A Moral Stretch? US–Tariff Measures and the Public Morals Exception in WTO Law

The ‘public morals’ exception remains a key aspect of the international trade system; however, its outer bounds have never been precisely defined. This question became pertinent in the US–Tariff Measures panel report, which expansively read the exception to justify a wide range of economic interests, including prohibitions on economic espionage, anti-competitive behaviour, and the regulation of government takings. This note challenges the panel's interpretation, arguing that it is flawed and essentially amounts to a factual standard of review. It proposes an alternative approach to public morals review, which involves an objective standard of review of facts and law, while providing adequate deference to Members’ own factual determinations. It further engages with the issue of extraterritoriality, defending an approach based on Members’ legislative jurisdiction as this strikes a balance between Members’ right to regulate trade for moral purposes and the interests of the international community.

Rethinking the Meaning of Ordinary Meaning in Light of the ICJ’s Jurisprudence

Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties calls for consideration of the ordinary meaning as the starting point in the process of interpretation. Although the linguistic concept of ordinary meaning is founded on the idea that the meaning of a sentence is directly imposed by the norms of language so that interpreters are provided with an objective standard which is external to their subjectivity, this article demonstrates that the interpretive jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice has departed from the imperatives of the ordinary meaning doctrine. Rather, the Court, mindful of the problem that no mere sequence of words can represent actual legal meaning, has moved towards construction of ordinary meaning.

Implementasi Metode AHP dalam Penentuan Spesifikasi Pegawai SPG (Sales Promotion Girl)

PT Mitra Andal Sejati is a company engaged in promotional services and services. The services provided are brand activation activities and the management of SPG (Sales Promotion Girl). The biggest client who collaborates with PT Mitra Andal Sejati is PT Unilever Indonesi Tbk. PT Mitra Andal Sejati has a vision to prepare a sales promotion girl who is proactive to customers and able to provide knowledge to customers about the latest products. Currently in the recruitment of sales promotion girls, Unilever, the company does not have an objective standard of assessment. There are still many sales promotion girls who do not understand the content in the product so that they are unable to convey product advantages to customers, which results in a lack of product knowledge in customers and many SPGs are above the average age of an SPG. To help solve the problem of determining the need for SPG specifications because AHP uses multicriteria that are compared with alternatives, thereby reducing the subjectivity in determining the weight of the criteria. The result of the selection of applicants who were accepted to work as sales promotion girls was only 5 applicants with the highest score based on the recruitment results from 10 samples of applicants

4. Crimes of negligence

Negligence refers to conduct that does not conform to what would be expected of a reasonable person. Along with intention and recklessness, negligence involves a failure to comply with an objective standard of conduct; that is, all of them are forms of fault. To prove negligence, the prosecution is not required to show that the accused failed to foresee a relevant risk; it only has to establish that his conduct failed to comply with a reasonable standard. A person is negligent if he is not able to comply with an objective standard of behaviour set by the law. This chapter deals with crimes of negligence and negligence as mens rea, negligence as the basis of liability, degrees of negligence, negligence as a form of culpable fault, and negligence and capacity.

The Reasonable Person Standard: Psychological and Legal Perspectives

In criminal cases of self-defense and provocation, and civil cases of negligence, culpability is often decided with reference to how a reasonably prudent person (RPP) would have behaved in similar circumstances. The RPP is said to be an objective standard in that it eschews consideration of a defendant's unique background or characteristics. We discuss theory and evidence suggesting that in morally relevant judgments, including those involving negligence, self-defense, and provocation, the tendency to rely on the self—on one's own values and predilections—dominates considerations of the RPP. We consider subjective standards that have been proposed as alternatives to the RPP and review research on this topic. We conclude by considering avenues for future research, particularly addressing conditions in which self-standards of reasonableness are most likely to prevail. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Volume 17 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Being Unreasonable

This chapter looks at the ways in which findings of unreasonableness inform judgements about the culpability of defendants. The chapter suggests that, even without using tracing strategies, it is possible to defend many of the criminal law’s invocations (un)reasonableness in terms of a defendant’s blameworthiness. Sometimes the defendant’s failure to meet an objective standard does reflect a moral vice on her part. The function of the so-called ‘reasonable person’ in this context is really to hold the defendant up to an external standard of moral characteristics. Conversely, if it is to comprise a standard of culpability, the ‘reasonable person’ ought to be personalized to the extent that the defendant’s shortcomings do not disclose moral vices. In particular, and alongside physical limitations, that includes shortcomings of intelligence.

Walkable environment and community well-being: a case from the city of Kwun Tong

Purpose This study aims to examine the relationship between the walkable environment and community well-being of the older people in Kwun Tong, a district in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach Face-to-face survey interviews were conducted to collect data about perceived factors and community well-being of people aged 55 or above (N = 257, M = 71.78). Geographic information system was used to obtain geographic data to assess objective factors. Findings The results showed that perceived factors were more critical in explaining community well-being than objective factors. Originality/value This is one of the few research studies to study walkable environment and community well-being in both objective and subjective ways. The findings of this study could help policymakers and urban planners to move beyond the objective standard to better address the subjective environmental needs of older people in designing a walkable environment. The research findings also have implications for other Asian communities with similar environments and cultural backgrounds.

Hans Jonas on the perils of progress and the recovery of Metaphysical speculation

Hans Jonas’s establishment of an ethics of responsibility entails the simultaneous rejection of the modern notion of progress and the recovery of a form of “metaphysical speculation” that aids man in his search for an objective standard of value. Looking mostly at Jonas’s philosophical biology in The Phenomenon of Life and Mortality and Morality, this paper shows how Jonas’s thought on value judgments rests upon his critique of progress and science. The ethics of perfectibility and progress, Jonas shows, leads to a predicament in which the modern mind must navigate between the dangers present in the hubristic hopes of technological progress and the nihilism he finds in the thought of Martin Heidegger. Jonas’s philosophical biology serves as a critique of these positions that opens up an alternative orientation toward nature—one that grounds not only the ethics of responsibility but the uniquely human activity of reflection. The critique of progress serves, then, as a propaedeutic to the ethics of responsibility and the recovery of an image of man as the reflective animal. Such a recovery of metaphysical speculation from the dogmas of the physical sciences helps encourage a “new humility” in the face of man’s technological power. Jonas hopes to replace man’s desire for self-overcoming with the fear that his “Promethean immoderation” will lead to the biosphere's destruction. This fear acknowledges the limits of man’s knowledge and is thereby accompanied by a posture of Socratic ignorance and the reengagement with the philosophia perennis. That is, a less hubristic ethical theory depends upon a modest philosophical stance toward the whole. Only on the grounds of this epistemological modesty can we hope to proceed into the future with both caution and wisdom.

The World Anti-Doping Agency: Guardian of Elite Sport’s Credibility

WADA is a hybrid public–private agency that leads the global fight against doping. This chapter explores why and how this agency developed into an institution that receives support from sports organizations and governments worldwide. Despite initial scepticism about its ability to overcome the ineffectiveness of anti-doping policies prior to its foundation in 1999, WADA quickly grew into a broadly trusted and well-respected organization. It successfully developed a globally harmonized anti-doping system that reinforced the credibility of international sports competitions and the legitimacy of elite sport policies. From its inception, it had a distinct identity as a neutral, impartial and objective standard setter and referee agent in a morally challenging organizational field. Nonetheless, being relatively young, WADA remains a vulnerable institution. It must continuously take an independent position with regard to partial interests of sporting and public authorities that are responsible for WADA’s funding and governance. This requires institutional leadership that the organization cannot always offer, as recent doping affairs show.

Description of a Rat Model of Polymicrobial Abdominal Sepsis Mimicking Human Colon Perforation

Objective: Standard rodent sepsis models as cecal ligation and puncture models (CLP) or cecal ligation and incision models (CLI) are frequently not suited experiments, mainly because they lack surgical repair, and they are difficult to control for severity. The colon ascendens stent peritonitis model (CASP) overcomes some of these limitations. Result: Here we present our modification of the rodent CASP model, where severity of sepsis can be controlled by timing of surgical repair and treatment, and by diameter of the stent. Further, basic hemodynamic monitoring (blood pressure and heart rate) and frequent blood sampling can be achieved, which might guide further treatment.