Search results

Abstract: Law and Power in Russia: Making Sense of Quasi-Legal PracticesAnna Jonsson Cornell (Department of Law, Uppsala University, Sweden) reviews Law and Power in Russia: Making Sense of Quasi-Legal Practices by Håvard Bækken (published in 2019 by Routledge).

"There has been a lot of controversy among the Hungarian jurisprudence regarding the creation of the new Hungarian Criminal Procedure Act. It was also raised whether there was a need for a new code of procedure at all, whether it was not enough to adapt the existing regulations of the old Criminal Procedure Act to the new Criminal Code.
The Criminal Procedure Act, which has been in force since July 1 2018, may seem a distant start compared to Ferenc Finkey's work, but we will see that knowledge of the legal history and the processes involved are essential to understanding the changes in the present.
This is specially true for changes that affect the principles on which criminal proceedings are based. One of the biggest changes in the new Criminal Procedure Code – at the level of the priciples – is undoubtedly the relegation of the principle of official proceedings to the background, as it often turns to opportunism rather than officiality in order to increase simplification and efficiency.
In fact, in his work, Finkey has already perfectly described the mechanisms that we can discover in today's changes. Perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that his work may have provided a basis for fundamental changes in the new Criminal Procedure Code. His theories presented in this study shed excellent light on the dynamics that have permeated all areas of legal history in law and on the processes that, if we recognize them help us understand why it is necessary for our laws to be recreated sometimes.
All in all, we can see that the principles are never of absolute value, but their meaning is constantly changing, as the legislatorial ways breath in the spirit of the current age. When these principles are no longer able to keep up with change, they must be re-formed. And if we are to form such an important principle, we need to enforce a new vision throughout criminal proceedings that makes it necessary not only to make amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure but also to create a whole new law.
In order to see the real effects of the present innovations and the actual processes it has initiated in our criminal procedural law, a comprehensive analysis of the practice will be needed. We need to examine how quickly law enforcement can respond to the loss of space in centuries-old traditions. It may also be a question of whether we can talk about a real loss of space at all, as it is also conceivable that the principle of officiality has narrowed at the level of the normative text, but the old routine, attitude, and instincts live on in the application of law. The outcome of this examination may also raise important questions, including legal certainty. It is essential that once our procedural law has reached the point where it had to be born again, the application of the law be reborn with it."

The 2007 Indonesian investment law granted national treatment for foreign investors, establishing a transparent 'negative list' for out-of-bonds investment sectors, and has been considired as a reformative regulation in Indonesia's economic strategy. However, decentralized systems give autonomy to local governments to manage their projects and infrastructure themselves. This leads into increasiig investment burdens through their opaque measures that are creating perceptions of risk for foreign investors. As a result, lack of legal certainty, inconsistent regulations and judiciary system would hamter investments. This article argues that law 25/2007 should be supported by a comprehensive investment policy to attract more foreign investors into Indonesia. A key element in establishing a competitive region is a free and open investment regime, This article addresses policy impediment to private investment in Indonesia as well as in the ASEAN region. Indonesia and ASEAN should have non-discriminatory treatment extended to foreign investors including ASEAN-based inveitors, as the establishment of ASEAN Economic community (AEC) will cornmence in 2015. Legal certainty of international business transaction by private investors is fostering investments by both direct investment and indirect investment (portfolio). Parties to investment agreements include individuals, small, medium and large multinational corporations, and countries. In this centralized global atmosphere, the Indonesian agovemment has to provide guarantees to leverage private investments.

In my article, I examine some of legal opinions of Ferenc Finkey's with regard to substantive criminal law, from the perspective of today's criminal lawyer. I present the concept of criminal offence in Finkey's works, dealing with the issues of unlawfulness and guilt, also pointing to aspects not discussed in the previous literature. In the case of the act of trying to kill a dead person, my opinion is that it is more proper to establish criminal liablity for an unsuitable attempt of homicide instead of excluding liability. Regarding to the continued offence, I accept the the young Finkey's position, while with regard to the concurrence by one act, I do not agree with Finkey at all. My conclusion is that Ferenc Finkey's books and articles would be welcome for today's criminal lawyers to get acquainted with them as well.

In my short essay, I tried to present the changes in the criminal procedure law of the last one hundred and fifty years, the means of proof, and, wherever possible, to find a connection, as well as Ferenc Finkey's work, who was born 150 years ago. It can be said about Finkey's work, his textbooks that his conception of material and procedural law marked a new era in Hungarian scientific life. He established a modern system, proclaiming the principles that meet the theoretical and practical requirements of a modern criminal procedure based on individual freedoms, acquiring a state-of-the-art approach with a European perspective. As a result, his views are not let out of the latest scientific life either. His theoretical conception and dogmatic theorems still define legal thinking.

In my article, I deal with the prohibition of customary law and analogy to the detriment of the perpetrator. Both mentioned prohibitions arise from the principle of legality. The starting point of the analysis is a decision of the Hungarian Supreme Court in 1898 dealing with the criminal offence of theft related to electricity. I presented examples of the extensive and then of the restrictive interpretation by Hungarian criminal courts. My conclusion is that the principle of legality may obviously infringe, for example, criminal liability extended by analogy. However, an overly restrictive interpretation must also be avoided, as this could threaten to violate the state's obligation for criminalization.

On 20 November 2018, the Hungarian Museum Association of Transylvania and Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania organized a round table discussion on the legal history of Transylvania. The event took place as part of a series of events on the Hungarian Science Day in Transylvania, at the Sapientia building on Calea Turzii Cluj-Napoca. The participants were Dr Gyula Fábián (minority law), Dr Zsolt Fegyveresi (constitutional history), Dr László Nánási (history of criminal law), Dr Zsolt Kokoly (history of legal education), Dr János Székely (history of civil procedure law), and Dr Emőd Veress (history of civil law). The event was moderated by Előd Pál. The participants presented their research studies related to the legal history of Transylvania and explored the legal and social situations of the past hundred years.

The principle of favor defensionis (principle of protection) nowadays basically expresses that the Criminal Procedural Act seeks to eliminate and somewhat compensate for the disadvantage of the accused by certain detailed provisions. In dubious cases, the law is interpreted in favour of the accused in the spirit of the principle, even against the equality of arms principle. By this principle, Finkey meant cases where the rules of procedure allow for multiple interpretations, in which case they must be interpreted in favour of the accused. The principle also often appears in today's law enforcement.

Pursuant to the First World War, Romania's territory increased, and thus it inherited a complex social, economic, and legal environment different from that of the predecessor states. The Romanian state's response to these challenges is to be found in the political goal of building a homogeneous nation-state. This political agenda has had an impact on all areas of law, not only on legislation but also on the application of the law. The use of essentially ethnically neutral legal instruments of criminal law for state policy purposes can also be seen as an element of exclusionary nationality policy. The Romanian state's actions have thus not only failed to resolve existing internal tensions but have also made the relations between the majority and minorities, as well as the possibility of consolidation impossible for the past century.

Abstract: The issues related to political dowry are interminable. This interminability is the result of an indication of political dowry every time a general election or local election is held. Based on that background, this article describes the political dowry's detailed problems. In the beginning, the writer describes the definition of political dowry and its differences from political cost, the reasons for the restrictions, and the law enforcement on political dowry. It ended with some efforts to prevent political dowry.It is found that the definition of political dowry is different from political cost. The regulations restrict the practice of political dowry, but not for the political cost. The political dowry is restricted by law because it is against the national law's interest, which is the interest to have qualified and fair general elections and local elections. Heretofore, there is no legal punishment for the practice of political dowry due to the difficulty to prove the practice. There are some efforts to prevent the practice of political dowry: First, giving intensive supervision from The General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and its subdivisions; Second, revising the regulations in the Law of the Local elections for nominating the candidates; Third, revising the regulations in the law of political parties for nominating the candidates of the president and local government; Fourth, assigning the time limitation for the political parties to accept the political cost; and Fifth, enhancing the legal awareness of all parties involving in the practice of general elections or local elections.

This study aims to investigate the position of the DGT's Civil Servant Investigator in relation to their duty to enforce taxation criminal. The law enforcement of taxation criminal in Indonesia is involving several institution like Civil Servant Investigator (Directorate General of Taxes Institution), Police Investigator (Indonesian Police Institution), and Attorney Investigator (Attorney Institution). This involving, which lately leads to the position and authority problem of each institution. This study will be focused on the position of civil servant investigator of Directorate General of Tax and its relation with other party like Supervisory Coordinator which occupied by police investigator, and also other investigator from another institution. The method which is used in this study is normative juridical approach with analytical descriptive specification. Based on that method, then the researcher will compare between the position of DGT's Civil Servant Investigator 'in legislation' and 'in its practice' through library study and field research. The researcher carry out this research based on the researcher's consideration about the importance of state income from the taxation sector, so that the unlawful act that detrimental from the taxpayer and any related party of it can be eradicated immediately. The results shows that the position of the DGT Civil Servant Investigator in the framework of eradicating taxation criminal was emphasized as the primary investigator. This position is based on Law No. 16 of 2009 as lex specialis derogat legi generalis against Law No. 8 of 1981. Based on this position, there some friction that occurs between the DGT Civil Servant Investigator and other officer from another institution. For example, the DGT Civil Servant Investigator of the West Sumatra-Jambi Regional Office, which was designated as a suspect by the Police investigator, and the Mobile 8 tax restitution was handled by the Attorney Investigator. One of the factors that causing the friction is the difference in ...

In order to carry out the crime prevention and control policy, there are two ways thatcan be carried out, namely the use of penal facilities or criminal (legal) sanctions,and the use of other facilities (nonpenal). Thus the use of criminal (legal) sanctions isone of the policies in criminal politics, which in this case is not a means that occupiesa strategic position and causes many problems. Moreover, if it is associated with theuse of criminal sanctions to achieve the purpose of prevention as one of the premise ofabolitionist understanding. As a means of law enforcement policy in order to controlcrime, the use of criminal (legal) sanctions is not an absolute. Even if it will be used,then the problem is the policy of its use must be rational by paying attention to thehumanistic approach and social interests that contain certain values that need to beprotected. As a criminal policy, the extreme attitude to eliminate criminal (legal)sanctions is not a policy step. Because what needs to be done in policies to controland overcome crime is an integrated approach between penal and non-formalpolicies. This non-formal activity occupies a key and strategic position that must beintensified and streamlined in controlling and overcoming crime, not eliminatingcriminal law.

The issue of political dowry, relatively, becomes a sustainable warning of problems in every general election in Indonesia. Such as the issue of Sandiaga Uno, who provided political dowry in the 2019 presidential election. The allegation was started by the Deputy of General-secretary of the Party of Democrat, Andi Arief, who stated that Sandiaga Uno had provided 500 billion rupiahs to PAN and PKS respectively so that those two parties would support him to nominate as the Candidate of Vice President for Prabowo Subianto. Political dowry has been a serious issue and almost constantly becomes an interesting topic to be reported and studied in every general election. Although it is popular, the issue of political dowry is a case that is relatively difficult to prove its truth (court decisions). In fact, explicitly, political dowry has been regulated in Article 228 on Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning the General Election (Election Law). However, it does not expressly provide a deterrent effect to the political dowry actors. This reality becomes the basis of encouragement in conducting this research. The theory used in this research is legal politics and law enforcement. While the method used is normative legal research with a statutory, conceptual, and comparative approach. The output of this paper is that the handling of political dowry cases in the presidential election needs a serious concern. And then, the regulation on sanctions, which still be administrative in nature, against the actors of political dowry in the Election Law is considered to be inappropriate. So that criminal policy is needed to strengthen the law enforcement and strict legal instruments against criminal acts of political dowry in the future election (ius constituendum).