Demands Of Justice Research Articles

Is the Role of Judges and Ideas About Justice Relevant in the Exercise of Interpretation?

The role of judges and ideas about justice are undeniably relevant in the exercise of interpretation within legal systems. This abstract explores the significance of judges' roles and justice concepts in interpretation, shedding light on their impact on judicial decision-making and legal outcomes. Judges, as impartial arbiters of the law, are tasked with interpreting statutes, regulations, and precedent to resolve disputes and administer justice fairly. However, their interpretations are inevitably influenced by their personal beliefs, values, and understandings of justice, shaping the outcomes of cases and the development of legal principles. Moreover, ideas about justice, such as fairness, equity, and societal values, inform judges' interpretations and guide their application of legal principles to specific cases. The tension between legal formalism and judicial discretion underscores the complexity of interpretation, as judges balance the need for consistency and predictability with the demands of justice and fairness. Ultimately, the role of judges and ideas about justice play a crucial role in the exercise of interpretation, shaping legal reasoning, judicial decision-making, and the evolution of the law.

Selective Attention to Environmental Justice by International Cooperative Initiatives for Biodiversity and Climate

Abstract The relevance of environmental justice in global biodiversity and climate governance has increased as stakeholders’ unequal affectedness by environmental action is becoming ever more obvious. International Cooperative Initiatives (ICIs) play an ever increasing role in addressing global environmental change and biodiversity loss. Yet, the consideration of demands of environmental justice by these non-state or hybrid actors is still under-explored. Informed by a three-pillar environmental justice framework comprising distributive, procedural, and recognition justice, we use content analysis to identify if and how these different pillars are presented on the websites and in the key publications of a sample of 53 ICIs. A majority of these ICIs include references to environmental justice and its different pillars in their description of their work. But environmental justice seems to be neither a central concern nor are the references very nuanced. Distributive justice receives the most attention, whereas aspects of procedural and recognition justice receive less attention. To better anchor environmental justice within global biodiversity and climate governance, we encourage ICIs to thoroughly integrate environmental justice in operational work and to integrate and establish ongoing dialogues with marginalised groups.

Robert Millikan, Japanese internment, and eugenics

Robert A. Millikan (1868–1953) was the second American to win the Nobel Prize in physics. At the peak of his influence, no scientist save Einstein was more admired by the American public. Millikan, the head of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) during its first 24 years, oversaw its rapid growth into one of the leading scientific institutions of the world. However, in response to demands for social justice following the murder of George Floyd, Caltech launched an investigation into Millikan. Caltech reached a decision to strip Millikan of honors (such as the library named after him), following accusations from various sources that he was a sexist, racist, xenophobic, antisemitic, pro-eugenic Nazi sympathizer. In short, Caltech threw the book at him. This article analyzes two accusations against Millikan. The first of these accusations was published in Nature: that he collaborated to deprive Japanese Americans of their rights during their forced relocation to internment camps during the Second World War. An examination of original historical sources will show that this accusation is false. On the contrary, Millikan actively campaigned during the war to promote the rights of Japanese Americans. This article traces the stages of misrepresentation that led to current false beliefs about Millikan. In view of Millikan’s extraordinary position in American science, this misrepresentation is a cautionary tale. The article also treats Caltech’s central accusation against Millikan: he lent his name to “a morally reprehensible eugenics movement” that had been scientifically discredited in his time. The article considers the statements purporting to show that eugenics movement had been denounced by the scientific community by 1938. In a reversal of Caltech’s claims, all three of Caltech’s scientific witnesses against eugenics—including two Nobel laureates—were actually pro-eugenic to varying degrees. This article concludes that Millikan’s beliefs fell within acceptable scientific norms of his day.

Planetary justice reconsidered: developing response-abilities in planetary relations

ABSTRACT This contribution puts forward a relational and posthumanist engagement with the idea of planetary justice. The planetary from this perspective should be conceived not to re-enforce, but rather to break apart, the idea that there is such a thing as a ‘planetary whole’. When we move away from ‘planetary wholes’, we also conceive of justice and ethical commitments differently from how they have been traditionally approached. Instead of attempting to create ‘justice on the planet’, we see that manifold concrete multispecies communities become central to generating ‘response-ability in planetary relations’. This article explores how this different orientation to planetary justice not only helps to break down the problematic spatial and temporal scales within which questions of justice are often framed but also points towards some different ways of responding ethically to the recent demands for planetary justice.

Assisted death for prisoners and forensic patients: complexity and controversy illustrated by four recent cases.

Medical assistance in dying (MAiD) (which includes euthanasia and assisted suicide) is available in an increasing number of countries. In Belgium, The Netherlands and Switzerland (and was due to be implemented in Canada from 2024) eligibility includes mental suffering in the absence of any physical disorder. There are particular ethical and legal issues when considering MAiD for those involuntarily detained in prisons and hospitals. We describe four recent cases that illustrate these complexities, and highlight issues of equivalence of healthcare and self-determination against concerns about the criteria for determining eligibility of those with non-terminal conditions as well as the objections raised by victims and families and the demands for justice.

The Intersection of Law and Space: Exploring Legal Geography

The field of legal geography serves as the focal point for an interdisciplinary assessment of the interplay between law and spatial ordering. This paper examines the ways in which legal systems shape and are shaped by the spatial environments in which they operate. Addressing the bidirectional influence, the research considers the impact of legal directives on urban configurations, environmental governance, and the allocation of spatial resources in relation to social equity. Key to this exploration are the regulatory mechanisms that govern property rights and land use, unveiling the spatial implications of legislative processes. Methodologically, the paper synthesizes theories from legal studies with geographic analysis to dissect the complexities of space as it relates to the law. This approach sharpens our comprehension of how lawful prescriptions are not mere theoretical constructs but hold material consequences in societal terrains. The work presented herein contributes to the understanding of law's tangible effects on the arrangement of urban settings, the stewardship of environmental resources, and the promotion of justice through equitable spatial access. Ultimately, the paper aims to elucidate the nuances of legal geography and advocate for a reconciled design of law and space that is sensitive to the demands of justice, inclusivity, and environmental sustainability, paving the way for legal and policy reforms that support a balance between legality and spatial equity.

Demanding Justicia: the justice orientations of Oaxaca’s Sección 22 teachers

ABSTRACT The ‘demand for justice’ is a long-standing principle of Oaxaca’s Sección 22 union chapter, which has led a teachers’ movement since the 1970s that has evolved to meet changing social, political, and economic circumstances. Various researchers around the globe have increasingly linked notions of justice with education, exploring terms like social justice education, justice-oriented teaching, justice-oriented education, and teaching for social justice in a range of contexts, mapping the ways educators integrate these concepts into classrooms and schools. Missing from this research, however, is an examination of the ways teachers might practice ‘justice-oriented teaching’ outside the classroom as well, as they participate in movements and struggles. Drawing on ethnographic data collected over a five-year period, and on interviews with 40 teachers, teacher educators, union officials, and student teachers, I will map out four ‘justice orientations’ via which Oaxacan teachers demand justice. Sección 22 educators perform justice-oriented teaching along economic, political, cultural, and humanistic orientations, manifesting a widely held belief in Oaxaca that ‘the teacher fighting, is also teaching’. This study can inform research about teachers globally enacting justice-oriented pedagogies and practices, not only in the classroom, but also in the public domain as activists, movement actors, and union members.

Knowing rape: Turning ethnoracialized victims into moral citizens in post‐apartheid South Africa

AbstractIn South Africa, a disparate coalition of law enforcement, human rights workers, health officials, and activists claim that women don't know they have been raped. Claims of misrecognition typically follow from the observation that most women who experience gendered violence in South Africa do not report to the police and are especially leveled at Black women living in rural areas under the judicial authority of customary leaders. This article examines this assertion about not knowing gendered violence and the interventions it inspired. Dwelling on the story of one survivor's search for justice in Thohoyandou, South Africa, I argue that in the years following the transition from apartheid to democracy, a consensus coalesced around Black Indigenous women, who were seen as key political agents in post‐colonial nation‐building. During this time, knowing rape was touted as a gendered civic duty, one that enacted moral citizenship for the sake of a more orderly, democratic and vigorous multicultural nation. In spite of the consensus around knowing rape, “rape,” I suggest, remains an ambivalent sign for both those who encourage its recognition and for survivors. Amidst these disjunctures, survivors’ demands for justice often go denied.

When Victors Claim Victimhood: Majoritarian Resentment and the Inversion of Reparations Claims

ABSTRACTFrom the mid‐20th century onwards, diverse groups — whether formerly enslaved populations or victims of mass atrocities — have demanded reparations as part of a wider struggle for justice. However, in the current global climate of right‐wing resurgence, both the recognition of victimhood and demands for justice are in danger of being subverted and hijacked. These developments create additional obstacles to addressing genuine reparations demands. This manifests in at least three ways. First, there is a selective application of victimhood status and recognition, often along old fault lines of race or religion. In this way, the oppression of some groups is no longer recognized as a legitimate object of reparations; indeed, their claims to justice are seen as unfair demands against dominant groups. Second, we see the blatant continuation of the very practices that the reparations movement has sought to establish as wrongs. Third, not content with negating existing demands for reparations from below, powerful groups are going a step further and, as part of supremacist projects, asserting their own right to reparations. In doing this, they use the language and moral claims of reparations and decolonization that have emerged through the global reparations movement. This article seeks to illustrate these developments through the examples of India and Israel, including the demand for ‘restoration’ of sacred sites to Hindus and Jews.

Security and Empowerment as Justice: Yezidi Women's Demands and Perceptions of Post-Genocide Justice

This article examines how Yezidi women's experiences before, during, and after the 2014 genocide have shaped their perceptions and demands for justice. Drawing from interviews conducted between 2018 and 2021 among Sinjari Yezidis in Iraq and in the diaspora, I found diverse demands: older women prioritize a safe return to Sinjar, while younger women seek socioeconomic rights and an end to structural violence, and survivors of captivity emphasize retribution. These demands converge around Yezidis' longing for equality, security, and empowerment in Iraq, highlighting the necessity of a human security approach to attain transformative justice for minorities in the country.

Politically Correct 4.0: Historical causes and cultural evaluation

The current form of political correctness has many cultural roots; these explain why its underlying quest for social justice has become a dangerous ideology. This article addresses the political, religious and philosophical roots of this phenomenon. It also sets forth ways of avoiding dangerous extremism while holding onto the demands for justice often associated with political correctness.

JUSTICE IN THE LIMINAL: THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE AND THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT

AbstractAs the human right to a healthy environment is codified around the globe, some systems still lag behind. One noticeable straggler is the Council of Europe, which is currently undergoing its fourth attempt to recognize the right. This article examines the proposals tabled within this system in light of overarching debates about climate justice and environmental rights, before focusing specifically on the spatial and temporal limits of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the institutional features of its Court. First, the article describes what the author sees as the current liminal moment in the development of human rights law, a time of transition in which established legal concepts can be questioned or reaffirmed. Second, it sketches recent proposals for locating and conceptualizing the right to a healthy environment within the Council of Europe. Evaluating different options, it makes the case for including this right in the ECHR. Third, the article discusses the right's potential to reshape the spatial and temporal limitations on legal subjectivity and Convention protections. These proposals come at a crucial time when the system's ability to protect human rights from environment-related impacts is being tested by climate litigation. The article understands these developments as interrelated and discusses whether current proposals could deliver on demands for climate justice by extending protection to future generations and for extraterritorial environmental impacts.

Global justice must be seen to be done—A defense of integrated pluralism

Over the past two decades the academic literature on global distributive justice has generated a proliferation of positions regarding the question of how to conceive a globally just distribution of goods. One important development within this global justice debate is the emergence and increasing influence of several Pluralist theorists of global justice—including, perhaps most prominently, Fraser, R. Miller, and Risse. This article argues that Pluralists have not yet sufficiently engaged with the difficulty of how their conceptions of global justice could satisfy the publicity condition. This condition requires that the demands of justice must be publicly known to be recognized and fulfilled. This article explains why meeting this condition is especially difficult for the Pluralists. Then, it outlines an Integrated Pluralist position which, by placing special emphasis on global background justice, can meet the publicity condition. This position “integrates” concerns of justice emerging from a plurality of sites of justice. Thereby it follows “Integrationist” approaches to global justice—like those of Caney and Walton—which claim that the contents of justice of a given site of justice must not be determined in isolation from contents of other sites of justice.

Implications of EndSARS Protest on National Security and Development

The EndSARS protest, which was sparked by public outcry against police brutality, had a significant impact on Nigeria’s national security and development. The protest primarily called for the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit notorious for its human rights abuses. Underlying issues such as poor governance, rampant corruption, and the Federal Government's failure to reform the Nigerian police system were key factors leading to the massive demonstrations in 2020. Citizens were frustrated with the systemic negligence and lack of accountability, which prompted them to demand justice and police reforms. This paper adopts a descriptive approach to analyze the situation and highlights the importance of the government taking proactive measures to address security issues. The protesters’ grievances reflect a broader societal need for transparency, accountability, and fairness in governance. Therefore, it is crucial for the Federal Government to listen to the voice of the people and implement reforms that ensure the protection of citizens' rights and improve police conduct. By addressing these concerns, the government can help prevent the recurrence of such protests, which may escalate into more dangerous and widespread movements in the future. The paper argues that if the underlying factors are left unchecked, future protests could have far more severe consequences for national stability and development. Thus, the government must act decisively to reform the system and restore public trust.

Countering durian plantationocene visuality and the erasure of natureculture histories in Malaysia

ABSTRACT Large-scale durian plantations are now a major threat, causing deforestation and displacing the Orang Asli, the aboriginal peoples of Peninsular Malaysia, from their customary lands. This paper focuses on visual representations of the durian plantations and/or forest to discuss two contrasting views of the landscape. We analyse durian plantation corporate investment videos wooing public investors and videos of the Temiar Orang Asli’s resistance against forced evacuations by the durian companies in Gua Musang, Kelantan. The landscape presented in the corporate video is one that silently but violently erases the Indigenous Peoples of the land and their natureculture histories through high modernist ideology and aesthetics. Counterposing the corporate plantationocene visuals against the raw footage from the amateur videos shot on mobile phones, the Orang Asli galvanize emotionally moving countervisuality as witness to their resistance against the violence enacted by corporate occupation. By doing so, they are actively using visual documentation to tell their side of the story and to demand justice. Drawing from posthumanism, environmental humanities and critical visual studies, this paper presents a decolonial critique of the modernist/developmentalist discourse and highlights the violence of the erasure of natureculture in an extractive economy.

When Race Matters: Black Men and Authority Figures

ABSTRACT Following the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arberry, and Breonna Taylor, Black folks sought refuge within its community to experience collective healing and demand justice. A 2020 study reported that Black students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) experienced racial microaggressions one to six times within 6 months time affirming the necessity for spaces that center the learning and development of Black students, like historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). This article explores the impact of racism on Black men’s engagement with campus authority. The historic abuse Black men have faced by authority figures could have a direct impact on how they engage authority on campus. This study sought to identify if there were any significant mean differences in the likelihood of Black men engaging with Black authority figures versus White authority figures. An online survey collected data from 400 Black men assessing their preference in engagement with authority based on race. Analysis found a higher likelihood of engagement with Black authority rather than White authority regardless of the role they held on campus. This finding dispels the myth that Black men tend to be more disengaged from their academic pursuits and causes institutions to reflect on how representation effects students’ willingness to engage. With Black educators making up 60% of faculty at HBCUs, HBCUs can serve as havens for Black men to find a village and safely engage in their academic experience.

Imperial Violence, Law, and Compensation in the Age of Empire, 1919–1922

AbstractThe intricacies of modern compensation procedures that value human life, injury, and property are often overlooked, despite growing demands for reparations and justice following state violence. This article historicizes the legal structures of modern compensation, arguing that the advent of imperial rule was characterized not only by the extraction of material resources and labour, but also by the discriminatory construction and implementation of imperial law, which sought to protect European life, wealth, and property. By focusing on one of the most notorious episodes of violence in British imperial and modern South Asian history – the atrocities committed by British officials in Punjab (1919), including the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre – this article underscores how British officials penalized protests and freedom struggles by legalizing indemnities, taxes, and fines to compensate European families. In contrast, colonial officials grossly undervalued the claims and payments of Indian subjects killed or maimed during state violence, if they did at all. Furthermore, this article reveals how imperial state compensation, managed in relative privacy and buried in legal proceduralism, was rooted in legal structures of intersectional racialized inequality, and political concerns that valued the longevity of imperialism, rather than a meaningful gesture of justice and redress.

Tinjauan Yuridis Terhadap Akibat Tidak Melaksanakan Putusan Pengadilan Agama Terkait Pemberian Nafkah Pasca Cerai

This research was motivated by the fact that quite a few parents neglected their responsibilities and obligations to their children after divorce, to the point that their children became neglected. This study will examine the court decision regarding post-divorce maintenance in case no. 2569/Pdt.G/2022/PA.Gs, a judicial review of the consequences of not implementing the court decision regarding post-divorce maintenance in case no. 2569/Pdt.G/2022/PA.Gs. as well as legal measures that can be taken by the wife and children in case No. 2569/Pdt.G/2022/PA.Gs. The methodology used in writing this scientific work is library research. The type of research is normative using a case approach. The research results show that Decision No. 2569/Pdt.G/2022/PA. Gs The implementation of the contents of the decision was not carried out properly. The consequences for not paying child support include child neglect (articles 76 and 77 of Law No. 35 of 2014) which carries a maximum penalty of imprisonment for 5 (five) years and/or a maximum fine of IDR 100,000,000. 00 (one hundred million rupiah). So the legal action that can be taken by the ex-wife is to submit a forced effort to the court against the ex-husband to provide maintenance, which is called a request for execution of the decision. The legal instrument used in the decision is Article 195-197 HIR, providing legitimacy to parties who feel their rights in the household have been violated to demand justice

Domination criticism and freedom criticism on flood news in online media from a Foucauldian view

This article discusses the issue of flood disaster polemics in online media using McKerrow’s critical rhetorical theory analysis, with the main aim of getting closer to discourse formations that have not been discussed in previous research on political interest contestation. This research uses Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis method to reveal flood news articles from 2019-2021 on Tirto.id. Meanwhile, the Foucauldian perspective in this study is used as a review of McKerrow’s critical rhetoric to analyze power, right and truth. Furthermore, this triangulation is explained in two criticisms, namely, criticism of domination and freedom in the online media Tirto.id in reporting on the flood. This study found that in terms of power, Tirto.id discusses criticism of power as a struggle for power in the social status of the upper and lower middle classes. Dominance tends to appear in social disparities and discrepancies in the effects of development on poor communities and the surrounding ecosystem. In terms of rights, Tirto.id discusses demands for ecological justice for lower middle class society. Finally, in terms of truth, the discourse about flood victims includes the lower classes as a result of land grabbing. This study concludes that criticism of domination shows that the government is not very serious about the concept of ecological justice for all groups. Criticism of freedom shows that Tirto.id expresses satire that floods are only suffered by poor people, not rich people.

How to Make Impossible Decisions

In this paper, I propose that Derrida’s writing on the impossibility of justice has the potential for fruitful dialogue with Ruth Chang’s contemporary account of practical rationality. For Derrida, making a just decision must always come with a moment of undecidability, a “leap” into the unknown with an experience of doubt and anxiety that continues to “haunt” the decision-maker. By contrast, in her work on rationality, Chang proposes that hard decisions are difficult to make because the alternatives are “on a par,” such that there are no rational differences between the alternatives that would contribute to choosing one over the other. Hard decisions are made by expressing one’s own rational agency, generating will-based reasons to commit to or “drift” into one of the alternatives. Derrida writes of anxiety, doubt, and impossibility, yet Chang writes of commitment, agency, and rationality. Despite these differences, there are important comparisons and connections between the two accounts that are worth exploring. I suggest that the moment of the decision which Derrida describes as heterogeneous to knowledge can be understood as a moment of parity in which there is a lack of given reasons, as explained by Chang. Chang’s account of rational agency provides an interpretation of how decision-making is possible despite the undecidability as described by Derrida. This notion of commitment and agency as explained by Chang is not incompatible with Derrida’s insistence that the responsible decision is haunted by anxiety and doubt. Instead, I suggest that Derrida’s writing highlights uncertainty as central to understanding the nature of hard choices and how to navigate the demands of justice.