Les difficultés d’application du droit international au conflit du Haut-Karabagh : effectivités et causes géopolitiques

Conflit présenté comme gelé, la guerre du Haut-Karabagh n’en est pas moins réelle, s’inscrivant dans une géopolitique régionale complexe et passionnante, nécessitant de s’intéresser à l’histoire des peuples de la région, à l’histoire des conquêtes et politiques menées concomitamment. Comprendre les raisons de ce conflit situé aux limites de l’Europe et de l’Asie, comprendre les enjeux en cause, que se soit la problématique énergétique ou l’importance stratégique de la région du Caucase à la fois pour la Russie mais également pour les Etats-Unis ou l’Union Européenne ; autant de réflexions que soulève cette recherche. Au delà, c’est l’influence réciproque du droit international et du politique qui sera prise en compte, notamment concernant l’échec des négociations actuelles. Les difficultés d’application du droit international à ce conflit sui generis se situent à plusieurs niveaux ; sur le statut de la région principalement, mais également sur les mécanismes de sanctions et de réparations devant s’appliquer aux crimes sur les personnes et les biens et qui se heurtent à la classification difficile du conflit.

Regularização fundiária sustentável como instrumento para o direito à cidade: por uma nova ética urbana à luz de Ronald Dworkin

O presente trabalho realiza a análise dos processos de urbanização, cuja característica marcante é a segregação econômica, social e espacial da população de baixa renda, perceptível pelo fenômeno de periferização urbana vivenciado por este segmento social. Sem vias de acesso formal à terra urbana, a população de baixa renda residente em centros urbanos promove a ocupação irregular de áreas desprovidas ou carentes de infraestrutura e serviços urbanos, as quais, em geral, não são requisitadas pelo mercado imobiliário formal. A forma de apropriação desigual dos espaços territoriais é fruto do modo de apropriação do modo capitalista. Nesse contexto de desigualdade, exclusão, segregação se insere a questão da ocupação irregular nas margens de cursos d’água situadas no meio urbano, áreas estas especialmente protegidas pela legislação ambiental, tema que nos remete ao foco principal da dissertação: o estudo da possibilidade de implementação de ações de regularização fundiária sustentável em ocupações de interesse social, consolidadas em áreas urbanas situadas às margens de cursos d’água, analisada como instrumento de combate ao processo de segregação socioespacial vivenciado pela população de baixa renda em decorrência do processo de produção capitalista dos espaços urbanos. Para tanto, a partir da análise de casos concretos utiliza-se as ações de regularização como instrumento para a consecução do direito às cidades sustentáveis, albergado no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro na Lei nº10.257/2001, afirmando-o como um direito fundamental, a partir da teoria do jusfilósofo Ronald Dworkin. A problemática que a dissertação revela reside no aparente conflito ante a necessidade de atendimento dos direitos fundamentais das populações residentes destas ocupações e o dever de manutenção do meio ambiente ecologicamente equilibrado, cuja solução é pautada pelo sopesamento de princípios, e valores neles incutidos, com fundamento no conceito de direito como integridade, também desenvolvido por Ronald Dworkin.

Para além do garantismo: uma proposta hermenêutica de controle da decisão penal

A presente pesquisa parte do pressuposto de que, no Brasil, não se segue uma teoria consistente da decisão penal. Tem por finalidade desenvolver argumentos para demonstrar que a epistemologia garantista de Luigi Ferrajoli apresenta problemas que a afastam do mundo prático e dificultam a construção de fundamentos para impor limites ao poder do juiz criminal. Embora se preocupe bastante com o relativismo interpretativo, propondo uma técnica de formalização da linguagem para reduzir os espaços de incerteza, a teoria do garantismo ainda admite uma margem insuprimível de discricionariedade (sempre pro reo). A proposta da tese é a superação desse modelo semântico de percepção do Direito por uma compreensão hermenêutica do fenômeno. A partir da hermenêutica filosófica (Hans Georg Gadamer) e da teoria do Direito como integridade (Ronald Dworkin), a pesquisa defende a hipótese de que o Direito não é fruto de descobertas (convencionalismo), tampouco de invenções (pragmatismo). Não está, pois, escrito em algum lugar do passado, também não é aquilo que os juízes pensam que ele é; o Direito é uma prática social interpretativa, é fruto da melhor argumentação moral possível. A partir da articulação de conceitos caros a Gadamer (tais como estrutura prévia da compreensão, fusão de horizontes, tradição, diálogo, experiência, finitude e linguagem) com a análise da integridade em Dworkin, a pesquisa – sem a pretensão de corrigir a epistemologia garantista, mas objetivando superar os entraves que uma teoria semântica do Direito pode causar – apresenta a hermenêutica como uma via privilegiada para o controle da decisão penal.

Parâmetros para justiciabilidade do direito social à saúde: o caso do estado do Pará

A partir do debate da chamada judicialização da saúde e seus impactos orçamentários e de planejamento das políticas públicas da área, a pesquisa trabalha com a hipótese de que o poder Judiciário deve buscar maior racionalização na tarefa de decidir este tipo de demanda, com a proposição de parâmetros/critérios racionais para tanto; buscando-se restabelecer o equilíbrio entre a faceta individual e coletiva do direito à saúde. Para tanto, uma abordagem constitucional e do direito sanitário é apresentada, sob o paradigma da medicina baseada em evidências. A jurisprudência do Suprermo Tribunal Federal sobre o direito social à saúde é exposta e sistematizada, enfatizando-se a Audiência Pública ocorrida em 2009 neste Tribunal. Procurando compreender de que forma e se este debate mais recente encontrou ecos na realidade regional e local, foi realizada pesquisa a acórdãos do Tribunal de Justiça do Estado do Pará, julgados entre 2008 e 2011, comparando-se com a jurisprudência do Egrégio Tribunal e visando, igualmente, conhecer as características de tais demandas a partir dos seguintes critérios: espécie de autor, representação em juízo, doença de que padecem, objeto da demanda, espécie de ação interposta, perfil dos recorrentes e resultado da demanda, bem como os principais argumentos apresentados pelos atores presentes na dinâmica – autores, réus e magistrados. A partir da pesquisa empreendida, propõem-se parâmetros específicos para a justiciabilidade do direito objeto de estudo, a partir do referencial teórico do direito como integridade de Ronald Dworkin, restabelecendo-se a integração entre direito subjetivo público e direito coletivo, como complementares à natureza do direito à saúde.

O "due process" redescoberto à sombra do verde

Tese de doutoramento, Direito (Ciências Jurídico-Políticas), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Direito, 2016

Cohesive law estimation of adhesive joints in mode II condition

The adhesive bonding technique enables both weight and complexity reduction in structures that require some joining technique to be used on account of fabrication/component shape issues. Because of this, adhesive bonding is also one of the main repair methods for metal and composite structures by the strap and scarf configurations. The availability of strength prediction techniques for adhesive joints is essential for their generalized application and it can rely on different approaches, such as mechanics of materials, conventional fracture mechanics or damage mechanics. These two last techniques depend on the measurement of the fracture toughness (GC) of materials. Within the framework of damage mechanics, a valid option is the use of Cohesive Zone Modelling (CZM) coupled with Finite Element (FE) analyses. In this work, CZM laws for adhesive joints considering three adhesives with varying ductility were estimated. The End-Notched Flexure (ENF) test geometry was selected based on overall test simplicity and results accuracy. The adhesives Araldite® AV138, Araldite® 2015 and Sikaforce® 7752 were studied between high-strength aluminium adherends. Estimation of the CZM laws was carried out by an inverse methodology based on a curve fitting procedure, which enabled a precise estimation of the adhesive joints’ behaviour. The work allowed to conclude that a unique set of shear fracture toughness (GIIC) and shear cohesive strength (ts0) exists for each specimen that accurately reproduces the adhesive layer’ behaviour. With this information, the accurate strength prediction of adhesive joints in shear is made possible by CZM.

Legal education in crisis: healing and humanizing Canadian law schools /

Western law schools are suffering from an identity and moral crisis. Many of the legal profession's problems can be traced to the law school environment, where students are taught to reason and practice in ways that are often at odds with their own personalities and values and even with generally accepted psychologically healthy practices. The idealism, ethic of care, and personal moral compasses of many students become eroded and even lost in the present legal education system. Formalism, rationalism, elitism, and big business values have become paramount. In such a moment of historical crisis, there exists the opportunity to create a new legal education story. This paper is a conceptual study of both my own Canadian legal education and the general legal education experience. It examines core problems and critiques of the existing Western legal education organizational and pedagogical paradigm to which Canadian law schools adhere. New approaches with the potential to enrich, humanize, and heal the Canadian law school experience are explored. Ultimately, the paper proposes a legal education system that is more interdisciplinary, theoretically and practically integrated, emotionally intelligent, technologically connected, morally accountable, spiritual, and humane. Specific pedagogical and curricular strategies are suggested, and recommendations for the future are offered. The dehumanizing aspects of the law school experience in Canada have rarely been studied. It is hoped that this thesis will fill a gap in the research and provide some insight into an issue that is of both academic and public importance, since the well-being of law students and lawyers affects the interests of their clients, the general public, and the integrity and future of the entire legal system.

BA'S : The practice and law of bankers' acceptance

Au cours d'une transaction portant sur une acceptation bancaire (ci-après «BA» tel que dénommée dans le jargon juridique) différents types de relations peuvent s'établir entre les parties impliquées, certaines plus directes que d'autres. Dans une transaction donnée, à part le client et la banque, on peut trouver une ou plusieurs banques participantes et un ou plusieurs investisseurs, qui deviennent détenteurs de BA. La situation peut devenir complexe et les relations légales risquent de devenir assez compliquées. Cependant, il est important d'identifier si la relation s'est établie à travers l'instrument de BA, si elle existe par le biais d'une relation contractuelle ordinaire ou encore, si elle existe par le fait de la loi. Une bonne analyse des circonstances entourant la transaction, des facteurs connexes à la transaction et des droits et obligations qui existent entre les parties, sera nécessaire pour déterminer laquelle de la loi provinciale ou fédérale s'appliquera, et dans quelle mesure. Une fois accordée, la BA est gouvernée par la Loi sur les lettres de change. Toutes solutions apportées à un problème qui implique des BA, doivent, en principe, respecter la nature inhérente de la BA en tant qu'effet de commerce, gouverné par la loi fédérale. En matière de BA, c'est, soit la Loi sur les lettres de change soit la Loi sur les lettres et billets de dépôt (Depository Bills and Note Act) qui s'appliqueront à l'acte. Comme il existe des lois fédérales applicables à la BA, l'objet de notre étude est de déterminer si, et dans quelle circonstance la loi de la province, tel que le Code civil du Québec, trouvera application et éclaircira dans certains cas la disposition contenue dans la Loi sur les lettres de change, notamment lorsque les dispositions de ladite loi sont silencieuses ou ambigües. La solution la plus simple serait d'appliquer la loi provinciale aux matières qui ne sont pas traitées dans la loi, étant donné que les lois provinciales apportent souvent un complément à la législation fédérale. Cependant, la Loi sur les lettres de change contient des dispositions spéciales, tel que l'article 9 qui stipule : « 9. Les règles de la common law d'Angleterre, y compris en droit commercial, s'appliquent aux lettres, billets et chèques dans la mesure de leur compatibilité avec les dispositions expresses de la présente loi. » Cette disposition a crée une certaine confusion relativement à l'application du droit civil du Québec en matière de Lettres de change. En effet, il existe un doute quant à savoir si l'application de l'article 9 est une incorporation par référence qui exclue totalement l'application du droit civil. Cette question continue de se poser inexorablement dans la doctrine et la jurisprudence. Elle a en effet donné lieu à une série de théories quand au degré d'application de la common law en matière de lettres de change. Une revue de la jurisprudence dominante nous permet de conclure que les tribunaux ont accepté l'application du droit provinciale dans certaines questions impliquant les lettres de change. La question essentielle traitée lors de notre analyse est la suivante: lorsqu'un litige prend naissance dans une transaction de BA, quelle est la règle qui devra s'appliquer? Quel sera le droit qui gouvernera les problèmes émergeant dans une BA, celui du Code Civil du Québec ou celui de la common law d'Angleterre? Étant donne le nombre de cas qui sont portés devant les cours de justice en rapport avec des transactions de BA, comprendre quelle sera la loi applicable est d'une importance fondamentale. Pour répondre à cette question, nous commencerons par un examen de l'historique, du développement et de l'évolution de la BA. Afin de mieux comprendre la BA, nous débuterons par un bref survol des origines de cet instrument juridique. Dans le deuxième chapitre, nous analyserons la nature et le caractère légal de la BA. Cela constituera le cadre aux travers duquel nous pourrons identifier les règles et les principes qui s'appliquent aux différents aspects de la transaction de BA. Le chapitre trois fera l'objet d'un examen détaillé des mécanismes de l'opération de BA tout en étudiant de près les exigences imposées par la législation applicable. Après avoir examine l'aspect légal de la BA, nous procéderons au chapitre quatre, à l'étude de l'applicabilité de la loi provinciale relativement à certains aspects de la transaction de BA. A cet effet, nous examinerons les différentes approches de compréhension de la Loi sur les lettres de change et plus particulièrement la problématique rencontrée à l'article 9. Nous étudierons aussi l'application et l'interprétation de cette loi par les tribunaux du Québec au cours du siècle dernier. Les juges et les juristes se sont penchés sur les sens qu'a voulu donner le législateur lorsqu'il a stipulé dans l'article 9 «Le règles de la common law d'Angleterre, y compris en droit commercial, s appliquent aux lettres, billets et chèques dans la mesure de leur compatibilité avec les dispositions expresses de la présente loi ». Cette section doit-elle être appliquée à la lettre, nous obligeant à appliquer la common law d'Angleterre a chaque problème qui peut se poser en relation avec les lettres et les billets? Le Parlement a-t-il l'intention que cette disposition s'applique également au Québec, dont le droit privé est basé sur le système du Code Civil? Notre étude portera sur les différentes approches d'interprétation qui offrent une diversité de solutions au problème posé par l'article 9. Finalement, compte tenu des nouveaux développements législatifs, au chapitre cinq, nous proposons une méthode en vue de déterminer la loi applicable aux différents aspects de la transaction de BA. Notre analyse nous a conduit à adopter la solution proposée par la majorité des juristes, à la différence que notre approche de l'article 9 est basée sur des raisons de politique. Nous avons donc adopté la stricte dichotomie (en tant qu'effet négociable d'une part, et d'une sorte de contrat et de propriété de l'autre) en prenant en compte les difficultés inhérentes à déterminer quand l'un finit et l'autre commence. En conclusion, selon notre opinion, il existe deux solutions. Premièrement, il y a la possibilité que l'article 9 puisse être écarté. Dans ce cas, toutes les matières qui ne sont pas expressément évoquées dans la loi tomberont dans la compétence de la loi provinciale, comme c'est le cas dans d'autres types de législations fédérales. Dans ces situations, le droit civil du Québec joue un rôle supplétif dans les applications d'une loi fédérale au Québec. Deuxièmement, modifier l'article 9 plutôt que d'en écarter son application offre une autre possibilité. Incorporer la large stricte dichotomie dans l'article 9 nous semble être une solution préférable. La disposition pourrait se lire comme suit: « Les règles de la common law d'Angleterre incluant le droit commercial dans la mesure ou elles ne sont pas incompatibles avec les dispositions expresses de la Loi, s’appliquent aux lettres, billets, et chèques au sens stricte. Pour plus de certitude, les lettres et les billets au sens strict, incluent la forme, la délivrance et I’émission des lettres, billets, et chèques.» Ce type de changement se révélera être un pas important dans le but de clarifier la loi et déterminer l'équilibre à trouver entre l'application des lois fédérales et provinciales en matière de BA.

Performance Septic Systems: Does an Advanced Septic System Provide Adequate Treatment on Black Hammock Island and is there Adequate Regulatory Policy to Ensure Integrity?

This project determined if the performance based septic system, proposed for a development on Black Hammock Island in Jacksonville, Florida, is the best choice to prevent environmental contamination from septic tanks and if adequate regulatory policy exists. Research shows a central wastewater treatment plant provides the most efficient pollutant removal but can be cost prohibitive. This project found performance based systems surpasses conventional septic system performance and are more suited and economical to remote areas without sewer service. This project finds current regulations to be inadequate and supports ordinance changes proposed by the Mayor of Jacksonville to enhance the current policy and provide more adequate and meaningful regulation.

Law Enforcement Actions in Urban Spaces Governed by Violent Non-State Entities: Lessons from Latin America

In response to a crime epidemic afflicting Latin America since the early 1990s, several countries in the region have resorted to using heavy-force police or military units to physically retake territories de facto controlled by non-State criminal or insurgent groups. After a period of territory control, the heavy forces hand law enforcement functions in the retaken territories to regular police officers, with the hope that the territories and their populations will remain under the control of the state. To a varying degree, intensity, and consistency, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Jamaica have adopted such policies since the mid-1990s. During such operations, governments need to pursue two interrelated objectives: to better establish the state’s physical presence and to realign the allegiance of the population in those areas toward the state and away from the non-State criminal entities. From the perspective of law enforcement, such operations entail several critical decisions and junctions, such as: Whether or not to announce the force insertion in advance. The decision trades off the element of surprise and the ability to capture key leaders of the criminal organizations against the ability to minimize civilian casualties and force levels. The latter, however, may allow criminals to go to ground and escape capture. Governments thus must decide whether they merely seek to displace criminal groups to other areas or maximize their decapitation capacity. Intelligence flows rarely come from the population. Often, rival criminal groups are the best source of intelligence. However, cooperation between the State and such groups that goes beyond using vetted intelligence provided by the groups, such as a State tolerance for militias, compromises the rule-of-law integrity of the State and ultimately can eviscerate even public safety gains. Sustaining security after initial clearing operations is at times even more challenging than conducting the initial operations. Although unlike the heavy forces, traditional police forces, especially if designed as community police, have the capacity to develop trust of the community and ultimately focus on crime prevention, developing such trust often takes a long time. To develop the community’s trust, regular police forces need to conduct frequent on-foot patrols with intensive nonthreatening interactions with the population and minimize the use of force. Moreover, sufficiently robust patrol units need to be placed in designated beats for substantial amount of time, often at least over a year. Establishing oversight mechanisms, including joint police-citizens’ boards, further facilities building trust in the police among the community. After disruption of the established criminal order, street crime often significantly rises and both the heavy-force and community-police units often struggle to contain it. The increase in street crime alienates the population of the retaken territory from the State. Thus developing a capacity to address street crime is critical. Moreover, the community police units tend to be vulnerable (especially initially) to efforts by displaced criminals to reoccupy the cleared territories. Losing a cleared territory back to criminal groups is extremely costly in terms of losing any established trust and being able to recover it. Rather than operating on a priori determined handover schedule, a careful assessment of the relative strength of regular police and criminal groups post-clearing operations is likely to be a better guide for timing the handover from heavy forces to regular police units. Cleared territories often experience not only a peace dividend, but also a peace deficit – in the rise new serious crime (in addition to street crime). Newly – valuable land and other previously-inaccessible resources can lead to land speculation and forced displacement; various other forms of new crime can also significantly rise. Community police forces often struggle to cope with such crime, especially as it is frequently linked to legal business. Such new crime often receives little to no attention in the design of the operations to retake territories from criminal groups. But without developing an effective response to such new crime, the public safety gains of the clearing operations can be altogether lost.

The Right to Bodily Integrity and the Rehabilitation of Offenders Through Medical Interventions : A Reply to Thomas Douglas

Peer reviewed

AN ENTROPIC THEORY OF DAMAGE WITH APPLICATIONS TO CORROSION-FATIGUE STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT

This dissertation demonstrates an explanation of damage and reliability of critical components and structures within the second law of thermodynamics. The approach relies on the fundamentals of irreversible thermodynamics, specifically the concept of entropy generation due to materials degradation as an index of damage. All failure mechanisms that cause degradation, damage accumulation and ultimate failure share a common feature, namely energy dissipation. Energy dissipation, as a fundamental measure for irreversibility in a thermodynamic treatment of non-equilibrium processes, leads to and can be expressed in terms of entropy generation. The dissertation proposes a theory of damage by relating entropy generation to energy dissipation via generalized thermodynamic forces and thermodynamic fluxes that formally describes the resulting damage. Following the proposed theory of entropic damage, an approach to reliability and integrity characterization based on thermodynamic entropy is discussed. It is shown that the variability in the amount of the thermodynamic-based damage and uncertainties about the parameters of a distribution model describing the variability, leads to a more consistent and broader definition of the well know time-to-failure distribution in reliability engineering. As such it has been shown that the reliability function can be derived from the thermodynamic laws rather than estimated from the observed failure histories. Furthermore, using the superior advantages of the use of entropy generation and accumulation as a damage index in comparison to common observable markers of damage such as crack size, a method is proposed to explain the prognostics and health management (PHM) in terms of the entropic damage. The proposed entropic-based damage theory to reliability and integrity is then demonstrated through experimental validation. Using this theorem, the corrosion-fatigue entropy generation function is derived, evaluated and employed for structural integrity, reliability assessment and remaining useful life (RUL) prediction of Aluminum 7075-T651 specimens tested.