Nature conservation in a brave new (post-truth) world: arguments for and against public advocacy by conservation biologists

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul I. Boon
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Conservation Policy ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
Alternative Facts ◽  
The Face ◽  
Individual Self

Conservation biologists are obliged to function in a ‘post-truth’ environment in which ‘alternative facts’ are used by those who oppose meaningful action to conserve the natural world. Objections to public advocacy by scientists are usually based on the inter-related assumptions that (1) advocacy calls into question the objectivity of scientific advice and its special place in policy formulation; (2) conservation biologists are no better qualified to advise on conservation topics than anyone else in the community; (3) advocacy leads to conservation science being politicised; and (4) the conflation of advocacy with individual self-promotion. These objections are shown to fall short in the face of two obvious conservation failures: (1) the manifest inability of current approaches to generate globally sustainable fisheries; and (2) the lack of success in convincing the wider public about anthropogenic climate change. Instead of refraining from public advocacy, conservation biologists should acknowledge their primary responsibility in a civil society as informed citizens possessing specialised knowledge and experience that most other citizens lack. They should aim to influence conservation policy and on-ground works through a multitude of channels: (1) traditionally, through peer-reviewed articles in the scientific literature; (2) through formal input into professional advisory panels to inform government; and (3) through public advocacy. The positions adopted with regard to contentious issues by practitioners in other branches of scientific enquiry can provide useful guidance as to how conservation biologists can contribute meaningfully to discourse in the public interest without compromising their professional standing.

Balancing the public interest and self-interest: The face of peer review in Australia

2020 ◽  
pp. 103237322097219
Author(s):  
Wendy Shelton ◽  
Kerry Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Peer Review ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
The Public ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Face ◽  
Individual Self

The implementation of peer review by Australia’s two largest accountancy professional bodies during the 1990s provides a case study in which the interaction of the public interest and self-interest is examined. It is argued that on occasions where individual self-interest of members conflicts with self-interest of the collective, the public interest motivates a way forward.

Cohabitants, Choice, and the Public Interest

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Leckey
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Intimate Relationships ◽  
Family Law ◽  
Regulatory System ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Private Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
System P ◽  
The Face

Through the narrow entry of property disputes between former cohabitants, this chapter aims to clarify thinking on issues crucial to philosophical examination of family law. It refracts big questions—such as what cohabitants should owe one another and the balance between choice and protection—through a legal lens of attention to institutional matters such as the roles of judges and legislatures. Canadian cases on unjust enrichment and English cases quantifying beneficial interests in a jointly owned home are examples. The chapter highlights limits on judicial law reform in the face of social change, both in substance and in the capacity to acknowledge the state's interest in intimate relationships. The chapter relativizes the focus on choice prominent in academic and policy discussions of cohabitation and highlights the character of family law, entwined with the general private law of property and obligations, as a regulatory system.

scholarly journals SEPARATE ISSUES OF PROVIDING LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN PROTECTING THE PUBLIC INTEREST

2020 ◽  
pp. 110-115
Author(s):  
Владимир Михайлович Андрианов
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Legal Assistance ◽  
International Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Interest Law ◽  
National Legal System ◽  
Legal Costs ◽  
To Receive

Актуальность исследования обусловлена активизацией на международном уровне деятельности, связанной с защитой коллективных и групповых интересов, о чем свидетельствует целый ряд принятых международных актов. Указанное обстоятельство обусловливает необходимость введения соответствующих механизмов в национальную правовую систему. В статье предпринята попытка обратить внимание на особенности предоставления правовой помощи при защите общественного интереса, опираясь на зарубежный опыт. С учетом анализа научной литературы автор делает вывод, что на доктринальном уровне сформировалось два подхода к пониманию правовой категории «право общественного интереса»: широкий и узкий. Также указывается на необходимость решить ряд вопросов практического характера: определить субъектов, уполномоченных на ее предоставление, включая формы подтверждения их полномочий, а также лиц, имеющих право на ее получение и урегулировать особенности несения судебных расходов. The relevance of the study is due to the activation at the international level of activities related to the protection of collective and group interests, as evidenced by a number of adopted international acts. This circumstance necessitates the introduction of appropriate mechanisms into the national legal system. The article attempts to draw attention to the specifics of providing legal assistance in protecting public interest, based on foreign experience. Taking into account the analysis of scientific literature, the author concludes that at the doctrinal level, two approaches to understanding the legal category of «public interest law» have been formed: broad and narrow. It also points to the need to resolve a number of practical issues: to determine the entities authorized to provide it, including the forms of confirmation of their powers, as well as persons entitled to receive it and to settle the peculiarities of incurring legal costs.

SECURITY SERVICES, LEAKS AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST

2002 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-544
Author(s):  
A.T.H. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
The Public ◽  
Security Services ◽  
Security Service ◽  
Intelligence Services ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
The Face ◽  
Human Rights Act ◽  
Human Rights Act 1998 ◽  
The Government

Once upon a time, the Crown faced almost no difficulties in securing convictions for breaches of the Official Secrets Act 1911, particularly section 2. After the somewhat embarrassing decision to proceed had been taken, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Occasionally, the jury revolted, as they did in Ponting [1985] Crim. L.R. 315, producing something like a perverse verdict in the face of the judicial direction that it was no defence that the defendant believed himself to be acting in the public interest. That decision, and the ruling of the House of Lords in the Spycatcher litigation [1990] 1 A.C. 109 to the effect that the former security service agent Peter Wright did not commit an actionable breach of confidence by making his allegations of improper practices within the services, prompted the government of the day to promote legislation that purported to impose life-long obligations of confidence upon members and former members of the security intelligence services. “Purported” because, with the enactment of the Human Rights Act 1998, it is now open to the courts inter alia to declare that Parliament has acted incompatibly with one of the rights protected by that Act.

scholarly journals Charter Injunctions, Public Interest Presumption, and the Tyranny of the Majority

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Colin Feasby
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Attorney General ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Short Article ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government ◽  
Court Of Appeal

Quebec’s Bill 21, which seeks to restrict employees in its public service from displaying religious symbols at work, has attracted a number of constitutional challenges. In one of those challenges, Hak v Quebec (Attorney General), the plaintiffs sought an injunction suspending the operation of parts of Bill 21 pending a decision on the merits.1 Both the Quebec Superior Court and the Quebec Court of Appeal declined to issue an injunction. The majority of the Quebec Court of Appeal found that in enacting Bill 21 the legislature must be presumed to have acted in the public interest and, as such, the third part of the injunction test — balance of convenience — could not be satisfied. The idea that Parliament and provincial legislatures must be presumed to be acting in the public interest — what I will call the public interest presumption — is problematic in Charter cases concerning constraints of fundamental rights and the treatment of minorities. Parliament and provincial legislatures are majoritarian institutions; they are the product of elections where the candidates and parties with the most votes win. A core objective of the Charter is to protect minorities from being oppressed by the majority. Giving too much weight to a majoritarian conception of the public interest in interlocutory injunction applications concerning minority rights undermines the Charter and negates injunctions and stays as elective remedies, particularly where an applicant establishes real harm. To fulfill the Charter’s mandate to protect minority rights it must be recognized that the government does not have a monopoly on representing the public interest and that a majoritarian conception of the public interest cannot control the outcome of the balance of convenience test in the face of evidence that other aspects of the public interest are harmed by the impugned legislation. This short article argues for a much weaker public interest presumption: one that may be rebutted by an applicant adducing evidence of harm to an identifiable group. 1  Hak c Procureure Générale du Québec, 2019 QCCA 2145 [Hak].

scholarly journals Covid-19 and Auditing

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Emmanuel John Kaka
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
New Developments ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Face ◽  
Audit Reports ◽  
The Impact

COVID-19 has affected the way and manner financial statements are prepared, and audit engagement, information gathering and reporting. the aim of the paper is to highlights some of the practical challenges auditors may face in auditing financial statements of an organization in the light of COVID-19 and areas to put more emphasis on their audit reports. The documentary research design was employed and secondary data were collected and used for this research. The paper found out that professional associations, accounting, and auditing bodies are monitoring issues and situations as they unfold that may affect the financial statements and audit reports due to the impact of COVID-19. Moreover, they are ready all the time to issue out additional guidelines as new developments unfold, and continue to update professional accountants on issues pertaining to the continuity of the organization businesses, workforce, economic impacts, and other resources to help their members serve their clients better in this period of the pandemic. The paper recommends that auditors are expected to display enough professional skepticisms and judgments and be focus on public interest and ethical responsibilities bestowed on them, and continue to apply the principles contain in the auditing standards fully, as well as comply with the fundamental principles of competence, independence, integrity, objectivity, confidentiality, care and skills, and behave professionally, as keys that will preserve and expands auditors trust in the face of the public.

scholarly journals Social networks and resilience in the fight for the right to the city: the Movimento Ocupe Estelita, Recife, Brazil

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 255
Author(s):  
Edinéa Alcântara ◽  
Fátima Furtado ◽  
Circe Gama Monteiro ◽  
Rubenilda Rosinha Barbosa
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
The Public ◽  
Empirical Basis ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Online social networks have played a key role in the struggle for rights and for more sustainable, less unequal cities. In Brazil, this movement is relatively recent, and has tended to increase in the face of threats or crises that might adversely affect the rights, welfare or life of a city’s residents, or the public interest. The Movimento Ocupe Estelita fights against the interests of capital, symbolised by the Projeto Novo Recife, a project destined for the Cais Estelita. The movement started in 2012 and shows signs of resistance and resilience. This article aims to identify the theoretical and empirical basis of this resilience. The research was based on participatory online and offline observation and interviews at the encampment, with a chronology of the occupation process and subsequent campaigns of resistance and struggle. Finally, the movement’s capacity to reinvent itself and grow stronger despite continual disputes is analysed.

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