“Gendering” European security: policy changes,reform coalitions and opposition in the OSCE

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has rarely been considered in scholarship on gender and security, even though it was one of the regional security organisations whose gender policy predated the United Nations Security Council’s call for more international attention to issues related to women, peace and security in October 2000. Based on an analysis of official OSCE documents and on semi-structured interviews, we trace the integration of gender issues in the OSCE and explore the rationale behind and the challenges associated with it. We identify two phases of gender policy change in the OSCE and show how the integration of UNSCR 1325 brought about an expansion of OSCE gender policy from an exclusive focus on “soft” security issues towards increased inclusion of gender in the area of “hard” security. Drawing on historical and feminist institutionalism, we argue that reform coalitions were crucial for the policy changes in the OSCE but that they encountered institutional and ideational barriers, which hampered implementation of the gender policy. In light of rising opposition, our analysis warns of a backlash that might jeopardise current achievements.     

刑事司法与人权保障——欧中刑事司法改革比较与借鉴

本文剖析了欧陆各国刑事司法改革的主要成果以及欧洲人权法院在人权保障方面发挥的重要作用,并对欧中刑事司法制度予以比较。     

Dual citizenship and theories of democracy

Dual/multiple citizenship has become a widespread phenomenon in many parts of the world. This acceptance or tolerance of overlapping memberships in political communities represents an important element in the ongoing readjustment of the relationship between citizens and political communities in democratic systems. This article has two goals and parts. First, it evaluates dual citizenship from the perspective of five normative theories of democracy. Liberal and republican as well as multicultural and deliberative understandings of democracy deliver a broad spectrum of arguments in favour of dual citizenship. Only communitarians fear that dual citizenship endangers national democracies. Nevertheless, empirical evidence and national policies largely contradict these fears. The second part of the article reverses the perspective and shows that most theories of democracy do not only legitimate and facilitate the acceptance of dual citizenship – the phenomenon of multiple citizenships induces innovation in democratic theory in turn. A second look at the relationship between dual citizenship and theories of democracy reveals that dual citizenship stimulates refinements, expansions and reconceptualisations of these theories for a transnationalising world.     

Writing Human Rights History—And Social Science Encounters

This review essay on Aryeh Neier's The International Human Rights Movement: A History (Princeton University Press, 2012) discusses Neier's central themes: the origins and maturation of the movement and its effects, including the expansion of human rights and humanitarian law, enhanced criminal accountability for human rights crimes, and the appearance of criminal tribunals, culminating in the International Criminal Court. An overview is interspersed by imaginary conversations between Neier and scholars who speak to his themes, especially legal scholar Jenny Martinez, political scientists Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, historians Devin Pendas and Tomaz Jardim, and sociologists John Hagan, Daniel Levy, Natan Sznaider, Joachim Savelsberg, and Ryan D. King. Linking a practitioner's account with scholarly analyses yields some benefits of “Pasteur's Quadrant.”     

Dimensions of Punitiveness in Germany

Over the last few years, international criminology has increasingly focussed parts of its research on whether there has been a rise in punitiveness in certain nations, and, if so, to what extent it is linked to social developments. In particular, the spread of globalisation corresponding fears and worries have been introduced into the discussion as possible influencing factors. Analyses often refer to the situation of the USA or Great Britain. The situation in continental Europe, however, is obviously a different one. In this contribution especially the situation in Germany will be described. The differentiated levels of punitiveness include attitudes in the population, legislation, sentencing, and enforcement of sentences. As concerns the attitudes within the population the results are partially contradictory, which particularly is due to the blurry concept and the different operationalisations of punitiveness. Overall the results of surveys show a tendency of slightly rising harshness for the population’s attitudes. On the level of legislation the criminal laws have in parts become harsher over the last decades. More statutory definitions of offences have been established, while comparable measures of decriminalisation have fallen away. Here a more distinct development towards punitiveness becomes evident. Case law, especially in the field of sentencing, also tends to become tighter. Eventually, for certain groups of criminals like sex and violent offenders a tendency towards a declination of early releases can be found. Today, these offender groups have to serve a larger proportion of their sentence than they had to in the 1970s. Overall these results in Germany indicate a slight rise of punitiveness that is most distinctly seen in the area of legislation. As to the attitudes to punishment within the population the data hardly suffice to claim a rise in punitiveness.