Search results for: global justice movement

Authors: Emma Charlene Lubaale

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The International Criminal Court (ICC) operates based on the principle of complementarity. On the basis of this principle, states enjoy the primary right to prosecute international crimes, with the ICC intervening only when a state with jurisdiction over an international crime is unable or unwilling to prosecute. To ably exercise their primary right to prosecute international crimes domestically, a number of states are taking steps to criminalise international crimes in their national laws. Significant to note, many of the laws enacted are not being applied in the prosecution of the international crimes allegedly committed. Kenya, Uganda and Sudan are some notable states where commission of international crimes is documented. All these states have recently enacted laws on international crimes. Kenya enacted the International Crimes Act in 2008, Uganda enacted the International Criminal Court Act in 2010 and in 2007, Sudan made provision for international crimes under its Armed Forces Act. However, in all these three states, the enacted national laws on international crimes have thus far not featured in any of the proceedings before these states’ courts. Instead, these states have either relied on ordinary crimes to prosecute international crimes or not prosecuted international crimes altogether. This paper underscores the limitations of the enacted laws, explaining why, even with efforts taken by these states to enact national laws on international crimes, these laws cannot be relied on to advance accountability for the international crimes. Notably, the laws in Kenya and Uganda do not have retroactive application. In Sudan, despite the 2007 reforms, the structure of military justice in Sudan has the effect of placing certain categories of individuals beyond the reach of international criminal justice. For Kenya and Uganda, it is concluded that the only benefit that flows from these enactments is reliance on them to prosecute future international crimes. For Sudan, the 2007 reforms will only have the desired impact if reforms are equally made to the structure of military justice.

Keywords: complementarity, national laws, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, international crimes, limitations

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Authors: Ziyu Liu, Martin Buijsen

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Although great achievements have been made since the beginning of the Chinese healthcare system reform in 1978, there still remain unresolved problems. Currently, the two leading social issues are accessibility and affordability of healthcare. Facing those challenges, Chinese government initiated the third round of healthcare system reform, accompanied by an array of measures. The newly launched strategies show a tendency to deliver healthcare as welfare goods, achieving equality through an ex-post perspective instead of an ex-ante view. However, if the reform efforts rely solely on the notion of “welfare”, the wrong idea of the government as the only duty-bearer in healthcare will arise. Several major threats, such as high costs as a result of inefficiencies and free riding then become imminent. Therefore, on the basis of Dworkin’s theory, this paper argues that individual responsibility should be introduced when constructing a sustainable healthcare system. And it should be equally highlighted as the duties of government. Furthermore, the notion of individual responsibility is believed to be necessary for promoting the justice of a healthcare system.

Keywords: Chinese healthcare system reform, individual responsibility, right to healthcare, social justice

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Authors: Neelam Kadyan

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Global environmental change is happening at an alarming rate in the present world. Floods, Tsunamis’, Avalanches, Change in Weather patterns, Rise in sea temperature, Landslides, are only few evidences of this change. To regulate such alarming growth of global change in environment certain regulatory system or mechanism is required. Nuisance,negligence,absolute liability,strict liability and trespass are some of the effective common law principles which are helpful in environmental problems. What we need today is sufficient law and adequate machinery to enforce the legal standards. Without law environmental standards cannot be enforced and once again there is need to adopt the common law approach in solving the problem of environmental change as through this approach the affected person can get compensation and as the same time it puts check on wrongdoer.

Keywords: global environmental problems, nuisance, negligence, trespass, strict liability, absolute liability

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Authors: Andra Yount

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The purpose of this research project is to understand how focusing on movement can help English language learners acquire better reading, writing, and speaking skills. More specifically, this case study tests how Laban movement analysis, a tool often used in dance and physical education classes, contributes to advanced-level high school students’ English language acquisition at an international Swiss boarding school. This article shares theoretical bases for and findings from a teaching experiment in which LMA categories (body, effort, space, and shape) were adapted and introduced to students to encourage basic language acquisition and also cultural awareness and sensitivity. As part of the participatory action research process, data collection included pseudonym-protected questionnaires and written/video-taped responses to LMA language and task prompts. Responses from 43 participants were evaluated to determine the efficacy of using this system. Participants (ages 16-19) were enrolled in advanced English as an Additional Language (EAL) courses at a private, co-educational Swiss international boarding school. Final data analysis revealed that drawing attention to movement using LMA language as a stimulus creates better self-awareness and understanding/retention of key literary concepts and vocabulary but does not necessarily contribute to greater cultural sensitivity or eliminate the use of problematic (sexist, racist, or classist) language. Possibilities for future exploration and development are also explored.

Keywords: dance, English, Laban, pedagogy

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Authors: Remy Jonkam Oben

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Using a time series approach, this study investigates how natural resources impact financial development from a global perspective over the 1980-2019 period. Some important determinants of financial development (economic growth, trade openness, population growth, and investment) have been added to the model as control variables. Unit root tests have revealed that all the variables are integrated into order one. Johansen's cointegration test has shown that the variables are in a long-run equilibrium relationship. The vector error correction model (VECM) has estimated the coefficient of the error correction term (ECT), which suggests that the short-run values of natural resources, economic growth, trade openness, population growth, and investment contribute to financial development converging to its long-run equilibrium level by a 23.63% annual speed of adjustment. The estimated coefficients suggest that global natural resource rent has a statistically-significant negative impact on global financial development in the long-run (thereby validating the financial resource curse) but not in the short-run. Causality test results imply that neither global natural resource rent nor global financial development Granger-causes each other.

Keywords: financial development, natural resources, resource curse hypothesis, time series analysis, Granger causality, global perspective

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Authors: Candice Lemaitre

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During the 1990s, an alliance of international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations proposed a set of regulatory norms designed to reduce corruption. Many governments in developing countries, such as Vietnam, enacted these global anti-corruption norms into their domestic law. This article draws on empirical research to understand why these anti-corruption norms have failed to reduce corruption in Vietnam and many other developing countries. Rather than investigating state compliance with global anti-corruption provisions, a topic that has already attracted considerable attention, this article aims to explore the comparatively under-researched area of business compliance. Based on data collected from semi-structured interviews with business managers in Vietnam and archival research, this article examines how businesses in Vietnam interpret and comply with global anti-corruption norms. It investigates why different types of companies in Vietnam engage with and respond to these norms in different ways. This article suggests that global anti-corruption norms have not been effective in reducing corruption in Vietnam because there is fragmentation in the way companies in Vietnam interpret and respond to these norms. This fragmentation results from differences in the epistemic (or interpretive) communities that companies draw upon to interpret global anti-corruption norms. This article uses discourse analysis to understand how the communities interpret global anti-corruption norms. This investigation aims to generate some predictive insights into how companies are likely to respond to anti-corruption regimes based on global anti-corruption norms.

Keywords: anti-corruption, business law, legal transfer, Vietnam

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Authors: Tarmi A'Vard

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This paper discusses the transformative learning experience for students participating in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program (Inside-out) and explores the value this pedagogical approach may have in youth justice centers. Inside-Out is a semester-long university course which is unique as it takes 15 university students, with their textbook and theory-based knowledge, behind the walls to study alongside 15 incarcerated students, who have the lived experience of the criminal justice system. Inside-out is currently offered in three Victorian prisons, expanding to five in 2020. The Inside-out pedagogy which is based on transformative dialogic learning is reliant upon the participants sharing knowledge and experiences to develop an understanding and appreciation of the diversity and uniqueness of one another. Inside-out offers the class an opportunity to create its own guidelines for dialogue, which can lead to the student’s sense of equality, which is fundamental in the success of this program. Dialogue allows active participation by all parties in reconciling differences, collaborating ideas, critiquing and developing hypotheses and public policies, and encouraging self-reflection and exploration. The structure of the program incorporates the implementation of circular seating (where the students alternate between inside and outside), activities, individual reflective tasks, group work, and theory analysis. In this circle everyone is equal, this includes the educator, who serves as a facilitator more so than the traditional teacher role. A significant function of the circle is to develop a group consciousness, allowing the whole class to see itself as a collective, and no one person holds a superior role. This also encourages participants to be responsible and accountable for their behavior and contributions. Research indicates completing academic courses, like Inside-Out, contributes positively to reducing recidivism. Inside-Out’s benefits and success in many adult correctional institutions have been outlined in evaluation reports and scholarly articles. The key findings incorporate the learning experiences for the students in both an academic capability and professional practice and development. Furthermore, stereotypes and pre-determined ideas are challenged, and there is a promotion of critical thinking and evidence of self-discovery and growth. There is empirical data supporting positive outcomes of education in youth justice centers in reducing recidivism and increasing the likelihood of returning to education upon release. Hence, this research could provide the opportunity to increase young people’s engagement in education which is a known protective factor for assisting young people to move away from criminal behavior. In 2016, Tarmi completed the Inside-Out educator training in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and has developed an interest in exploring the pedagogy of Inside-Out, specifically targeting young offenders in a Youth Justice Centre.

Keywords: dialogic transformative learning, inside-out prison exchange program, prison education, youth justice

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Authors: T. Walczak, J. K. Grabski, P. Fritzkowski, M. Stopa

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Objectives of the study are i) to perform numerical simulations that permit an analysis of the dynamics of subretinal fluid when an implant has induced scleral intussusception and ii) assess the impact of the physical parameters of the model on the flow rate. Computer simulations were created using finite element method (FEM) based on a model that takes into account the interaction of a viscous fluid (subretinal fluid) with a hyperelastic body (retina). The purpose of the calculation was to investigate the dependence of the flow rate of subretinal fluid through a hole in the retina on different factors such as viscosity of subretinal fluid, material parameters of the retina, and the offset of the implant from the retina’s hole. These simulations were performed for different speeds of eye movement that reflect the behavior of the eye when reading, REM, and saccadic movements. Similar to other works in the field of subretinal fluid flow, it was assumed stationary, single sided, forced fluid flow in the considered area simulating the subretinal space. Additionally, a hyperelastic material model of the retina and parameterized geometry of the considered model was adopted. The calculations also examined the influence the direction of the force of gravity due to the position of the patient’s head on the trend of outflow of fluid. The simulations revealed that fluid outflow from the retina becomes significant with eyeball movement speed of 100°/sec. This speed is greater than in the case of reading but is four times less than saccadic movement. The increase of viscosity of the fluid increased beneficial effect. Further, the simulation results suggest that moderate eye movement speed is optimal and that the conventional prescription of the avoidance of routine eye movement following retinal detachment surgery should be relaxed. Additionally, to verify numerical results, some calculations were repeated with use of meshless method (method of fundamental solutions), which is relatively fast and easy to implement. The paper has been supported by 02/21/DSPB/3477 grant.

Keywords: CFD simulations, FEM analysis, meshless method, retinal detachment

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Authors: Patricia Agboro

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The dominant strands of pedagogic ideas are often western in origin/orientation. This is the case because of the hegemony of the western world in global academia. For this reason, peculiarities and considerations of context are often swept to the margins as educational thinkers emphasize patently Eurocentric and one-size-fits-all solutions to the problems of effective teaching. This paper takes as a starting point the notion that pedagogy must be context specific and pragmatic in its application. It is from this perspective that it focuses on the challenges of teaching philosophy to students in the Nigerian tertiary institutions. Philosophy students in Nigeria usually come across philosophy for the first time at the tertiary level. This raises the problem of inadequate exposure. Beyond this, a substantial number of candidates are admitted into the philosophy program based on the Nigerian version of ‘affirmative action’ which is known as the quota system. This paper addresses the problems highlighted above and hosts of other issues as well as provides recommendations that can improve effectiveness of teaching philosophy at the university level.

Keywords: justice, quota system, pedagogy, federal character

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Authors: Amira M. Othman

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Despite the massive array of literature that engages with the Egyptian legislative system on a theoretical level, very little attention has been dedicated to the comparison between the legislative clauses on the one hand, and the (absence of their) real-world implementation on the other. This paper starts with this discrepancy, focusing on the legal proceedings in some recent cases dubbed ‘political,’ in which defendants received death sentences. Then, it sheds light on the trend of practical disregard of the law on behalf of the criminal justice apparatuses (whether security forces, public prosecution offices, lawyers, judges, prison wardens, and executioners) through the examination of case files and the conduction of interviews with some defense lawyers in the cases in question. It also identifies the resultant state of confusion among prison staff, as manifest in their treatment of defendants even before the death sentences against them is pronounced; in other words, the application of some aspects of the law in certain cases, and their simultaneous disregard of others. Then, the paper explores the effects of such execution of the law on the death row inmates, as it identifies the different strategies through which defendants who are sentenced to death appropriate a number of legal clauses to their benefit, thereby embarrassing - or highly irritating - the judges that pronounce their death sentences. In addition to appropriation, other strategies include the contestation of the law and their presence before the courts in general, as well as the complete disregard and dismissal of the legal system altogether. Finally, the paper investigates the consequent conceptual effect on the first degree families of death row inmates, namely how their daily encounters with the Egyptian legislative system - particularly its emphasis on the absence of the otherwise binding local legislation - continue to shape their conceptions of the ‘law,’ of ‘justice,’ and their trust in the ‘state.’

Keywords: death penalty, Egyptian law absence, justice, political cases

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Authors: Helen J. Spray, Karina J. Linnell

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Local-global bias in adulthood is strongly dependent on environmental factors and a global bias is not the universal characteristic of adult perception it was once thought to be: whilst Western adults typically demonstrate a global bias, Namibian adults living in traditional villages possess a strong local bias. Furthermore, environmental effects on local-global bias have been shown to be highly gender-specific; whereas urbanisation promoted a global bias in urbanised Namibian women but not men, education promoted a global bias in urbanised Namibian men but not women. Adult populations, however, provide only a snapshot of the gene-environment interactions which shape perceptual bias. Yet, to date, there has been little work on the development of local-global bias across environmental settings. In the current study, local-global bias was assessed using a similarity-matching task with Navon figures in children aged between 4 and 15 years from across three populations: traditional Namibians, urban Namibians, and urban British. For the two Namibian groups, measures of urbanisation and education were obtained. Data were subjected to both between-group and within-group analyses. Between-group analyses compared developmental trajectories across population and gender. These analyses revealed a global bias from even as early as 4 in the British sample, and showed that the developmental onset of a global bias is not fixed. Urbanised Namibian children ultimately developed a global bias that was indistinguishable from British children; however, a global bias did not emerge until much later in development. For all populations, the greatest developmental effects were observed directly following the onset of formal education. No overall gender effects were observed; however, there was a significant gender by age interaction which was difficult to reconcile with existing biological-level accounts of gender differences in the development of local-global bias. Within-group analyses compared the effects of urbanisation and education on local-global bias for traditional and urban Namibian boys and girls separately. For both traditional and urban boys, education mediated all effects of age and urbanisation; however, this was not the case for girls. Traditional Namibian girls retained a local bias regardless of age, education, or urbanisation, and in urbanised girls, the development of a global bias was not attributable to any one factor specifically. These results are broadly consistent with aforementioned findings that education promoted a global bias in urbanised Namibian men but not women. The development of local-global bias does not follow a fixed trajectory but is subject to environmental control. Understanding how variability in the development of local-global bias might arise, particularly in the context of gender, may have far-reaching implications. For example, a number of educationally important cognitive functions (e.g., spatial ability) are known to show consistent gender differences in childhood and local-global bias may mediate some of these effects. With education becoming an increasingly prevalent force across much of the developing world it will be important to understand the processes that underpin its effects and their implications.

Keywords: cross-cultural, development, education, gender, local-global bias, perception, urbanisation, urbanization

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Authors: Yueming Li

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This paper analyzes Lou Ye’s Summer Palace (2006), an autobiographical film of the Sixth Generation of Directors in Mainland China, from the approaches of inter-textual analysis and intellectual history. It highlights the film’s reconstruction of the June 4th Incident as an intermediary device for the revival and haunting of the 1980s’ New Enlightenment Movement. The paper demonstrates how the June 4th Incident unfolds as historical trauma and collective experience of the Generation through Lou’s flickering narrative in both plot organization and visual representation, under an individualized and internal viewpoint. It further proposes that these revenants of the June 4th Incident translate into “realms of memory,” which lend themselves for biographical and historical reconstruction of the June 4th Incident based on a politics of embodiment. Through this, Lou and his contemporaries acquire agency to actively respond to the June 4th Incident as an “intimate revolt.” In this sense, the film revisits the New Enlightenment Movement in that they similarly construct rebellious connotations in a seemingly depoliticized manner. As the paper examines how an autobiographical film reconstructs, revisits, and responds to a historical event and its absence, it answers how individuals’ agency intertwines with and counteracts their historical living contexts.

Keywords: new enlightenment movement, summer palace, the June 4th incident, the sixth generation of directors

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Authors: Sajedeh Salehi, Marco Giacalone

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This paper examines the role of existing online dispute resolution (ODR) mechanisms and their effects on ameliorating access to justice – as a protected right by Art. 47 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights – for consumers in EU. The major focus of this study will be on evaluating ODR as the means of dispute resolution for Business-to-Consumer (B2C) cross-border small claims raised in e-commerce transactions. The authors will elaborate the consequences of implementing ODR methods in the context of recent developments in EU regulatory safeguards on promoting consumer protection. In this analysis, both non-judiciary and judiciary ODR redress mechanisms are considered, however, the significant consideration is given to – obligatory and non-obligatory – judiciary ODR methods. For that purpose, this paper will particularly investigate the impact of the EU ODR platform as well as the European Small Claims Procedure (ESCP) Regulation 861/2007 and their role on accelerating the access to justice for consumers in B2C e-disputes. Although, considerable volume of research has been carried out on ODR for consumer claims, rather less (or no-) attention has been paid to provide a combined doctrinal and empirical evaluation of ODR’s potential in resolving cross-border small e-disputes, in EU. Hence, the methodological approach taken in this study is a mixed methodology based on qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (surveys) research methods which will be mainly based on the data acquired through the findings of the Small Claims Analysis Net (SCAN) project. This project contributes towards examining the ESCP Regulation implementation and efficiency in providing consumers with a legal watershed through using the ODR for their transnational small claims. The outcomes of this research may benefit both academia and policymakers at national and international level.

Keywords: access to justice, consumers, e-commerce, small e-Disputes

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Authors: Paul Hernandez-Herrera, Fernando Montoya, Juan Manuel Rendon, Alberto Darszon, Gabriel Corkidi

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Intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) regulates sperm motility. The analysis of [Ca2+]i has been traditionally achieved in two dimensions while the real movement of the cell takes place in three spatial dimensions. Due to optical limitations (high speed cell movement and low light emission) important data concerning the three dimensional movement of these flagellated cells had been neglected. Visualizing [Ca2+]i in 3D is not a simple matter since it requires complex fluorescence microscopy techniques where the resulting images have very low intensity and consequently low SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio). In 4D sequences, this problem is magnified since the flagellum oscillates (for human sperm) at least at an average frequency of 15 Hz. In this paper, a novel approach to extract the flagellum’s center-line in 4D stacks is presented. For this purpose, an iterative algorithm based on the fast-marching method is proposed to extract the flagellum’s center-line. Quantitative and qualitative results are presented in a 4D stack to demonstrate the ability of the proposed algorithm to trace the flagellum’s center-line. The method reached a precision and recall of 0.96 as compared with a semi-manual method.

Keywords: flagellum, minimal path, segmentation, sperm

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Authors: Comfort Mokgothu

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This study investigated the relation between processing information and fitness level of active (fit) and sedentary (unfit) children drawn from rural and urban areas in Botswana. It was hypothesized that fit children would display faster simple reaction time (SRT), choice reaction times (CRT) and movement times (SMT). 60, third grade children (7.0 – 9.0 years) were initially selected and based upon fitness testing, 45 participated in the study (15 each of fit urban, unfit urban, fit rural). All children completed anthropometric measures, skinfold testing and submaximal cycle ergometer testing. The cognitive testing included SRT, CRT, SMT and Choice Movement Time (CMT) and memory sequence length. Results indicated that the rural fit group exhibited faster SMT than the urban fit and unfit groups. For CRT, both fit groups were faster than the unfit group. Collectively, the study shows that the relationship that exists between physical fitness and cognitive function amongst the elderly can tentatively be extended to the pediatric population. Physical fitness could be a factor in the speed at which we process information, including decision making, even in children.

Keywords: decision making, fitness, information processing, reaction time, cognition movement time

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Authors: M. M. Muhammed, O. Khuzaima

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This research examined and outlined some of the challenges facing Islam and Muslims in the 21^st century, considering global Islamic representation and knowledge acquisition as key objectives. It was observed that the Western media misrepresentation of Islam and the Western ethos embodied by the acquisition of western civilisation are major challenges faced by Islam and Muslims today. The problem of sectarianism, decline in the socio-economic power of Muslim communities and the archaic nature of the Islamic creed were recorded as major actors to the evolving global Islamic issues. It was therefore concluded that Islam is not the reason for these challenges, rather the action of some Muslims and non-Muslims were the contributing factors to the pandemics faced by Islam and Muslims. Some relevant recommendations were made to the Islamic world that could serve as effectual solutions to these lingering problems.

Keywords: Islam, challenges, representation, knowledge, century, global, twenty-first

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Authors: Renaud Gaucher

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Research on happiness has developed significantly in the past fifty years and economics and the political science are starting to be influenced by advances in the field. Until recently, finance has stayed outside this movement. The goal of our research is to integrate finance into this movement conceptually. We explain the why, the what and the how of the finance of happiness. We then study the relationship between corporate finance and happiness. We discuss the optimization of the relationship between the financial performance of a firm and the happiness at work of its employees, and the reduction of financial risk by developing goods that foster the happiness of their users. Finally we look at the development of happiness investment funds, that is investment funds founded on happiness research, and the best ways to share risks and earnings to build a happier society.

Keywords: finance, happiness, investment fund, risk

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Authors: Mehdi Janbaz

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The global financial crisis and the credit crunch that followed magnified the importance of credit risk management and its crucial role in the stability of all financial sectors and the whole of the system. Many believe that risks faced by the sovereign sector are highly interconnected with banking risks and most likely to trigger and reinforce each other. This study aims to examine (1) the impact of banking and interbank risk factors on the sovereign credit risk of Eurozone, and (2) how the EU Credit Default Swaps spreads dynamics are affected by the Crude Oil price fluctuations. The hypothesizes are tested by employing fitting risk measures and through a four-staged linear modeling approach. The sovereign senior 5-year Credit Default Swap spreads are used as a core measure of the credit risk. The monthly time-series data of the variables used in the study are gathered from the DataStream database for a period of 2008-2019. First, a linear model test the impact of regional macroeconomic and market-based factors (STOXX, VSTOXX, Oil, Sovereign Debt, and Slope) on the CDS spreads dynamics. Second, the bank-specific factors, including LIBOR-OIS spread (the difference between the Euro 3-month LIBOR rate and Euro 3-month overnight index swap rates) and Euribor, are added to the most significant factors of the previous model. Third, the global financial factors including EURO to USD Foreign Exchange Volatility, TED spread (the difference between 3-month T-bill and the 3-month LIBOR rate based in US dollars), and Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Crude Oil Volatility Index are added to the major significant factors of the first two models. Finally, a model is generated by a combination of the major factor of each variable set in addition to the crisis dummy. The findings show that (1) the explanatory power of LIBOR-OIS on the sovereign CDS spread of Eurozone is very significant, and (2) there is a meaningful adverse co-movement between the Crude Oil price and CDS price of Eurozone. Surprisingly, adding TED spread (the difference between the three-month Treasury bill and the three-month LIBOR based in US dollars.) to the analysis and beside the LIBOR-OIS spread (the difference between the Euro 3M LIBOR and Euro 3M OIS) in third and fourth models has been increased the predicting power of LIBOR-OIS. Based on the results, LIBOR-OIS, Stoxx, TED spread, Slope, Oil price, OVX, FX volatility, and Euribor are the determinants of CDS spreads dynamics in Eurozone. Moreover, the positive impact of the crisis period on the creditworthiness of the Eurozone is meaningful.

Keywords: CDS, crude oil, interbank risk, LIBOR-OIS, OVX, sovereign credit risk, TED

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Authors: Pranav Vaidya

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The recent upheaval of a ballot initiative taken place in California & Los Angeles‘s newspapers shows how the concept of giving Death Penalty obliterates the very soul basis of community and society which rests upon the tripod of values, ethics, and morality. This paper goes on with examining how, by giving death penalties we are, on one hand trying to wipe out those heinous offenders committing such unspeakable crimes against the public; while on the other hand it comes with a devastating effect of corroding and eluding the existence of ethics and morality which is in the very nature of “protecting the life of humankind”. As it can be stated that, by giving capital punishment, we are trying to legitimize an irreversible act of violence by the authority of state and target innocent victims because as long as the human justice is fallible, the risk of executing an innocent can never be eliminated. However, scholars in the legalization of Capital Punishment have argued that the courts should impose punishment befitting the crime so that they could reflect public abhorrence of the crime, create deterrent or rehabilitating effects & deliver the truest form of justice.

Keywords: ethics, heinous offenders, morality, unspeakable crimes

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Authors: F. Saptouw

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This paper will examine the value of introducing social justice issues into the tertiary fine art curriculum at a first-year level. The paper will present detail of the conceptual impetus and the logistics related to the execution of a collaborative teaching project. The cohort of students was registered for the Fine Art Foundation course at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. The course is dedicated to the development of critical thinking, communication skills, and varied approaches to knowledge construction within the first-year cohort. A core component of the course is the examination of the representation of gender, identity, politics, and power. These issues are examined within a range of public and private representations like art galleries, museum spaces, and contemporary popular culture. This particular project was a collaborative project with the Office of Inclusivity and Change, and the project leaders were Fabian Saptouw and Gabriel Khan. The paper will conclude by presenting an argument for the importance of such projects within the tertiary environment.

Keywords: art, education, gender-based violence, social responsiveness

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Authors: Jorge Sandoval Lezama, Arturo Ivan Sandoval Rodriguez, Jose Arturo Correa Arredondo

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This work aims to share innovative educational experiences at IPN Mexico, that involve collaborative learning at institutional and global level through course competition and global collaboration projects. Students from universities in China, USA, South Korea, Canada and Mexico collaborate to design electric vehicles to solve global urban mobility problems. The participation of IPN students in the 2015-2016 global competition (São Paolo, Brazil and Cincinnati, USA) Reconfigurable Shared-Use Mobility Systems allowed to apply pedagogical strategies of groups of collaboration and of learning based on projects where they shared activities, commitments and goals, demonstrating that students were motivated to develop / self-generate their knowledge with greater meaning and understanding. One of the most evident achievements is that the students are self-managed, so the most advanced students train the students who join the project with CAD, CAE, CAM tools. Likewise, the motivation achieved is evident since in 2014 there were 12 students involved in the project, and there are currently more than 70 students.

Keywords: collaboration projects, global competency, course competition, active learning

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Authors: F. J. Ma, A. K. H. Kwan

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Crack caused by shrinkage movement of concrete is a serious problem especially when restraint is provided. It may cause severe serviceability and durability problems. The existing prediction methods for crack width of concrete due to shrinkage movement are mainly numerical methods under simplified circumstances, which do not agree with each other. To get a more unified prediction method applicable to more sophisticated circumstances, finite element crack width analysis for shrinkage effect should be developed. However, no existing finite element analysis can be carried out to predict the crack width of concrete due to shrinkage movement because of unsolved reasons of conventional finite element analysis. In this paper, crack width analysis implemented by finite element analysis is presented with pseudo-discrete crack model, which combines traditional smeared crack model and newly proposed crack queuing algorithm. The proposed pseudo-discrete crack model is capable of simulating separate and single crack without adopting discrete crack element. And the improved finite element analysis can successfully simulate the stress redistribution when concrete is cracked, which is crucial for predicting crack width, crack spacing and crack number.

Keywords: crack queuing algorithm, crack width analysis, finite element analysis, shrinkage effect

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Authors: Mapule Maema

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The paper aims to highlight the role that community activism has played in promoting social justice around housing issues in the Western Cape. The Western Cape is one of the largest spatially segregated provinces in South Africa which continues to exhibit grave inequalities between cities, townships and farms. These inequalities cut across intersectional issues such as, race, class, gender, and politics. The main challenges facing marginalized communities in the Western Cape include access to housing, land and basic services. This is not peculiar to only the Western Cape, the entire country is facing similar challenges however the Western Cape is seen as a fasted urbanizing province in the country due to tourism. Various social movements have been formed across the country to counter these challenges, however, this paper focuses on the resilience communities have fostered despite the myriad housing and spatial crisis they are faced with. The paper focuses on the Legal Resource’s Centre’s clients from an informal settlement called Imizamo Yethu based in Hout Bay Valley area. The 18 hectare settlement houses approximately 33600 people. On the 21st July 2017, Hout Bay experienced violent protests following an eviction order passed by the City of Cape Town. The protest was characterized by tensions within the community regarding the super-blocking initiative which aims to establish roads in informal settlements to ensure basic services. Residents against the process argued that there were no proper consultations done to educate them on what this process entailed. Public participation is one of the objectives the municipalities aim to promote however it remains a great challenge. In order to highlight the experiences of the LRC clients in relation to what motivated their involvement in the movement, how it felt their participation, and aspirations, the paper will employ qualitative research methods. Qualitative research methods enable the researcher to get a deeper and nuanced understanding of the social world in the eyes of those who experienced it. It is a flexible methodology that enables one to also understand social processes and the significance they generate. Data will be collected through the use of the World Cafe as a focus group method. The World Café is a simple, effective and flexible format for hosting group dialogue. The steps taken when setting up a World Café includes the following: setting the context (why you are bringing people together and what you want to achieve), create hospitality space (make participants feel at home and free to discuss issues), explore questions that matter, connect diverse perspectives (the opportunity to actively contribute your thinking), listen together for patterns and insights, share collective discoveries and learnings. Secondary data will be used to augment the data collected. Stories of impact will be drawn from the exercises. This paper will contribute to the discourse of sustainable housing and urban development and the research outputs will be disseminated to the public for learning.

Keywords: community activism, influence, social justice, development

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Authors: Kin Yan Ho

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Negative brand news (such as Volkswagen’s faulty carbon emission reports, China’s Luckin Coffee scandal, and bribery in reputable US universities) influence how people perceive a company. Germany’s citizens claimed Volkswagen’s scandal as a national embarrassment and cannot recover their psychological damages through monetary and non-monetary compensation. The main research question is to examine how consumers evaluate and respond to embarrassing brand publicity. The cognitive appraisal theory is used as a theoretical foundation. This study describes the use of scenario-based experiment. The findings suggest that consumers with different levels of embarrassment evaluate brand remedial offers from emotion-focused and task-focused restorative justice perspectives (newly derived from the well-established scales of perceived justice). When consumers face both negative and positive brand information (i.e., negative publicity news and a remedial offer), they change their appraisal criterion. The social situation in the cognitive reappraisal process influences the quality of the customer-brand relationship and the customer’s recovery from brand embarrassment. The results also depict that the components of recovery compensation cause differences in emotion recovery, relationship quality, and repurchase intentions. This study extends embarrassment literature in an embarrassing brand publicity context. The emotional components of brand remedial tactics provide insights to brand managers on how to handle different consumers’ emotions, consumer satisfaction, and foster positive future behavior.

Keywords: brand relationship quality, cognitive appraisal, crisis communications, emotion, justice, social presence

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Authors: Kolawole Oyekan Jamiu

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In Nigerian criminal law, a victim of an offence plays little or no role in the prosecution of an offender. The state concentrates only on imposing punishment on the offender while the victims of crime and abuse of power by security agencies are abandoned without any compensation either from the State or the offender. It has been stated that the victim of crime is the forgotten man in our criminal justice system. He sets the criminal law in motion but then goes into oblivion. Our present criminal law does not recognise the right of the victim to take part in the prosecution of the case or his right to compensation. The victim is merely a witness in a state versus case. This paper examines the meaning of the phrase ‘the victims of crime and abuse of power’. It needs to be noted that there is no definition of these two categories of victims in any statute in Nigeria. The paper also considers the United Nations General Assembly Declaration of Basic Principle of Justice for Victims and abuse of power. This declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on the 25th of November 1985. The declaration contains copious provisions on compensation for the victims of crime and abuse of power. Unfortunately, the declaration is not, in itself a legally binding instrument and has been given little or no attention since the coming into effect in1985. This paper examines the role of the judiciary in ensuring that victims of crime and abuse of power in Nigeria are compensated. While some Judges found it difficult to award damages to victims of abuse of power others have given some landmark rulings and awarded substantial damages. The criminal justice ( victim’s remedies) Bill shall also be examined. The Bill comprises of 74 sections and it spelt out the procedures for compensating the victims of crime and abuse of power in Nigeria. Finally, the paper also examines the practicability of awarding damages to victims of crime whether the offender is convicted or not and in addition, the possibility of granting all equitable remedies available in civil cases to victims of crime and abuse of power so that the victims will be restored to the earlier position before the crime.

Keywords: compensation, damages, restitution, victims

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Authors: Nikoletta G. Karytsioti

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The European Union’s function and effectiveness are still an issue that minds, bringing about division even in the member-states interior. Recently, more serious issues have been added in the Union’s malfunction, which affects not only the Union’s function but also their residents’ safety. One of these issues is the migration crisis, which frustrates the European Union’s balances and the stability. The present paper’s aim to frame and interpret the Greek public opinion in basic migration matters, throughout the political philosophy and specifically via John Rawls ‘Theory of Justice’. The theory is deployed to examine if it may be used in a practical way, on a tangible issue and in a specific area. In order to obtain a real frame of the public opinion about the matter of migration, a questionnaire was addressed to Greek people. The sample was chosen for three main reasons: a) Greeks are experienced in the migration as they had migrated in the past, b) many young people migrated the recent years after the debt crisis, c) Greece is a reception state. Being based in the Theory of Justice and specifically in the ‘veil of ignorance’, is tried to overcome the obstacles of human nature’s subjectivity, while examining the variations in the responses per social group. The questionnaire will have demographic questions and special interest questions, related with the crisis, before and after ‘the veil of ignorance’. The paper’s originality comes from the fact that it is the first time that a philosophical theory is used to examine the migration issue in a practical manner. The main goals of the paper are three: - To examine the differences/similarities in the responses before and after the veil of ignorance, - to reveal opinions on migration crisis from E.U. citizens and - to confirm or not the practical usefulness of the Political Philosophy as a highlighting tool

Keywords: European Union, immigrants, migration crisis, political philosophy, theory of justice, veil of ignorance

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Authors: Li Jiawei

Abstract:

In the mid-1920s, Chinese dramatist Yu Shangyuan rallied a group of intellectuals and launched the National Theatre Movement to champion the incorporation of Chinese operatic resources into modern spoken drama. In 1927, the fluctuating milieu impelled Yu and most of his comrades to leave Beijing, rendering the movement a truncated undertaking. Offering to illuminate the influence or reverberation of the movement, this research examines Yu’s translation of J. M. Barrie’ s The Admirable Crichton, the first play Yu published upon returning to Beijing in 1929. It unveils that Yu still espoused the value of Chinese opera on modern stage, but his perception of drama was more instructive and rooted in theatre’s fundamental traditions, customs, and mechanics. Influenced by Sheldon Cheney’s theatrical idea, Yu aligned Western realistic drama with “psychologic drama” and Chinese opera with “aesthetic drama” and argued for a “re-theatricalized drama” that could “present psychologic drama aesthetically.” With such a perception, Yu chose to translate a psychologic drama and strove to imbue the play with an aesthetic spirit by inserting symbolic stage designs and employing poetic language. The exploration of Yu’s translation of The Admirable Crichton sheds light on the new insights that translation studies might bring to theatre historiography.

Keywords: Yu Shangyuan, translation, drama, modern China

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Authors: Anat Peleg, Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg

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This interdisciplinary study, to our knowledge the first in this field, is located on the intersection of victimology-law and society-and media literature, and it corresponds both with feminist writing and with cyber literature which explores the techno-social sphere. It depicts the multifaceted dimensions of shaming in the eyes of the survivors through the following research questions: What are the motivations of sexual-assault survivors to publicize the assailants' identity or to refrain from this practice? Is shaming on Facebook perceived by sexual–assault victims as a substitute for the CJS or as a new form of social activism? What positive and negative consequences do survivors experience as a result of shaming their assailants online? The study draws on in-depth semi-structured interviews which we have conducted between 2016-2018 with 20 sexual-assaults survivors who exposed themselves on Facebook. They were sexually attacked in various forms: six participants reported that they had been raped when they were minors; eight women reported that they had been raped as adults; three reported that they had been victims of an indecent act and three reported that they had been harassed either in their workplace or in the public sphere. Most of our interviewees (12) reported to the police and were involved in criminal procedures. More than half of the survivors (11) disclosed the identity of their attackers online. The vocabularies of motives that have emerged from the thematic analysis of the interviews with the survivors consist of both social and personal motivations for using the practice of shaming online. Some survivors maintain that the use of shaming derives from the decline in the public trust in the criminal justice system. It reflects demand for accountability and justice and serves also as a practice of warning other potential victims of the assailants. Other survivors assert that shaming people in a position of privilege is meant to fulfill the public right to know who these privileged men really are. However, these aforementioned moral and practical justifications of the practice of shaming are often mitigated by fear from the attackers' physical or legal actions in response to their allegations. Some interviewees who are feminist activists argue that the practice of shaming perpetuates the social ancient tendency to define women by labels linking them to the men who attacked them, instead of being defined by their own life complexities. The variety of motivations to adopt or resent the practice of shaming by sexual assault victims presented in our study appear to refute the prevailing intuitive stereotype that shaming is an irrational act of revenge, and denote its rationality. The role of social media as an arena for seeking informal justice raises questions about the new power relations created between victims, assailants, the community and the State, outside the formal criminal justice system. At the same time, the survivors' narratives also uncover the risks and pitfalls embedded within the online sphere for sexual assault survivors.

Keywords: criminal justice, gender, Facebook, sexual-assaults

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Authors: Michael Picard

Abstract:

This proposal offers to shed light on the changing legal geography of the global waste economy. Global waste recycling has become a multi-billion-dollar industry. NASDAQ predicts the emergence of a worldwide 1,296G$ waste management market between 2017 and 2022. Underlining this evolution, a new generation of preferential waste-trade agreements has emerged in the Pacific. In the last decade, Japan has concluded a series of bilateral treaties with Asian countries, and most recently with China. An agreement between Tokyo and Beijing was formalized on 7 May 2008, which forged an economic partnership on waste transfer and mining. The agreement set up International Recycling Zones, where certified recycling plants in China process industrial waste imported from Japan. Under the joint venture, Chinese companies salvage the embedded value from Japanese industrial discards, reprocess them and send them back to Japanese manufacturers, such as Mitsubishi and Panasonic. This circular economy is designed to convert surplus garbage into surplus value. Ever since the opening of Sino-Japanese eco-parks, millions of tons of plastic and e-waste have been exported from Japan to China every year. Yet, quite unexpectedly, China has recently closed its waste market to imports, jeopardizing Japan’s billion-dollar exports to China. China notified the WTO that, by the end of 2017, it would no longer accept imports of plastics and certain metals. Given China’s share of Japanese waste exports, a complete closure of China’s market would require Japan to find new uses for its recyclable industrial trash generated domestically every year. It remains to be seen how China will effectively implement its ban on waste imports, considering the economic interests at stake. At this stage, what remains to be clarified is whether China's ban on waste imports will negatively affect the recycling trade between Japan and China. What is clear, though, is the rapid transformation in the legal geography of waste mining in East-Asia. For decades, East-Asian waste trade had been tied up in an ‘ecologically unequal exchange’ between the Japanese core and the Chinese periphery. This global unequal waste distribution could be measured by the Environmental Stringency Index, which revealed that waste regulation was 39% weaker in the Global South than in Japan. This explains why Japan could legally export its hazardous plastic and electronic discards to China. The asymmetric flow of hazardous waste between Japan and China carried the colonial heritage of international law. The legal geography of waste distribution was closely associated to the imperial construction of an ecological trade imbalance between the Japanese source and the Chinese sink. Thus, China’s recent decision to ban hazardous waste imports is a sign of a broader ecological shift. As a global economic superpower, China announced to the world it would no longer be the planet’s junkyard. The policy change will have profound consequences on the global circulation of waste, re-routing global waste towards countries south of China, such as Vietnam and Malaysia. By the time the Berlin Conference takes place in May 2018, the presentation will be able to assess more accurately the effect of the Chinese ban on the transboundary movement of waste in Asia.

Keywords: Asia, ecological unequal exchange, global waste trade, legal geography

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Authors: Kayvan Khoramipour, Abbas Ali Gaeini, Elham Shirzad, Øyvind Sandbakk

Abstract:

Basketball has different positions with individual movement profiles, which may influence metabolic demands. Accordingly, the present study aimed to compare the movement and metabolic load between different positions during elite male basketball games. Five main players of 14 teams (n = 70), who participated in the 2017-18 Iranian national basketball leagues, were selected as participants. The players were defined as backcourt (Posts 1-3) and frontcourt (Posts 4-5). Video based time motion analysis (VBTMA) was performed based on players’ individual running and shuffling speed using Dartfish software. Movements were classified into high and low intensity running with and without having the ball, as well as high and low-intensity shuffling and static movements. Mean frequency, duration, and distance were calculated for each class, except for static movements where only frequency was calculated. Saliva samples were collected from each player before and after 40-minute basketball games and analyzed using metabolomics. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Partial least square discriminant analysis (PLSDA) (for metabolomics data) and independent T-tests (for VBTMA) were used as statistical tests. Movement frequency, duration, and distance were higher in backcourt players (all p ≤ 0.05), while static movement frequency did not differ. Saliva samples showed that the levels of Taurine, Succinic acid, Citric acid, Pyruvate, Glycerol, Acetoacetic acid, Acetone, and Hypoxanthine were all higher in backcourt players, whereas Lactate, Alanine, 3-Metyl Histidine, and Methionine were higher in frontcourt players Based on metabolomics, we demonstrate that backcourt and frontcourt players have different metabolic profiles during games, where backcourt players move clearly more during games and therefore rely more on aerobic energy, whereas frontcourt players rely more on anaerobic energy systems in line with less dynamic but more static movement patterns.

Keywords: basketball, metabolomics, saliva, sport loadomics

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