bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Loss and Dissipation: The RLC Circuit
Authors: Steel Duncan G.
Published: July 2021

The effects of energy loss or dissipation is well-known and understood in classical systems. It is the source of heat in LCR circuits and in the application of brakes in a vehicle or why a struck bell does not ring indefinitely. Understanding quantum behavior begins with understanding the Hamiltonian for the problem. Classically, loss arises from a coupling of the Hamiltonian for an isolated quantum system to a continuum of states. We look at such a Hamiltonian and develop the equations of motion following the rules of quantum mechanics and find that even in a quantum system, this coupling leads to loss and non-conservation of probability in the otherwise isolated quantum system. This is the Weisskopf–Wigner formalism that is then used to understand the quantum LCR circuit. The same formalism is used in Chapter 15 for the decay of isolated quantum systems by coupling to the quantum vacuum and the resulting emission of a photon.
The Role of Law in Enabling Postgenocide Recovery
Authors: Shah Rajika L
Published: July 2021

This chapter assesses the role of law in enabling postgenocide healing with particular reference to restitution. The analysis pays close attention to restitution and compensation in the postHolocaust setting. It shows that while Holocaust survivors and their heirs have worked towards achieving some degree of restitution from Germany and other actors complicit in the crimes, obtaining restitution for other genocide victim groups has been a challenge. Indeed, none have been able to replicate the success of the Holocaust restitution movement. However, since the Holocaust, international and domestic law have increasingly required compensation for the victims of mass atrocities. In exploring the factors which condition whether any restitution is achieved, the analysis finds that there is no uniform application of law. As a result, the ability of law to adequately address the need for restitution to genocide survivors is an open, and disturbing, question.
Memory, Identity, and Possession
Authors: Hawkes Martine Louise
Published: July 2021

Contributing to discourses of postgenocide identities, memories, and irreconciliation, this chapter explores the role of museums, archives, and galleries (‘GAMs’) in constructing a history of genocide through personal objects they collect and display, and ways in which these objects are mobilized to give physical shape to particular narratives. These institutions are presented as being reflexive; they do not simply mirror the world but also produce what we know about particular histories and people. The analysis suggests that the role GAMs play in producing public knowledge of genocide is apparent in the power they hold over what they will, or will not, collect or keep, and which story they’ll tell through the arrangement and description of these objects. The personal objects, removed from their original setting, stand not only in the context of a collection but also in the broader political and ideological context of the construction of the genocide narrative.
Indigeneity, Memory, and Postgenocide in Guatemala
Authors: Esparza Marcia
Published: July 2021

Whereas scholars and activists have examined different aspects of causes and processes of the genocide against the Indigenous Maya community in Guatemala (1981–1983), its aftermath continues to be under-represented in the existing literature. This gap obscures the lingering effects and long-term repercussions of extreme forms of state violence and the reality of resistance by Maya communities. The chapter examines the role played by local archives in decolonizing dominant narratives, which silenced Indigenous Maya resistance against state violence in the wake of genocide in Guatemala in the early 1980s. In this sense, the recovery and preservation of local archives (maintained by Indigenous communities) can reveal alternative memories of resistance to state violence. The chapter considers what presentations of genocide in local archives suggest for the framing of current identities and understanding of indigeneity, and whether local archives might promote intra-community and national reconciliation in the context of persisting genocide legacies.
Conclusion
Authors: Davey Christopher P
Published: July 2021

This chapter considers how genocide violence might be framed through the lens of postgenocide. It contemplates, from a world-systems view, the relationships that genocidal violence has to climate change, resource exploitation, warlordism, and crisis-ridden states. Actors within this paradigm are varied and generally labelled as militarized without necessarily a particular state-based authorization. This conception is explored using a variety of cases. Use of postgenocide is not an attempt to broadly redefine genocide. It is to emphasize an approach where legal and historical views on genocide are complemented in capturing the intersections of the geopolitical order, warlordism, climate change, and resource exploitation. The analysis takes into account recent developments, including those in climate violence research. In doing so, the analysis seeks to illuminate the concept of postgenocide so that it could be applied to other conflicts involving mass violence beyond formal states and traditional conceptions.
Collapse and the Varieties of Quantifier Variance
Authors: Eklund Matti
Published: July 2021

The aim of this chapter is to bring clarity regarding the doctrine of quantifier variance (due to Eli Hirsch), and two prominent arguments against this doctrine, the collapse argument and the Eklund-Hawthorne argument. Different versions of the doctrine of quantifier variance are distinguished, and it is shown that the effectiveness of the arguments against it depends on what version of the doctrine is at issue. The metaontological significance of the different versions of the doctrine is also assessed. Roughly, quantifier variance concerns there being different possible existential quantifier meanings, and often the doctrine involves a claim to the effect there is no unique “best” quantifier meaning. Much of the discussion in the chapter concerns what it is to be an existential quantifier meaning in the sense at issue.
What Counts as a ‘Good’ Metaphysical Language?
Authors: Miller J. T. M.
Published: July 2021

The objectively best language is intended to refer to some metaphysically privileged language that ‘carves reality at its joints’ perfectly. That is, it is the kind of language that various ‘metaphysical deflationists’ have argued is impossible. One common line of argument amongst deflationists is that we have no means to compare languages that all express true facts about the world in such a way to decide which is ‘better’. For example, the language is physics is not objectively better than the language of economics, as each language has the semantic purpose of expressing some domain of truths about the world inexpressible in the other language, and therefore neither could be ‘objectively best’. This chapter argues that metaphysical deflationists have failed to recognize a distinction between fine- and coarse-grained semantic purposes of languages, and that a recognition of that distinction provides us grounds to compare languages to see which is objectively best. It argues that once we recognize the distinction between fine- and coarse-grained semantic purposes, then we can see that it is relative to the coarse-grained purpose that we must compare putative objectively best ontological languages.
The Questions of Ontology
Authors: Woodward Richard
Published: July 2021

Despite its enduring influence, Quine’s account of how we should both understand and go about answering ontological questions has come under increasing fire in the recent metaontological literature. The focus here is on one important and influential critique of Quine’s views, due to Kit Fine (2009), who argues that Quine’s picture of ontology is thoroughly misguided insofar as it both misidentifies the subject matter of ontological questions and misconceives the appropriate methodology for pursuing ontological inquiry. Taking up the defence on behalf of Quine, the chapter argues that Fine’s central objections to the Quinean approach are unsuccessful since the Quinean is well positioned to both explain the apparent triviality of many existential questions and explain how ontological questions might remain open, even once everyday existence questions have been answered in the ordinary business of life.
Philosophizing
Authors: Lærke Mogens
Published: July 2021

This chapter offers a text- and term-oriented analysis of the term “philosophizing” and of the meaning it acquires within the argumentative economy of the Tractatus theologico-politicus. It argues that by “philosophizing,” Spinoza understands forms of argumentation based on the natural light common to all and tied to the use of right or sound reason. It includes not just adequate deductions from certain premises and legitimate inferences from true definitions, but also reasoning from experience and certain principles of interpretation; not just rational analysis of truth, but also historical inquiry into meaning and sound judgment regarding authority. When recommending that the state should grant permission to engage in free philosophizing, what Spinoza had in mind was thus something considerably broader than just allowing natural philosophers to pursue their studies without interference from the theologians.
The Apostolic Styles
Authors: Lærke Mogens
Published: July 2021

This chapter focuses on chapter XI of the Tractatus theologico-politicus where Spinoza offers an analysis of the Apostles’ Letters in the New Testament. On his analysis, the Apostles use a “style” or “mode of speech” in their Letters which is argumentative, candid, non-apodictic, and egalitarian. Contrasting it with the style of prophetic command used by the Apostles in the Gospels, he also defines the epistolary style in terms of giving mutual “brotherly advice.” This style, I argue, forms a veritable paradigm of how to engage in free philosophizing. The chapter also shows how, by conceiving the collective exercise of the freedom of philosophizing in terms of mutual teaching and open sharing of knowledge among noble minds, Spinoza draws on common, classical ideals of intellectual friendship.
Prejudice, Deception, Flattery
Authors: Lærke Mogens
Published: July 2021

This chapter studies submissive and abusive ways of using our natural authority to teach and advise, all averse to the freedom of philosophizing. In submissive uses, we reinforce our own lack of control over our own free judgment. They are associated with what Spinoza describes as “preoccupied” or “prejudiced” minds. Such preoccupation and prejudice are contrasted with the integrity and self-contentment of minds in control of their own free judgment. In abusive uses, we prevent others from exercising their freedom of judgment. Spinoza discusses them as “deception with evil intent” and “flattery.” The chapter resituates these notions in a complex context of classical sources and contemporary accounts of similar vices, most importantly humanist discussions of fraudulent political counsel. The chapter finally offers an account of how submissive and abusive uses of the natural authority to teach and advise relate to violent rule and the political instrumentalization of the mob.
Foundations I
Authors: Lærke Mogens
Published: July 2021

The chapter studies the so-called doctrines of universal faith, developed in chapter XIV of the Tractatus theologico-politicus. The theoretical truth or falsity of such doctrines is irrelevant to their purpose. They only serve to structure the collective religious imagination of common people according to a certain practical standard which consists in the exercise of justice and charity alone. It is, however, still necessary that those who profess doctrines of faith should believe them to be true in order for them to fulfill their practical purpose. This insight prompts Spinoza to break with the model of doctrinal minimalism otherwise favored by tolerationist thinkers in his intellectual context. Contrary to them, he maintains that the so-called adiaphora play a significant role in ensuring that people embrace true religion. The argument is at the heart of Spinoza’s cautious and in some respects conflicted defense of religious pluralism.
The Language of War
Authors: Greig Matilda
Published: July 2021

This chapter provides an account of how Peninsular War memoir-writers depicted being a soldier in the early nineteenth century. It considers both positive and negative representations of the experience of war, covering themes such as daily life on campaign, comradeship, ideas of martial masculinity, the role of women, and descriptions of violence both on and off the battlefield. In doing so, it highlights the ways in which Napoleonic veterans innovated on previous war writing and contradicted broader, patriotic narratives of the conflict. In the last part of the chapter, the concept of the veteran as active, politicised author is introduced, with examples of soldiers who used their published memoirs to change or challenge national military policy.
Conclusion
Authors: Greig Matilda
Published: July 2021

This concluding chapter provides a summary of the key points made in the book. It emphasises that a new methodology is needed for analysing Napoleonic war memoirs, and indeed war memoirs in general, one which includes a closer consideration of the active role of veterans as authors, the material history of the book, and a comparative, transnational approach. Seen through these lenses, Peninsular War veterans’ autobiographies and the commercial publishing industry that developed around them over the nineteenth century are responsible for shaping the modern war memoir, and for laying the foundations for the mass popular appeal of tales of soldiers’ war experiences today.
Technology Upgrading in Emerging Economies
Authors: Luca Bruno Randolph , Osaulenko Kirill , Radosevic Slavo
Published: July 2021

The chapter applies a newly developed approach to technology upgrading to a sample of sixteen economies during 2002–16. The “Index of Technology Upgrading” is based on three complementary, but autonomous components that proxy for three different dimensions of the technology upgrading process: scale or intensity of technology activities (A); breadth or scope of technology upgrading activities (B); and interaction with the economy related to technology exchange (C). The results of our study reveal facets of the technology upgrading process and the relative positions of countries, which conventional mainstream approaches and composite indicators do not make evident. We conduct an econometric exercise, which shows that the index of technology upgrading contributes significantly to explaining changes in both total factor productivity and labor productivity, but that the index of technology exchange has no explanatory power. This latter result suggests that to contribute to increased productivity, openness to technology exchange needs to be complemented by domestic technology accumulation activities.
Upgrading Non-Technological Capabilities
Authors: Choung Jae-Yong , Hwang Hye-Ran
Published: July 2021

In recent years, Korean firms have struggled with slowdowns of both these world-first developments and their export to overseas markets. Despite technological development process, however, important questions remain with respect to how non-technological capabilities such as organizational, regulatory, and financial innovation affect accumulation and failure. To address these concerns, the key components of a conceptual framework for investigating non-technological capabilities for transition consist of the existing government, R&D organizations, and inter-firm relations. We analyze the performance and limitations of non-technological capabilities in the process of transition from the catch-up system to the innovation-based system in Korea. Using the case study of system rather than mass products, we hope that this research can contribute to the understating of non-technological features of energy-sector transitional dynamics in Korea. Finally this research would provide a new approach to the challenges from a non-technological aspect and can also provide differentiated science and technology policy strategies for the catch-up economies.
Leapfrogging on Steroids
Authors: Mathews John A.
Published: July 2021

Accounts of economic development as catch-up, via technological leverage and leapfrogging, have been successfully applied to explain cases of catch-up by East Asian countries, from Japan through Korea to Taiwan, Singapore, and others. Now in the twenty-first century it is the turn of emerging industrializing giants, led by China, but with India, Brazil, and others also looking to catch up, drawing as much as possible from the prior experiences and strategies of East Asia. But these emerging giants are looking to industrialize in fundamentally different circumstances from those that applied in earlier cases as industrialization powered by fossil fuels and linear resource flows is no longer feasible, not just because countries have pledged to reduce carbon emissions, but because at the scale required for the industrialization of China, India and others, fossil fuels present insuperable energy and resource security problems. They confront geopolitical limits to growth that demand alternative green strategies if they are to be evaded. The argument is developed in this chapter that green development strategies are the only feasible strategies for such countries to enable them to bring their industrialization processes to fruition. This chapter outlines the issues and options open to them, and evaluates the strategies pursued so far, demonstrating how they necessitate a break with the path dependence inherited from earlier patterns of industrialization. Green growth strategies turn out to be a strategic necessity; they promise to become the developmental norm in the twenty-first century, enabling the more recent industrial arrivals to leapfrog their predecessors.
Using Large-Scale Programs to Help Develop Technological Capabilities
Authors: Gao Xudong
Published: July 2021

China is a developing country but has made impressive progress in technological capability development. One strategy proved to be effective is the use of large-scale programs to help technological capability development. Examples include the subway equipment industry, the high-speed rail industry, the power generation equipment industry, the power transmission industry, the telecom equipment industry, etc. In all these sectors, China was lagging behind the technological innovation frontier before the related large-scale programs but is now among the world leaders. In this chapter we will try to understand the process of initiating and managing these large-scale programs.
Voter Heuristics and Group Politics in Global Focus
Authors: Donnelly Michael J.
Published: July 2021

In this chapter I summarize and extend the argument that many people use ethnic and regional heuristics to make inferences about their own future incomes. That, in turn, leads them to think about redistribution differently depending on their ethnic or regional group’s income. I argue that understanding politics requires understanding groups and how people relate to them. I highlight the role of institutions and political actors, and raise the possibility of a progressive’s dilemma in which highlighting ethnic or regional inequality may cause a backlash against redistribution among richer groups. I close by highlighting some paths for future research.
Reasoning About Measurements
Authors: Rau Jochen
Published: July 2021

This chapter explains the approach of ‘operationalism’, which in a physical theory admits only concepts associated with concrete experimental procedures, and lays out its consequences for propositions about measurements, their logical structure, and states. It illustrates these with toy examples where the ability to perform measurements is limited by design. For systems composed of several constituents this chapter introduces the notions of composite and reduced states, statistical independence, and correlations. It examines what it means for multiple systems to be prepared identically, and how this is represented mathematically. The operational requirement that there must be procedures to measure and prepare a state is examined, and the ensuing constraints derived. It is argued that these constraint leave only one alternative to classical probability theory that is consistent, universal, and fully operational, namely, quantum theory.
Computation
Authors: Rau Jochen
Published: July 2021

This chapter introduces the basic building blocks of quantum computing and a variety of specific algorithms. It begins with a brief review of classical computing and discusses how its key elements – bits, gates, circuits – carry over to the quantum realm. It highlights crucial differences to the classical case, such as the impossibility of copying a qubit. The quantum circuit model is shown to be universal, and a peculiar variant of quantum computing, based on measurements only, is illustrated. That a quantum computer can perform some calculations more efficiently than a classical computer, at least in principle, is exemplified with the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm. Other examples covered in this chapter are the variational quantum eigensolver, which can be applied to the study of molecules and classical optimization problems; quantum simulation; and entanglement-assisted metrology.
Communication
Authors: Rau Jochen
Published: July 2021

This chapter introduces the notions of classical and quantum information and discusses simple protocols for their exchange. It defines the entropy as a quantitative measure of information, and investigates its mathematical properties and operational meaning. It discusses the extent to which classical information can be carried by a quantum system and derives a pertinent upper bound, the Holevo bound. One important application of quantum communication is the secure distribution of cryptographic keys; a pertinent protocol, the BB84 protocol, is discussed in detail. Moreover, the chapter explains two protocols where previously shared entanglement plays a key role, superdense coding and teleportation. These are employed to effectively double the classical information carrying capacity of a qubit, or to transmit a quantum state with classical bits, respectively. It is shown that both protocols are optimal.
Categorizing Metatheologies
Authors: Kvanvig Jonathan L.
Published: July 2021

The approaches I am focusing on are representatives in a category scheme derived from the twentieth century concern that led to the rise of metaethics, a concern over what to make of the different kinds of declarative sentences in natural language. Some such sentences are straightforwardly descriptive (“The cat is on the mat), while others are evaluative (“Ice cream is the best dessert”), and still others are normative (“Drinking and driving is forbidden”). Here we see how these categories line up with our fundamental metatheologies, with Creator Theology being descriptive, Perfect Being Theology being evaluative, and Worship-Worthiness Theology being normative.
Creator Theology and the Shared Ground
Authors: Kvanvig Jonathan L.
Published: July 2021

The focus of this chapter is Creator Theology’s implications regarding the issues of monotheism, personhood, and embodiment. The plan is to use these primary elements as stage-setting, showing that Creator Theology has impressive advantages primarily over Perfect Being Theology on these matters, but also over Worship-Worthiness Theology. I take up each of these issues in turn, focusing on monotheism in §2, personhood in §3, and embodiment in §4. The conclusion aimed at is that Creator Theology is superior to its competitors, though in a way that is subject to important qualifications that leave room for alternative approaches to claim that the advantages are not decisive.
The Shared Ground Prospects for Worship-Worthiness Theology
Authors: Kvanvig Jonathan L.
Published: July 2021

Worship-Worthiness Theology is the least explored metatheology among our competitors, and this chapter begins the task of remedying this deficiency. Worship-Worthiness Theology begins from the idea that God is supremely worthy of the highest worship. Our task in this chapter is to consider the prospects for this theology for showing that God is a person, that there is only one God, and whether God is embodies. I argue that WWT shares some deficiencies on these issues with Perfect Being Theology (in comparison with Creator Theology), but, more surprisingly, it has advantages over Perfect Being Theology in other respects.
Creator Theology’s Disadvantages
Authors: Kvanvig Jonathan L.
Published: July 2021

Creator Theology has important but not decisive advantages over both Worship-Worthiness Theology and Perfect Being Theology. So it is important to see how far Creator Theology can go toward sustaining the starting points of these competitor positions. We begin by correcting the history of the discussion of this issue, for the historical discussion confuses our metaphysical issue with an epistemological one. Once this confusion is corrected, we will be in a better position to see that part of the judgement of history on Creator Theology is correct: it can’t derive the starting points of its competitors. We will also be in a position to see, however, how minimal this disability is.
The Misconceived Quest for the Elusive Right Answer or Dedication to a Process, Not a Result
Authors: Waluchow W. J.
Published: July 2021

This chapter assesses whether the exercise of judicial discretion in answering pivotal legal questions is necessarily illegitimate in a constitutional democracy. It argues that legitimacy does not necessitate existing right answers and a rejection of judicial discretion. This argument rests on two factors: first, the difficulty of determining, in any particular case, whether there is a right answer and what that might be; and second, the fact that judicial discretion does not consist in unbridled choice on the part of one who exercises it. The answer to the interpretative concerns over constitutional judges should not be overcome by relying on the idea of a unique correct answer, but rather by a dedication to the decision-making process. The chapter then considers the idea of the 'Community Constitutional Morality', under which each legal system instantiate a set of moral values embedded in its constitution, from which judges should not depart. It is the constitution and the local social practice that determines such 'constitutional morality', and not an ideal set of external objective morality. This idea mitigates the 'counter-majoritarian' objection, as judicial review would reflect the commitments deeply held by the society where it is being exercised.
The Machinery of International Law and Democratic Backsliding
Authors: Ginsburg Tom
Published: July 2021

This chapter focuses on the abuse of international rights to political participation so as to facilitate a leader's remaining in office beyond the constitutionally mandated term. This involves not only the abuse of the interpretation of rights, but also the abuse of the doctrine of unconstitutional constitutional amendments, which has spread around the world in recent years. How does this happen and what, if anything, can international law do about it? After introducing a motivating case — the famous decision of the Colombian Constitutional Court in the second re-election decision, in which courts stood for the protection of democracy — the chapter examines recent 'bad' cases in which rights and constitutional amendments are abused to extend leaders' terms. It surveys recent developments in the law of term limits, and briefly proposes a normative interpretation of the right to political participation which ought to be consistent with the emerging doctrine. The chapter suggests that there is an emerging consensus, at least in some regions of the world, that there are limits in states' ability to modify term limits unconditionally.
Between the Explicit and Implicit Limits? An Analysis of Judicial Review of the Constitutional Amendment Doctrine in Colombia
Authors: Cantillo Linares
Published: July 2021

This chapter illustrates the Colombian Constitutional Court's explicit and implicit powers to undertake the judicial review of constitutional amendments. It begins by describing and analysing the 'explicit' procedural limits of the Colombian 1991 Constitution and the doctrine about the implicit unamendability. Through a quantitative analysis of both types of judicial review, the chapter demonstrates how the two approaches have developed in Colombia, and how in that context, there is an inverse relationship between the claims based on implicit limits (increasing behaviour) and those of explicit limits (decreasing behaviour). It then sheds some insights on the discretion that judges deploy when enforcing these implicit limits. The chapter raises some criticism on the fact that the Colombian Court does not have a clear interpretation on its own competence and scope to review constitutional amendments. It also claims that the excessive use of the doctrine of implicit unamendability has the undesired effect of focusing only in these principles, thus 'relaxing' procedural judicial review, giving the idea of less strict examination of the compliance with the rules governing the constitutional amendment process, and thus decreasing the quality in deliberation.
Constitutional Rights without the Notion of OptimizationLimiting Judicial Activism in the Realm of Social and Economic Rights
Authors: Tschentscher Axel
Published: July 2021

This chapter argues that apex courts should not take the place of the legislative or the executive branch. It takes a critical stance towards the notion of optimization that legal principles entail. Optimization results in judicial activism that, in turn, shifts the power from politics to courts. The chapter then looks at some decisions by the German Federal Constitutional Court considered 'activist decisions' in the realm of socio-economic rights, and compares their follow-up with the Colombian experience. It suggests that judges must play a rather modest role and limit themselves to a case-by-case rationale even if social rights are systematically under-enforced. The chapter also calls the courts' attention to be aware of the financial restrictions of their countries. Finally, it asks courts to create incentives for the legislatures and executive branch to commit with social and economic rights, and insists that follow-up measures should not be taken by apex courts, but rather by the political branches.
The Court’s Dilemma in Social Rights’ Enforcement
Authors: Ferraz Octávio Luiz Motta
Published: July 2021

This chapter presents a critical approach towards the role that many courts are assuming in the protection of socio-economical rights in the Latin American context. It argues that the proper role of courts must necessarily vary according to the formulation of the social right in question. As a general rule, the more absolute and specifically formulated the right — or its corresponding obligation — the higher the institutional competence (legitimacy and competency) of courts will tend to be, and vice versa. When obligations are stated in vague fashion, such as the right to housing, health, and education in Colombia, Brazil, and South Africa, the room left for interpreting contending definitions is not only ample, but it often involves the intractable question of social policy design that must be studied by the executive and legislative branches. The chapter then contends that courts should play, at most, a complementary role. It invites courts to take more creative approaches in the enforcement of socio-economic rights.
How can Rights be Individuated?
Authors: Bilchitz David
Published: July 2021

This chapter focuses on how courts should individuate social and economic rights. Although all rights can be judicially enforced, judges must have a different approach to each right; there are substantial differences even among social and economic rights themselves. Analysing the recent Dladdla case of the South African Court, the chapter argues that it is not possible to confine human interests regarding housing to bare survival, but other dimensions of the right to housing come into play. In this sense, it seems to take the stance of the 'interest theory' of rights, according to which despite their canonical formulations, rights have a dynamic character due to ever-evolving interest and duties that rights are there to protect and impose. This dynamism is even clearer in pluralist societies, where disagreement on those interest and duties flourishes. The chapter then calls the attention on how courts should do their job in regards to the interpretation and enforcement of socio-economic rights; it suggests taking an 'integrated' approach, which acknowledges the interconnection of the various rights.
The Resilient Constitution
Authors: Dyzenhaus David , Diamond Alma
Published: July 2021

This chapter evaluates the so called 'transitional constitution' of South Africa and the 'permanent constitution' of Colombia. Through a comparative approach, it contends that constitutions are better understood in terms of their resilience rather than either being transitional or permanent, and that a 'resilient constitution' is the one capable of springing back even after being subjected to extreme pressure, as long as leaders maintain their commitment to governing within the limits of the law. In this sense, the differences between the Colombian transitional justice and the South African case do not stem primarily from the 'permanence' of its Constitution, but rather from the difficulties and tensions inherent to any transitional justice process, because it derives from some of the very rights it is designed to promote. The chapter then details how the jurisprudence of the Colombian Constitutional Court on transitional matters can be understood as having moved from an understanding of the Constitution as permanent, to one of resilience that does not represent a new power grabbed by the Court. Rather than that, it signals an understanding of the role of the Court in maintaining a constitutional order even in the face of existential threats to it.
Judging the Justice of the Colombian Final Agreement
Authors: Murphy Colleen
Published: July 2021

This chapter studies the text of the Colombian peace agreement (also known as the Final Agreement), arguing that the justice component of this agreement depends on the extent to which the envisioned transitional process contributes to social transformation. Despite the fact that societies emerging from periods of conflict or repression characteristically try to address past wrongs using processes that are not criminal punishment, there is a deep disagreement as to whether true justice is achieved with alternative measures such as amnesty or a truth commission. To that extent, justice, in transitional circumstances, is not aimed at giving perpetrators what they deserve, but rather in transforming the political relationships among citizens and between citizens and officials, and in doing so in a just manner by treating victims and perpetrators fairly. The chapter then explains that the justice process outlined in the Final Agreement is comprehensive. By drawing on the cases of Northern Ireland and South Africa, it discusses the temporal dimension of transitional justice and the constitutional changes that occur in the pursuit of it.
Righting Wrongs or Wronging Rights?
Authors: Acosta-Navas Diana
Published: July 2021

This chapter highlights one of the classical and most disputed debates in transitional literature: the ethical justification of the transitional justice measures, as opposed to its legal dimensions. By employing a conceptual analysis to spell out the 'retributive' and 'holistic' conceptions of justice, it argues that both views fail to fully tailor their normative framework to the empirical conditions in which such institutions are implemented (e.g. large-scale wrongdoings and institutional weakness). In this sense, the chapter draws out a proposal that synthesizes the motivating concerns behind both positions, and attempts to overcome the diagnosed flaws, by drawing a conceptual bridge between the two opposing views. Rather than advocating for one position or the other, it tries to articulate the crucial insights of both views in light of the victims' right to justice. It suggests that transitional justice measures should be oriented towards creating appropriate conditions to enable and legitimize the future exercise of standardized procedures for redress.
International and Foreign Law in Domestic Constitutional Law
Authors: Ndulo Muna
Published: July 2021

This chapter illustrates the role of international and foreign law in domestic constitutional law. Through the case analysis of South Africa (a post conflict state) and the United States (often seen as a country that is not too friendly to international and foreign legal systems), it discusses the role of international and foreign law in reconciling the regional development of the rule of law in a country, by working closely together with domestic constitutional law. The domestic courts both in the United States and South Africa, whenever they deem it appropriate, do consider international and foreign law in the resolution of disputes before them. The conditions under which each jurisdiction may resort to foreign or international law, as well as the criteria used for taking them into consideration, vary. However, most importantly, this practice should be encouraged as it promotes the uniform interpretation of international law and the progressive advancement of norms world-wide, which are aspects that are especially important in the field of human rights.
The Changing Role and Reception of International Law in Domestic Constitutional Law
Authors: Fuchs Marie-Christine
Published: July 2021

This chapter addresses the changing role and reception of international law into domestic constitutional jurisdictions in Latin America and Europe. It begins by presenting a descriptive analysis of the differences between Europe and Latin America. Despite the existence of the 'conventionality control' doctrine developed in Latin America by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ICtHR), the European context seems more complex and diverse due to the 'three spheres of human rights protection': the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the European Court of Justice (ECJ), and the national constitutional courts. The chapter then argues that, despite the fact that the multilevel architecture of protection provides States with a large range of opportunities for improving the effective protection of human rights both in Europe and Latin America, in practice, the most relevant level of guaranteeing such protection still seems to be at the domestic constitutional level. After exploring the 'conventionality control' and the application of the 'constitutionality block' doctrine developed by the Colombian Constitutional Court, it turns to examine the 'margin of appreciation doctrine'. Paradoxically, this doctrine, introduced by the ECtHR, has recently regained power both in Europe and Latin America as a bedrock of the 're-birth' of nationalistic movement.
Israel
Authors: Shugart Matthew S. , Bergman Matthew E. , Struthers Cory L. , Krauss Ellis S. , Pekkanen Robert J.
Published: July 2021

This chapter focuses on a case of nationwide proportional representation. In Israel, all members of the 120-seat Knesset are elected in a single nationwide district under closed party lists. Due to this electoral system design, the geographic location of votes does not matter for a party’s overall seat total, and candidates have almost no incentive to develop a personal vote. The chapter finds strong support for the expertise model in how the Labor Party assigns members to legislative committees, but relatively little support in the Likud Party. Both parties exhibit strong issue ownership tendencies.
Introduction
Authors: Socher Johannes
Published: July 2021

The book provides a detailed assessment of Russia’s state practice in the post-Soviet space with the aim to ascertain a distinct Russian approach to the right of peoples to self-determination, illustrated by seven case studies on the secessionist conflicts over Abkhazia, Chechnya, Crimea, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Tatarstan, and Transnistria. As such, it may serve as a detailed documentation of the raw material necessary to form and identify rules of customary international law, produced by one particular state. Beyond that, it seeks to test the accuracy of and give substance to Lauri Mälksoo’s general assessment in Russian Approaches to International Law that the ‘evolution of Moscow’s legal argumentation and views in these complex cases … has not followed some overarching legal principle but reflected changing power politics. Until 2014, Russia claimed that sovereignty trumped self-determination but in 2014 partly destroyed its own earlier argumentation by its own actions in Ukraine.’ Finally, this book is a contribution to what Mälksoo calls the ‘debatable nexus’ between legal scholarship and state practice of international law in Russia, that is the open question of to what extent international law as an academic discipline continues to be subjugated to the raison d’état in Russia.
Russia, the Right to Self-Determination and Secession
Authors: Socher Johannes
Published: July 2021

Chapter 3 is the second of three chapters analysing Russia’s post-Soviet state practice with regard to the right to self-determination. It argues that prior to Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008, Russia’s state practice in the four major secessionist conflicts outside the Russian Federation’s territory (Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, and Transnistria in Moldova) was relatively consistent, notwithstanding valid critique of hypocrisy. With the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states shortly after Kosovo’s declaration of independence, Russia’s approach arguably changed, although the underlying legal view was consistent with its position in the Kosovo case in front of the International Court of Justice, where Russia did not deny Kosovo recognition because of a different view on self-determination and secession but because it refused to accept the logic of some states which viewed Kosovo as a ‘special’ or ‘unique’ case that cannot be compared with other secessionist conflicts. The case studies furthermore show that Russia started to construct its own legal framework to justify its actions.
Final Conclusions
Authors: Socher Johannes
Published: July 2021

The book concludes with the suggestion that Russia’s approach to the right of peoples to self-determination may be best understood not only in terms of Russian power politics disguised as legal rhetoric but can be seen as evidence of traits of a regional (re-)fragmentation of international law. Even basic agreement on what self-determination as a concept of international law means and what role related concepts such as territorial integrity, secession, referendum, or the prohibition of the use of force do or should play in that context seems almost unattainable, to the effect that international law as a single epistemological frame is arguably in a similar danger as during Soviet times. Today, apart from Lauri Mälksoo’s work and occasional contributions by a handful of other scholars in the West, analyses of Russia’s post-Soviet state practice and doctrine in the international legal discourse usually confine themselves to assess the legality of Russia’s actions in terms of positive international law. Such a limited approach fails to attempt to understand diverging views on international law, something which was perceived as self-evident during the Cold War period.
The Metaphysics of Natural Right in Spinoza
Authors: Grey John
Published: July 2021

In the Theological-Political Treatise (TTP), Spinoza argues that an individual’s natural right extends as far as their power. Subsequently, in the Political Treatise (TP), he offers a revised argument for the same conclusion. This chapter offers an account of the reasons for the revision. In both arguments, an individual’s natural right derives from God’s natural right. However, the TTP argument hinges on the claim that each individual is part of the whole of nature (totius naturae) and for this reason inherits part of the natural right of that whole. Using several analogous cases from the Ethics, it is shown that this form of argument from division is not compatible with Spinoza’s considered metaphysical views. The revised argument, by contrast, avoids the pitfalls of his earlier efforts. It also better reveals the deep roots by which the monistic metaphysics of the Ethics feeds into Spinoza’s conception of natural right.
The Metaethics of Gender
Authors: McGrath Sarah
Published: July 2021

This chapter argues that some of the traditional arguments for expressivism in metaethics carry over to the case of gender ascriptions. Descriptivist views about the semantics of gender ascriptions fall short in explaining certain kinds of disagreement in ways that are similar to the ways in which descriptivist views about normative terms fall short. This suggests an argument for expressivism about gender ascriptions. to The chapter explores the idea that if gender ascriptions are normative, we might understand gender terms on the model of ethically thick terms. One way of avoiding the conclusion that gender ascriptions are expressive and/or normative is to argue that the relevant kinds of disagreement are instances of metalinguistic negotiation. After presenting some concerns associated with this explanation, the chapter closes with a discussion of some of the reasons for thinking that the realist might get back in the game.
Inferential Expressivism and the Negation Problem
Authors: Incurvati Luca , Schlöder Julian J.
Published: July 2021

This chapter develops a novel solution to the negation version of the Frege–Geach problem by taking up recent insights from the bilateral programme in logic. Bilateralists explain the meaning of negation in terms of a primitive B-type inconsistency involving the attitudes of assent and dissent. Some may demand an explanation of this inconsistency in simpler terms, but here it is argued that bilateralism’s assumptions are no less explanatory than those of A-type semantics that only require a single primitive attitude, but must stipulate inconsistency elsewhere. A version of B-type expressivism called inferential expressivism—a novel semantic framework that characterizes meanings by inferential roles that define which attitudes one can infer from the use of terms—is developed. This framework is applied to normative vocabulary, thereby solving the Frege–Geach problem generally and comprehensively. The chapter includes a semantics for epistemic modals, thereby also explaining normative terms under epistemic modals.
Metasemantics for the Relaxed
Authors: Tiefensee Christine
Published: July 2021

This chapter discusses how to meet the ‘generalized integration challenge’ as a relaxed moral realist by providing a metasemantics of moral vocabulary which is compatible with relaxing about moral metaphysics and epistemology. Employing normative inferentialism and focussing on evaluative moral terms in particular, it is suggested that evaluative moral terms function to explain proprieties of language exit transitions, where having this function amounts to systematizing language exit transitions through a process of reflective equilibrium. Crucially, this inferentialist take on explanatory function does not engender any substantive metaphysical commitments about moral properties. Moreover, the systematization process on which it is based is undertaken from within moral discourse. As such, understanding evaluative terms as tools that systematize language exits fits perfectly with the relaxed take on moral discourse.