The genesis of the ‘Exceptional’ Republic: the permanency of the political crisis and the constitution of legal emergency power in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Almost half of the political life has been experienced under the state of emergency and state of siege policies in the Turkish Republic. In spite of such a striking number and continuity in the deployment of legal emergency powers, there are just a few legal and political studies examining the reasons for such permanency in governing practices. To fill this gap, this paper aims to discuss one of the most important sources of the ‘permanent’ political crisis in the country: the historical evolution of legal emergency power. In order to highlight how these policies have intensified the highly fragile citizenship regime by weakening the separation of power, repressing the use of political rights and increasing the discretionary power of both the executive and judiciary authorities, the paper sheds light on the emergence and production of a specific form of legality based on the idea of emergency and the principle of executive prerogative. In that context, it aims to provide a genealogical explanation of the evolution of the exceptional form of the nation-state, which is based on the way political society, representation, and legitimacy have been instituted and accompanying failure of the ruling classes in building hegemony in the country.     

The dark side of the family: paternal child homicide in Australia

Abstract

Feminist scholars have produced an extensive literature on the social, economic, psychological, and criminological aspects of female infanticide. By contrast, there have been few historical studies of fathers who have murdered their children. This article analyses the problem of paternal filicide in three ways. First, it contextualises state responses to child homicide in relation to the government's wider treatment of violence in the home. Second, it analyses men's stated motivations for child murder, highlighting the significance of their conceptions of fatherhood and family to their violent actions. And finally, it interrogates onlookers' understandings of male violence, showing that the family was central to the boundaries onlookers drew between understandable and incomprehensible violence. Overall, the article shows that fathers' violent acts stemmed from significantly different social pressures to maternal child killing. The various interpretations of male violence tell us much about historical understandings of fathers' responsibilities, men's family roles, and the place of violence in the home.     

Crime,punishment, family violence,and the cloak of legal invisibility

Abstract

In this article, the authors trace how the Anglo-Australian system of criminal law constructs crime within the family differently from other forms of crime. The zone of legal impunity for intrafamilial crime was carved out by special defences and immunities, such as provocation and marital rape, as well as policing policies and practices that effectively decriminalised “domestic” forms of physical and sexual abuse. Legal impunity was never absolute, and there were notable exceptions where the familial and gendered aspects of the crime in fact aggravated the offence, such as the law's treatment of spousal murder by females as a form of “petty treason”, warranting the most severe punishment of burning at the stake. Reforms in the late twentieth century removed overt forms of gender discrimination from the criminal law, exposing a new legal visibility of crime within “the family”, though as the authors conclude, there are still remnants of differential treatment in fields of sentencing law and practice.     

Writing history: flow and blockage in the circulation of knowledge

ABSTRACT

Historical writing in Tanzania has had highly serious goals from the early days of the history department at the University of Dar es Salaam. Historians have aimed at the decolonization of intellectual life, the construction of a national historical identity, and the achievement of a just society. This body of well-contextualized historical writing has circulated widely within the country, but does not reach readers outside east Africa as fully as it deserves. The article explores parallels with African genomic science as a way of getting at inequalities between northern and southern countries in access to resources for academic research and publication.     

The social construction of the legitimacy of Christian healing in Abidjan

ABSTRACT

Based on ethnographic work conducted recently in the city of Abidjan where religious pluralism and medical pluralism intersect, this paper lays out the foundations of Christian healing legitimacy as perceived by some key stakeholders. Against the background of the legal recognition of biomedicine and traditional medicine which with religious healing constitute the three major healing systems in Abidjan, the paper explores the anchorages of the legitimacy of Christian healing which lacks such explicit legal backing. Data are collected through semi-structured interviews of about 240 religious practitioners, medical professionals and beneficiaries of Christian therapies in the city of Abidjan. The major theoretical framework of this paper is the Weberian theory of the triple sources of legitimation complemented with historical and political economy approaches which attempt to link the development and functioning of therapeutic systems in Côte d’Ivoire with broader political, economic and historical processes. The main argument is that Ivoirians construct the legitimacy of alternative therapies in general, and religious therapies in particular, by building on the perceived limits of biomedicine, and its inability to respond to all their therapeutic needs. From a medical pluralism perspective, the pluralisation of offers signals the plurality of needs which has determined in our Ivoirian ethnographic context the appropriation of biomedicine, the resilience of traditional medicine and the current rise of Christian healing.     

The Renewal of Social Democracy? The Rann Labor Government (2002–11)

Labour governments around the world are struggling to renew labour and social democratic values in the modern era. The South Australian Labor government, led by Mike Rann (2002–11), presents a striking case of a labour government that pursued a renewal of social democracy. By offering a critical examination of the ideological contours of the Rann Government, this paper contributes to wider debates about the flux of social democracy. In Australia, debates about Labor's identity tend to focus on the federal rather than state level, which this article seeks, in part, to redress. The Rann government's economic and social inclusion policies are examined and compared with its South Australian historical forebears, and the Rann government is located within the various labour “traditions”.     

福利国家中的社会经济压力和决策者——德国和意大利家庭政策的比较研究

德国和意大利的福利国家制度都是建立在深受基督教民主主义影响的欧洲大陆模式上的,强调以家庭为主的社会保障。但在近十多年里,两国在以家庭政策为代表的社会政策领域却呈现出不同的发展路径。本文运用历史制度主义理论对两国的这一差异进行比较分析后认为,社会经济压力能否对社会福利政策的延续或改变起作用,在于政治参与者是否达成认知上的趋同,从而把握住决定性的时机进行变革。     

The elephant in the room: illiberal politics in Montenegro

ABSTRACT

Montenegro is at the same time considered both a success story as the leader of European integration in South-Eastern Europe and a country with severe democratic deficiencies. This paper builds upon the theory of democratic backsliding and uses theory-building process tracing to detect and analyse systematic patterns in the illiberal policies that the governing party uses to maintain its position in power. The three typical cases examined here reveal that assuring external control and maintaining the pretence of legality seem to be important elements of illiberal policies and that independent institutions and European standards are often used to assert and maintain control.     

Fault,Gender Politics and Family Law Reform

Recent public debates about family law reform have revealed both support for and criticism of legislative policies that seek to shape social norms. Amidst this debate was a suggestion from some quarters that the Whitlam Government's removal of fault‐based divorce is responsible for the gendered tensions that characterise modern reform debates. This article draws on archival records and interviews conducted with family law professionals who worked in the system in the 1970s and experienced the transition to the no‐fault system, to explore the principles underlying the introduction of the Family Law Act of 1975 and to identify the sources of continuing dissension about its impact.     

A response to Steven Feierman’s ‘writing history: flow and blockage in the circulation of knowledge’

ABSTRACT

This paper responds to Steven Feierman’s ‘Writing history: flow and blockage in the circulation of knowledge.’ Feierman has noted that most of the publications produced in Tanzania, and in Africa more generally, do not circulate to America. As a result, American scholars do not have access to such publications. The consequence of this phenomenon is that American scholars have difficulty producing African historical knowledge that is rich in context. While agreeing with Feierman’s thought-provoking intervention, this paper makes three main propositions. First, while acknowledging the problem of knowledge circulation between Africa and America, the paper renders visible an equally serious and disturbing reality: that the circulation of knowledge between African institutions is far more limited than it is between Africa and America or Europe. Many Africans consume knowledge that is largely produced in America and Europe. Secondly, while agreeing with Feierman that many scholars in America have difficulty producing historical knowledge about Africa that is rich in context, the paper argues that it is still possible for historians to produce contextually-rich knowledge. To do so, it is proposed, such historians need to craft locally-based methodological strategies that are sensitive to Africans’ perspectives on their changing cultural and physical world. Finally, while recognising that the limited circulation of knowledge is an important reason for some American scholars to produce historical knowledge about Africa which is rich in context, the paper offers four additional explanations on this problem, namely the failure of some scholars to conduct sustained primary field research in Africa; lack of personal sacrifice, a proper attitude and commitment to do long-term research in Africa; the tendency of some scholars from America to make no effort to find works produced in African institutions of higher learning when they visit Africa; and the growing over-reliance on digitised sources of information for producing histories, sources which can hardly capture such things as emotions, feelings, thoughts, silences, or cosmologies that are inevitable in the production of contextually-rich historical knowledge.     

Maritime Disputes,Sovereignty and the Rules‐Based Order in East Asia

In recent years, maritime sovereignty disputes have become highly visible microcosms of broader contests between security orders in East Asia. Escalating tensions over seas provoke questions about how historical and territorial conceptions of sovereignty map onto maritime areas, and the continuing effectiveness of the so‐called “rules‐based order” in maintaining regimes for deciding jurisdiction of islands, rocks and other maritime land features. The paper examines sovereignty claims and the international law of the sea across various cases, including the contested claims over Dokdo/Takeshima, Senkaku/Diaoyu Dao and China's nine‐dash line. These case studies reveal the tensions between two legal regimes: territorial rules of acquisition (sovereignty) and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This article concludes by considering the ways that the symbolic nature of these disputes has implications for the capacities of UNCLOS and other legal instruments in the US‐led “rules‐based order” to establish orderly relations among states in the maritime arena.     

INTRODUCTION

Abstract

In the last issue of 1994 the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (BCAS) presented a special “Notes from the Field” section on the Bretton Woods institutions. The ten contributions to that section provided case studies of specific projects in Asia and overviews of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank policies. In sum, they mounted a comprehensive critique of the historical and contemporary policies of these global financial institutions.     

Apologists for Power: The Yoo Brief,Executive Power and the State of Exception

This paper examines the legal and political arguments of those who support an expansive interpretation of US executive power in the face of threats to the state, taking a comparative historical perspective. It discusses the rationale for this approach by locating its historical origins in international and American jurisprudence, thereby placing them in a modern context. Attention is paid to the points made by various legal representatives of the Bush administration such as John Choon Yoo and Jay S. Bybee. Their views on an expansive response to state emergencies are based on a reading of executive power that informs the Bush administration's approach to law between 2001 and 2008. But this paper goes further in arguing that a common political‐juridical ground exists between various critics of the Bush administration, and those who formulated the policies of torture and rendition. This common ground on the subject of executive power in response to emergency lies primarily in the examination of the state of exception examined by Giorgio Agamben. This approach has various implications as to the general exercise of power by the executive in a democratic system. Legem non habet necessitas. Necessity knows no law. Augustine, Soliloquium, 2.     

A Glimpse of Medieval Curonian Vernacular Architecture in Egils Saga SkallagrÍMssonar

Interviews were conducted with native Russian and Finnish speakers living in Estonia to examine their perspectives on language policy and usage. The aim was to paint a picture of how they perceived Estonian language policy, providing an insight into the cognitive frameworks within which they work, and into the social and historical factors shaping their discursive environments. For Finnish informants, official monolingualism was not normal, while de facto monolingualism seemed to be. For Russian speakers, the opposite seemed true: those interviewed accepted Estonian's official status but wanted to see more use of Russian ‘on the ground’. Their perspectives reflect their worldviews, which have been shaped by their personal, family, and community realities and experiences.     

The dual nature of local content in Angola's oil and gas industry: development vs. elite accumulation

After decades of underdevelopment and conflict in the face of massive resource wealth, Angola is putting in place new strategies to dramatically increase its participation in its oil & gas and related services sectors. Although ‘local content’, or ‘Angolanização’, has been in place for decades, it has largely failed to increase the developmental benefits accruing from the country's resource wealth. The new local content push is likely to succeed at promoting economic growth. However, the policies have also become important mechanisms for unequal growth and new forms of elite accumulation. This paper reviews the historical context, legal framework, and current impact of local content in order to emphasise their dual role in creating development while concentrating elite power in Angola.     

Theater Missile Defense and Japanese Nuclear Weapons

Abstract

The development of a joint US-Japan theater missile defense system could have significant ramifications beyond the defense of Japan and of American forces in the region. A growing debate within Japan on its international security position, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and questions about the role of the United States in the region conspire to create conditions for significant changes in Japan's conception of its security status and its long‐term political-military calculations. By upgrading Japan's strategic responsibilities, theater missile defense could inadvertently induce a reassessment of many of its national security policies, perhaps even the decision to forego nuclear weapons.     

Modes of legitimation by female Pentecostal-Charismatic preachers in East Africa: a comparative study in Kenya and Tanzania

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the rise of female Pentecostal-Charismatic (PC) church leaders and how they legitimize themselves in a male dominated religious field in Kenya and Tanzania. It explores, in a qualitative way, four women leaders’ modes of attaining legitimacy in African PC milieus and contributes empirically based knowledge from four cases which include Eleonorah Wambui of Prosperity Gospel Ministries and Jesca Njuguna of Prophetic Word Ministry in Kenya, as well as Neema Mwambembela of Holy Ghost Power Assemblies and Irene John of Miracle Prayer Ministry in Tanzania. We make reference to Boulding’s delineation of sources of legitimacy ([1967] ‘The Legitimacy of Economics.’ Economic Inquiry 5 (4): 299–307). We found that the four East African female preachers that we examined share certain common practices, but that differences are manifest among them owing to differences in their personal preferences and to the contextual flavour of each ministry.     

日本人中国法律观的历史考察

日本曾经在很长的时闻内将中国传统法律文化视为圭臬，其法律制度基本照抄了《唐律疏议》和《大明律》的主要内容。近代以来，日本人逐渐对传统法律文化进行批判性反思，转向学习西方法律文化。并试图将日本法律文化推向整个亚洲。20世纪以来，日本人对中国传统法律文化由学习转向了研究，许多中国法律史研究著述出现，对中国传统法律文化的态度逐渐转向理性的思考。