72 votes
Accepted

Who is supposed to teach the law to the citizens?

The answer from @user6726 is a good one. But, I'd like to add to it by pointing out that the body of law applicable to an individual is usually much, much smaller than the entire body of law. I'm a ...
ohwilleke's user avatar
  • 196k
59 votes
Accepted

Is the EU Settlement Scheme legal?

Isn’t this discrimination since nationals do not have to apply? Yes it is discrimination. But that does not make it illegal. In fact discrimination is in general legal unless it is based on some ...
SJuan76's user avatar
  • 5,759
29 votes

Who is supposed to teach the law to the citizens?

This is a difficult question in the philosophy of law, which in some views of what "law" is, is outside the scope of law (that's the view that "the law is whatever is enacted by the government" ...
user6726's user avatar
  • 211k
29 votes

Is it legal to purposefully contract COVID-19?

Governments have a significant interest in controlling pathogens and preventing outbreaks: they are dangerous to dense & unimmunized populations. Can a government legally prevent me from ...
gatorback's user avatar
  • 6,955
29 votes

Can prisoners of war be exchanged against their will?

This question is investigated here. If we take the refugee question off the table for a moment, we need only consider the Third Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War which is ...
user6726's user avatar
  • 211k
27 votes
Accepted

What are the formal requirements to cite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in U.S. courts?

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not self-executing and may not be applied in U.S. courts as binding law. See, e.g., Barbara Macgrady, Note, Resort to International Human Rights Law in ...
ohwilleke's user avatar
  • 196k
27 votes

What are the formal requirements to cite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in U.S. courts?

While ohwilleke gave a good answer on the limits of citing treaties in US courts, there's a more fundamental issue: the UDHR is not a treaty. It's a resolution of the UN General Assembly, and like ...
cpast's user avatar
  • 23.6k
22 votes

Is it legal to purposefully contract COVID-19?

Yes, the government gets to regulate how people work with pathogens. Not least, Coronavirus must be handled in a Biosafety Level 3 facility. It's a good way to collect a manslaughter charge, and a ...
Harper - Reinstate Monica's user avatar
20 votes

How acceptable (mainstream/marginal) is the discussion about replacing the human rights with the natural law and to delete human rights chapters?

how (academically) acceptable are such discussions and proposals? Some academic somewhere has probably discussed it, and did not breach strong academic norms by doing so. Is it the academically ...
ohwilleke's user avatar
  • 196k
19 votes

Can U.S. states establish state religions?

No. The Fourteenth Amendment says: nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; The Supreme Court has determined that this clause incorporates ...
cpast's user avatar
  • 23.6k
19 votes
Accepted

Where are non-binary and intersex prisoners kept?

In the US, the question of gender and facility-assignment depends on whose prison it is – federal, vs. a specific state. There may be a specific policy adopted by a particular prison system, but there ...
user6726's user avatar
  • 211k
19 votes
Accepted

Are there any provisions in Britain which render improperly obtained criminal evidence judicially inadmissible?

There isn't an automatic exclusion rule for all forms of improperly acquired evidence in the UK. I can't find the exact quote but there was a judgement from a senior court that said in terms: "it'...
richardb's user avatar
  • 2,336
15 votes

Is the EU Settlement Scheme legal?

I need to apply for settled status. Isn’t this discrimination since nationals do not have to apply? Yes it is. Isn’t the UK Government breaking the law? No, discrimination is only illegal when ...
Dale M's user avatar
  • 198k
14 votes

Failing to mention when questioned something you later rely on in court

I'm no expert, but I had assumed this clause was present in case of the following situation. Joe is arrested for a robbery of a London bank. Joe says nothing under questioning. At trial, Joe's ...
Nate Eldredge's user avatar
14 votes

Were Nazi atrocities legal according the German law of the time?

It can (and has) been argued that some of the post-bellum trials of Germans and Japanese (but no Italians because they were Allies now) proceeded on shaky legal grounds. However, the arguments of your ...
Dale M's user avatar
  • 198k
14 votes

Have any military personnel serving a democratic state been prosecuted according to the fourth Nuremberg principle (superior order)?

William Calley Convicted of 22 counts of premeditated murder during the My Lai massacre, during his defence he testified: Well, I was ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. That was my job on ...
Dale M's user avatar
  • 198k
14 votes
Accepted

If you know someone is committing infant abuse, do you also commit a crime if you choose not to report it?

united-states There are many different sets of laws in the United States. This post is not a comprehensive survey of every U.S. state and district and territory's laws on the subject. I also do not ...
ohwilleke's user avatar
  • 196k
13 votes

Can U.S. states establish state religions?

Everson v. Board of Education applied the establishment clause of the 1st amendment to state law. Applying the Bill of Rights to state law is known as incorporation as in, incorporating the Bill of ...
Dave D's user avatar
  • 5,565
12 votes
Accepted

What kind of information is a police officer in Germany allowed to ask, in random situations on the street, e.g., during a traffic check?

The German Bar Association published an article about your rights in traffic controls (Polizei­kon­trolle: Das sind Ihre Rechte, July 2018) and an article about your rights in identity checks (Was ...
unor's user avatar
  • 1,136
11 votes

Is it legal to purposefully contract COVID-19?

Anything related to legality for something like this, depends on where you live. Self-harm or attempted suicide can be illegal in some countries such as Japan. It is a criminal offense in others: see ...
Nike Dattani's user avatar
11 votes

Are there any provisions in Britain which render improperly obtained criminal evidence judicially inadmissible?

The “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine is uniquely US In all other common law jurisdictions, including the UK, police who behave inappropriately are subject to employment, administrative and ...
Dale M's user avatar
  • 198k
11 votes

International standards on prisoners' right to vote

The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),1 Article 25, says: Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in article 2 ...
Jen's user avatar
  • 44k
10 votes
Accepted

Blasphemy in the Context of Freedom of Speech

In the United States, blasphemy is really not a crime even if it severely offends certain people and tends to cause them to want to riot and kill the person who offends them. Most Americans who are ...
ohwilleke's user avatar
  • 196k
8 votes

Is there a legal right to party?

The "Right to Party" as defined by the organization known as "The Beastie Boys" is not defined in any portion of their discourse on the matter of the "Right to Party". Rather, the entire discourse ...
hszmv's user avatar
  • 22.8k
8 votes
Accepted

Could one become stateless by first renouncing one's native citizenship, and then having one's naturalization revoked?

There are two approaches to determining citizenship: where you are born (jus soli – this holds in the US), and who you were born to (jus sanguinis – the case in India). There are mixes of these ...
user6726's user avatar
  • 211k

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible