Not by higher education alone?

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| Central Applications Office, General, Universities

'Not by Bread Alone' book cover, via CoE websiteThe Bible tells Christians that ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4). The aphorism is echoed in the title and plot of Vladimir Dudintsev’s anti-Stalist novel Not by Bread Alone. Now it is the main title of a recent book about the importance of higher education in developing modern societies built upon the fundamental values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law: Sjur Bergan Not by bread alone (Council of Europe higher education series No 17; 2011). Public debate often assumes that the only purpose of higher education is to prepare gradutes for employment, and this view feeds back into third-level entry requirements and second-level curricula. Hence, we see an increasing focus on “training” (rather than educating) graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (with attendant risks to the arts, humanities, and social sciences). This third-level policy brings a concommitant focus at second-level on bonus CAO points for maths generating calls for bonus points for science and a compulsory leaving certificate science course (perhaps to the detriment of the study of foreign languages; and quite how this stands with the Minster for Education’s stated aim of moving away from the CAO points culture is unclear).…

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The Margin of Appreciation in the ECHR

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| ECHR

via ECHR BlogThe ever-informative ECHR blog brings news of an interesting article on the margin of appreciation jurisprudence of the European Convention on Human Rights (which has been examined on this blog here and here). It is the doctrine by which the ECHR affords Members States some initial latitude to assess the impact of a restriction upon a Convention right; the Court takes the view that national authorities are usually better placed to determine the particular circumstances of an individual case; and it often shows greater forebearance where important national interests and diverse social and moral convictions are at stake. But it is a doctrine developed by the Court itself rather than one rooted in the text of the Convention, and it is a deeply contentious issue. The article traces the debates surrounding the doctrine, and locates them in a current complex social, cultural and religous controversy.

From the introduction and the conclusion:

Raffaella Nigro “The Margin of Appreciation Doctrine and the Case-Law of the European Court of Human Rights on the Islamic Veil” (2010) 11 (4) Human Rights Review 531-564

In its judicial activity, the European Court of Human Rights increasingly resorts to the margin of appreciation doctrine as a means of granting States the discretionary power to adopt, both positive steps to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and steps which, although interfering with some of the rights and freedoms sanctioned by it, are considered to be justifiable because they are necessary to preserve public order and/or to protect the rights and freedoms of others in a democratic society.

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A devastating analysis of the proposed wording of the judicial pay amendment by @extemporeblog

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| General

Some extracts from a longer and fascinating post:

First, the proposed wording does not restrict the permissible justifications for a pay-cut in any serious way. …

Second, the proposed wording contains no apparent constraint on the “classes” of other public servants whose pay must be reduced to permit a judicial pay-cut. ….

Third, on a literal reading, the wording doesn’t require any equivalence or proportionality between the pay-cuts for other public servants and the judicial pay-cut. If that’s right, the government could impose a 1% cut to the salaries of TDs and Senators, and follow it up with a 50% cut to judges’ salaries.

Fourth, the proposal doesn’t provide a role for any independent body in determining whether a judicial pay-cut is justified. …

via extempore.ie

 

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Judicial pay referendum

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| General

Two stories in today’s papers caught my eye; here are some extracts:

JUDGES’ PAY PROPOSED AMENDMENTS

THE GOVERNMENT is proposing that Article 35.5 of the Constitution be amended by substituting the following:

“35.5.1 The remuneration of judges shall not be reduced during their continuance in office save in accordance with this section.

35.5.2 The remuneration of judges is subject to the imposition of taxes, levies or other charges that are imposed by law on persons generally or persons belonging to a particular class.

35.5.3 Where, before or after the enactment into law of this section, reductions have been or are made by law to the remuneration of persons belonging to classes of persons whose remuneration is paid out of public money and such law states that those reductions are in the public interest, provision may also be made by law to make reductions to the remuneration of judges.”

via irishtimes.com

SENIOR JUDGES FACING RUIN FROM POOR INVESTMENTS

A NUMBER of senior judges who suffered huge losses from ill-fated property investments and a meltdown in bank shares face financial ruin, the Irish Independent has learned.

Financial experts have advised up to 10 members of the judiciary that they will not be able to meet their financial commitments.

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What is the Preamble to a Constitution for?

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| Law

preamble.jpgI posed the question in title in an earlier post on this blog. In an article published in the current issue of the International Journal of Constitutional Law, Liav Orgad provides one possible answer. Here is the abstract:

Liav Orgad “The preamble in constitutional interpretation” (2011) 8 (4) I•CON 714-738

From Plato’s Laws through common law and until modern legal systems, preambles to constitutions have played an important role in law and policy making. Through a qualitative analysis of the legal status of preambles in different common law and civil law countries, the article highlights a recent trend in comparative constitutional law: the growing use of preambles in constitutional adjudication and constitutional design. The article also explores the theory of preambles and their functions. It examines the legal status of the U.S. preamble and shows how the U.S. preamble remains the most neglected section in American constitutional theory. The article then presents a typology for determining the legal status of preambles: a symbolic preamble, an interpretive preamble, and a substantive preamble. While focusing on Macedonia, Israel, Australia, and the Treaty of Lisbon, the article discusses the sociological function of preambles in top-down and bottom-up constitutional designs.

An earlier version is available on SSRN.…

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Time to sabotage tedious medium of PowerPoint

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| PowerPoint

From Lucy Kellaway’s Financial Times column (sub req’d) syndicated this morning by the Irish Times (with added links):

The Anti-PowerPoint Party has attempted to calculate the economic damage of gawping at all these slides and has concluded that Europe wastes €110 billion a year from people sitting through dull presentations.

I suspect the true figure is even worse, as this ignores the secondary effects. PowerPoint must be the least enjoyable way of wasting time there is; a heavy slideshow can leave one feeling grumpy and passive and in no frame of mind for proper work. …

The Anti-PowerPoint Party is hoping to fight PowerPoint through peaceful means; it wants lots of journalists to write articles just like this one. Even if lots do, I hold out little hope of success. The seminal, devastating article on the subject, “PowerPoint is Evil”, was written by Edward Tufte in 2003 and published in Wired. And what has happened since then? Nothing, except that PowerPoint has gone on getting bigger.

via irishtimes.com
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Judge dread

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| Irish Society, judges, Judicial Appointments, Open Justice, The Rule of Law

Judge Dredd via WikipediaGrowing up, I loved the comic 2000AD, and one of its leading characters was Judge Dredd (pictured left). We never saw underneath his helmet’s visor because – with his catchphrase “I am the law” (echoed by Lord Thurlow LC in The Madness of King George) – he represents the impartiality and facelessness of justice. This is why more traditional representations of lady justice show her wearing a blindfold – as in the statute overlooking upper castle yard in Dublin Castle: the blindfold represents objectivity and impartiality. Hence, under Article 34.5.1 of the Constitution, judges make a declaration that they will execute their functions “without fear or favour, affection or ill-will towards any man”. This judicial impartiality, abjuring both preference and malice, is the cornerstone of the rule of law – it requires and allows both that questions of legal right and liability to be resolved by application of the law and not by the exercise of discretion, and that the laws of the land should apply equally to all: be you never so high, the law is above you. But, as the text of judicial oath expresses, to be able to decide without favour, judges must be free to decide without fear – that is, without the dread in the title to this post.…

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Let the law save whistleblowers, not silence them | Nick Cohen | Comment is free | The Observer

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| General

“To be happy means to be free and to be free means to be brave,” Pericles said in his oration for the Athenian war dead. The ancient Greeks treasured parrhesia, which can translate as “free speech” or “all speech” or “true speech”. Whatever version you prefer, it always carried a notion of courage with it.

The 20th-century French philosopher Michel Foucault developed the theme and argued that speech was only free when the weak used it against the strong. In parrhesia, the speaker chooses “truth instead of falsehood or silence, the risk of death instead of life and security, criticism instead of flattery and moral duty instead of self-interest and moral apathy”. On Foucault’s reading, the worker who criticises his boss uses parrhesia. The boss who shouts down his worker, does not. The woman who challenges religious notions of her subordination is a parrhesiastes. The clerics who threaten her with ostracism or worse are not. In the Chinese legend, the mandarin who knows he must contradict the emperor orders carpenters to build him a coffin and takes it with him to court. Pericles would have approved.

We like to think of ourselves as speakers of truth to power.

via guardian.co.uk

Nick Cohen’s argument for whistleblower protection proceeds from a classical argument for freedom of expression.

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