scholarly journals Book Review: Federalism and the Constitution of Canada

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Mussell

In his recent book, Federalism and the Constitution of Canada, David E. Smith characterizes Canada’s federalism as existing on two planes.  Horizontally, Canada consists of a territorial federalism- divided among ten provinces with equal jurisdiction and three territories, united by a common central government.  Vertically, Canada is a cultural federation: two distinct nations, the English and the French, again connected by a common central government.  Using this schema, Smith reevaluates some of the key questions in Canadian federalism.  In particular, he analyses the relationship between Canada’s constitution and its variant of federalism. While Smith’s analysis provides a novel approach to the study of Canadian federalism, this review highlights some of the difficulties with his framework of dual federalism; in particular that his conception of cultural federalism is too rigid to accommodate Canada’s broad cultural composition.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swati Narayan

The relationship between the Indian central government and the states has become increasingly fractious in the recent past with chief ministers tabling laws in state legislatures to counter those enacted by Parliament, protesting pandemic protocols and vociferously demanding compensation for losses in tax revenues. In this context, Louis Tillen’s Federalism is an apt publication to dissect the political economy of India’s state-centre relations in a country marked by deep socio-political and myriad regional divisions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Chakraborty ◽  
Bianca Brijnath ◽  
Jacinta Dermentzis ◽  
Danielle Mazza

Abstract Background There is no standardised protocol for developing clinically relevant guideline questions. We aimed to create such a protocol and to apply it to developing a new guideline. Methods We reviewed international guideline manuals and, through consensus, combined steps for developing clinical questions to produce a best-practice protocol that incorporated qualitative research. The protocol was applied to develop clinical questions for a guideline for general practitioners. Results A best-practice protocol incorporating qualitative research was created. Using the protocol, we developed 10 clinical questions that spanned diagnosis, management and follow-up. Conclusions Guideline developers can apply this protocol to develop clinically relevant guideline questions.


TECHNOLOGY ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 03 (02n03) ◽  
pp. 80-83
Author(s):  
Mark Polikovsky ◽  
Eshel Ben-Jacob ◽  
Alin Finkelshtein

Cellulose hydrolysis has many industrial applications such as biofuel production, food, paper and textile manufacture. Here, we present a novel approach to cellulose hydrolysis using a consortium of motile bacteria, Paenibacillus vortex, that can swarm on solid medium carrying a non-motile recombinant E. coli cargo strain expressing the β-glucosidase and cellulase genes that facilitate the hydrolysis of cellulose. These two species cooperate; the relationship is mutually beneficial: the E. coli is dispersed over long distances, while the P. vortex bacteria gain from the supply of cellulose degradation products. This enables the use of such consortia in this area of biotechnology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1980
Author(s):  
Kazimierz Józefiak ◽  
Artur Zbiciak ◽  
Karol Brzeziński ◽  
Maciej Maślakowski

The paper presents classical and non-classical rheological schemes used to formulate constitutive models of the one-dimensional consolidation problem. The authors paid special attention to the secondary consolidation effects in organic soils as well as the soil over-consolidation phenomenon. The systems of partial differential equations were formulated for every model and solved numerically to obtain settlement curves. Selected numerical results were compared with standard oedometer laboratory test data carried out by the authors on organic soil samples. Additionally, plasticity phenomenon and non-classical rheological elements were included in order to take into account soil over-consolidation behaviour in the one-dimensional settlement model. A new way of formulating constitutive equations for the soil skeleton and predicting the relationship between the effective stress and strain or void ratio was presented. Rheological structures provide a flexible tool for creating complex constitutive relationships of soil.


2015 ◽  
Vol 117 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Maria Araceli Ruiz-Primo ◽  
Min Li

Background A long-standing premise in test design is that contextualizing test items makes them concrete, less demanding, and more conducive to determining whether students can apply or transfer their knowledge. Purpose We assert that despite decades of study and experience, much remains to be learned about how to construct effective and fair test items with contexts. Too little is known about how item contexts can be appropriately constructed and used, and even less about the relationship between context characteristics and student performance. The exploratory study presented in this paper seeks to contribute to knowledge about test design and construction by focusing on this gap. Research Design We address two key questions: (a) What are the characteristics of contexts used in the PISA science items? and (b) What are the relationships between different context characteristics and student performance? We propose a profiling approach to capture information about six context dimensions: type of context, context role, complexity, resources, level of abstraction, and connectivity. To test the approach empirically we sampled a total of 52 science items from PISA 2006 and 2009. We describe the context characteristics of the items at two levels (named layers): general (testlet context) and specific (item context). Conclusion We provide empirical evidence about the relationships of these characteristics with student performance as measured by the international percentage of correct responses. We found that the dimension of context resources (e.g., pictures, drawings, photographs) for general contexts and level of abstractness for specific contexts are associated with student performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-26
Author(s):  
Cecilia Wassén

Abstract In this article, I engage with Joel Marcus’s recent book on John the Baptist, focusing on the relationship between John and the Dead Sea Scrolls. While I appreciate many parts of his detailed study, I question the claim that John was a former member of the Essenes. Although there are intriguing similarities, the question is how far reaching conclusions we may draw concerning such a relationship. I problematize some aspects of the comparison between the sources. Like many scholars, Marcus refers in particular to 1QS and the site of Khirbet Qumran for reconstructing the Essenes and hence John’s background. In response, I highlight the uncertainty about the Sitz im leben of 1QS in relation to Khirbet Qumran and ask why this particular manuscript should be privileged over others. Not least when it comes to purity halakhah there are many other documents than 1QS from Qumran that are highly relevant to the issue. Finally, I critically evaluate Marcus’s view that John the Baptist had a favorable attitude towards Gentiles, which according Marcus differed from the views of the Essenes.


2022 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Samera Esmeir

Modern state law is an expansive force that permeates life and politics. Law's histories—colonial, revolutionary, and postcolonial—tell of its constitutive centrality to the making of colonies and modern states. Its powers intertwine with life itself; they attempt to direct it, shape its most intimate spheres, decide on the constitutive line dividing public from private, and take over the space and time in which life unfolds. These powers settle in the present, eliminate past authorities, and dictate futures. Gendering and constitutive of sexual difference, law's powers endeavor to mold subjects and alter how they orient themselves to others and to the world. But these powers are neither coherent nor finite. They are ripe with contradictions and conflicting desires. They are also incapable of eliminating other authorities, paths, and horizons of living; these do not vanish but remain not only thinkable and articulable but also a resource for the living. Such are some of the overlapping and accumulative interventions of the two books under review: Sara Pursley's Familiar Futures and Judith Surkis's Sex, Law, and Sovereignty in French Algeria. What follows is an attempt to further develop these interventions by thinking with some of the books’ underlying arguments. Familiar Futures is a history of Iraq, beginning with the British colonial-mandate period and concluding with the 1958 Revolution and its immediate aftermath. Sex, Law, and Sovereignty is a history of “French Algeria” that covers a century of French colonization from 1830 to 1930. The books converge on key questions concerning how modern law and the modern state—colonial and postcolonial—articulated sexual difference and governed social and intimate life, including through the rise of personal-status law as a separate domain of law constitutive of the conjugal family. Both books are consequently also preoccupied with the relationship between sex, gender, and sovereignty. And both contain resources for living along paths not charted by the modern state and its juridical apparatus.


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