summary of ALL Law and politics readings, and lecture notes
Law and Politics UvA Hage et al. Book notes
Summary reading week 2 environmental law
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Global Sustainability Science
Environmental law (GEO22424)
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Contents
1. Sources of law.....................................................................................................................................3
1.1 What is law?.................................................................................................................................3
3. Basic concepts of law..........................................................................................................................4
3.1 Field of law...................................................................................................................................4
3.1.1 Public law and private law.....................................................................................................4
3.1.2 Substantive and procedural law.............................................................................................5
3.1.3 "Functional" fields of law.......................................................................................................5
3.2 Legal subjects................................................................................................................................6
3.3 Rules, operative facts, and legal consequences............................................................................6
3.4 Juridical acts.................................................................................................................................7
3.5 Duties, prohibitions and permissions............................................................................................9
3.5.1 duties and prohibitions..........................................................................................................9
3.5.2 permissions..........................................................................................................................10
8. Constitutional law.............................................................................................................................11
8.1 introduction................................................................................................................................11
8.1.1 Sources of constitutional law...............................................................................................12
8.1.2 three themes........................................................................................................................13
8.2 State power established.............................................................................................................13
8.2.1 Statehood............................................................................................................................13
8.2.2 Sovereignty..........................................................................................................................14
8.2.3 Nation States.......................................................................................................................15
8.3 State Power Constrained............................................................................................................16
8.3.1 Territorial division of State Power........................................................................................17
8.3.2 Functional Division of State Power.......................................................................................19
8.3.3 Independent Courts..............................................................................................................19
3.3.4 Parliaments and governments.............................................................................................20
8.3.5 Checks and balances............................................................................................................20
8.3.6 the rule of law......................................................................................................................21
8.3.7 Fundamental rights..............................................................................................................22
3.4 State power democratized..........................................................................................................22
8.4.1. Direct and indirect democracies..........................................................................................23
4.2 Election systems.........................................................................................................................24
9. Administrative Law...........................................................................................................................26
9.1 What Is Administrative Law........................................................................................................26
, 9.1.1 From Police State to Welfare State......................................................................................26
9.1.1 Multilayer Governance.........................................................................................................26
9.1.3 Various Instruments and Power to Protect the General Interest..........................................26
9.1.4 The administration within the Trias Politica.........................................................................27
9.1.5 Questions.............................................................................................................................27
9.2 Public Powers: rule of law and legality principle.........................................................................27
9.3 Procedural rules and substantive requirements for the use of public power : the general
principles of administrative law........................................................................................................28
9.3.1 Rationale of the general principles: preventing abuse of discretionary power....................28
9.3.2 which are the most important general principles of administrative law?............................29
9.4 Judicial review of administrative action......................................................................................30
9.4.1 The power of the judiciary to review administrative acts.....................................................31
9.4.2 The function of administrative justice..................................................................................31
9.5 Organization of Judicial Review in administrative dispute..........................................................32
9.6 Standing......................................................................................................................................33
9.7 remedies.....................................................................................................................................33
9.8 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................34
Environmental decision making of local governments.........................................................................35
Abstract............................................................................................................................................35
Introduction......................................................................................................................................35
The varied history and structure of local governments....................................................................36
Environmental decision making of local governments.....................................................................36
Limitations of local government.......................................................................................................37
Conclusion........................................................................................................................................37
,Hage et al. (2017)
1. Sources of law
1.1 What is law?
Question: why is the need of characterizing the nature of law not easily satisfied?
Conclusion: the nature of law is multifaceted and has been in flux over centuries. It
changes at high speed, making it impossible to give a short definition of law
Question: what are characteristics of law?
Conclusion:
Rules
Collective enforcement
Positive law
Legal certainty
Evidence: The majority of legal phenomena share most of these characteristics, but not
all legal phenomena share all of them.
Question: why are rules a characteristic of law?
Conclusion: rules specify how people should behave, contain definitions of terms, create
competencies, and much more.
Evidence:
Example of rule that gives a definition of a term = Article 1 of the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which
defines racial discrimination
Example of rule that creates a competency = Article 37, Section 1 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides a competency for
the Secretary- General of the United Nations
Society is not only governed by legal rules, but also other types of rules such as
rules that belong to:
o A religion
o Etiquette
o Special organisations such as student associations
Question: what are two differences between legal and non-legal rules?
Conclusion: legal rules are enforced by collective means, while other rules typically are
not + sanctions of non-legal rules are less specific
Evidence: someone who has committed a crime and broken a legal rule is liable to be
punished by State organs such as the police and the prosecution service. However, from
a moral point of view it is wrong to lie. While liars may be liable to informal and private
sanctions such as reproach and avoidance, they will seldom be sanctioned by collective
means
Question: why is collective enforcement a characteristic of law?
Conclusion: legal rules are enforced by collective means (in particular by organs of the
State) and have very specific sanctions (e.g. incarceration, fines, compensation of
damage, etc.)
Question: why is positive law a characteristic of law?
, Conclusion: positive law = laws explicitly created by means of legislation or judicial
decisions
Evidence: positive -> positus (Latin) -> laid down
Question: why can the obviousness of positive law be questioned?
Conclusion: The idea that law is explicitly created seems so obvious that the expression
«positive law» has almost become synonymous with «the law that is valid here and
now». However, the increasing importance of non-State rules is a reason to question
this obviousness.
Question: why is legal certainty a characteristic of law?
Conclusion: it is often possible to establish the contents of the law beyond a reasonable
doubt: positive law offers legal certainty. Therefore, it is usually unnecessary to invoke
an authority such as a judge to settle a legal dispute. The parties can predict what the
judge’s decision would be, and in that way save both them and society at large, time and
money
Evidence: It is often easy to establish the contents of positive law. The rules only need to
be looked up in legislation or in judicial decisions.
Question: what are the three aspects of legal certainty?
Conclusion:
1. Certainty about the content of law
2. Certainty that the law will be enforced
3. Certainty that the law will be applied consistently
Evidence:
1. If the issue at stake is not what the positive law is, but rather what is «really»
right, it may be much harder to reach an agreement. Therefore, law often prefers
the certainty of a clear result over the uncertainty of the «best» solution for a
problem.
2. The provision of collective support for the enforcement of legal duties
3. Similar cases are treated in a similar fashion or – in other words – that the law
will be applied consistently
3. Basic concepts of law
3.1 Field of law
3.1.1 Public law and private law
Question: what is the difference between public law and private law?
Conclusion:
Public law Private law
Role of the Public law is that part of the law in Private law I that part of the law in
government which government as such plays a which the government as such
role does not play a role
Characterized Government, as such, plays a Deals with mutual relations
by central role between citizens
Branches Criminal law Property law
Constitutional law (organizes Contract law
the State and the government, Tort law (compensation for
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