bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Justification of Inductive Reasoning
Authors: Schurz Gerhard
Published: April 2024

This chapter starts with an overview of proposed solutions to the problem of induction and their failures. Thereafter a centrepiece of the epistemological programme of this book is presented: the a priori justification of the optimality of meta-inductive prediction methods. A predecessor of this account was Reichenbach’s best alternative account of induction. Reichenbach’s account failed because it was developed for object-induction (induction applied to events), while the proposed account establishes optimality for meta-induction (induction applied at the level of methods). Based on recent discoveries in machine learning it is demonstrated that there exists a meta-inductive strategy, called attractivity-weighted meta-induction, that is predictively optimal in all possible worlds among all prediction methods accessible to the epistemic agent. Building on this result, a meta-inductive a posteriori justification of object-induction is given, based on the superior success record of inductive over non-inductive methods of prediction. Taken together these achievements provide a non-circular solution to Hume’s problem. A major philosophical merit of meta-induction is its openness to all kinds of possibilities. Because of this openness, meta-induction offers a novel solution to the epistemological problem of fundamental disagreement. Various further generalizations and applications of meta-induction are presented, including its generalization to discrete prediction games with arbitrary loss functions and with expanding pools of candidate methods, to the rational choice of actions within action games, to the spread of knowledge by meta-inductive forms of social learning and to the theory of cultural evolution.
From Optimal Inductive Methods to Optimal Beliefs
Authors: Schurz Gerhard
Published: April 2024

Chapter 7 begins with the application of meta-induction to the prediction of probability distributions, in the form of probabilistic prediction games. The attractivity-weighted aggregation of candidate distributions yields a predictively optimal probability distribution. The adoption of this distribution as one’s rational degree of belief is justified by the optimality principle, since acting according to this distribution maximizes expected utility. By tracking the success of distributions over games with varying event sequences a meta-inductive a posteriori justification of inductive generalizations in the form of exchangeability assumptions is possible. Section 7.3 is devoted to the optimality of the principle of total evidence as an important complement to methods of induction. It is shown that conditionalizing degrees of belief on one’s total relevant evidence may only increase, not decrease, one’s expected success. The two final sections deal with the justificational transition from rational degrees of beliefs to qualitative (yes-or-no) beliefs. The question of when it is rational to accept a highly probable proposition as a qualitative belief leads into difficult problems involving a clash between different rationality principles, such as Locke’s condition and the principle of conjunctive closure. This clash is exemplified in the lottery paradox and the paradox of the preface. It is argued that the optimal strategy for extracting qualitative beliefs out of rational degrees of belief depends on the context: while for success-essential beliefs a high probability of strict truth is mandatory, for global theories a high probability of approximate truth is sufficient.
The Justification of Theory-generating Abduction
Authors: Schurz Gerhard
Published: April 2024

Chapter 10 solidifies the higher-order justification of theory-generating inference; thereby distinguishing between the instrumentalistic and realistic perspectives. The instrumentalistic justification is based on the optimality of meta-induction applied to the instrumentalistic success of theories, integrating their predictive and use-novel explanatory success with their simplicity. More difficult is the justification of the realistic truthlikeness of theories and its defence against strong versions of instrumentalism such as the instrumentalistic Ramsey sentence. The proposed realistic justification is based on a weak principle of causality together with a strengthened optimality principle. The strengthened optimality principle asserts than an instrumentalistically optimal theoretical model is realistically justified if all of its equally successful competitors employ an isomorphic copy of it as a submodel together with additional complications. The assumed causality principle is a weakening of the causal Markov condition. It asserts that if two variables are probabilistically correlated, then they are either related as cause and effect, or are joint effects of a common cause. This entails that mutually correlated dispositions with independently manipulable triggering conditions are the joint effects of an unobserved common cause. The causality principle is not a priori but is in turn justified by a non-causal abductive inference, as the only plausible explanation of two well-known (in)dependence properties of statistical correlations: screening off and linking up.
The Monatomic Boltzmann Equation
Authors: Li Hui , McCourt Frederick R.W.
Published: April 2024

The Boltzmann equation for dilute monatomic gases has been strictly derived. Quantum mechanics has so far been ignored, but it seems more appropriate to begin from a quantum mechanical description, from which the classical result could be obtained as an appropriate limit. Thus, the question of proper quantum statistics is discussed in the present chapter. Equations of change and collisional invariants have been derived from the Boltzmann equation. The entropy produced of the gas by collisions between pairs of atoms has also been presented. As a nonlinear differential equation is generally rather difficult to solve, linearization of the Boltzmann equation becomes a viable option when the state of the gas is not far removed from an equilibrium state that may be characterized by the requirement that its collision term vanish. According to a similar principle, the Boltzmann equations for mixtures have been derived
Realistic Interatomic Potential Energy Functions
Authors: Li Hui , McCourt Frederick R.W.
Published: April 2024

Chapter 3 is devoted to realistic interatomic potential energy functions (PEF) and begins with a discussion of the need for more accurate representations of these functions. Following a historical discussion of the Mie/Lennard-Jones potential energy model for interatomic interactions and its improvement, the chapter covers the basic Hartree–Fock plus damped dispersion (HFD) and exchange-Coulomb semi-empirical models, and develops the employment of empirical multi-property fitting procedures and the Morse/long-range (MLR) representation of the potential energy function (PEF). Direct inversion of both microscopic and bulk property data are discussed in detail. The quantum chemical ab initio determination of binary atomic interaction energies and their analytical representation is discussed, followed by detailed considerations of the interaction energies between pairs of noble gas atoms
Comparison Between Theory and Experiment
Authors: Li Hui , McCourt Frederick R.W.
Published: April 2024

The present chapter is concerned with connections between theory and experiment. It first considers the pure noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon) and presents extensive comparisons between calculated and experimental bulk properties. It goes on to describe the correlation concept and examines the universal viscosity correlation using both experimental and computed (ab initio) values. A quantitative statistical measure of the level of agreement between a particular experimental data set and the calculated behavior may be provided by the dimensionless root-mean-square deviation, or DRMSD, value. Finally, it gives a detailed discussion of binary mixture properties.
From Ab Initio Calculations to Spectroscopic and Thermophysical Properties
Authors: Li Hui , McCourt Frederick R.W.
Published: April 2024

Chapter 5 focuses on how to obtain the spectroscopic and thermophysical properties of a molecular system theoretically (ab initio) step by step and provides a reference for the specific theoretical calculation work. A consistent set of Morse/long-range functions are used to describe interactions between pairs of noble gas atoms. The chapter also presents a full set of fitting parameters for Morse/long-range fits to noble gas atomic interactions, which may be employed to make sensible comparisons between experimental and computed results. Finally, it concludes by covering spectroscopic properties and thermophysical properties and how they relate to theoretical work throughout the book
Europa patria nostra
Authors: Lorimer Marta
Published: April 2024

This chapter examines how the MSI/AN and the RN employed the concept of identity to define Europe. It shows how since the 1970s, the parties thought of ‘Europe’ as a distinct civilization, with clear boundaries separating it from foreign others. Both groups claimed to belong to this civilization and initially supported European integration in its name. However, from the mid 1980s onwards, the RN began to develop a ‘pro-Europe, anti-EU’ message which presented the EU as a violation of Europe’s true nature. The MSI/AN, on the other hand, did not adopt a similar position, remaining broadly collaborative in its stance towards EU integration. Claiming to hold a European identity and support Europe, the chapter argues, made it possible for the parties to refashion their message in a more transnational direction and draw on a form of legitimacy by association which helped them address critiques of them as ‘closed’ nationalist organizations.
States of emergency
Authors: Lorimer Marta
Published: April 2024

This chapter shows how the MSI and the RN, but not AN, employed the concept of threat to characterize Europe. In the 1970s and 1980s, both political parties presented ‘Europe’ as endangered by a series of internal and external threats. In the 1990s, the MSI’s transformation in AN entailed the abandonment of a rhetoric of emergency. The RN, for its part, shifted from being aware of threats to Europe to speaking of the distinct threat posed by the EU. The chapter argues that this far-right version of emergency politics made it possible for the parties to validate their own ‘exceptional’ political action. By identifying a threat, advocating for the need to address it, and identifying themselves as the most appropriate actors to do so, the parties promoted the idea that given the circumstances, their own ‘extreme’ positions were a commensurate response to the dangers being faced.
For the nation and for Europe
Authors: Lorimer Marta
Published: April 2024

This chapter looks at how the MSI/AN and the RN employed the concept of national interest and those of identity, liberty, and threat to approach the principle, practice, and future of European integration. It shows how the parties repurposed these concepts to define their views on the EU as a concrete political project. The chapter argues that each of these concepts is tied to the parties’ core doctrine of nationalism, and that drawing on them to define their positions on Europe contributed to their legitimation by enabling them to highlight consistency. Even as the parties were changing, displaying attachment to existing principles made it possible for them to stress continuity, and show their traditional voters and activists that they still cared about the core principles that first led party supporters to back them.
Conclusion
Authors: Lorimer Marta
Published: April 2024

This chapter summarizes the book’s key argument and discusses its broader implications. It considers whether Europe can still function as an ideological resource, and whether other new topics could perform a similar function. It then evaluates the extent to which ‘Euroscepticism’ as a term captures the far right’s relationship with Europe, suggesting it lacks precision. It discusses how the findings from the book help shed light on the phenomenon of far-right ‘nationalist internationals’ and discusses the implications of the book’s findings for the European Union. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the rise of Brothers of Italy, the successor party of the MSI/AN.
Introduction
Authors: de Ruiter Adrienne
Published: April 2024

Why should we consider what dehumanization entails in light of the global migration crisis? This chapter shows why it is necessary to carry out an analysis of the dehumanization of refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants. Dehumanization requires more careful attention than it has currently received in scholarship and public debate because academics, journalists, commentators, and displaced persons themselves frequently identify it as a factor that can have a severe negative impact on the well-being of those involved, yet widely divergent views exist on what dehumanization entails. A closer look at the various forms of social and moral exclusion that affect the (forcibly) displaced is needed to draw sharper distinctions between dehumanization and related concepts, such as marginalization, stigmatization, inhumane treatment, and infra-humanization. Without a more clearly delineated understanding of what dehumanization entails, we run the risk of failing to grasp what makes this form of exclusion distinctively morally wrong.
Lyric
Authors: Procter James
Published: April 2024

Chapter 1 explores the lyrical appeal of airborne media in the wartime broadcasts of Una Marson and Langston Hughes. From their respective bases in London and New York, the transmissions of Marson and Hughes crossed the Atlantic in opposite directions via the networks of the North American Service and the Home Service. Their parallel trajectories on the BBC reveal previously unexplored connections between the two mid-century poets. Powered by pneumatic forms that harnessed shortwave communication to reinvent the print conditions of lyric poetry, they were among the first to transition from the page-based ‘typosphere’ to the atmosphere of wireless. Covering the radio feature, the ballad opera, and programmes of poetry and music, this chapter examines a body of work fuelled by the flying African legend, incendiary devices, air raids, aviation, and airwaves, in order to generate expressions of black transnational solidarity.
Local Colour
Authors: Procter James
Published: April 2024

Chapter 5 considers a staple of overseas broadcasting, which presented ‘word pictures’ of Britain ‘at work and play’ from the oblique points of view of its late colonial residents. Combining the genres of travel writing, ethnography, and literary fiction, the thousands of scripts that these eye-witness formats yielded between the outbreak of the Second World War and the late-1960s constitute one of the most remarkable records of Britain during the critical decades of imperial decline, and mass migration to the metropole. Aired to listeners in the West Indies and West Africa, the vast majority were never heard by home audiences. By eavesdropping on these external transmissions, this chapter seeks to reintroduce their insistent narratives of cross-cultural encounter to the domestic cultural history of mid-century Britain, from postwar reconstruction and the Festival of Britain (1951), to the rapid rise of immigration following the Queen’s Coronation (1953), and the aftermath of the Notting Hill riots (1958). Focusing on the ‘ways of seeing’ and forms of ‘local colour’ developed by figures including A. E. T. Henry, Stuart Hall, George Lamming, and Chinua Achebe, it examines how writers responded to the implosion of empire in real time. As the BBC’s early imperial mission of metropolitan projection became, in the hands of overseas broadcasters, subject to forms of cultural translation, the corporation’s own unambiguous distinctions between Home and Overseas Services were drawn into question.
Introduction
Authors: Briggs Adrian
Published: April 2024

This chapter examines the application of foreign law in an English court, as this is the most characteristic effect of the rules of conflict of laws, and asks whether the methods by which this is done in an English court are as effective as they should be. The chapter then examines the common law technique of characterization, the principle of renvoi and the approach to the incidental question as well as describing the connecting factors and analysing the law of domicile. This is followed by an examination of the claims of comity and an introduction to the problem caused by statutes whose intended scope of operation is not declared by Parliament. Finally, the chapter describes in general terms the consequences of Brexit for English private international law.
Jurisdiction
Authors: Briggs Adrian
Published: April 2024

This chapter looks at the way in which the various kinds of jurisdiction of an English court are established, and at the role of service of process in the creation of jurisdiction. It deals with the three broad types of jurisdiction: (i) where a statutory rule directly confers jurisdiction on a court; (ii) where jurisdiction is established by service effected on a defendant within the jurisdiction; and (iii) where jurisdiction is established by service on a defendant out of the jurisdiction with the permission of the court. The chapter asks whether ‘jurisdiction as a result of service’ is a satisfactory basis for adjudication in a cross-border case; and whether the fifty-seven gateways to jurisdiction by service out with permission still serve a useful function. The chapter examines the procedure for making objections to the jurisdiction and to the exercise of jurisdiction, and assesses the grounds on which this can be done. It then examines the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements and deals with the problem of wrongful litigation overseas, by anti-suit injunction and by damages for breach of a contractual promise about where to sue.
Foreign Judgments
Authors: Briggs Adrian
Published: April 2024

This chapter examines the effect of a foreign judgment in the English legal order and makes the first and most important point that a foreign judgment has, as such, no effect in England unless Parliament has made specific provision for its registration. The chapter shows how the common law principles of recognition as res judicata are fundamentally based on the agreement of the losing party to accept the adjudication of the foreign court, and that this explains the basis of the ‘doctrine of obligation’. It explains that the obligation created by the foreign judgment provides the cause of action for an English judgment, and that any enforcement that takes place is of the English, not the foreign, judgment. This is followed by an examination of the defences which may be raised to the recognition of a foreign judgment and why criticism of them is misguided. Finally, the chapter discusses the scheme of and principles explaining, the statutory registration schemes of 1920, 1933 and 1982, folowed by an overview of the Hague Conventions of 2005 and 2019.
The Lex Fori
Authors: Briggs Adrian
Published: April 2024

This chapter examines the role of the law of the forum, the lex fori, in and across the subject and explains the pervasive role of English domestic law in the conflict of laws as the primary choice of law rule in several areas in which the application of foreign law might be principled but would, as a practical matter, be just too problematic. The chapter then examines the issue of procedure versus substance, and the extent to which issues which were once procedural ones may now be understood differently. It then investigates the role and reason of the lex fori in refusing to enforce foreign penal, revenue and other public laws, and the various formulations, and effects, of public policy as a reason to disapply or disregard a rule of foreign law otherwise selected for application by the rules of the conflict of laws.
Contractual Obligations
Authors: Briggs Adrian
Published: April 2024

In this chapter the rules of the conflict of laws for contractual obligations are examined, and explained. The common law approach to the proper law of the contract is taken as the point of departure. The definition of contractual obligations, and of civil and commercial matters, which are both terms of art in the retained Rome I Regulation are then examined in detail. The nature of choice of law by the parties within the framework of the Regulation is measured and compared/contrasted with the approach which was taken by the common law. The particular regimes for special types of contract are examined (that for contracts made by consumers is shown to be in particular need of reform or reconsideration). The solution to questions of contractual formation contained in the retained Rome I Regulation is shown to be principled and far better than the alternatives. The conflicts rules for contracts not within the scope of the Rome I Regulation are briefly examined.
Non-Contractual Obligations
Authors: Briggs Adrian
Published: April 2024

In this chapter, the rules of the conflict of laws for non-contractual obligations are examined, and explained. The chapter starts with a survey of English, and other, approaches to the conflict of laws rules for torts, and explains how none of them seems to be satisfactory. The Private International Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1995 is briefly mentioned, and its rules for finding the applicable law viewed favourably. The retained Rome II Regulation is then examined in relation to torts and to unjust enrichment, negotiorum gestio and culpa in contrahendo. The real difficulties created by a conflicts rule which uses the place where the damage occurred are exposed. Some solutions are proposed, but the rule is assessed to be one which has not worked as well as might have been hoped for. The approach to concurrent contractual and non-contractual obligations is shown to be rational and advantageous.
Introduction
Authors: Hopkins Robert
Published: April 2024

The phenomenon that forms the central topic of the book, sensory imagining, is introduced and distinguished from other forms of imagining. Four features of its phenomenology are described, by way of laying down some initial constraints that a theory should meet. There follows a brief review of some of the views that have been prominent in the history of philosophical discussion of the topic. That focusses on Sartre and Ryle’s theories of sensory imagining since the problems facing those positions allow us to draw lessons that any alternative must heed. Finally, we are offered a sketch of the argument to come.
Imagining and Agency
Authors: Hopkins Robert
Published: April 2024

Some imaginings are actions, others apparently are not—they come to us unbidden, even against our will. Is imagining a genus that splits into active and passive species, or is all imagining in some way connected to agency? This chapter defends the latter view. It does so by exploring two aspects of imagining, first as a power subjects possess, and second as an occurrence that actualizes that power. Viewed as a power, imagining exhibits in each of us a distinctive ‘shape’—a set of features its possible actualizations exhibit. That shape is broadly the same across active and passive imaginings. The best explanation is that in each of us both passive and active imaginings actualize a single power. But is it a power to act that sometimes misfires, or a passive power that results in action given the right circumstances? To answer, we turn to imagining as an occurrence. Here various ways to avoid splitting the genus have been proposed. Some claim that every imagining is an action. Others say imagining is always subject to the will. Others again say that imagining is always ‘spontaneous’. The chapter argues that the strongest defensible position is that, though not always controlled, imagining originates in that part of the self that in general exercises control. Since control is intimately tied to action, this line on occurrent imagining dovetails neatly with one of the views above about imagining as a power. The single power actualized in all imaginative occurrences is a power to act.
Observation, Overflow, and Attention
Authors: Hopkins Robert
Published: April 2024

In perception, we observe what we perceive. In imagining, we are not able to observe the things we imagine. This chapter defends this negative claim and refines a related contrast concerning overflow (how far the things we perceive or imagine exceed our awareness of them). In perception, observation may involve either adjusting perceptual relations to the object, or attending to certain of its features. In imagining, even an imagined change in perceptual relations never extends awareness of the imagined, at least, not in the form required for observation. Nor, the chapter argues, is it possible to attend to what we imagine.
Aesthetic Engagement, Imagining, and the Draw of the Real
Authors: Hopkins Robert
Published: April 2024

Paradigm cases of aesthetic engagement are perceptual: we engage with the aesthetic character of things by perceiving them. But is perception the only home for aesthetic engagement, or can we also aesthetically engage with things in imagination? Intuition suggests so. And intuition may seem to find support in Kant’s claim that what matters to aesthetic engagement is the character of our representations alone, not whether there is anything they capture. This chapter argues otherwise. Beginning with some simple thoughts about pleasure’s motivational structure, and what it motivates in the very different contexts of imagining and perceiving, it argues that imagining supports at best a pale shadow of engagement, and perhaps nothing worthy of the name. In consequence, if Kant’s claim is to be true, it will need careful interpreting.
Why study trust?
Authors: Seyd Ben
Published: April 2024

The chapter explores the importance of studying trust. It notes the invidious position we appear to be in today, where trust is seen as a vital democratic commodity, yet whose levels have declined in many countries. Given this challenge, it is imperative to be clear about some key aspects of trust. First, what does trust consist of; what is its nature? Second, to what extent has trust declined? Is there a general crisis of trust; if not, where do the particular problems of trust lie? Third, what are the consequences of low and declining levels of trust? Do these outcomes represent surmountable challenges to democratic political systems or signal a more fundamental crisis for these systems?
Is there a problem of trust?
Authors: Seyd Ben
Published: April 2024

This chapter provides a comprehensive picture of people’s trust in different state actors and institutions in Britain, of how levels of trust vary within the population, and of how far levels of trust have changed over time. The results point to declines in people’s trust in partisan actors but to stable levels of trust in other public actors. The chapter also explores how far changes in trust among British citizens have been mirrored among populations in other advanced industrial countries. The chapter concludes by summarizing the evidence and considering whether western countries, and Britain in particular, face a ‘crisis’ of trust.
Modern Exegesis of Philippians 2:6–7
Authors: Magree Michael C.
Published: April 2024

This chapter begins by examining early twentieth-century form-critical approaches to Philippians 2:5–11. These approaches saw these verses as a distinct piece of literature, likely pre-Pauline, and debated whether it pointed to a Christology that recognized Christ as pre-existing his human conception. Later representatives of the “New Perspective” on Paul frequently claimed by contrast that the lines were authored by Paul and also frequently claimed that Christ’s self-emptying was a key demonstration of divine love. Particular focus is given to the work of Michael J. Gorman, N. T. Wright, and Richard Bauckham, who see in kenosis a manifestation of Paul’s conviction that God desires to suffer with human beings because of who God is. At each stage, the presuppositions of the thinkers are examined in order to gain clarity about why certain interpretations are plausible in the modern period.
From Exemplary Individuals to Private Persons with Rights
Authors: Iurlaro Francesca
Published: April 2024

In early modern doctrines of ius gentium, the question of the individual’s position was particularly controversial. There are, however, two tendencies that can be observed in the legal reasoning of authors of the ius gentium tradition. The first trend is referred to in this chapter as an ‘exemplary conception of the legal status of individuals’; according to the second trend, boundaries between individuals and sovereigns are conceived as porous and are defined by expediency. Examining the prerogatives of individuals is a powerful means to reflect on sovereign powers and on the limitations of the distinction between ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres.
From Re- to Demoralisation
Authors: Somos Mark
Published: April 2024

This chapter sets out to trace shifts and evolutions in the legal standing of the individual in international legal thought and practice between 1648 and 1789. In the period examined, the state of nature, legal epistemology, and recognition were the three key, interrelated but distinct concepts that framed debates and laws regarding the individual’s standing in international law. The chapter follows these concepts in the international thought of Thomas Hobbes, Richard Cumberland, Samuel Pufendorf, Christian Thomasius, Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, and Emer de Vattel, and examines the concepts’ applications in practices of war, the international legal order, sovereignty (including growing incompatibility between the sovereign’s two, public and private, bodies), reason of state, and human rights, especially protections of habeas corpus, and the right to freedom of religion.
Legal Positivism and the Individual in International Law
Authors: Hernández Gleider
Published: April 2024

Even if one is not methodologically positivist, an engagement with positivist legal thinking—in its most basic sense of studying posited or willed law—continues to form the bedrock of academic and practical thinking about the international legal system. The recent history of international legal positivism demonstrates, however, that any marginalisation of the individual has been due to its melding with a State-centred, consensualist vision of international law, which is not logically or methodologically necessary. Though there have been attempts to decouple international legal positivism from State-centrism, or to ground it purely in formalist reasoning, this chapter suggests that a vision of positivism as primarily methodological can open avenues towards the possibility of paradigmatic change in respect of the relationship of the individual and the foundations of international law.
A Marxist Account of the Individual in International Law
Authors: Veličković Marina
Published: April 2024

This chapter takes Marx’s account of the individual as its starting point and asks: can international law have a meaningful role in the transition from capitalism to communism, thus contributing to the establishment of material conditions necessary for full individuality? The chapter argues that it cannot because the logic of capitalism is embedded in its very form, making it impossible for international law to overcome its history of complicity in violence and dispossession. Whether, however, there are still ways in which individuals can use international law (specifically international human rights law) in struggles which are anti-capitalist and emancipatory is considered. This is explored in reference to the work of environmental activists in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The chapter concludes that while there may be some utility in using human rights to articulate radical demands in institutional settings, law cannot and should not be at the centre of emancipatory movements.
Intellectual Formation
Authors: Upton Robert E.
Published: April 2024

This chapter offers a new survey of the educational milieu in colonial Maharashtra and its evolution from the mid-nineteenth century, including a study of the institutions that had a formative effect on Tilak: the English-medium high school and above all Poona’s Deccan College, where he took his BA degree; this sets the scene for an account of the early life and education of Tilak himself. The ‘Europeanized’ milieu of Sanskrit studies Tilak encountered is of primary importance, as is the anglicized historical consciousness that these institutions propagated. Of particular significance in this intellectual milieu is the nexus of Bombay-based missionaries and orientalist scholars who developed and disseminated the Aryan theory of race in western India. This was a crucially important cosmopolitan intellectual framework that Tilak inherited. And indeed it was in this Bombay-based nexus that the standard applications of the Aryan theory to India—including the development of caste as a consequence of a prehistoric Aryan invasion—were developed, something not grasped in current literature.
Reforming Hindu Society
Authors: Upton Robert E.
Published: April 2024

This chapter looks at Tilak’s efforts to revive Hindu society, with a focus on caste identities and their relationship to social power and authority. It examines Tilak’s espousal of a radical kshatriyatva, ‘warriorness’, among all castes, a highly gendered identity reflecting concerns over lost manliness within Hindu society. The chapter is thus concerned with Tilak’s conception of masculinity and its relationship to individual and social power, forming a complement to studies examining Tilak’s dismissive views of the education of women. Tilak’s self-strengthening, martializing agenda, very prominent in the Gita Rahasya, also informed Tilak’s consistent calls for the military enlistment of Indians, even urging them immediately after his release from imprisonment for sedition to fight in the King-Emperor’s armies in the Great War. This was no egalitarian conception of caste identity, for Tilak was in fact hostile to the claims to social authority of self-professed kshatriyas themselves, and to distinct non-Brahmin political organization and representation. Rather, Brahmins, appropriating aspects of kshatriya identity, were the natural leaders of Hindu society, which would maintain distinctions between varnas, as shown by Tilak’s coolness to the eradication of untouchability and hostility to inter-caste marriage.
Conclusion
Authors: Upton Robert E.
Published: April 2024

This chapter offers reflections on the totality of Tilak’s output, focusing on his preoccupation with constructing a peculiar Indian modernity within which Brahmin agency was central. It also offers a characterization of Tilak as an intellectual, and in turn reflects upon what this suggests for the concept and practice of global intellectual history relating to modern South Asia. Tilak was both remarkably closely formed by some unreconstructed colonial intellectual categories and approaches, on caste and community, as well as in terms of textual authorities for Hindu dharma, and his perceptions of the weakness and passivity of the Hindu community of modern times; at the same time he was clearly marked by western Indological approaches to textual exegesis. Further, Tilak’s output demonstrates the importance of awareness of moments of imbrication between ‘exogenous’ ideas and those precolonial and often microregional argumentative forms and understandings, foregrounded anew in the context of new and pressing socio-political concerns under colonialism, as for instance the ethical implications of Hindu notions of cosmic time (specifically the Kaliyuga, last and degraded age in this cosmic cycle) show his engagement across time with contested and living Indic traditions. Equally, Tilak’s own conceptions of the ‘global’ also show him drawing on Indic terms and concepts, specifically using Vedanta to create a universalizable model of sovereignty. No less important is Tilak’s self-conscious role as global intellectual, engaging with cosmopolitan intellectual frameworks (for instance on Aryan history), itself an important criterion of ‘global intellectual history’.
Africa’s Chequered Journey to Constitutional Democracy
Authors: Nwabueze Ben
Published: April 2024

This chapter takes a brief look at Africa’s chequered journey towards constitutional democracy. Independence did not fully liberate Africans from the oppressive and de-humanising yoke of colonial bondage. The one-party state and military governments that came on the political scene after independence, like a menacing Leviathan, were equally as de-humanising. The chapter argues that doing away with dictatorship in the 1990s did not mean the same thing as installing sustainable democracies. Many of the entrenched regimes either merely went through the democratic motions or as newly democratic regimes succumbed to various forms of authoritarian reversion. The chapter points that of the five landmark events in African history, colonisation was the most far-reaching and devastating in its consequences because the continent is still held hostage to its colonial past, and may continue to be so held for an indefinite period of time. Another revolution, this time a social and ethical revolution, is needed to try to resolve the continent’s lingering and vexed problem of governance in this colonially created modern state system.
Introduction
Authors: Steytler Nico , Fombad Charles M.
Published: April 2024

This volume on Constitutional Identity and Constitutionalism in Africa brings a number of important research questions to the fore—historically, contemporarily, and prospectively. First, it raises the question of whether the concept of constitutional identity provides a useful optic with which to look at and appreciate African constitutions. The second question concerns the role of path dependency in forming constitutional identities. To what degree have colonial heritages shaped the constitutional identities that surfaced in independence and post-independence constitutional ordering? A third issue relates to the widening gap between most African constitutions—which in many cases incorporate fundamental principles of modern constitutionalism—and the actuality of practice. A fourth question is whether African traditional authorities and institutions are part of national constitutional identity-building or merely a sentimental cultural relic of the past with little relevance today? Closely related to this is the question of whether constitutionalism should form part of an African constitutional identity. These questions are addressed in the comparative and case studies.
Constitutional Identity and Constitutionalism in Africa
Authors: Fombad Charles M.
Published: April 2024

Debates about the identity of modern constitutions are not new, and for a while have attracted the attention mainly of Western scholars, particularly in Europe and the United States. The issue of an African constitutional identity in the post-1990 constitutional renewal and post-‘Rhodes Must Fall’ era raises the question of whether, at a practical level, existing constitutional paradigms, concepts, and normative ideologies are suited to developing a stable and sustainable constitutional system of governance founded on the basic principles of modern constitutionalism. This overview of the concept of constitutional identity considers several questions. What is constitutional identity? What are the prevailing theories of constitutional identity? What are their main characteristics and elements? The chapter also examines constitutional identity in the African context. It is against this background that the chapter considers the link between constitutional identity and constitutionalism in Africa.
Constitutional Checks and Balances in Traditional Africa
Authors: Ayittey George B.N.
Published: April 2024

The widespread fallacy that has endured over the centuries is the notion that Africa has neither history nor viable institutions and that its people laboured under tyrannical and despotic systems. This misconception is not only factually incorrect but also served as a perversely convenient alibi for the tyrannical regimes that proliferated in pre-colonial and postcolonial Africa. The purpose of this chapter is to debunk this mythology, one that has done incalculable damage to postcolonial development, by examining Africa’s indigenous political systems. The chapter discusses four main traditional polities: empires, kingdoms, stateless societies, and chiefdoms with centralised authority. These illustrate certain aspects of a distinctive African constitutional identity in the form of traditional checks and balances. The main contention is that the real tragedy today is not so much the European propagation of mythology about traditional Africa but its continuation by modern African leaders who established tyrannical systems in postcolonial Africa with no checks and balances. This aided and abetted the postcolonial destruction of Africa.
Constitutional Identity and Disruption in Contemporary Ethiopia
Authors: Kefale Asnake
Published: April 2024

Ethiopia has a long history of constitutions, with its first modern (written) constitution having been introduced in 1931. Since 1931, the country has continued to suffer from several constitutional disruptions. In the context of these frequent changes, there is a heated debate about the future prospects of the 1995 Constitution. This chapter argues that the problem of constitutional disruption, or discontinuity, may be explained by the absence of an overarching constitutional identity. A number of factors underlie the problem, with the following being of paramount importance: the first set of factors relate to the process and context in which the text of constitutions are produced; and the second concern the inability of constitution-makers to reconcile foreign ideas with the country’s socio-political identities and constitutional disharmonies. Unless these challenges are addressed, the formation of an enduring constitution will continue to be elusive.
Rooting Constitutional Identity in African Countries without Pre-colonial Institutional Traditions but with National Values
Authors: Pina-Delgado José
Published: April 2024

This chapter examines the experience of the Republic of Cape Verde’s constitutional law in recognising communitarian values as part of its constitutional identity. Beginning with an account of the country’s political and constitutional history before independence, the chapter analyses the context of approval and the main values of the fundamental laws that marked the former and current constitutional order so as to evaluate whether it reflects the cultural identity of the Cape Verdean people; it also emphasises the efforts recently taken by the Constitutional Court of Cape Verde in strengthening that connection and rooting constitutional law in the local creole identity and in certain institutional traditions developed since colonial times. The chapter concludes that the process of constructing Cape Verdean constitutional identity is the result of a patchwork of norms that represent (a) universal values; (b) regional values, both European and African; and (c) values created by the national experience of hybridisation.
Cameroon and the Crisis of Constitutional Identity
Authors: Anyangwe Carlson , Fombad Charles M.
Published: April 2024

This chapter provides context to the political crisis which is threatening to end the fragile union between the anglophone and francophone communities of Cameroon. In view of their distinct colonial heritage and experience, differences in language and culture, and disparity in population size, the federal arrangement that formed the basis of the union in 1961 seemed the ideal institutional framework for forging a sense of unity in diversity. It was meant to form the foundation for the emergence of a common constitutional identity. The chapter discusses how and why this failed. Indeed, the present constitutional framework does not reflect the country’s history and the hopes, desires, fears, and aspirations of the two communities. The crisis, seen more widely, raises serious questions about the ability of Africans in the twenty-first century to rise above their colonised mindsets and fashion institutions that address the recurrent governance challenges they face.
Taking Power from the People
Authors: Elgebeily Sherif A.
Published: April 2024

The notion of constitutional identity is contested, with little agreement about how it may be defined. This chapter focuses on Egypt, where identities are multiple and have been subject to both external and internal influences, and asks what the indigenous constitutional identity of Egypt is. Despite having had no written constitution prior to 1923, Egypt has long been influenced by Islamic, Ottoman, and later British occupations and, as a result, their laws and codes. In recent years, a process of amendment in 2016 and 2019 has drastically shifted the meaning and content of the Egyptian constitution arguably away from representation of the people and in a more autocratic direction, one reminiscent of the 1923 Constitution and its enshrinement of hereditary monarchy. This chapter considers whether the Egyptian constitution—like a chameleon—has changed to match the environment in which it exists and what fundamental elements it has drawn from Egypt’s history.
Principles
Authors: von Bogdandy Armin
Published: April 2024

Key to the transformation of European public law and the emergence of a European democratic society are the principles of Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The chapter presents them as the European constitutional core. To this end, it puts forward a theory of European constitutional principles that lays out their various functions. This includes theorizing identity, which is perhaps the most critical concept in recent debates. The chapter shows how that perspective helps make sense of the recent jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union. It then traces the transformation of the two most discussed principles over time: rule of law and democracy. The chapter analyses the rule of law with the help of trust theory. It then proceeds to reconstruct it with reference to the doctrines of legality and direct effect as well as the Union’s reform of weak state institutions, as found in Greece or Romania. It then continues by demonstrating that the democratic principle has been transformed, particularly by a European Union (EU)-specific understanding of it that stands between apology and utopia, and one that many still fail to grasp. The chapter concludes by showing the advent of European transformative constitutionalism as European institutions have started to develop instruments to impose EU principles against governments that systemically infringe them.
Scholarship
Authors: von Bogdandy Armin
Published: April 2024

Scholars play their own social role: more than simply describing their legal systems from without, they often mould them from within. They shape the concepts and principles, construct and legitimize legal and political institutions, and inspire and criticize the development of the law. Depicting the transformation of European public law, therefore, requires depicting the transformation of its scholarship. The chapter starts by outlining European legal scholarship against the background of Schmitt’s The Situation of European Jurisprudence: the role of European institutions, the spectre of hegemonic structures, and academic identities. It then addresses the thorny question of how to square academic activism with the principle of democracy: legal scholarship, to play a role in a democratic society, must be democratic. On that basis, the chapter reflects upon academic critique (as well as theoretical and doctrinal constructions) and lays out the role of European comparative law. The chapter concludes by exemplifying its understanding of legal scholarship with a doctrine of criminal liability for public officials who have harmed individuals in breach of the values of Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, that is, who have violated the very core of European democratic society.