Disasters: An Additional (Legal) Dimension for the International Protection of Cultural Heritage

Even if disasters are a significant challenge for the protection of cultural and natural heritage, the interest of the international community towards this issue has been quite limited for a long period. Still, some changes more recently could be recorded. In particular, a more contextualized and evolutionary interpretation of existing treaty provisions provided by international cultural heritage law, and the development of innovative practices tailored to face this scenario, could provide states with pertinent guidance on measures to be adopted. At the same time cultural concerns have been able to progressively fertilize international disaster law instruments in light of their inherent general relevance. The chapter examines the ways in which these areas of the law interplay and how features commonly associated with community interest norms have characterized this scenario.

On The Origins of The Airframe Revolution

The airframe revolution was the greatest development in aviation history after the Wright brothers, marking the advent of the modern dominant design in aerostructures, namely, the all-metal monoplane, which is still largely in existence. Therefore, the importance of the airframe revolution can hardly be overestimated. Nonetheless, its origin remains poorly understood. The common opinion is that the development of new materials and scientific advancements were the drivers of the transition. However, the historical record tells a different story. This chapter demonstrates that an event of ‘modular exaptation’, namely, the design of the Fokker D.VIII fighter, initiated the revolution in 1918, several years before its recognized inception. This evolutionary interpretation reconciles the gradualist Darwinian vision with the discontinuous character of radical innovation. The Fokker D.VIII case study suggests that detecting technological exaptations ex ante is possible and can provide firms with sustained competitive advantage.

The Ambibaric Brain

We propose a new evolutionary interpretation of the brain’s circulation that has physiological, pathophysiological, and clinical implications. We review the evidence for the concept, discuss clinical implications, and suggest techniques to address outstanding questions. We conclude that the brain circulation contains complementary low-pressure and high-pressure system that must be kept in balance for optimal brain health.

The Natural Philosophy of Economic Information: Autonomous Agents and Physiosemiosis

Information is a core concept in modern economics, yet its definition and empirical specification is elusive. One reason is the intellectual grip of the Shannon paradigm which marginalizes semantic information. However, a precise concept of economic information must be based on a theory of semantics, since what counts economically is the meaning, function and use of information. This paper introduces a new principled approach to information that adopts the paradigm of biosemiotics, rooted in the philosophy of Charles S. Peirce and builds on recent developments of the thermodynamics of information. Information processing by autonomous agents, defined as autopoietic heat engines, is conceived as physiosemiosis operating according to fundamental thermodynamic principles of information processing, as elucidated in recent work by Kolchinsky and Wolpert (KW). I plug the KW approach into a basic conceptual model of physiosemiosis and present an evolutionary interpretation. This approach has far-reaching implications for economics, such as suggesting an evolutionary view of the economic agent, choice and behavior, which is informed by applications of statistical thermodynamics on the brain.

A NEO-EVOLUTIONARY INTERPRETATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENIUS AND CULTURE

The article explores the neo-evolutionist interpretation of the relationship between genius and culture. The reasons for the idealization of genius and its transformation into a symbol of the “prime mover” of cultural progress, a person who can singlehandedly change the course of history, are considered. The author demonstrates the inconsistency of the idea of genius as a “prime mover” of cultural evolution. The conclusion is substantiated that genius is a “tool” of culture, with the help of which it creates its wealth that the epoch, and not an individual person, appears to be the real author of a genius creation, that the flourishing of culture “expresses” itself in brilliant people.

Archetype and matrix image (potential forms of an image)

The article is devoted to the analysis of potential forms of the image in culture and the development of the Jungian concept of an archetype in Wunenburger, Bachelard, Durand and modern cultural studies. The notion of archetype in Carl Jung’s concept is related to the distinction between the archetype in itself, noumenon and archetype image conceived as a phenomenal manifestation of archetypal forms in the space-time, historical and social reality. This distinction has a Kantian lineage, which Jung was clearly conscious of. He provides a reference to the conception of Kant, calling it “a school of philosophical criticism” several times in his writings. In the studies of Jung’s concept, his approach to transcendentalism (Z. Rosińska) is at times present, and a certain type of its specific, evolutionary interpretation is used. The archetype, being a “thing in itself ”, determines the appearance of phenomenal forms in the space-time, historical and social world, while remaining outside the direct entanglement and referring to the evolutionally active sphere of the unconscious as an anthropological datum. The archetypal image expresses the permanent approximation of manifestation of the semantic core of the archetype itself. The notion of an archetype has evolved in contemporary understandings and conceptions; it was conceived as a psychological expression of the evolutionary pattern of behavior, as an affective-representative node and ante rem of an idea, as a hermeneutic pattern of meaning or as a kind of matrix image. The archetype can be understood in connection with anthropological structures or with a cultural image; one way of comprehension does not exclude the other.

The European Court of Human Rights in Search of Lost Time: an evolutionary interpretation

Time is central to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. By monitoring the effectiveness of the Convention’s system, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) tries to maintain relevancy and respond to new challenges. The author notes that the evolutionary interpretation is a method that provides the ECHR with the necessary degree of flexibility to ensure that the implementation of the rights is guaranteed by the Convention. Throughout this comparative analysis, the author emphasises that due to the peculiarities and differences in the legal culture of the respondent States, it is can be extremely difficult for the Court to promote a progressive interpretation of the Convention’s rules, even if it is consistent with the objectives of the Convention. In this regard, the Court’s decision in the Tyrer case is the embodiment of the philosophy of the living instrument. However, the Court presented a model of evolutionary interpretation and failed to immediately demonstrate how it works and will work in the future, which gave rise to a significant part of the criticism. As part of the critical views’ analysis on the application of the ECHR’s evolutionary interpretation, the author highlights that one way to overcome the subjective factor in evolutionary interpretation is the European consensus. This allows the Court to base its decisions on the “common denominator”, that is, not on the judges’ personal preferences, but on the existing consensus among the member States on any given issue. Considering this from a dialogical approach, the author proposes to consider consensus as a form of dialogue that flows from Member States to the Court on the question of what they believe should be the proper settlement of convention rights. The analysis of the application of the evolutionary method’s interpretation by other international courts is carried out, thus proving that the evolutionary interpretation is not merely a figment of the Strasbourg Court’s imagination and nor is it the result of judicial activism, but instead it is the consequence of today’s necessity. The author emphasises that a static understanding of rights and freedoms cannot guarantee the effectiveness of any system of international justice. The textual interpretation of the Convention is blind to contemporary developments and unjustifiably ignores the changed nature of human rights in the twenty-first century. On a practical level, it is likely that politically sensitive decisions will continue to provoke internal criticism. In the final part of the article, the author draws an analogy with Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, noting that the evolutionary interpretation is a kind of formula for the search for time, which simultaneously combines both the past and the present, and is a necessary formula for maintaining the effectiveness and relevance of the conventional system.

Hidden Meanings: Evolutionary Interpretation Between Norm Application and Progressive Development

ABSTRACT Debates about the meaning of ‘evolutionary interpretation’ reveal the existence of two conflicting views. Some see evolutionary interpretation as an inevitable step in the ordinary process of applying fixed written language to changing reality. Others see it as a means for interpreters—and, crucially, adjudicators—to update the agreement being applied, infusing into the text the interpreter’s view of what would be a desirable development of the relevant provisions. Benefitting from the views expounded and decisions collected by the authors of Evolutionary Interpretation and International Law, edited by Georges Abi-Saab, Kenneth Keith, Gabrielle Marceau, and Clément Marquet (Hart 2020), this piece investigates two core questions that run through debates regarding evolutionary interpretation. First is the question of what is meant by evolutionary interpretation, whether an unavoidable step in the norm application process or a decision to develop obligations beyond their original scope. Second is the question of the distinctive role of adjudicators, i.e. of whether evolutionary interpretation is a tool used by adjudicators to exercise authority over the legal framework being applied, bypassing the constraints of the consent-based international rule-making system.

From Peacekeepers to Parties to the Conflict: An IHL’s Appraisal of the Role of UN Peace Operations in NIACs

The article analyses the application of international humanitarian law (IHL) to UN ‘peace operations’ when, due to their factual involvement in hostilities, they become parties to a non-international armed conflict. It argues that the notion of party to the conflict allows to focus on the collective entity and its obligations, and to infer the status of individual members of the operation from the mission's collective status. In assessing the consequences of that scenario, the article further discusses the external and internal borders of the scope of the notion of party to the conflict as applied to UN peace operations, and examines the impact of the loss of protection from attack on the principle of distinction. It concludes by suggesting that, in light of the increasing involvement of UN peace operations in situations that factually amount to armed conflict, an evolutionary interpretation of the theory of IHL's application to the situation is needed.