Artificial intelligence plays an increasingly important role in legal disputes, influencing not only the reality outside the court but also the judicial decision-making process itself. While it is clear why judges may generally benefit from technology as a tool for reducing effort costs or increasing accuracy, the presence of technology in the judicial process may also affect the public perception of the courts. In particular, if individuals are averse to adjudication that involves a high degree of automation, particularly given fairness (...) concerns, then judicial technology may yield lower benefits than expected. However, the degree of aversion may well depend on how technology is used, i.e., on the timing and strength of judicial reliance on algorithms. Using an exploratory survey, we investigate whether the stage in which judges turn to algorithms for assistance matters for individual beliefs about the fairness of case outcomes. Specifically, we elicit beliefs about the use of algorithms in four different stages of adjudication: (i) information acquisition, (ii) information analysis, (iii) decision selection, and (iv) decision implementation. Our analysis indicates that individuals generally perceive the use of algorithms as fairer in the information acquisition stage than in other stages. However, individuals with a legal profession also perceive automation in the decision implementation stage as less fair compared to other individuals. Our findings, hence, suggest that individuals do care about how and when algorithms are used in the courts. (shrink)

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. (shrink)

Lietuva 2013 m. pasirašė Europos Tarybos konvenciją dėl smurto prieš moteris ir smurto artimoje aplinkoje prevencijos ir kovos su juo (toliau – Stambulo konvencija arba Konvencija), tačiau iki šiol vis dar nėra jos ratifikavusi. 2024 m. kovo 14 d. Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucinis Teismas priėmė išvadą dėl kai kurių Stambulo konvencijos nuostatų atitikties Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucijai. Straipsnyje Stambulo konvencijos atitikties Konstitucijai klausimas yra nagrinėjamas platesniame Rytų ir Vidurio Europos valstybių kultūrinių, politinių, teisinių nesutarimų kontekste. Aptariamos šią Konvenciją supančios abejonės Rytų ir (...) Vidurio Europos valstybėse, šių valstybių konstitucinių teismų sprendimai dėl Stambulo konvencijos nuostatų konstitucingumo, taip pat analizuojamos Lietuvos abejonės dėl šios Konvencijos atitikties Konstitucijai ir Konstitucinio Teismo požiūris į jas. (shrink)

This article explains the main theoretical aspects of legal ethics, identifies the nature and intellectual structures of legal ethics research, and examines the occurrences, relationships, interconnections, developments and emerging trends of the topic of legal ethics in global legal research, using one of the methods of scientometrics – bibliometric analysis. The annual growth of legal research outputs indexed by Scopus was about 7% over the entire period of study (1991–2020). The most popular type of research outputs in the field of (...) legal ethics are research articles. A multidisciplinary scope of scholarly sources on legal ethics reveals the scholarly development of each field/scientific branch that is both unique and integrated with law and legal ethics, unfolds multifaceted perspectives of legal ethics research, and a contextual sociolegal approach to legal ethics as a social, societal, and political expression. Legal ethics is a much broader and more complex phenomenon than simply a set of codes/rules of ethics and requires integrated research: from an understanding of the particular impact and significance of legal education, ethical rules, and personal morality to ethical decision-making processes, cognitive and social factors. (shrink)

Lietuva intensyviai patiria postsocialistines transformacijas, kurios reiškiasi performuojant miesto teritorinę, taip pat socioekonominę ar demografinę struktūrą. Vienas iš sąlyginai naujų šios transformacijos fenomenų – uždarų gyvenviečių plitimas miestuose bei jų regionuose. Straipsnyje siekiama išsiaiškinti, kokį poveikį teritorinei segregacijai turi uždarų gyvenviečių plitimas. Pirmiausia straipsnyje skaitytojai supažindinami su uždaromis gyvenvietėmis Lietuvoje: atsiradimo priežastimis, gyvenviečių tipais, pirmuoju Lietuvoje įkurtu uždaru Bendorėlių kvartalu. Toliau pristatoma išsami užsienio autorių darbuose nurodytų galimų poveikių tiek uždarų kvartalų gyventojams, tiek „visuomenei už tvoros“ analizė. Nustatyti galimi poveikio (...) variantai nurodomi pačių straipsnio autorių sudarytoje matricoje ir aptariami šio poveikio įtakos teritorinei segregacijai ypatumai Lietuvos kontekste. (shrink)

In 2011 the European Court of Human Rights delivered 10 judgments in cases against the Republic of Lithuania. In 9 judgments the Court found at least one violation of rights and freedoms guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 6 which provides the right to a fair trial, remains dominant in the applications against Lithuania, since in 7 out of 10 delivered judgments the Court declared violations of Article 6 (mostly paragraph 1 concerning the length of proceedings). In (...) 2011 the Court as well declared violations of prohibition of torture, right to respect for private and family life and the right to free elections. (shrink)

The education systems can be analysed by using the distinction along different types of welfare regimes. Esping-Andersen (1990) described the Scandinavian universalistic, Continental corporatist, and Anglo-Saxon liberal models. The purpose of the paper is a comparative analysis of the development of educational systems in the Baltic states. We used the PISA 2012 survey data and compared the Baltic countries with three “old” EU member states: UK representing the Anglo-Saxon liberal model, Germany for the Continental corporatist model and Finland as an (...) example of the Scandina­vian model. PISA 2003, 2006 and 2009 data were used for a retrospective analysis of countries’ performance. We considered four aspects of the organization of the national school systems: human and material resources in schools, leadership and the level of school autonomy, assessment, school selectivity and ability grouping. We found that three Baltic states do not represent a single Central and Eastern European model. (shrink)

Background Studies show that people bereaved by suicide often feel a strong need for professional help. It is hypothesized that aspects related to suicide bereavement, such as stigmatization, shame or guilt, hinder help-seeking process of the bereaved. However, little is known about help-seeking behaviors of people who has lost someone due to suicide. Aims This study was conducted to attain a better understanding of the contributing factors, including the specific features of grief following suicide, to help-seeking behaviors of the bereaved (...) by suicide. Methods The sample consisted of 82 adults bereaved by suicide (64 female; average age 37.79, SD = 14.33). Instruments assessing stigmatization, shame, guilt levels, well-being, tendency to disclose emotional distress and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help were used. The participants were also asked an open-ended question what professional help-seeking barriers they had encountered. Comparisons between the groups, logistic regression analysis and thematic analysis of the qualitative data were performed. Results The findings revealed that bereaved participants who sought professional psychological help reported experiencing stigmatization and feeling guilty after the loss significantly more often. Also the results showed that attitudes toward mental health specialists had the highest prognostic value in predicting help-seeking behaviors of the bereaved. The participants themselves identified the gaps in the health care system as main barriers to seeking help. Conclusion The results challenge previously spread notion that stigmatization, guilt and shame after suicide can act only as help-seeking barriers. (shrink)

Nowadays, the major depressive disorder is a common disease that negatively affects the life quality of many people around the world. As MDD symptoms are closely related with the changes in food and eating, the relation between patients’ emotional responses and food tastes could be used as criteria for diagnostic. Until now, studies on the emotional response to different food tastes for patients affected by MDD have been poorly described in literature. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate (...) the emotional response of patients suffering from MDD to the imagined different food tastes and to compare the results with a control group. Emotional responses in tested participants were induced by using cards with words of basic food tastes such as “sweet,” “salty,” “bitter,” “sour,” and “neutral.” The assessment of emotional response was performed with FaceReader 6 software. The outcome of this study showed that participants with MDD expressed lower “happy” and “contempt” and higher “surprised” emotions, along with a higher negative valence mean, in comparison with controls for all tested basic tastes of food. When Likert scale was used, significant differences in response were only found for “sour” and “salty” imaginary tastes between healthy group and patients with MDD. The findings of this study provide the additional data on food–associated emotion analysis of MDD patients and could be useful for the further development of the contactless method for early diagnosis of MDD. (shrink)