition to change the terms of a contract concluded after a procurement procedure. But although transparency is a diffuse concept, it has a distinct core: the concept refers to the availability, accessibility and clarity of information. However, the concept of transparency does not in itself determine the target and the timing of transparency obligations, nor does it tell us much about the acceptability of exceptions, and whether information should be provided pro-actively or on request. The author provides a method to determine the exact nature of the transparency obligations that can be derived from the principle of transparency in concrete situations. She explains how the application of the EU principle of transparency is affected by the manner in which transparency contributes to the realisation of a variety of goals, the context in which it is applied, and the presence of conflicting interests. The key to understanding the principle of transparency is appreciating its instrumental value. By being transparent, governments can promote democracy and individual rights, and improve economic performance. These goals are realised by means of two related but distinct mechanisms. First, transparency aids people in decision-making. Second, it allows them to see what is going on inside government. As such it is a precondition for any attempt to affect what is going on inside that government. Understanding how transparency functions is insufficient though: whether there is an obligation to be transparent is determined by the normative framework that governs the relation between the government and its citizens. This framework differs depending on whether this relation is perceived as one involving the citoyen, homo economicus, or homo dignus. For the citoyen, the overarching principle governing its relation with the government is democracy. For homo economicus, it is the promotion of the internal market and the Treaty freedoms. For homo dignus, it is the respect for human rights. The contents of the principle of transparency are determined by these higher-order principles. Because of that, we can only derive those particular transparency obligations from it that do in fact contribute to the realisation of the state that is embodied in those higher order principles. Because transparency always functions in the same two distinct ways to bring about its positive effects – it facilitates decision-making and allows outsiders to see what public authorities are doing – our understanding of the manner in which it functions provides us with a way to determine what concrete transparency obligations we can derive from the principle of transparency, provided we know what effects the law requires us to achieve by its observance
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Preventing Maladministration in Indonesian Public Procurement: A Good Public Procurement Law Approach and Comparison with the Netherlands and the United Kingdom
No full textThe aim of this book is to make recommendations concerning the improvement of public procurement law in Indonesia. The author identifies five fundamental problems commonly arising in the pre-contractual phase in Indonesia: the procurement document may be prepared in a way that favours certain bidders, but it is questionable whether legal procedure to review the procurement document is available; corruption may occur within procuring entities which may, in turn, lead to distrust towards the entities regarding its impartiality in relation to the handling of the administrative appeal; the reasons for awarding the contract may not be transparent; the procedures for seeking redress are erratic; finally, the availability of remedies is uncertain. The author adopts two methods for the pursuit of his research. First, three principles of good governance are discussed (equality, transparency and accountability), and five principles of good public procurement are identified. These five principles are outlined as: equal opportunity, equal treatment, transparency including its limitations to protect commercially sensitive information, clarity about the forum for redress, and the availability of effective remedies. Second, a comparative methodology is undertaken, examining the law relating to public procurement procedures in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. From these approaches, the author draws out recommendations for the legislature, the administration and the judiciary in Indonesia. Although this book concentrates on the case of Indonesia, ideas brought forth in the discussion may be applicable and useful to other countries sharing similar issues
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Ordening in een verwarrende staat: Onderzoek naar de Algemene Rekenkamer in de democratische rechtsstaat vanuit het perspectief van staats- en bestuursrechtelijke beginselen, in het bijzonder de beginselen van goed bestuur
No full textOrder in a confusing state The application by the Netherlands Court of Audit of the legal principles of the democratic rule of law would shed a new light on its choice of subjects, the approach of its investigations, its conclusions and recommendations, and its position in the democratic rule of law. According to the Lower Chamber, public policies should be implemented ‘principles-based'.The research Order in a confusing state shows that the Court of Audit hardly ever applies constitutional values, such as the principles of good governance, to assess policy. The application of these principles would give a new dimension to the work of the Court of Audit: it would then apply not only the policy objectives, but also the general legal principles which prevail in society and which judges and ombudsmen use to judge public action. This enriches the Court of Audit’s judgements, making them more thorough and more comparable with those of other assessors of public action. The public interest should delineate its field of investigation, starting with follow the money, based on its mandate under Article 76 of the Constitution: the Netherlands Court of Audit is required to examine the revenue and expenditure of the State.The principles of good governance call for transparency, participation, the application of properness, respect for human rights, effectiveness & efficiency and accountability. Transparency for citizens, participation by citizens and the government itself, properness and human rights give substance to the human dimension. In light of this, effectiveness & efficiency and accountability are discussed. The new public management, which is seen as partly responsible for the childcare allowance affair in the Netherlands, is mainly aimed at effectiveness and efficiency. The research shows many examples of confusing situations that can be solved with the principles
Evolution of the Legal Principles of Environmental Law: Specification on Climate Change and Biodiversity
No full textThe presentation starts with the idea that there is something going on with environmental principles and environmental legal reasoning, also in relation to the more general discussion about the importance of legal principles in law. These analyses of legislative principles established that though the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has the potential to be applied successfully to preserve the world’s natural resources, its comprehensiveness waters down its obligations and complicates its implementation. Specifically, for instance, its requirements for in-situ conservation of resources are impeded by a lack of sufficient demarcation of the world’s protected areas. Again, its provisions recognize, but do not give clear-cut provisions on how, as part of biodiversity preservation, to protect indigenous traditions and traditional agriculture from the uncontrolled spread of LMOs. Finally, the discussion points out that the financial, technical, and institutional resources needed to carry out CBD obligations pose great challenges to States like Mexico that do not command good reserves of these resources
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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