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Based on the presentation delivered by Danutė Jočienė in the international scientific conference on the occasion of the Day of the Constitution in 2022, this article analyses the official interpretation and application of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania during the 30 years of the functioning of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. The authors present the three most significant directions (areas) of the interpretative activities of the Court as well as some powerful examples from the official constitutional doctrine widely formed by the Constitutional Court. In this article, the three main directions (or areas) of the official constitutional doctrine are analysed. Firstly, the authors present the official constitutional doctrine reflecting the basis for the functioning of the State of Lithuania and society in general: the understanding of the Constitution as such, the principle of the supremacy of the Constitution, constitutional restrictions for the amendment of the Constitution, the content of the constitutional principles of democracy and rule of law, as well as the constitutional principle of separation of powers. The second direction presented is devoted to the official constitutional doctrine on the constitutional human rights protection system, and the third reflects the official interpretation of the Constitution in light of Lithuania’s international obligations. As regards the constitutional human rights protection system, the Constitutional Court has, among other things, noted that the Constitution is a majoritarian act which protects every individual. The Constitutional Court has clearly recognised in its official constitutional doctrine the natural character of the human rights acquired by every individual by the fact of birth. A lot of attention has been paid to the dignity of a person as a constitutional value. In the third area, the most important principle formed by the Constitutional Court during the years of its activities is the constitutional principle of the Openness of the Lithuanian Constitution to international law, including European Union law. Such a position developed by the Constitutional Court results in the clear legal obligation to the State of Lithuania to implement all international obligations, and reflects the way that the interpretation of the Constitution is being opened up and made friendly towards international and European Union law. The constitutional geopolitical orientation principle of the State of Lithuania, as developed by the Constitutional Court, is also presented and analysed. In this article, a lot of attention is paid to the powers of the Constitutional Court, granted to it under the Constitution, to officially interpret the Constitution and to form the official constitutional doctrine. Such a jurisprudential function of the Constitutional Court is presented in this article as a constant and systemic process which enables the Court to interpret the existing, pre-formed official constitutional doctrine more widely, adding to it new elements when there is an objective constitutional need and (or) legal arguments for such an evolutive interpretation of one or another constitutional provisions. At the same time, the idea of the Constitution as a living instrument (or the dynamic interpretation of the Constitution) is stressed. The authors come to the main conclusion that, in all three directions presented in this article, over the thirty years of its activities the Constitutional Court has formed a wide or mature official constitutional doctrine which will serve as a constitutional basis for the future activities of the Court, and which will remain as a legal basis for the further evolutive interpretation of the Constitution.

In this paper, first- and second-order discrete-time semi-Markov systems are considered with their finite state space divided into three subsets as perfect functioning states, imperfect functioning states and failure states, respectively. The counting processes for one-step increasing transitions, one-step equivalent transitions and one-step decreasing transitions in working/failure periods are defined and investigated in detail. Formulas for related distributions, joint distributions, expectations, generating functions and joint generation functions are derived in their Z-transforms. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the results established. Extended discussions on related reliability measures are also considered. Finally, some concluding remarks and discussions are presented. Applications of the results presented here can be found in different fields such as seismology, reliability, biology and finance.

African Renaissance is a term which is used to describe new era in African history and strongly serves propaganda reasons. The aim of the article is to analyse the role of this notion in terms of Ethiopia, i.e. how the term is being employed in Ethiopian politics and propaganda. It is stressed that even though the term itself is a new introduction, the idea of building a strong state on the basis of grand tradition has been used in Ethiopian history on several occasions. Nowadays, the best examples of references to Renaissance by the state’s propaganda are to be found in symbolical meaning of the widely discussed and controversial project of construction the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on Blue Nile. Other aspects of how the term is being employed can be seen in a propaganda film material produced by the Foreign Ministry of Ethiopia in 2015 with the view to advertise the achievements of the government.

The Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) brings together the world's finest development thinkers to present their perspectives and ideas. In recent years, a parallel, second conference has been held in Europe with the same goal of expanding the flow of ideas between thinkers, practitioners, and policymakers in the field of international development. ABCDE—Europe 2003 presents selected papers from the fourth annual ABCDE—Europe meetings, held June 24-26, 2002, in Oslo, Norway. Hosted by the World Bank and the Chr. Michelsen Institute, more than 350 eminent scholars and practitioners from 50 countries met to deliberate on the theme 'Towards Pro-Poor Policies'. The papers from sessions on aid, institutions, and globalization provide both a general overview of links between poverty, inequality, and growth, and address specific topics such as the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative for debt reduction. All consider the role of policies and institutions in development and poverty reduction. IN THIS VOLUME: An overview by Bertil Tungodden, Ivar Kolstad, and Nicholas Stern; papers on aid by Nicholas Stern, David Roland-Holst and Finn Tarp, Stephan Klasen, Lisa Chauvet and Patrick Guillaumont, and Jean-Pierre Cling, Mireille Razafindrakoto, and François Roubaud; papers on institutions by Mariano Tommasi, Mushtaq Khan, David Dunham, Stanley Engerman and Kenneth Sokoloff, Karla Hoff and Joseph Stiglitz; and papers on globalization by Jomo Sundaram, John Dunning, Antonio Spilimbergo, Juan Luis Londoño, and Miguel Székely, Andrés Solimano, and Oded Stark.

The speeches in this collection-all delivered since Nicholas Stern became Chief Economist of the World Bank in July 2000-reflect insights that Mr. Stern has gained over more than three decades of study and work in development economics. Together they provide an analysis of development experience and an agenda for action in the coming years.In his introduction, the author explains the evolution of his ideas, starting with early work in Africa and India, within the larger context of changes in development thinking and strategy. The speeches that follow draw on his varied experience and on the research findings and operational experience of the World Bank. The first speech provides an overview of the past five decades of development. Speeches that follow explore current development issues in India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and China. A strategy for development is then outlined: building an economic climate that facilitates investment and growth, and empowering poor people to participate in that growth. A concluding speech examines the role of the international financial institutions in promoting investment and overcoming poverty.