Climate resilience in fragile and conflict-affected societies: concepts and approaches

To understand resilience to climate and environmental changes in fragile and conflict-affected societies is particularly important but equally challenging. In this paper, we first develop a conceptual framework to explore the climate-fragility-conflict and climate-resilience-peace nexus. Second, we discuss approaches to promote pathways from climatic changes to peace. We draw on the relevant literature and International Alert's experience in fragile and conflict-affected societies to stress the key role of resilience. To build resilience, climate, development, peacebuilding, and government actors would have to overcome bureaucratic and institutional barriers and cooperate across thematic and regional silos.     

A New Paradigm of Customary International Criminal Law: The UN War Crimes Commission of 1943–1948 and its Associated Courts and Tribunals

This article focuses on the United Nations War Crimes Commission’s significant contribution to the development of customary international criminal law defined by the development of international legal standards and proceedings to combat impunity and promote justice. It draws on the Commission’s official history and its increasingly open archives in order to provide an overview of the UNWCC and its work, its members and its legacy for the contemporary era of international criminal law. The article firstly places the Commission in its historical context through the events and agreements that led to its creation and provided the legal character of the UNWCC. The defining characteristics of the Commission are afterwards described: the nations involved, the committee structure it formed and the sub-commission located in the Far East. Lastly, the accomplishments of the Commission are emphasised and criticisms of its work are presented. The article concludes with a discussion on the legacy of the Commission’s work and a possible future research agenda.     

The role of discourses in governing forests to combat climate change

Reducing emissions from forest degradation and deforestation, conserving and enhancing forest carbon stocks, and sustainably managing forests (REDD+) has emerged as one of the most anticipated climate change mitigation tools. This paper aims to understand and identify the underlying discourses that have dominated the emergence of REDD+, by identifying the key story lines in the policy and academic debates on REDD+. As such, this paper takes a step away from the “fine-tuning” of policy recommendations and instead studies REDD+ from a more theoretical approach with the intent to provide a critical analysis of the ideational structures that shape the policies that have emerged around REDD+. The analysis shows that ecological modernization and its accompanying story lines constitute a dominant notion of REDD+ as being able to manage the complexities of forest in a synergetic way, combining cost-efficient and effective mitigation with sustainable development. The paper also identifies the critical counter discourse of civic environmentalism, which criticizes this notion of REDD+ and instead promotes issues such as equity, the importance of local knowledge, and the participatory process. It argues that reducing deforestation involves trade-offs between economic, ecological, and social dimensions, also arguing that REDD+ fits overwhelmingly with the interest of the global North.     

Between a rock and a hard place – An international law perspective of the difficult position of globally active Internet intermediaries

With its ability to create a global legal risk exposure, combined with contradicting rights and duties, and limited enforcement possibilities, the Internet has created a unique environment where persons and corporations legitimately can question whether they should comply with all the laws that apply to them. Focussing on the role of globally active Internet intermediaries, this article attempts to tackle this issue by discussing the potential for, and potential features of, an international law doctrine of selective legal compliance.     

消费民事公益诉讼的责任承担方式

【裁判要旨】涉个人信息保护领域的消费民事公益诉讼中,除依司法解释审查合法权益受到侵害的消费者是否为众多不特定之外,还应着重审查侵权行为是否影响信息数据的正向价值实现,是否破坏积极、安全、稳定、有序的市场秩序,从而判断社会公共利益是否受损。侵权人以行为填补公共利益损害的责任承担方式不违反法律规定。     

韩国金钱债权执行制度概述

在韩国,对金钱债权1的执行主要分为两个阶段,即对债权的押留阶段和现金化阶段。在金钱债权的押留阶段,韩国主要利用押留命令限制第三债务人对债务人清偿,同时禁止债务人对该债权的处分和领受。在金钱债权的现金化阶段,韩国主要利用推寻命令和转付命令对被押留债权进行现金化,将被押留债权转化为金钱,用所得价款清偿执行债务人的债务。我们需要利用比较研究的方法,研究和借鉴韩国关于金钱债权执行制度的法律规定和相关实务经验,不断完善我国关于债权执行制度的相关规定。     

恶劣生存环境下委内瑞拉华人社团的主要功能刍析

近些年来,由于国内物质严重短缺,委内瑞拉的经济和社会治安形势愈趋恶化。发生在华侨华人身上的恶性刑事犯罪案件和政府执法人员在物价检查中的执法不公事件大幅上升。在艰难的生存发展环境下,委内瑞拉各地华人社团和侨领勇于担当,为维护华侨华人的生命财产安全和合法权益做出了特殊贡献。     

You Can't Fix What You Don't Measure: How ALICE Can Help Rebuild the Middle Class

Seventy percent of Americans identify as middle class, but one in three middle‐income households do not earn enough to support their family at the most basic level, and four in five do not earn enough to afford a sustainable budget. This incongruity explains the increasing frustration of many workers. Yet official government measures do not capture this reality, and as a result, policy makers continue to create economic policies that perpetuate the structural mismatch between wages and costs. This Viewpoint essay addresses these shortcomings. After reviewing alternatives to the federal poverty level, it argues that the most realistic and accurate floor to the middle class is the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Household Survival Budget. The essay then turns to policies that help realign wages and cost of living and presents initiatives that are being implemented in states across the country. Four policy areas would enable more workers to support their families and fulfill the promise of being middle class in America: meaningful work with stable and sufficient wages, upskilling and digital retooling, fiscal cushion for periods of financial instability, and affordable credit.