International Review of Law - Volume 2015, Issue 3

This paper compares and contrasts the treatment of certain aspects of real property under the civil codes of Qatar and California, two jurisdictions with very different histories and cultures but somewhat less different economies and environments. Despite their different starting points, the two civil codes have created similar, albeit far from identical, structures to achieve similar goals. This article explores the premise that similar environments - physical, economic, or otherwise - exert, in the long run, a greater pressure on the development of the law governing real property than do history and culture. The real property regimes of Qatar and California converge in many aspects. The nature of the real property right, while couched in civil law terms in one and common law terms in the other, includes in each case the rights of exclusion, use, enjoyment, and alienability. The forms of ownership in each vary according to legal tradition, with Qatar using the simpler civil law forms while California indulges in the more Churrigueresque edifice of estates and future interests; nonetheless, both ultimately achieve more or less the same ends. The forms of co-ownership differ to some extent, while private limitations on property rights differ rather less. The differences in these areas can be traced to cultural differences and to differences inherited by the two legal systems in question, each itself a hybrid of sorts, from the common law and civil law traditions. The greatest points of divergence, however, spring from differences in environment. The different treatment of ownership of land by foreigners provides an example of considerable divergence. On the other hand, the concept of waqf in Islamic law, incorporated into the Qatar Civil Code, bears a greater resemblance to the Anglo-American concept of charitable trust (although the two may have arisen independently) than it does to anything in the civil law tradition. This article considers the relevant provisions of the two civil codes in order to identify and, where possible, explain such divergences and convergences, in the hopes of assisting attorneys and scholars versed in either.

وانتقالاً إلى التنظيم القانوني لحوالة الدين فلقد تبيّن أنه وبالرغم من تأثر المشرّع بشكل كبير بالفقه الإسلامي ولذلك مظاهر كثيرة بدءًا من تقسيم الحوالة إلى مطلقة ومقيدة وتطبيقات الحوالة المقيدة وأحكام انعقادها وغير ذلك، إلاّ أنه قد عاد وخرج عن أحكام الفقه الإسلامي في بعض النصوص، ولقد أغفل المشرّع القطري تنظيم بعض المسائل والتي يعتقد الباحث أنه بإغفالها يظل الباب مفتوحًا للخروج عن أحكام الفقه الإسلامي، ومثال ذلك شروط الحق المحال به.

ولدى تقييم فكرة المزج بين أحكام الفقه الإسلامي والغربي في تنظيم الحوالة تبيّن وجود مبررات قانونية وعملية لهذا التوجه، لعلّ أبرزها الاقتناع بعدم وجود تنظيم تشريعي لحوالة الحق في الفقه الإسلامي، وبنفس الوقت هناك حاجة عملية لا يمكن تجاهلها لحوالة الحق في التعاملات. أما المحاذير القانونية والعملية لعملية المزج تتلخص في تضارب الأحكام، حيث لا تتفق أحكام الفقه الإسلامي أحيانًا مع أحكام الفقه الغربي، مما يجعل عملية المزج بينهما في موضوع واحد مسألة تثير اللبس. وأوصت الدراسة في نهايتها المشرع القطري إزالة التعارض واعتماد الضوابط الشرعية في تنظيم الحوالة.

The Fifteenth Amendment to the Bangladesh Constitution removed the provision for elections under a non-political caretaker government, which allowed for three successful elections in the country. The removal of the non-political caretaker government provision resulted in countrywide violence and an election without participation by the major opposition groups in 2014. This article studies the context in which recent constitutional amendments, (in relation to the non-political caretaker government) have been passed, particularly the Fifteenth Amendment to the Bangladesh Constitution. The article argues that constitutional amendments in Bangladesh have been used in an instrumentalist way for political expediency which, in turn, gives electoral advantage to the ruling party. Democratic institutions and institutions of accountability have been utilised by successive governments in order to pass constitutional amendments that favour the ruling party. The article highlights the Special Committee Report on the Fifteenth Amendment and the Thirteenth Amendment judgment by the Supreme Court, which declared the caretaker government provision unconstitutional and therefore gave the government the legitimacy it required to amend the Constitution. The study of constitutional amendments in relation to the non-political caretaker government provision also illustrates how political parties have demanded or rejected constitutional amendments depending on whether they are in government or in the opposition.

A constitutional Suit, like any other Suit, must satisfy certain conditions, and while there are common and general conditions applicable to all types of Suits, there are special conditions that are only relevant to a constitutional Suit due to its special nature. Therefore, this article covers the admissibility conditions of a constitutional Suit in the Islamic judicial system. This article will analyse these conditions in the Islamic judicial system. Furthermore, there are a number of requirements that a plaintiff must establish in order to have standing before courts in the Islamic system, namely, capacity, actuality of plea, and condition of interest.

The ambition of this article is to illustrate the attractions of thinking beyond legality and the ability of the concept of maladministration to modify established administrative dogma when utilised in a creative and persistent manner as the benchmark against which the legality and propriety of bureaucratic conduct is assessed. To achieve that objective the analysis focuses on the supranational legal order of the European Union and its Ombudsman. Within that context, the transformative force of maladministration is explored in two distinct areas of interest. One the one hand, the transparency of the European Union recruitment competitions has been considerably improved through the introduction of a number of non-justiciable norms that the European Union administration is expected to honour. On the other hand, citizens' involvement in the infringement proceedings under Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union has noticeably increased thanks to an array of soft law commitments on the part of the European Commission. The theme that runs through the analysis is the importance of maladministration when operating beyond the shadow of legality.