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This study analyzes the use of legislative and non-legislative tools, which has rarely been done simultaneously. I collected data about the frequency of use of legislative tools (presenting and passing legislation) and non-legislative tools (making one-minute speeches, written and oral parliamentary questions and motions for the agenda) in five countries: the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and Israel. The results confirm my three hypotheses. Legislators from Australia, the UK and Canada use fewer legislative tools because their use is more constrained than in the US and Israel. Legislators use more semi or unconstrained tools that involve publicity than those that simply appear on the record. Finally, opposition members use more non-legislative tools while government members use more legislative tools. However, the degree of constraint on the use of the tool moderates this finding. The study provides a comprehensive understanding of the legislators' strategic use of legislative and non-legislative tools. 

The European Union institutions have many times expressed their interest in the economic growth potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, but also in protecting the European citizens from the respective risks. The existing rules do not seem adequately equipped to address them and there is a call for action in this new regulatory field at the EU level. The study presents the most important initiatives of the European Union institutions in the field of non-contractual liability for damage caused by the application of AI technologies. Thereby, it takes part in the debate on the possible features of a new system of liability for damages caused by AI technology and attempts a first assessment of the path towards the creation of this new EU liability system.

To ensure an adequate level of protection in the European Union (EU), the European Commission (EC) adopted the Soil Thematic Strategy in 2006, including a proposal for a Soil Framework Directive (the Directive). However, a minority of Member States (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Austria, and The Netherlands) could not agree on the text of the proposed Directive. Consequently, the EC decided to withdraw the proposal in 2014. In the more than 10 years that have passed since the initial proposal, a great number of new evidences on soil degradation and its negative consequences, have proved the necessity of a common European soil protection Directive. This study is aimed at specifying the possible obstacles, differences, and gaps in legislature and administration in the countries that formed the blocking minority, which resulted in the refusal of the Directive. The individual legislations of the opposing countries on the matter, were summarized and compared with the goals set by the Directive, in three highlighted aspects: (1) soil-dependent threats, (2) contamination, and (3) sealing. We designed a simple schematic evaluation system to show the basic levels of differences and similarities. We found that the legislative regulations concerning soil-dependent degradation and contamination issues in the above countries were generally well defined, complementary, and thorough. A common European legislation can be based on harmonised approaches between them, focusing on technical implementations. In the aspect of sealing we found recommendations, principles, and good practices rather than binding regulations in the scrutinised countries. Soil sealing is an issue where the proposed Directive&rsquo ; s measures, could have exceeded those of the Member States.

Parliaments are the institutions through which governments are held accountable to the electorate. They have a wide range of tools with which to carry out this oversight function, but until recently little analysis had been undertaken on the characteristics or use of such tools. This paper uses data for 83 countries that was collected in 2001 to investigate whether the oversight potential relates to three variables, namely the form of government (presidential, semi-presidential, or parliamentary), per capita income levels, and the level of democracy. The paper finds that oversight potential is greatly affected by the form of government, per capita income levels, and levels of democracy. Countries with parliamentary forms of government, higher income levels, and which are more democratic have a greater number of oversight tools and greater oversight potential. While the oversight potential follows this general trend, the use of committees of enquiry, interpellations and ombudsman offices follows a different pattern. The use of interpellations as an oversight tool is most common in high income countries, less common in low income countries and least common in middle income countries while the presence of committees of enquiry and of the ombudsman offices is most common in middle income countries, less common in high income countries and least common in low income countries.

Full-text available at SSRN. See link in this record. ; The legislative history of a statute, when available, can shape its judicial construction. More often than not, Kansas courts find sufficient ambiguity in a statute to justify consideration of legislative history that is presented to them. Thus, attorneys who are familiar with the types of legislative history, where to find them, and how to use them have advantages over attorneys who are not. Likewise, legislators can help to ensure that statutes are construed in accordance with their intent by documenting that intent in legislative materials that are readily available to practitioners, courts, and the general public. In preparation for this article we conducted a survey of Kansas cases referring to legislative history over the twenty year period from 1981 to 2000. This survey clearly shows that the use of legislative history is on the rise. The total number of cases mentioning the legislative history of a statute under consideration rose from an average of just under twelve per year over the 1981-1990 period to an average of nearly 22 cases per year in the period from 1991-2000. While some of the cases reflect only a brief mention of the legislative history or a general discussion of a statute's background, a substantial and growing number of cases engaged in more detailed discussion of either legislative documents that incorporate statements as to the meaning of a statute or amendments to statutory language during the consideration of a bill. More significantly, perhaps, the Kansas courts rarely decline to rely on legislative history when it is presented to them. With the proliferation of statutes and the Kansas courts' increasing reliance on legislative history in interpreting them, it is unfortunate that legislative history in Kansas is very difficult to obtain and that most attorneys receive little training in statutory construction or in researching and using legislative history. Searching legislative history is an arduous and complex process which is ...

The article begins with a presentation of an interpretative tool in the form of materials from the legislative process (legislative materials, legislative history), including arguments offered in the theory of law in favour and against their use for interpretation purposes. These matters are then discussed with references to a specific type of interpretive problems, namely problems that stem from the grammatical constructions of the provisions of the law. The authors analyse five cases in which Polish courts reach for legislative materials in order to resolve doubts caused by sentence syntax, conjunctions or punctuation. The decisions issued vary – in their use of legislative materials courts deploy various other tools and values (e.g. vocabularies, formal logic, the ratio legis behind a provision or the rules of legislative procedure). The outcomes of such a confrontation are varied. Thus, the judgments presented here are a good illustration of the diversity of issues connected with the theoretical and practical aspects of the use of legislative materials in the process of interpreting the law.

Likumdošana un ekodizaina paņēmieni ar ķimikālijām saistīto risku mazināšanai. Vides piesārņojums ar ķīmiskajām vielām vielām ir sasniedzis tādus apmērus, kas pieprasa nekavējošu rīcību. Pasaules samits 2002 gadā formulēja ambiciozu mērķi līdz 2020 gadam samazināt ķimikāliju izsaukto negatīvo ietekmi uz cilvēka veselību un vidi. Rakstā apskatīti svarīgākie normatīvie akti, kas paredz produktu (izstrādājumu) radīto ķīmisko risku samazināšanu: REACH (Regula par ķīmisko vielu reģistrēšanu, licenzēm un ierobežojumiem), RoHS (Bīstamo vielu ierobežojumu direktīva) un citi. Raksts kā vienu no visefektīvākajām metodēm ķīmisko vielu riska samazināšanai piedāvā ekodizainu, ko izmanto produkta izstrādes fāzē, kad ir iespējams izvairīties no problemātisku materiālu lietošanas, vai ieviest slēgtas sistēmas ražošanā. Publikācija analizē esošos ekodizaina instrumentus attiecībā uz to potenciālu samazināt produktu (izstrādājumu) radīto ķīmisko vielu risku un panākt atbilstību likumdošanas prasībām. Apzinātas likumdošanas kritiskās vietas, kas neveicina nevēlamu vielu izmantošanas pārtraukšanu. Uzskaitītas galvenās grūtības, kas kavē ekodizaina instrumentu izmantošanu ķīmisko risku samazināšanai

After seeking a "manageable standard" to apply to claims of partisan gerrymandering for over three decades, the Supreme Court has finally given up the chase, ruling that such claims are nonjusticiable. What is to be done? An extended history of successful congressional action suggests that the legislative pathway is more practical than often believed. Statutory requirements also make it possible to consider a broader suite of districting objectives. This paper presents a flexible new software and a framework for evaluating the practical implications of explicit objectives. I apply this approach to the conditions last required by Congress, generating equipopulous, contiguous, and compact districts. Among these conditions, the formal definition ofcompactnesshas proven contentious. Does it matter? I contrast the representation of the political parties and of racial and ethnic minorities under plans optimized according to 18 different definitions of compactness. On these grounds, the definitions are markedly consistent. These methods may be extended to alternative districting objectives and criteria.

From 2007 onwards, the European Commission has started to systematically produce ex-post legislative (EPL) evaluations: reports assessing the functioning of EU legislation currently in force. In theory, such evaluations help the Commission to learn how its legislation can be improved. They can also be used by actors like the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers to hold the Commission accountable for its decisions regarding legislation. This dissertation presents the first large-scale academic research about the Commission's EPL evaluations. Its key assumption is that such evaluations only contribute to learning and accountability if they meet three conditions: systematic initiation, high quality and systematic use. The main goal of this dissertation is therefore to describe and explain the variation in the initiation, quality and use of the Commission's EPL evaluations. The first condition, systematic initiation, means that all major legislation should be evaluated periodically. This dissertation shows that more than half (58%) of the major EU legislation from 2000-2004 has never been evaluated, which means that the Commission only partly fulfils the condition. The Commission seems to focus on evaluating legislation that leaves the individual countries within the EU a relatively large amount of freedom regarding the implementation of the rules. This suggests that the Commission partly uses EPL evaluations to check if these countries comply with EU legislation. The second condition, high quality, means that EPL evaluations need to meet certain methodological standards. This dissertation shows that the quality of the Commission's EPL evaluations varies greatly. The average quality score of the reports is 5.6 on a nine-point scale. Most of the evaluations are based on a robust combination of sources, but do not explain their methodology to a sufficient degree for their research to be repeatable. The key factor that affects the variation in the evaluations' quality is the type of evaluator: external consultants conduct significantly better evaluations than actors inside the Commission, probably because of their greater technical expertise. The third condition, systematic use, means that results of EPL evaluations need to be seriously considered during decision-making moments. This dissertation shows that the current Commission's use of its own evaluations strongly depends on its political priorities. In policy fields that are no priority of the Commission, evaluation results seem to be much less influential than in policy fields that are high on the Commission's agenda. In conclusion, while the Commission's EPL evaluations currently contribute to learning and accountability to some extent, significant further developments regarding their initiation, quality and use are necessary for these benefits to become more systematic. In particular, this dissertation reveals that the Commission's evaluation system would benefit from (1) the inclusion of more evaluation clauses in EU legislation, (2) the presence of extra evaluation capacity within the Commission's organizational units and (3) the timely availability of evaluations, so that their results can be adequately used.