Medieval Europe was a world of kings, but what did this mean to those who did not themselves wear a crown? How could they prevent corrupt and evil men from seizing the throne? How could they ensure that rulers would not turn into tyrants? Drawing on a rich array of remarkable sources, this engaging study explores how the fears and hopes of a ruler's subjects shaped both the idea and the practice of power. It traces the inherent uncertainty of royal rule from the creation of kingship and the recurring crises of royal successions, through the education of heirs and the intrigue of medieval elections, to the splendour of a king's coronation, and the pivotal early years of his reign. Monks, crusaders, knights, kings (and those who wanted to be kings) are among a rich cast of characters who sought to make sense of and benefit from an institution that was an object of both desire and fear.
The focus of this book is the unique socio-political and socio-cultural community of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the golden age of the late fifteenth to early seventeenth century. This study analyses the cultural and political impact of the values disseminated in the newly created state, such as the concept of the state itself, its governance, representation, laws, and other elements of the socio-political system. Through theoretical and factographic arguments, this book demonstrates that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a social, political, and cultural link between geopolitical and geo-cultural spaces of the Roman West and the Byzantine East. Located at the cultural crossroads of Europe, Lithuania was an ethnically diverse, multilingual, multi-faith, multicultural national space. Nurtured by international contacts, its political system developed rapidly, influencing the formation of geopolitical and geo-cultural mentality of the whole Central Eastern European region.
Introduction to the history of Roman law and its institutions Throughout its history, Europe has been influenced by Roman culture, a culture with a strong sense of society and highly legal-minded. Hence, Roman law is of major importance in European thinking. It was the first subject to be taught at university and it remains tightly interwoven with all layers of European civilisation. This book provides an introduction to the history of Roman law and its institutions, as they developed from Antiquity until the nineteenth century. Concepts such as fundamental rights and freedoms, lawsuits, family law, rightsin rem, and obligations have their origins in classical Antiquity and were developed further throughout European history. The historical processing of our Roman legal heritage is treated from the perspective of comparative legal history. The book is written for undergraduate law students, but is also relevant for scholars from other disciplines.
This book examines the professional activity of public television journalists in Poland operating in the still unstable system of a post-communist state, to demonstrate how the media can work in the public interest to strengthen democracy. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Telewizja Polska (TVP) journalists, the author shows how public television in Poland has become highly politicised and commercialised, and must defend against constant attacks on its autonomy. She draws parallels with the media systems in Hungary and the Czech Republic to analyse potential legal solutions and to highlight how Poland’s journalists are subject to influences from the political class as well as from the market – a situation brought about by flawed legislation, the absence of a political culture, an inefficient internal regulating process, and lack of suitable training for the journalists themselves. Adding an important perspective on recently developed media systems, this book will be an important resource for scholars and students of journalism, media studies, media industries, politics and media history.
During the last decade, 'Hybrid Warfare' has become a novel yet controversial term in academic, political and professional military lexicons, intended to suggest some sort of mix between different military and non-military means and methods of confrontation. Enthusiastic discussion of the notion has been undermined by conceptual vagueness and political manipulation, particularly since the onset of the Ukrainian Crisis in early 2014, as ideas about Hybrid Warfare engulf Russia and the West, especially in the media. Western defense and political specialists analyzing Russian responses to the crisis have been quick to confirm that Hybrid Warfare is the Kremlin's main strategy in the twenty-first century. But many respected Russian strategists and political observers contend that it is the West that has been waging Hybrid War, Gibridnaya Voyna, since the end of the Cold War. In this highly topical book, Ofer Fridman offers a clear delineation of the conceptual debates about Hybrid Warfare. What leads Russian experts to say that the West is conducting a Gibridnaya Voyna against Russia, and what do they mean by it? Why do Western observers claim that the Kremlin engages in Hybrid Warfare? And, beyond terminology, is this something genuinely new?
The rule of law is the most important political ideal today, yet there is much confusion about what it means and how it works. This 2004 book explores the history, politics, and theory surrounding the rule of law ideal, beginning with classical Greek and Roman ideas, elaborating on medieval contributions to the rule of law, and articulating the role played by the rule of law in liberal theory and liberal political systems. The author outlines the concerns of Western conservatives about the decline of the rule of law and suggests reasons why the radical Left have promoted this decline. Two basic theoretical streams of the rule of law are then presented, with an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of each. The book examines the rule of law on a global level, and concludes by answering the question of whether the rule of law is a universal human good.
This book examines the origins of the rise of international rankings, assessing their impact on global governance, and exploring how governments react to being ranked.
A challenging and provocative book that contests the liberal assumption that the rule of law will go hand in hand with a transition to market-based economies and even democracy in East Asia. Using case studies from Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and Vietnam, the authors argue that the rule of law is in fact more likely to provide political elites with the means closely to control civil society. It is essential, therefore, to locate conceptions of judicial independence and the rule of law more generally within the ideological vocabulary of the state.