The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected all aspects of people’s daily lives. In response to the pandemic, many countries declared a state of emergency. Extraordinary measures have been implemented to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus. Some of these measures require significant restrictions of fundamental rights and freedoms, such as the right to privacy, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, religious freedoms etc. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the BiH and entity authorities adopted decisions to provide a legal basis for implementation of extraordinary measures. The paper deals with the restrictive measures implemented during the COVID-19 crisis in BiH and their impact on human rights realization. The relevant decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH are also analysed, including the decision in case AP-3683/20 according to which certain restrictive measures are contrary to the right to respect of private life and the freedom of movement.
Freedom of association is one of the fundamental freedoms and is considered one of the necessary elements of a free society. Isolated from other members of the community, an individual would have little chance of successfully resisting the arbitrariness of the ruler, or fighting for social changes that he deems justified. Although judges are also entitled to this right, the very nature of the judicial office may call for establishing certain restrictions on the exercise of this right in order to protect the dignity of the judicial office and public confidence in the independence and impartiality of the judiciary. The first part of the paper focuses on the importance of exercising the freedom of association of judicial office holders. Special attention will be drawn to the role that professional associations of judges play in preserving the independence of the judiciary and improving its position, as well as protecting the rule of law and a democratic order. After referring to relevant provisions of international documents and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the author analyzes the restrictions on the freedom of association of judges adopted in various national legislations. Special attention will be given to the justifiability of prohibiting judges from joining political parties, and the dilemmas arising from the membership of judges in secret societies, i.e. other organizations operating on similar grounds. The second part of the paper focuses on the legal framework of the freedom of association of judges in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the justifiability of restrictions imposed on the exercise of this right.
The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems raises dilemmas regarding their moral and legal status. Can artificial intelligence possess moral status (significance)? And under what conditions? Can one speak of the dignity of artificial intelligence as the basis of its moral status? According to some authors, if there are entities who have the capacities on which the dignity of human beings is based, they would also possess intrinsic dignity. If dignity is not an exclusive feature of human beings, such status also could be recognised by artificial intelligence entities. The first part of the paper deals with the problem of moral status of artificial intelligence and the conditions that must be fulfilled for such a status to be recognised. A precondition for the existence of moral status of artificial intelligence is its ability to make autonomous decisions. This part of the paper considers whether developing autonomous AI is justified, or, as some authors suggest, the creation of AI agents capable of autonomous action should be avoided. The recognition of the moral status of artificial intelligence would reflect on its legal status. The second part of the paper deals with the question of justifiability of ascribing legal personhood to the AI agents. Under what conditions would recognition of legal personhood by the artificial intelligence be justified and should its legal subjectivity be recognised in full scope or only partially (by ascribing to the AI agents a “halfway-status,” as some authors suggest)? The current state of the legal regulation of artificial intelligence will be observed as well.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.