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While entities as different as armed groups, multinational corporations, political parties, megacities, labour unions, terrorist organisations, or indigenous peoples are mentioned as non-state actors in the relevant literature, rural communities are never referred to. This book addresses the role of rural communities as non-state actors, lifting this invisibility veil with arguments coming from three theories of/scholarly approaches to international law: positivism, sociolegal realism (the New Haven School), and constitutionalism. It argues, first, that rural communities are recognised by the community of states as derived subjects of international law since they are made bearers of rights and duties in some major multilateral treaties. Second, rural communities have the ability to affect international lawmaking as they acquire the tools to influence decision-making in international arbitration and court litigation. Finally, the book highlights the need to recognise the status of rural communities when seeking global justice, as these are the communities that benefit the least from globalisation, while paying the highest price in terms of damage to the natural and sociocultural environment. Advocating for the existence of some supreme norms above the will of the states and the recognition of rural communities as non-state actors, this book will be of interest to academics, policy-makers, and non-governmental organisations working in the field of public international law and rural social matters.

Abstract
Contemporary queerbaiting is a historically situated phenomenon that in significant ways parallels reactions to nineteenth-century legal-medical discourse on the nature of homosexuality, and the subsequent punishment of it through enforcement of sodomy laws and/or blackmail against (primarily) gay men. In the twentieth century, movie and TV morality codes enacted a parallel dynamic of enforcement and punishment, at first with the banning of any mention of homosexuality altogether. Later, as codes relaxed and homosexuality became visible on-screen, film and TV moved from silencing to punishing, with the tendency kill queer characters or otherwise present them as miserable and morally compromised. The 'bury your gays' (BYG) trope, a phenomenon adjacent to queerbaiting, developed out of these decades of the enforcement-punishment dynamic and continues even decades after the codes lost sway. In contemporary television, where queerness is no longer entirely taboo, queerbaiting often gives way to canon queer characters, who are still killed at vastly disproportionate rates compared with their heterosexual counterparts. The fandom of one such character – Lexa, killed off from the American CW network's series The 100 in March 2016 – brought the dual problems of queerbaiting and BYG into the open via a series of unprecedentedly well-coordinated media actions that have, perhaps, led TV writers to rethink how they present their queer characters in the context of socially aware, interactive audiences.

In this paper I focus on the status of environmental taxes in the tax system of the Slovak Republic. I point to the contexts and relationships that environmental taxes affect, and also to the nature of environmental taxes, which is not sufficiently used in the Slovak Republic to change the behaviour of economic subjects and households. I point to the necessity of introducing an environmental tax reform within the legal framework of the Slovak Republic in order to fulfill all conventions and programmes which the Slovak Republic has committed to and which have also been implemented in governmental strategic decisions.

AbstractIt is acknowledged that a variety of chemicals enter the environment and may cause joint effects. Chemicals regulated under the European Chemicals Regulation REACH are often part of formulated mixtures and during their processing and use in various products they can be jointly released via sewage treatment plants or diffuse sources, and may combine in the environment. One can differentiate between intentional mixtures, and unintentional mixtures. In contrast to other substance-oriented legislations, REACH contains no explicit requirements for an assessment of combined effects, exposures and risks of several components. Still, it requires ensuring the safe use of substances on their own, in mixtures, and in articles. The available options to address intentional as well as unintentional mixtures are presented and discussed with respect to their feasibility under REACH, considering the responsibilities, communication tasks and information availability of the different actors (registrants, downstream-user and authorities). Specific mixture assessments via component-based approaches require a comprehensive knowledge on substances properties, uses, fate and behaviour, and the composition of the mixture under consideration. This information is often not available to the responsible actor. In principle, intentional mixtures of known composition can be assessed by the downstream-user. But approaches have to be improved to ensure a transparent communication and sound mixture assessment. In contrast, unintentional mixtures appear to be better addressable via generic approaches such as a mixture allocation factor during the chemical safety assessment, although questions on the magnitude, implementation and legal mandates remain. Authorities can conduct specific mixture risk assessments in well-defined and prioritized cases, followed by subsequent regulatory measures. In order to address intentional and unintentional mixtures within the current REACH framework, legal mandates together with guidance for the different actors are needed. Furthermore, further data on mixture compositions, uses and co-exposures need to be made accessible via shared databases.

Abstract
This article examines the coronavirus counter-measures adopted by East African states from a legal perspective. The focus is whether the adopted measures infringe on the provisions of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (EAC) and domestic legislations, including the countries' constitutional provisions. The legal recourse for East African citizens in instances where domestic remedies have failed will be examined in light of the role of the judicial organ of the East African Community, the East African Court of Justice (EACJ). An examination will be made on protection of human rights under the EAC Treaty and the jurisdiction of the EACJ in adjudicating on allegations of human rights violation. This contribution will proceed to debate on the existing relationship between international law and domestic laws; whether international law is superior to domestic law and whether international bodies can entertain a complaint by an individual or an institution on violation of human rights where redress has not been exhaustively sought through domestic legal systems.

Although testamentary freedom is an important principle in succession law, legislators and judges across the world have recognized the importance of certain family members by granting them mandatory claims in the inheritance of their deceased relative (in spite of wishes of the deceased). This article focuses on these rights. The goal is to introduce the Dutch framework of imperative succession law and to demonstrate the possibilities of combining the legal and economic discipline to deepen knowledge on these provisions. Whilst examples will focus upon succession law, the concepts will be described in a general manner. This might inspire researchers to apply a similar interdisciplinary approach in other fields of law. The imperative provisions that currently exist for family members in the Netherlands can be divided into two types of claims. The first is the legitime, a fixed claim for children of the deceased. The second type are the other statutory entitlements that cover a specified range of situations in which judges have freedom in deciding upon the requests of family members. However, this discretion raises many questions on the way judges should handle such claims. A combination of law and economics can aid in describing and interpreting the law, for example by defining the need for support that is often required for a successful claim. By relying on economic data and theory, judges can come to a more consistent and substantiated way of establishing the need for support. The interdisciplinary methodology can also improve comparative legal research. The functional approach that is common in comparative legal research, assumes that law fulfills certain functions. Economic figures provide an objective basis that demonstrates what functions a law fulfills and to what extent this is done efficiently. This information can be used to compare the functioning of laws in different countries.

Politicians often mention immigration enforcement, and deportation in particular, as a means to assert state sovereignty. The scholarship on deportation in philosophy and political anthropology also names exclusion as a founding act of sovereignty. This paper looks at deportation through an event that is interpreted as regaining sovereignty by a State, that is exiting a supra-national political organization, namely the European Union. New immigration regulations in the UK are meant to end the EU Freedom of Movement and equalise the statuses of EU- and non-EU migrants in the UK. The research question this working paper addresses is the following: how will the new immigration regulations and policies affect the possibility of deportations of EU citizens in the UK? With the lens of Interpretive Policy Analysis, the working paper analyses primary sources, such as regulations, policy papers and policy implementation guidelines as well as expert interviews with immigration advisors. It concludes that the deportability of EU citizens will increase. Deportability of EU citizens will be differentiated, as rough sleepers, former convicts and irregular migrants may be first to be targeted with deportation and form a new deportspora.

This guide describes the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program in South Carolina and summarizes the legal rights of long term care residents.

In all countries under consideration, legal regulation of proprietary relationships is a reflection of the current level of social and economic development of these states, as well as of the objective necessity of including certain proprietary legal institutions into the system of rights for things: • the process of civil legislation reformation in Brazil and China, in so far as it relates to the institutions of the right of ownership and limited proprietary rights, is acceptable to be admitted as generally successful and meeting the stated objectives. The proprietary legislation of the Republic of South Africa is marked by high stability; • in spite of being based on Roman-Dutch proprietary rights legal institutions, the law of South Africa receives the required development due to the judges' interpretative activity in the process of creating case laws. Such situation is determined by the fact that during the period of English rule the Republic of South Africa adopted the type of judicial system organization and activity common for the common law countries;• the improvement of legal systems, as well as the unification and harmonization of national legislations of China, Brazil and the Republic of South Africa, ensures the creation of a unified approach to social and political, and legal interaction, which ensures compliance with the private law and proprietary rights as the basic rights of democratic societies oriented to sustainable social and economic development. © 2016, ASERS Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Introduction. The article is devoted to the analysis of objects discovered during the excavation of the "Kamennaya mogila" (Stone Grave) kurgan on Medovaya mountain (southern outskirts of Zheleznovodsk). Methods and materials. The comparative typological method was used as a worker. It is based on classification by material, processing method, shape, ornamentation, as well as on the study of types of gold jewelry, glass and black-glazed dishes, bronze horse plate foreheads and cheek pads, etc. Analysis. The typological and chronological analysis was carried out on gold jewelry (plaques, rings, pendants), antique ceramic and glassware, items of horse dress and weapons. Analogies to imported items from the crypt, found in the monuments of ancient culture and in the burials of the barbarian nobility, allow them to be dated to the 4th – 2nd centuries BC. Items of equestrian dress and weapons date back to the 3rd – 2nd centuries BC. Results. The author, regarding the social structure of the local population, ranked the monument as stratum No. 2 (nobility of the first level). A complex burial structure of the tomb with a significant number of ritual offerings is recorded. Burial items have numerous analogies in the status burials of the Bosporan, Meotian and Scythian nobility of the Northern Black Sea region and the North Caucasus of the 4 th – 2nd centuries BC. The sophisticated frame structure of the horse harness made of iron parts from the crypt of the Stone Grave is unique. Only a member of the nobility with a very high status could afford such a special bridle as a ritual offering.

Human rights are almost inseparable from the contemporary common-sense notion of civilization as a morally superior state of human society. In this article I argue that they are equally central to the concept of civilization as a reversible process of increasing social interdependence and cohesion as theorized by Norbert Elias. However, according to the theoretical statement included in the introduction to this special issue, the civilizing effect of human rights is accompanied by their inseparable decivilizing potential. Which of the two will be the stronger in any state of global human figuration depends on two principal factors: the resilience of human interdependencies (especially the prospects of widening the circles of intergroup identification) and the strength of centrifugal forces in the figuration, constituting a reduction of integrative effects of human rights and increasing their disintegrative influence. By tracing the emergence of global legal governance of abortion within the framework of human rights, I focus specifically on one aspect of it that is crucial for the interconnection of civilizing and decivilizing effects in this case: the status of the right to abortion law between women's rights and human rights, and, by extension, the relationship between women's rights and human rights in general. Drawing on the much-cited work of Norbert Elias and John L. Scotson, I the established-outsiders dynamics behind the old debate on whether women's rights are human rights or not, the consequences of which keep reverberating until today.

<b><i>Background:</i></b> This article provides an overview of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genomic services that are currently available in Greece and the legal framework within which they operate. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Here, we describe the landscape of the DTC genomic testing companies and laboratories by conducting a systematic &#x0399;nternet search for relevant websites. We examine the existing legal framework regarding genetic testing in Greece by a review of present regulation. Although Greece does not have explicit legal provisions for DTC genomics, several other laws, including soft law mechanisms, create the broader legal framework within which DTC genomic services may exist. <b><i>Results/Conclusions:</i></b> While the current legal framework creates a flexible environment that is conducive to DTC genomic operations, it is also ambiguous about the legality of some specific services. Given the growing DTC activity in Greece, we argue that it is important to both enforce compliance with existing law and clarify legal ambiguities that may risk limiting the power of legal protections that ought to be afforded to consumers.