The Sephardic Labor Organization and the Status of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in the Yishuv

The article discusses the Sephardic Labor Organization in Palestine which was active from 1940 through 1946 as the roof organization of the Sephardic Labor Organization in Tel Aviv and the Organization of Sephardi and Oriental Workers in Jerusalem. The aim of the Sephardic Labor Organization in Palestine as a whole and in particular, of the Sephardic Labor Organization in Tel Aviv was to improve the economic conditions of Sephardi and Mizrahi workers and to enhance their social and political status in the Yishuv. These activities reflect the status of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews as a hybrid group on the socioeconomic border between the Jews and Arabs of Mandatory Palestine. The article explores the processes which led to the establishment of Sephardi labor organizations, and which manifest the connection between patterns of employment and standard of living, and between ethnic identity and social status.

Burundi: International Pressure and Counter-Sanctional Maneuvering of Ruling Elites

Using the example of one of the poorest and economically most vulnerable states in the world – the Republic of Burundi – the article examines the impact of international sanctions on foreign and domestic policy as well as upon the economic situation in sovereign states of African. The author demonstrates that, despite the severe destructive consequences of the economic and political sanctions of external players, the use of restrictive regimes against “recalcitrant” actors of interstate relations does not automatically lead to a change in their line of behaviour or to the downfall of the ruling regimes. As the example of Burundi shows, even in the conditions of the poorest country in the world, well-thought-out political maneuvering and reasonable use of available resources can allow the targeted state and its elites to remain in power indefinitely and to maintain the political status quo.

Inequality in the Initial Wage of College Graduates at the College-Level Perspective

College graduates, as a labor force with high human capital accumulation, have the problem of initial wage inequality, which is worth paying attention to. Based on the collated micro-survey data form “Employment and Entrepreneurship Development Report of Chinese College Graduates”, which contains 339 samples from vocational colleges, 453 from common colleges, and 360 from key colleges, this study empirically analyzed the inequality of college graduates’ initial wages at the college level. We found that the initial wage income level of college graduates is significantly influenced by the college level. The higher the level is, the higher the initial wage. The initial wage of graduates from key colleges is the highest, and the income inequality between them and vocational college graduates is the most significant. Moreover, there are structural differences in the wage premium effect of the college level on college graduates with a change in wage level. In addition, the study found that there is an obvious gender wage difference among college graduates, and political status, academic ranking, and student cadre experience as well as the nature of the workplace all contributed to the formation of wage premiums to a certain extent.

Weeds in action: Vegetal political ecology of unwanted plants

This paper presents a vegetal political ecology of weeds. Weeds have barely been analysed in the burgeoning field of ‘more-than-human’ scholarship, this despite their ubiquity and considerable impact on human social life. We review how geographical scholarship has represented weeds’ material and political status: mostly as invasive plants, annoying species in private gardens and spontaneous vegetation in urbanized landscapes. Then, bringing together weed science, agronomic science and the critical geography of agriculture, we show how weeds ecology, weeds management and the environmental problems which weeds are entangled have critically shaped the industrial agriculture paradigm. Three main arguments emerging from our analysis open up new research avenues: weeds’ disruptive character might shape our understanding of human-plant relationships; human-weeds relation in agriculture have non-trivial socio-economic and political implications; and more-than-human approaches, such as vegetal political ecology, might challenge dominant modes of considering and practicing agriculture.

ON THE WAY TO STATE AUTONOMY: THE FIRST CONSTITUTION

В статье анализируется Конституция СОАССР 1937 г. как один из важнейших документов по Новейшей истории Северной Осетии, впервые определивший ее самостоятельный государственно-политический статус в качестве советской автономной республики в составе РСФСР. В поиске форм национального самоопределения Северная Осетия несколько раз меняла свой статус: будучи рядовой территориально-административной единицей в административной системе позднеимперской России, Осетия и после утверждения советской власти оказалась включена в окружную модель территориального устройства Горской АССР. Лишь после упразднения Горской республики Северной Осетии был придан статус автономной области в составе России с несколько расширенной административной самостоятельностью, хотя и довольно ограниченным объемом полномочий, распространявшихся преимущественно на хозяйственно-культурную сферу. Однако именно тогда Северная Осетия впервые сформировала собственные устойчивые и жизнеспособные органы власти и управления, деятельность которых регулировалась союзным и республиканским (РСФСР) законодательством. Новый этап развития североосетинской государственности пришелся на вторую половину 1930-х гг., когда новая Конституция СССР объявила ряд бывших национальных автономных областей, в том числе и Северо-Осетинскую АО, автономными республиками и предоставила им правовые основания для принятия собственных конституций, наделив их таким образом государственно-политическим статусом. Сравнительный анализ конституций СССР, РСФСР и СОАССР показывает, что организационно-правовые основы национальной государственности, закрепленные в конституции СОАССР, формулировались исходя из приоритета общесоюзной и российской конституций, хотя и с учетом местных особенностей. В то же время первая советская конституция Северной Осетии, принятая ее собственным законодательным органом и определяющая правовые основы политической автономии, ознаменовала завершение процесса становления национальной государственности Северной Осетии и открыла новую страницу ее социально-политической истории. The article analyzes the Constitution of the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of 1937 as one of the most important documents on the recent history of North Ossetia, which firstly defined its independent state-political status as a Soviet autonomous republic within the RSFSR. In the search for forms of national self-determination, North Ossetia changed its status several times: being an ordinary territorial-administrative unit in the administrative system of late imperial Russia, Ossetia, even after the approval of Soviet power, was included in the district model of the territorial structure of the Mountain ASSR. Only after the abolition of the Mountain Republic, North Ossetia has got the status of an autonomous region within Russia with somewhat expanded administrative self-dependence, albeit with a rather limited scope of powers that extended mainly to the economic and cultural sphere. However, just then North Ossetia for the first time formed its stable and viable power and administrative institutions, the activities of which were regulated by union and republican (RSFSR) legislation. A new stage in the development of North Ossetian statehood fell on the second half of the 1930s, when the new Constitution of the USSR declared the granting of the status of autonomous republics to the former national autonomous regions, including the North Ossetian Autonomous Region, and provided them with legal grounds for adopting their own constitutions, and so endowed them of state and political status. A comparative analysis of the constitutions of the USSR, RSFSR and NOASSR shows that the organizational and legal foundations of national statehood, enshrined in the Constitution of the NOASSR, were formulated based on the priority of the all-Union and Russian constitutions, albeit taking into account local specifics. At the same time, the first Soviet constitution of North Ossetia, adopted by its legislative institution and defining the legal foundations of political autonomy, marked the end of the process of formation of the national statehood of North Ossetia and opened a new page in its socio-political history.

PROBLEMS OF UNREGULATED POLITICAL STATUS OF TERRITORIES AS A FACTOR OF DEEPENING CONTRADICTIONS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

All international conflicts regarding unregulated political status of territories, despite the variety of their types, can be united by the lack of legitimate power in different parts of the earth's surface or the desire to establish such power. In order to differentiate all the conflicts regarding international legal unregulated political status of the territories according to their origin the following types can be proposed: 1) conflicts that arose as a result of the forcible annexation of territories, the incorporation of which is not recognized by the international community; 2) conflicts that arose due to the creation of the self-proclaimed states in the territories controlled by the occupation regimes; 3) conflicts that arose due to the creation of the self-proclaimed states as the result of domestic crisis reasons, but with the participation of foreign policy factors; 4) conflicts over disputable border areas and islands; 5) conflicts regarding political claims to dependent countries under the control of other states; 6) latent conflicts over claims on land and water areas, which according to international conventions should not be extended to the sovereignty of any state; 7) the Middle East conflict due to non-compliance with the decision of the UN General Assembly of 1947 on the establishment of a sovereign Arab state. The conflict over the legal status of Palestine and the there solution of the so-called self-proclaimed states are the main issues of geopolitical controversy among the various types of conflicts. The conflict-generating potential regarding disputes over control independent countries is much smaller today. Interstate border disputes mostly concern the status of individual islands. In order to avoid new conflicts, the UN needs to strengthen the status of Antarctica and the areas adjacent to the North Pole, making them as a neutral demilitarized territory, which can not be extended to the sovereignty of individual states. The greatest concentration of conflicts regarding the international legal unregulated political status of the territories is connected with the contradictions in the collapse of the USSR and in thein completeness and disorder of decolonization. Thus, the resolution of territorial and political conflicts requires the UN Security Council and international law modernization and reform, paying much attention to the conditions and circumstances of state and political self-determination, as well as the realization of effective sanctions in the case of annexation of territories. Among the various types of conflicts related to the international legal unresolved political status of territories, the main nodes of geopolitical controversy are Russia's occupation of Crimea and part of Donetsk and the conflict over the state status of Palestine and resolving the problems of so-called self-proclaimed states. its influence in the post-Soviet space. Key words: territorial-political conflict, types of conflicts concerning international legal unregulated status of territories, self-proclaimed states, border conflicts, status of Antarctica and Arctic.

Self-Determination of Indigenous Peoples in Greenland: A Comparison with The Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia

For many years, the indigenous peoples had been experiencing various acts of marginalisation and discrimination. However, to this day, the definitions and rights of the indigenous peoples in certain jurisdictions are still left ambiguous. These rights includes the right to self-determination which, on the surface, is linked to freedom to choose political status and cultural or economical development and can be considered as one of the vital rights for indigenous peoples as it allows the community to decide on various aspects of their lives. Looking beyond that, this concept can be further classified into external and internal self-determination and each country may adopt a different approach to this right. As Greenland has a relatively higher population of indigenous peoples, the laws and regulations on indigenous peoples can be distinct. Therefore, this study examines the availability of self-determination policies and possible issues on it’s implementation in Greenland in comparison to the rights of the Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia. By using critical legal analysis, this study provides an insight to the exercise of self-determination rights of the indigenous peoples in other jurisdiction and the relevancy of the same right in Malaysia which can help to identify certain aspects to be improved on in the existing national indigenous peoples’ rights laws.

The prayers of evocatio and devotio: Between religious ritual and Roman law

This paper, which is a work in progress and a continuation of previous articles that were published on the Roman concepts of evocatio and devotio, will explore a new approach: the juridical context and implications of these religious and magical rituals. After reminding briefly the traditional interpretation (religious prayers pronounced only in a context of war) and the results of our previous articles 1 (evocatio was not limited to military context, and evocatio and devotio included magical elements very similar to formulas of execration (defixiones), we will ask questions that seem to be innovative: on the one hand, “can we compare these prayers with juridical contracts?”, and on the other hand, “had these rituals juridical and political consequences?”, such as the loss of status of a person (in this case, the devotio of enemies) and the loss of status of a place/city (in the case of evocatio). Were these religious rituals a way of making possible the symbolical destruction of a territory and the transfer of a divinity's statue to Rome, and consequently a way of making possible the real destruction of this territory and justifying its conquest? To carry out this study, we will analyze different texts that mention evocatio and devotio, and we will contrast them with texts that refer to juridical concepts (such as consecratio capitis et bonorum, exsecratio, bellum iustum, and damnatio memoriae). We will also analyze the case of cities (Veii, Praeneste, Falerii Veteres, and Carthago) that probably lost their juridical and political status after a war and after religious rituals such as evocatio and devotio. It would not be the first time that religion was used for political reasons, to justify Roman imperialism.

The Effect of Learning Engagement on Learning Burnout of College Students

To explore the status quo of learning engagement and learning burnout, the mechanism of learning engagement on learning burnout, and the mechanism of academic Self-efficacy. Methods:A total of 309 college students were randomly selected as research samples. The samples were investigated by using the College Students' learning engagement Scale, learning burnout scale and academic Self-efficacy questionnaire, and the results were analyzed by using SPSS26.0 and macro program Process. (1) there were significant differences in academic engagement between male and female, urban and rural, class position and political status, and there were significant differences in learning burnout between urban and rural and political status. (2) Learning engagement and academic Self-efficacy had negative predictive effects on learning burnout. (3) Academic Self-efficacy plays a partially mediating role in the relationship between learning engagement and learning burnout. This study introduces academic Self-efficacy into the influence of learning input on learning burnout, constructs a mechanism model of the influence of learning input on learning burnout, and carries out empirical tests on this model, which is the improvement and expansion of related research fields.