bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Domestic Procurement Linkages During the 1990s and the Chilling Effect of European Procurement Regulation
Authors: McCrudden Christopher
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines the effects of EC law on the adoption of domestic procurement linkages in Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France during the early 1990s. Although pervasive, EC procurement regulation was not the only or even the dominant element affecting the development of domestic procurement linkages. There were continuing purely domestic reasons for not adopting procurement linkages in particular countries, and this is illustrated through an exploration of the limits on the use of procurement linkages in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s.
Changing Approaches to Procurement Linkages in the Community and Beyond
Authors: McCrudden Christopher
Published: January 2009

This chapter discusses the reasons for the increasing popularity of procurement linkages generally in some countries. Two significant developments since the early 1990s are identified that affected the policy context in which procurement linkages came to be reassessed, both globally and in the EC: the growth of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and the increasing importance of environmental issues. Procurement linkages came to be seen as a useful tool for helping to deliver both these policies. Clarification of the legal position of procurement linkages under EC law was a third important additional factor contributing to such linkages. The more the procurement directives and EC law in general were seen as legally compatible with such linkages, the less the justification for not adopting them at the national level.
Rights in the European Landscape: A Historical and Comparative Profile
Authors: Graziadei Michele
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines several events in legal history that either highlight the importance of rights in the actual working of legal systems, or else challenge their importance. These events fit within the wider European framework which contains a variety of approaches to the topic. The chapter also considers national legal traditions concerning rights and their resistance to change. The main underlying argument is that the resilience of these national traditions in Europe is primarily linked to the intellectual legacy of the 19th century and its 20th-century aftermath, which is now in shambles. This unpleasant diagnosis has been around for a long time, but little has been done so far to remedy it. In this field, finding a cure means looking beyond national traditions and stereotypes, and recognizing that it is more productive to think in terms of a common European legal culture.
EU Rights and Discretion as Reflected in Spanish Public Law
Authors: García Ricardo Alonso , Soriano Leonar Moral , Martín Carmen Plaza
Published: January 2009

This chapter focuses on the main features and problems that the concepts of ‘rights’ and ‘discretion’ pose in Spanish law and on how such concepts influence the process of implementing EC law by national authorities. It looks at the way they are actually used in some EC instances and to what extent they diverge from the way in which they are used in Spain. First, the chapter gives an outline of the relevance of the concepts of rights and discretion in Spanish law. Second, it deals with the notion of rights and discretion as developed by the ECJ's case law in order to identify parallels or differences, i.e., convergences and divergences in the way they have been conceived and are used in the Spanish legal system. Finally, it studies the reception of EC rights and discretion in Spanish public law.
Democracy and Direct Effect: EU and National Perceptions
Authors: Vandamme Thomas
Published: January 2009

This chapter attempts to add a further dimension to the theme of discretion by expanding from application and enforcement of EU law to its transposition into national legislation. It focuses on two types of discretion: democracy discretion and direct effect discretion. The chapter explores whether these perceptions of discretion are indeed interrelated and, whether convergence between them is conceivable.
Binding Unity and Divergence while Creating a Common European Culture of Energy Regulation
Authors: Castiella Iñigo del Guayo
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines the problems arising from a lack of common understanding of what regulation is and what regulation should aim at within the efforts to create a European Internal Energy Market (IEM). It analyzes some terminological and conceptual legal problems arising from the efforts to build a true European Energy Market amidst the existence of both a significant number of disparate legal traditions within the EU in dealing with energy issues, and a reluctance on the part of Member States to give up their responsibilities in guaranteeing, among other aspects of the industry, the security of energy supply. In particular, the chapter underscores two main legal streams converging within the procedure to build a legal framework for energy at EU level: the system based on an Anglo-Saxon idea of economic regulation and energy regulation, and the systems of most continental countries based on the idea of public economic law, to which energy law belongs.
Conceptual Convergence and Judicial Cooperation in Sex Equality Law
Authors: Senden Linda
Published: January 2009

This chapter begins by considering the implications of the claim of legal unity in the EU. It then explores the issue of conceptual divergence in the specific area of sex equality law. It argues that EU equal treatment law imposes a certain standard of equality and non-discrimination, and it brings more unity into this area by establishing common — minimum — definitions. The possible unifying effects of this cooperation within the framework of the preliminary ruling procedure are assessed both at a general level and in the specific area of sex equality law. On that basis, it is then considered how the efficiency of the preliminary ruling procedure could be enhanced, in particular whether a distinction could be made between more fundamental and constitutional cases on the one hand and more technical ones on the other, the latter being less crucial with a view to realizing or preserving the unity of the legal order.
A Case of Multidirectional Constitutional Transplant in the EU: Infra-state Law and Regionalism
Authors: Bengoetxea Joxerramon
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines how a constitutional feature of some Member States — infra-state regionalism — penetrates the EU administrative and constitutional ethos at a point which is quite unexpected: the sacrosanct principle that the Member States are the building blocks of the EU. The approach hinges on the formal rights of states under international or supra-national organization law and on States' discretion, meaning the constitutional autonomy to organize themselves internally as they see fit. These two principles bring unity or at least give an appearance of unity into the system — a unity without uniformity or a unity which consists in not looking into the internal structure of the Member States.
Back to the Begriffshimmel? A Plea for an Analytical Perspective in European Law
Authors: Jääskinen Niilo
Published: January 2009

This chapter analyzes the Finnish analytical legal positivism in the forms it took from the 1950s to the early 1970s, and explores what kind of questions that approach would entail for the study of EU law. It argues that the message of analytical legal positivism may be relevant for the study of European law even today. It underlines the need to rethink and redefine the traditional conceptual apparatus used in legal reasoning and legal science.
Towards an Internally Consistent Doctrine on Invoking Norms of EU Law
Authors: Lenaerts Koen , Corthaut Tim
Published: January 2009

This chapter discusses the way in which EU norms can be invoked. It determines how, in dialogue with national courts, the ECJ has sent out diverging signals as to when norms of EU law can be invoked. On the one hand, divergence flows from conflicting conceptual approaches to invocability; on the other hand, it can be linked to the piecemeal construction of case law. Moreover, the introduction of the Third Pillar instruments has created further uncertainty. It is argued that divergence can be overcome. The chapter then restates an alternative reading of case law which recalls the role played by primacy in invoking norms of EU law.
What is Vagueness?
Authors: Smith Nicholas J. J.
Published: January 2009

This chapter presents a definition of vagueness. Section 3.1 explains what the task of defining vagueness involves, and why this task is important. Section 3.2 examines and criticizes existing definitions of vagueness. Section 3.3 explains a key notion necessary for an understanding of the book's definition of vagueness. Section 3.4 presents the definition and its key advantages are presented in Section 3.5.
Competence, Social Policy, and Public Services
Authors: Freedland Mark , Craig Paul , Jacqueson Catherine , Kountouris Nicola
Published: January 2009

This chapter presents a mainly EC level analysis of the important questions surrounding the regulatory competence of public services in Europe. The analysis points out that public services lie at the crossroads of national and supranational regulatory regimes, each interacting and shaping their functioning directly or indirectly. In this self styled type of ‘shared competence’, the European regulatory level is progressively carving out its space either through direct EC intervention, or indirect regulatory influences by other areas of EC law and policy that affect public services when in the presence of an ‘economic activity’. De-regulatory pressures (mainly in the form of negative integration introduced by the ECJ) and re-regulatory initiatives are also present and are partly limited by competence questions. But perhaps the most interesting findings are those that point out at the cyclical and simultaneous interactions between deregulation and re-regulation, national influences, and EC pressures.
Active Labour Market Policies: Between ‘Right to Work’ and ‘Workfare’
Authors: Freedland Mark , Craig Paul , Jacqueson Catherine , Kountouris Nicola
Published: January 2009

This chapter focuses on those employment measures commonly known as active labour market policies (ALMPs). It starts by providing a comparative historical analysis of ALMPs, suggesting that these measures effectively date back to the early 20th century. However, in recent years their content has been altered to encompass a higher proportion of supply-side measures, typically accompanied by more stringent qualifying criteria for the receipt of unemployment benefits. ALMPs have now become an effective mechanism for the control of the labour market. In light of these trends, the chapter questions the compatibility of some of the current forms of ALMPs with some notions of ‘right to work’ underpinned by human rights and decent work concerns.
The Relationship between Public Employment Services and the Unemployed
Authors: Freedland Mark , Craig Paul , Jacqueson Catherine , Kountouris Nicola
Published: January 2009

This chapter argues that the State is no longer seen as a provider of employment, but rather as a provider of ‘employability’ directly focusing on the unemployed (rather than on the labour market or the economy). One can observe a series of emerging trends in the delivery of ‘employability’ measures, and in particular the growing individualization, personalization, and contractualization of these employability ‘services’. These trends raise a number of problematic points (Are these real contracts? Are they illiberal contracts or unequal contracts? What should be the limits to administrative discretion in this sensitive area? What is the nature of the multilateral contracts including private contractors?), which are addressed in separate points.
Introduction
Authors: Tudor Ioana
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines the applicable law in an investment dispute by analysing article 38 (1) of the ICJ Statute, referring to general international law, and article 42 of the ICISD Convention, more specific to investment law. It concludes that, although arbitrators have to respect the national law chosen by the Parties in cases of a contractual claim, if such a choice exists, international law will continue to be relevant, and that a balance between national and international law has to be found. When in the presence of a treaty claim, international law will directly be applied.
The FET in International Investment Agreements: A Typology of Drafting Formulations
Authors: Tudor Ioana
Published: January 2009

This chapter presents the results of empirical research conducted on the basis of 365 bilateral investment treaties, and of the existing regional and multilateral treaties that contain a FET clause. The conclusion of this research is that there are five main drafting variations of the FET clauses in the examined treaties, and that each of these variations may have an impact on the meaning of FET. The wording of each FET clause is therefore essential in establishing its application in each case. The research also concludes that not all investment treaties contain a FET clause. In the presence of so many variations, the question arises as to the common denominator that ensures the coherence among them and the existence of a single standard.
Actual Situations in which the FET Standard has been Applied
Authors: Tudor Ioana
Published: January 2009

The FET standard may not be given a fixed content since it is a standard; therefore it is through its application to individual cases that it acquires content. An alternative method, therefore, for examining the content given to the FET is to analyse the actual situations in which it has been applied in existing case law. This chapter examines in detail, with extensive reference to case law, nine situations in which FET has been applied, namely: lack of respect for the obligation of vigilance and protection, denial of due process or procedural fairness, non-observance of the investor's legitimate expectations, coercion and harassment by the organs of the State, failure to offer a stable and predictable legal framework, unjustified enrichment, evidence of bad faith, absence of transparency, and arbitrary and discriminatory treatment.
Relationship Between the FET and the Other Treaty Provisions
Authors: Tudor Ioana
Published: January 2009

One of the conclusions of the first chapter was that the interpretation of the FET standard by the arbitrators is intrinsically linked to the wording of the applicable FET clause. This chapter analyses the relationship between FET and the other existing standards of treatment, namely full protection and security, non-discrimination, and most favoured nation clause. These standards may sometimes find themselves in the same clause and in this case they have a direct influence on the FET's meaning. Also, the chapter examines the relationship between FET and two other provisions often encountered in investment agreement, namely, the pacta sunt servanda provision and the obligation of non-impairment.
Balancing States' and Investors' Conduct: Calculation of Compensation
Authors: Tudor Ioana
Published: January 2009

This chapter concentrates on the calculation of the compensation in the event of a breach of the FET standard from the perspective of the exterior elements that may be taken into account, namely the behaviour of the investor and a special situation of the State (for example state of necessity and force majeure). It is argued that both types of elements play a role exclusively at the stage of calculating the compensation and are irrelevant at the stage of establishing the liability of the State for a breach of the FET standard. Each one of these elements is analysed in detail and are accompanied by relevant examples from case law. The initial unbalanced relationship between the investor and the State in front of the FET standard is rebalanced at the stage of compensation, achieving a really fair and equitable standard of treatment.
Reconsidering a Dogma: Conceptual Analysis, the Naturalistic Turn, and Legal Philosophy
Authors: Himma Kenneth Einar
Published: January 2009

This chapter responds to the most important considerations adduced against traditional conceptual analysis (TCA): (1) the denial of the distinction between analytic and synthetic truths; (2) recent research on the fallibility of ordinary intuitions; (3) the idea that all claims are revisable in the face of recalcitrant experience; and (4) the claim that even putatively conceptual claims are contingent in character. It argues that the most influential arguments for abandoning metaphysics and conceptual analysis are unsuccessful. For instance, the Quinean circle-of-terms argument, does not even get off the ground because his claim we should give up the concept of meaning because of its obscurity cannot bear the weight Quine places on it. Likewise, sociological arguments about the unreliability of intuition fail because they neither distinguish various forms of intuition nor consider the possibility that some forms are more reliable than others.
Towards an Inferential Semantics in Jurisprudence
Authors: Kletzer Christoph
Published: January 2009

Starting from the perception that jurisprudence still predominantly but mostly unconsciously operates under the paradigm of logical empiricism, this chapter presents the following arguments: (i) logical empiricism is a doctrine that stands under fundamental tensions, namely between its logicistic and its empiristic tenets; (ii) Quine tried to solve this incompatibility by redefining the ambit of logicism and by saving empiricism in its redefined form of naturalism; (iii) Wilfrid Sellars, on the other hand, resolved the incoherence of logical empiricism by attacking its core thesis of empiricism as such; (iv) insight into Quine's arguments necessitate a move from legal positivism to legal naturalism; and (v) insight into Sellars' arguments necessitate a move from legal positivism to a non-empiricist theory of law of which so far we have only two (probably flawed) examples: Hegel's theory of Objective Spirit and Kelsen's Pure Theory of Law.
The Attack on Liberalism
Authors: Reiff Mark R
Published: January 2009

This chapter discusses the fundamental differences between liberalism and perfectionism, and defends liberalism against one of the most serious accusations that perfectionists make against it — the claim that liberalism leads to nihilism. This is an exercise in politectonics — the study of how families of political theories clash when we abstract out to their basic themes and fundamental presuppositions. The chapter examines how liberalism is supposed to lead to nihilism, addressing the two different strands of this particular perfectionist criticism. It attempts to rebut each strand of this attack, ignoring for the moment the strategy of using one to rebut the other. It then assumes that one of these strands of attack is true, and explores whether we really have as much to fear from nihilism as both the opponents of liberalism and its defenders tend to believe. Finally, the chapter assumes that nihilism is both coherent and unattractive, but challenges the assumption that perfectionism can produce anything better, for even if liberalism leads to nihilism, perfectionism leads to fanaticism, and fanaticism presents a far greater threat to international peace and individual well-being than nihilism ever could.
The Educative Function of Law
Authors: Burge-Hendrix Brian
Published: January 2009

Classical philosophers paid considerable attention to the connection between law and education. They held that one of the primary functions of a legal system is to make its subjects aware of the set of norms that structured social and political life, and to persuade them to follow those norms. Today, however, it is rare to find any jurisprudential analysis, consideration, or even awareness of the law-education connection. This chapter offers an explanation for the lack of a concern with the law-education connection and argues that for the philosophical importance of law's educative function. We should be concerned with that function not only because it merits a place in our philosophical understanding of law, but also because it demands consideration in many other academic disciplines and sub-disciplines concerned with legal systems and their effects, including political philosophy, moral philosophy, legal sociology, and legal anthropology.
Number and Government
Authors: Grant Claire
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines Bentham's argument, and presents a qualified defence of it against objections about number and about egalitarian distribution. Bentham held that the principal aim of government was to guard against pains, and especially those inflicted by people upon other people. The chapter focuses on a particular calculus of pains, namely that elaborated in Bentham's copious writings on crime and its reduction. Bentham wrote extensively on the crime problem, and integrally to his most important treatises. His thinking in numbers about crime may be viewed as a testing ground for the merits of practical calculus, as well as for examination of his egalitarian credentials.
Soviet Veterans of World War II
Authors: Edele Mark
Published: January 2009

This book explores the fate of the millions of Soviet soldiers who survived the Second World War and returned to Stalin's state after victory, tracing the veterans' story from the early post‐war years right through to the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. It describes in detail the problems they encountered during demobilization, the dysfunctional bureaucracy they had to deal with once back, and the way their reintegration into civilian life worked in practice in one of the most severely destroyed countries of Europe. It pays particular attention to groups with specific problems such as the disabled, former prisoners of war, women soldiers and youth. Using a wealth of archival documents as well as the recollections of veterans, contemporary movies, periodicals, and literature, this book analyses the old soldiers' long struggle for recognition and the eventual emergence of an organized movement in the years after the dictator's death. The Soviet state at first refused to recognize veterans as a group worth special privileges or as an organization. They were not a group conceived of in Marxist‐Leninist theory, there was suspicion about their political loyalty, and the leadership worried about the costs of a special status for such a large population group. And as the book shows, these preconceptions were overcome only after a long, hard struggle by a popular movement which slowly emerged within the strict confines of the authoritarian Soviet regime.
Welcome to Normalcy
Authors: Edele Mark
Published: January 2009

Upon their return, veterans had to deal with an underdeveloped and overburdened but nevertheless unavoidable state bureaucracy: ‘Stalinist normalcy’. This chapter describes and analyses both the problems veterans encountered in their dealing with the bureaucrats, the structural origin of these problems, and the ways in which returned soldiers tried to get what they wanted or needed. The chapter is, thus, an investigation into a central aspect of Soviet everyday life: interactions with the state. It shows that only through active and stubborn individual lobbying through letters of complaints or supplication in person could veterans (with some luck) receive what they needed––and in some cases much more than that.
Rebuilding War-Torn States
Authors: del Castillo Graciana
Published: January 2009

With the end of the Cold War, countries coming out of internal conflicts have embarked on a complex transition to peace. Violence must give way to public security. Political exclusion must cave in to the rule of law and participatory government. Former enemies must learn to live with each other and strive for national reconciliation. War-torn and mismanaged economies must reconstruct and provide a decent and licit living for their citizens. This book argues that because economic reconstruction takes place amid the constraints imposed by this multi-pronged transition, it is fundamentally different from normal development. In fact, the book attributes failures ranging from Afghanistan to Iraq, from Kosovo to several in Africa, to the development as usual approach followed. Rather, effective reconstruction is a development-plus challenge in which — in addition to the normal challenge of socio-economic development — countries need to carry out demobilization, disarmament, and reintegration (DDR) of former combatants into productive activities and other peace-related activities, which often have serious financial implications and involve tough choices. Peace will not last in countries that fail to address these issues. In fact, post-conflict countries have a fifty percent chance of reverting to war. The purpose of the book is to present the basic premises, lessons, best practices, and policy guidelines necessary to design an effective strategy for post-conflict economic reconstruction. Unless jobs are created and the political and security objectives of peacetime prevail at all times, peace will be ephemeral. Keeping the present course does not seem a viable option.
2 Debate on the economic consequences of peacetime
Authors: del Castillo Graciana
Published: January 2009

Peace is not only difficult to build, but, like war, it has important economic and financial consequences. Unlike the post-World War periods when policymakers, scholars, and practitioners debated the ‘transfer problem’ of paying war reparations, as well as the Marshall Plan, post-Cold War economic reconstruction failed to generate a rigorous theoretical and practical debate. In fact, because countries were at low levels of development, reconstruction followed a misplaced ‘development as usual’ approach, ignoring that national reconciliation is a key goal during the transition to peace in countries coming out of internal conflict. Chapter 2 argues that, given the reversal of the peace process in Lebanon and Sri Lanka and the failing transitions to peace in Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and others, it is not too late to initiate a debate about alternative policies and practices for effective economic reconstruction in the new context.
8 UN‐led reconstruction following NATO‐led military intervention: Kosovo
Authors: del Castillo Graciana
Published: January 2009

The UN-led reconstruction following the 1999 NATO-led military intervention in Kosovo provides a striking contrast in reconstruction to that of El Salvador. This chapter analyzes how UNMIK, with a mandate from the Security Council, had to perform civil administration functions that are usually the sole prerogative of a sovereign government. To perform these functions, the UN led, for the first time, ‘an integrated operation’, in which the UN set priorities and coordinated humanitarian, civil administration, democratization, and economic reconstruction activities carried out by other organizations. Without being an independent country and with its final status in limbo, Kosovo faced special challenges in policymaking for reconstruction, particularly concerning tax and customs revenue collection, financing from the IFIs, money creation, debt, and property rights, among others. This, in conjunction with misconceived economic policies and UN inability to lead an integrated operation, has failed to put Kosovo on a sound economic footing.
10 US‐led reconstruction amid US‐led occupation: Iraq
Authors: del Castillo Graciana
Published: January 2009

This chapter focuses on how economic reconstruction failed to become a peacebuilding factor in Iraq. Early proposals for privatization of the oil industry united Iraqis against efforts to disempower them by taking over their oil wealth and bringing in foreign contractors. Lack of legitimacy of the CPA led to uncertainty about property rights which made reactivation of investment difficult. The involvement of the UN in reconstruction as an after-effect did not resolve the legitimacy problem, and furthermore, it was naive to think that the UN would be received with open arms after twelve years of comprehensive and devastating sanctions. Debt restructuring should have been postponed for later when the government had gained legitimacy and living conditions and security had improved. Corruption and inefficiencies in procurement, construction, and other areas, as well as the need to use domestic companies and workers to create national employment as a peacebuilding measure are also discussed.
13 National reconciliation efforts
Authors: del Castillo Graciana
Published: January 2009

National reconciliation efforts include the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) of former combatants and others affected by the war, demining, and the rehabilitation of basic services and infrastructure. This chapter argues that governments need to carry out these efforts continuously and implacably, from the early emergency phase to the end of economic reconstruction, when the country moves back to normal development. The chapter analyzes the danger that peace agreements and UN Security Council resolutions build up unrealistic expectations; the importance of ensuring proper planning, financing, synchronization, and sustainability of all peace-related programs until their full completion; the difficulty of moving away from emergency programs and humanitarian aid to the effective utilization of reconstruction aid to rebuild infrastructure, services, and other investment; and the role of governments, donors, and public-private partnerships in rebuilding and financing infrastructure. It also analyzes the rules for national reconciliation to ensure that past violence is addressed.
Credit and Community
Authors: O'Connell Sean
Published: January 2009

This book examines credit in working class communities since 1880, focusing on forms of borrowing that were dependent on personal relationships and social networks. It provides an extended historical discussion of credit unions, legal and illegal moneylenders (loan sharks), and looks at the concept of ‘financial exclusion’. Initially, the book focuses on the history of tallymen, check traders, and their eventual movement into moneylending following the loss of their more affluent customers, due to increased spending power and an increasingly liberalized credit market. They also faced growing competition from mail order companies operating through networks of female agents, whose success owed much to the reciprocal cultural and economic conventions that lay at the heart of traditional working class credit relationships. Discussion of these forms of credit is related to theoretical debates about cultural aspects of credit exchange that ensured the continuing success of such forms of lending, despite persistent controversies about their use. The book contrasts commercial forms of credit with formal and informal co-operative alternatives, such as the mutuality clubs operated by co-operative retailers and credit unions. It charts the impact of post-war immigration upon credit patterns, particularly in relation to the migrant (Irish and Caribbean) origins of many credit unions and explains the relative lack of success of the credit union movement. The book contributes to anti-debt debates by exploring the historical difficulties of developing legislation in relation to the millions of borrowers who have patronized what has come to be termed the sub-prime sector.
Doorstep moneylending since the 1950s
Authors: O'Connell Sean
Published: January 2009

This chapter explains the success of companies such as Provident Financial and Cattles (both members of the FTSE 250 by the 1990s). Their agents serviced the growing sub-prime sector and commercialized backstreet feminized affectual relationships between borrowers and lenders. The extent to which their success was dependent on the decline of pawnbroking and mail order agency (and the limitations of the government's Social Fund) is explained. The motivations and limited options of moneylenders' customers are explored as are accusations of ‘predatory lending’ and exploitation. Moneylenders fought PR battles to exclude themselves from the label ‘loan shark’, as images of criminal moneylenders increasingly replaced ones of ‘Shylocks’. The chapter examines the role of violent loan sharks, explaining their small but significant market. Particularly important was the fact that government resisted calls for interest rate caps because it feared legal lenders would abandon their riskiest borrowers, leaving them vulnerable to loan sharks.
Renewed hope for mutuality: credit unions
Authors: O'Connell Sean
Published: January 2009

This chapter charts the history of credit unions and their arrival in Britain during the 1960s. Initially championed as equitable alternatives to moneylenders and vehicles through which to renew community, by the 1990s their low membership levels produced pessimistic assessments of their ability to do either. The essential role of the Catholic Church and Orange Order in providing trust and the common bond in successful Irish credit unions is explained, as is the role of Irish and Caribbean immigrants in Britain. The latter turned to credit unions in response to financial exclusion. The Credit Union Act 1979, produced much optimism, but economic recession and credit liberalization in the 1980s were inopportune developments. Thereafter, philosophical splits and failure to build economically viable community credit unions dogged the movement and it had little impact on the sub-prime market. The conclusion to this chapter assesses the potential impact of ‘new model’ credit unions.
Introduction
Authors: Cohon Rachel
Published: January 2009

This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the primary purpose of this book, which is reveal aspects of Hume's program in moral philosophy that have not been noticed, showing him to be as subversive a moral philosopher as he is a theorist of the mind. The book centers on two related theses: that for Hume all virtue and vice are discerned by feeling, and that for him certain virtues and vices are collectively fabricated to compensate for deficiencies in our natural human endowments. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.
Feeling Virtue and the Reality of Moral Distinctions
Authors: Cohon Rachel
Published: January 2009

This chapter considers whether Hume is a moral realist or anti-realist, and presents the moral sensing view as an interpretation of his positive theory of moral judgment. On the moral sensing view Hume is not a noncognitivist; he regards moral sentiments themselves as lacking truth or falsehood, but moral ideas for him can be true or false and are often true, in the full-blooded sense in which any ideas are true. However, the evidence shows that Hume is not a moral realist as that present-day term is most widely understood; and this is consistent with his cognitivism. Thus, we see that one form of ethical cognitivism is compatible with moral anti-realism. This position captures some of what appeals to many philosophers about moral anti-realism without having to make the counter-intuitive claim that our moral assessments are without cognitive content, and without having to invent for them a weaker notion of truth than the one we apply to other sorts of discourse.
The Common Point of View
Authors: Cohon Rachel
Published: January 2009

This chapter addresses the question how an emotion-based theory of moral discrimination, one that in many ways assimilates moral cognition to color sensation, can explain the fundamental expectation that moral evaluations will be widely shared within a community. Hume explains the causal origin of our moral sentiments by means of the mechanism of sympathy, and he completes his account of moral evaluation with an appeal to our use of the common point of view to compensate for the variations in sympathy's workings. The account threatens to become inconsistent, first because it sounds as if Hume is backing off from his claim that moral discrimination is not an activity of reason, and secondly because he seems tacitly to retract his claim that passions (including the moral sentiments) have no representative character. The chapter offers a two-feeling interpretation that removes these inconsistencies.
The Shackles of Virtue: Allegiance to Government
Authors: Cohon Rachel
Published: January 2009

This chapter considers a virtue that is obviously created after the founding of human governments: deference to the civil authorities. There are difficulties in conceiving this as a virtue or even a character trait at all. There is also a fundamental puzzle in political philosophy that interests Hume: that of how masses of people can ever, by any means, be induced to obey the laws or their rulers, given that the people are so much more numerous than the enforcers. It is argued that Hume's account overcomes these difficulties and is consistent with the rest of his understanding of the artificial virtues. Hume identifies yet another fundamental human disability (the preference for the near-term good over the distant but greater good) that can be outmaneuvered by collectively fabricating a character trait and manufacturing approval of it (using our natural tendencies as raw materials). The disability is different, and so the prosthesis is different, but the basic strategy is the same.
Human Rights Values Refashioned: Liberty, Equality, and Solidarity
Authors: Fredman Sandra
Published: January 2009

This chapter argues that human rights hold out more than just the promise of freedom from State interference. Drawing on the work of Sen, Nussbaum, Sunstein, Rawls and others, it is argued that human rights concern the extent to which people can actually enjoy their freedom. This carries with it a substantive view of equality. The chapter rejects the traditional individualism of human rights arguing that we are social beings who can only achieve fulfilment through society. While the State needs to be restrained from abusing its power, only the State can supply what is needed for an individual to fully enjoy her human rights. The chapter also rejects the argument that positive duties require the State to intrude on individuals' moral decisions, arguing that moral neutrality is a myth, but that a commitment to human rights signals a moral commitment by the State which both enables and constrains State action.
The Structure of Positive Duties
Authors: Fredman Sandra
Published: January 2009

This chapter demonstrates that it is artificial to distinguish between rights according to their correlative duties. All rights give rise to both duties of restraint and positive duties. It then asks whether positive duties are sufficiently determinate to be normative. It is argued that positive duties are best understood by using Alexy's concept of principles. A principle is a norm which must be realized to the greatest extent possible given the legal and factual possibilities. Principles do not lose their prima facie binding force when outweighed by other principles. This explains why positive duties retain their normative force even when not immediately fulfilled. Nor is it necessary to specify precise standards to be determinate: it is sufficient to meet specific parameters, namely, effectiveness, participation, accountability, and equality. This analysis helps resolve the controversy over the minimum core obligation. The chapter concludes by examining the relationship between the right-holder and the duty bearer.
Second Philosophy
Authors: Maddy Penelope
Published: January 2009

Many philosophers these days consider themselves naturalists, but it's doubtful any two of them intend the same position by the term. This book describes and practices a particularly austere form of naturalism called ‘Second Philosophy’. Without a definitive criterion for what counts as ‘science’ and what doesn't, Second Philosophy can't be specified directly — ‘trust only the methods of science!’ or some such thing — so the book proceeds instead by illustrating the behaviors of an idealized inquirer called here the ‘Second Philosopher’. This Second Philosopher begins from perceptual common sense and progresses from there to systematic observation, active experimentation, theory formation, and testing, working all the while to assess, correct, and improve methods along the way. ‘Second Philosophy’ is then the result of the Second Philosopher's investigations. This book delineates the Second Philosopher's approach by tracing reactions to various familiar sceptical and transcendental views (Descartes, Kant, Carnap, late Putnam, van Fraassen), comparing methods to those of other self-described naturalists (especially Quine), and examining a prominent contemporary debate (between disquotationalists and correspondence theorists in the theory of truth) to extract a properly second-philosophical line of thought. The book then undertakes to practice Second Philosophy in its reflections on the ground of logical truth, the methodology, ontology, and epistemology of mathematics, and the general prospects for metaphysics naturalized.
Neo‐cartesian skepticism
Authors: Maddy Penelope
Published: January 2009

Unlike Descartes, contemporary philosophers tend to regard the possibility that I might be dreaming as a serious threat to the reasonableness of my ordinary beliefs about the world. Here the Second Philosopher's point of view is illustrated by her reaction to this challenge, especially as it is posed by Stroud. In the end, she sees the sceptic as asking her to defend her usual ways of finding out about the world without using any of those methods in the process. This strikes her as a coherent and even understandable request, and one she has no idea how to satisfy. What she denies is the contention that it arises simply from careful scrutiny of her ordinary methods and that it must be satisfied in order for her ordinary beliefs to be reasonable.
Putnam's anti‐naturalism
Authors: Maddy Penelope
Published: January 2009

Up through the early 1970s, Putnam was another conspicuous naturalist, e.g., he suggested that a correspondence theory of truth might emerge from an ordinary empirical investigation of the effectiveness of human language use. By the late 1970s, he comes to regard the correspondence theory as emblematic of an extra-scientific ‘metaphysical realism’, which he rejects in favour of an equally extra-scientific account of truth in terms of idealized rational warrant. As with Kant and Carnap, the Second Philosopher finds this two-level view unmotivated and its methods unclear. The chapter goes on to examine Putnam's various objections to ‘naturalism’ as he understands it and to show how they miss the mark if addressed to Second Philosophy.
An illustration: truth and reference
Authors: Maddy Penelope
Published: January 2009

This chapter lays out the background to the current debate between correspondence theorists and disquotationalists in the theory of truth: from Tarski, to Field, to Leeds. The disquotationalist's idea is that we don't need a robust theory of reference (like a causal theory) or truth (like typical correspondence theories), that the role of truth in our account of the world can actually be filled by a simple logical device of disquotation, as proposed by Quine among others. The Second Philosopher develops a pair of diagnostics to differentiate disquotational from correspondence theories (according to which Tarski turns out to have been a disquotationalist), and ends with a discussion of Field's notion of an ‘indication relation’ (in favourable cases, one's beliefs are good indicators of the facts).
Reconfiguring the debate
Authors: Maddy Penelope
Published: January 2009

This chapter digresses from the inquiry into truth and reference to consider the nature of the debate as described so far. One underlying motivation for both Tarski and Field is some variety of physicalism, for example in Field's analogy between a disquotational account of reference and a physicalistically unsatisfactory account of valence. In contrast, the Second Philosopher is disinclined to set preconditions on what an acceptable theory must be like. The proposed account of valence, she argues, was actually an important empirical achievement (unlike the disquotationalist's trivial account of reference), and the push for a deeper explanation took place within a specific line of chemical inquiry, not in response to an overarching principle like physicalism. For the Second Philosopher, the debate over truth also takes place within a specific empirical inquiry, namely the earlier Putnam's call for an explanation of the efficacy of human language use.
Undoing the Copernican revolution
Authors: Maddy Penelope
Published: January 2009

Kant's two-level scheme allows him to say two things at once: speaking empirically, logic is objectively true (empirically real) because of the structure of the world (e.g., because it's made up of objects-with-properties, standing in ground-consequent relations); speaking transcendentally, logic is true because of the necessary structure of any discursive intellect (transcendentally ideal). To make use of these attractive ideas, the Second Philosopher needs to combine them on one level: as a first approximation, she proposes that a rudimentary logic is true of the world because of its structural features, that humans believe this logic because their cognitive apparatus allow them to detect those structural features, and humans are so-configured because the world is so-structured. This chapter spells out the structural features at work here, beginning from Kant's categories and modifying in light of Frege's work (to reach the notion of a ‘KF-structure’).
The status of rudimentary logic
Authors: Maddy Penelope
Published: January 2009

According to this second-philosophical account, rudimentary logic is contingent on certain very general structural features and is true only when and where they are present. (We tend to think logic truth is necessary because its outlines are so fundamental to our cognition; KF-structure comes built into our very notion of a possible world.) Whether or not it counts as a priori depends on one's account of a priority, but it does appear to reside in our innate or nearly innate cognitive structures; it requires no training, no particular experience, and will naturally seem self-evident or obvious to us. Rudimentary logic isn't empirical in a psychologistic or Quinean sense, but it could in principle be overturned empirically (quantum logic is not a successful example, pace Putnam), assuming our feeble human brains were up to the task of thinking in an alternative way. Finally, there seems little to recommend the idea that it is true by virtue of meaning (the contemporary version of analyticity), and even if it were, this wouldn't settle the empirical question of whether or not those meanings are applicable in a given situation.
Second philosophy of mathematics
Authors: Maddy Penelope
Published: January 2009

Though extra-mathematical philosophy is irrelevant to the methodological decisions of mathematics, a second-philosophical understanding of the human practice of mathematics requires answers to traditionally philosophical questions of metaphysics and epistemology. This chapter explores three broad schools of thought on these questions: Robust Realism, Thin Realism, and Arealism. One familiar version of Robust Realism is Gödel's platonism, which raises an equally familiar epistemological objection associated with Benacerraf. Thin Realism reorients the epistemological discussion by beginning from the idea that the way to find out about mathematical things is to do mathematics; the Second Philosopher argues that traditional characterizations (objective, nonspatiotemporal, acausal) are retained while the proper methods are just those ratified by mathematical goals and values (as in §IV.3). Arealism embraces the very same mathematical methods as Thin Realism, the very same choices and decisions in practice, but includes no added claims of truth or existence. The Second Philosopher argues that Robust Realism is problematic (though not for strictly Benacerrafian reasons), that Thin Realism and Arealism are viable, and indeed that Thin Realism and Arealism are cosmetic variants of the same view.