JISB Interview: The Responsibility to Protect

Abstract

Dr Aidan Hehir interviewed Dr Francis Deng, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, in New York on 20 August 2009     

Reconceptualizing International Intervention: Statebuilding, ‘Organic Processes’ and the Limits of Causal Knowledge

This article examines the transformation in the conceptual understanding of international intervention over the last two decades. It suggests that this conceptual shift can be usefully interrogated through its imbrication within broader epistemological shifts highlighting the limits of causal knowledge claims: heuristically framed in this article in terms of the shift from policy interventions within the problematic of causation to those concerned with the management of effects. In this shift, the means and mechanisms of international intervention have been transformed, no longer focused on the universal application of Western causal knowledge through policy interventions but rather on the effects of specific and unique local and organic processes at work in societies themselves. The focus on effects takes the conceptualization of intervention out of the traditional terminological lexicon of International Relations theory and instead recasts problems in increasingly organic ways, suggesting that artificial or hubristic attempts at socio-political intervention should be excluded or minimized.     

主权财富基金性质相关问题研究

近年来,主权财富基金一直是公众关注的焦点。中外学者对于主权财富基金的研究多从公司治理入手,鲜有学者对主权财富基金的性质属性进行论述。主权财富基金的性质关系到其发展方向以及治理模式,具有重大的现实意义。本文以主权财富基金的性质为出发点。重点阐述其“新型国家资本主义属性”与“理性经济人”属性,在此基础上指出二者存在的逻辑悖论。文章通过分析认为主权财富基金应当坚持“理性经济人属性”优先原则,采用“去主权化治理模式”,推动主权财富基金海外投资的商业化,避免附带过多的政治主权色彩。     

Problem of early elections and dissolution power in the Czech Republic

Theory of parliamentary regimes presumes that parliament can express vote of no confidence in government. On the other hand executive power (government or head of state) is endowed with right to dissolve the parliament. However, these “doomsday devices” are not in balance in many parliamentary regimes, including the Czech Republic. On the basis of a comparative analysis of dissolution provisions in the constitutions of European states the article argues that the government in the Czech Republic should be given the right to dissolve the lower chamber at least in case that the latter expresses vote of no confidence in the former.     

Islamic reformation discourses: popular sovereignty and religious secularisation in Iran

Disputes over the outcome of the June 2009 presidential election in Iran rapidly developed into a contest about the legitimacy of the Islamic state. Far from being a dispute between religious and non-religious forces, the main protagonists in the conflict represented divergent articulations of state–religion relations within an Islamic context. In contrast to the authoritarian legitimisation of an Islamic state, the Islamic reformation discourse is based on secular-democratic articulations of state–religion relations. This article focuses on the ideas of four leading Iranian religious scholars who advocate a secular-democratic conceptualisation of state authority. Disputing the religious validity of divine sovereignty, they promote the principle of popular sovereignty based on Islamic sources and methods. This reformist conceptualisation is rooted in the notion that Islam and the secular-democratic state are complementary.     

The Concept of the Supremacy of the Constitution

The article compares and assesses the idea of the supremacy of the constitution found in Germany with the competing British tradition of parliamentary sovereignty. It concludes by examining the need for a supreme constitutional law in the European Union.     

国家经济主权原则析论

经济主权作为国家主权在经济方面的重要体现,是由发展中国家在争取民族独立的进程中提出的。经济主权原则最终于20世纪70年代通过联合国的系列决议等文献在国际社会得以确立。经济主权的内涵包括狭义和广义两个层面。     

论跨境电子证据司法协助简易程序的构建

跨国网络犯罪的增加使得跨境电子取证的实际需求日益旺盛,我国在2018年颁布了《国际刑事司法协助法》,目的之一是加强国际合作打击跨国犯罪,为我国履行国际条约义务提供法律依据。但在司法实践中,我国的跨境电子取证面临着理论困境和实践困境。网络主权、司法管辖权理论使得单边取证存在着非法性可能。传统跨境电子取证因数据本地化存储和"倒U型"取证结构而效率不高。现有的国际司法协助程序繁杂、时间冗长,无法满足打击跨境犯罪和电子证据取证的现实需求。因此跨境电子取证的简易程序构建具有必要性和紧迫性,对现有司法协助程序进行适当简化,遵循合法性原则和效率性原则,构建境内外双方执法者直接合作方式合法化、派员调查取证方式、建立个案电子取证协助机制三种途径。     

Beating the bounds: how does ‘open source’ become a seed commons?

In response to ongoing plant genetic enclosures, the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) is creating a ‘protected commons’ for seed. It is a project, I argue, that reflects characteristics of a growing transnational commoning movement. From the Zapatistas to seed wars, such movements draw attention to commons not simply as a resource, but as a dynamic and evolving social activity: commoning. In the US, OSSI includes 38 plant breeders, 48 seed companies and 377 crop varieties. Yet challenges remain for OSSI to gain wider legitimacy for ‘freed seed’, to build trust in a moral pledge, and to establish fair guidelines for which people and which seed can participate in making the commons. Using the metaphor of ‘beating the bounds’ – a feudal practice of contesting enclosures – I ask how OSSI defends the commons in intersecting arenas. The first way is legal, as OSSI negotiates a move from contract law toward moral economy law. Next is epistemic, as an informal breeder network revitalizes farmer knowledge, while proving more structurally able and culturally equipped to lead commoning efforts. Finally, I reflect on the nature of boundary beating itself, aided by Global South movements. Seed sovereignty perspectives suggest room for a pluriverse of commons to grow.