1,720,998 research outputs found
Populism: A health check for constitutional democracy?
Get PDF“Populism” appears everywhere: a frequently proffered assessment—or perhaps diagnosis—of constitutional systems around the world. Both its supporters and opponents emphasise its newness. But its physiognomy, causes, and impact on legal orders and institutions are a matter of deep controversy. In a few words, its contours and core components adapt to different constitutional settings. Populist forces back a variety of agendas, which often overlap in a more rhetorically than concrete way.
The authors of this issue divide themselves among opponents to populism and moderately optimistic observers. In this respect, populism has probably become a catalyst both for its supporters and detractors. Populism identifies through ideas that rally increasing number of discontents. But also opponents identify as populists the perceived threats to liberal democracy as they understand them. Defining populism has not simply proven to be a Sysyphean task; it has also showed that it is all but easy to pin down what a liberal democracy is made of. Contemporary debates about the fate of democracy need to abandon metaphysics for a more realistic, down-to-earth approach that is sensitive of the specificities of
each constitutional setting
The Constitutional Tensions of Brexit
No full textThe constitutional upheavals occasioned by Brexit can, at one level, be attributed to the way in which the EU referendum was conceived and conducted: the party political rather than constitutional motivation for the referendum; the relatively short and poor quality referendum campaign; the failure to take seriously the implications of a territorially divided result; the lack of planning for how withdrawal would be implemented; and the narrowness of the majority in favour of Leave. These weaknesses may have contributed to a significant absence of ‘losers’ consent’ amongst Remain voters, as well as a lack of realism about the choices and compromises that would need to be made in order to secure a withdrawal agreement. But these essentially procedural factors, important as they were, reflected and exacerbated much deeper tensions within the UK constitutional order. In this introductory chapter, we explore these deeper tensions, identifying four key sources of constitutional unease which have been exposed by Brexit: first, the UK’s fraught relationship with the European Union; second, strained territorial relations within the UK; third, Ireland’s complex relationship with the UK and the contested position of Northern Ireland; and, fourth, developing institutional tensions at the core of the UK constitution
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
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
The sovereignty of the Irish People
No full textTHESIS 10615My research addresses the question of what role the People play in the Irish constitutional order. This leads to several related enquiries, the most substantive of which is an examination of the doctrine of popular sovereignty as it exists in Irish constitutional law. I researched this thesis conservatively by 21st century standards, using electronic and physical copies of textbooks and journal articles from a number of disciplines as well as textbooks and journal articles that were themselves interdisciplinary. I made very extensive use of the wide variety of materials available from both subscription and open-access online repositories
Constitutional standards of review in Ireland and Canada : comparison and evaluation
No full textTHESIS 10296This thesis is a comparative, critical analysis of standards of review for legislative limitations of constitutional rights, its primary focus is on Ireland, though Canada is also discussed in detail. It compares Irish and Canadian law, as they use a facially identical standard of review. It uses extensive theoretical analysis to inform critical analysis of the case-law in each jurisdiction. It concludes by bringing together both of these elements to draw conclusions about international standards of review and their incorporation into different legal systems, and finally to make constructive suggestions about the best standard of review for Ireland
Private property rights in the Irish Constitution
No full textTHESIS 9515This Thesis analyses the protection of private property rights in the Irish Constitution both critically and constructively. Critically, it examines the results driven nature of Irish constitutional property doctrine through detailed analysis of case-law. Constructively, it extracts the judicial preferences concerning property that are latent in the doctrine and assesses the theoretical arguments concerning the value of private ownership that they reflect in order to better explain the Irish constitutional orientation towards private property rights. The Thesis is the product of extensive textual analysis of primary and secondary sources. I principally studied the Irish Constitution and judgments of the Irish courts. I also considered decisions from the US and the UK, as well as decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice. I analysed Irish statutes and secondary legislation where relevant. I also studied secondary literature on the protection of private property and constitutional property rights adjudication from various library collections
Statutory interpretation and the rule of law in Ireland
No full textTHESIS 10810This PhD thesis addresses the theory that the default preference for literal interpretation in the statutory context instantiates a formal conception of the rule of law. This claim is reflected in the Irish constitutional framework, which centres on the law making role of the legislature and envisages a restrictive interpretative role of the courts in light of this. The theory holds that in their reticence to depart from the literal rule judges comply with the rule of law, ensuring both non-arbitrariness in adjudication and the predictability of law by channeling the literal implications of statutory texts and not their own biases or values. I will argue that this claim cannot be substantiated. This will be based on an analysis of a number of key issues to the interpretative theory outlined
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