Crime in Ireland north and south: Feuding gangs and profiteering paramilitaries

This paper provides a systematic overview of the emergence of organized crime in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since the late 1960s. It draws on two major studies of organized crime in the South (Hourigan 2011) and paramilitary activity in the North (Morrison 2014) to explore how conflict within and between organized criminal and paramilitary groups, shapes the distinctive dynamic of organized crime on the island of Ireland. The paper opens with an overview of the development of the drugs trade in the Republic of Ireland. The distinctive cultural characteristics of Irish organized crime groups are considered and the role played by paramilitary groups in criminal networks, North and South, is reviewed. As part of this analysis, the dynamic of inter-gang feuds and the spectrum of conflicts between organized criminal and paramilitary groups are analyzed. The competitive and mutually beneficial links between these organizations, North and South are explored as well as the tendency of paramilitaries to engage in vigilantism against criminals (mostly drugs dealers) as a means of building political capital within local communities.     

Law Is the Command of the Sovereign: H. L. A. Hart Reconsidered

This article presents a critical reevaluation of the thesis—closely associated with H. L. A. Hart, and central to the views of most recent legal philosophers—that the idea of state coercion is not logically essential to the definition of law. The author argues that even laws governing contracts must ultimately be understood as “commands of the sovereign, backed by force.” This follows in part from recognition that the “sovereign,” defined rigorously, at the highest level of abstraction, is that person or entity identified by reference to game theory and the philosophical idea of “convention” as the source of signals with which the subject population has become effectively locked, as a group, into conformity.     

The social and legislative history of the Islamic trust (waqf) in Mauritius

In Islamic law, a trust for charitable purposes is a waqf (awqāf is the Arabic plural). The waqf pre-dates but shares essential features with the English trust. This article is the first published work on waqf in Mauritius. Based on two months of interview, observation and textual collection in Mauritius (July–August 2014), this article explores the social, political and legislative history of the Islamic charitable trust in a jurisdiction where the waqf has been upon statutory footing since 1941 and under which considerable assets continue to be secured and directed towards the benefit of Muslim and non-Muslim individuals, groups and families.     

Organising the Boycott,Divestment and Sanctions movement: the case of the ‘We Divest’ campaign

In this article, I critically analyse the case of the We Divest campaign as an example of a divestment initiative of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to highlight aspects of how the movement works, particularly through its organisational structure and processes. The campaign targets TIAA-CREF, one of the largest retirement fund providers in the US, to divest funds currently held in a number of companies the campaign has identified as profiting from Israel’s violations of international law. In examining the case I determine certain organisational characteristics of the movement, i.e. networked, decentralised, grassroots, horizontal and border-crossing. By identifying certain aspects of the movement’s infrastructure through an investigation into the We Divest campaign, I argue that the organisational structure and processes identified in the case study suggest that the movement represents a new and different way of challenging Israel.