Sacred groves,sacrifice zones and soy production: globalization,intensification and neo-nature in South America

Soy has become one of the world's most important agroindustrial commodities – serving as the nexus for the production of food, animal feed, fuel and hundreds of industrial products – and South America has become its leading production region. The soy boom on this continent entangles transnational capital and commodity flows with social relations deeply embedded in contested ecologies. In this introduction to the collection, we first describe the ‘neo-nature’ of the soy complex and the political economy of the sector in South America, including the new corporate actors and financial mechanisms that produced some of the world's largest agricultural production companies. We then discuss key environmental debates surrounding soy agribusiness in South America, challenging especially the common arguments that agroindustrial intensification ‘spares land’ for conservation while increasing production to ‘feed the world’. We demonstrate that these arguments hinge on limited data from a peculiar portion of the southern Amazon fringe, and obfuscate through neo-Malthusian concerns multiple other political and ecological problems associated with the sector. Thus, discussions of soy production become intertwined with broader debates about agrarian development, industrialization and modernization. Finally, we briefly outline the contributions in this volume, and identify limitations and fruitful directions for further research.     

Commentary on Interdisciplinary Teamwork in Family Law Practice

This commentary discusses and expands upon Mosten and Traumm's extraordinary work on interdisciplinary teams. Focusing on the continuum between independence and interdependence in team formation, we explore the benefits of team members' shared responsibility and highlight potential challenges. We emphasize that regardless of where a team may fall on the continuum, establishing and adhering to a strong structure results in increased practitioner satisfaction and better client outcomes. This commentary identifies five best practices that promote highly functioning teams and urges family law practitioners to seek more advanced interdisciplinary team training opportunities.     

Changing Hydropolitical Relations in the Nile Basin: A Protracted Transition

A new hydro-political order is emerging in the Nile Basin. Upstream riparian states have improved their bargaining power vis-à-vis downstream countries by adopting a common position in the negotiations over a new framework agreement to govern the utilisation of the Nile waters. Some upstream riparians have unilaterally constructed hydraulic projects that threaten Egypt’s hegemonic position in the basin, the most notable of which is the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Whether these developments will lead to a more equitable utilisation of water resources and a more cooperative order will depend on the policies of the riparian states, especially in the Eastern Nile. Respect of the Declaration of Principles on the GERD signed between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan could help build trust between the three countries after years of tensions around the project. Beyond that, a basin-wide plan for the utilisation of water resources would not only maximise the benefits from the river and address the common challenges facing the basin, but also reduce the political costs of tensions on future projects.     

法德司法制度对我国的启示

法德两国同属大陆法系国家,因其均选择了适合本国国情的司法制度,对本国文明的高度发展起了极大的促进作用。我国应吸收法德司法制度中的精华,调整现有的审级结构,重视司法改革和司法保障,提高司法工作人员的素质,建立适合我国国情的司法制度。     

Constructing Common Regulations of General Part of China's Environmental Code from the Perspective of Legal Order

Order comes first in legal values, while laws should maintain the consistency and stability of order. The proposed China's environmental code (Code) shall restate the prevailing environmental legal norms and optimize the prevailing environmental legal order. From the perspective of stabilizing the legal order, common regulations of General Part of the Code should connect with the constitution and the prevailing environmental laws, determine the legal values of the Code-governing environment, and provide the foundation and basic framework for each subsequent part of the Code. Therefore, common regulations of the Code should recognize and support the constitution order and bolster the emerging eco-environment legal order relating to the eco-civilization construction. They should be coherent, value-orientated, and independent, inheriting the general framework of the prevailing Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and other specific environmental laws, and developing the applicable norms. Specifically, consistently with the legislative purposes, the Code common regulations should recognize the objectives of construction of eco-civilization and pursuit of social, economic and ecological sustainable development, and this pursuit should be carried out based on the basic principles; the application scope of ecological environment should be redefined in order to maintain the ecological value and overall ecological order; the clause on basic environmental obligations and the clause on citizens' environmental rights should be defined with the national environmental protection obligations as the main thread and the multi-player legal relationship as the framework; and the national environmental protection obligations should be preliminarily delivered with three clauses: national environmental protection financial support, environmental publicity and education, and global environmental governance.     

司法知识及其形态变迁的社会逻辑——从“难办案件”的处理切入

与传统中国社会难办案件的处理更多依赖于法官个人的伦理实践不同,当下中国司法场域里的难办案件处理术,则更多表现为一种知识的公共实践。这种知识的公共实践不仅会强化国家对于基层社会的治理与控制,而且也有利于公民社会与公共生活的整体建构。因此,当下中国的司法改革,就不仅要留意社会转型对司法知识及其形态变迁所起的作用,更要注意司法知识对于社会的型塑,以便能够在司法发展的过程中形成司法知识与社会结构和文化情境系统全面而良性互动的机制,最终推动中国司法与社会全面而优质地发展。     

The Diagnostic Frame in National Security Evaluations

In clinical and most forensic evaluations, “diagnosis” connotes the expectation of a DSM‐5 or ICD‐10 formally labeled mental condition. When the task is to evaluate the security risk a person's psychological makeup presents to an institution, such a molar diagnosis can blind the clinician and elevate the risk to a security agency. When “diagnosis” connotes achieving an understanding of a person's behavior that has raised security concerns, then a different conceptualization of the diagnostic process is required. Unlike the clinical situation, the evaluation is not being performed to benefit the person but for the purpose of assessing risk to an agency. The differences this introduces involve every aspect of the evaluation and changes the type of diagnosis expected. Not appreciating these differences can cause the clinician to fail in the task of assessing psychological tendencies that affect national security.     

Petitions,Polling Stations and Paisley: the First Outworking of the Recall of MPs Act 2015

The Recall of MPs Act 2015 allows constituents to petition for their MP to be unseated. A petition of recall is opened, for six weeks, if an MP has received a custodial sentence or been suspended from the House of Commons for ten or more sitting days. Should 10 per cent of constituents sign the petition, a by‐election is required, which the deposed MP has the right to contest. The first test of the Act came in 2018, when Ian Paisley, MP for North Antrim, was suspended from the Commons for thirty days. This article examines how the Act was implemented and assesses whether procedural oddities played any part in the petition failing to attract sufficient signatures to trigger a by‐election.     

Eighteen Ways Courts Should use Technology to Better Serve Their Customers

Courts have traditionally used technology to enhance their internal operations. “Outward‐facing” technology focuses on meeting the needs of the court's customers. The article gives 18 examples of such technology and shows how better serving a court's customers provides direct benefits to the court itself.     

关于中小城市发展循环经济的几点思考——以贺州市为例

打造循环经济对于中小城市保持经济增长与转变经济发展方式以及推进资源节约和环境保护具有重要意义。近年来贺州市结合市情从技术角度、人本角度和社会角度打造循环经济。从贺州市的做法来看,中小城市发展循环经济需要处理好发展循环经济与保持经济增长、循环经济与经济性、存量经济与增量经济、经济发展的本地循环与外地循环等四对关系。