Making War on Terror? Global Lessons from Northern Ireland

In place of the simple modelling employed in anti-terrorist legal discourse, this article posits an interactive model of the relationship between the state and violent political actors, exploring law's role in both the repression and mobilisation of challengers. Drawing on social movement theory, it hypothesises a process of 'legally implicated mobilisation' which takes account both of law's presence and its partial absence in 'legal grey zones' during violent conflict, and it suggests how law may impact upon key elements of the mobilisation process. The hypothesis is applied to qualitative data from Northern Ireland on violent challengers. The data point to the importance of 'messaging' about law in the state of exception, supporting claims that law can have a 'damping' effect on violent conflict. The relationship between repression and violence is partly symbiotic, and in the global 'war on terror,' prisoner-abuse may have a mobilising effect on violent challengers.     

The Legal Profession in the european Union – a Comparative Analysis of Four Member States

Cross-border legal practice has finally become reality in Europe mainly thanks to two factors: the legal framework offered to EC lawyers by the EC legislator and the effect of globalization on legal profession. This article focuses primarily on the success of EC/EU efforts in abolishing obstacles to the free movement of lawyers. Particular attention is drawn to the Establishment Directive, adopted in 1998, opening up new perspectives for lawyers. Secondly, it discusses how globalization has contributed to this development. In relation to the above, this article also explores the new concept of establishment stemming from the expansion of law firms in Europe. Thirdly and mainly, it considers the national positions and the difficulties in harmonizing the legal professions throughout Europe. The examples of four Member States: the UK, France, Germany and Italy demonstrate how much they differ from each other as far as the needs, expectations and rules governing the legal profession. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

中国共产党创建初期的妇女解放思想研究

妇女解放是全人类解放的重要组成部分,中国共产党在创立之初就意识到妇女解放的重要价值。建党初期就"妇女"群体以及"妇女运动"性质作出适时判断,在关于妇女的决议、妇女运动思想的宣传、主要内容以及对妇女运动的领导等方面均有体现。中国共产党在当时社会历史背景下的妇女解放事业,呈现出复杂性、国际性以及主体性转变等特点。     

Framing the fall of Sinjar: Kurdish media’s coverage of the Yazidi genocide

Abstract

In the early morning of 3 August 2014, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) attacked the Sinjar district in the vicinity of Mosul. The area was largely under the control of Kurdish forces at the time, especially those associated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Those forces could not defend the district and ISIS was able to take control of the area. Consequently, a considerable number of Yazidi people were killed or displaced, while female Yazidis were raped and kidnapped. This study, based on framing theory, attempts to explain how two major Kurdish media organizations, Rudaw, which is loyal to KDP, and the Kurdish News Network (KNN), which is loyal to the Gorran (Change) Movement, each covered the event in their news reports. By performing a content analysis of 222 news stories covering the event, the key finding of the research is that, in instances of assigning responsibility for the fall of Sinjar, political considerations are the determining factor in how the narrative was framed. Taken as part of a growing literature on media in Kurdistan, the research outlined in this article supports the conclusion that the framing of media coverage in the Kurdistan Region is subject to strong political bias and media organizations support the political narratives advanced by their political patrons, as it is the case in many other Middle Eastern countries.     

The animal advocacy movement in the Baltic states: links to other social justice issues and possibilities for intersectional activism

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the animal advocacy movement (AAM) in the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Taking an intersectional perspective, I examine whether and how key animal activists in the Baltics see links between animal rights and other social justice issues. I also consider how the movement communicates its messages to the general public in settings where ideas around animal justice and possibilities for animal advocacy are relatively recent and unfamiliar. This analysis contributes to debates regarding possibilities for intersectional activism and collaboration between social justice movements in the Baltics and beyond.     

A test for carrion fly full siblings: a tool for detecting postmortem relocation of a corpse

We propose a genetic test for full sibship for a pair of carrion flies that could reveal the postmortem relocation of a corpse. A carrion fly larva is sometimes left behind when a corpse is moved. The discovery of full sibling larvae of approximately the same developmental stage at two locations would strongly suggest that a corpse was moved between those two sites. Distributions of pairwise comparisons of relatedness (R) coefficients were generated using amplified fragment length polymorphism profiles for nine samples of laboratory-generated full siblings as well as for a reference sample of nonfull sibling Phormia regina (Diptera: Calliphoridae). The mean relative R coefficient, a pairwise measure of the proportion of shared alleles, was 0.479 (±0.289 SD) for full siblings, close to the theoretical expectation of 0.5. A likelihood ratio (LR) test was based on observed distributions of R. R >0.55 corresponded to an LR >1000 favoring full sibship for that pair of individuals.     

Mismeasuring Militias: Limitations of Advocacy Group Data and of State‐Level Studies of Paramilitary Groups

The errors associated with measuring the number of militia and patriot groups may cast doubt on conclusions drawn from prior studies of the spatial variation of these movements. Most studies of militias have been qualitative investigations of a single group, state, or region. A growing number of studies, however, have used quantitative techniques to assess the hypothesis that the number of militia groups by state covaries with structural and cultural forces. We outline a number of concerns with the validity of the counts, conducted by the Anti‐Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, used by these studies. We re‐estimate models from previous studies using the four alternative measures of these groups employed in prior studies. We find that many inferences drawn for identical theoretical models differ based upon the measure used. These discrepancies apply not simply to tangential control variables but to indicators of key theoretical constructs. In other words, the decision as to whether or not a particular theoretical framework receives empirical support often depends upon which measure of the dependent variable is used. This suggests that the inconsistent findings in prior research may be due to measurement error and makes it difficult to assess the validity of the conclusions drawn from these studies. It is important to be aware of these weaknesses since scholars studying political crimes and related phenomena often use information from similar sources, making this specific example relevant to a more general area of research.     

Social Construction： the Reconstruction of China＇s Interests Pattern in Two--way of Movement

在社会转型初期,自由市场逻辑主导下的社会变革激发了社会活力,释放出了巨大能量,但也因利益在社会成员中的不均衡分布而产生对经济发展公平性的质疑。伴随市场力量的不断强大,社会自我保护力不断增强,使得社会矛盾呈愈演愈烈之势。在世界社会治理机制由一元向多元转变的趋势下,中国也开启了社会治理机制的变革之路,其核心议题在于建构何种国家、市场与社会力量的分配格局。这对于深化中国社会转型进程,实现社会稳定有序,奠定社会管理的社会基础具有十分重要的意义。然而,如何进行社会建设,不能给出简单的、想当然的结论,而需要挖掘其背后的支配逻辑——双向运动,以此重塑国家、市场与社会三者之间的关系。     

新媒体在“太阳花学运”中的动员与支持作用

2014年3月18日,台湾部分反对两岸服务贸易协定的学生占领“立法院”,从而引发震动全岛的“太阳花学运”。学运组织者和参与者广泛利用新媒体传播工具来发布和散播反对意见,建构反服贸集体意识,建立学运动员网络,获取国际支持,筹措行动资源,支持各项行动的组织和管理,对于学运的发动和开展发挥了不可或缺的作用。本文首先阐述新媒体的传播特性及其社会应用,继而着重对新媒体在此次学运过程中的作用和影响进行分析,最后探讨新媒体本身所固有的局限性。