Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the different procedures and practices in customary dispute settlement in Namibia and analyses the effect of those procedures on women and their perceived success in (participating in) customary dispute settlement.

Paper long abstract:

While much investigation has been done on the content of customary law and its effects on women, less attention has been devoted to the procedures and practices within customary dispute settlement. Procedures and practices can include, for example: time constraints on speaking; if women are allowed to represent themselves; if written accounts are made during trial and if women can/do speak during trial. While some research shows that women benefit from the flexibility of procedures in customary law, other authors maintain that the fixed and transparent procedures in state law provide more chances for the (successful) participation of women in dispute settlement.

Although procedures and practices are not the determining factor for the (successful) participation of women, since historical patterns and cultural expectations are often decisive, they can play an important role in increasing or decreasing the (successful) participation of women in customary dispute settlement. This paper discusses the perceptions of women as well as judges and chiefs on the effect of procedures and practices in customary dispute settlement on the (successful) participation of women.

Paper short abstract:

The paper analyzes a way from liberal communist law on abortion to restrictive both corporate law and state law in democratic Poland. In the communist time abortion on demand was allowed, in democracy the abortion law (corporate medical law, the state law) and legal debate are very restricted.

Paper long abstract:

The paper aim is to analyze a way from liberal communist law in the field of abortion to restrictive both corporate law and the state law in democracy after the communism collapse in Poland. The Abortion Act of 1956 allowed for e.g. an abortion on demand (so called "social reasons"). In 1991 The Polish Medical Association enforced a new code of ethics which prohibited abortion (there were two exceptions: mother's life danger and pregnancy as a result of crime). The medical corporate law was not compatible with the state law, being contrary themselves. There were two normative systems of rules in one social sphere - an absolute legal pluralism. The corporate sanction was more severe and more important than the state law, and there was no a rule of recognition which could establish what a value and what a rule to choose. In 1993 the state passed a new law - the "Anti-Abortion Act" which was more conservative and restrictive than the Act of 1956 and in relation to many similar acts in European countries. There are only three exceptions in which abortion is legal: 1. danger of woman's health or life, 2. pregnancy as a result of crime (incest, rape), 3. so called "eugenic reasons" (a deformation of fetus). Nowadays in the Parliament and public discourse there are political and citizens' projects to make the abortion law just more conservative than it really is now. It concerns a prohibition of eugenic abortion and even the absolute prohibition of abortion.

Paper short abstract:

Analyzing the experience of modern countries dealing with situation of legal pluralism based on example of blood feud, searching for advantages and disadvantages of different approaches, and conditions which make it successful.

Paper long abstract:

Acknowledging the situation of legal pluralism in most of the modern countries and the growing impact of the globalization process on national legal systems. We would like to present in this article an overview of wide range of experiences of different countries (such as Russia, European countries and Muslim countries and etc.) on the way they treat the situation of plural legal orders. This article focuses on analyzing of one particular sector: "blood feud". Through the comparison of different approaches of countries we try to find advantages and disadvantages, while paying attention to circumstances and conditions which make these approaches successful. For the purpose of study we need also answer the question: how can we see that the way government heals with situation is successful. And what does it mean "successful"( certain kinds of law are acknowledged or legalized, amount of crimes are reduced etc.) from different points of view of scholars and practitioners.

Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I consider the oppositional views on law and democracy that have emerged over the development of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in south India along with contested debates about whether concepts of the nation should be prioritised with respect to ‘national security’ and nuclear development, or the environment and notions about deep democracy.

Paper long abstract:

Since 2011 after the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, local resistance to the nuclear plant has increased incrementally under the behest of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy. Protesters have decried the plant as a violation of correct procedures with respect to the environment and project-affected people. Influenced by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s civil disobedience campaign, protesters have undertaken hunger strikes, non-violent marches and rallies, sea-based campaigns, destroyed models of the nuclear power plant, closed shops in protest, periodically boycotted school and their work, and even surrendered their voter registration cards. In response, the state has utilised the full gamut of colonial and postcolonial legislature to underwrite their draconian actions including long-term prohibitory orders, police sieges, imprisonment, the cancellation of ration cards for essential provisions for the poor, and levelling criminal charges including more than 6,500 for sedition and ‘war against the state’, and over 55,000 other allegations in the space of a year. I consider this desperate attempt to contain the protests, wherein the use of legislature clashes with and becomes a travesty of more grounded notions of social justice.