06 June 2013

BOOKS: New Title from Hart Publishing

A Contextual Analysis
Victor Ferreres Comella

This book provides a critical introduction to the principles and institutions that make up the Spanish Constitution, which was enacted in 1978. It first explains the process of transition from Franco's dictatorship to democracy, in order to understand the historical circumstances under which the Constitution was framed. After offering a theory to justify the authority of the Constitution over ordinary laws, the book proceeds to explain the basic principles of the Spanish political regime, as well as the structure of its complex legal system. Later chapters focus on various institutions, such as the Crown, Parliament and the Government. A specific chapter is devoted to the territorial distribution of power between the State, the regions and local government. The last two chapters deal with the constitutional role of courts, and the protection of fundamental rights. The book includes some reflections on the challenges that lie ahead and the constitutional reforms that may need to be considered in the future.

Edited by Hugh C Hansen

This is the 17th Annual volume in the series collecting the presentations and discussion from the Annual Fordham IP Conference. The contributions, by leading world experts, analyse the most pressing issues in copyright, trademark and patent law as seen from the perspectives of the USA, the EU, Asia and WIPO. This volume, in common with its predecessors, makes a valuable and lasting contribution to the discourse in IP law, as well as trade and competition law. The contents, while always informative, are also critical and questioning of new developments and policy concerns.

Edited by Tom Daems, Dirk van Zyl Smit and Sonja Snacken


Is there something distinctive about penology in Europe? Do Europeans think about punishment and penal policy in a different way to people in other parts of the globe? If so, why is this the case and how does it work in practice? This book addresses some major and pressing issues that have been emerging in recent years in the interdisciplinary field of 'European penology', that is, a space where legal scholarship, criminology, sociology and political science meet - or should meet - in order to make sense of punishment in Europe. The chapters in European Penology? have been written by leading scholars in the field and focus in particular on the interaction of European academic penology and national practice with European policies as developed by the Council of Europe and, increasingly, by the European Union.

Legal Regulation at the International Level
Edited by Katarina Trimmings and Paul Beaumont

This book addresses the pressing challenges presented by the proliferation of international surrogacy arrangements. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 contains National Reports on domestic approaches to surrogacy from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela. The reports are written by domestic specialists, each demonstrating the difficult and urgent problems arising in many States as a result of international surrogacy arrangements. These National Reports not only provide the backdrop to the authors' proposed model regulation appearing in Part 3, but serve as a key resource for scrutinising the most worrying incompatibilities in national laws on surrogacy. Part 2 of the book contains two contributions that provide international perspectives on cross-border surrogacy such as the 'human rights' perspective. Part 3 contains a General Report, which consists of an analysis of the National Reports appearing in Part 1, together with a proposed model of regulation of international surrogacy arrangements at the international level written by the two co-editors, Paul Beaumont and Katarina Trimmings.

NEW IN PAPERBACK
Which Kind of Method for What Kind of Discipline?
Edited by Mark Van Hoecke

Until quite recently questions about methodology in legal research have been largely confined to understanding the role of doctrinal research as a scholarly discipline. In turn this has involved asking questions not only about coverage but, fundamentally, questions about the identity of the discipline. Is it (mainly) descriptive, hermeneutical, or normative? Should it also be explanatory? Legal scholarship has been torn between, on the one hand, grasping the expanding reality of law and its context, and, on the other, reducing this complex whole to manageable proportions. The purely internal analysis of a legal system, isolated from any societal context, remains an option, and is still seen in the approach of the French academy, but as law aims at ordering society and influencing human behaviour, this approach is felt by many scholars to be insufficient.

Consequently many attempts have been made to conceive legal research differently. Social scientific and comparative approaches have proven fruitful. However, does the introduction of other approaches leave merely a residue of 'legal doctrine', to which pockets of social sciences can be added, or should legal doctrine be merged with the social sciences? What would such a broad interdisciplinary field look like and what would its methods be? This book is an attempt to answer some of these questions.

The Dutch Act on Integration Abroad and International Immigration Law
Karin de Vries

A recent development in the immigration policies of several European states is to make the admission of foreign nationals dependent upon criteria relating to their integration. As the practice of 'integration testing abroad' becomes more widespread, this book endeavours to clarify the legal implications which have hitherto remained poorly understood and studied.


The book begins by looking at the situation in the Netherlands, which was the first EU Member State to introduce pre-entry integration requirements. It explores the historical and political origins of the Dutch Act on Integration Abroad and explains how, in this national context, integration has become a criterion for the selection of immigrants. It then examines how integration requirements must be evaluated from the point of view of European and international law, including human rights treaties, EU migration directives and association agreements and the law on non-discrimination. The book identifies the legal standards set by these instruments with regard to integration testing abroad and draws conclusions as to the lawfulness of the Dutch approach.

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