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Cities have been researched mostly in terms of its economic, technological, and social value and significance. Despite some changes in this respect, there is still a need to research cities as a fascinating phenomenon, also in respect of its capabilities to increase human security on a local and global scale. In this context, the article examines the new paradigm of urban development within the human security, namely the right to the city. The author indicates to the growing role of cities for human security and to mutual relations between the right to the city and the concept of human security. The subject matter is indeed as fascinating as fascinating are cities themselves. They are dynamic, energetic, innovative and constantly evolving. The general thesis of the article is that cities adopting the adequate model of urban development such as the one envisioned in the right to the city may and do greatly contribute to human security.
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We consider the concept and attributes of the functions of a legal system and analyze their peculiarities. Great attention is paid to the integrative function of a legal system, regarded as the most important one since it ensures integrity of both legal system and society in general. We study regulatory and protective functions peculiar to both law and a legal system, as well as the function of legal socialization, the function of value orientation, and the information function of a legal system. We believe that an individual function of law may be included in the content of various functions of a legal system. The functions of a legal system and the functions of law depend on the peculiarities of legal family.
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In this article, we present a review of the modern discussion about the role of the Internet in politics. We analyze the main research approaches to considering the influence of the Internet on politics, and specify problems faced by states when implementing Internet technologies in governance. We also pay attention to the dispute over the impact of the Internet on modern democracy. We justify the assumption that the Internet will have a significant impact on the political system of society.
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This article concerns voluntary abstention from vote among citizens, which has become a palpitating problem in many states around the globe. An analysis of the subjective and objective reasons for absenteeism and its possible consequences for the political system of a state is presented. A differentiation between haphazard and protest absentees is provided. The particular characteristics of absenteeism in modern Russia and the grounds for the low interest of Russian citizens in politics are studied. A conclusion is made that self-alienation has a decisive impact on the level of political activity in the Russian Federation.
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This article presents and analyses the postconflict peacebuilding actions in Kosovo. It aims to bring a picture of external and internal actors involved in such a process from the end of the conflict up to date. The article challenges peace process in Kosovo through the issues emerging in the Society due to the unsettled status enduring as of Security Council Resolution 1244. It is structured into three sections. The first section analyses the postconflict peacebuilding and statebuilding actions undertaken by external and internal actors right after the conflict. The second section deals with the issue of transitional justice as a key element on peacebuilding and how it was addressed. Whereas the third section analyses the current situation of the population with the issues inherited from the conflict and others emerged due to undefined actions of external and internal actors.
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China’s recent history of family planning restrictions is well known. An increasing amount of attention has been paid to the role of abortion in both national and local policy implementation as well as individual-level decision-making. In this paper, we explore the recent history of abortion within the Chinese family planning policies within a broad bioethics framework. In particular, we explore themes of rational persuasion, coercion and manipulation at the various levels of implementation.
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When research gives voice to groups or people who are considered “deviant” this can lead to the charge that research is biased. In this paper, I will discuss the issue of bias in relation to my own work on the PKK. I will argue that the accusation of bias is related to a hierarchy of voices, in which some voices are considered more credible than others. I will furthermore argue that when we want to understand how particular actors make sense of themselves, their being in the world, and their interaction with others, then clearly, there is no other option but to observe their perspective.
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Dynamic social processes of the beginning of the 3rd millennium are linked with a myriad of fundamental changes in the behavior of human entities. The concept of linear causal perception of social relations is not considered to be sufficient any more. The need for complexity in the perception of evolutionary intricacy of current processes is associated with the need to understand the functional interdependence of autonomous and heterogeneous aspects of sociopolitical values. By recognizing layering of autonomous processes in time-space levels we are approaching the concept of fractal organization of society.
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The paper considers the main problems of state-private partnership agreements and public-private partnership agreements as civil law contracts, as well as their inherent characteristics distinguishing them from other civil law contracts. The legal nature of partnership agreements, their material terms, as well as the main rights and obligations of the parties are revealed. The relevance of this research is determined by the fact that the Federal Law no. 224-FL “On sate-private partnership, public-private partnership in the Russian Federation and amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation” of July 13, 2015 entered into force on January 1, 2016. This federal law aims to create a legal environment for attraction of investment in the economy of the Russian Federation and increasing the quality of goods, works, and services, the availability of which is ensured by the state and local public authorities. The federal law determines the main principles of legal regulation of relations arising from formulation of the project of state-private and public-private partnership, as well as conclusion, execution, and termination of state-private and public-private partnership agreements, including the corresponding competences of state and local public authorities, establishes the security of rights and legal interests of the parties of state-private and public-private partnership agreements. Based on the results of the study, the conclusion is made that state-private and public-private partnership agreements are complex in nature. They can be regarded as mixed contracts that sometimes contain claims from unidentified sources.
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The Russian civil law and practice have undergone major changes aimed at improving the legal normalization of relations and the modernization of private legal practice in the spirit of the disposition method of regulation. The legal approach, according to which any rule that defines the rights and obligations of the parties to the contract should be interpreted by the court on the basis of its spirit and legislative regulation purposes, is conceptual for interpretation of the rules. It eliminates formalism in the law enforcement practice. To illustrate the essence of this approach, the authors refer to the analysis of the provisions of Article 452 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (the Civil Code), which allows to find out what kind of sense is put by the legislator in the requirement for pretrial settlement of the dispute on change (termination) of the contract, which turns out to be a mandatory step for bringing the case to court consideration. On the basis of interpretation and study of the judicial practice, attention is drawn to the fact that the provisions of Article 452 of the Civil Code should not be understood purely formally and are designed solely for the court to unsure that attempts to pretrial resolution of a legal conflict were made and are exhausted. This approach to interpretation of the provisions of Article 452 of the Civil Code is consistent with the objectives of legal regulation and does not create unnecessary obstacles to implementation of the rights of the bona fide participants of civil relations.
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The paper analyzes the procedural activity performed by the court of law within the stage of initiation of civil or administrative cases. As noted, it is impossible to reveal all grounds for rejecting adoption of the statement of claim or its return at the stage of case initiation. These grounds are as follows: final court decision on an identical claim; singing of the statement of claim by a person, who is not authorized to do so; sufficient mental capacity of the applicant. The fact of signature of the statement of claim by the applicant or authorized person can be found out only during the court session, which is not assumed by the stage of initiation of case proceedings. Furthermore, it is impossible to verify the final court decision which entered into force on an identical claim due to the absence of procedural mechanisms in the court for identification of these grounds. It is emphasized that the stage of case initiation should reflect the actual capacity of the court to verify the availability or absence of grounds for rejection or return of the statement of claim, which is the manifestation of the investigatory origin of court procedures at the stage of case initiation. At the same time, consideration of the issue on initiation of case proceedings and adoption of the relevant judgement in the absence of the person concerned, as well as revision of this judgement without notice of the persons involved in the case, violate to a certain degree the right of the claimant for judicial protection. The conclusion, therefore, is that the person concerned should be enabled to convey their position to the court, thereby implementing their right to be heard.
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The phenomenon of evaluating the work of art is often subordinated to the function of aesthetic experience and formed at the basis of personal judgment and ability to read the connotative content. Artistic intervention in the public urban space is achieved as a direct correlation and confrontation with political, social and cultural heritage.Explicit quotations of unavoidable avangard and Dadaist tendencies constructed a matrix to upgrade postmodern attitude artistic phenomena and socio-political confrontation of space, time and actions. Identification of the observer with the observed is the highest level of artificial experience and a prerequisite for acceptance, understanding, and memory usage information, artistic type. Conceptual occupation of public space is a result of the need for a direct relationship between the observers, their perception, interpretation and reaction to a work of art. Combination of mutually exclusive elements from different spheres: the sacred and profane, artificial and natural, modern and traditional, kitschy and aesthetic, is changing art scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina offering mostly authentic stories, local myths and reinterpretation of known conceptual methods.
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Christine Przybyła-Long is one of the 9 milion Americans of Polish ori¬gins living in the United States. Her descendatns came to Chicago during the mass migration from the turn of 20th century and she was born there in 1931. In her account Christine Przybyła-Long tells about her childhood and a life of a family belonging to the “Old Polonia”. She gives a lot of at-tention to the situation of Poles who migrated to the United States after WWII and to her own political involvement into Polish American affairs after 1990, that was crucial in the case of granting four thousand people american visas.
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This article explores the cross-disciplinary nexus between the fields of Human Services and Sociology at The George Washington University, USA. The authors discuss programmatic changes recently implemented in the curriculum of the Human Services Program in an effort to align it more closely with the disciplinary focus of Sociology while maintaining the Program’s distinctive strengths. Using engaged scholarship as its pedagogical cornerstone, the Human Services Program seeks to deepen the knowledge and skills of its undergraduate majors by linking service learning and community- based research. The authors reflect upon both the successes and challenges of this effort.
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The article discusses the considerations and the role of organizations of national and ethnic minorities in politics. According to the author’s political objectives organizationsare focused on broadening control over the terms of preserving their own identity by the group and widen opportunities for legal-institutional public activity.
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The referendum on United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union took place on June 23, 2016. With a turnout of 72.2%, 51.9% of those participating supported Brexit, while 48.1% voted against. The 2016 referendum was the second one on the British membership in the European project. The first one held in 1975 ended negatively for those supporting Brexit. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the British referendums of 1975 and of 2016, with a special focus on answering the question about the results of British votes and prospects of using the referendum in the process of deciding on matters of integration. An important task in this paper is to answer the question about the possible consequences of 2016 vote - both: for the United Kingdom and for the European Union.
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The author has concentrated on the idea of a socio-cultural regionalism, which is depicted in terms of historical-axiological reminiscences. He has emphasised the enormous cultural potential of this idea, which is not sufficiently used in the practice of local governments. He presented the approach of regionalism as an important value in the modern state, which forces the search for consensus and tolerance between people of different values living together in a pluralistic and democratic state, which is also a kind of community of values.
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Participatory democracy is one of the potential directions of development of the system of social organization. The search of opportunities to improve the current system results from the incompatibility of the present solutions to the times we live in. A significant impact on the devaluation of the system of representative democracy is the development of technology, which results in a faster flow of ideas (the Internet, elimination of barriers to communication). Thus, for several years now there have been made attempts to create different types of communication platforms on the axis citizens-the authority. Solutions of this type progressively enter the democratic practice. Therefore, most probably in the near future, there will dominate the expectation of varied platforms of public consultations, especially “public consultations on the Internet”. This will include all administrative levels – from the national (referenda via the Internet), ministerial level (specific consultations within ministries) to the local government.
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