‘For the trees have no tongues’: eco-feedback, speech, and the silencing of nature

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (0) ◽  
pp. 38-58
Author(s):  
Matt Harvey ◽  
Steve Vanderheiden
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Political Speech ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Legal Standing ◽  
Natural Objects

When Christopher Stone argued for the extension of legal standing to natural objects, he proposed a guardianship model for representing the rights or interests of nonhuman nature. This approach requires that natural objects or systems be able to intelligibly communicate information regarding needs associated with their continued sustainable flourishing. Drawing upon both ‘law beyond the human’ approaches to legal theory and New Materialist theories about nonhuman subjectivity, we conceive of this mode of communication as a political speech act, albeit one that must be interpreted through eco-feedback collected in the study of natural systems rather than directly transmitted from speaker to listener. We then apply this conception of communication to human rights contexts in which efforts to distort or to otherwise manipulate this eco-feedback could be construed as an anti-democratic interference in speech rights, arguing for the extension of such rights to protect against such interference.

Press Performance, Human Rights, and Private Power as a Threat

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Edwin Baker
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Magic Bullet ◽  
Market Failures ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Government Power ◽  
The Press ◽  
Private Power

The essay concerns the manner private power threatens the proper democratic role of the press or mass media. But first, Part I examines two preliminary conceptual matters involved in locating this discussion in the context of a conference on private power as a threat to human rights: 1) the relation of human rights to private power in general. This relation is complicated due to fact that human rights can themselves be seen as the assertion of private power against government or against collective power while, depending on how conceptualized, human rights can be improperly threatened by private power even while private power operates in a generally lawful manner; 2) involves the relation of press freedom and human rights. Here I argue that human rights are ill-conceived if offered as embodying any particular right in respect to the press—more specifically, I argue that a free press is not a human right—but argue instead that an ideal media order that is embodied in a broad conception of free press provides the soil in which human rights can flourish and the armor that offers them protection. Both government power and private power are necessary for and constitute threats to these supportive roles of a free press.Political-legal theory—or in constitutional democracies, possibly constitutional theory—should offer some guide to how the tightrope between government as threat and government as source of protection against private threats ought to be walked. That is, the goal is to find both proper limits on government power and proper empowerment of government to respond to private threats. Part II examines the variety of private threats to the proper role of the press. It focuses on two forms of threats: first, market failures that can be expected in relatively normal functioning of the market; second, problems related to the purposeful use of concentrated economic power. Responsive policies are multiple—no magic bullet but varying different governmental (as well as private) responses are appropriate. However, Part III illustrates this point by considering only two types of governmental policies, both of which I have recently been involved in advocating: first, government promotion of dispersal of concentrated power by means of ownership rules and policies; second, tax subsidies in the form of tax credits for a significant portion of journalists salaries as a means to correct for underproduction of journalism on theory that this journalism generally produces significant positive externalities.

The Islamic Perspective on Freedom and Human Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-90
Author(s):  
Rached Ghannouchi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Literal Meaning ◽  
Islamic Perspective ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Legal Meaning

This chapter expounds on the Islamic perspective on freedom and human rights, and draws references from multiple Islamic thinkers on the subject. It asserts that freedom, according to the Islamic worldview, is a trust, a responsibility, an awareness of the truth, a commitment to follow it, and a dying to self for its sake. According to its literal meaning, freedom is permission and choice, or simply following one's instincts. Freedom is thus the power to choose between good and evil—a divinely appointed responsibility. Furthermore, according to the specialists in legal theory, in its ethical and legal meaning freedom means “conformity.” Freedom is to exercise responsibility in a positive way, fulfilling one's duty in in a spirit of obedience by following what is commanded and avoiding what is forbidden.

Political Offences and Speech Crimes

2018 ◽  
pp. 28-72
Author(s):  
Anushka Singh
Keyword(s):  
Hate Speech ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Political Speech ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Legal Regimes ◽  
Conventional Paradigm

The first chapter is a comparative chapter on four legal regimes namely England, USA, Australia, and India dealing with political offences and speech crimes. The chapter analyses two particular paradigms to study the existence of sedition as an offence: first, the conventional paradigm of ‘violence as a physical act of force’ and second, the non-conventional paradigm of ‘violence through words’. Within the first paradigm, sedition is compared with the allied political offences of (a) treason, (b) incitement to disaffection/violence/overthrow, and (c) political conspiracies. Within the second paradigm, sedition is compared with four speech crimes, (a) personal libel, (b) hate speech, (c) blasphemy, and (d) pornography. Both levels of comparison offer deductions about specificity of sedition as a political speech act creating a discord within the value framework of liberal democracies.

scholarly journals Orientalism in the European Court of Human Rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-63
Author(s):  
Charlotte Helen Skeet
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Feminist Legal Theory ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
European Court

Abstract This article provides an anti-Orientalist critique of jurisprudence within the European Court of Human Rights. Discussion is located in the context of the longstanding debate over what it is to be “European” and an awareness of how these wider discourses shape rights adjudication at national and intra-national levels in Europe. Argument draws on literature from post-colonial theorists, cultural studies, and feminist legal theory which identify and discuss “Orientalist” discourses to analyse the production of legal knowledge and jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights. The article argues that Orientalist discourses affect the ways that the Court constructs and positions both the claimant and the respondent state in human rights claims. These constructions influence cases involving Muslim claimants and have a particularly negative impact on the outcome of claims by visibly-Muslim women. The final part of the article suggests ways that these negative discourses and constructions can be countered.

scholarly journals EKSEKUSI JAMINAN FIDUSIA TERHADAP PEMBIAYAAN BERMASALAH DI KOPERASI BAITUL MAAL WA TAMWIL KABUPATEN SEMARANG

NOTARIUS ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Rahmawan Rahmawan ◽  
Mochammad Dja’is
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Motor Vehicles ◽  
Online Application ◽  
Application Method ◽  
Legal Standing ◽  
Banking Institutions

The purpose of executing the object of the fiduciary is to guarantee the repayment of the credit facility granted by banking institutions as creditors. The problem in this study is on the execution of motor vehicles in the Baitul Maal Tanwil in the district of Semarang cause many problems. This thesis uses normative juridical research method and empirical research data support. Based on qualitative analysis known that prevention fiduciary execution problems, can be done by registration of fiduciary security object at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights through an online application method, but to do an execution must be done on the spot, online application method of the execution of fiduciary can make  sure a justice and legal standing for creditors to execution of fiduciary object, and  by registering online fiduciary guarantee object, the object is expected to issue execution fiduciary. Keywords: Fiduciary, Execution Fiduciary, Baitul Maal Tamwil. Abstrak Tujuan pelaksanaan eksekusi objek jaminan fidusia adalah untuk menjamin pelunasan terhadap fasilitas kredit yang diberikan oleh lembaga perbankan selaku kreditor. Pelaksanaan eksekusi objek jaminan fidusia pada kendaraan bermotor pada Baitul Maal Tanwil di wilayah Kabupaten Semarang menimbulkan berbagai macam permasalahan. Penulisan tesis ini menggunakan metode penelitian yuridis normatif dan didukung data penelitian empiris. Berdasarkan analisis kualitatif diketahui bahwa pencegahan permasalahan pelaksanaan eksekusi jaminan fidusia, dapat dilakukan dengan melakukan pendaftaran objek jaminan fidusia pada kantor Kementerian Hukum dan Hak Asasi Manusia melalui metode pendaftaran secara online, tetapi pelaksanaan eksekusi jaminan fidusia tetap dilakukan secara langsung di lapangan, pendaftaran objek jaminan fidusia secara online, memberikan suatu kepastian hukum atau legal standing yang jelas bagi kreditor di dalam mengeksekusi objek jaminan fidusia. Kata kunci : Fidusia, Eksekusi Jaminan Fidusia, Baitul Maal Tamwil.

“BALANCING” AND THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HABERMAS-ALEXY DEBATE

2004 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 412-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Greer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
The Core ◽  
European Court

At the core of contemporary political, constitutional, and legal theory, lie the questions of how “constitutional”, “fundamental”, and “human” rights are, and should be, reconciled with each other and with considerations of the wider public interest. This article considers how the debate between Habermas and Alexy about the appropriateness of “balancing” as a way of addressing these problems might apply to the adjudication of the European Court of Human Rights, and concludes that, with some modification, Alexy's model is to be preferred.

scholarly journals The linguistic characteristics of the language of human rights and its use in reality as the kingdom of God in the light of Speech Act Theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Cho
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Social Rules ◽  
Ordinary Life ◽  
Performative Language ◽  
Language Characteristics

Human rights, a language that keeps public order, is realised in ordinary life by language characteristics according to social rules. Despite this fact, research that considers the linguistic features of human rights relating to its use and effects in terms of the kingdom of God in the present world seems to have not been attempted or seldom attempted. Thus, this article proposes to examine the language of human rights by means of Speech Act Theory. The approach is predicated upon the language use as performative acts. The approach shows the language of human rights with performative language by seeking to uncover the operation and effects of language of rights in real-life situations. The thrust of this article implies how we can explain the semantics of human rights and execute them in ordinary life in terms of God’s kingdom.

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