Justice Claims Research Articles

The German energy transition and the eroding consensus on ecological modernization: A radical democratic perspective on conflicts over competing justice claims and energy visions

This paper makes a threefold contribution to reflecting on the German energy transition (Energiewende). First, the shaping of the Energiewende by national government policies is analyzed. The prevailing focus on questions about technology (promotion and acceptance) is interpreted as symptomatic of the depoliticizing paradigm of ecological modernization. However, the consensus on the ecomodern approach is eroding, as evidenced by increasing conflicts over the implementation of the Energiewende. Second, competing justice claims and energy visions that are articulated in these conflicts as well as the related disaffection with present democratic institutions and their performance are elaborated. Third, the insights gained on conflicts over concrete energy projects are discussed in the light of democratic theory. Thereby, it is argued that a one-sided orientation towards the deliberative democracy model further exacerbates the tendencies of disaffection with democratic institutions. From a radical democratic perspective, the key to constructively addressing both climate and democratic challenges is to foster confrontation between competing Energiewende visions. Agonistic politics could, in the best case, open up the political scope for ambitious energy visions beyond the realm of ecological modernization and, at the same time, counteract disenchantment with politics.

Sex, Crime and Entertainment

ABSTRACT Images linking ‘LGBT’ to sexually motivated crime are a common feature of reporting in the Indonesian online news media. In particular, ‘gay sex parties’ are a spectacle shaped by the images produced by journalists in collaboration with the police. This combination of crime and entertainment plays a crucial role in managing both in what ways LGBT is seen and by extension what is defined as belonging to the public sphere. Media images of raids take the form of videos and photographs, press conferences and reconstructions filmed at the crime scene. Although same-sex sexual acts between consenting adults are not a crime in Indonesia, the 2008 Pornography Law and various regional regulations do provide scope for detaining people on public decency grounds. However, the connection between sex and crime as a form of entertainment in which the police are central protagonists is shaped by histories of visual power that can be traced to the authoritarian New Order. By contextualising and interpreting media images of a police raid on a ‘gay sex party’ in September 2020, I describe how the genre conventions and affective force of images of LGBT are central to the state’s governance of the public sphere. Considering the relationship between sex, crime and entertainment helps to address the central role played by both unruly images and media power in regulating the boundaries of political participation and claims for justice.

Disability, Justice and Freedom as Non-Domination

Disability scholars have recently proposed that republican theory is relevant to think about justice in relation to disability. Following in their footsteps, this article submits that the republican conception of freedom as non-domination provides a fresh angle to legitimise disability rights in terms of justice and prevent their interpretation as charity or privileges. This proposition takes its point of departure in Nancy J. Hirschmann’s claim that freedom rather than distributive justice should be the bedrock of disability rights and in Philip Pettit’s conceptualisation of republican freedom as a distinct type of freedom. The article proceeds with a consideration of how claims of justice built on freedom as non-domination fare compared to two other foundations of justice that are commonly invoked in relation to disability rights – namely, equality and our shared vulnerability. Finally, the article suggests that republican theory opens new avenues of inquiry in disability studies and outlines a research agenda.

Not at the table but stuck paying the bill: perceptions of injustice in China’s Xin’anjiang eco-compensation program

ABSTRACT A growing body of research highlights the decisive role that justice claims play in creating sustainable payment for ecosystem services (PES) programs. Employing Sikor et al.’s approach to the study of justice claims in ecosystem governance along three dimensions—distribution, procedure and recognition—we study the negotiation process behind China’s flagship interprovincial PES agreement: the Xin’anjiang River eco-compensation agreement between Huangshan (Anhui province) and Hangzhou (Zhejiang province) prefectures. We find that divergent claims between stakeholders on matters of distributive and procedural justice undercut one party’s commitment to the agreement. Local officials in the upstream locality (Huangshan) see themselves as having been disadvantaged in both procedural and distributive aspects of negotiation. They claim to have been insufficiently included in a bargaining process that involved not only the downstream locality (Hangzhou) but also the central government. Huangshan stakeholders also see themselves as largely excluded from the benefits of cleaner water and bearing too much of the pollution abatement cost. For their part, Hangzhou stakeholders have advanced a ‘polluters pay’ view of distributive justice and found partial support for this claim from Beijing. Our findings suggest that attending to environmental justice considerations should be given top priority in China’s design of PES schemes.

What is Meant by ‘Repair’ when Claiming Reparations for Colonial Wrongs? Transformative Justice for the Dutch Slavery Past

While Transitional Justice instruments have been implemented in plenty of post-conflict cases, what little knowledge we have about the effects of these measures shows contradictory findings, indicating that they are often ambiguous and disappointing. Consequently the last decade has seen a specific call for a ‘new agenda for practice’ proposing a transition from Transitional Justice to Transformative Justice. It is a request by scholars such as Paul Gready and Simon Robins (2014) to develop from the bottom-up a concept of justice that is more ‘transformative,’ specifically challenging ‘unequal and intersecting power relationships and structures of exclusion at both the local and the global level’. This article contributes to this consideration by exploring the Dutch debate on its slavery past with the following question: how could reparations—fundamental in the debate around the acknowledgment of the slavery past—facilitate transformative justice? In the Netherlands over the last decade, memory and reparation activists seeking recognition for slavery and the transatlantic slave trade have been influenced by two major events; the 10-point reparation claim put forward by the Caribbean CARICOM countries against the formerly colonizing powers in Europe (2013), and the UN-International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). This article describes the reparation claims articulated by various groups in and outside the Netherlands addressing the slavery past of the Dutch and some of the institutional responses. Reparations have gained little conceptual attention in transitional justice scholarship, and in investigating the concept of reparation we refer to Lisa Laplante’s (2013) dictum, which is that ‘Reparations can and should be viewed through a lens of justice’. Laplante made an important intervention in the field by asking which reparations contribute to what kind of justice. Reading the Dutch question through the lens of Laplante’s continuum justice model (2013) makes it possible to identify different justice claims made by interested and affected parties. Laplante’s model ranges from a narrow (minimalist) to a broader (maximalist) conceptualisation of justice; distinguishing four types of justice aims: reparative justice, restorative justice, civic justice and socio-economic justice. All four types are relevant when considering the various options a government and a society have in dealing with (historical) injustice. The empirical findings suggest that current reparation claims in Afro-Caribbean and Surinamese communities are less about a specific product (such as an apology or reparations) but rather about a social process of relation building (such as addressing structural injustices). This notion of ‘social repair’ challenges and extends our current understanding of what justice for historical wrongs is about, but—as is argued in this article—it will at the same time also make reparations more acceptable to larger parts of Dutch society. It avoids the narrow ‘blame-and-guilt’ framework associated with reparations in politics and the media, which exacerbates the problem of acceptance in the first place.The key arguments in this article firstly show that reparation theory is essential in identifying the kind of claims for justice that are being made, and secondly evaluate whether those claims are being addressed. Laplante helps us to see that if these justice goals of social repair are not clearly articulated and addressed, we would be likely to disappoint memory politics and memory activists, who ‘may compromise the overall justice project,’ thus jeopardising the potential for a transformative outcome.The notion of social repair, as proposed in this article, recognizes a joint struggle for a more fair and equal society.

Moral rifts in the coal phase-out—how mayors shape distributive and recognition-based dimensions of a just transition in Lusatia

ABSTRACT Transitions towards low-carbon societies trigger renegotiations of justice concerns in regions that have to abandon unsustainable, fossil-based production patterns. In these transition regions, tensions may appear between inner- and supra-regional justice claims on the one hand, and recognition-based and distributional justice concerns on the other. Intermediary actors such as municipal politicians have to navigate these spatial and moral tensions. Based on qualitative data generated in the German lignite-mining region of Lusatia, ‘moral rifts’ are reconstructed that shape local perceptions of justice. These rifts help elucidate how reconciliation in this region proves to be difficult despite considerable redistributive efforts. Unless patterns of misrecognition are adequately addressed, prospects for a successful transformation of the region remain limited.

Justice for the Menopause: A Research Agenda


 
 
 Menopause is defined by its relationship to menstruation––it is the cessation of menstruation. Medical texts identify menopause as part of the cycle of “decay” associated with female reproductive functions; early menopause is often a dreaded result of various medical treatments and a sign of disfunction.
 It turns out that only three types of animals experience menopause: killer whales, short-finned pilot whales, and humans, while other animals can reproduce until death. Although the precise relationship between evolutionary theory and the physical development of human menopause is still uncertain, scientists and anthropologists suggest that the “grandmother hypothesis” provides a partial explanation: older women, who can no longer produce their own children, ensure their genetic legacy by playing a critical role in helping to feed, raise, and nurture their grandchildren.
 
 
 
 The average woman will spend almost as many years “post-menopause” as they will menstruating, and they may spend four years (or more) experiencing perimenopausal symptoms, the transition time between “normal” menstruation and menopause. But legal issues relating to perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause are just beginning to surface, prompted by the movement towards menstrual justice, feminist jurisprudence, and developments in the law of aging.
 This Essay is an initial effort to catalogue various legal approaches to menopause and to set out areas for further analysis. It briefly explores cultural images of menopause and post-menopausal women, including the ubiquitous hot flashes; analyzes potential legal claims for menopausal justice; and suggests the interrelationship between such approaches and social attitudes towards menopause. It suggests that “normalizing” menopause––acknowledging its realities––is one means for removing the associated stigma and “disabilities” and might result in reinterpreting existing laws and guiding future legal reforms.
 
 
 
 
 

Chile\u2019s New Constitution: What Right to Health?

Chile is a country crossed by economic inequalities. The constitutional process has opened a space to problematize the institutions that reproduce these inequalities. This paper joins into this discussion arguing that a nuanced focus on the right of access to healthcare under international law would fit the future Constitution better. I label this focus ‘nuanced’, in reaction to international law’s limited ability to address justice claims located at the core of Chile’s social and constitutional discontent. I argue that the right to health under international law is unlikely to address the problem of unequal enjoyment of healthcare services. The paper argues that a better approach would be to integrate a solidaristic understanding to this human right. The added value of solidarity translates in a more substantive conceptualization of social rights where they become at the service of the liberty of all. Through a critical discussion about the inception of the right to health under Chile’s current Constitution, the paper shows the limitations of today’s understanding and the underlying reasons for the transformation it proposes.

Circularity, entropy, ecological conflicts and LFFU

ABSTRACT The economy is not circular, it is increasingly entropic. Energy from the photosynthesis of the distant past, fossil fuels, is burned and dissipated. Even without further economic growth the industrial economy would need new supplies of energy and materials extracted from the “commodity frontiers”, producing also more waste (including excessive amounts of greenhouse gases). Therefore, new ecological distribution conflicts (EDC) arise all the time. Such EDCs are often “valuation contests” displaying incommensurable plural values. Examples from the Atlas of Environmental Justice are given of coal, oil and gas-related conflicts in several countries combining local and global complaints. Claims for climate justice and recognition of an ecological debt have been put forward by environmentalists from the South since 1991, together with a strategy of leaving fossil fuels underground (LFFU) through bottom-up movements. This could make a substantial contribution to the decrease in carbon dioxide emissions.

Who Mobilizes the Court? Migrant Rights Defenders Before the Court of Justice of the EU

Abstract Like any other adjudicative body, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is an essentially reactive institution: it cannot create disputes on its own motion, but it needs to be ‘mobilized’. This simple observation leads us to a question of central importance in the field of courts and social justice: who brings social justice claims before the Court of Justice? This is a particularly salient question if confronted with the Court’s restrictive legal standing rules: individuals and collective actors have limited access to the Court and engaging in EU litigation requires the availability of specific resources and allies. This paper relies on an original dataset of 291 rulings of the CJEU in the field of migration, complemented with qualitative empirical research, to unveil and map the actors that defend migrant rights in Luxembourg. The analysis offers an innovative and critical reflection on the accessibility of international courts by disadvantaged groups, showing how some features of the preliminary reference procedure affect the type of actors that engage in EU litigation.

Activism, justice and the centrality of care: Brazilian’s ‘mother’s against police violence’ movements

ABSTRACT The article investigates the Brazilian social movement of mothers whose children were killed by State’s security agents between 2003 and 2017. Its purpose is to understand how these women define their claims for justice, as they struggle to see those responsible for the assassination of their children properly judged. Our hypothesis is that their activism politicizes motherhood and makes it a public matter. To investigate that, we conducted in-depth interviews with twelve activists on the mothers’ movements against police violence. The interviews were conducted between June and August of 2017, in two metropolitan areas in the Southeast of Brazil, the city of Rio de Janeiro (RJ) and Santos (SP). They confirmed the politicization of motherhood, redefining care as resistance and a matter of justice.

A Framework to Evaluate Justice Claims in the Russian State-Led Doping Case

ABSTRACT In this article, we examine scholarly analyses of justice and develop a framework that can help assess the claims from the parties in the Russian state-led doping scandal, including, but not limited to, Russian athletes, non-Russian athletes, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and sport governing bodies. The two key components of this justice framework are pluralism and relationality/contextuality. We argue that a justice framework built upon these elements better captures the nature of justice. We conclude that no party in the Russian state-led doping case has exclusive access to justice. Rather, all the parties have legitimate calls for justice against one another. Thus, the administration of justice will fail to serve justice, in its different meanings, for all parties.

New Vulnerabilities for Migrants and Refugees in State Responses to the Global Pandemic, COVID-19

This article examines the global pandemic, COVID-19, through the lens of responses to vulnerable migrants, asking what state responses mean for the future of human rights values and for humanitarian interventions. The responses of the Australian state are developed as a case study of actions and policies directed at refugees and temporary migrant workers through the COVID-19 pandemic. The theoretical framing of the article draws on racial capitalism to argue that the developments manifest during the ‘crisis times’ of COVID-19 are in large part a continuity of the exclusionary politics of bordering practices at the heart of neoliberal capitalism. The article proposes that a rethinking of foundational theoretical and methodological approaches in the social sciences are needed to reflect contemporary changes in justice claims, claims that increasingly recognize the multi-species nature of existential threats to all life.

Public Goods as Obligatory Bridges between the Public and the Private

In the context of economics, the distinction between ‘the public’ and ‘the private’ has been paralleled with the distinction of ‘public policy’ on the one hand and the ‘private market’ on the other hand. Even though both spheres intermingle at some point, the first is the domain of government, the second is the domain of market laws. This contribution argues that public goods do not only undermine that distinction, but they also support an alternative interpretation of the private-public line. A thorough discussion of public goods redefines the relationship of public and private and portrays public goods as bridges between both spheres. The contribution starts with the classical definition of public goods as items that are non-excludable and non-rival with respect to potential profiteers. The paper then shifts the focus to the normative side of public goods. Precisely because of their characteristics as non-exclusive goods, these items are able to fulfil promises of the constitutional state. They enhance social inclusion, they serve the public by generating spaces of civilized interaction, and they even enhance the sense of shared citizenship. A focus on what has been termed ‘central public goods’ reveals that public goods serve important claims of social justice. After having explained why public goods should also be regarded as an important ingredient in the economic performance of the nation state, three bridging functions of public goods are apparent.

Editors' Note

Our current issue opens with a special section titled “Word, Image, Sound,” edited by Matthew Engelke, which charts new directions in the study of religious life and experience. Each of the essays in this section move beyond considerations of doctrine and belief to build on a phenomenological appreciation of concrete practices and their social consequences as these impact the category of religion and the embodiment of religious life.The section brings into focus religion's sensory domain, examining the power of sound, song, spoken word, image, and infrastructure to enhance and alter the affective register of religious practice and performance. The essays examine communities of Muslims—the pageantry of preaching in Egypt and the politics of loudspeakers in Senegal—and of Christians—plans for a “National House of Prayer” in Zambia, Pentecostalist singers' claims to be the “Rwandan voice,” and controversies over religious tracts in Myanmar—to demonstrate that religious belief cannot be disentangled from the materiality and embodiment of its practices. “Word, Sound, Image” thus contributes to a powerful set of perspectives on the tangled relationship between communities of faith and public imaginaries.In “Morality and Freedom” Alyssa Miller investigates Manish Msamah's recent anticorruption campaign in Tunisia, titled “I Do Not Forgive!,” to highlight the dilemmas posed by coercive forms of reconciliation oriented around claims of transitional justice and forms of procedural democracy. Meanwhile, Jairan Gahan examines the red-light district of Tehran in 1922 in the essay “The Sovereign and the Sensible” as a site from which to rethink the relationship between ideas of sovereignty and Islam too often eclipsed by ideas of moral governance in Iran in the longue durée.Finally, our Kitabkhana considers Faiz Ahmed's Afghanistan Rising: Islamic Law and Statecraft between the Ottoman and British Empires, which argues for a renewed look at intra-imperial politics through a consideration of Afghanistan as a crucial if underexplored borderland. Contributors to the book forum approach Afghanistan—and Kabul in particular—as a key geohistorical terrain for the study of Islamic intellectual history and of the twentieth-century transformation of networks of social thought and political practice. They explore both the interconnections and the novel socio-technological constraints that have rendered Afghanistan a fulcrum for broader shifts in anticolonial thought, new formations of practical solidarity, and the reconceptualization of “Islamic law” well into the postcolonial present.

The claims of justice in the 21st Century: references from Amartya Sen's Theory of Justice

O início do Século XXI clama pela (re)contextualização da Teoria do Contrato Social. O objetivo desse estudo é apresentar aportes para os temas da democracia, a condição de agente e o direito das culturas na Teoria da Justiça de Amartya Sen. Preocupar-se com a vida concreta das pessoas é fundamental para a legitimidade desse modelo. A partir dessa compreensão, se pode ampliar a democracia, as políticas de desenvolvimento e os direitos das culturas. Emprega-se o método indutivo, com abordagem qualitativa, de caráter explicativo, utilizando-se o procedimento técnico bibliográfico. Conclui-se que o processo para a diminuição das desigualdades, do fomento ao exercício da tolerância, das condições para a liberdade de escolha e das oportunidades acessíveis a todos, bem como, legitimar a democracia como valor moral dependem dessas referências.

Child appropriations and irregular adoptions: Activism for the “right to identity,” justice, and reparation in Argentina and Chile

In this article we examine the process of construction and transformation of the meanings surrounding the serious violations of the Right to Identity in Argentina and Chile, which encompass from child appropriations during dictatorships to so called “irregular adoptions.” We inquire about how activists have built their public claims of justice and reparation. We discuss the singularities and differences of these processes in both countries and the current challenges, particularly in the construction of those affected as victims of human rights violations.

Las protestas de la Rosenstrasse: acción colectiva de mujeres frente al régimen nazi

In February of 1943, the Nazi regime arrested 2,000 Jewish men which were taken to the administrative office located on Rosenstrasse in Berlin. The spouses of the incarcerated Jews gathered in front of the building to demand the return of their loved ones. A protest of 600 women that lasted a week quickly broke out. Although this event was relevant within its context, from the point of view of the history of social movements it has remained unexplored. This protest deserves recognition within the journey of women struggles in history. This paper will critically address the debates regarding the women’s social movement involved in the Rosenstrasse protests that took place between February and March of 1943 in Berlin during the Nazi government. The interest lies in discussing the nature of this social demand led by women; analyze this claim of justice taking into account the unfavorable period for the German feminist movement and for women’s rights; identify their position regarding gender perspective; and to assess the impact of the social movement. The thesis of this paper is that the Rosenstrasse protests meant an extraordinary act of a successful resistance which prove the awareness of the Nazi terror on account of German bystanders. These protests, despite not being against the system, were a spontaneous collective action that managed to have an impact on public opinion and on the Nazi government within a context of state weakness. Even if women questioned the state from their position as wives, not from a feminist perspective but from the morality of traditional values such as home and family, the importance of this protest in the memory construction of social movements cannot be underestimated.

Less-standard claims to justice through the lens of media debates on minority education

The coexistence, not always peaceful, of multiple and often rival, conceptions of justice in education policy and practice is well recognized and problematized in the academic literature. Relatively little is known, however, about what kind of justice-related considerations occupy the ‘public mind’ and/or inform what Nancy Fraser calls ‘folk paradigms of justice’. The current article seeks to shed light on the public construction of the ‘what’ of justice in the realm of education by analysing selected debates on minority education politics that occur in news and social media in five European countries. Fraser’s tripartite model of justice as redistribution, recognition and representation constituted the starting point of the investigation. The results of a qualitative analysis of selected media content show that while Fraser’s framework resonates well with the popular understandings of justice, the tripartite typology is not exhaustive in accounting for all justice claims evoked in the public domain. In the light of the debates analysed, three types of ‘alternative’ claims seem particularly relevant for theorizing justice in education and/or seeking legitimacy for education policy: claims that appeal to civil rights and liberties, claims that appeal to procedural justice and claims that appeal to epistemic justice.

To Care for or to Care about? Justice and Injustices in Commodified Care Work

In Portugal, cooperation between the state and non-governmental organisations has led to the creation of institutions that provide care services, called IPSS [Private Institutions of Social Solidarity]. This paper presents the results of an ethnography carried out in a rural IPSS that provides care for the elderly. The fieldwork aimed to understand how claims for justice are negotiated between care workers, care users and employers. The objective of this paper is to contribute to the debate on redistributive justice by showing how inequality of income affects access to care as well as examining the idea of justice as a lived experience by demonstrating how claims for justice are depicted in day-by-day relationships of care. This paper is divided into two parts, the first being an introduction contextualising Portuguese care work. The second part focuses on António’s story and reflects upon the work of two caregivers and their claim for justice.