“A garden had been left to grow wild there”: considering nature in Ivan Vladislavić’s Johannesburg

Johannesburg has frequently been subjected to critical examinations that conceive the city as a metropolis dominated by late capitalist excess and gold mining hyperbole. Along these particular lines, much of the literary scholarship that considers Vladislavi?’s city texts have focussed on his conception of the built environment that critiques its exploitative extractive history and its simulacral tendencies. However, sustained critical attention of his treatment of nature in the urban space has largely been neglected or underplayed. The natural Highveld environment, for Vladislavi?, occupies a fraught and liminal space in the city, pushed to the margins of a brutalizing modernity. Nature in Johannesburg, he opines, is a construction, an imposition and inheritance that belies the city’s colonial and European settler history. However, there are moments in which, when human attention is turned away, nature in its untended and generative capacity works to unmake the structural obduracy of the settled city. This manifests in episodes that embrace the quiet potency of wild gardens that disrupt the urban status quo.     

Designing Ethical Online Dispute Resolution Systems: The Rise of the Fourth Party

As the pandemic forces public and private institutions to move online, many court and business leaders are looking to the field of online dispute resolution (ODR) for best practices and lessons learned. Developed over the last twenty years, largely in response to the growth of e‐commerce, the ODR field has generated a deep well of theory and practice while also identifying potential ethical dilemmas and risks. The application of technology, the “fourth party,” plays an increasingly integral role in how we negotiate resolutions to our disputes, with or without a third party. A brief overview of the history of ODR’s development will set the context for the exploration of the range of tools and techniques encompassed by online dispute resolution. Consideration of the ethical challenges raised by ODR practice will illuminate key questions and choices that need to be made in designing ODR systems and in governing their use.     

King Wenceslas’ relations with the Teutonic Order in light of the dispute over the Archbishopric of Riga (1392–1397)

King Wenceslas of the Romans (1378–1400) and of Bohemia (1378–1419) supported the Teutonic Knights, but his involvement in the Eastern Baltic region during the 1390s turned him into an enemy of the Knights. This paper argues that the change in Wenceslas’ policy was solely in the interests of his courtier Duke Swantibor of Pomerania-Stettin, who sought to establish his son as Archbishop of Riga. Wenceslas’ support for Swantibor owed to the traditions of courtly favor and instability in Bohemia, not out of any personal grudge against the Knights, as was claimed in earlier historiography.     

对一起私营医院缓报传染病疫情案件的法律适用问题的分析

本文通过对一起私营医院缓报传染病疫情案件的案例分析，重点剖析该案在法律适用上的争议问题，即本案应适用上位法还是下位法。在探讨此问题时，本文分别从以下两个角度予以剖析，一是将对上位法进行法律解释的角度作为切人点，探讨在法律选择上本案是否会涉及到上位法优于下位法这一基本的法律冲突解决原则；二是从对下位法立法原则剖析角度分析下位法本身的科学性。     

Deradicalisation,disengagement, rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremists in conflict-affected contexts: a systematic literature review

ABSTRACT

This article identifies, assesses and synthesises existing literature on deradicalisation, disengagement, rehabilitation and reintegration (DDRR) in conflict-affected states through a systematic literature review. While existing research has methodological shortcomings and determining the outcomes of DDRR programmes is challenging, 12 common themes surfaced in the synthesis. According to the studies selected, varying experiences of the individuals in violent extremist organisations, including form of engagement, role in the organisation and experiences of insecurity and disillusion, may affect DDRR processes. Capacity and resource constrains may pose challenges to DDRR programming in conflict-affected contexts, but engaging former extremists, their families and communities at large mitigates the issues characteristic for conflict-affected contexts and contributes to wider peace-building objectives.     

Contextualising and theorising economic development,local business and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar

ABSTRACT

After Myanmar ended military rule in 2011, significant foreign investment arrived to facilitate a profitable transition to an integrated regional economy, and under the promise that foreign actors can help facilitate peaceful long-term development. However, these firms have also tacitly supported an ethnic cleansing committed by the government that most have partnered with or funded. This article builds theory on economic opening, development and conflict, using research from Myanmar to forward three arguments about business actions in fragile, at-risk countries. First, international-led regulatory reform has had little impact on endemic corruption at the micro- or meso-levels, as local elites and international businesses remain the primary beneficiaries. Second, ‘development’ is a contentious topic, defined locally not as broad societal growth but the unjustified picking of winners and losers in society by foreign entities. Third, business ventures are exacerbating ethnic tensions through a liberal peace-building mentality that is unresponsive to either local conflicts or local communities. The article closes by offering three ways that these findings open future research avenues on business engagement as peace-builders and development agents in developing yet fragile states.     

特大城市工会创新发展道路实践探索 —— 以工会十六大以来北京工会发展为例

在加快转变经济社会发展方式过程中,北京工会带领广大职工发挥主力军作用,在城市建设过程中,参与社会治理;在逐步完善现代市场经济体系过程中,促进发展成果共建共享。在首都深化改革过程中,北京工会进行了系列变革设计与卓有成效的实践探索,为我国特大城市转型升级过程中如何发挥工会作用,不断创新发展具有中国特色、时代特征的工会工作,提供借鉴参考。     

Flip-Flops and High Heels: An Experimental Analysis of Elite Position Change and Gender on Wartime Public Support

We address whether politicians’ flip-flopping on support for a war is damaging to their electoral fortunes, and if the gender of the politician has a conditioning effect on this relationship. A series of survey experiments, conducted in 2010 and designed specifically for this project, allows us to examine the causal power of these two cues. Our results challenge the conventional wisdom: respondents do not fault leaders who change their minds about a conflict, and importantly, this effect holds irrespective of the gender of the politician. Instead, individuals react to the policy position the politician currently holds on a war regardless of the politician's consistency and gender.     

程序法视野中冲突规则的适用模式

程序法视角和程序法原理对于分析冲突规则依职权适用抑或任意性适用的问题虽必不可少，但程序处分主义和辩论主义均不能成为冲突规则任意性适用的基础。在法官依职权适用冲突规则的制度下，必须强化法官对冲突规则以及相关法律适用问题的释明义务，以防发生突袭裁判，并由当事人证明外国法。只有依职权适用而非任意性适用冲突规则，才能最大限度地维护当事人依据国际私法体系所享有的法律适用的权利。     

现阶段我国城市层级格局的主要特点及政策意涵分析--基于城市组织和整合功能的视角

基于城市组织和整合的新视角对我国城市系统进行层级分析，发现我国城市系统明显呈“倒丁字型”格局，即少数顶层城市中心主导绝大多数其他城市，而大量功能弱势城市集中堆积在城市系统的底部，其中主要包含六大城市层级。我国城镇化的历史进程、发展战略、推动模式、户籍政策等因素，共同塑造了这种格局。鉴于该格局容易导致大城市病与小城市动力不足，我国亟需调整大城市的户籍制度，大力发展地区性和省级城市中心，以优化城市层级格局，进而促使不同层级城市间的良性互动。