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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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During the 19th and 20th centuries, European countries based their language policies on the principle lingua instrumentum regni (“language is the instrument of political control”), born with the French Revolution. As a direct consequence, the numerous local languages and dialects spoken in Europe have considerably lost ground in favour of national languages. However, in the last few decades the approach to linguistic diversity has changed contextually to the strengthening of the globalised dimension of society, so that nowadays states recognise regional and minority languages in addition to the national ones. But dialects are not legally recognised nor are regarded as languages. I deal with the Cremonese dialect, analyse briefly linguistic studies and literature, and conclude by advancing a proposal for its safeguard. As any other idiom, Cremonese dialect should be preserved for reasons of linguistic rights and cultural diversity.
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A lot of medicinal products currently administered to the paediatric population have not been specifically studied or authorized for their use. This leads to problems such as, for example, increase in adverse (and sometimes lethal) reactions risks. EC Regulation 1901/2006 on Medicinal Products for Paediatric Use (the Paediatric Regulation) was approved in response to the need to have medicinal products properly adapted for the paediatric population. A system of incentives set out by the Paediatric Regulation is focused on the promotion and development of paediatric research as its purpose is to generate data on the safety and efficacy of medicinal products for paediatric use. This article analyses international, EU, and Lithuanian legal acts, judicial practice and the doctrine of law in order to assess whether Lithuanian regulations of giving the informed consent to participate in clinical trials provide sufficient protection of rights and interests of minors and does not place unfounded obstacles to the stimulation of development of paediatric medicinal products. The first part of the article explains legal concepts of minor, child in the context of biomedical research and fundamentals of the representation of a minor by parents or legal guardians in giving the informed consent to participate in research. The author of the article analyses the legal notion “separated parents” and gives two recommendations: identified problems could be solved by regulation providing the right to parents to give each other power of attorney for the custody of the child that expressly states that consent to participate in trial is given; the law could also provide an exception to the joint decision-making of both parents when on the basis of objective reason, delay in reaching the decision may cause harm to the child. The third part of the article emphasises problems of the legal requirement to obtain the consent of children’s rights protection agencies. The article concludes that this requirement does not provide any additional protection of minors’ interests and contradicts EU law. Therefore, this requirement is inapplicable in cases where parents are giving the consent for paediatric research. The article also explores the peculiarities of regulation of minors’ assent to participate in research in Lithuania. This analysis shows that in the case of consenting to biomedical research, a minor over sixteen years old must always consent to participate in a clinical trial (additionally, apart from the parents or guardians). The legal regulation should impose fixed age or competence (i.e. capability to form an opinion and assess the information that was given) criteria for minors under sixteen assent. The right to determine the minor’s age of assent or competence criteria, which are needed for a particular clinical trial, can be left for the determination of ethics committees.
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Processes of globalization rapidly reduce the boundaries between traditional science fields and thus create new challenges for the creators of these sciences i.e. contemporary humans. Despite the unprecedented degree of globalization during the last century, this process is not new. Therefore, the constant need for rethinking of cultural and historical heritage emerges. This article explores the period from the end of the 19th c. to the beginning of the 20th c., when professional philosophy was not developed for objective reasons, but intellectuals of different views (both Catholic and secular) sought to reflect on contemporary processes. Even though at the end of 19th century the most relevant issues were those of nationality , the problems of culture and questions on interaction between different fields of culture were also discussed at that time. The article discusses the question of what kind of culture and science should exist to develop a mature and balanced personality. This question is discussed from a historical perspective. Three different prevailing world outlooks can be distinguished during the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Materialists (positivists, socialists) denied all spiritual science as minor, if not useless or even harmful, As the only goal, i.e. to solve contemporary (social) problems, for science was set, then only sciences which provide accurate and useful knowledge are needed. Therefore, the importance of the humanities or other fields approaching spiritual culture is rejected. The clergy denied such a single sided view of culture. For them not only a material and, thus, scientific interpretation of the world was not acceptable, but also was a single sided idealistic reasoning of culture held by supporters of the romantic views. While holding neo-Thomistic views and often combining them with the ideas of V. Solovyov, the clergy had no doubt about the possibility of holistic understanding of the world which could unfold the versatility of the being. However, such comprehensiveness is not an end in itself, it is indispensable for creation of a balanced, moral human. The final goals of positivists, Marxists and neo-Thomists became paradoxically similar: culture, according to neo-Thomists and science, according to positivists, must lead to the ideal state of humanity. In fact, the clergy speaks of a balanced individual and positivists and Marxists speak of anonymous, unified humanity united by common scientific or social ideals. Consequently, the question emerges whether by reducing the limits between regions, cultures and thus by merging entirely different areas we could maintain the diversity. In this case the Romanticists, who emphasize the originality and uniqueness referring to language as the main source of culture, are exceptional. Also the neo-Thomists, who sought for synthesis of all fields of culture, noticed the distinctions of these fields which could not be eliminated.
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The aim of this article, firstly, is to analyse the scope of the right to be taught in a minority language under the regulation of international law and, secondly, to discuss the interaction between international and national laws, to evaluate Lithuanian national legislation concerning the establishment and enjoyment of this right. No legal documents of global application ensure the right to be taught in a minority language. Despite this fact, the legal documents of global application establish the right to education (Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 5 of the Convention against Discrimination in Education, Article 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child). The right to education forms the background of the right to be taught in a minority language as a progressively realized right. The European regional human rights system, apart from establishing the general basis of the right to be taught in a minority language (Article 2 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms), directly ensures the right to be taught in a minority language (Article 14 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities). It is worth emphasizing that the enjoyment of the right to be taught in a minority language depends on certain conditions: 1) the state’s area traditionally or substantially inhabited by persons belonging to national minorities; 2) a sufficient demand of teaching in a minority language. Neither of these conditions are defined in the Convention. The Advisory Committee also does not define the above-mentioned terms: the Committee evaluates the practise of the particular state and individually qualifies whether the particular state’s practise conforms to the Convention provisions. The enjoyment of the right to be taught in a minority language should not become a tool promoting disjuncture of national minorities. Following the above-mentioned notions, the national legislation of the Republic of Lithuania is analysed in this article.
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The article states the current crisis in philosophy and provides a thorough examination of its causes and prospective outcomes. It is argued that the crisis of philosophy is most clearly identified in: 1) dissolution of philosophy on a social and sociological tier, 2) negation of philosophical problems in the hermeneutical text analysis tradition, 3) the specialization process of extreme philosophy. The first moment of crisis the author highlights in reading T. Pinkard’s texts. In these texts philosophy is reduced to sociology through a certain interpretation of Hegel’s Phenomenology of the Spirit, where I consciousness is considered on a purely social level. The author shows that this interpretation is contrary to the essence of Hegel’s philosophy because, according to Hegel, interpersonal encounter, considered at the famous master / slave dialectic, determining I consciousness, is not of a social nature. It must be understood primarily as a historical expression of the absolute Spirit, found through metaphysical thinking. The second crisis moment philosophy, is encountered while reading of M. Nussbaum’s works, in a certain literary text reading manner, the real scope of philosophical problems - the authentic concept of transcendence - is narrowed to the shallow perception of transcendence, missing the opportunities for philosophy in the very literary texts. The author of this article sees the philosophical perspectives of interpretation, which literary hermeneutics is unable to discern and as a result reduces the philosophical concept, in the works of such authors as Ovid, H. James M. Proust, quoted by M. Nussbaum. The third moment of philosophy crisis is diagnosed in the context of the current position of sciences dominated by the extreme specialization. The philosophers’ reflections are understandable only to a narrow circle of specialists. It is a sign that such philosophy has generally lost communication with the human reality, and, therefore, is inauthentic philosophy. As a way of exit from the crisis of philosophy the author suggests learning about the spiritual reality that be exercised via two concepts: gentleness and simplicity. A deep understanding of these concepts in the metaphysical sense opens an authentic philosophizing field. To illustrate this manner of philosophizing, the author draws on numerous examples, with the major focus on French philosophers Pierre Hadot and Louis Lavelle. Gentle and simple assessment of reality, creates a special relationship field between people and between thinkers, which celebrates growth of the authentic philosophy.
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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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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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