Suchergebnisse

The article provides a system of scientific proposals which could be prospective in forming and implementing the effective state policy in the sphere of crime control. The strategic trend of that policy instead of making the laws and punishment stricter, should eliminate in complex way social causes and conditions of criminality, i.e., crime prevention, oriented first of all to social groups of people mostly not adapted to new conditions of market society and people, living under the poverty line, young people who do not study and do not work, dysfunctional families and children who are being raised in them, young people who do not study and do not work, solution of inhabitants employment problems as well as problems of mode of life and morals. Crime prevention should become an integral part of social, economical, legal and cultural policy of the state and local governments institutions. It is proposed to reform in essence also the system of special crime prevention measures and institutions, decreasing their repressive and increasing positive influence by humanising and socialising of this system. Also other scientific (criminological) preconditions and practical possibilities of crime prevention in Lithuania and increase of its effectiveness are discussed paying attention not only to present but also prospective purposes and goals of this problem's solution.

The article provides a system of scientific proposals which could be prospective in forming and implementing the effective state policy in the sphere of crime control. The strategic trend of that policy instead of making the laws and punishment stricter, should eliminate in complex way social causes and conditions of criminality, i.e., crime prevention, oriented first of all to social groups of people mostly not adapted to new conditions of market society and people, living under the poverty line, young people who do not study and do not work, dysfunctional families and children who are being raised in them, young people who do not study and do not work, solution of inhabitants employment problems as well as problems of mode of life and morals. Crime prevention should become an integral part of social, economical, legal and cultural policy of the state and local governments institutions. It is proposed to reform in essence also the system of special crime prevention measures and institutions, decreasing their repressive and increasing positive influence by humanising and socialising of this system. Also other scientific (criminological) preconditions and practical possibilities of crime prevention in Lithuania and increase of its effectiveness are discussed paying attention not only to present but also prospective purposes and goals of this problem's solution.

Zsfassung in engl. Sprache u.d.T.: Homosexuals as pawns of the church

When animals are exposed to a novel situation such as transportation, they react by eliciting certain physiological and behavioural functions in order to cope with the situation. These changes can be measured to indicate how much stress the animal is suffering. Physiological stress indicators often measured in animal transport research include changes in heart rate, live-weight, cortisol levels, and blood composition including electrolytes, metabolites and enzymes (Broom and Johnson, 1993). Animal behavioural stress indicators include struggling, vocalisation, kicking or biting, hunching of the back, urination, defecation and recumbence (Broom et al. 1996; Gregory, 1998). Meat quality parameters post mortem can also help to indicate stress levels in animals (Grandin, 1990; Gregory, 1998). These include incidence of bruising and DFD in all farm animal species and PSE in pigs. Mortality is also an obvious indicator of poor welfare. Combined aspects of transport that contribute to causing stress in livestock include loading and unloading procedures, close proximity to stock handlers, water/feed deprivation, noise, riding in a truck, mixing with other animals and being forced into unfamiliar environments. The responses of stock to these conditions will depend on the animal's genetically controlled adaptability, physical condition and its previous handling experiences (Gross and Siegel, 1993). Factors such as the adequate preparation of animals for transport, controlled prior access to feed and water, minimal disruption to social groups, considerate animal handling skills, adequate handling and transport facilities including good ventilation in trucks, and careful driving technique are major areas that dictate the standard of animal transport. For example, considerations for pigs should include a pre-transport fasting period which balances the requirement to avoid hunger, travel sickness and deaths. Breeding and selecting for more stress-resistant genotypes of pigs can improve the welfare by reducing mortality and the metabolic consequences of transport stress. Other factors influencing animal transport include farm size and country size. For example, livestock transport in Scandinavia involves transport vehicles travelling to more than one farm in order to fill a vehicle. In Australia often one farm pick up can fill a truck, and although the distances may be much longer to the abattoir, it will be more direct. The market demand dictates the type of animals transported. For example the veal trade in Europe demands young live calves to be transported over long distances from northern countries which supply it to the southern countries which demand it. This trade exists in live animals rather than meat because the demanding countries further fatten and slaughter these animals specific to their needs. The industry set up influences the standard of animal transport in different countries. For example in countries where industries are vertically integrated consisting of producer-owned slaughter plant co-operatives (Sweden and Denmark), producers are paid according to slaughter weight and lean meat percentage, therefore there is more consistent quality control measures in place. In Australia the marketing system is such that it provides no economic incentive to reduce losses. Greater public awareness of animal welfare seems to be increasing in western countries, and as a result there is more pressure on the livestock industry to adopt better standards for the farming, handling, transport and slaughter of animals. The transport of livestock in Australia continues to be under increased scrutiny from overseas markets and animal welfare groups. In the European Union (EU), public pressure has been a successful instigator to the drafting and continued improvement of comprehensive legislation for animal transport. EU animal transport laws cover aspects such as minimum design standards for livestock vehicles (including ventilation controls), maximum journey lengths before resting intervals, stocking rates, what animals are considered as fit to travel, and general handling and care requirements of animals in transport. These laws are causing debate between northern and southern countries in areas such as maximum journey lengths and vehicle design standards. Some countries such as the UK have also gone to a great effort to adjust national laws in order to incorporate EU transport laws, but countries such as Spain and Italy have not. Typically it is these countries that more often have poor standards of animal welfare, and the welfare of farmed animals has historically been of low priority (Schmidt, 1995). When and how these countries will adopt the comprehensive EU animal transport regulations, continues to be an unanswered and politically sensitive question between EU member states.

The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania was approved in the Referendum on 25 October 1992. It consolidated the doctrine of constitutional review and its practical form – the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. The foundation of the Constitutional Court and its already developed practical activities stimulate to evaluate more thoroughly the place and role of this institution in the state's system of law. Such an aim is predetermined by an undoubtedly active work of the Constitutional Court in the process of the creation of Lithuanian law. The co-ordination of the inner relations in the organisation of the Lithuanian state is directly linked up with a dynamic development of law; however, while creating Lithuanian law one faces up with a lot of theoretical and practical problems. These processes determine some discrepancies of an objective and subjective character. One of them is the conformity of the laws and the norms of substatutory legal acts with the Constitution. The rulings of the Constitutional Court, evaluating the correspondence of legal norms with the Constitution, always cause legal social consequences. In the cases when a legal norm is recognised to be not in compliance with the Constitution, there appear real legal consequences - this legal norm becomes eliminated from a legal system, i.e., it can not be applied any more. In this and the other case, i.e. when legality of a legal norm is not negated, the arguments as well as motives of the ruling passed by the Constitutional Court may also be evaluated by the aspect of legal sources. Thus, it is obvious that the acts of the Constitutional Court – no matter how they might be estimated within the system of legal sources – are a real legal phenomenon, the more comprehensive scientific survey which will help to evaluate the problems of the creation of law in Lithuania in a broader legal panorama. According to the author's opinion, the most important and decisive role of the acts of the Constitutional Court is that they constantly underline the fundamental principle of the superiority of the Constitution. It is very important especially now when Lithuanian law is being formed. These acts are also important in the political process as they compose preconditions for avoiding more acute conflicts, and settling political disputes on the bases of the Constitution. Legal positions which are formed by the Constitutional Court in its rulings are often not new ones, they are known in comparative law. However, in one way or another, they are important especially now, when the formation of law often goes on spontaneously as well as contradictory. Here are some such legal positions: a law or a substatutory act can not be used retroactively; substatutory legal acts can not overstep the boundaries of the functioning of laws; in the system of legal norms there can not be such legal norms which would contradict or negate each other; the general aim of a law has to correspond to the content of norms of a law. These are only some legal positions which are also being examined in this article.

The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania was approved in the Referendum on 25 October 1992. It consolidated the doctrine of constitutional review and its practical form – the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. The foundation of the Constitutional Court and its already developed practical activities stimulate to evaluate more thoroughly the place and role of this institution in the state's system of law. Such an aim is predetermined by an undoubtedly active work of the Constitutional Court in the process of the creation of Lithuanian law. The co-ordination of the inner relations in the organisation of the Lithuanian state is directly linked up with a dynamic development of law; however, while creating Lithuanian law one faces up with a lot of theoretical and practical problems. These processes determine some discrepancies of an objective and subjective character. One of them is the conformity of the laws and the norms of substatutory legal acts with the Constitution. The rulings of the Constitutional Court, evaluating the correspondence of legal norms with the Constitution, always cause legal social consequences. In the cases when a legal norm is recognised to be not in compliance with the Constitution, there appear real legal consequences - this legal norm becomes eliminated from a legal system, i.e., it can not be applied any more. In this and the other case, i.e. when legality of a legal norm is not negated, the arguments as well as motives of the ruling passed by the Constitutional Court may also be evaluated by the aspect of legal sources. Thus, it is obvious that the acts of the Constitutional Court – no matter how they might be estimated within the system of legal sources – are a real legal phenomenon, the more comprehensive scientific survey which will help to evaluate the problems of the creation of law in Lithuania in a broader legal panorama. According to the author's opinion, the most important and decisive role of the acts of the Constitutional Court is that they constantly underline the fundamental principle of the superiority of the Constitution. It is very important especially now when Lithuanian law is being formed. These acts are also important in the political process as they compose preconditions for avoiding more acute conflicts, and settling political disputes on the bases of the Constitution. Legal positions which are formed by the Constitutional Court in its rulings are often not new ones, they are known in comparative law. However, in one way or another, they are important especially now, when the formation of law often goes on spontaneously as well as contradictory. Here are some such legal positions: a law or a substatutory act can not be used retroactively; substatutory legal acts can not overstep the boundaries of the functioning of laws; in the system of legal norms there can not be such legal norms which would contradict or negate each other; the general aim of a law has to correspond to the content of norms of a law. These are only some legal positions which are also being examined in this article.

In this dissertation, the Swedish transport aid constitutes a case study with the aim of empirically testing the presence of institutional path dependency. In New Institutional Economics the concept institutional path dependency is used for analyzing why institutions that do not promote growth are developed even when better solutions are available. In this study, institutional path dependency is defined in the following way: institutional path dependency is when new institutional conditions develop in a way that maintains an economic and social practice within the sector of the economy that the institutional condition regulates. The transport aid was introduced in 1971 and is a part of Swedish regional policy. The transport aid is allocated to certain goods-producing companies in northern Sweden in order to subsidize their cost of transportation. The aim was that these companies would strengthen their ability to compete in markets in southern Sweden and abroad. In order to perform a test of the existence of path dependency, three criteria for path dependence were defined. The first of these criteria is that new institutional conditions arise with a maintained practice within the regulated sector. The second criterion for path dependency is that the institutional condition subsists when there are other alternatives which are better and well-known from the point of view of public economy. A third criterion for path dependency is that an institutional condition is given a new legitimacy when interest groups state new motives for it. The study has shown that a practice from the previous traffic policy has lived on in the institutional condition of the transport aid, through a continued subsidization of the cost of transportation similar to a historical tradition in early railway policy (for example in the Norrland tariff). A relatively large part of the transport aid has in practice been subsidizing transports of relatively unprocessed goods, which was a reason for the criticism that the transport aid received in previous studies. A practice from earlier traffic policy, which entailed leveled costs of transportation, has been difficult to combine in practice with goals from regional policy that have emphasized growth and industrial development. This indicates a path dependent development of the transport aid, since it's practice seems to be related to another "path" than main stream regional policy. Since the transport aid was continuously criticized in parliamentary reports and debates for conserving the economic structure in the support area and for distorting the competition on the transport market, there was probably a certain pressure to change the transport aid or replace it with other measures that were more neutral with regard to competition. This pressure of change was brought to a head in the parliamentary resolution from 1990, when the Government suggested radical changes in the design and organization of the transport aid. The Government bill was however rejected by Parliament, and the transport aid continued in the same form as before. Therefore, the transport aid has not followed changes in regional policy at large, neither with regard to organization nor formal goals, in spite of the fact that both the Government and the officials in the Transport Council (the administrative organization) have urged on an adjustment of the transport aid to fit the general direction of the regional policy at large. If the general direction of the regional policy in the 80s and 90s reflects a more growth oriented economic policy, then the transport aid has resisted institutional change, in spite of the fact that better and more well-known alternatives have existed with regard to promoting growth. The second criterion for institutional path dependency may therefore be considered fulfilled. Interest groups have on several occasions expanded the base for legitimacy of the transport aid by presenting new arguments to support it. One example of expanded legitimacy is that the transport aid was directed towards small and medium-sized companies in the 1980s. Such arguments were not presented when the transport aid was introduced in 1970, but was later emphasized by members of the Center Party and the Social Democratic Party. An interesting aspect of this institutional change is that the new motives also were characterized by ideological preferences for equality, since the transport aid with the help of this change would be able to support small firms in their competition with large firms in the same sector. This supports the assertion that the legitimacy of the transport aid has been derived from informal ideological preferences for equality rather than ideological preferences for growth, though the formal goals for the transport aid have been growth related. The conclusion is consequently that interest groups over time have managed to establish a stronger ideological legitimacy for the transport aid. All three criteria for institutional path dependency can therefore be considered fulfilled in the case of the transport aid. ; digitalisering@umu