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- Author or Editor: András Sajó x
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The essay is devoted to the role of promise as a moral concept, and, more narrowly, the relationship of promise and offer in contract law. First, it considers the difference between "ordinary" promises and promises having a legal effect. Secondly, the analysis explores to what extent does promise generate obligation. Thereafter, the essay attempts to point to the concept of obligation that provides the best way to establish the moral force of contract. It reaches the conclusion that the relationship between promise as a moral category and facts treated as promise in law is almost accidental. Law is at least indifferent to factors that give rise to moral obligation based upon a promise. However, law (emancipated from the dictates of morals) served freedom better than legal norms formulated in morally coloured terms.
This paper discusses problems related to the incorporation of constitutional rule of law into a pluralistic legal system, primarily in post-communist Hungary. Normative pluralism was characteristic of state socialism. Is this pluralism going to shape the emerging constitution-driven law of post-communism? The paper concludes that although constitutional universalism brought a new dimension to law and in principle has helped to promote the centrality of law in the competitive world of normative orderings, it may in the long run remain an elitist tool, fundamentally ignored or circumvented by sub-legal forms of social interaction.
One of the persistent fears regarding the accession countries envisions that these countries will not catch up with the prevailing practices of constitutionalism and the rule of law that allegedly constitute the common tradition of Europe. It is believed, and in many regards rightly so, that accession to the Union will push Eastern Europe towards the values and institutional settings of modernity. Given the process and political consequences of the accession, as well as for other, historical and cultural reasons, the short term modernization effects of the membership might be limited, even counterproductive. This paper discusses the impact of the current "Europeanization" on the public understanding and institutional structures of constitutional democracy in the new member states. Further, it evaluates the foreseeable impacts of the emerging European Constitution on the constitutional structures (the new checks and balances) in the new member states, except the human rights aspects of constitutionalism.
The principal claim of the essay is that sentiments and assumptions about sentiments - have an important role in setting up constitutional designs and interpretation (“evolving standards of decency”); - constitutional arrangements do have impacts on social emotions; - the disregard of the interrelation of emotions and other forms of cognition condemns legal theory to one-sidedness and the efforts of behavioral economics seem not to undo this one-sidedness. For example, fear is present in the making of many constitutions. Constitutions are designed to give assurances against fear that stems from, among others, pre-constitutional oppression, mob rule and factional passions. Constitutional rights are also structured by emotions: Compassion and indignation serve as emotional grounds to accept and claim human rights. A simplified vision of modernity claims that law and constitutional design is all about rationality. Brain imaging studies indicate that moral emotions guide many moral judgments or are in competition with reasoning processes. Of course, moral emotions contribute to the shaping of law through moral judgments. To the extent law intends to shape behavior, it will rely on its legal folk psychology. A theory of constitutional sentiments shall reconstruct the assumptions on human nature as emotional nature that shape the constitution and its interpretation. Historically, constitutional path dependence presupposes emotional choices and emotional action tendencies that are institutionalized and 'imposed' on law and society. Paradigmatic changes in constitutional law cannot be explained without considering the path-breaking rule of emotions. For example, the commitment to abolish slavery cannot be explained without the emotional condemnation (based on disgust and resulting in indignation) of the institution. The ban on torture is also rooted in sentiments of disgust. Concepts of cruel and unusual punishment are rooted in emotions of disgust. Law is both trying to script emotions (in order to prevent challenges to the status quo) and accommodates prevailing (or preferred) emotions (hence the difficulty of a non-revenge based criminal policy).
The concept of modern constitutionalism is intimately related to notions of state sovereignty. The actual influence of the constitution as a hierarchical tool of nation-state design remains a matter of dubious empirical validity. Today, among the conditions of intergovernmentalism and globalization, state centered constitutionalism is confronting governance by networks: both private domestic networks and networks of national governmental institutions are becoming decision-makers, which cannot be controlled within the concepts of state based constitutionalism. Notwithstanding these developments the above difficulties of constitutional social steering and determination of the public sphere have not resulted in the dethroning of the paradigm of state centered constitutional law in the constitutional law community. Such disregard runs the risk to turn constitutionalism into irrelevant speculation in an age of globalization. In the globalized world the most important decisions and events affecting society escape the control of the sovereign state operating on the principle of territoriality. In this paper I consider two structures of polycentric exercise of public power that are decisive for a new paradigm of constitutionalism. The first type of transnational network structure is primarily a network of private ordering with the participation of administrative bodies of the desaggregating state and private entities associated with the administrative entities (transboundary private networks). A second kind of transnational networks (transgovernmental networks) originates from supranational organizations that operate beyond the nation state. Transgovernmental networks take away traditional governmental functions and overwrite/replace the decisions of the state organs. The taking of state functions includes regulation, adjudication, enforcement, material and other services. The actions of the networks are beyond the control of the constitutionally designated authorities and follow principles, which are unrelated to the otherwise pertinent constitutional principles. The article considers the impact of international networks on the desaggregation of the constitutional state and the possibility of a new legitimation for transnational network-based governance.
Konstitutsionnye proekty v Rossii, 18—nachalo 20 v. otv. redaktory S. Bertolissi, A. N. Sakharov (Moskva: IRI RAN, 2000) Miklós Lévay (ed.): Essays for Professor Emeritus Tibor Horv´th's 75th Birthday (Tanulm´nyok Horv´th Tibor Professor Emeritus 75. sz¨letésnapj´ra). Miskolci Egyetem, Bíbor Kiadó, Miskolc, 2002
Abstract
This article discusses the formation and structure of ammonium tungsten bronzes, (NH4) x WO3−y . As analytical tools, TG/DTA-MS, XRD, SEM, Raman, XPS, and 1H-MAS NMR were used. The well-known α-hexagonal ammonium tungsten bronze (α-HATB, ICDD 42-0452) was thermally reduced and around 550 °C a hexagonal ammonium tungsten bronze formed, whose structure was similar to α-HATB, but the hexagonal channels were almost completely empty; thus, this phase was called reduced hexagonal (h-) WO3. In contrast with earlier considerations, it was found that the oxidation state of W atoms influenced at least as much the cell parameters of α-HATB and h-WO3, as the packing of the hexagonal channels. Between 600 and 650 °C reduced h-WO3 transformed into another ammonium tungsten bronze, whose structure was disputed in the literature. It was found that the structure of this phase—called β-HATB, (NH4)0.001WO2.79—was hexagonal.
Functionalisation of polypropylene non-woven fabrics (NWFs)
Functionalisation by oxyfluorination as a first step for graft polymerisation
Abstract
Surface oxyfluorination had been carried out on polypropylene non-woven fabric (PP NWF) samples of different morphologies and pore sizes. The modified surfaces were characterised by Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform InfraRed (ATR-FTIR)-spectroscopy, FTIR imaging microscopy, X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectroscopy, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), dynamic rheometry and Thermo-Gravimetry (TG). ATR-FTIR and XPS techniques revealed the presence of –CF, –CF2, –CHF and –C(O)F groups. The formed –C(O)F groups mostly got hydrolysed to –COOH groups. The C=O groups of alpha-haloester, and the C=C stretching of the formed –CF=C(OH)– groups could also be detected. Long-lived radicals could be detected on the functionalised surfaces as middle-chain peroxy radicals by ESR spectroscopy. SEM micrographs showed slight roughening of the oxyfluorinated surfaces. Oxyfluorination had no significant effect on the crystalline structure and phase composition of the PP NWF samples supported by DSC and XRD measurements. The molecular mass of the samples were unaffected by the oxyfluorination treatment as proved by oscillating rheometry. The surface modification, however, significantly affected the thermal decomposition but not affected the thermo-oxidative decomposition of PP NWFs. Different morphologies and pore sizes of PP NWF samples resulted in reproducibility of the findings, although did not substantially affect surface functionalisation.
