Volume 18, Issue 1

The paper argues that in order to become a genuine emancipatory project with a worldwide reach, human rights politics must start by recognizing the false universalism that underlies the conventional conception of human rights. An attempt is made to develop a more cosmopolitan, multicultural conception of human rights on the basis of a diatopical hermeneutics aimed at bridging isomorphic concerns about human dignity in the Western, Islamic and Hindu cultures.

The differentiation of modern societies provides a key role for the subsystem of communication: media meanwhile don’t simply molder - more or less precisely - the „real“ reality; instead of, the construct a media reality of its own, which may override the „real“ reality. According to this development, important is not what is „really“ important but what the media say that is important. Other subsystems of society have to take into account these two realities and, furthermore, that the construction of media reality follows the specific rules of the communication system itself.

It is regarded as obviously that modern societies are literate societies even with written norms. So, the fact that the law is recorded isn’t often mentioned. But the use of literacy has got important consequences for the social life. Based upon the classical conception that there is a connection between the legal order and the social order this contribution firstwill investigate how the literate language changes the legislation, the jurisdiction and the social relations. Then the process of socio-structural transformation will be explained by five different aspects and exemplified by the topic: marriage law.

This study focuses on the relationship between pretrial detention and sentencing in Germany. First the basics of procedural law are critically presented. From the sociological point of view the effect of pretrial detention on sentencing is analyzed by Merton’s concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy being adapted to German jurisdiction. Corresponding to discrimination of minorities and regional disparities it presents the leading results of German and American research. Examining criminal records of three German courts, multivariate statistical analysis results in the following points. On the level of pretrial detention bail judges discriminate foreigners, homeless, unemployed and welfare recipients. Though p retrial detention increases punishment generally, the criminal courts do not discriminate in addition the groups mentioned before. Neither on pretrial detention nor on sentencingjudges favour women. Therefore the data does not support the chivalry thesis.

The objective of this article is, firstly, to show that the intergenerational transmission of divorce, which was known from North American studies only until very recently, is effective in West Germany as well as in East Germany, and, secondly, to familiarize the reader with the explanations for this transmission effect proposed in the North American literature. By taking into account the inconsistent empirical findings for each one of these explanations it is argued that rather than considering these explanations as alternatives in the strict sense, they ought to be integrated into one consistent model based on the assumption that the intergenerational transmission of divorce is a cumulative process, by which the consequences of the parental divorce systematically maximize those factors that are known to increase the risk of divorce. From this perspective, the explanations for the intergenerational transmission of divorce are partial explanations that formulate hypotheses about different mechanisms operating at different points of time in the life course.

Many societies more or less rigorously enforce their prohibition laws with respect to cannabis products (e.g., Hashish, Marijuana) and physiologically more addictive drugs (e.g., Cocaine, Heroin). To justify cannabis prohibition, it is often argued that its enforcement reduces the consumption of hard drugs. Using standard assumptions of prohibition advocates, this paper examines the validity of this argument. Specifically, it models the entry into drug consumption by combining the economic model of crime with some empirical findings from drug research. Assuming a sequential entry into the consumption of light and hard drugs, a formal analysis shows that a more rigorous enforcement of cannabis prohibition may rise the consumption of physiologically more addictive drugs. It further shows that an insufficiently differentiated punishment of the consumption of more and less addictive substances may increase the number of hard drug consumers. The analysis thus indicates inconsistencies in the standard argumentation in favor of cannabis prohibition.