Precedents,parliaments, and foreign policy: historical analogy in the House of Commons vote on Syria

Abstract

This analysis investigates the role of historical analogies in the influence that parliaments have in foreign policy. Our empirical focus is the UK Parliament’s unusual opposition to the Prime Minister on UK involvement in Syria in 2013. The vote challenges many conventional expectations about the role of parliament in security affairs. Important in this vote were lessons learned and strategically used from UK participation in the intervention of Iraq in 2003. This argument is developed theoretically based on research on historical analogies: parliaments, ‘learn’ (primarily negative) lessons about past foreign policy events which guide parliamentary preferences and procedures and can enhance parliaments’ role in subsequent foreign policy. The article contributes to research on analogies by extending the logic to lessons on process. This use of precedents can offer more structurally oriented perspectives that translate critical junctures into reforms in procedures and policy-making practices.     

Let’s Intervene! But Only If They’re Like Us: The Effects of Group Dynamics and Emotion on the Willingness to Support Humanitarian Intervention

International relations (IR) studies on humanitarian intervention have debated both the nature and strength of intervention norms. This article contributes to this debate by exploring under what conditions individuals are willing to support military humanitarian intervention (MHI) and the psychological factors that influence whether, and the degree to which individuals support MHI. Taking a psychological approach, we hypothesized that individuals’ decision to support MHI is influenced by in-group favoritism and emotional responses to in-group suffering. We tested our theory with two experiments, each of which recruited roughly 200 American participants. Both experiments centered on the ongoing Syrian civil war and assessed Americans’ willingness to support intervention to protect different civilian groups. The results suggested that support for intervention was widespread, but not a majority view in most cases. The findings also suggested that participants exhibited slightly higher rates of support for intervention when those suffering were Christian, as opposed to Muslim. Furthermore, we found that the dynamics of support for intervention changed when chemical weapons were introduced into the scenario, which reframed the the crisis as a national security issue. Overall, our results suggest that individuals’ decisions to act upon norms can be influenced by the context of a crisis and individual level psychological factors, which have been under explored in IR scholarship on norms.     

On Humanitarian Refugee Biometrics and New Forms of Intervention

This article traces the development from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) initially using biometrics in a few pilot projects (in the early-to-mid-2000s) to the emergence of a policy in which biometric registration is considered a ‘strategic decision’. It then engages key insights from current debates about ‘materiality’ and agentic capacity in combination with current debates about new forms of intervention. Finally, these insights are combined into a framework through which the article engages critically with this development of humanitarian refugee biometrics by posing the following question: how does an approach to technology that takes seriously the idea of matter as capable of agentic capacity enhance an appreciation of the ways in which these humanitarian technologies may contribute to the emergence of new forms of intervention? Through an analysis of how the emergence of digitalized biometric refugee data has affected the relationship between the UNHCR, donor states, host states and refugees, the article shows how the UNHCR’s trialling of new biometric technologies – combined with actual and potential data-sharing practices – has advanced the technology’s performance and acceptability whilst at the same time also rendering new dimensions of refugee life intervenable, not only to humanitarian actors.     

Dynamics of NGO legitimacy: how organising betrays core missions of INGOs

International non‐governmental organisations (INGOs) are prominent actors in the international arena, aiming to improve the life of disadvantaged people. However, INGOs often do not succeed in doing this. Consequently, INGO legitimacy is regularly questioned. Increased transparency and tightened accountability mechanisms are often‐mentioned solutions to this problem. Based on an analysis of four dimensions of INGO legitimacy—normative, regulatory, cognitive and output legitimacy—we argue that this is not necessarily adequate. We conclude that INGO mission statements create a normative source of legitimacy, but that this, in itself, is not enough to ground INGO legitimacy: it also needs to be institutionalised and organised. However, as a result of power relations and resulting pressures for accountability and transparency, as defined by their external stakeholders, INGOs experience a permanent struggle to reconcile their mission with the requirements for regulatory, cognitive and output legitimacy. The more these stakeholders press for increased organisation of INGO work, the more the pursuit of the core objectives of INGOs is obstructed. We illustrate this argument with the case of the post‐Tsunami humanitarian intervention (2004/2005). Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

试论作为授权规范的“私法自治”

在宪政层面,"私法自治"承载着人们对于法治的基本信念.然而,在法律规范层面,"私法自治"却是立法者的产物,是国家干预的体现.私人依据"私法自治"条款只是从立法者那里获得了为自己制定主要规则的权限;这一规则变成法律规则需要经受立法者设定的种种资格考验.法院接受立法的授权,既是私人规则能否具有法律效力的审查者和决定者,同时也是法律效力得到确认的私人规则的执行者之一.     

关于心理干预在提高助学贷款还款率方面的思考

国家助学贷款在解决贫困大学生困难和维护社会稳定方面起到积极作用，但由于借贷学生违约率较高，影响了国家助学贷款制度的正常运行，其中不仅有经济方面的原因，还有心理方面的原因。在充分了解学生的心理感受和心理问题的基础上，利用心理干预的各种手段和措施，妥善引导学生正确的价值取向，促进学生健全人格的形成，让心理干预在提高助学贷款还款率方面发挥应有的效用。     

Discussion into Mill＇s eclecticism government theory

On one hand, Mill thought that government should protect personal freedom, maintain economic freedom, pursue non-interventionist policy, advocate laissez-faire policy and define the proper extent and range of government intervention by inheriting basic principles governing traditional liberalism; on the other hand, Mill advocated that the government should provide with more opportunities and guarantees to improve people＇s welfare and make rational interventions in accordance with the utility principle, thereby correct the laissez-faire and enable the theory of government＇s active intervention to become an important principle of new liberalism.     

服刑人员心理特征及心理危机干预策略探究

服刑人员心理分为积极和消极的心理两种特征。服刑人员心理危机包括境遇性危机、存在性危机、发展性危机、个体人格特征引起的危机等几种形式。科学分析服刑人员的心理状况，及时采取有效的干预措施，有利于全面提高服刑人员的心理素质，进一步减少危机事件的发生。     

论经济法的本质

本质作为事物内在的规定性,具有一般性、抽象性、相对的稳定性及结构上的多层次性。法的本质作为法的内在规定性,具有深刻性、隐蔽性及多层次性。它是法与其他事物内在的区分尺度。它体现着统治阶级的意志,根本上决定于社会的物质条件,是主体自由的规范性保障。社会物质生活条件是法的更深层次的本质,统治阶级的意志是法的初级本质,而法成其为法的内在规定性则是法的特殊本质。界定经济法的本质要明确其路径与前提,并有效厘清学术界目前对这一问题的种种误解。“国家干预经济之法”即为经济法的本质。     

经济法与社会法关系考辨——兼与董保华先生商榷

经济法与社会法关系的研究是一个重大的理论课题,当下学界对二者的关系也存在不同的看法。但有的社会法学者对已有的经济法理论成果存在着重大的误读,本文对此作出了必要的回应,并指出经济法与社会法是有殊别的,二者在发展中不会达到归并与融合,社会法不是经济法发展的终极进路。