This summary contains notes from all lectures the University of Amsterdam gave for the Law and Politics course (FY).
The description for this course is: This project lets political scientists experience the interaction between law and politics through ‘doing law’: fulfilling assignments in ...
● Law is an instrument of societal transformation
● We experienced its power in the pandemic years
● Our lives need legal certainty
● Are the rules clear enough? Consistently enforced?
● Will they be the same next month, next year?
What is law?
● (Clearly) defined rules governing duties, rights, competencies and definitions
● (Mostly) created by legislation or court judgement
● (Mostly) enforced by state organs
● Generating legal certainty about content, enforcement, consistent application
What this course will teach you
● Understanding how legal rules emerge and evolve
● Important legal principles underlying specific rules
● Ability to find out where rules relevant to a political issue can be found
● (Basic) ability to apply the rules to a case as a lawyer would: legal reasoning.
● Don’t be intimidated by laws and lawyers
● There is politics at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the law
Relation between laws and politics:
● Oversimplification 1 (naïve):
○ Law informs the thinking and regulates the behaviour of political actors
● Oversimplification 2 (cynical):
○ Law is made, changed, broken according to the needs of political actors
,
,Politics at the Beginning of Law
● Restricting/prohibiting abortion became a vote mobiliser for Republicans from
Reagen (1980) onwards
● But Reagen, Bush Sr., Bush Jr. all appointed judges reluctant to overturn precedent
● In 2016, 1 in 5 voters indicate Supreme Court appointment was their main
determinant on who to vote for - with 59% of those voting for Trump
The majority opinion in the U.S.A.:
● The amendment protects rights named in the Constitution and rights not explicit but
“deeply rooted in the Nation's history and tradition” and “essential to the Nation’s
scheme of ordered liberty”
● Right to abortion as part of liberty “not deeply rooted”: abortion was prohibited by law
in most states before Roe
● Nation’s “historical understanding of ordered liberty” does not prevent the people’s
elected representatives from deciding how abortion should be regulated
Who belongs?
● 1) legal: citizenship rights
○ Housing for the people
■ But on terms of the state
● 2) political participation: voting exclusion
○ Citizens with mental health/intellectual disability issues are prohibited from
voting in 15 EU member states
○ (Ex-)prisoners convicted of a felony crime (estimated 6.1 mlj. citizens) are
excluded from voting in most U.S. states
○ Citizens under 18 are unable to vote almost everywhere
● Identity: soil or blood
○ How does identity translate into citizenship law
○ Historically:
■ Ius Soli - birthplace (UK)
■ Ius Sanguinis - parental nationality (Germany)
Legal: citizen rights vs. human rights
● Declaration of human rights:
○ Article 1. All humans beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights
○ Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this
declaration … no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political,
jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a
person belongs…
○ Art. 24.3 Every child has the right to acquire a nationality
, But how
● Increasing convergence (from ius soli and ius sanguinis):
○ Born on territory, one parent with permanent residence = citizenship
○ More than one generation abroad = no automatic citizenship
● Naturalisation
On what basis can you legally be in The Netherlands?
● Dutch citizens
● Eu citizens
● Dutch/EU spouse or parent
● (Waiting for) refugee status
● Temporary protection (Ukrainians)
● Permanent residence
● Work permit or student visa
● Tourist visa
The ultimate exclusion: ‘being illegal’
● Being on a territory without a legal status
● Your very existence is unrecognised
Political participation, who gets to vote from where?
● Mostly inclusive: on external voting rights: allowed by law in more than 100 countries
(exception South America)
● Mostly exclusive: on alien voting rights: few states allow resident aliens to vote
(exceptions New Zealand, Chili, Malawi, and EU residents in local elections)
Identity: sense of belonging or test of loyalty?
● Citizenship tests for naturalisation
○ Language ability and ‘civic knowledge’
○ Only 8 out of 33 Council of Europe member states have research-based tests
○ Only half use standardised language tests
○ In Netherlands and Germany around 40% fail language tests; naturalisations
decreased after the introduction
○ Elderly, women, less educated, and traumatised most likely to be excluded
● Reasons for revoking nationality:
○ Getting another citizenship (sometimes)
○ Permanent residence abroad (rare)
○ Fraud in the naturalisation process (nearly always)
○ Serving in a foreign military
● Most states will avoid making people stateless
Voordelen van het kopen van samenvattingen bij Stuvia op een rij:
Verzekerd van kwaliteit door reviews
Stuvia-klanten hebben meer dan 700.000 samenvattingen beoordeeld. Zo weet je zeker dat je de beste documenten koopt!
Snel en makkelijk kopen
Je betaalt supersnel en eenmalig met iDeal, creditcard of Stuvia-tegoed voor de samenvatting. Zonder lidmaatschap.
Focus op de essentie
Samenvattingen worden geschreven voor en door anderen. Daarom zijn de samenvattingen altijd betrouwbaar en actueel. Zo kom je snel tot de kern!
Veelgestelde vragen
Wat krijg ik als ik dit document koop?
Je krijgt een PDF, die direct beschikbaar is na je aankoop. Het gekochte document is altijd, overal en oneindig toegankelijk via je profiel.
Tevredenheidsgarantie: hoe werkt dat?
Onze tevredenheidsgarantie zorgt ervoor dat je altijd een studiedocument vindt dat goed bij je past. Je vult een formulier in en onze klantenservice regelt de rest.
Van wie koop ik deze samenvatting?
Stuvia is een marktplaats, je koop dit document dus niet van ons, maar van verkoper bjorndekker. Stuvia faciliteert de betaling aan de verkoper.
Zit ik meteen vast aan een abonnement?
Nee, je koopt alleen deze samenvatting voor €5,99. Je zit daarna nergens aan vast.
