Dispossession and Party Formation in Broader Comparative Perspective

This chapter shows that rather than emerging from a ready-formed cohesive industrial labor movement, these parties’ original constituency was the demoted artisan and peasantry in transition to be, but not yet, proletarianized. Second, in a related way, the chapter shows that the period of party emergence followed a process of economic and political dispossession: these parties articulated new political subjectivities in the context of eroding traditional economic and political structures. The differences in the timing of party emergence between the countries lie precisely in how these processes of dispossession developed: in Germany, the process of economic dispossession coincided with a political dispossession setting the terrain for the mass-party form, while in the British case, economic dispossession was not initially accompanied by political dispossession of the working classes, who maintained a degree of self-presentational authority, particularly in the form of “friendly societies.”

Historical memory and european regionalism: the scottish case

The region's past together with the historical memory of the people inhabiting it, undoubtedly carries lessons for the present and the future, both for the British state in particular, and for the rest of Europe as a whole. Studying the issues of historical memory helps to rethink the mechanisms of the formation of historical consciousness. It is also important when studying the role of various social strata in this process, which can include both professional historians and politicians, decision makers people on whom decision-making process depends to one degree or another. Among the set of functions that historical knowledge performs, the most significant one can be singled out an attempt to "reconcile" the present and the past of the people as a nation. In the light of the current European agenda, a change in ideas about the status of historical memory and a searching of approaches to understanding the issues raised by the regionalization processes require a new look at the process of interaction between these spheres of public life. This article examines the issues of Scottish historical memory in the context of regionalization processes in Europe: what in this case is the history of Scotland rather a common European tradition or a particular British case? Is it possible to look at the problem differently when both paths are not mutually exclusive?

Nach dem „Great War“

This essay is concerned with the philosophical, ethical, political and other forms of criticism directed at Western European imperialism after the First World War. By concentrating on the British case it looks at the structural and individual critique coming from members of the British political and academic elite as well as from media representatives. Debates about imperial rule and the right of conquest confronted the very nature of European empires and questioned their continuation if they were not ready for reform. While anticolonial arguments from the colonial “peripheries” in times of the “Wilsonian moment” were the rule and globally organised, “metropolitan” sceptics of empire were not only in the minority but also somewhat out-dated because they often connected to Victorian understandings of imperialism. Thus, they need to be seen both in nineteenth-century intellectual traditions and in their own right at a crucial time after the First World War when questions of the global order needed to be negotiated.

Trade and Cooperation Agreement Between the EU and the UK: Conditionality Versus Sovereignty

The United Kingdom left the European Union on January 31, 2020. On December 31, 2020, the transition period ended, during which all EU rules and regulations applied to Britain. The trade agreement was reached in record time, but it is too early to talk about long-term mutual benefits. The British case in the system of trade and economic agreements of the European Union is unique. On the one hand, at the time of the negotiations, the UK retained EU law, was a member of the EU Single Internal Market and Customs Union, subject to the jurisdiction of the EU Court of Justice. On the other hand, the EU for the first time found itself in a situation when a third country was determined to distance itself as much as possible from EU rules while concluding a trade agreement, despite the obvious economic losses. At the same time, both sides understood that the absence of an agreement threatened all interested actors with serious losses, and that it must be concluded. As a result, the compromise text of the TCA reflects the fundamentally different approaches of the parties to bilateral cooperation, and its provisions suggest a change of its format in the future.

Early Modern English Borders: Homogeneity and Heterogeneity

This article discusses the process of English border-formation in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and around the Channel Islands, including efforts of the English government in border formation, and the local identities of borderlands. I evaluate political considerations, as well as examining social and cultural resonances to show that the English historical border was formed as part of the consolidation of state and nation in terms of Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the Channel Islands. I argue that border ‘building’ was not always smooth, or to be taken for granted in terms of state-building. The borderlands of the English state have manifested both a homogeneity and heterogeneity in the four regions, each with four particular forms or tendencies in their deep structures: homogeneity, from homogeneity to heterogeneity, from heterogeneity to homogeneity, and heterogeneity. In the article, I use homogeneity to refer to the status of the acculturational tendency, while using heterogeneity to refer to a deviation of the interaction between the English state and other states or nations. This article touches upon a topic not restricted to the British case, but relevant worldwide: the construction of borders in the context of the fundamental conflict between a ‘nation’, which is to say a culturally and often linguistically distinctive entity, and a ‘state’.

Understanding public Euroscepticism

Euroscepticism has become more and more embedded both at the EU and national levels (Usherwood et al. 2013) and persistent across domestic debates (Usherwood and Startin 2013). This study presents an in-depth analysis of contemporary narratives of Euroscepticism. It first introduces its question related to understanding public Euroscepticism, following the British EU referendum campaign and outcome, to then present the established literature, and the analysis of the British case study. A survey run in Britain in May 2019 shows that, as already noted by Oliver Daddow (2006, 2011), Euroscepticism is very much identifiable in the traditional narratives of Europe as the Other. Context accountability (Daddow 2006) is still cause for concern in Britain and by assuming a more positive view of a European Britain (Daddow 2006) does not make the debate more informed. Images, narratives and specific issues to reform the Eurosceptic toolbox into a more neutral, but informative, instrument could be applied at the grassroots level, as the post-referendum demonstrations and manifestations have shown. British citizens are reclaiming their own European citizenship, and deconstructing existing Euromyths can be a first small step forward.

Legal reasoning: a textual perspective on common law judicial opinions and Chinese judgments

The issue of legal reasoning has been addressed widely in legal academia and practice, but rarely considered by linguists. This paper, employing the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) genre perspective and the discourse semantics system as its conceptual framework, attempts to reveal the different ways of legal reasoning of common law judicial opinions and Chinese judgments from a textual perspective. One judicial opinion of a British case and one judgment of a Chinese case are explored for comparison. The findings suggest that Chinese judgments as a legal genre, compared with its counterpart of common law judicial opinions, unfold not in waves construed by multilayered Theme-and-New structure, but in chunks establishing no prediction or consolidation. We argue that this mode of text unfolding in waves is vitally important for readers to follow the judge’s reasoning and construct a sense of fairness and justice. We suggest that the periodicity and the generic structure of common law judicial opinions would be a valuable frame of reference for the Chinese judicial reform on judgments in improving its legal reasoning.

Application of Islamic Law in the UK and Universal Human Rights

Should Islamic Law be introduced into Western legal system? At the heart of the issue is a debate on legal pluralism, which envisions a society where different laws apply to different religious groups. This paper explores question using the British case of Sharia Councils. Building on the author’s knowledge of the situation of women in Middle Eastern and Islamic countries, she undertook firsthand analysis of the Islamic Sharia councils and Muslim arbitration tribunals in various British cities. She offers a pointed critique of legal pluralism, highlighting the type of Islamic law being used and its human rights ramifications.