Vloga sistema zavor in ravnovesij v Združenih državah Amerike pri spoštovanju pravic ujetnikov v Guantánamu : doktorska disertacija

slovenian

doktorska dela

2022

Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za družbene vede
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

Constitutional democracy is based on the doctrine of limited government, whereby the functioning of state authorities is constitutionally constrained with the aim of better effectuating human rights and freedoms. While the system of limited government is embedded in the various and numerous political systems and constitutional frameworks of states, the scientific literature seldom studies it.The present interdisciplinary dissertation closes this gap with its original contribution to the scientific disciplines of political science and legal science in two phases. The first involves the use of a qualitative research approach to devise a theoretical model of the system of limited government and its typology in light of a preceding study of the historical development of the political idea and constitutional principle of limited government. The system of limited government is defined along three dimensions (material-substantive, functional-structural, and value-substantive) and comprises five constitutional institutes (enumerated powers, federalism, separation of powers, system of checks and balances, and constitutional rights). The typology of the system of limited government is delineated both at the level of the limited government and at the level of the institutes of the system of limited power, whereby we derive a relation-based and extent-based typology at both levels.In the second phase, the dissertation employs a mixed-methods research approach to empirically examine the role of the constitutional system of checks and balances in the United States, as an element of the system of limited government in better safeguarding the rights of Guantánamo detainees between 2001 and 2020. In transferring these alleged international terrorists to the Guantánamo Bay detention camp as part of the so-called ‘War on Terror’ that the United States initiated in response to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, the U.S. executive branch failed to respect their human rights. We may conclude that the system of checks and balances had a positive role in determining the scope of the legal protection of and procedural respect for the right of Guantánamo prisoners to habeas corpus and to humane treatment, while this same system had a negative impact on the scope of the legal protection of and procedural respect for their right to due process and to freedom.

11.05.2023