Lawful by Design

In recent years, the procedural rules of global governance institutions have come under scrutiny from scholars worldwide and have been conceptualized as akin to domestic administrative law. However, one question has so far not been addressed: who shapes this procedure and why? In the present work, Isabel Lischewski develops a simple matrix connecting procedure and state interest. When this matrix is applied to a sample of forty diverse institutions, fascinating patterns emerge, which are further explored through in-depth case studies. It is shown that states prefer to balance sovereignty preservation through procedure with the costs it entails. Thus, normative considerations are not the predominant basis on which this procedure is designed. The research provides original insights into the landscape of global governance procedure and cautions against a notion of “apolitical” administration law.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Inclusiveness, Affordability, Cultural Identity, and Ethical Orientation

Discussions on the impact and future directions of technology often proceed from an empirical point of view that seems to presume that the ebb and flow of technological developments is beyond the control of humankind, so that all that humanity can do is adjust to it. However, such an approach easily neglects several crucial normative considerations that could enhance the standing of individual human beings and whole communities as rational users of technology rather than its slaves. Besides, more often than not, technological products are designed in ways that neglect the needs of persons with disabilities, thereby perpetuating their exclusion from society. Consequently, this article proposes four normative considerations to guide the initiatives of African societies in their deployment of the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, namely, inclusiveness to meet the needs of all human beings, affordability to bridge the digital divide, respect for cultural identity to guard against cultural imperialism, and an ethical orientation as the over-arching guide to building a truly human society.

Needs and Risks in the Welfare State

Welfare states must respond to the needs and risks that arise from secular transformations such as deindustrialization, tertiarization, digitalization, population ageing, declining fertility, and changing gender and family relations. This chapter shows that understanding the impact of needs and risks on welfare states requires both empirical and normative considerations: examining the socio-economic consequences of these transformations as well as the normative underpinnings of needs- and risk-based claims to social policy. We first discuss the normative concepts of human needs and risks and the marks they have left on prominent theories of the welfare state, and then move to the empirical side, taking stock of the current socio-economic challenges for a range of welfare states, and of their manifestation in today’s employment and family-related need and risk profiles.

Konsepsi Bentuk Negara Kesatuan Sebagai Klausul yang Tidak Dapat Dirubah dalam Konstitusi

The conception of the form of the Unitary State of Indonesian as an irreversible clause is regulated in the constitution to be precise “Article 37 paragraph (5)”, which result of the fourth amandment. The existence of this unchanged clause has resulted in the inharmonization of norms in relation the provision that the highest state institution has the authority to amend and enact the Basic Law. Furthermore, the problem also relates to the basis for consideration and the urgency of the existence of a clause that cannot be changed in the constitution. The purpose of writing/ research is to dtermine the existence of a clause that cannot be chnaged in the constitution (unamendable provision), as well as how it stands. The law normative research used in the study is based on statute approach, historical approach, conceptual approach. The conclusion research that the application of “Article 37 paragraph (5)” has also been based on philosophical, socio-historical and judical-normative considerations. Futhemore, the urgency of the existence of the Article has also been based on the concept of clear objectives and the need for regulation. Based on these matters, its existence is a form of supermacy that imposes restrictions on the state apparatus in making amendments to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. This is shown to uphold the values, nature and objectives of the constitution it self. Konsepsi bentuk Negara Kesatuan Indonesia sebagai klausul yang tidak dapat dirubah diatur dalam konstitusi tepatnya “pasal 37 ayat (5)”, yang merupakan hasil amandemen keempat. Keberadaan klausul yang tidak dirubah itu menimbulkan inharmonisasi norma dalam keterkaitannya dengan ketentuan bahwa Lembaga Tertinggi Negara, mempunyai mandat untuk merubah dan mengkukuhkan Undang-Undang Dasar.Lebih lanjut persoalan juga berkaitan dengan dasar pertimbangan dan urgensitas dari diadakannya suatu klausul yang tidak dapat dirubah dalam konstitusi. Tujuan penulisan ini untuk mengetahui keberadaan klausul yang tidak dapat dirubah didalam konstitusi, serta seberapa penting keberadaan klausul tresebut. Penelitian hukum normatif digunakan dalam penelitian ini dengan didasarkan pada pendekatan peraturan perundang-undangan, pendekatan sejarah, pendekatan konseptual. Kesimpulan dalam penelitian ini adalah diterapkannya “Pasal 37 ayat (5)” juga telah didasarkan dengan pertimbangan filosofis, sosio-historis dan yuridis –normatif. Lebih lanjut urgensitas dari keberadaan Pasal tersebut juga telah didasarkan pada konsep tujuan yang jelas dan perlunya pengaturan. Berdasar kepada hal-hal tersebut maka keberadaannya merupakan bentuk supremasi yang memberikan pembatasan kepada alat-alat kelengkapan negara dalam hal melakukan perubahan UUD NRI 1945. Hal ini ditunjukan untuk menegakkan nilai-nilai, hakikat dan tujuan konstitusi itu sendiri.

Moral Challenges of Ethics Support Staff. Developing a Moral Compass for Facilitators of Moral Case Deliberation

"Ethics support staff often help others to deal with moral challenges. However, they themselves can also experience moral challenges when practicing ethics support. Facilitators of Moral Case Deliberation (MCD) sometimes for example experience ethical questions when it comes to (breaking) confidentiality. Facilitators might find themselves compelled to intervene or act upon things they hear or see whilst facilitating a MCD. For example, a MCD facilitator finds out that a participant does something illegal. Or, what to do if a MCD facilitator is asked to inform the Inspectorate about details of a MCD? When is a facilitator allowed or obligated to break confidentiality and share information with others? How to make such a decision? And, if allowed to break confidentiality, how to do this in a morally sound way? Currently there are no moral guidelines on how to act upon these questions. We conducted empirical research that explores moral challenges of MCD facilitators related to confidentiality and develops a moral compass which provides directions to approach these challenges. Data collection consists of three complementary methods: * analyses of 3 a 4 audiotaped and transcribed MCD sessions about how and when to break confidentiality; * in-depth interviews about the topic; * focus group to validate the findings and co-create a moral compass. In our presentation, we will reflect upon both the theoretical and normative considerations concerning confidentiality in ethics support and the empirical results of this study. Furthermore, we will present a preliminary version of a moral compass in order to strengthen the moral competency of MCD facilitators. "

Evaluating Defenses of a Requirement of Adverse Interests

This chapter responds to scholars who have sought to defend a modified Article III adverse-party requirement by redefining that requirement in terms of the underlying adverse interests of potential parties to litigation. Such an adverse interest construct fares poorly as an account of the language and history of Article III and fails to cohere with the practice of federal courts during the antebellum period and with the way antebellum jurists explained that practice to the world. Nor does the adverse interest construct advance the normative goals that have sometimes been seen as justifying a requirement of adversary contestation. Lacking a clear basis in text, history, and normative considerations, the adverse-interest account does a poor job of making sense of Article III.

Should Bitcoin Be Classified as Money?

The advent of virtual currencies such as bitcoin raises a pressing question for lawmakers, regulators, and judges: should bitcoin and other virtual currencies be classified as money or currency for legal and regulatory purposes? I examine two different approaches to answering this question—a descriptive approach and a normative approach. The descriptive approach says that bitcoin and other virtual currencies should be classified as money or currency just in case they really are money or currency, whereas the normative approach says that this question of classification should be answered on the basis of substantive normative considerations. I argue against the descriptive approach and in favor of the normative approach.

Towards a feminist philosophy of engagements in health-related research

Engagement with publics, patients, and stakeholders is an important part of the health research environment in the UK and beyond today, and different ‘engaged’ health research modalities have proliferated in recent years. Yet, the conceptual landscape currently surrounding engagement is contested. There is no consensus on what, exactly, ‘engaging’ means, what it should look like, and what the aims, justifications, or motivations for it should be. In this paper, we set out what we see as important, outstanding challenges around the practice and theory of engaging and consider the tensions and possibilities that the diverse landscape of engaging evokes. We examine the roots, present modalities and institutional frameworks that have been erected around engaging, including how they shape and delimit how engagements are framed, enacted, and justified. We inspect the related issue of knowledge production within and through engagements, addressing whether engagements can, or should, be framed as knowledge producing activities. We then unpack the question of how engagements are or could be valued and evaluated, emphasising the plural ways in which ‘value’ can be conceptualised and generated. We conclude by calling for a philosophy of engagements that can capture the diversity of related practices, concepts and justifications around engagements, and account for the plurality of knowledges and kinds of value that engagements engender, while remaining flexible and attentive to the structural conditions under which engagements occur. Such philosophy should be a feminist one, informed by feminist epistemological and methodological approaches to equitable modes of research participation, knowledge production, and valuing. This will enable a synergy of empirical, epistemic, and normative considerations in developing accounts of engaging in both theory and praxis. Modestly, here, we hope to carve out the starting points for this work.

More accurate less meaningful? A critical physical geographer’s reflection on interpreting remote sensing land-use analyses

Land-use and land-cover analyses based on satellite image classification are used in most, if not all, sub-disciplines of physical geography. Data availability and increasingly simple image classification techniques – nowadays, even implemented in simple geographic information systems – increase the use of such analyses. To assess the quality of such land-use analyses, accuracy metrics are applied. The results are considered to have sufficient quality, exceeding thresholds published in the literature. A typical practice in many studies is to confuse accuracy in remote sensing with quality, as required by physical geography. However, notions such as quality are subject to normative considerations and performative practices, which differ between scientific domains. Recent calls for critical physical geography have stressed that scientific results cannot be understood separately from the values and practices underlying them. This article critically discusses the specific understanding of quality in remote sensing, outlining norms and practices shaping it and their relation to physical geography. It points out that, as a seeming paradox, results considered more accurate in remote sensing terms can be less informative – or meaningful – in geographical terms. Finally, a roadmap of how to apply remote sensing land-use analyses more constructively in physical geography is proposed.

Identifying diverging sustainability meanings for water policy: a Q-method study in Phoenix, Arizona

We identify and describe social perspectives on the sustainability of the water sector in the metropolitan area of Phoenix, Arizona. Using Q methodology, we find evidence for different meanings of sustainability when stakeholders are presented with concrete policy options and applications in spite of an apparently widespread agreement on the concept of sustainability itself. We put the social perspectives articulated by local stakeholders in perspective by analyzing whether they adhere to a commonly used set of sustainability principles when applied to water management and governance. The analysis indicates that although there is some level of acceptance of sustainability principles among the social perspectives identified, there are important discrepancies in the salience of different principles. Results suggest that when people are interacting in policy-making processes they tend to support their previously held own vision of the problems and that their normative considerations may be opposed to broadly accepted sustainability discourses. The different visions of water sustainability may have a direct impact on the water policy-making process depending on the position and influence of the actors involved in the governance scheme.