bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Settling for Welfare? Shifting Access to Welfare, Migration and Settlement Aspirations of Filipina Single Mothers in Japan
Authors: Celero Jocelyn O. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis chapter is concerned with Filipina single mothers’ access to diverse forms of welfare assistance in Japan and its impact on their decisions, aspirations and capabilities for migration and settlement. It fundamentally asks: Does access to the welfare system make Filipina migrant mothers settle in or move away from Japan? I argue that welfare arrangements significantly affect Filipina single mothers and the ways in which they raise their children and manage a transnational household. Access to child-rearing, subsidised living and housing benefits in Japan, combined with private welfare arrangements in the Philippines, have enabled them to navigate various life-course events. Analysis of their welfare access across time and space suggests that Filipina immigrants’ migration and settlement aspirations are contingent upon macro-level factors such as the restrictive nature of Japan’s immigration, welfare and labour policies, the ambivalent attitudes of Japanese society towards immigrants and individual factors such as legal status, residency and social networks that influence their socio-economic roles and family-related activities in Japan and the Philippines. Attaining permanent residency in Japan is a utilitarian choice which gives them flexible options for the future. Their aspirations to eventually either return to the Philippines or to settle in Japan are influenced less by the ‘adequate’ social protection available in Japan than by the age of their children, their investments and their dreams of a desirable retirement.
Sentenza 238/2014: EU Law and EU Values
Authors: Mattarella Bernardo Giorgio 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe relationship between Judgment 238/2014 of the Italian Constitutional Court and EU law is, at first glance, apparently weak, as the subject matter of the former is not governed by the latter, nor there have been any judgments from EU courts regarding the case. However, if one considers the origin and purpose of the EU itself and the state of relations between Italy and Germany, one cannot help but examine the case from a European law perspective. Judgment 238/2014 is relevant to European law in several ways, all of which concern not only military cooperation in the EU but also the protection of human rights, the risk of forum shopping and, above all, how reliable member states are in their mutual relations. European law in turn is relevant to the present case not so much because it offers solutions but because it shows a method for settling clashes between legal systems and illustrates its inherent difficulties. Sentenza 238/2014 is an unpersuasive judgment and can be criticized from different angles: the legal one (international and constitutional law), the factual reconstruction and the judgment’s likely effects. There are, however, two possibilities of resolving the situation that Sentenza has produced: firstly the legal one, which involves the use of all possible tools to limit its effects; and secondly the diplomatic one, which implies further negotiations. European law does not provide a ground for a preference between these two options, but it suggests that none of these ways is neglected.
Between Cynicism and Idealism: Is the Italian Constitutional Court Passing the Buck to the Italian Judiciary?
Authors: Boggero Giovanni , Oellers-Frahm Karin 
Published: April 2021

AbstractIn this chapter we focus on the consequences ofSentenza238/2014 for the Italian judiciary. The judgment of theCorte Costituzionaleobliges the Italian tribunals to admit claims for the reparation of victims or the heirs of victims and to decide on the merits. In this context, a series of difficult legal questions arise that require consistent answers. The practice shows, however, that consistent answers cannot be taken for granted as long as the decision is in the hands of lower-level tribunals. The questions to be solved concern, firstly, who can bring a claim: the victims only or—in cases where they are no longer alive—also their spouses, children, or even grandchildren and other family members? This raises a second question namely whether there is any time limit for bringing claims, which of course touches upon more general concerns, such as intertemporal law, statutory limitations, prescriptions, forfeiture and inadmissibility due to reparation agreements. Thirdly, there is the question as to the specific nature of the reparations: for example, financial reparations and their calculation standards, or satisfaction only? A further question arising from all decisions granting reparation relates to the execution of the judgments, as it seems rather illusory that Germany will comply voluntarily with such judgments. An additional aspect the chapter addresses is the broader impact of the decisions of the Italian judiciary: the non-recognition of state immunity before Italian tribunals will make Italy an attractive forum for similar claims, evidence of which has already emerged. Furthermore, the decisions of the tribunals will serve—although certainly involuntarily—as precedents in similar cases not only in Italy. Such effects will concern issues such as (a) the reparation of war-related claims on an individual basis and (b) their consequences for the readiness of states to terminate armed activities by concluding peace treaties and reparation agreements on a lump sum basis. With a view to actual armed conflicts that are mostly not international armed conflicts the question has then to be asked (c) whether individual reparation claims will lead to discriminatory consequences as reparation will probably only be realizable for victims of war crimes committed by state organs and not those committed by non-state actors. The chapter will then conclude by trying to assess more in general the task of constitutional and/or supreme courts to balance the consequences flowing from their decisions against their power or intent to enhance the development of (international) law.
Moving Beyond Judicial Conflict in the Name of the Pre-Eminence of Fundamental Human Rights
Authors: Onida Valerio 
Published: April 2021

AbstractSentenza 238/2014 can be criticized insofar as it seems to ground Italy’s refusal to comply with the Jurisdictional Immunities Judgment of the International Court of Justice on the basis of the right of access to a judge for the victims of the conduct of German armed forces during World War II. Indeed, the principle of state’s immunity to the civil jurisdiction of other states regarding the conduct of their own armed forces does not in itself breach a victim’s right of access to a judge, which theoretically in this case might also be granted by a German court. However, Sentenza 238/2014 has the merit of highlighting, in the specific case of the Italian Military Internees (IMIs), the violation of the victims’ right to an effective judicial protection of their fundamental rights, given that German jurisdictions excluded every reparation that favoured IMIs. Such fundamental rights must prevail over the international rules relating to state immunity because, according to the supreme principles of the Italian constitutional order and to international law itself, fundamental human rights violations related to crimes against humanity must benefit from an effective protection. The impasse between Italy and Germany should be solved through a new joint initiative between the two governments (carried out ideally under a common understanding of the two Presidents of the Republic), which should examine the applicants’ cases in order to grant them reparation. Though symbolic, such reparation will have an important moral dimension.
Recollections of a Judge
Authors: Cassese Sabino 
Published: April 2021

AbstractAs a former justice of the Italian Constitutional Court serving at the time of Sentenza 238/2014, this chapter illustrates my major concerns towards this Judgement. I outline several reasons for a possible ‘dissent’ (procedural, factual, constitutional, theoretical and strategic). With ex post remarks, the chapter elaborates some additional thoughts on the unnecessary opposition between national and international law and on certain Italian ambiguities towards its past.
The Illusion of Perfect Justice
Authors: Tomuschat Christian 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe judgment of the Italian Constitutional Court (ItCC) of 22 October 2014 has set a bad precedent for international law by denying the implementation, within Italy, of the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 3 February 2012. The ICJ found that Italian courts and tribunals had violated German jurisdictional immunity by entertaining suits brought by Italian citizens against Germany on account of damages caused by war crimes committed during World War II by German occupation forces. According to a well-consolidated rule of general international law, no state may be sued before the courts of another state with regard to acts performed in the exercise of its sovereign power. In contravention of Article 94 of the UN Charter, the ItCC deemed it legitimate to discard that ruling because of the particularly grave character of many of the violations in question. It proceeded from the assumption that the right to a remedy established under the Italian Constitution was absolute and must apply even where the financial settlement of the consequences of armed conflict is at issue. However, it has failed to show the existence of any individual reparation claims and has omitted to assess the issue of war reparations owed by Germany in their broader complexity. The judgment of the ItCC might be used in the future as a pretext to ignore decisions of the World Court.
A Story of ‘Trials and Errors’ That Might Have No Happy End
Authors: Luther† Jörg 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe International Court of Justice (ICJ) and Italian Constitutional Court (ItCC) have created a deadlock between two diverging res iudicatae on state immunities and judicial remedies as well as a tension between two republics that do not share the same constitutional and international identities. In order to avoid a further spiralling of decisions, judges tried to promote the negotiation of ‘a happy outcome’ for a category of victims of war crimes that risk dying without being entitled to any compensation. This chapter analyses the general cultural context of ‘academic diplomacy’. Both state sovereignty and human solidarity could be maintained through a voluntary compensation for moral damages to the victims of massacres, deportation, and forced labour during World War II. The moral-responsibility approach suggested by the ICJ could be stronger than the legal-liability threat backed by the ItCC. A belated common solidarity funded by both German and Italian citizens and employers could be the best way out, but considering that many of the now elderly victims are approaching the end of their lifespans, it might be cynically too late. This could, paradoxically, help to remind the world of the injustices they suffered. Yet, on grounds of this tragic end, state immunity and fundamental rights might further be delegitimized in possible wars to come.
Waiting for Negotiations: An Italian Way to Get Out of the Deadlock
Authors: Bufalini Alessandro 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe outcome of Judgment 238/2014 does not directly rely on the fact that the international dispute on state immunity involves two member states of the EU. Also, it is difficult to envisage at the European level any normative development on the international rules on state immunity. It seems, however, that some useful lessons can be learnt from the judicial dialogue between the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, and constitutional courts. In very general terms and for many reasons, the relationship between constitutional courts and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) cannot rely on particularly sophisticated techniques of judicial dialogue.This encourages us to consider the importance of involving state-level political organs as one of the counterparts to the dialogue. The potential power of judges to address these political organs in order to find a diplomatic solution raises the thorny question of whether this availability of alternative means of dispute settlement at the international level might impact on (or somehow restrict) the right of access to justice for Italian victims. Since both ICJ and the Italian Constitutional Court (ItCC) seem to agree that negotiation is the alternative dispute settlement par excellence (and the only means available to settle the present dispute at the international level), the ItCC might have given more importance to the availability of alternative means of redress—in the form of negotiations between the two states—in order to wear down the absolute character of the principle of judicial protection enshrined in Article 24 of the Italian Constitution.Of course, a negotiated solution depends upon the willingness of both parties, whereas an Italian political initiative aimed at unilaterally granting reparation to the victims is always possible. Moreover, the latter solution may stop the enforcement of Judgment 238/2014 and reduce Italy’s exposure to international responsibility for non-compliance with the 2012 ICJ Judgment. So long as Italian victims and their heirs are compensated, the restriction on their right to seek justice through the courts might become more tolerable for the Italian tribunals.
Perimeter Approximation of Convex Discs in the Hyperbolic Plane and on the Sphere
Authors: Fodor Ferenc 
Published: April 2021

AbstractEggleston (Approximation to plane convex curves. I. Dowker-type theorems. Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 7, 351–377 (1957)) proved that in the Euclidean plane the best approximating convex n-gon to a convex disc K is always inscribed in K if we measure the distance by perimeter deviation. We prove that the analogue of Eggleston’s statement holds in the hyperbolic plane, and we give an example showing that it fails on the sphere.
Not Just Dyspnoea: Swallowing as a Concern for Adults with Laryngotracheal Stenosis Undergoing Airway Reconstruction
Authors: Clunie Gemma M. , Belsi Athina , Roe Justin W. G. , Alexander Caroline M. , Sandhu Gurpreet , McGregor Alison 
Published: April 2021

AbstractAcquired laryngotracheal stenosis (LTS) is a rare condition causing dyspnea and stridor. Patients often require multiple surgical procedures with no guarantee of a definitive outcome. Difficulty swallowing is a recognised problem associated with LTS and the reconstructive surgeries required to manage the condition. The breathlessness patient’s experience impacts on swallowing, and the vulnerable structures of the larynx are implicated during complex surgeries. This leads to dysphagia post-surgery, with some patients experiencing more chronic symptoms depending on the biomechanical impact of the surgery, or a pre-existing dysphagia. Despite this there is limited observational research about the dysphagia associated with LTS, with no exploration of the patient experience. Our aim was to investigate patient experience of living with LTS focussing on dysphagia in order to guide clinical practice. A qualitative study was completed using focus groups and semi-structured interviews with 24 patients who have had reconstructive surgery for LTS. Thematic analysis was used to identify three over-arching themes: The Physical Journey, The Emotional Journey and The Medical Journey. Key sub-themes included the importance of self-management and control, presence of symptoms, benefits of therapy, living with a life-long condition, fear and anxiety, autonomy, medicalisation of normal processes and the dichotomy between staff expertise and complacency. Swallowing was connected to all themes. The results are reviewed with consideration of the wider literature of lived experience particularly in relation to other chronic conditions and those that carry a high symptom burden such as head and neck cancer. Future clinical and research recommendations have been made. Akin to other clinical groups, adults with LTS are keen that management of their swallowing is person-centred and holistic.
Effect of the Preparation Method of LaSrCoFeOx Perovskites on the Activity of N2O Decomposition
Authors: Richards Nia , Parker Luke A. , Carter James H. , Pattisson Samuel , Morgan David J. , Dummer Nicholas F. , Golunski Stanislaw E. , Hutchings Graham J. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractN2O remains a major greenhouse gas and contributor to global warming, therefore developing a catalyst that can decompose N2O at low temperatures is of global importance. We have investigated the use of LaSrCoFeOx perovskites for N2O decomposition and the effect of surface area, A and B site elements, Co–O bond strength, redox capabilities and oxygen mobility have been studied. It was found that by using a citric acid preparation method, perovskites with strong redox capabilities and weak Co–O bonds can be formed at relatively low calcination temperatures (550 °C) resulting in highly active catalysts. The enhanced activity is related to the presence of highly mobile oxygen species. Oxygen recombination on the catalyst surface is understood to be a prominent rate limiting step for N2O decomposition. Here the reduced strength of Co–O bonds and mobile lattice oxygen species suggest that the surface oxygen species have enhanced mobility, aiding recombination, and subsequent regeneration of the active sites. La0.75Sr0.25Co0.81Fe0.19Ox prepared by citric acid method converted 50% of the N2O in the feed (T50) at 448 °C.
Graphic Abstract
Vaginal Examinations During Childbirth: Consent, Coercion and COVID-19
Authors: Nelson Anna 
Published: April 2021

AbstractIn this paper I assess the labour ward admission policies introduced by some National Health Service (NHS) trusts during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that these intersected with other policies in a manner which may have coerced birthing people into consenting to vaginal examinations they might have otherwise refused. In order to fully understand the potential severity of these policies, I situate this critique in the historical and contemporary context of the problematic relationship between consent and vaginal examinations. Identifying the legal wrongs associated with performing coerced vaginal examinations, I highlight that the law is inadequately equipped to provide appropriate redress. Further, I illustrate that the issue explored in this paper reflects broader problems which exist with regard to the focus of, and the (under)investment in, the maternity services.
Empiricism Must, but Cannot, Presuppose Real Causation
Authors: Radder Hans 
Published: April 2021

AbstractIn this article, I put forward a basic philosophical claim: empirical scientific knowledge, that is, knowledge generated in experimental and observational practices, presupposes real causation. My discussion exploits two core notions from the philosophical analysis of scientific experimentation and observation: the aim of realizing object-apparatus correlations and the required control of the relevant interactions between environment and experimental or observational system. The conclusion is that, without the notion of real causation, acquiring epistemically sound empirical knowledge is impossible. Several empiricist objections to this conclusion are discussed and refuted. As a consequence, empiricism faces an unsolvable dilemma: either it cannot account for empirical knowledge or it should accept the existence of unobservable but real causal interactions.
The Effects of Caring for Young Children with Developmental Disabilities on Mothers’ Health and Healthcare Use: Analysis of Primary Care Data in the Born in Bradford Cohort
Authors: Masefield Sarah C. , Prady Stephanie L. , Sheldon Trevor A. , Small Neil , Jarvis Stuart , Pickett Kate E. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractWe explored the association between caregiving for preschool children with developmental disabilities and maternal health and healthcare use using linked primary care and Born in Bradford birth cohort data. Adjusting for prenatal health, healthcare use and socioeconomic status, mothers who were caregivers were more likely than other mothers to have symptoms of psychological distress (odds ratio 1.24; 95% CI 1.01, 1.53), exhaustion (1.42; 1.12, 1.80) and possibly head and musculoskeletal pain (1.18; 0.97, 1.43). Despite the higher prevalence of symptoms, they did not access healthcare services more and may seek healthcare for psychological distress less often (0.64; 0.40, 1.02). In general, socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with worse health. Pakistani ethnicity (versus white British) and prenatal consultation were strongly associated with higher postnatal consultation rates. Prenatal ill health, healthcare use and socioeconomic status are important factors in the detection of postnatal ill health via primary care services. If caregiver burden and the risk of under-detecting (and thus under treating) caregiver ill health is not addressed during the preschool period health inequalities between caregivers and other mothers and their families may persist and grow. The health of mothers of young disabled children, in particular their unmet health needs, warrants attention in research and clinical practice.
Drought-related vulnerability and its policy implications in Hungary
Authors: Buzási Attila , Pálvölgyi Tamás , Esses Diána 
Published: April 2021

AbstractDrought phenomena have been frequent in Hungarian history. One of the most important sectors in Hungary is agriculture, so the agricultural drought is a particularly important area to be examined. The purpose of the study is to determine how vulnerable each county (NUTS-3 regions) is to the expected effects of drought. The study provides an assessment framework of drought-related vulnerabilities and the preparedness of drought policies at the NUTS-3 level in Hungary. The drought-related vulnerability of NUTS-3 regions was determined by selected exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity indicators. The calculation of drought vulnerability is based on the IPCC 2007 methodology, while the input data were derived from the National Adaptation Geo-information System online data platform and Hungarian agro-statistical data sources. An assessment framework of drought-related policy performance of NUTS-3-level climate change strategies was developed. The evaluation methodology is based on a specific scorecard of evaluation criteria related to the performance of the county’s drought-related objectives and measures. According to the relationship between the county’s drought-related vulnerability and policy performance, the counties were classified into four types. The main results show that several counties fail the target by overestimating the role of drought prevention, with little vulnerability index. In contrast, many counties are not adequately prepared for the impacts of drought, despite their high vulnerability index.