Contemporary Disputes Research Articles

Critical Analysis Of Law No. 30 Of 1999 On Arbitration And Alternative Dispute Resolution Related To The Potential Development And Implementation Of Online Arbitration

This paper critically examines the relevance of Law No. 30 of 1999 on Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution in the context of online arbitration. With the rapid growth of e-commerce and the increasing reliance on technology for dispute resolution, the legal framework governing arbitration in Indonesia has become outdated. While various arbitration institutions, such as BANI and the ICC, have adopted online arbitration processes, the existing legislation fails to accommodate these developments. This research highlights the potential legal uncertainties that arise from the lack of provisions for online arbitration in the current law and underscores the need for immediate legislative revisions. By analyzing relevant legal norms and the implementation of electronic arbitration regulations, the study aims to provide insights into how the law can be modernized to better serve the needs of contemporary dispute resolution practices in the digital age.

A lived experience or a reason? From an ethics debate to contemporary culture

Karol Wojtyła’s debate with Max Scheler is multi-faceted. One of the central issues here is the dispute over the role of a lived experience and a reason in the structure of moral action. What is the starting point for providing an answer to the moral appeal directed at the human person? Is it a lived experience of an axiological quality called ‘value’ or a rational reason in which the value experienced is only one of the elements? Scheler is essentially in favour of the former scenario: the value carries sufficient power to pull the subject into action. And while his efficacy does not completely disappear here, it is fundamentally dominated by the axiological content (and attraction) of the value. Wojtyła takes a critical view of the German philosopher’s position, and states its inadequacy in the formation of mature moral action. A lived experience of a value is important, but it is not enough. The axiological experience moves the person, and contains an extraordinary force motivating one to undertake a specific act. However, without the participation of reason, it can be misguided and even inadequate. A person has to visualise, and to some extent objectivise the lived value for it to become the object of rational evaluation. Wojtyła’s dispute with Scheler is not just a marginal discussion between two European thinkers, within the hermetic philosophical debate of the 20th century. Indeed, it is part of the perennial questions as to what morality is, what role it plays in human life, and to what extent human beings influence the realisation of moral good and evil. The debate can also be a kind of lens affording a better view of the essence of contemporary disputes concerning both morality and culture. The diminishing and marginalisation of reason (especially in the strong, metaphysical version) in various spheres of life is striking. The tension between the culture of feeling and the culture of thinking is discernible and must prompt a debate. Karol Wojtyła shows what shape such a debate could take, and that it could be enriching for the entirety of contemporary culture.

“Revelatio Absconditorum”: On the Possible Contribution of Saint Bonaventure to the Contemporary Philosophical Discussion on Divine Hiddenness

In the contemporary version of the discussion around the problem of God’s hiddenness, which was initiated by the argument presented by John Schellenberg, the problem is posed in a way that differs significantly from its traditional presentation. However, there is no shortage of references to thinkers of the past who have grappled with the problem of divine hiddenness. Among these, there are occasional references to authors belonging to the medieval period: Anselm of Canterbury and Thomas Aquinas. However, none of the authors involved in the contemporary dispute refers to the thought of Bonaventure. In my paper, I intend to present and discuss the themes related to divine hiddenness that can be found in the theological works of Bonaventure. I will show their place and importance in the theological system of the Master of Bagnoregio. I will also indicate possible ways in which these themes can be used in contemporary philosophical discussion.

Un-Australian? White Australia’s Visions of Identity and the Racialisation of the Pacific War

This article investigates white Australia’s racialisation of the Pacific War. Specifically, it focuses on contemporary disputes over racialised depictions of the conflict, and how such contentions figured in understandings of Australian identity. By looking at wartime newspaper and magazine articles, wartime propaganda, and the public responses to them, this article demonstrates the diversity and complexity of white Australia’s racialisation of the Pacific War. Though the view of the Pacific War as a ‘race war’ was certainly common among white Australians, it was not universal. That said, most white Australians at the time, regardless of whether they supported the racialisation of the conflict, upheld a racialised worldview.

Schelerowska kategoria resentymentu w świetle sporów o sekularyzację Zachodu


 
 
 
 The aim of the article is to verify the category of ressentiment developed by Max Scheler in the light of disputes about the sources and causes of secularization. The category of ressentiment is one of the most important subjects of the author’s scientific reflection, being an expression of his particular interest in the functioning of the world of values. On the other hand, the processes of secularization, which have become visible in Western societies in recent decades, are understood here as the result of a decline in interest in religious issues and the disappearance of references to the broadly understood supernatural world. The key issues concern the extent to which the phenomenological conceptual apparatus developed by Scheler can serve today as an effective tool for a fuller understanding of the essence of contemporary disputes over the secularization of the West. Thus, it seems possible to assess the topicality of Scheler’s approach to the world of values as a timeless model and point of reference in research on the changing social reality.
 
 
 

The Relentless Rise of Judicial Specialisation and its Implications for Judicial Systems

Abstract Specialisation of labour has long been regarded as a central mechanism for enhancing the productivity of workers and the economic prosperity of nations. But do these advantages accrue in the judicial resolution of disputes, or should judges be generalists administering the law as an integrated body of rules and principles? Viewing the evolution of courts across the common law world, the rise of judicial specialisation has been relentless—suggesting that it delivers significant benefits. It extends far beyond specialisation by legal subject matter and it is achieved through many modalities beyond the establishment of new courts. However, to understand the proper role of specialisation, it is necessary to ask what impact it has on core values of the judicial system, namely, cost-effectiveness, just outcomes, impartiality, public trust, access to justice, and procedural fairness. This essay argues that judicial specialisation often has competing impacts on these values but that careful institutional design, especially through hybrid specialisation, can deliver significant benefits while minimising costs. Modern judicial systems need to be attentive to the diverse effects of specialisation so they can adapt to the complexities of contemporary dispute resolution.

UNLEASHING SOUTH CHINA SEA CONFLICT: MULTIPLEX ANALYSIS OF DIPLOMATIC CHAOS

The South China Sea, one of the busiest trade routes around the world consisting of an area of 3.5 million square kilometers, is subject to several overlapping territorial disputes involving China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei as its stakeholders. The South China Sea connects Asia to Europe and Africa. Political rivals have tried amicable settlement of the contemporary disputes but instead, the tensions have increased over the course of recent years. Multiple Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) and Treaties of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) have been signed by the contending states but all have proven to be in vain. Mechanisms like Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) are used for chest thumping and hard power display. Numerous other factors are there that eventuate in weakening of diplomatic ties between the contending states. One of such factors is involved is the presence of alien powers like the United States for maintenance of a World Order favouring her on interests under the guise of providing security to the region. Adopting multiplex methodology, this research paper adopts an approach aiming at giving a synopsis of the inherent disputes between the stakeholders, the reasons for failure of efforts for amicable settlement, the role of the stakeholders with special reference to the major contending forces i.e., United States and China, the subsequent implications arising therefrom and some possible solutions to the issue. Keywords: SCS, FONOS, CBM, Multiplex methodology.

State rhetoric, nationalism and public opinion in China

Abstract The Chinese government is fond of invoking the ‘hurt feelings of 1.4 billion Chinese citizens’ to protest foreign actions and policies. However, this rhetoric might be nothing more than propaganda and attempts to leverage nationalist sentiment. How much do citizens in China actually care about issues completely unrelated to their daily livelihoods? To answer this, the study employs a representative survey to investigate the extent to which rhetoric about ‘hurt feelings’ is consistent with public opinion on four contemporary socio-political disputes involving the NBA, Marriott International, Mercedes-Benz and the city of Prague. Across the scenarios, we found that the Chinese government did not exaggerate the displeasure of audiences—citizens are aware of the cases, were indeed upset by them and advocated for retaliatory measures that were surprisingly more forceful than those adopted in reality. These emotions were largely driven by nationalistic sentiment rather than personal experiences or encounters, suggesting the success of state propaganda in steering the public opinion toward outcomes favourable to the state. These findings support recent studies highlighting the peculiar case of rising nationalism in China, and have important implications for the impact of public opinion on Chinese policymaking.

Epistemologiczne aspekty dyskursu o uniwersytecie

Epistemological Aspects of the Discourse on University The subject of the article oscillates around selected topics of science and technology studies in relation to the university space of institutionalization of science. The present proposition to extend metascience so that it comprises studies on the university and the anthropocene discourse is combined with an attempt to present these studies in the perspective of deep humanities, through consilience and the outline of the socio-cultural history of the university. Hence, I present here the view of social epistemology in the science in context discourse (in the style of Alvin Goldman rather than Thomas Kuhn), understood as a science about the social dimensions of knowledge, with an emphasis on epistemic processes and practices that provide space for the main factors influencing our beliefs, especially acts of communication and institutional structures. In this respect, this text can also be treated as a gloss to the contemporary dispute about the university and a reminder that this dispute should also be a reference point for the theory of social knowledge, taking into account the different contexts of interactions and their institutional complexity in which scientific facts (and most cognitive acts) are made.

The Politics of the American Knowledge Economy

AbstractThe American knowledge economy (AKE) is not a foreordained transition in the organization of economic production, nor is it a form of political economy shaped predominately by the political demands of highly educated workers. It is a politically generated consensus for producing economic prosperity and economic advantage over other nations in which intellectual property (IP), and the businesses that produce it, play a leading role. The history of AKE development reveals as much. In the AKE's formative period, from 1980 to 1994, IP producers and a faction of neoliberal Democrats (the “Atari Democrats”), not decisive middle-class voters, played a pivotal role in reconfiguring institutions of American political economy to hasten the AKE transition. Their vision of AKE development inherently complicated the Democratic Party's attitude toward rising market power and continues to shape contemporary disputes within the party over antitrust enforcement and the validity of the AKE project itself.

Negotiating Sovereignty in German History—Historiographical Challenges

AbstractThis article introduces a special issue on the politics of sovereignty in German history. Historical work provides an important corrective to understand the current discursive resurgence of sovereignty. Historians (and other scholars) should treat sovereignty not as a factual description of the world, but rather analyze it as a rhetorical claim to assert power in territorial, political, economic, legal, and cultural disputes. Much of the power of sovereignty lies in the power to define its boundaries, whether geographical or conceptual. German history offers a particularly fruitful route to historicize the concept, as Germany is arguably both a paradigmatic and a special case in the history of sovereignty. From late-nineteenth-century colonialism to contemporary disputes around gambling restrictions, German discourse on sovereignty has intertwined with and challenged international understandings of sovereignty together with neighboring concepts, such as independence, autonomy, supreme authority, and control. In the twentieth century, perhaps no country experienced stronger affirmations of both sovereignty and the necessity to integrate into inter- and supranational structures than the country at the center of the two world wars and subsequently divided during the Cold War.

Dogmatyka prawa wobec politycznej opresji. Czy historia myśli prawnej może nas czegoś nauczyć?

One of the contemporary views formulated and popularized mainly by authors from the socalled critical theory of law is the belief in the inevitable, mutual relationship of law (theory of law and dogmatics of law) and legal practice (adjudication) with politics and the political. This position is strengthened by the observation of contemporary disputes — especially visible in Poland — with the participation of politicians and lawyers: politicians accuse lawyers of political motivation of actions taken to defend the judiciary and the rule of law, while lawyers defend themselves by arguing the need for autonomy of their professional practice, including its apolitical nature. In this text, I explain the arguments of the latter party to the dispute. I choose the dogmatics of law as the field of illustrating the issues raised, since it occupies a special place in the continental legal scholarship, acting as an intermediary between the jurisprudence and legal decision-making practice. I am trying to show — by referring to two examples from general history, i.e. the eleventh-century investiture controversy and the nineteenth-century debate in the background of the German reunification idea — that law and politics (lawyers and politicians) have always been forced to compete and cooperate with each other. Thus, it confirms the thesis of the critical theory of law. At the same time, however, I try to show that the legal community had the ability to “learn” from the political disputes of the past, which led to the formation of independent jurisprudence and legal practice in the face of current politics, and thus also to apoliticality. What is more, I argue that such an apolitical nature is a condition for the survival of legal culture in its present shape — and here, my path diverges from the critical legal theory claims. However, in my opinion, the contemporary arguments made within this theory about the political science of law and jurisprudence should be treated with all seriousness — as another experience from which our community, as one can hope, will be able to draw informative conclusions.

A critical perspective on pandemics and epidemics: building a bridge between public health and science education.

This academic position paper focuses on building a bridge between public health and science education in order to recognize the relationships between science and society—politics, economics, and ideology—in a pandemic context. To do this, we first present the contemporary dispute between the ways of understanding and explaining public health problems in light of a historical-territorial critical perspective; then, we show the configuration process of the formal and hegemonic concept of pandemic that has taken place over the period of the pandemics of the 1918 flu and the 2019 coronavirus disease; later, we give way to a historical-territorial understanding of the genesis of the 2002 and 2012 epidemics in relation to the coronavirus in the twenty-first century; and lastly, we indicate the key points from the historical-territorial critical perspective of public health that science education can use in order to contribute to a critical and reflective understanding of epidemics and pandemics. In this framework, "configuration process" is a category we propose and use in order to explain that specific events such as epidemics and pandemics are interwoven in a social, historical-territorial, trajectory of world power relations.

Landscape memories of land struggles in plateaus of two Nsukka villages in Nigeria

The memories of landscapes that people hold can stabilize histories and traditions in rural areas, are entwined with everyday lives and have several meanings. The paper explores the memories that people hold about plateaus in two adjoining villages (Alor-Uno and Edem-Ani) in the Nsukka area of Enugu State, Southeastern Nigeria. This area is an exciting and essential area of the world, distinctly underrepresented in landscape memory scholarship. The paper shows that the plateaus separating Alor-Uno and Edem-Ani are landscapes of political memory of the ancient wars between the two communities and more contemporary disputes regarding territorial extent of the communities and use of the land behind the plateaus if you are in Alor-Uno. Alor-Uno claims that wars waged against it by several kingdoms displaced the community, permitting occupation of parts of the community’s land, and they seek to reclaim it from Edem-Ani. However, extant narratives often recognize the disputed area as part of Edem-Ani because of the use of the plateaus as a boundary by colonial administrators. The presence of the plateaus helps the people recollect these ancient wars’ memories, and they use it to seek legitimation of their claim over the land. The paper argues that the memory of past land use reinforces the legitimacy of current land tenure configurations and shapes sensitivity to territoriality leading to exclusion. This can sustain group identities across generations translating into a ground for future fighting. It calls for more attention to the non-human agency and in connection to landscapes’ political memory, which speaks to the current post-human thinking in human geography. It suggests that resource conflicts analysis should take social meanings, memories and identities connected to the physical landscape seriously, as they contain ideological and symbolic elements foregrounding conflict environments.

An Imperfect Legacy

An Imperfect Legacy

Krytyka czystego rozumu jako krytyka czystego doświadczenia. Kant a współczesne spory wokół treści percepcji

Critique of Pure Reason as a critique of pure experience. Kant and contemporary disputes over the content of perception:­ The ­article ­is ­an­ attempt ­at critically ­analysing­ the ­conceptual­ content ­of ­perception ­in ­Immanuel ­Kant’s transcendental philosophy.­ The ­author ­claims­ that ­unity ­as ­the ­feature ­of ­forms ­of ­intuition ­is ­closely ­related­ to unity ­as ­the ­category ­of ­the­ intellect ­and ­as ­such ­with ­the ­uniting ­synthesis ­of ­apperception. The­ author­ also claims­ that defending ­the ­non­‐conceptual ­content ­may ­result ­in ­losing ­the essence ­of ­Kant’s ­identification­ of empirical ­realism ­with ­transcendental­ idealism.­ Kant’s conceptualism ­leads ­to ­the ­thesis ­that­ non‐­conceptual content­ is ­only ­abstracted ­from the context ­of ­perception ­and ­may ­be­ treated­ as ­an ­object ­of ­thinking, ­but ­not as ­an ­object ­of perceiving.

Ulrich Niggemann. “Perserbilder im England der Frühen Neuzeit”

U. Niggemann discusses the (quite limited) reception of Achaemenid Persia in political and theological debates in 17th century CE England. By means of one example dating to the era of the Glorious revolution, he shows how episodes from Achaemenid history were embedded in contemporary disputes and what functions the reference to them fulfilled.

Social work indigenization in Mainland China: Towards a state-led decolonizing framework

Summary The tension between indigenizing versus internationalizing social work knowledge, resulting from local-specific sensitivity, has been a contemporary dispute in the Global South where there are diverse geo-historical backgrounds. This is the case in China, where the mainstream international narrative surrounding social work development has been configured by the normative values and knowledge of a Euromodern origin. Such misrepresentation rarely reflects indigenous voices from the local social work academy. Informed by Foucault’s thesis of power/knowledge, this article first compares the model of state social work in China and the world. Then, as a decolonizing project, a narrative review of 26 Chinese language articles was conducted. Findings Distinctive service and policy practices in the Chinese traditional helping system were identified to illustrate how western social work was ethnocentrically repositioned in the “post-socialist” China. These initiatives include micro-level “Civil Affairs” services, meso-level “mass work” practice, and macro-level “Minsheng” State and crossregional Pairing Aid Programs, which are rooted in the cultural (Confucianism), economical (socialist market economy), and political (Marxism) ecosystem in China. Applications Through an indigenized epistemological stance, a state-led anti-colonial framework is presented to unveil the making of social work indigenization and social welfare development that de-centers Eurocentric hegemony. To reorient social work knowledge apart from persistent neo-colonialism in the form of academic imperialism, social work development should be tailored into a locally responsive and geopolitically appropriate models in the non-western world.

Introduction to the Symposium on Interstate Disputes Over Water Rights

Disagreements over the management and allocation of transboundary freshwater resources have become increasingly prominent in international relations. Serious diplomatic tensions surround management of the Jordan, Mekong, Nile, Rio Grande, Silala, Syr Darya and Amu Darya, and Tigris and Euphrates rivers, to name just the most prominent examples among the world’s more than three hundred shared watercourses. Nor is there any reason to think tensions will subside in the future. Whether disagreements over shared freshwater resources will continue to be resolved peacefully will depend, in part, on the viability, durability, and flexibility of international law to prevent and resolve such disputes. This symposium examines the role and relevance of international water law for peacefully resolving disputes over transboundary freshwater resources. The articles in this compilation provide an impressive breadth of approaches, from close examination of contemporary disputes over transboundary freshwater resources to the interpretation and application of specific IWL norms and principles. The articles also feature the perspectives of scholars from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.

The Institution of the Financial Ombudsman as an Instrument for Improving the Model Disputes Resolution Procedure in the Financial Market (Attempted Inductive Analysis)

The paper analyzes the experience of the newly created institution of the financial ombudsman that serves to consider property disputes arising between consumers and financial organizations through pre-trial procedure; considers the main trends and patterns shown at the initial stage of functioning of the institution; provides forecasts and recommendations for the development of the institution of pre-trial dispute resolution in financial markets. The author focuses on the anlysis on the role of the financial ombudsman in the formation of the procedural aspect of the contemporary financial disputes resolution. According to the results of the study, the author concludes that the institution of the financial ombudsman can and should be developed with due regard to the comments made on possible areas of expansion of his or her functions on the basis of the main task, namely: to create a business environment where the rights of consumers of financial services are protected to the greatest extent possible. However, to move to this makes sense only after the Federal Law of June 04, 2018 № 123-FZ “On the Ombudsman for the Rights of Consumers of Financial Services” comes into force, i.e. after January 1, 2021.