Separation of powers
The president suspends the chief justice. A top court suspends the proceedings against the judge.
Separation of powers?
Onnoghen - Court of Appeal Suspends CCT Proceedings
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has suspended the proceedings of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on the alleged false asset declaration against the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen…
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Labels: judiciary, Nigeria, rule of law
Rule of International Law
Keep an eye on this topic. Will Russia (Putin) accept rule of law?
Russia Navalny: Strasbourg court condemns detentions of Putin foe
 |
| Navalny |
Europe's top human rights court has found that the repeated detention of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was politically motivated.
Mr Navalny filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and was there to hear the ruling on Thursday.
The court found that his seven arrests between 2012 and 2014 had been aimed at "suppressing political pluralism".
Since then, police have arrested him several times again under protest laws.
"We've won," he tweeted after the verdict. "Completely. The government has been thrashed. They recognised Article 18 [of the European Convention on Human Rights]. Hurray!"
[Выиграли. Полностью. Правительство разгромлено. 18 статью признали. Ура! https://t.co/V1yeMPLFmT
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) November 15, 2018]
Under Article 18, citizens' rights and freedoms may not be restricted for political purposes.
Since leading mass protests in Moscow in 2011-12, he has campaigned against corruption under President Vladimir Putin and has embraced political causes such as opposition to the raising of the retirement age…
The court found that Mr Navalny's allegation that he had become a "particular target" "appeared "coherent in the context of a general move to bring the opposition under control"…
Russia was ordered to pay him damages and costs of €63,678 (£55,409; $71,950).
"It is a very clear judgment," Mr Navalny was quoted as saying by AFP news agency after the ruling.
"The European court recognises that it was a politically motivated arrest and persecution. It was very important not just for me but for other people all over Russia who are arrested every day."
The ECHR's role is to rule on alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights, which Russia ratified in 1998 when it joined the Council of Europe, an organisation which upholds the rule of law in Europe…
Russia has taken issue with previous ECHR verdicts such as one in 2014 which ordered Moscow to pay compensation to shareholders in the defunct Russian oil firm Yukos.
In 2015, the Russian parliament passed a law allowing the country's Constitutional Court to overrule ECHR judgements…
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Labels: judiciary, rule of law, Russia
Power of judges
Maybe it's about the power of judges. This is an opinion piece. Look for confirmation or contradictions to these ideas.
Opinion: The Tragedy That Changed Mexico Forever
The disappearance of 43 college students on the night of Sept. 26, 2014, in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero marked a turning point for President Enrique Peña Nieto.
When he won the presidency in 2012, Mr. Peña Nieto was hailed as a modern reformer promising a more democratic and transparent government. But the disappearance of the students from the Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in the small city of Iguala shocked Mexico and the world, and plunged the Peña Nieto government into an ever-deepening murk of corruption and cover-ups…
A ruling by a federal court on June 4 against the attorney general’s office may mark a new era of independence for Mexico’s justice system. In a unanimous 712-page opinion, the judges concluded that the government’s investigation into the attack on the students was faulty and irregular, saying it was not “prompt, effective, impartial or independent.”
The three judges of the first Collegiate Tribunal of the 19th Circuit heard a constitutional appeal brought by the attorney general’s office over a lower-court ruling in favor of four men who said they were tortured by the authorities as part of the federal investigation… The ruling upheld the view that the four prisoners had been tortured and threw out their confessions.
But the court went much further. It condemned the federal government for having used torture as one of the components of a fabricated case, violating the victims’ rights to a fair and independent investigation…
The opinion was described by legal experts and other commentators as unprecedented, historic — and totally unexpected.
“The ruling confirms what international monitors have already shown: that the Ayotzinapa investigation was a travesty,” said Daniel Wilkinson of Human Rights Watch. “For a federal court to conclude that the country’s public prosecutor can’t be trusted to handle this case on its own is devastating.”
The judges relied heavily on the evidence assembled by the Inter-American Court’s Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, a panel of five legal and human rights experts from Latin America that Mr. Peña Nieto’s government, under international pressure, invited to help investigate the students’ fate…
In Mexico’s compromised mass media, a smear campaign was directed at the panel of experts, and the government refused to renew its mandate. The independent experts had to leave the country…
The government promptly declared its disagreement with the ruling. Some analysts suggested that the court had overreached. Everyone seemed focused on the most controversial element: Could the judges really order government investigators to take orders from a commission made of victims’ representatives?…
[by Francisco Goldman, a novelist and journalist, is the author, most recently, of “The Interior Circuit: A Mexico City Chronicle.”]
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Labels: judiciary, Mexico, politics, rule of law
Sorting out government, state, rule of law, and politics
Be very glad you're not trying to analyze Saudi Arabia.
In Saudi Arabia, Where Family and State Are One, Arrests May Be Selective
King Salman’s close relatives not only rule Saudi Arabia. They are also in business with it.
A major Saudi investment firm founded by one of the king’s sons, and now chaired by another, owns a significant stake in a conglomerate that does extensive government business… A smaller firm founded by another of his sons says it invests in health care, telecommunications, education and other regulated or state-funded fields.
None of that apparent conflict of interest seems to be against the law.
But now their brother, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is leading a sweeping crackdown against what he has labeled “corruption”… But his immediate family’s complicated and mostly undisclosed business interests are raising questions about what that accusation means in a kingdom where the law has so far included little or no regulation of what other countries have labeled and outlawed as self-dealing.
Saudi laws, issued by royal decree or derived from Islamic law, have so far included little or no regulation of the sprawling royal family and its closest clients. The family has never disclosed the sources of its income, how much its members might take from the country’s oil revenues, how much they earn from state contracts or how they afford their lavish lifestyles…
The kingdom, an absolute monarchy, has also never attempted to create an independent court system to adjudicate claims…
And it was unclear which branch of the court system might hear the cases — the main Shariah court system or the more specialized board of grievance courts that handle administrative complaints.
“The law is not meant to govern the ruling family in any meaningful way, or to govern the relations between the ruling family and the state,” said Nathan J. Brown, a scholar at George Washington University who studies Arab legal systems.
“Ultimately, the king and some high members of the royal family can do what they want and make it legal later,” he said, and the lack of regulation over royal self-dealing “opens the door wide to what would be considered corruption in other systems.”…
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Labels: concepts, corruption, government, judiciary, legislation, rule of law, state
Lady Hale, president of the UK's supreme court
The gender imbalance in government is extreme almost everywhere. The exceptions make big news.
Brenda Hale sworn in as first female president of UK's supreme court
 |
| Lady Hale |
The first female president of the supreme court and the youngest lord chief justice in 50 years have been sworn in.
Brenda Hale’s appointment to the leading role at the UK’s highest court was announced by Downing Street in July. A longstanding champion of diversity in the judiciary, she became the first female justice of the court in October 2009 and was appointed deputy president in June 2013…
Lady Hale, 72, who was born in Yorkshire and succeeds Lord Neuberger in the role, has had a varied career as an academic lawyer, law reformer and judge…
And from last July when the appointment was announced.
'Women are equal to everything': Lady Hale lives up to her motto
Brenda Hale’s elevation to president of the supreme court represents a resounding victory in the long campaign for gender equality among the senior judiciary.
Her appointment is also the zenith of an extraordinary, successful legal career in which she has become one of the most forthright and liberalising influences on the court…
As deputy president of the court for the past four years, she was firm favourite to succeed Lord Neuberger… Since being sworn in as a law lord in 2004, Hale – a self-declared feminist – has been the only woman on the UK’s highest court. It is a singularity she has regularly deplored…
Her ascent of the judicial ladder did not follow the conventional practice route. She spent 18 years as an academic, teaching law at Manchester University, becoming a professor and qualifying as a barrister. In the 1980s she was appointed to the Law Commission, which revises outdated legislation, began sitting as a part-time judge and was made a QC…
Her rise was rapid: she went up to the court of appeal in 1999 and the law lords in 2004, transferring across to the supreme court when it was established in 2009. On appointment to the Lords, she created a coat of arms bearing the motto Omnia Feminae Aequissimae, meaning “women are equal to everything”…
Hale’s speeches and writing reflect a consistently feminist and egalitarian approach. Her 1984 co-authored Women and the Law, the first comprehensive survey of women’s rights at work, in the family and in the state concluded: “Deep-rooted problems of inequality persist and the law continues to reflect the economic, social and political dominance of men.”…
A feisty presence, Lady Hale invariably gives the impression of being up for a robust exchange of views. Her enthusiasm for educating has sometimes led her into political crossfire…
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Labels: gender, judiciary, UK
Keeping rivals off the ballot
Here's an example of how to run a procedural democracy.
Aleksei Navalny, Viable Putin Rival, Is Barred From a Presidential Run
A Russian court on Wednesday effectively derailed a presidential run by Aleksei A. Navalny — the only opposition candidate with a broad, enthusiastic popular following — by reviving a four-year-old criminal conviction…
The best chance for a competitive race came to a screeching halt on Wednesday, however, when a district court in the small city of Kirov, nearly 500 miles northeast of Moscow, pronounced Mr. Navalny guilty of defrauding a state company. Russian law bars anyone with a criminal conviction from seeking elected office…
Since he first came to power in January 2000, Mr. Putin and his allies have gone to great lengths to silence or undermine all critical voices in Russia. It has been almost two years since the still-mysterious assassination of Boris Nemtsov, another charismatic opposition figure…
Russian television is largely back under government control, as it was during Soviet times, along with most formerly independent news agencies. More than 100 nongovernmental organizations working on issues including the environment, civic education and fighting the spread of AIDS have been declared “foreign agents,” forcing many to close.
Mr. Navalny was the driving force behind large street protests in 2011, 2012 and 2013 that unnerved Mr. Putin. He has also repeatedly embarrassed senior officials by accusing them of corruption, exposing their lavish mansions and other perquisites that seem beyond the reach of a public servant earning a modest government salary.
In recent years, Mr. Navalny became the prime example of how the government would use the courts to entangle critics. In addition to the conviction revived on Wednesday, he has been accused of defrauding a French perfume company…
Mr. Navalny, who called the Kirov fraud charges baseless and politically motivated, responded to the latest judgment against him with defiance. “Putin and his gang of thieves are afraid to face us in elections,” he wrote on Twitter. “Rightly so: We will win.”
Russian political analysts suggested that the prospect of Mr. Navalny’s gaining a national platform to further criticize Mr. Putin had proved too much for the Kremlin hierarchy to tolerate.
“The danger associated with Mr. Navalny is easy to explain,” Vladislav L. Inozemtsev, director of the Center for Postindustrial Studies in Moscow, wrote in an email. “If allowed to run, he will disseminate his corruption findings more widely than ever — and this disturbs very much Mr. Putin and his gang.”…
Even before the verdict was announced, the government moved to shut down the logistics for his presidential run. On Tuesday, Russia’s leading information technology company, Yandex, unplugged the online account that Mr. Navalny had used to collect money from supporters.
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Labels: elections, judiciary, politics, procedural democracy, Russia
Sounds like the UK has an effective Supreme Court
Belonging to the EU might have helped create an independent supreme court in the UK. Getting out of the EU might have helped create a powerful supreme court.
Brexit: Supreme Court says Parliament must give Article 50 go-ahead
Parliament must vote on whether the government can start the Brexit process, the Supreme Court has ruled.
The judgement means Theresa May cannot begin talks with the EU until MPs and peers give their backing - although this is expected to happen in time for the government's 31 March deadline.
But the court ruled the Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies did not need a say.
Brexit Secretary David Davis promised a parliamentary bill "within days"…
 |
| UK's Supreme Court |
Reading out the judgement, Supreme Court President Lord Neuberger said: "By a majority of eight to three, the Supreme Court today rules that the government cannot trigger Article 50 without an act of Parliament authorising it to do so."
He added: "Withdrawal effects a fundamental change by cutting off the source of EU law, as well as changing legal rights.
"The UK's constitutional arrangements require such changes to be clearly authorised by Parliament."…
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Labels: EU, judiciary, regime, UK
More on China's judiciary
Don't expect China's judges to rule against the Party or the government anytime soon.
China’s Chief Justice Rejects an Independent Judiciary, and Reformers Wince
 |
| Zhou Qiang |
Chief Justice Zhou Qiang, China’s top judicial official, is hardly a radical reformer. But to liberal-minded watchers of the country’s evolving court system, he has nonetheless been an encouraging figure.
In recent years, he has spearheaded an effort to make China’s judiciary, which is subordinate to the ruling Communist Party, more professional…
So when the chief justice used warlike language… to denounce the idea of an independent judiciary and other cherished liberal principles, warning judges not to fall into the “trap” of “Western” ideology, observers in China and abroad were shocked and dismayed…
The speech was widely seen as a bow to the strict political climate that President Xi Jinping has established in China, as a major Communist Party conclave approaches this year…
While his position is prestigious, Chief Justice Zhou is not a member of the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo…
Now he is showing his fealty to Mr. Xi, [Jerome A. Cohen, director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at New York University]… said in a telephone interview. He said the speech appeared to be a bid for political survival before the Communist Party Congress set for late this year, which will determine who serves directly under Mr. Xi for the next five years.
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Labels: China, judiciary, leadership, politics
Mistakes by autocrats?
If the system makes one mistake, how many others aren't discovered? And can the power elite maintain the loyalty of the people and its own legitimacy?
This would be a good time to review the inquisitorial judicial system in China. [See:
Not Guilty Until Arrested]
China Exonerates Man It Executed for Murder in 1995
China’s Supreme Court on Friday exonerated a man who had been executed for murder in 1995, in a dramatic example of the inequities in the country’s legal system and the authorities’ halting attempts to come to grips with them.
The man, Nie Shubin, was 20 when he was convicted of killing Kang Juhua, a woman who was raped and murdered in the northern province of Hebei in the summer of 1994. The local police arrested Mr. Nie soon after her body was found, and he confessed to the killing after days in detention. He was executed by gunshot in April 1995.
In 2005, another man, Wang Shujin, confessed to murdering Ms. Kang. But it took Mr. Nie’s family 11 more years of campaigning to clear his name before the Supreme Court did so on Friday. The court ruled that there had not been enough evidence to convict Mr. Nie and cast doubt on the authenticity of his confession.
Mr. Nie is not the first person to be posthumously exonerated by a Chinese court years after execution, but it is impossible to estimate how many have been wrongly put to death…
Under President Xi Jinping, the government has been making efforts to overhaul the criminal justice system, with the overturning of wrongful convictions a key part of that effort. Prosecutors in China almost always secure a conviction, and confessions are often made under duress…
The Hebei High Court, which had upheld Mr. Nie’s murder conviction, expressed “sincere apologies” to his parents Friday… said it would begin the process of awarding compensation to the parents.
Legal experts say that despite some improvements in China’s criminal justice system, the underlying problem is that the system is not independent but controlled by the Communist Party.
Xu Xin, a lawyer and scholar in Beijing who studies capital punishment, said that meant that rulings were often made for political reasons…
Even as the Chinese authorities work to assure people that the courts are becoming more fair, the means for people to publicize injustices and bring them to court are being hobbled by a nationwide crackdown on lawyers who take up the causes of the powerless…
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Labels: China, judiciary
The role of the judiciary in Iran's regime
Does the description of events here match what your textbook says about Iran's judciary?
Iranian judicial authorities attempt arrest of MP
Judicial authorities in Iran have attempted to arrest a parliamentarian despite his legislative immunity because of the MP’s scrutiny of the judiciary chief’s personal financial conduct.
 |
| Sadeghi |
Mahmoud Sadeghi, an MP close to the reformist camp… in the Iranian parliament, Majlis, was confronted on Sunday by security officials who had gathered in front of his house to arrest him.
Sadeghi’s supporters were angered by the move, and a group of students, activists and parliamentary colleagues assembled near his house to prevent officials from detaining him. It ultimately led to the authorities reversing their decision.
 |
| Larijani |
Earlier this month, Sadeghi had questioned the justice minister over
allegations that the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, possessed 63 personal bank accounts filled with public funds.
Amadnews, an account run by an anonymous group on the social network Telegram, recently claimed that more than £50m was transferred to the ayatollah’s personal bank accounts annually from public funds…
The judiciary is one of Iran’s three parallel political institutions; the other two are the government led by the president, Hassan Rouhani, and the parliament. The judiciary acts independently of Rouhani’s government and its chief is appointed directly by the supreme leader…
Khamenei’s oversight on the judiciary means that the hands of the MPs and the government are tied; parliament, which along with the government is an elected body, is not able to summon the judiciary chief… It puts the judiciary in a position of great influence, unchecked by the public.
Sadeq Larijani belongs to a family whose other members also hold senior political positions. One of his brothers, Ali Larijani, is the parliamentary speaker, and Mohammad-Javad Larijani is the head of the state-run human rights council…
Prior to such allegations, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani was considered a serious potential candidate to become Iran’s next supreme leader when Khamenei dies but many analysts believe those claims have scuppered his chances…
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Labels: Iran, judiciary, politics, regime
Citizen justice
Three years ago, organized vigilantes made headlines in Mexico as they tried to compensate for the inability of the state to protect citizens from violent criminals.
The state still seems to have inadequate power to deal with violent crime. Vigilantes are once again in the news. The report doesn't suggest organized efforts, but "lone wolf" actors.
So, is the capacity of the state inadequate? Is the criminal justice system bogged down? Are the police and the army involved? Are there other countries with problems like this? Are there other countries with vigilantes? How does this affect political legitimacy?
Mexico's 'avengers' backed by public sick of crime and lack of punishment
It was still dark when four men boarded the packed commuter bus heading for Mexico City and ordered the passengers to hand over their valuables.
They gathered up mobile phones and wallets, but as they prepared to leave near the town of Toluca, one passenger stood up, drew a pistol and shot the four assailants, killing their leader instantly.
The three injured robbers stumbled off the bus, but the gunman followed them out and shot them dead at the roadside. Then he returned to the bus, handed back the passengers’ belongings and disappeared into the darkness…
[M]any Mexicans – fed up with crime, corruption and impunity – took to social media to praise the unidentified killer. None of the bus passengers have offered information to police, saying it was too dark to see him clearly.
The case is just the latest of a spate of vigilante killings in Mexico…
Gema Santamaría, a sociologist at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, said… “Public approval of the justiciero has to do with the deep discontent over how the justice system and security services work in Mexico,”…
“People have less patience and expect less from the government,” said Gerardo Priego Tapía, a former politician now directing an anti-kidnap group in Tabasco state. “This is prompting people to defend themselves and fight back.”
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Labels: judiciary, legitimacy, Mexico, rule of law
Judicial independence in democratic regimes
It's a tricky issue that's been debated in the USA since before Marbury v Madison: how to balance the independence of judges and the will of the people.
Before 1803, there were those who argued that only Congress (like the British Parliament) could decide what was and was not constitutional. In many states today, judges are elected or voted on after appointment. And the issue of Supreme Court judges was a major topic in the USA's presidential race.
Now the issue has come up in the UK. Watch for the resolution.
Judges could need democratic controls, says UKIP contender
Judges could be "subject to some kind of democratic control" following the High Court's decision to give Parliament a vote on triggering Brexit, a UKIP leadership contender has said.
 |
| Suzanne Evans |
Suzanne Evans told the BBC that the panel that gave the ruling was "committed to staying in" the EU.
But she added it was important to maintain "judicial independence".
The government says the ruling will not slow down Brexit and Labour says it will not vote to delay proceedings…
Ms Evans said: "I think there's a debate to be had about whether or not judges are subject to some kind of democratic control."
She did not want to undermine "their judicial independence", but added: "I suppose that in this case, we have had a situation where we have judges committed to stay in the European Union...
"I'm questioning the legitimacy of this particular case. We know that the legal profession threw a collective hissy fit when we voted to leave."…
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Labels: judiciary, legislature, political culture, regime, UK
Self-evaluation
When the Chinese government measures its own performance, what should we expect? How much credit should we give to the report? Are there any independent sources to confirm or contradict the government's findings?
White paper hails China's progress in judicial protection of human rights
A white paper published [12 September] by the State Council Information Office hailed the new progress made in human rights protection in the field of justice as China enhances the rule of law in all respects.
The white paper, titled "New Progress in the Judicial Protection of Human Rights in China," said the judiciary is the last line of defense to safeguard social fairness and justice, and judicial protection of human rights is an important part of human rights progress in a country.
It said that in recent years… progress has been made in modernizing the system and capacity of state governance. The country has effectively protected the people's rights and freedoms in an extensive array of fields in accordance with the law, while its people duly fulfill their obligations…
[T]he allocation of judicial powers and responsibilities have been further improved, and the independent and impartial exercise of the judicial and procuratorial power ensured…
[J]udicial accountability system has been improved, while judicial transparency promoted to ensure the right to know and the right to supervise for concerned parties and the public.
Progress was also made to ensure lawyers' right of practice, so that lawyers are playing a bigger role in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of parties concerned…
Strengthening judicial protection of human rights will continue to be a major task in implementing the rule of law, [the white paper] said…
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Labels: China, judiciary, rule of law, transparency
Judicial restraint in China
In China, judicial restraint sometimes means restraining people subject to the court's jurisdiction. Sometimes it means taking less action than the judges could.
Suppress and support: The Communist Party cracks down on political activists, even as it eases up on some less sensitive legal cases
A HUMAN-RIGHTS lawyer and three activists have been found guilty of “subverting state power”… they are the latest part of a crackdown on Western ideas and social and political activism that began in earnest after Xi Jinping became Communist Party chief in 2012…
Yet the crackdown on rights lawyers and political activists is not the whole story. It comes as incremental judicial reforms are taking place for less sensitive cases at a local level which mean that some citizens are making modest progress seeking redress through the courts. These two contradictory dynamics—old-style, top-down political pressure alongside some bottom-up legal empowerment—are part of the party’s carrot-and-stick approach to maintaining stability…
On less sensitive cases… popular anger has pushed the judicial system to try to be more accountable. China’s most senior legal figure, Zhou Qiang, appointed president of the Supreme People’s Court in 2013, is widely believed to want to use judicial reform to stop people taking their anger onto the streets—an increasingly widespread phenomenon…
 |
| Chinese courtroom |
In the past year, the number of cases accepted by courts relating to the rights of socially marginalised groups has surged, even though few have won. They include a lesbian student suing the education ministry for textbooks calling homosexuality a disorder; the country’s first transgender employment discrimination case; and dozens of food-safety and environmental-protection suits that challenged large companies…
Yet the courts are still under the thumb of the Communist Party. Officials approve the hearing of many cases and sometimes determine the verdict and sentence, too. There is no way for plaintiffs to know whether a case will cause them trouble or not…
It will take a lot more effort to educate the broader public on their legal rights and to train enough legal officials. Judges, especially those in lower courts, are poorly paid and have little formal legal training. Many have been jailed for taking bribes. This generates deep resentment, and is the reason why thousands of petitioners journey to Beijing each year to complain to the central government rather than bother using the local courts…
Experts say reforms are trying hard to reduce corruption at local levels, not least to limit the damage it does to the party’s reputation nationally. But the possibility of any kind of institutional, independent checks and balances is still a long way off…
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The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.
Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories
, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6,
and
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Labels: China, judiciary, politics, rule of law
Courts and the conflicts of a multi-ethnic state
Geographic isolation prevents some conflict over religious differences in Nigeria, but in areas where the ethnic groups and religious groups interact, conflict is visible. This is one of the least serious, as long as people confine their conflicts to the courts. (Rule of law, don't you know.)
Letter from Africa: Nigeria's war of the religious robes (26 June 2016)
Almost all of Nigeria's many inter-religious crises have erupted in the north of the country, where the majority of the country's Muslims live, along with a sizeable Christian minority.
But, over the past few weeks, a religious conflict of a peculiar nature has sprouted in Osun state, south-west Nigeria, which has a large population of Muslims as well as Christians.
While previous religious conflicts have involved machetes, the battle in Osun is being fought with religious garments…
Back in the beginning of June a judge ruled that female Muslims who attend public schools in the state could wear their hijabs to class.
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| Nigerian women wearing hijabs |
The state's branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria (Can) said Christian students would wear garments associated with church activities to schools if the state governor implemented the court ruling.
And they made good on their threat…
Some wore maroon choir robes and others donned ankle-length, white garments…
 |
| Nigerian boys in religious garb |
Mr Aregbesola [the governor] announced plans to "reclassify" schools in the state…
The reclassification entailed merging some schools. For example, some male students were dispatched to the Baptist Girls' High School… while some Muslim students were asked to join the Baptist High School in another town…
But while schools, such as the Baptist High School, ultimately complied with the directive, they drew the line at allowing Muslim students to turn up for classes wearing the hijab…
Eventually, the Muslim association in the state took the matter to court.
After three long years, Justice Jide Falola ruled at the beginning of June that the use of hijabs by female Muslim students in Osun was their fundamental human right to freedom of religion…
Nigeria's Muslims applaud lifting of hijab ban in Lagos schools
A leading Muslim group in Nigeria has welcomed a court ruling lifting the ban on girls wearing the headscarf in government schools in Lagos state.
The Muslim Rights Concern (MRC) said the Lagos Court of Appeal's ruling was a victory for the rule of law.
The judges said the ban violated the religious rights of Muslim girls, overturning a lower court's ruling…
Nigeria's population is roughly divided between Muslims and Christians, with both groups being staunch believers.
The majority of Muslims live in the north and Christians primarily are in the south - though the southern state of Lagos has a more religious mix.
In June, the High Court in the southern state of Osun also lifted the ban on Muslims girls wearing the headscarf.
It caused religious tension in the state, with some Christian boys insisting on wearing church robes to school…
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Labels: civil society, cleavages, judiciary, Nigeria, rule of law
Keep on trying
Reform of the Mexican judiciary system has been coming for a long time, been very slow and uneven.
Most Americans are so familiar with the adversarial system we and the Brits use, that we aren't aware of the inquisitorial system used in Russia, Iran, China, and (until recently) in Mexico. It's a good distinction for student of comparative politics to be aware of.
The latest summary from
The Economist is a good one.
I've added some links to earlier blog posts about this if you're looking to make a lesson out of these sources.
Criminal justice in Mexico: Trials and errors
Historically around 95% of criminal verdicts in Mexico have been convictions. And 90% of those have been based on confessions, which police have a nasty habit of beating out of prisoners…
Felipe Calderón, Mexico’s conservative president from 2006 to 2012 [launched] a root-and-branch transformation of its courts, which is scheduled to be fully implemented by June 18th…
The new system scraps the “inquisitorial” approach, in which a prosecutor presents written evidence that the defence has little opportunity to contest, in favour of a more transparent “adversarial” model, where lawyers argue their cases orally before a judge. It establishes basic rights for defendants, like the presumption of innocence and the provision of a lawyer, and excludes confessions from court unless a defence attorney was present when they were given. It allows alternative approaches to justice, such as mediation, for less serious cases. And it fights corruption by requiring the involvement of three separate judges: one to ensure the rights of the accused are observed before the trial, another to preside in court and a third to guarantee the sentence is carried out correctly.
The policy has been a long time coming. It became law in June 2008. When Mr Calderón left office in 2012, just under 30% of Mexicans lived in areas covered by the new rules. His successor, the centrist Enrique Peña Nieto, belongs to a different political party, but has proved an eager reformer…
Evidence from states that have instituted the changes is encouraging. In particular, they seem to have streamlined the judicial process: the average time to resolve a case has dropped from 180 days to 34. In Mexico City, prison overcrowding fell by 70% in the system’s first four months, mainly because many types of crime could be dealt with through mediation rather than by the courts. And three of the earlier-adopting states, Baja California, Morelos and Nuevo León, have reduced the share of defendants put in pre-trial custody…
Yet despite such growing pains, there is wide consensus that the reforms are necessary if not sufficient to establish the rule of law in every corner of Mexico. Their implementation, says David Shirk of the University of San Diego, represents a “milestone in the marathon to a better criminal-justice system”. That is reason for hope.
See also:
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The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.
Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories
, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6,
and
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Labels: judiciary, legitimacy, Mexico, rule of law, transparency
Growing pains or inherent flaws?
The judicial system in the USSR was political. In the early post-Soviet period it was economic. Is it going back to being political again? Do high profile examples describe reality?
You should recognize the writer's criticism of the
non-adversarial (inquisitorial) system of the USSR.
Justice in the former Soviet Union has failed
In the Soviet Union, “justice” meant show trials. In the post-Soviet successor states of the 1990s, the judicial system was for sale. But today, justice in most of the former Soviet region is defined by politicized prosecution where who is prosecuted and who is not all depends on power…
Faulty justice in the former Soviet Union, however, is not limited to Russia… Post-Soviet legal systems are used not to address injustice, but as a political weapon wielded by prosecutors to benefit those in power.
The current dysfunction has deep roots. In the Soviet period, judges and prosecutors were considered to be on the same team and functioned as extensions of government policy. “Justice” in its legal form flowed from the state to the citizen, enforcing the state’s will… After the collapse of the Soviet Union, money transformed the system. Suddenly the law, which had always represented power, was the guardian of trillions of dollars worth of business assets…
 |
| Chaika |
In Russia, justice is not so much about enforcing the law as determining who can break it. In their most recent video, the activist punk rock group Pussy Riot targets Chaika [Russian general prosecutor], rapping: “I run the war on corruption here, or to be precise, I run the corruption here.”
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The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.
Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories
, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6,
and
a description of the AP exam format
. $2.00.
Order HERE.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
Labels: corruption, judiciary, rule of law, Russia
More on the cost of justice
Two years ago, Lord Thomas, the lord chief justice of the UK, suggested that inquisitorial proceedings might save money for a judicial system under great pressure to cut expenses.
Mexico and Russia use inquisitorial systems. Do you know the difference between them and adversarial systems?
Inquisitorial system may be better for family and civil cases, says top judge
A judge-led, inquisitorial system of justice may be a better way of conducting family and civil cases where litigants are unrepresented, the lord chief justice has suggested.
In a challenge to centuries of British legal tradition based on adversarial hearings, Lord Thomas has called for a radical rethink of the way justice is delivered in an era of austerity…
Reductions in legal aid have already resulted in a "significant increase" in the number of unrepresented litigants in person in family and civil cases. Thomas said: "Traditional procedures are not best suited to a dispute between a father and mother over a child when inevitably matters that have caused emotional stress are raised by them in court as adversaries in person rather than being raised by lawyers acting for them."
An inquisitorial system might be an improvement for litigants in person and "secure a fair trial for all whilst doing so within limited and reducing resources," he said. "The essence of the change would be a much greater degree of inquiry by the judge into the evidence being brought forward."
Some lawyers, he admitted, would see it as a "process alien to our adversarial tradition". Research would have to consider whether an inquisitorial procedure would require more judges or a "new cadre of junior judges"…
Teaching Comparative blog entries are indexed. Use the search box to look for country names or concept labels attached to each entry.
The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.
Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories
, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6,
and
a description of the AP exam format
. $2.00.
Order HERE.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
Just The Facts! is available. Order HERE.
Amazon's customers gave this book a 5-star rating.
What You Need to Know 7th edition is ready to help.
Order the book
HERE
Amazon's customers gave this book a 4-star rating.
Labels: adversarial, inquisitorial, judiciary, rule of law, UK
Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
