An overview of the criminal offenses against life and body outlined in the [North Macedonia] Penal Code. The code encompasses a range of offenses, including murder, acts of negligence leading to death, and crimes related to suicide, termination of pregnancy, and female genital mutilation.

The penalties for murder vary based on circumstances such as cruelty, insidiousness, or motives like revenge and selfishness. Special provisions address domestic and gender-based violence, as well as harm to specific professionals.

The Penal Code also covers offenses related to life and body resulting from negligence, termination of pregnancy without consent, and forced sterilization. Penalties escalate when these acts cause serious harm, endanger life, or lead to fatalities.

Additionally, the legal framework addresses actions during conflicts, such as threatening with dangerous weapons, participating in fights resulting in death or injury, and abandoning individuals in perilous situations. The code emphasizes the duty to render aid when necessary, prescribing penalties for failure to do so.

This abstract provides insight into the nuanced legal responses to offenses against life and body, highlighting the importance of upholding human life within the legal framework of the [Country's Name] Penal Code.

The concept of local self-government represents a cornerstone of democracy, enabling citizens to participate directly in decision-making processes that impact their communities. This paper explores the legal framework governing municipalities, with a particular focus on the Law on Municipalities as a fundamental document for decentralization and the empowerment of local governance. By examining the rights, obligations, and competencies granted to municipalities, the paper highlights how legal provisions shape the functionality, autonomy, and responsibilities of local authorities. Special emphasis is placed on the role of municipalities in managing public services, financial independence, and fostering local development. The paper also addresses challenges such as transparency, corruption, and the relationship between central and local governments. Through a comparative approach, the study analyzes how similar legal systems in European countries promote effective local governance. In conclusion, the research underscores the importance of a robust legal framework in ensuring efficient, democratic, and sustainable local self-governance, which is vital for the development of responsive and resilient communities.

This paper examines the appointment and role of arbitrators in international arbitration, focusing on how their selection, qualifications, and ethical obligations shape the fairness and legitimacy of the arbitral process. Because arbitration is built on party autonomy and neutrality, the choice of arbitrator is one of the most decisive factors influencing the outcome of a dispute. The study explores the main methods of appointing arbitrators—such as party agreement, institutional appointment, and appointments made by courts or designated authorities when parties fail to agree. It also analyzes the essential qualities arbitrators must possess, including independence, impartiality, expertise, and professional integrity. Furthermore, the paper discusses the procedures for challenging, disqualifying, or replacing arbitrators, with reference to the rules of the ICC, LCIA, and UNCITRAL. The ethical dimension of arbitrators’ work, particularly issues of neutrality, conflicts of interest, diligence, and confidentiality, is examined in light of internationally accepted standards. Through a comparative review of leading institutional rules and relevant academic literature, the paper highlights the central role arbitrators play in ensuring due process and maintaining confidence in international arbitration.

The text focuses on the economic and geopolitical dynamics behind rising global oil, fuel, and natural gas prices and their transmission effects on the Balkan region. It explains how supply shocks, geopolitical tensions, and disruptions in strategic transit routes increase international energy prices, which then transmit into smaller, energy-import-dependent economies. The report emphasizes inflationary pressure, higher transportation and production costs, and the broader impact on household purchasing power. It also highlights structural vulnerabilities in the Balkans, including reliance on imported energy and limited diversification. Overall, the concept presents rising energy prices as both an immediate economic burden and a long-term energy security challenge.

Author:Prof. Dr. Bejtulla Demiri 

In “The Evolution of Ethical Thought: Reason, Meaning, and the Logos–Ethos Tension,” Bejtulla Demiri analyzes the historical development of ethics as a continuous attempt to reconcile the tension between logos (rational understanding of reality) and ethos (the normative search for meaning, value, and dignity). Ethics, according to the author, emerges precisely at the intersection of these two dimensions, where rational knowledge seeks moral orientation.

Demiri begins with classical Greek philosophy, where ethics was grounded in a rational and meaningful cosmic order. Moral life was understood as living in harmony with nature and reason, and virtue represented participation in an objective metaphysical structure. In this classical synthesis, truth and goodness were inseparable, and ethical excellence was aligned with the rational order of the universe.

This unity gradually disintegrated as historical experience weakened confidence in a coherent cosmos. Ethics shifted from public virtue toward individual stability and inner tranquility, while logos itself was reduced to instrumental rationality focused on efficiency and control. As a result, the link between rational knowledge and ethical meaning was weakened.

In response, many societies developed theonomous ethical systems, grounding morality in divine authority rather than human reason or nature. Ethics became a matter of obedience to transcendent command, offering moral clarity and existential security but limiting human autonomy by locating moral authority outside the individual.

The modern era introduced a decisive break by relocating moral authority within the human subject. Ethics was reconceived as autonomy rather than obedience, culminating in deontological ethics, where moral action is determined by rational duty and universalizable principles. While this framework emphasized freedom and self-legislation, Demiri argues that it produced an abstract and existentially thin conception of morality, detached from lived experience, emotion, and social context.

Post-modern ethical thought reacted against this abstraction by questioning the very foundations of morality. Some approaches sought to reintroduce values, emotions, and lived experience, while others critically exposed moral systems as historically contingent constructions shaped by power, fear, and social regulation.

Demiri concludes that contemporary ethics exists without a universally accepted foundation. Neither cosmic order, divine command, rational autonomy, nor objective values can claim absolute authority. Ethics thus becomes an open, reflective practice rather than a closed system—a continuous human dialogue aimed at orienting freedom toward dignity and responsibility in a morally plural and uncertain world.

Ethics is presented as a fundamental human response to vulnerability, uncertainty, and the absence of predetermined meaning. Human beings are not born with a ready-made moral order; instead, moral life emerges from the need to orient action and responsibility in a world that does not provide clear instructions. Ethics is therefore not an external system imposed on humanity, but a creative and reflective practice through which meaning and normativity are constructed.

The development of ethical life is traced as a movement from fear toward autonomy. In its earliest forms, moral orientation arose from vulnerability in the face of an unpredictable world. Norms were shaped by fear, mystery, and obedience to external forces believed to govern reality. Moral life at this stage was heteronomous, grounded in submission rather than understanding.

As societies became more structured, these early orientations were transformed into organized systems of authority. Moral norms were preserved through ritual and hierarchy, often serving power and stability rather than human dignity. Mystery was no longer merely experienced but strategically maintained, reinforcing compliance and limiting critical reflection.

A crucial transition occurs when imagination and narrative begin to humanize reality. Through symbolic meaning and storytelling, fear loosens its grip, and the world becomes interpretable rather than merely threatening. This transformation prepares the ground for critique and reflection, enabling individuals to question inherited norms.

Ethics reaches a decisive stage with the emergence of rational reflection. Moral authority shifts from obedience to justification, and norms must be defended through reasons rather than tradition or fear. Moral autonomy arises as individuals become capable of legislating obligations for themselves through shared rational standards.

However, ethical principles remain empty unless embodied in concrete persons. Moral life is rooted in personality—the reflective capacity to judge, take responsibility, and correct oneself. Ethical action is sustained by care for others and accountability to oneself, transforming freedom into responsibility.

Ethics is realized through praxis, the unity of thought and action. Work, cooperation, and social life become moral when guided by responsibility rather than mere efficiency. Yet modern technological and economic systems threaten ethical life by replacing moral judgment with functional necessity, hollowing out responsibility without overt coercion.

Justice functions as the bridge between personal conscience and collective order. Power becomes legitimate only when exercised as trust and directed toward the common good. The ultimate ethical horizon is the unity of virtue and happiness, understood not as pleasure but as human flourishing achieved through meaningful and responsible action.

Ethics remains an open process rather than a closed system. It is a continuous effort to transform vulnerability into freedom and to shape a form of life worthy of human dignity in an uncertain and interconnected world. Author: Prof. Dr. Bejtulla Demiri