Den uhelbredeligt hjemløse kinesiske dagbogsfiktion

This article examines the disease motif in Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman” (1918) and in Ding Ling’s “Miss Sophia’s Diary” (1928) in their historical and medical contexts. At its most fundamental, the contemporaneous Chinese conception of health was thermodynamic, vesting the utmost importance in the circulation of energies and substances. This conception had immense social importance because it provided part of the ideological scaffolding for the family structure. Inside the family, established responsibilities and hierarchies purportedly served to guide this circulation in ways supportive of health, and the same considerations charged family members with maintaining strict scrutiny of the family’s barriers against any potentially illness-inducing influences that might penetrate the family fortress. Written at a time when political, social, and scientific verities were crumbling in China, these diaries record the foibles and concerns of two diseased individuals who stand alienated from their families and their immediate surroundings. By focusing on this alienation, as well as on the shared interests of the diarists in boundary crossing flows and anthropophagy, this article suggests that these short stories can profitably be read as explorations of the anxieties facing this generation of young Chinese as they sought to make a world for themselves independently of their families. What these stories dramatize is that leaving the family behind might have medical ramifications in addition to social and financial costs. In the current covid-19 context, we may not need reminding that ideas about disease and health relate in important ways to how we think of the relationship between families, boundaries, and vulnerability.

COVID-19 and Religious Freedom: Some Comparative Perspectives

The government’s measures against COVID-19 have raised, in virtually all contemporary democracies, important issues regarding the proportionality of limitations on fundamental rights, including freedom of religion or belief. This paper analyses some of those issues with particular reference to religious freedom, in the light of the experiences of various European and American countries. It also examines the cooperation (or lack of) between governments and religious communities in the fight against the pandemic, as well the response of religious communities to anti-COVID-19 rules, which has included recently some litigation alleging the unequal treatment of religion in comparison with other activities or institutions. The author argues that more dialogue and reciprocal cooperation between governments and religious communities (and civil society in general) is needed in this type of crisis, as well a strict scrutiny of restrictions imposed on freedom of religion from the perspective of proportionality and equality.

Inbound M&As in India: Issues and Challenges

The economic reforms of 1991 drastically transformed India’s approach toward foreign direct investment (FDI). The focus has been on attracting increasingly large amounts of FDI. There were no regulations on mergers and acquisitions for two decades, and when they were finally introduced in 2011 under the Competition Act, 2002, they were rendered ineffective by setting high thresholds, providing exemptions, and by narrowly focusing on competition. As a result, major domestic companies as also emerging leaders were taken over. Many foreign companies gained strong hold in the economy without adding capacities. The domestic private corporate sector lagged far behind in various respects. Belying the expectations of the policy makers, it invested far too inadequately in research and development. This article argues that India should not continue its reliance on FDI to achieve the goal of creating an internationally competitive manufacturing sector. India should do more than establishing an FDI review mechanism. Cross-border acquisitions must be subjected to strict scrutiny by a specialized agency. Proactive and coordinated measures must be devised to encourage domestic enterprises. Special attention must be given to providing long-term risk capital.

White Tape and Indian Wards: Removing the Federal Bureaucracy to Empower Tribal Economies and Self-Government

American Indians have the highest poverty rate in the United States, and dire poverty ensnares many reservations. With no private sector and abysmal infrastructure, reservations are frequently likened to third-world countries. Present-day Indian poverty is a direct consequence of present-day federal Indian law and policy. Two-hundred-year-old laws premised on Indian incompetency remain a part of the U.S. legal system; accordingly, Indian country is bound by heaps of federal regulations that apply nowhere else in the United States. The federal regulatory structure impedes tribal economic development and prevents tribes from controlling their own resources. This Article asserts the federal regulatory “white tape” is unconstitutional. By focusing on restraints upon trust land and Indian trader laws, this Article demonstrates that contemporary federal regulations impeding tribal economic development are based upon flagrantly racist ideas. This Article explores the unique relationship between Indians and the Constitution and concludes that restrictions on tribal trust land and Indian trader laws should be subjected to strict scrutiny rather than the usual rational basis review applied to legislation relating to Indians. These regulations cannot survive strict scrutiny. Once tribes are liberated from these antiquated regulations, this Article proposes that tribes be able to craft their own land use and economic policies without federal approval.

The Free Exercise of Religion

There have been three competing approaches to the interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause. One is that the Free Exercise Clause should protect religious belief but not religious conduct. Another is that any law that directly or indirectly burdens religious liberty should be subjected to “strict scrutiny” by judges and rarely upheld. A final approach says that the Constitution should prohibit laws that are motivated by animus toward religion or that interfere with core questions of religious doctrine, worship, or membership, but that otherwise religious individuals must follow neutral laws of general applicability. The chapter outlines arguments in favor of this latter approach and then applies this approach to cases involving religious business owners who wish to be exempted from laws requiring the provision of health benefits to employees and laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in public accommodations.

Limits to Terror Speech in the UK and USA: Balancing Freedom of Expression with National Security

Article 10(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights, freedom of expression, is incorporated into UK law. With the growing Islamist terror threat after 9/11, particularly threatening European security, the Council of Europe introduced the Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism (CPT) 2005. One of the Articles within the Convention, Article 5, obliges states to outlaw ‘public provocation to commit a terrorist offence’. Drawing on its obligations in the CPT, the UK enacted section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006: ‘encouragement of terrorism’. But, in implementing its duties, the UK went further. There are very real concerns, therefore, about the effects of this legislation on freedom of expression. The test for interpreting breaches of Article 10 is ‘proportionality’. Comparatively, in America there is a much stronger test than proportionality, ‘strict scrutiny’, in assessing limits to terror speech. However, in the age of Islamism, together with the speed, ease and little cost incurred in sharing terror speech online, should there not be a reappraisal of American law? The author is based in the UK. But the UK’s approach to limiting terror speech is arguably too intrusive of freedom of expression. This paper, therefore, proposes a compromise approach between the two jurisdictions.

International Megan's Law as Compelled Speech

“The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 United States Code Section 212b(c)(l).” International Megan’s Law (IML), passed in 2016, prohibits the State Department from issuing passports to individuals convicted of a sex offense against a minor unless those passports are branded with this phrase. The federal government's decision to brand its citizens’ passports with this stigmatizing message is novel and jarring, but the sole federal district court to consider a constitutional challenge to the passport identifier dismissed the plaintiffs’ First Amendment claim, deeming the provision government speech. This Note argues that this passport identifier is more appropriately analyzed as a form of compelled speech, triggering strict scrutiny review that the IML’s passport identifier would not survive.