Critical Remarks Research Articles

A Historiographical Survey of ”Ius Valachicum” among Romanians and Vlachs

The purpose of our study is to investigate the current state of research regarding Ius Valachicum in Romanian and foreign historiography. After presenting Romanian history, palaeography and the legal history of the Carpatho-Danubian space, we turn to the Polish historiography of the North Vlachs, with respect to the Serbo-Croatian historiography of the South Vlachs. Finally, we use case studies to illustrate two enacted customary laws of the Vlachs from Croatia. The methods used in this paper include description, analysis, and comparison, as well as exploratory and applied research. The article is a historiographical survey of Ius Valachicum among the Romanians and Vlachs. The medieval and premodern consuetudinary laws of the Romanians and Vlachs are reflected both in primary and secondary sources, from 14thcentury historical documents to historiographical preoccupations dedicated to Ius Vlachicum from the 18thand 19th centuries. First, we refer to the special literature explaining both ethnonyms and the historical-geographical spread of the Romanians and Vlachs. Then we present the Romanian historiography investigating the manifestations and features of Ius Valachicum in the geographical area belonging to the present-day Romanian state. Turning to the Czech and Polish historiography, the occurrence of Ius Valachicum is revealed among the North Vlachs from medieval and premodern Poland, Ruthenia, and Hungary. We also review the Serbo-Croatian historiography of the Ius Valachicum specific to the South Vlachs from Croatia and Serbia. Finally, two enacted customary laws of the Vlachs from Croatia (1436, 1630) are analysed from the point of view of legal history. These codifications of Ius Valachicum prove the juridical power and importance acquired by the Croatian Vlachs during the Middle Ages. The historiographical pros and cons, as well as the critical remarks presented at the end of this study, at the same time, offer a few methodological solutions for future investigations of Romanian and Vlach Ius Valachicum.

External analogies in social and philosophical knowledge: prospects and limitations of the approach

The subject of research concerns the social models which are constructed by using external analogies. External social analogies imply a reference to an object that is studied within the framework of a science being external to social knowledge (biology, physics, psychology, etc.). Specifically, biological (organic), biomechanical, as well as psychological and psychoanalytic varieties are analyzed. Biological analogies are represented by the models of H. Spencer and Yu. I. Semenov. Biomechanical models include the concepts of Th. Hobbes, J. O. de La Mettrie, É. Durkheim, N. I. Kareev and A. Fouillée. External psychological and psychoanalytic analogies are approached in the works of G. Tarde, S. Freud, E. Fromm, G. Deleuze and F. Guattari. Particular attention is paid to critical remarks regarding these concepts, which determines the limitations of the considered method. Classification of existing socio-philosophical models is used as method in the research. Classification criterion is the type of external analogies that is used in the construction of these concepts. As a result, prospects and limitations of the considered method were identified. Namely, the effectiveness of external analogies in social and philosophical research objectively depends on how well this “external” science itself corresponds to reality. The other side of the problem lies in the abuse of analogies themselves: introduction of excessive terminology, speculative parallelisms, misusage of special scientific terms, which ultimately leads to difficulties in understanding the social and philosophical model itself. At the same time, the following prospects of the considered method are pointed out. Firstly, in the case of emergence of a new science or revolution in the domain of existing one, their objects or results could be used as sources for external analogies in the construction of a new social model. Secondly, existing external social analogies could be reused in other fields of knowledge.

Basics of improving special protection for convicted persons – critical remarks

The article treats about problem of special protection which is dedicated to convict taking part in criminal proceedings as witness, suspect, accused or aggrieved and due to this position there exists serious threat or immediate concern of serious threat to his life or health. Such kind of protection is connected with fact that the person covered by it, may be attacked or threatened by others who are afraid of being in worse position in leading criminal cases or beig accused of any offence. The analyzes performed in the text prove that regulation of article 88d of Polish Executive Penal Code is complicated, leads to unequal treatment of convicts and basically duplicates the existing regulations in convict’s protection. It is proposed to remove the article 88d from Polish Executive Penal Code.

The Evolutionary Approach of Stephen Toulmin and Revision of Modern Rationality in the Philosophy of Science

Many philosophers of the 20th century guided their efforts into development of explanatory models to describe scientific change, and also tried to offer their methodologies as normative theories for scientific research. As a result, several different approaches emerged, some of which put greater emphasis on the theoretical content of science, others on the historical facts that accompanied these theoretical changes or caused them. Consequently, positions of philosophers differed on the issues of rationality, its continuity or gaps both in temporal and cultural-civilizational terms. One of those, who tried to work out a “middle” way and combine the advantages of the “relativistic” and “dogmatic” poles, was the British thinker Stephen Toulmin (1922–2009), whose famous books are “The Application of Argumentation” and “Human Understanding”. This article analyzes the main ideas and arguments of the author’s evolutionary model (most fully and densely presented in the second work), demonstrates the legitimacy of application of the evolutionary metaphor from biology to the field of history of science, the productive aspects of such approach, and the key points of critical remarks by other researchers. An attempt was made to find out why S. Toulmin abandoned the development of the project of his research program and further shifted his intellectual discoveries into issues of the genesis and revision of modern rationality. Based on this, the article summarizes those aspects of the criticism of the philosopher’s ideas, which could lead to a “negative selection” of his proposals, while similar like the works of other authors found more recognition and generated more active public discussions and further research. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the philosopher’s contribution to the development of methodologies, in particular Karl Popper’s and Imre Lakatos’ was rather non-linear and largely underestimated in the philosophical literature for a long time.

The Dialectics of Engagement: Some Critical Remarks on Contemporary Participatory Research Program in STS

The Dialectics of Engagement: Some Critical Remarks on Contemporary Participatory Research Program in STS

An Invasion of Tricksters. Critical Remarks on Bruno Latour’s Social Theory and Its Polish Reception

An Invasion of Tricksters. Critical Remarks on Bruno Latour’s Social Theory and Its Polish Reception

International Criminal Justice at the Russia-Ukraine Crossroads

Abstract The international community’s judicial response to the aggression of Russia against Ukraine in February 2022 and to the ensuing conflict is unprecedented in many ways. This article focuses on the investigations into the commission of war crimes and other serious international crimes conducted by Ukrainian authorities, other national authorities, various international bodies and the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose jurisdiction was triggered by a referral by 43 States parties to the ICC Statute. Some critical remarks are offered on the ambivalent relationship between Ukraine and the ICC. Ukraine is not a party to the ICC Statute, but the Court can exercise its jurisdiction by virtue of two ad hoc declarations rendered in 2014 and 2015. Despite the time that has elapsed since these declarations, Ukraine has not yet ratified the Statute and its government seems oriented to exploit the ICC mainly in an anti-Russian perspective. More in general, the huge efforts put in place by the international community in the investigation of international crimes committed in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine are disproportionate when compared to all other situations investigated and are already attracting criticism about selective justice. Such efforts represent on the one hand a potential model for a coordinated intervention in situations where mass atrocities are committed, on the other hand they are likely to remain isolated and confirm the perception that international criminal justice and the ICC are instruments in the hands of a few States.

Improving the Logistics of Institutional Postal Services

Postal services are often considered by the different institutions as a back-up service. Taking into account that in case of large geographical coverage these services can generate significant costs, it is important to optimize the postal service functions within these institutions and to develop the already existing conventional postal services. Within the frame of this article the authors review the logistics processes of the postal services at the University of Miskolc to propose improvements to the processes of postal services focusing on delivery. The main regulatory elements and the logistics processes of the institutional postal services are discussed and some critical remarks are described focusing on three main areas: the facility location optimization of the institutional postal services, the lack of use of modern technologies and the lack of modern administrative facilities. On the basis of these criticisms, the authors define recommendations for improving institutional postal services. Regarding the facility location optimization problem, a mathematical model and an optimization algorithm is described to evaluate the efficiency of the logistics processes of delivery services. The proposed methodology supports a cost-based analysis of different solution variants and a priority-based differentiation between institutions and offices. The suggested approach is tested with a real scenario, where the numerical results validate the efficiency of the evaluation of optimization algorithm. The second improvement direction is the application of a pneumatic tube system. The authors show the most important parts of the proposed pneumatic tube system, which can lead to decreased labor cost and increased service level.

Russian Leviathan through the Prism of the Modified Conception of “Narrow Corridor”

The concept of «narrow corridor» by D. Acemoglu and J. Robinson, which explains the relationship between political development and economic prosperity, launched a wide discussion in foreign and Russian scientific literature. During it a number of critical remarks were made, which our work is devoted to overcome. The premise of recognizing Leviathan's heterogeneity is proposed as the directions for the development of the concept. Also, the factors that limit the «ultimate boundaries» of his power in the vertical and horizontal dimensions: technological progress (including in the field of information transfer) and the complication of political organization are proposed. To demonstrate the advantages of the modified model, we consider a specific case of the development of Russian statehood through the prism of the concept.

HIGHLIGHTING OF FOCAL LANDSCAPES ON THE EXAMPLE OF VALLEY-RIVER LANDSCAPE-TECHNICAL SYSTEMS

River valleys are important in the structure of natural landscapes. They are the places of population concentration, ecological gutters and the landscape "framework" around which all other geocomplexes function. If the framework landscapes have been analyzed in detail by scientists, the focal landscapes are inflated beyond the attention of scientists.
 The purpose of the article is to analyze the structure of focal landscapes on the basis of the improved classification of anthropogenic landscapes by significance on the example of landscape-technical systems (LTchS) in the river valleys of the model region - the flat part of Right Bank Ukraine.
 Within the valley-river landscapes, the focal group includes road, mining, agricultural, and beligerative LTchS. Most modern road landscape technical systems belong to the category of "landscape technogenic systems". The destruction of man-made cover is associated with the excessive load on the road surface of motor vehicles, the weight of which often does not meet the established standards. As a result of mining and processing of minerals in river valleys, mining LTchS are formed. Active mining LTchS are formed by quarries, waste rock dumps and beneficiation or crushing and sorting plants and factories. The river valleys of the Right Bank of Ukraine are characterized by new anthropogenic types of areas that were formed after the extraction of minerals: areas of pit-peat wastelands and "rocky badlands". Valley-river agricultural LTchS are represented by water regulation and irrigation systems and vineyards. The lack of modernization and the use of outdated equipment and facilities do not allow the LTchS to fully function and produce the appropriate amount of crops. Beligerative landscape and man-made systems include complexes of defensive nodal structures "lines of defense" of the 20th century. Some critical remarks were made regarding the analysis of the structure of focal landscapes after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Right Bank Ukraine. It was concluded that in the context of the study of modern anthropogenic landscapes of Ukraine, the study of focal valley-river landscape-technical systems will contribute to a better understanding of their structure and the development of ways of optimization.

Трансформация уголовно-правовых отношений в сфере незаконной деятельности по возврату просроченной задолженности

The article considers objective and subjective signs of Article 1724 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation adopted in July 2023 “Illegal activity for the return of overdue debts”, as well as qualified and specially qualified signs provided for in parts 2, 3 of Article 1724 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Statistical data testifying to the need to criminalize the actions of unscrupulous collectors are presented, criteria are identified that allow distinguishing the considered corpus delicti with a similar administrative offense, some critical remarks were made regarding the absence in the disposition of the norm of indicating the dissemination of reliable defamatory information as a method of committing a crime.

Forensic advisers working for all district courts and courts of appeal in the Netherlands: An overview and discussion.

Since late 2020, all district courts and courts of appeal in the Netherlands have internal forensic support in the form of "forensic advisers." This position was created in 2012 and resulted from the efforts made to expand knowledge of the forensic sciences within the inquisitorial Dutch criminal justice system. Forensic advisers are generalists and support judges in all matters concerning forensic science, for example, ensuring the logically correct interpretation of evidence, assessing the relevant expertise of forensic experts, and helping to avoid statistical fallacies. In this article, we discuss the origins of the position, the activities performed, and both positive and critical remarks about the position in the literature. Extensive attention is paid to the boundaries of the role and of the advice that is offered. We conclude that the forensic adviser has strengthened the forensic science expertise within the Dutch judiciary and we give recommendations for a more robust anchoring of this expertise.

Bernard Williams on the guise of the good

AbstractThe guise of the good is the thesis that an agent can only want, or intentionally do or pursue something, if and because this seems good to the agent in some respect or other. Bernard Williams criticizes the guise of the good in Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. In this paper I reconstruct and assess his hitherto unnoticed critical remarks. Williams's opposition is based on the idea that it takes an “extra step” to go from desiring or pursuing something to thinking of it as good. To show this, he employs an argument from elimination (with two strands: an argument from personal ends and an argument from immediate ends), and a separate argument which I call the one‐desire argument. I review and reject two types of answers to Williams's objections: answers that explore different varieties of what it can mean to “think of as good,” and answers that focus on different varieties of goodness under the guise of which one can desire something. I then consider whether a different, but nearby thesis, namely the guise of normative reasons, can accommodate Williams's objections, concluding that this alternative also fails. I end by looking at how this debate might move forward.

Formation and Development of the Doctrine of Rule of Law in English Legal Thought

The subject of the study is the English constitutional doctrine of the rule of law, taken in the historical evolution of its understanding by leading authoritative lawyers and thinkers starting with H. de Bracton and ending with A.V. Dicey and modern British constitutional law jurists. The article presents both positivist and non-positivist interpretations of the doctrine. Particular attention is paid to the classical interpretation of the doctrine of the rule of law in the work of A.V. Dicey "Introduction to the Study of Constitutional Law" (1885): the main meanings of the concept are revealed and critical remarks set out in the British legal thought of the XX century are presented. The article concludes with a brief summary of the modern understanding of the doctrine of the rule of law in the contemporary legal literature. The novelty of the research is that for the first time in Russian jurisprudence, the historical reconstruction of the formation and development of ideas that make up the content of the doctrine of the rule of law is revealed. Special attention is paid to the contribution to the development of this legal doctrine by such jurists as J. Fortescue, E. Coke, S. Rutherford, J. Locke, A.V. Dicey. In addition, attention is paid to the distinction between interpretations of the concept by lawyers of the positivist and non-positivist legal thought. Critical understanding of A.V. Dicey's teaching on the rule of law and modern interpretations of the concept are presented for the first time in the Russian legal literature.

Family body culture, disordered eating and mental health among young adult females during COVID-19

Different family interactions related to body weight and shape may co-occur and represent a broader ‘family body culture’. This may be important in the context of COVID-19 due to a heightened focus on body weight/shape, and many young adults living back with their families. This study aimed to, first, explore relationships between different family body-related interactions to assess the presence of a family body culture, and second, explore relationships between aspects of family body culture, disordered eating and mental health among young adult females during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were 233 females aged 18–25 years who completed measures of family body culture (family fat talk; family weight concern; family weight teasing), disordered eating, anxiety and depression. Results showed all aspects of family body culture were significantly, positively related. Engaging in fat talk with family members (self fat talk) was a key correlate of disordered eating, anxiety and depression. Family concern with weight was also significantly associated with disordered eating. Findings suggest that among some families there is a more problematic family body culture with a greater importance placed on body weight and shape through various body-related interactions. Additionally, findings highlight two key aspects of family body culture related to disordered eating and wellbeing among young adult females. Specifically, vocalising critical remarks about one's own body when with family and an environment that may indirectly communicate a high importance of body weight and shape (e.g., via dieting). These should be considered in future family interventions to support healthy eating behaviours.

Towards Feasible Solutions for Load Monitoring in Quebec Residences.

For many years, energy monitoring at the most disaggregate level has been mainly sought through the idea of Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM). Developing a practical application of this concept in the residential sector can be impeded by the technical characteristics of case studies. Accordingly, several databases, mainly from Europe and the US, have been publicly released to enable basic research to address NILM issues raised by their challenging features. Nevertheless, the resultant enhancements are limited to the properties of these datasets. Such a restriction has caused NILM studies to overlook residential scenarios related to geographically-specific regions and existent practices to face unexplored situations. This paper presents applied research on NILM in Quebec residences to reveal its barriers to feasible implementations. It commences with a concise discussion about a successful NILM idea to highlight its essential requirements. Afterward, it provides a comparative statistical analysis to represent the specificity of the case study by exploiting real data. Subsequently, this study proposes a combinatory approach to load identification that utilizes the promise of sub-meter smart technologies and integrates the intrusive aspect of load monitoring with the non-intrusive one to alleviate NILM difficulties in Quebec residences. A load disaggregation technique is suggested to manifest these complications based on supervised and unsupervised machine learning designs. The former is aimed at extracting overall heating demand from the aggregate one while the latter is designed for disaggregating the residual load. The results demonstrate that geographically-dependent cases create electricity consumption scenarios that can deteriorate the performance of existing NILM methods. From a realistic standpoint, this research elaborates on critical remarks to realize viable NILM systems, particularly in Quebec houses.

Early foreign language teaching: some critical remarks and some recommendations

Dieser Beitrag ist eine kritische Beurteilung von Wert und Nutzen des Fremdsprachenunterrichts bei Grundschulkindern, gestützt aufForschungsergebnisse des frühen Spracherwerbs. Dabei werden auch globale sprachpolitische Faktoren diskutiert. Der Beitrag schliesst mit Empfehlungen für eine gute Fremdsprachenlehrpraxis.

Psychological features of physical perfectionism in personality

The article examines the psychological features of physical perfectionism in personality. Physical perfectionism refers to a system of personal beliefs and attitudes related to one's physical appearance: heightened preoccupation with one's appearance and the pursuit of high body standards, striving for the best results in the pursuit of an ideal figure, as well as a pathological attitude towards any critical remarks about one's appearance. The formation of the «I-physical image» is influenced by socio-psychological factors and represents a dual process. On the one hand, it is the influence of society expressed in judgments, thoughts, perceptions, stereotypes, and ideals. On the other hand, it is the independent reflection and awareness of one's own criteria of body significance. The aim of the study is to determine the individual psychological characteristics of individuals with different levels of physical perfectionism. The object of study is the physical perfectionism of personality. The following methods were chosen to achieve the goal: theoretical-methodological analysis, psychodiagnostic, and mathematical-statistical methods. The psychodiagnostic complex consisted of the methods: «Physical Perfectionism Scale» and «I - Structural Test of the Ammon». The main task was to study the psychological characteristics of individuals with different levels of physical perfectionism. The conducted correlation analysis allowed us to identify significant relationships between indicators of physical perfectionism and indicators of «I-functions». Using the «axes» method, two groups of individuals with high and low levels of physical perfectionism were selected from the general group. In order to identify individual psychological characteristics, a qualitative analysis of property profiles in the corresponding groups was carried out. The obtained results of our study allow providing a psychological characterization of individuals who differ in the level of physical perfectionism and considering them as individuals endowed with a complex of personality traits that accompany a set of pronounced «I-functions».

Analisis Sentimen Komentar Netizen Terhadap Pembubaran Konser NCT 127 Menggunakan Metode Naive Bayes

The present rate of technological advancement has resulted in the rapid spread of information, which is easily available through social media platforms such as Twitter. Users of Twitter can send and read content in the form of text or videos using the facilities that Twitter itself offers. Numerous Twitter users have commented on the NCT 127 concert's recent dissolution, which has drawn both supportive and critical remarks. A dataset of 2451 tweets was created by gathering information from Twitter using the keyword "nct" between November 4 and November 6, 2022. The data was subsequently cleaned, yielding a total of 2451 useable data points. Labeling and the Naive Bayes algorithm were then applied to the data. The goal of this study was to count the number of favorable and unfavorable tweets and evaluate how well the Naive Bayes algorithm was applied. According to the trials done, there were 559 favorable remarks and 1,892 negative ones. The accuracy of the evaluation tests was 82.01%. Additionally, the analysis of negative sentiment produced a f1-score of 79.21%, a recall of 68.52%, and precision of 93.84%. Contrarily, the evaluation of positive attitude produced a f1-score of 84.15%, a recall of 95.50%, and a precision of 75.21%. The Naive Bayes method, it may be inferred, can categorize and process with a very consistent accuracy that approaches near-perfect outcomes.

Culture and identity in critical remarks

Abstract Awareness of cultural specificity in current classroom discourse is particularly important in an educational setting that has become largely multicultural due to globalization, migration and academic mobility. Drawing on the intercultural and cross-cultural pragmatics, and cultural studies, this paper explores the speech act of critical remark in Russian and Israeli classroom settings, focusing on students’ view of its degree of conventionality and admissibility. Data were obtained from a student survey questionnaire (undertaken between 2017-2019). Highlighting similarities and differences, we argue that both Russian and Israeli classroom settings exhibit critical remark as not uncommon, though varying in acceptability. Findings show that critical acts need not be limited to the merely conflictual, but may even be perceived positively, and may moreover exert varying levels of illocutionary force and be interpreted differently by different cultural groups.