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This paper criticizes the realistic approach to international relations. Due to the essence of the main categories of realism (such as state, sovereignty, nation), the realism paradigm is presented as non-optimal and defective, and it is explained by interpretation of the social contract. Following the latter interpretation, the social contract does not eliminate anarchy completely and anarchy can still appear at the international level. Because of the globalization processes, the world has grown tiny and the states are closely interrelated, this means that in the 21st century for an individual international anarchy is as dangerous as anarchy on the state level. For this reason the national state becomes a source of insecurity for the individual and, therefore, the transformation of the state becomes a necessity. This paper supports the statement that the international order should be organized by creating global and unified governance. The European Union has introduced a most impressive integration project, which has the potential to establish a political unity not only in Europe, but also in the whole world. Since a sudden transition from one status (national state system) to another (supranational global governance) is hardly possible and the consequences are unpredictable, a gradual transition is recommended and it is more in favour by the EU. In other words, the EU integration process is a strategy aimed at “destruction” of the national state, which seeks full compliance with the terms of the social contract and the complete elimination of the anarchy. This strategy might be a new task or function of Europe.
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This article analyses the problems of defining the concept of domestic violence in Lithuania from the perspective of international law, focusing on the problem of delimitation of domestic violence and gender-based violence against women. The article provides an analysis of the concept of domestic violence under international legal documents (UN and CoE Conventions), and in relevant Case Law and the Lithuanian national legislation: i.e. the recently adopted Law on Protection Against Domestic Violence, which entered into force on 15 December 2011. The paper provides an assessment of the national law in consideration of international law. The author considers whether the law could and should be completely gender-neutral (the model chosen now in Lithuania). In addition, the need to consider the perpetrator’s rights (property interests, presumption of innocence, and victim’s opposition to criminal sanction) is analysed in the context of the relevant international human rights cases.
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The article discusses the fundamental aspects of the technological neutrality principle application in explaining the signs of the offences against the security of electronic data and information systems. It also analyses if the legal regulation of being neutral to technologies conforms to the especially important principles of legality and legal certainty in Criminal Law. In the sphere of regulation of information and communication technologies, this principle ensures equivalent evaluation of technologies as it forbids giving to any one of them priority over the other. As a result, it helps to avoid restrictions on law application, which arise due to the usage of specific terms related to technologies. If choosing the criminal legal regulation as one of the possible control measures of dangerous acts in cyberspace, this principle becomes relevant when explaining the signs of the offences against the security of electronic data and information systems. According to the conclusion drawn in the article, the idea of legal regulation being neutral to technologies, which may seem advanced at first sight, in the context of Criminal Law could become open to criticism due to non-conformity of such regulation to the principles of legality and legal certainty. Although the principle of technological neutrality is considered to be an effective instrument when coordinating rapid development of information and communication technologies with the set legal regulation, it cannot guarantee fulfilment of the completeness, accuracy and clarity requirements for legal definition of the criminal act. In the process of resolving the above-mentioned problems, considerable attention is paid not only to the importance of appropriate concepts but also to case law (court practice). According to the author of the article, the decision to admit or disclaim having committed the criminal act in the case law could be motivated by the criteria of criminalisation (decriminalisation) and the principles of Criminal Law ensuring appropriate application of Criminal Law.
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The author of the article analyses the restoration and development of Soviet courts in Lithuania from the beginning of the reoccupation in 1944, till 1956, when the cult of Stalin’s person was officially condemned by the Communist party. The author discusses the formation of the Soviet court system and the changes to this system after World War 2, the staff of the Soviet judiciary body from 1944 till the first judge elections in 1949 and the legitimization of Soviet courts in subsequent elections in 1951 and 1954. The article also reveals the peculiarities of judicial body formed in 1944–1956, revealing the lack of judges and the reasons for this situation, showing the process of political and legal training of judges. Before the first court elections in 1949, the Soviet court system was established in the absence of societal participation. Officially the formation of the peoples’ courts was delegated to the local authorities and the formation of the Supreme Court—to the Supreme Council of the LSSR. However, de facto, the body of Soviet judiciary in 1944–1949 was formed not by the local authorities or the Supreme Council of the LSSR, but by the Ministry of Justice, which, after selecting candidates, coordinated the candidates with the Communist Party’s Staff department and only after that submitted candidates to the local authorities or to the Supreme Council of the LSSR for approval. The new order of the elections of the peoples’ courts, adopted in 1948, did not change basically the former elections practice. After the elections in 1949, 1951 and 1954 the massive and unanimous participation of society was stated, but in reality neither positive, nor negative voting results had an impact on the court formation. Forming the body of Soviet judges during the first years of the reoccupation was challenging, because of the low number of reliable judges which was attempted to reduce by political and legal training in legal classes and in special institutions of legal education. But the demand of legally educated and politically reliable judges was much higher than was possible to prepare in short time, therefore, in 1944–1956 randomly selected individuals of questionable reputation sometimes became judges, by whom not only the Soviet judiciary system, but the Communist regime as a whole, could be discredited. Therefore, in 1946 the Communist Party implemented the Decree which reformed legal and political education of judiciary officers. After this initiative, the training of legal officers and the results of political and legal education started slowly to improve.
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This article analyses the concept of advertising and the theoretical aspect of advertising strategy. Advertising can be defined as various means of dissemination of information on goods and services, promoting their use to potential users impersonally. Advertising strategies for selecting the location of a typical advertising plan diagram can be defined as decisions related to the target audience coverage, creative advertising message strategy selection and dissemination of the advertising strategy selection tools. A promotional campaign makes use of advertising funds that concentrate more skilled professionals to produce and implement advertising. An advertising campaign has flexibility. Also, due to the high level of ambition advertising reaches a wider consumer and user layers. Advertising is also an integral part of the market, it creates new jobs, increases income and reveals the positive characteristics of the products. The research survey in Vilnius College and V.A. Graičiūnas School of Management showed that a banner does not create a significant impact on students’ decision to study. College advertising caused interest and indifference at most. Advertising on television and in the press must be improved. Most college websites need to be improved in areas such as the amount of information, web usability, and range of services. In order to evaluate the advertising such criteria was established as advertising frequency, advertising originality, the attractiveness of study programs, the information in advertising, promotional text expressiveness, degree programs in advertising images, advertising degree programs highlighting the novelty and discounts. Advertising is most attractive in the social science college. The study showed that college marketing professionals need to work on improving their marketing plan, promotional messages, and college websites.
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The main purpose of the article is to analyse various kinds of economic activities which, because of some specific features named in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter—the CC), are equated to criminal offences and also the status of the revenue of these activities. The analysis of both the norms of the CC and the practice of the Lithuanian courts (mainly—Lithuanian Supreme Court) showed that in order to decide what (if any) sanctions should be applied in a particular situation it is not enough to decide whether the economic activity in question was legal or not. It is especially important to find out which aspect of the person’s activity turns it into a criminal act in cases where confiscation of property or other measures related to recovery of assets and alleged illicit enrichment are considered. The author of the article suggests the classification of criminalized economic activities, based on the specific features of every kind of such activity which is the divide point between a legal business and a criminal act. All economic activities that are considered to be the latter can be divided into four groups: a prohibited activity, such as trafficking in human beings, purchase or sale of a child, drug trafficking, etc. (Articles 147, 157, 260 of the CC accordingly); a non-forbidden activity carried out by a natural or legal person having no right to take on such a business, e.g. illegal trade in alcohol and tobacco products carried out by a natural person (Articles 202 section 1 and 200 of the CC accordingly); an economic activity, which is permitted as such, but unlicensed, undeclared or carried out with other major infringements in a particular case, e.g. unauthorized exploitation of natural resources, unlicensed provision of medical services or unlicensed production of beverages carried out by a legal person (Article 202 section 1 of the CC); violations of the requirement of accountability and tax paying of a legal business (Articles 219–223 of the CC). This classification of criminal offences in the field of economic activities is useful in deciding which part of the person’s revenues and property should be assumed to be proceeds of crime and confiscated, also what other economic sanctions should be applied.
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The paper deals with the analysis of the relation between processes of cultural globalization, dissolution of language boundaries and completion of the language field with vibrations in the scale of hierarchy of a system of values in the national language image of the world. The study of transformation of the bases of the national cultural codes, attitudes towards the national cultural traditions and processes of development of the living modern language (changes in frequency of usage of a series of lexical units, completion of the language field, paths and speeds of penetration of new lexical units) is offered as one of the methods of the investigation of the specificity of national processes of accelerated cultural adaptation.
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In 2000 the Law on Lobbying Activities was adopted in Lithuania and in 2003 it was amended. The country institutionalised a certain model of the lobbying institute, which is distinguished by the system of permission of lawful forms of lobbyism and, by contrast, prohibition of shadow lobbying appearances and sanctions for violations, mandatory registration of lobbyists, their strict control, liability and reporting. Such tradition of interaction of interest groups with government institutions is typical to the USA and some other countries, including several post-Communist nations. However, the analysis shows that lobbying legalised itself in Lithuania according to the procedure laid down by the Law only in insignificant volume; a small group of registered lobbyists pursue it—their number differs, but seldom exceeds twenty natural and legal persons who do not play any more noticeable role in influencing political decisions. Lithuanian lobbying has serious issues, for example, bad public opinion, etc., however, the essential obstacle has become the fact that non-governmental organisations, representing civil business interests, failed to integrate into the system laid down by the Law. Their lobbying on behalf of their members remained unregulated and uncontrolled. Eventually, an alternative attitude to lobbying regulation was settled. This is the model of lobbying activities poorly restricted by legal norms, when high publicity and transparency standards, ensured by internal rules, codes of ethics and analogous instruments of government institutions are applicable to the actions of lobbyists. Influential associated interest groups actively speak against the attempts, covered by the necessity of lobbying regulations, to restrict the initiatives of civil society, related to the objective to influence legislation. Lithuania failed to establish the explicitly and strictly legally regulated lobbying of the Anglo-Saxon type, though the Law on Lobbying is officially still in force. In this area our country should take the road chosen by the absolute majority of democratic countries and refuse altogether lobbying regulating lobbying under a special legal act.
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This paper aims to find an answer to the questions of what principles of electoral law are entrenched in the Constitution of 1992; what is their content and importance. In the Constitution expressis verbis are entrenched four principles of Parliamentary, Presidential and Municipal elections: universal, equal, direct suffrage and secret ballot. The Constitutional Court has exclusive powers to construe the Constitution officially and to provide the official concept of the provisions of the Constitution, so in order to find an answer to the above mentioned questions it is necessary to analyse not only the text of the Constitution itself, but also the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court. The jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court reveals that not only the above-mentioned four principles, but also other principles of electoral law, inter alia the constitutional principle of free and democratic elections, the principle of publicity, the principle of honest competition in elections, the principle of transparency of the election process are entrenched in the Constitution. There is no finite list of the principles of electoral law. The analysis of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court shows that the main principles, whose content was best revealed, are universal, equal, direct, free suffrage and secret ballot. The content of the principles of electoral law are revealed in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court case by case. In every case the Constitutional Court reveals as much of the content of the particular principle as is necessary for the fair resolution of the case. The constitutional principles of electoral law are applicable not only in the elections of national representative political institutions, but also in the elections of the European Parliament which is the representative political institution of the European Union. The constitutional principles of electoral law are important for the implementation of both active and passive electoral rights. These principles are the criterions on the grounds of which the democracy of the elections and the validity of the results of the election, are assessed and they are the criterions for assessment whether the representative political institutions are instituted properly, whether the constitutional rights to vote and to stand for election are not violated.
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The Military Academy of Lithuania is one of the youngest higher educational establishments where professional military studies are combined with academic ones. The aim of the article is to analyse the process of the creation of a new type of collective identity, observing the main factors and peculiarities of the process. The attention is focused on value orientations of the military and their influence on organizational identity of the Academy. The Armed Forces, as an organization, has experienced a lot of transformations in its structure and mission. Despite this, the identity of the military has been formed, in essence, on a masculine background. Considering the peculiarities of the aim and composition, the collective identity of the military has been created on the basis of specific values, such as duty, responsibility, discipline, courage, loyalty, power, etc. The academic identity has been set up on the basis of its different social roles, presuming other priorities in the system of values: i. e. respect, tolerance, truth, justice, freedom, creativity and critical thinking. Thus, framing of the united identity of the Academy is a complex and dissonant process. Postmodern societies face global political transformations and new threats that have brought about new military missions and tasks of the present Armed Forces, introducing changes into their structure with the aim of forming professional military troops that are ready to participate in different international military operations. The paradigm of the postmodern military predetermines qualitative transformations in the system of values in shaping the new military identity. The new identity of the military should be based on universal human virtues that have brought about changes in the system of military education. The Military Academy of Lithuania was established when the issues of national identity and the purpose of national security policy became very important, as well as the issues of international cooperation and the creation of the civic society. The national identity and the identity of military started to be constructed on different social backgrounds: those of modern, late modern and postmodern societies. Moreover, the collective identity of the Military Academy of Lithuania is an interaction between both military and academic identities where the first is still the dominant one. A postmodern paradigm of the military presupposes the development of the traditional military identity on the basis of human values that will inevitably result in the increasing role of academic identity in this creative process.
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Contemporary Georgian Literature offers interesting interpretations of the terms “Caucasus” and “Caucasian,” but the discussion about this problem was started much earlier, in the beginning of 19th century, when the livening up of the ethnical concepts of “Caucasus” and “Caucasian” was witnessed in Georgian literature and public thinking. The historical shift of Georgia into the new epoch of colonialism, which can alternatively be called “The Epoch of Russian Colonialism”, caused the accentuation of the above mentioned concepts. Russia used the privilege of the orthodox country, confronted Georgians with non- Christian people of the Caucasus and deprived them from their political independence. The reaction of Georgians towards Russian colonialism was characterized by double standards, which were clearly reflected in Georgian literature of the period of Romanticism, first of all, in relation to the interpretation of the concepts “Caucasus” and “Caucasian.” The genuine goal of the colonial policy and their social strategies were pointed out clearly in the 1850–60s. The Georgians’ response to colonialism was modified and the previous ambivalent status was replaced by the radical confrontation: the main goal became the idea of the peaceful Caucasus on the condition of protection of national identities. The problem became rather different and more complicated in 20th century Georgian literature, when the relation towards the ethnical problem was newly established within the frame of Soviet ideology and offered the different, non-ethnical interpretation of the terms “Caucasus” and “Caucasian”: the national boarders were ignored and integrated within the model of Homo Sovieticus. Later, when the Soviet regime was destroyed, the terms “the Caucasus” and “Caucasian” caused the establishment of a new type of discourse, which determined the new interpretational standard of Georgian literature of the end of 20th century and the beginning of 21st century.
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The object of this work is legal regulation of fair squeeze-out and sell-out price in Lithuania. The author of this paper tries to answer the question that at first glance seems simple—what is a “fair” squeeze-out and sell-out price in Lithuania. More specifically, the author of this work seeks to identify which price is considered and should be considered as fair in squeeze-outs and sell-outs, to identify which methods and standards are employed to determine it and to evaluate whether such price is sufficient to safeguard the rights and legal interests of shareholders. The issue of “fair” squeeze-out and sell-out price determination is most troublesome in cases when the squeeze-out/sell-out price is not the price of preceding mandatory or successful voluntary tender offer. At the same time the squeeze-out/sell-out price equal to the price of preceding successful voluntary tender offer or mandatory tender offer is unlikely to raise troubles and is presumed to be “fair.” The author of this paper presents a discussion on standards of “fair” squeeze-out and sell-out price used by the Securities Commission of the Republic of Lithuania and judiciary as well as methods used to come up to the “fair” squeeze-out and sell-out price. The investigation showed that neither Lithuanian courts, nor the Securities Commission share the same understanding in regard to standards and methods that they have to employ in order to determine a price of squeeze-out and sell-out, which could be considered as “fair.” However, it is more or less clear that both the judiciary and the Securities Commission agree that determination of a “fair” squeeze-out and sell-out price should not be limited to a particular standard or method. Generally, the author of this paper finds that it is likely that a fair squeeze-out/sell-out price can be defined as the value of shares at the moment of squeeze-out/buy-out, which is defined according to one of the widely accepted methods and which is higher that the market prices of the shares under squeeze-out/sell-out. The author of this paper also suggests that the fair squeeze-out/sell-out price could also be defined as the intrinsic value of shares at the moment of squeeze-out/buy-out, i.e. a proportionate value in a going concern (a value of a target company), which on its own term is defined under discounted cash flow method.
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Young Philologist Academy (YPA) is a newly launched project initiated in 2011and developed by the staff of Foreign Languages Department, Institute of Humanities. The main aim of the project is to find an effective way to promote studies of the English Philology and Linguistics among final and penultimate year high school students, to foster their creativity and critical thinking abilities and to encourage cooperation between the University staff and students. The meetings of YPA lasted from November 2011 till June 2012, all of them tackling specific English language aspects or focussing on some issues of life in the UK. Five guest speakers and twenty two staff members at the Foreign Languages Department contributed to the project. Over 100 students from Vilnius, Alytus, Anykščiai, Utena, and surrounding areas registered their interest in the project at the initial phase; this rather big number signalling the expressed demand for such type of learning. Throughout the duration of the project, YPA students were asked to complete several questionnaires in order to assess their own linguistic abilities and the success of the project. The findings obtained from the analysis of these questionnaires could be of interest to both university and high school English teachers as they highlight some of the needs of the English learners that a successful English language course should address. Participants’ demographic data, self-assessment of their English language skills and their expectations from YPA are discussed. The validity of the research findings is backed by statistical processing of self-evaluation data using SPSS (Software Package for Social Sciences).
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Not enough attention within the field of social sciences is paid to the problem of authoritarianism. In spite of the fact that this theme has not been deeply analysed, some of the evidence allows us to think that an authoritarian way of mind is usual for the inhabitants of our country. In this article the features of the development of authoritarianism are studied from a multidisciplinary point of view, revealing its existence in the modern organization of Lithuanian labour. In this article the groups of factors which have the biggest influence on the existence of authoritarian relations (human factors, close environment and macro environment), performed research and studies of the 20th century, diagnostic tools are studied, the need for research on the development of authoritarianism within modern Lithuania is substantiated. Theoretical analysis performed in this article revealed differences and even discrepancies between different scientific theories, studies and researching strategies. Most of the scientists look for the reasons in personal features, behaviour, life experience. The other scientists concentrate on the culture of internal relations within organizations. Some of the scientists say that not only personal features influence personality, but also behaviour, the close environment, which means that most probably permanent mutual interaction between human and environmental factors takes place in this phenomenon. There is no unanimous opinion of what indicators should be chosen for the evaluation of this phenomenon. Their different compositions cause different results. Research experience shows that this phenomenon is influenced by many factors. Personal features cannot be separated from others factors which have influence on authoritarianism, such as the internal culture of organization, relations, etc., including macro factors which sometimes are even more important than personal features. That means that the union of these factors at an exact location and time gives different synergetic effects. It would be expedient to perform a study on intercultural authoritarian relations, which would allow testing of the universality and predictive interpretational power of traditional theories.
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Humanities as well as the other culture areas are facing multiple challenges caused by the processes of globalization, rapid development of the technologies of communication and other changes in social life. Traditional hierarchical links and distinctions between different fields of culture are fading. On the one hand, the lines between humanities and social sciences are getting thinner, similarly as between different genres and styles in arts. On the other hand, the cultures of different regions of the world, particularly those of the West and of the East, are drawing closer to each other; this enables emerging various types of intercultural dialogues. All this incites the scholars to seek for a new conceptual means to be applied for the productive interpretation of new realities as well as for rethinking and reinterpreting the assets of the traditional culture. The interdisciplinary approach and multiculturalism are the characteristic features of the contemporary humanities, they raise complicated methodological issues. Digital humanities, interdisciplinary approach, semiotic studies of multimodal representations of information, multimodal communication are all responses of the humanities to the challenges of the modern world and, yet, new challenges tothe humanities as well. The changes taking place in the humanities of nowadays are also strongly influenced by the widespread application of the electronic technologies of communication, which are competing with traditional communication of written texts. As a result many traditional views on art and culture in general, on the mission of art are changing. The areas of traditional aesthetic culture are interfered by virtual art, not accepting the principle of representation, peculiar to the classical concept of artistic creation. Under the influence of the postmodern philosophy the classical hierarchical structure of culture is disappearing as well as is the difference between the elite and popular culture. At the same time the new perspectives and forms of artistic creation appear. The humanities are facing the complicate tasks to reflect adequately the coming processes, to think over the new problems, to develop the interdisciplinary research.
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Is the "Chechenization" of Chechnya truly good for Chechnya and for Russia?
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An interview with Tanja Miscevic, the head of the Serbian government Office for European Integration.
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Bosnians are thinking about the legacy of the Dayton peace accords and where to go next.
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