Filosofija. Sociologija

Title

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Introduction

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The Constitution: The Text and the Context

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It would not be accurate to describe the ways the Constitution is applied by merely mentioning an elementary logical syllogism. Interpretation of the text of the Constitution in legal research is characterised by various complex models. One of the factors that has yet to be properly incorporated into these models is the context. This article presents the role of the context in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court. Findings of
the analysis show that this role is significant and can even result in such a constitutional interpretation which deviates from the one that would derive from a literal interpretation of the text. The questions regarding when, how, and to what extent the context can determine the outcome of constitutional cases present an essential challenge for legal scholars and practitioners and require a deeper inquiry.

The Issue of the Constitutionality of the Istanbul Convention in Lithuania

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Lithuania signed the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention) in 2013 but has not yet ratified it. On 14 March 2024, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania adopted a conclusion on the compatibility of certain provisions of the Istanbul Convention with the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania. This article analyses the compatibility of the Istanbul Convention with the Constitution of Lithuania. The article examines this issue in a broader context of the cultural, political and legal controversies surrounding this convention in Eastern and Central Europe. It addresses the doubts surrounding the convention in Eastern and Central European countries and the decisions of the constitutional courts of these countries on the constitutionality of the provisions of the Istanbul Convention; it also discusses the doubts raised in Lithuania on the constitutionality of the Convention and the approach of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania to these doubts.

Violence of Adult Sons Against Mothers in the Context of Matricide

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This article endeavours to analyse an important and concerning phenomenon: women killed by their adult sons. It focuses on parricide (killing of parents or close relatives), with special attention on killing of mothers (matricide), while the term ‘homicide’ is used as an overarching term for killing human beings. The article gives an overview of statistics on reported cases of matricide over a five-year period. Employing qualitative analysis, it refers to four court judgments in instances of matricide committed by adult offspring in Lithuania between 2021 and 2023. Based on the analysis of recent international studies, crime statistics and court decisions, the aim of this study is to highlight deeper social problems, which predispose mothers to susceptibility to matricide. Therefore, the article contributes new knowledge to the discourse within the field of gender-based violence against women. Moreover, this study provides professionals in the field of domestic abuse with enriched comprehension of the matricide phenomenon and enhances institutional cooperation seeking prevention of violent behaviour and adequate protection of victims.

Changes in Judicial Behaviour after the Reform of the Lithuanian Civil Procedure

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The article aims to assess whether the procedural innovations introduced by the reform of the civil procedure law of the Republic of Lithuania have brought changes in judges’ behaviour, which the reform intended to achieve. The study analyses the driving reason behind the reform of the civil procedure law, its objectives, and the ways the five innovations brought about by the reform changed the behaviour of the judges. The analysis of the legal sources and the empirical study show that some of the innovations introduced by the Civil Procedure Code have not yet been properly assimilated and that the code, which has been in force for twenty years, is still not fully operational and understood.

The Moral Compass of Law: Ensuring Ethical Standards Through Legal Education?

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The aim of the article is to answer the question of the importance of legal education in ensuring legal ethics and the moral compass of a person by understanding the most important aspects of it. Methods applied include theoretical-scientific analysis, systematic and critical review of scientific literature and other relevant sources, normative and critical analysis of ethical principles in the context of legal education, empirical-quantitative and qualitative analysis of scholarly articles. According to the main thesis of this article, the integration of ethics into legal education can enhance moral development of future lawyers and improve their ability to serve justice. This paper traces the historical neglect of ethics in legal education and argues for its central place in modern studies. For lawyers to serve justice, a well-defined moral compass is essential. Several conclusions are drawn in this article, and first of all it is believed that universities will have to realise that a good lawyer is not only a professionally competent lawyer, because that is not enough in today’s world. Even if it is a personal journey, universities cannot stand aside, the future lawyer must be helped to grow. What is much more important is not so much the codes of ethics but how our moral compass works and what path it can point us down. To avoid getting lost, law schools could teach future lawyers how to empower their moral compass and find their way around. Each law teacher should have to find ways to teach the key virtues of a lawyer’s moral compass (e.g., wisdom, fortitude, temperance, and justice), how to help law students grow and not burn out in difficult situations. As our empirical research shows, the best scholarly articles on legal education discuss the elements of legal ethics. It is recognised that the ethics of lawyers is increasingly becoming an issue that goes beyond the professional aspects, and it is the university that must contribute to the development of the moral compass.

Can Artificial Intelligence Engage in the Practice of Law as the Art of Good and Justice?

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This article explores whether artificial intelligence (AI) can engage in the practice of law as an art of good and justice. It examines the historical and philosophical foundations of law as the art of promoting societal harmony and resolving moral dilemmas. The research employs critical and philosophical analysis methods integrating insights from legal scholars, ethicists, technologists, and policymakers. The study identifies AI’s potential to streamline legal processes, enhance access to justice, and reduce bias in decision-making. However, it also highlights ethical challenges such as transparency, accountability, and the impact on the legal workforce. The article emphasises the importance of striking a balance between technological innovation and human values, advocating for proactive regulation and interdisciplinary cooperation to ensure the ethical development and implementation of AI in law. The results of the study highlight the transformative potential of AI in revolutionising legal practice, emphasising its capacity to streamline processes, improve access to justice, and mitigate bias. However, ethical considerations such as transparency, accountability, and the preservation of human judgment are crucial to ensuring that AI integration in law upholds fundamental principles of justice and fairness.

A Theory of Justice and Social Mechanics

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In this article, I argue that Aristotle, a universal philosopher who analysed both natural and social worlds, suggested a groundwork for a theory of justice, which is a fertile soil for a broader social perspective. Such categories as the social order, free will, law, policy choices, and the state are naturally flowing from his brief passage on justice in his Nichomachean Ethics. I assert that all of them are phenomena of turbulent social mechanics. Therefore, in this paper I introduce Aristotle’s contribution to the mainstream theory of justice and then, loosely relying on the works of Aristotle and Newton, I develop a theory of justice in the context of social mechanics. I conclude that the concept of justice is essentially the same as Newton’s third law of mechanics. For this purpose, I employ interdisciplinary and functional approaches, textual and conceptual analysis,
and the method of deduction.

The Uncertainty of Aviation Safety and Aviation Security in Relation to Human Rights: Philosophical Aspects of Legal Definitions

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The article discusses the uncertainty of legal definitions of aviation safety and and aviation security, the implementation of which often result in certain restrictions of human rights. In the article, a hypothesis is made that, despite usually treated as well-known concepts, safety and security are not so clear and well-defined, often leaving the reader to guess at their precise meaning. The aim of this article is to identify the core features that characterise aviation safety and aviation security and could disclose their legal content when assessing their comparative weight in relation to the protection of human rights. Supported by holistic approach from different perspectives (socio-cultural, historical, etc.), the phenomenological and hermeneutic analysis allowed providing an in-depth understanding of various meanings of safety and security concepts. An overview of the existing linguistic peculiarities of the use of the terms ‘safety’ and ‘security’ with an emphasis on the importance of determining the context in which they are used as primary evidence of their meaning is followed by the analysis of the common features and differences between the concepts of safety and security that supplements the discourse on the dilemma of combining subjective and objective, relative and absolute perceptions of safety and security. The research from the view point of normative jurisprudence reveals the polysemy inherent in aviation safety and aviation security, especially in terms of the values they represent, suggesting the conclusion that legal definitions of ‘aviation safety’ and ‘aviation security’ should in part be treated as a sort of ad hoc definitions, which have to be developed (clarified) in each particular case.