bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The True and the Good
Authors: Wrenn Chase B.
Published: December 2023

This book explains the Problem of Truth’s Value and offers a virtue-theoretic solution to it. The Problem of Truth’s Value arises because it is hard to reconcile good theories of truth’s nature with good theories of why we should value truth. Some theories build value into the very nature of truth, but they tend to obscure the connection between what is true and how things are in the world. Other theories treat truth as a purely descriptive feature of claims. They struggle to explain how such a feature could make something good or right to believe. To solve the problem, this book proposes a “Strong Virtue Theory” of truth’s value. On that theory, truth is worth caring about, but not because of any pre-existing value that inheres in states of true belief. Instead, truth is worth caring about because caring about truth is a moral virtue; it is part of being a morally good person. The book offers an account of Truthfulness as a moral virtue, independent of any value that inheres in states of true belief. It also criticizes several alternative ways of explaining truth’s value. Those alternatives include the idea that truth is inherently normative, the idea that truth makes beliefs intrinsically or instrumentally valuable, and the idea that truth confers a special sort of “epistemic value” on beliefs.
Truth and Virtue
Authors: Wrenn Chase B.
Published: December 2023

This chapter introduces Truthfulness as the character trait of valuing truth, and it makes a preliminary case for the Strong Virtue Theory. The case it makes has two parts. The first is to argue that Truthfulness is a moral virtue. The chapter explains the relevant notion of moral virtue and what it means for Truthfulness to be morally virtuous. It argues that we morally ought to be Truthful rather than Untruthful people. It is argued that Truthfulness better promotes the overall good than Untruthfulness in several ways. Truthfulness better promotes individual human flourishing, enables cooperation in pursuit of the good, acts as a check against political polarization, promotes epistemic justice, and helps us in building a society worth having. The second part of the case for the Strong Virtue Theory is to argue against the “value-conferral model” of truth’s value. According to that model, the truth of a proposition confers special value on states of believing it, and we should value truth in response to recognizing that value. This chapter argues that Aristotelians have reason to reject the value-conferral model, for it is at odds with their view of truth’s nature. It defends the possibility of a sufficient state-given explanation of why we should value truth. On such an explanation, the goodness of valuing truth (e.g. its virtuousness) accounts for why we ought to value it, even if the truth of a proposition confers no special value on states of believing it.
Truth as the Goal of Inquiry
Authors: Wrenn Chase B.
Published: December 2023

This chapter addresses a second way in which truth can seem to be an epistemic good. Perhaps truth is an epistemic good because it is the defining goal of inquiry. Then a proposition’s truth might make states of believing it into realizations of the goal of inquiry, thus conferring a kind of epistemic goodness on them. The chapter argues against the idea that truth is a defining goal of inquiry. Inquiry does not necessarily aim for truth, but for epistemic improvement. The basic line of argument is that truth can’t be the goal of inquiry if it is possible to inquire sincerely when one knows one already has the true answer to a question. Such “knowing inquiry”, however, is possible. So, truth isn’t the goal of inquiry. Instead, the chapter suggests that inquiry aims at improving one’s epistemic situation, generally by improving the accuracy of one’s degrees of belief in possible answers. Such an approach makes sense of how inquiry often does aim for truth, and it allows for an innocent version of the claim that inquiry “aims for truth”, consistent with the Strong Virtue Theory.
Conclusion
Authors: Wrenn Chase B.
Published: December 2023

This chapter recapitulates the main line of argument for the Strong Virtue Theory. First, we morally ought to be Truthful rather than Untruthful people. Truthfulness promotes the overall good better than Untruthfulness. So, there is a state-given explanation for why we ought to value truth, which should be attractive to Aristotelians of all stripes, including deflationists. But the Strong Virtue Theory requires more. It requires that there also be no object-given explanation of why we ought to be truthful. The main line of argument takes a retail approach to rejecting object-given explanations of truth’s value. It rejects normativism’s claim that value is somehow built into the nature of truth or the meaning of TRUE. And it rejects the idea that the truth of a proposition somehow confers instrumental, intrinsic, or special epistemic value on states of believing it, to which we ought to respond by valuing truth. The chapter also revisits the question of what we must assume about truth and value to solve the Problem of Truth’s Value. We need a suitably strong theory of truth, but a theory can be strong enough without supposing truth is a substantive property. While this book focuses on state-given, moral explanations of why we ought to be Truthful, it doesn’t rule out the possibility of other state-given explanations.
Denial of Justice and Judicial Measures
Authors: Sattorova Mavluda
Published: December 2023

The rise of investment arbitration over the last three decades and the tendency of investors to contest host states’ judicial measures has reignited long-standing debates over the contours of state responsibility for judicial conduct. Historically, it was well-established that the standard of denial of justice was a principal legal vehicle to address claims involving alleged mistreatment of individuals in host state courts. Long before the rise of investment treaties and investor–state arbitration, however, scholars and practitioners of customary international law were divided over the definition of a denial of justice. The disagreement has persisted in the jurisprudence of investor–state tribunals. Tribunals and commentators have both diverged in their interpretation of the types of governmental conduct that violate the standard. The chasm between the emerging schools of thought is not only semantic. Focusing on the most salient cases on judicial measures, this chapter highlights key trends in the evolution of investment arbitration. It seeks to identify where the law took a wrong turn and what can be done to provide a more solid analytical foundation for adjudication of claims arising from alleged judicial misconduct.
The Right to Regulate
Authors: Sierra-Camargo Jimena , Suárez-Ricaurte Federico
Published: December 2023

Much scholarship treats the right to regulate (RTR) as a means of reconciling the conflicting interests of investors and states. This chapter considers the potential of the RTR to make investment arbitration fairer and more balanced, arguing that the RTR does not sufficiently protect the regulatory space of host states. Interpretations by arbitral tribunals tend to adopt expansive standards of treatment, such that the regulatory capacity of states is sacrificed in favour of foreign investor interests. Moreover, there is much uncertainty about the scope of the state’s ‘right’. Invocation of the RTR on a case-by-case basis renders the right uncertain and unpredictable. The chapter discusses the Eco Oro v Colombia award to illustrate how even treaties that incorporate an explicit RTR can be distorted by tribunals to favour investors. If preserving state sovereignty is to be taken seriously, a more comprehensive redesign of the standards in investment treaties is needed.
The Determination of Quantum and Claim Inflation
Authors: Boué Juan Carlos
Published: December 2023

Quantification of damages in investment arbitration has not attracted a great deal of attention in the specialized literature. Yet it is the feature of greatest practical relevance to parties involved in the cases. Quantum is also arguably the topic most gravely impacted by misdirection in international investment law. ISDS (investor–state dispute settlement) makes it easy for claimants to pursue wildly inflated damages. Weaknesses of lawyers and arbitrators in connection with economic topics foster an environment rife with abuse. As a result, quantum has increasingly become a hunting ground for experts who inflate claims using expertise not readily understood by most lawyers and arbitrators. Among other elements, this tendency heightens the asymmetry between the incentives of claimants and those of respondents in ISDS damages submissions. As examples, the chapter discusses the floor and ceiling of compensation and examines how misapplication of the DCF (discounted cash flow) methodology has led to claim inflation.
Figleaves for Racism
Authors: Saul Jennifer Mather
Published: December 2023

This chapter introduces the idea of racial figleaves, which are typically additional material that raises some doubt about whether an otherwise racist-seeming utterance really is racist. It argues that racial figleaves play an important and dangerous role in shifting the way that important norms (such as norms against racism) are understood. The chapter discusses many kinds of racial figleaf—including non-linguistic figleaves (such as visual or human figleaves), figleaves for other people’s utterances, and figleaves for actions. It addresses the tricky issue of determining when an utterance is a figleaf, and the question of whether a figleaf must actually be covering for racism. Finally, the chapter shows the importance of figleaves both for mainstreaming explicitly racist discourse and for fomenting division among groups.
The Rise of Blatant Falsehood
Authors: Saul Jennifer Mather
Published: December 2023

This chapter tackles the widespread sense that something has recently gone badly wrong with respect to truth and falsehood in our political discourse. It rejects the idea of a post-truth era, but it also rejects the idea that there is nothing new in our current era with respect to falsehood. Turning to conspiracy theories, it again rejects the idea that there is nothing new, but also rejects various existing analyses of what is new. In the end, the chapter argues that our era is characterized by a new mainstreaming of obvious falsehoods (recognized as such by the mainstream media) in political discourse; and by a new ability for politicians to endorse such falsehoods and still survive professionally.
The Triangle of Human Rights, International Law, and Sustainable Development
Authors: Wouters Jan , Hoornick Michiel
Published: December 2023

This chapter discusses the triangular relationship between human rights, international law, and sustainable development. It notes how international human rights obligations of states and international organizations affect actors' politics and practices in the field of development and the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Human rights and sustainable development share numerous philosophical propositions while aiming to protect humanity from a variety of dangers. The chapter looks into the human-rights-based approach (HRBA) to development, which is important for the protection and empowerment of discriminated groups. However, an HRBA contains the risk of politicizing non-political issues, of contestation between duty-bearers and right-holders, and of polarizing different social groups.
United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies’ Approaches
Authors: Mwenifumbo Anganile Willie , Furuya Harumi Fuentes , Ayissi Marie-Joseph
Published: December 2023

This chapter focuses on the approaches of the United Nations human rights treaty bodies. It starts with the adoption of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN 2030 Agenda). The UN 2030 Agenda represents a paradigm shift from Millennium Development Goals that embraces a plan of action based on human rights standards. Moreover, treaty bodies play an active key role in monitoring the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-related human rights obligations under their respective treaties. The chapter also notes treaty bodies’ duties of generating crucial data on SDGs and issuing important recommendations that guide states towards the realization of the SDGs.
Achieving Gender Equality
Authors: Fredman Sandra
Published: December 2023

This chapter assesses how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 5, can complement binding human rights instruments to achieve gender equality. It sets out a four-dimensional vision of substantive gender equality to evaluate both the SDGs and human rights, focussing on care-giving and reproductive rights. The SDGs represent great promise, but emphasize aggregate outcomes rather than individual well-being, and rely on weak accountability mechanisms. Human rights emphasize individuals and are legally binding. However, substantive gender equality is still only partially incorporated, particularly concerning women in poverty. SDGs and human rights must therefore work together to achieve substantive gender equality.
The Right to Water
Authors: de Chazournes Laurence Boisson , Tignino Mara , Savadogo Haoua
Published: December 2023

This chapter highlights the importance of water for life, human dignity, and health. The human right to safe drinking water is the foundation for the realization and enjoyment of all other human rights. The realization of the human right to water revolves around the factors of availability, quality of water, and accessibility of water facilities. The chapter elaborates on the ambition of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 to ensure universal and equitable access to safe drinking water of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It notes how certain initiatives were developed to incentivise the positive impact that business activities have on water resources.
International Trade and Foreign Investment
Authors: Lim Chin Leng
Published: December 2023

This chapter provides an overview of the history of various principles and doctrines that emerged from trade and investment treaties and soft law instruments. Many of these principles and doctrines are interpretative in nature and have been developed through third-party dispute settlement. In addition, certain relevant principles—of preferential market access, non-reciprocity, and other flexibilities for developing countries—are also reflected in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The chapter explores international law’s ability to address the challenges of an environmental crisis, developmental aspirations, and the ability of international liberal institutions to fashion rules which grant sufficient freedom to states to pursue social and environmental protection through policies that promote public welfare.
The Rule of Law in Investment—A Condition for Development?
Authors: El-Hosseny Farouk
Published: December 2023

This chapter focuses on the rule of law in investment in correlation to a condition of development. It explains how compliance with international obligations should generally result in peace and development, but the fraternity of states consistently flout their obligations. Data suggests that the rule of law is a fundamental correlate of economic development under a link of utility instead of conditionality. The chapter also considers international investment agreements and investor-state dispute settlement as tools of global governance. It cites that the body of treaties and cases is a treasure trove for policy-makers seeking to improve the rule of law and development.
The Meaning of the Word ‘Justification’
Authors: Holtzen T. L.
Published: December 2023

Chapter 4 examines the meaning of the word ‘justification’ for Newman. He thought the word ‘justification’ has two senses—it can mean either a declaration of righteousness or a making righteous. These two senses are not opposed because God’s declaration of justification is effective when the eternal Word is spoken into the soul through the Holy Spirit. Viewed passively, justification is God’s act upon the soul like Protestants hold, whereas viewed actively, it is God’s act in the soul as Roman Catholics hold. Newman thought Protestants are guilty of teaching that the word ‘righteousness’ in Scripture has two meanings, an accounting and a making righteous, when in fact it has only one meaning, that of being actually righteous. This is because Christ through the Spirit dwells in the soul as ‘Righteousness’, which causes renewal. To explain this, Newman relies upon Hooker’s teaching of participation in Christ through the Spirit of adoption.
Academics and Legal Change
Authors: Peari Sagi
Published: December 2023

This chapter focuses on the legal academics who evidently played a decisive role in the origination of the law of unjust enrichment: Professors Friedrich Carl von Savigny in Germany and Peter Birks in the UK. It places the contribution of these academics in the broader context of the role of legal academics in society and their role as agents of change. To what extent do legal academics impact legal change, and how does the birth of unjust enrichment fit within this framework? Accordingly, the chapter contemplates on the role of legal academics in society and makes a case about their critical role in law reform. Then, it focuses on the law of unjust enrichment. It presents the origins of this law in the Savigny and Birks writings and situates those writings within the general literature on legal academics and legal change.
Restitution in the United States
Authors: Sherwin Emily
Published: December 2023

This chapter traces the evolution of the law restitution and unjust enrichment in the United States, focusing on the American Restatements and the varying ways in which American courts and scholars responded to their subject matter over time. It also compares the American ‘big tent’ approach to restitution and unjust enrichment to the more analytical approach to the subject matter taken in England and, to varying extents, elsewhere in the common law world. Accordingly, the chapter starts with the ‘big tent’ view of the subject in the First Restatement, explains the influence of Legal Realism and elaborates on the evolution of the Third Restatement. Then, the chapter offers some observations on the development of unjust enrichment in the US compared to other Commonwealth jurisdictions.
Faute de Mieux
Authors: Stevens Robert
Published: December 2023

This chapter examines some common alternative accounts to unjust enrichment and explains their deficiencies and importance. First, it engages with property theories which attempt to explain the plaintiff’s right to restitution of the mistaken payment of money, or other transfer of ‘property’, as based upon a pre-existing property right of the plaintiff. The works of Professors Stoljar and Webb fall within this category. Secondly, it engages with theories which are perceiving the right to restitution of work done at another’s request in terms of an expanded law of contract. Here, the chapter looks closely at the classical quantum meruit doctrine. Thirdly, it looks at those alternative accounts which have seen the solution in compensation for loss because of ‘injurious reliance’ or ‘unjust sacrifice’. The chapter demonstrates that alongside the problematic nature of each one of the three alternatives to unjust enrichment, all of them have their own merits.
Agreement and Restitutionary Liability for Mistaken Payments
Authors: Chau Peter , Ho Lusina
Published: December 2023

This chapter considers two recent attempts that claim a defendant’s actual or hypothetical agreement as grounds for restitutionary liability for mistaken payments. With respect to Alexander Georgiou’s attempt based on an actual but tacit agreement, it argues that his account: (1) confuses the motivating causes of the payment with the terms of the payment; (2) rests on a long chain of inference that raises doubt as to the general applicability of his argument to cases of mistaken payment; and (3) offers little guidance on when restitutionary liability should be imposed. With respect to Titiana Cutts’s argument, which is inspired by TM Scanlon’s idea of reasonable agreement, the chapter argues that: (1) the principles considered in her contractualist pairwise comparison are unduly limited and (2) the considerations she takes into account in deciding between principles, such as the security of a party’s plans and the impact on people with limited means, are not specific enough for her conclusion. For example, these considerations cannot explain why reasonable people must choose a principle that gives payors who paid upon a relevant mistake a general right to restitution, but not when they paid upon a misprediction.
Law of Unjust Enrichment or Law of Unjust De-Enrichment?
Authors: Wolff Lutz-Christian
Published: December 2023

The notion of an unjust enrichment law implies—as the name suggests—a focus on the defendant’s enrichment. The idea that unjust enrichment needs to be given up for the benefit of a claimant seems to be generally accepted without much reflection. This, however, does not adequately mirror the reason why a restitutionary remedy is needed, i.e. the de-enrichment of the claimant. Why should the law provide a remedy which focuses on the defendant’s rather than on the claimant’s position? This chapter argues that the enrichment focus of the current law lacks rhyme or reason, that the law of unjust enrichment should rather be understood as a law of unjust de-enrichment, and that such an approach has significant advantages. Most importantly, the focus on the claimant’s de-enrichment would finally allow this whole area of law to be explainable as a coherent regime which offers practical and thus compelling solutions.
Monism versus Pluralism in Unjust Enrichment
Authors: Chen-Wishart Mindy , Hughes Emma
Published: December 2023

To ground the law of incapacity, mistake, duress, undue influence, unconscionable bargains, and the Etridge doctrine in the claimant’s defective consent, or the defendant’s unconscientious conduct will only give the most approximate idea of when restitution is available. This chapter shows the inadequacy of these monistic analyses. More precision is needed to explain the precise size and shape of these unjust factors. It argues that four other factors need to be brought into play; namely, responsibility in contract formation, protection of vulnerable parties from harsh outcomes, public policy, and the demands of administrability. These supplement defective consent and unconscientious conduct to provide a more precise, useful, and transparent account of the law.
Challenges for Canadian Unjust Enrichment
Authors: McInnes Mitchell
Published: December 2023

The Canadian law of unjust enrichment is unique. Twenty years ago, the Supreme Court of Canada fundamentally reformulated the test of injustice. At the same time, the Court chose to treat unjust enrichment as an independent cause of action. While those developments have been largely beneficial, they have also raised challenges. Is ‘unjust enrichment’ restricted to unjustified transfers or does it capture wrongful profits as well? Does the new test of injustice govern all restitutionary claims or does it operate alongside more traditional grounds of liability? Should Canadian judges regard ‘unjust enrichment’ as a failed experiment and revert to earlier approaches to restitutionary liability? This chapter identifies the challenges facing Canadian unjust enrichment.
Aquinas's Summa Theologiae and Eucharistic Sacrifice in the Early Modern Period
Authors: Lynch, O.P. Reginald M.
Published: December 2023

This book is focused on the reception history of Thomas Aquinas’ account of Eucharistic sacrifice during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Although the sacrificial character of the Eucharist has been of interest to theologians throughout the Church’s history, during the early sixteenth century renewed attention was given to this subject, in part because of disputes that arose between Reformed and Catholic theologians about the relationship between the Eucharistic liturgy and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Does the Eucharistic presence itself have a sacrificial quality? Can aspects of the liturgy or dimensions of the moral life be considered a sacrifice, and if so in what way? Although itself a product of the Middle Ages, as a received text the Summa is in many ways a creature of the early modern period. Interpreting the reception of this text therefore requires one to consider not only the Summa in its original environment, but the life of this same text as it was received in new interpretive contexts. In addition to those questions raised by Reformed theologians, during the early modern period the text of the Summa came to be intertwined with a variety of new problems, concerns, and contexts. These include the place of humanist biblical scholarship in the study of theology, the concern for human rights and international law in the Americas, and the relationship between Aquinas’ natural anthropology of sacrifice and pre-Christian accounts of the socio-political context for sacrifice. This book begins by first studying the textual structure and contents of Aquinas’ presentation of Eucharistic sacrifice in the Summa theologiae. Using the text of the Summa as a backdrop, subsequent chapters explore the early modern textuality of the Summa by studying a series of influential theologians such as Cajetan, Vitoria and the Salamanca school, the early Jesuits, and John of St. Thomas.
The Salamanca School
Authors: Lynch, O.P. Reginald M.
Published: December 2023

The third chapter follows the development of the Salamanca school from Francisco de Vitoria to Domingo Bañez. This chapter begins by studying the relationship between Cajetan and the Salamancans, assessing the role that Cajetan—and certain of his texts—played in the Salamancan approach to Aquinas. Subsequently, the teaching of Vitoria, Cano, Soto, and Bañez is examined, paying particular attention to the way in which the Salamancan approach to Eucharistic sacrifice is shaped by the hermeneutical primacy of Aquinas’ Secunda pars for the Salamanca school, the influence of classical Roman authors, and questions surrounding the Indes controversy. When compared with Cajetan, this school offers a fundamentally different approach to Eucharistic sacrifice that is distinct in its hermeneutical method, in its interpretation of Aquinas’ teaching, and in the lexicon of Thomistic texts used to support this teaching. In different ways, both Cajetan and the Salamancans would continue to play influential roles in Catholic Eucharistic theology after the Council of Trent, and their perspectives would intertwine in the work of some later theologians, even within the post-Tridentine Salamanca school itself.
Rhythmical Subjects
Authors: Marcus Laura
Published: December 2023

Tracing a developing fascination with rhythm’s significance, its patterns, and its measures, across philosophy, psychology, science, and the whole range of arts, Laura Marcus shows how and why attention to rhythm came to serve as connective tissue between fields of enquiry at a time when modern disciplines were still in the process of formation or consolidation. The concentration on ‘rhythm’ and its cognates largely arose, as she demonstrates, from the desire to reclaim or retain human and natural measures in the face of the coming of the machine and the speed of technological innovation. Rhythmical Subjects uncovers the disparate routes by which rhythm acquired its newfound ability to link ancient and modern forms of intellectual enquiry, and to fathom and re-invigorate temporal articulations of modern subjective life. Among the numerous intellectual and artistic developments set in a new light by this brilliantly wide-ranging book are: the long line of philosophical and theoretical writing on rhythm, from Nietzsche to Bergson and their twentieth-century interlocutors; psychological explorations of rhythm as the fundamental law of life, from Herbert Spencer and Ralph Waldo Emerson to Elsie Fogarty; more experimental engagements with psychology’s rhythms, from Wilhelm Wundt, Théodule Ribot, and Karl Groos to the aesthetic writings of Vernon Lee; the history of prosody; pioneering applications of rhythm studies to social and sexual reform, by Havelock Ellis, Marie Stopes, D. H. Lawrence, and Mary Austin (among others); Lebensreform movements and the contribution of Rudolf Steiner and Emile Jaques-Dalcroze; and numerous endeavours in artistic and critical innovation, from the small modernist magazines of Bloomsbury and Paris to art salons and dance studios across Britain, Continental Europe, and America.
In the Shadow of the Sultanate
Authors: Ghani Kashshaf
Published: December 2023

This chapter discusses the practice of Sufi rituals in north India during the period of the Delhi Sultanate. The discussion is set against the historical backdrop of the dispersal of Sufi masters across Central Asia and Afghanistan into South Asia, where they subsequently established independent Sufi orders. The focus of this chapter is on the rise of the Chishti Sufi order, through its earliest masters—Muinuddin Chishti, Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, Fariduddin Ganj-i Shakr, and Nizamuddin Awliya. These masters, whose biographies are briefly discussed, were responsible for patronizing sama as the leading spiritual practice of the Chishti order. The chapter discusses in detail the formalization of the Sufi ritual of sama, the views of these masters on the practice of sama, the theoretical and performative aspects of this ritual, and finally the elaborate rules under which the performance of sama needed to be undertaken. The chapter also takes up the issue of criticism expressed by the religious clergy against the practice of sama, questioning its legality as a religious practice. This eventually led to an arbitration council in the court of Sultan Ghiyasuddin Tughluq, where the religious leaders confronted Nizamuddin Awliya on the issue of sama.
Defending the Practice of Audition
Authors: Ghani Kashshaf
Published: December 2023

This chapter discusses the defence of Chishti Sufis against allegations by the ulama on the legality of sama. It continues from where the previous chapter ends, at the arbitration council convened by Sultan Ghiyas al-Din Tughluq. In support of the ritual of sama, one of the most learned disciples of Nizam al-Din Awliya wrote a treatise entitled Usual al Sama. The chapter carries a detailed discussion of the various points raised by the treatise, in defence of sama, in the light of the Quran and Hadith traditions. The chapter begins with a description of the life and career of the author Maulana Fakhr al-Din Zarradi, before undertaking a textual analysis of the treatise. At the end of the discussion, the entire treatise has been translated for the first time for an English-reading audience, thereby making accessible to a larger readership a key text which also remains one of the rare works which has survived from this period.
Etiquette is the Key
Authors: Ghani Kashshaf
Published: December 2023

Sufi rituals like sama, which involve the audition of poetry and music expressing love and longing for the Divine, often lead to ecstatic behaviour among Sufi listeners. Sufis are believed to dance in ecstasy in assemblies of sama, so much enraptured that they become oblivious to pleasure and pain. This chapter looks into the expression of ecstasy among Sufis during spiritual practices. This led to questions of behaviour and moral conduct, which led to an intense debate between sober states of composure and intoxicated behaviour. Manners and etiquette therefore became important for Sufis practicing such rituals. The chapter details adab as an important spiritual component of spiritual training, along with the forms of ecstasy which Sufis experienced during sama. The practice of adab towards the Sufi master as well as in spiritual practice thus became a key component of Sufi behaviour, as discussed in the chapter.
Introduction
Authors: Hendley Kathryn , Solomon Peter H.
Published: December 2023

The introduction situates the book in the larger social science literature on Russia, which tends to minimize the role of courts. This book puts courts at the centre of the analysis. It builds on the extensive field research conducted by the authors in Russian courts over the past few decades. The authors supplement and update their knowledge with the secondary literature on Russian courts. It adopts a ‘dual state’ metaphor to make sense of the fact that Russian judges mostly, but not always, rely on the law when resolving cases. This dual-state framework helps to make sense of the propensity of judges to sidestep the law when dealing with cases that have political resonance. The introduction contains an overview of the organization of the book.
Cases with Outside or Inappropriate Influence
Authors: Hendley Kathryn , Solomon Peter H.
Published: December 2023

Chapter 6 addresses the question of which cases involve outside or inappropriate influence and the mechanisms through which that influence takes place. In the process, it examines prosecutions against high government officials initiated by leaders; cases relating to the regulation of politics (speech protest activity on the part of rivals, critics, opposition figures); and cases, civil and criminal, resulting from business disputes. This overview of cases and types of cases that feature outside influence produced a complicated portrait, including multiple instigators (politicians, businesspeople, police) and a tendency to target law enforcement, as opposed to judges, where possible. Attempts to influence judges did occur—in civil and criminal cases alike, but when they did, the perpetrators tended to use the chairmen of courts as a conduit and relied more on administrative pressure than bribes. But often, the sponsors of targeted or sensitive prosecutions did not approach the courts, instead relying on the normal practices of Russian judges to obtain the desired outcome.
Arbitrazh Courts and Business Disputes
Authors: Hendley Kathryn , Solomon Peter H.
Published: December 2023

Chapter 10 focuses on the arbitrazh courts, a post-Soviet judicial institution created to handle disputes involving legal entities. In the decades following their creation in 1992, the jurisdiction of these courts expanded to include causes of action that were non-existent in the Soviet era but became relevant with the advent of the market, such as bankruptcy, shareholder derivative claims, and intellectual property. The structure of the courts also changed in response to needs, integrating intermediate appellate courts. Until 2014, the arbitrazh courts were a self-contained hierarchy. At that time, the apex court of this system was merged into the Russian Supreme Court. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the role of private arbitration in Russia, an option favoured by large corporations, both foreign and domestic.
External agreement in Khwarshi
Authors: Chumakina Marina , Lyutikova Ekaterina
Published: December 2023

As in many other Tsezic languages, the variety of Khwarshi (Nakh-Daghestanian; Daghestan) spoken in the village of Khonokh has agreeing adverbs and postpositions. These typologically unusual agreement targets stand out as exceptional within the Tsezic group by virtue of their infixal agreement pattern. A syntactic analysis of agreeing adverbs in biabsolutive clauses and long-distance agreement constructions demonstrates that apparent variability in the possible agreement controllers of adverbs is structurally determined. Biabsolutive constructions in Khonokh Khwarshi are biclausal, and the adverb agrees with the absolutive of the clause it belongs to. While many constraints on adverb agreement in Khwarshi are syntactic, pragmatic factors determine the controller of agreement with one class of locative adverbials when they are used as discourse particles.
Trauma and Morality (1945–2015)
Authors: Goltermann Svenja
Published: December 2023

This chapter deals with the expansion of victim attributions in the last third of the 20th century. It starts with a focus on victimology–the scientific study of victims, which emerged in different international contexts during the 1950s–to analyze shifting perceptions of crime victimhood during the second half of the 20th century. The chapter shows how victims were initially often blamed for the crimes committed against them and were reluctant to be classified as such, a situation that changed for various reasons in the 1970s. Social movements played a crucial role, as did initiatives at the international level, culminating in a United Nations resolution defining the concept of “victim” so as to strengthen victims' rights in cases of both interpersonal and state crimes. However, new trauma concepts were even more significant in expanding attributions of victimhood, especially the official recognition of the "post-traumatic stress disorder” diagnosis in 1980 and its subsequent redefinitions. This diagnosis provided an entirely new basis for adopting the status of innocent victim. The revaluation of subjective experience was also critical. Finally, it is argued that implementing new conceptions of trauma raised new expectations for talking about the experience of violence and suffering. This has ambivalent effects: It engenders specific narratives about experiences of this kind, while making others disappear. This is similarly true of the figure of the victim. As the book shows in relation to South Africa, these processes can also be observed outside Europe.
Conclusion
Authors: Goltermann Svenja
Published: December 2023

The conclusion summarizes the main findings of the book. It emphasises that the rise of the figure of the victim is a recent phenomenon that has only gradually developed over the last 150 years. It first encompassed the dead, followed much later by the living. The book conceptualizes this history as that of a shift in perceptions based on a series of paradigm shifts, the effects of which were - and are - ambivalent. This becomes apparent, for example, when victim attributions are used by different actors for different purposes - to punish war as a crime, but also to legitimize counter-violence or revenge. The chapter concludes by showing that conceptualizations of victimhood, in terms of both legal and social norms, are an ongoing process. This process becomes apparent, for example, in critiques of victim attribution and dismissive attitudes vis-à-vis victims. As the conclusion demonstrates, one of the reasons for this is the growing influence of the idea of “resilience” in popular discourse on stress.
The Relationship between Text and Liturgical Assignments in the Vespertini
Authors: Carrillo Raquel Rojo
Published: December 2023

THE VESPERTINUS GENRE, like other Hispanic rite genres, has chants prescribed for just one liturgical day, and chants prescribed for two or more liturgical days. The prescription of these chants, however, was not random, but instead resulted from a deliberate process of chant assignment. As shown in this chapter, detailed analysis of the relationship between the text of each vespertinus and its liturgical assignment(s) yields data that demonstrates the extent to which these assignments were deliberate. To visualize the vespertinus repertoire for each series of offices and the number of assignments of each chant within each series, it was necessary to organize the vespertini following their liturgical assignment(s). This way of displaying the repertoire also enables a clear appreciation of how each series of Hispanic rite offices is distinct in its total number and selection of vespertini and in its proportion of unique vespertini.
The Digital Middle East
Authors: Zayani Mohamed , Khalil Joe F.
Published: December 2023

The digital turn in the Middle East is an ongoing process, filled with multiple vectors and various configurations that shape the region’s usage of digital technology. It is a complex transition, laced with both possibilities and challenges, and with its own unique history. Understanding the Middle East’s engagement with the digital requires analyzing the interplay between technological infrastructure and sociocultural norms, as well as economic and political systems. This chapter argues that the ensuing double bind is the defining characteristic of the digital turn in the Middle East. The region’s encounter with the digital can best be understood as an ongoing process that manifests itself as a multilayered transition interlinked with technological dimensions but riven with conflicts and contradictions.
Technologies of Center and Periphery
Authors: Zayani Mohamed , Khalil Joe F.
Published: December 2023

This chapter explores what performance indices and data-centered classifications tell us about the digital Middle East. It offers a qualified perspective on the region’s digital status relative to other countries around the world. It also reflects on the questions these quantitative indicators, which typically use the network society as the benchmark, leave unanswered and highlights the digital turn’s lasting social, economic, and political implications. The chapter concludes with an analysis of how national digital strategies have yielded uneven approaches to digital transformation planning in the Middle East, which is reflected in the disparate levels of infrastructure, governance, and funding.
The Enticement of Digital Citizenship
Authors: Zayani Mohamed , Khalil Joe F.
Published: December 2023

The widespread use of digital tools has favored the emergence of various online communities, from chat room participants to bloggers and from YouTubers to Facebook groups. Digital spaces enhance the ability of marginalized populations, oppositional groups, and diasporic communities, among others, to associate and advance their visions. The potential and viability of these spaces depend on people’s ability to afford, access, and use digital tools pitted against the state’s appropriation of these same tools for surveillance, censorship, and criminalization of unsanctioned forms of participation. Focusing on everyday articulations of citizenship in the Middle East, this chapter examines how ostracized communities deploy digital tools to create sites of contention and reorder public debate, thereby continuing a long-standing tradition of communication technologies opening up spaces for political and civic engagement.
Collective Voices and Digital Contention
Authors: Zayani Mohamed , Khalil Joe F.
Published: December 2023

Animated by micro-political participation, the acquisition of digital citizenship overlaps with the rise of collective voices and forms of political empowerment. In an environment characterized by formal and informal controls, the appropriation and reappropriation by publics of information technologies, including social media, involves multidirectional, multilayered negotiation. This process is influenced by individuals’ ability to overcome constraints such as cost, availability, and access and their motivation to engage and mobilize collectively using digital applications given the limits on free speech. These considerations are crucial when exploring how the digital turn has come to bear on collective action and political agency in the Middle East.
Cultural and Creative Industries
Authors: Zayani Mohamed , Khalil Joe F.
Published: December 2023

Digital cultural and creative industries have become integral to the way the knowledge-based economy operates. These sectors bring together culture, leisure, and entertainment in formats that have never been experienced before, from online games to streaming services and digital publishing to virtual museums. With today’s technology, consumers can access media on various platforms for different uses. This chapter examines digital cultural industries in the Middle East associated with the production, storage, distribution, and exhibition of cultural goods and services. It pays particular attention to the interlocking histories, strategies, and transformations of digital cultural industries. It argues that while economic, political, and cultural clout among traditional media industries may be waning, digital media’s reconfiguration and underlying political economy are still crystallizing.
The Demographics of a Connected Culture
Authors: Zayani Mohamed , Khalil Joe F.
Published: December 2023

This chapter explores what digital affordances reveal about opportunities and challenges for the Middle East’s various communities and cultures. While children, youth, and women constitute distinctly significant segments of the population, their interests are poorly served, and their voices are inadequately represented in the development, organization, and management of Arab societies. Decisions about the acquisition, adoption, and use of technologies primarily remain the purview of a predominantly older male demographic whose choices and priorities determine policy. When media content and digital communication are believed to unsettle the status quo, states intervene, invoking the need to safeguard the social order. This approach is motivated by cultural preservation but also stems from long-standing views about the role and status of children, youth, and women in society. While such logics continue to shape how these demographic categories are perceived and treated in Middle Eastern societies, the digital turn has also given rise to media uses and communication practices that challenge established sociocultural norms.
Introduction
Authors: Payne Leah
Published: December 2023

Contemporary Christian Music was the soundtrack of white evangelical conversions, worship, adolescence, marriage, child-rearing, and activism in the late twentieth century. Once an almost billion-dollar recording industry with culture-shaping power, however, the genre was in steep decline in the early aughts. This book analyzes Contemporary Christian Music as an industry born from early twentieth-century Southern white revivalist hymn-singing networks, stoked by 1960s and 1970s baby-boomer converts on the West Coast, and fueled in the late twentieth century by a vast network of evangelical media makers and marketers, booksellers, denominations, congregations, parachurch organizations, educational institutions, lobbying organizations, and advocacy groups. The following pages trace how CCM produced music that served as a sonic shorthand for white evangelical orthodoxy and social action, prized for its capacity to disseminate evangelical messages about what it means to be Christian and American.
“The Magic Power of Song”
Authors: Payne Leah
Published: December 2023

Chapter 1 explores the roots of Contemporary Christian Music in the business of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century revivalist songbook publishing. Prior to the late nineteenth century, most music publishing came out of Philadelphia and New York, but advancements in print technology gave middle-class white revivalists of the early twentieth century like John T. and Eva Green Benson access to the print-publishing business. Holiness people like the Bensons, James D. Vaughn, and others created publishing houses that brought the music of white Southern Baptist, Holiness people, and Pentecostals, filled with end-times fervor and revivalist hopes for the nation, far beyond the American South. When sound recordings and radio came along, and as conservative white Protestants began to create trade and lobbying organizations under the umbrella term “evangelical,” the songs of Southern Holiness, Baptist, and Pentecostal revivals became treasured resources for encouraging conversion to the evangelical gospel.