Due process

Abstract: Human rights law and the legal protection of women from violence are still fairly new concepts. As a result, substantial discrepancies exist between what is decided in the halls of the United Nations and what women experience on a daily basis in their communities. "Human Rights and Gender Violence" is an ambitious study that investigates the tensions between global law and local justice. As an observer of UN diplomatic negotiations as well as the workings of grassroots feminist organizations in several countries, Sally Engle Merry offers an insider's perspective on how human rights law holds authorities accountable for the protection of citizens even while reinforcing and expanding state power. Providing legal and anthropological perspectives, Merry contends that human rights law must be framed in local terms to be accepted and thus effective in altering existing social hierarchies. Gender violence in particular, she argues, is rooted in deep cultural and religious beliefs, so change is often vehemently resisted by the communities perpetrating the acts of aggression. A much-needed exploration of how local cultures appropriate and enact international human rights law, this book will be of enormous value to students of gender studies and anthropology alike.

Abstract: 1. The Making of an International Rule of Law in Europe 2. National Judicial Interests and the Process of Legal Integration in Europe 3. German Judicial Acceptance of European Law Supremacy 4. French Judicial Acceptance of European Law Supremacy 5. Winning Political Support: Why Did National Governments Accept a Judicial Revolution that Transferred Away National Sovereignty? 6. The Transformation of the European Legal System and the Rule of Law in Europe

Abstract: IT is an immense honour and privilege to give the Sixth Sir David Williams Lecture. It is also a formidable challenge, since Sir David's scholarly reputation is so high as to discourage comparison. But the great range of his achievement as legal scholar, university leader, head of house, public servant and loyal son of Wales gives the lecturer a broad range of subject matter from which to choose, without straying into fields Sir David has not adorned. In choosing to address the Rule of Law a big subject for a lecture my best hope must be that Sir David will himself be provoked into giving us, at greater length, his considered reflections on the subject. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 provides, in section 1, that the Act does not adversely affect "the existing constitutional principle of the rule of law" or "the Lord Chancellor's existing constitutional role in relation to that principle". This provision, the Attorney-General has suggested,' illustrates the importance attached to the rule of law in the modern age,2 which is further reflected in the oath to be taken by Lord Chancellors under section 17(1) of the Act, to respect the rule of law and defend the independence of the judiciary. But the Act does not define the existing constitutional principle of the rule of law, or the Lord Chancellor's existing constitutional role in relation to it. The meaning of this existing constitutional principle may no doubt have been thought to be too clear and well-understood to call for statutory definition, and it is true that the rule of law has been routinely invoked by judges in their judgments.3 But they have not