Legitimate Actors Research Articles

Non-State Actors in Asymmetric Conflicts: What does It Mean and What Follows of It

The article examines the problem of the participation of non-state actors in armed conflicts in the post-war period. The study is based on the theory of asymmetric conflict, which offers hypotheses about the reasons for the paradoxical defeat of developed countries against relatively weak opponents, including non-state actors. The empirical basis of the study is armed conflict databases, which allow us to test sole observations and hypotheses about the characteristics of asymmetric armed conflicts. The study uses the databases of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program Project (Sweden) and the COSIMO Project (University of Heidelberg, Germany) as well as publications of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The study shows that the phenomenon of asymmetric conflicts reflects several important patterns of armed conflicts in the post-war period: the predominance of intrastate over interstate conflicts; the internationalisation of armed conflicts through the involvement of other countries, international organisations or non-state actors; the direct or indirect involvement of great powers in such conflicts; and the majority of armed conflicts occurring in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Post-war armed conflicts are often referred to as “proxy wars” because the direct participants in the conflict are supported by external actors – states or non-state actors. The issues in conflicts between states and non-state actors are often political in nature, and the fundamental distinction between domestic and foreign policy has been overcome. The post-war period shows a gradual change of attitude towards the participation of non-state actors in armed conflicts, which reflects the recognition of their legitimacy as participants in the conflict, the negotiation and conclusion of agreements on the cessation of hostilities. Non-state actors in armed conflicts are themselves legitimised as representing the interests of particular groups and the goals of their struggle. UN peacekeeping operations since the end of the Cold War confirm these changes. Research on the participation of non-state actors in armed conflict reveals a broadening of the agenda and methodology for the study of post-war armed conflict, reflecting significant changes in the practice of international relations. These changes concern who is recognised as a legitimate actor in international relations, what role non-state actors play in armed conflict, and how non-state actors are viewed by other actors in international relations – states, international governmental and non-governmental organisations.

Penafsiran Ayat-Ayat tentang Perampasan Aset Koruptor dalam Perspektif Al-Misbah, Al-Azhar, Ibnu Katsir, dan Al-Munir

This study discusses the interpretation of verses of the Qur'an related to the illegal taking of other people's property, especially in the context of the confiscation of corruptor assets, based on the views of Muhammad Quraish Shihab (Tafsir Al-Misbah), Hamka (Tafsir Al-Azhar), Ibn Kathir (Tafsir al-Qur'an al-'Azhim), and Wahbah Zuhaili (Tafsir al-Munir). This study uses a qualitative method with a library research approach to conceptually examine various things that are correlated with corruption from the perspective of the Qur'an. Therefore, this study is a type of qualitative and thematic research through literature review, namely by writing, reducing, and presenting data and analyzing it, as well as the theory of maqashid sharia and jinayah. The results of the study show that the commentators support the confiscation of corruptors' assets as a legitimate action in Islam, by the principles of maqashid al-syariah, especially the protection of property (hifz al-mal). Quraish Shihab emphasizes the importance of asset confiscation to restore justice and protect society. Hamka sees this action as a just punishment that also restores the rights of society. Ibn Kathir emphasizes that corruption must be punished strictly to prevent greater damage. Wahbah Zuhaili emphasizes the authority of the government in upholding justice and preventing injustice, including through the confiscation of illegal assets. This interpretation provides a strong theological basis for the policy of asset confiscation as part of the enforcement of Islamic law, emphasizing that such action is necessary to maintain balance and stability in society.

2024년 의료정책을 둘러싼 제문제에 관한 소고

Collective action, such as strikes in the medical community, has been a social problem that has occurred countless times around the world in various causes and methods. Since human history is based on health, the medical community that has a great relevance to it is surrounded by complex and wide-ranging issues. In the case of the Korean medical community, a small collective action since the 1950s and a huge collective action called the four major doctor strikes since the 2000s have led to a serious health care disaster crisis called a medical chaos. This is the result of insufficient initial responses that overlooked the inadequacies of legal and appropriate solutions and the possibility of enormous social waves. The national crisis caused by the collective action against the promotion of medical policies currently facing must now be fundamentally resolved. Until now, the legitimacy of this collective action in the medical community has been controversial. Doctors may have different interpretations of their legal status depending on individual business owners, workers, and trainees, so their legality as an act of labor dispute may also change. However, if it is directly related to the people's health rights and causes serious violations of life and health, the legitimacy cannot be recognized even if it is any legal method. However, the profession of doctors is also part of the people whose basic rights should not be violated by excessive ethical obligations. Therefore, it is not acceptable to cause a medical gap, maintain an emotional confrontation with the government, lack of willingness to actively consult, or unfair behavior for internal unity, but the government also cannot avoid criticism that it is not mature, with many problems of content, procedures, processes and law in promoting policies, and emotional confrontation with the medical community. The confrontation between the government and the medical community is also a question of the legitimacy of actions based on rights and authority, but regardless, it must be responsible for recovering significant inconveniences to the public health environment due to defects in methods and procedures of realization, which must be fulfilled as an ethical obligation as well as legal and policy. Therefore, we need to make a compromise on the policy content, such as adjusting an increase in medical students and a medical fee for this situation, and introduce various systems to supplement this. ln the process of such compromise and coordination, procedural laws or consultation procedures should be prepared, and furthermore, it is emphasized that legalization of positions, procedures, and special cases that can clearly bear the responsibility for the results is necessary while clarifying legal status.

Becoming a legitimate actor: “Rainbow pastors” and same-sex marriage within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

This article explores the public discussion in the media where a group of religious activists who call themselves rainbow pastors are constructed as a legitimate actor in terms of the same-sex marriage debate within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF). Same-sex marriage was legalized in Finland in March 2017. The majority of the population and members of the ELCF support same-sex couples’ right to marry. However, it is not officially approved within the ELCF, which causes polarization. This study draws on a neo-institutionalist framework of epistemic governance to identify the discursive representations and justifications presented in the media. The activists aimed to convince the church decision-makers and general public of the need for institutional change regarding the religious understanding of marriage while the media pushed its own agenda. The data for this study consist of news articles in which the issue of the ELCF and same-sex marriage was discussed. Four discursive representations were identified: contesting the authority of the ELCF, creating heroic narratives, drawing on common moral principles, and normalizing same-sex marriage. The findings show that the debate also turned into a battle over authority, in which the rainbow pastors challenged the official power structures of the ELCF.

Market reaction to responsible production practices adoption: The role of firm size and financial slack

The tension between the costs and benefits of adopting responsible production practices has engendered firms' hesitation about embracing legitimate actions in their business operations. Drawing upon the legitimacy theory and resource-based view, this study delves into the market responses to responsible production practices adoption and the boundary conditions of firm size and financial slack influencing the performance link. Using a dataset comprising 392 manufacturers that adopted responsible production practices between 2016 and 2023; this study employs a short-term event study approach to unveil the positive market value of responsible production practices adoption. Through cross-sectional regression analysis, we discern that firm size and financial slack can strengthen the market value of adopting responsible production practices, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings offer managerial insights for assisting firms in navigating their journey toward responsible production while safeguarding their firm value.

Социальный и ценностный смысл недоверия к гуманитарному знанию

This article analyses the urgent issue of the growing distrust of humanities knowledge. This problem is important both for those who create, systematize and broadcast humanities knowledge and for social actors whose legitimacy of actions is based on humanities knowledge. Moreover, this issue is of particular significance to those involved in public administration and education. Trust in knowledge is characterized by the recognition of its truth in the epistemological sense and of its positive meaning in the axiological sense. From this point of view, the social distrust of humanities knowledge can be explained by the socio-economic processes that generate alienation, which forms an objective basis for distrust. Narrow specialization due to the deepening division of labour, as well as technicism, consumerism and the priority of information and information technology give rise to the distrust in humanities knowledge as an expression of truth. Specifically, this is manifested in the lack of trust between wielders of power and bearers of humanities knowledge, between representatives of technical and humanities knowledge, and between actors of humanities knowledge itself, as well as in society’s deepening distrust of scholarship in general. On the whole, the integral social meaning of the growing distrust in humanities knowledge lies in the increasing subordination of humans to modern sociotechnical systems, whose elements they are becoming. The axiological component of distrust of humanities knowledge is related to its value meanings. Firstly, humanities knowledge necessarily includes value components, which causes distrust among social actors who are guided by different or opposing ideas. Secondly, humanities knowledge is inherently pluralistic, reflecting the manifoldness of human existence. Since the social and value determinants of distrust in humanities knowledge are intensifying in modern society, the article concludes that this process is objective. The results of the study may have a positive impact on the practical and cognitive activities of social actors involved in interaction causing trust and distrust.

Before the Court and in the Press: Newspaper Coverage of Creationism and School Prayer Movements' Legal Framing

During the last century, social movement organizations have mobilized around what role religion should play in school. These struggles have focused on teaching creationism and evolution in the science classroom and the appropriateness of school prayer and Bible reading in public schools. Court cases like Scopes and Engel are infamous in American history, while others are much less well-known. This project explores media coverage of social movements that do not engage in typical protest activity and instead choose to operate in more institutional contexts. This paper will begin by presenting the coverage patterns of each movement across the twentieth century, illustrating how the media's focus is primarily influenced by movements either initiating legal action, being compelled to appear in court, or reacting to judicial proceedings. Next, it will present a typology of coverage that these legal-based movements received. A movement's legal framing is carried in and through the media, and sometimes, the framing is all that is reflected in media attention, making this type of reporting so attractive to movement organizations. The legal constraints over framing and legitimate actors account for some of the media exposure, which was likely to be equitable in tone and quantity to both the creationism and school prayer movements. To understand media coverage of social movements, scholars must begin to account for the cycles and patterns of coverage likely to occur when a movement ends up in court.

Problems in interim presidency: A comparative constitutional perspective

The research relevance is determined by the diverse constitutional approaches adopted by countries worldwide to address the critical issue of succession in the event of concurrent vacancies in the positions of President and Vice President. The study aims to correctly determine the appropriate acting presidency during extraordinary situations to ensure the continual rule of government. A doctrinal research method alongside a comparative constitutional approach to explore the constitutions of various countries. The study determined that there are legitimized and bureaucratic actors who compete with each other to become acting presidents when the positions of President and Vice President are vacant in various parts of the world. Countries that use legitimacy actors generally use the Speaker of the House of Representatives/Senate (legislative) as the acting president, while countries that use bureaucratic actors generally use ministers (executive) as the acting president. Legitimate actors are the officials to become acting presidents due to their capabilities to ensure stability based on democratic legitimacy stability, backed by votes. The practical value of this article is that it can be a source of knowledge for constitutional drafters when amending/changing the constitution because it has aggregated the arrangements for presidential duty executors from world constitutions and contributes knowledge from Indonesian experience that can be considered as material for discussion of constitutional amendments/changes

THE COLLECTIVE INTEREST OF WORKERS IN EUROPEAN UNION LAW

The notion of the ‘collective interest of workers’, i.e. the interest of a group of workers, cannot be found in European Union labour law. Although collective representation and collective bargaining are important pillars of the European social model, this absence of the notion can be explained by the (ultra)liberal market philosophy of the European project, which favours an individualistic approach to labour relations and an irenic conception of collective labour relations. Nevertheless, the notion of ‘collective interest’ can be found in other contexts, referring to the interests of the members of an entity or the users of a service. This idea infuses the EU collective labour law. Actors defending the interests of a group of workers are recognised as legitimate actors, albeit partial and fluctuating. It appears that, without being named, the collective interest of workers was first established in the functioning of the ECSC and the EEC, which became the EC and then the EU. The role of trade unions was institutionalised: they were involved in the development of European social policy. It was only at a later stage that Community law, and then EU law, took up the interests of workers as a group within the company, in the context of the harmonisation of legislations on the prerogatives of their representatives.

The Origins of “Lawfare” and the Exploitation of Public International Law

This paper offers a transdisciplinary analysis of the abuse of public international law for geopolitical objectives, providing an analysis of the term lawfare, the only previously accepted term to describe this behavior. It concludes that the definition lawfare is inadequate for professional scholarly or policy-focused discourse and offers the notion of Malign Legal Operations (MALOPs) as a more appropriate term to encapsulate these actions. Furthermore, this paper emphasizes that the debate over the value-neutrality of the notion lawfare is complex, and the term is insufficiently defined to support its supposed neutrality, leading to opportunities for further exploitation by revisionist states and entities. Supporters of valueneutrality argue that distinguishing a “malign” variant of lawfare offers malicious practitioners more opportunities to make false claims against legitimate actors. However, the text counters that classification of malign behavior is based on objective and observable manipulations of legal systems rather than mere disagreement. Furthermore, the paper argues that lawfare is a doctrinally inappropriate term due to its contradictory nature, as it combines “law” and “warfare” despite serving as an alternative to military conflict. Using a single term to describe both legitimate and malicious legal actions is damaging to discourse and detracts from efforts to combat the misuse of legal systems. The research’s primary objectives include establishing the lack of a universally accepted definition for lawfare, demonstrating the unanswered question of value-neutrality, and highlighting the non-doctrinal nature of the term itself. It concludes that lawfare is no longer an appropriate term to describe these phenomena, advocating for the adoption of Malign Legal Operations to better represent the manipulation of legal domains for political ends.

Disingenuous Infallibilism

Abstract Some recent epistemologists propose that certainty is the norm of action and assertion. This proposal is subject to skeptical worries. If, as is usually supposed, certainty is very hard to come by, legitimate action and assertion will be rare. To remedy this, some have conjoined their certainty-norms with a context-sensitive semantics for ‘certainty’. For a proposition to be certain for you, you only need to be able to exclude relevant alternatives. I argue that, depending on what makes an alternative relevant, this kind of view is disingenuous. In particular, if an alternative can be made relevant by being relevant to rational action, it allows an escape from the skeptical consequences only by licensing David Lewis-style utterances of the form, “You know that p only if there is no probability, no matter how small, that not-p—Psst!—Unless that probability is really small.” While there are legitimate ways to exclude some possibilities from relevance, it is disingenuous, I argue, to exclude possibilities from relevance on the basis of the very characteristic—low but nonzero probability—that is claimed to be incompatible with certainty.

Building legitimacy: why the populist radical right engages in grassroots activism at the local level

ABSTRACT While the literature has widely explored the organisational strategies of populist radical right parties (PRRPs) on the fringes, little is known about the grassroots activism of mainstream PRRPs. We focus on the Italian League and the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), two mainstream PRRPs that have a long pedigree of government experience, to investigate if, how and why they invest in extensive activities at the local level to reach the public, despite their pivotal position in the national political scene. Methodologically, we rely on 120 interviews with members and representatives of these two PRRPs to identify the key grassroots activities they carry out at the local level and their perceived goals. The analysis reveals that despite their mainstream status, both the League and SVP still perceive to suffer from stigmatisation and demonisation, as they are not fully accepted as legitimate actors by the public. For this reason, they engage in grassroots activities and activism at the local level, the one closest to the everyday life and concerns of ordinary citizens. Grassroots activism aims to improve the legitimacy of PRRPs, by delivering the idea that their members and activists are normal people committed to help the local communities and not extremists.

Public attitudes toward external democracy promotion in Africa

ABSTRACT The proliferation of democratic rule in Africa has been accompanied by external involvement in fostering democracy. The African Union along with various regional organizations have included clauses in their treaties calling for member-state adherence to democratic governance. Moreover, African regional organizations have used punishments such as membership suspension, sanctions, and military force to motivate states experiencing democratic reversals to change course. However, despite these trends, there has been no investigation into how Africans perceive external involvement in fostering democracy. This study remedies this gap by evaluating public attitudes toward such external pressure using the sixth round of the Afrobarometer survey. Specifically, the study explores how individual assessment of electoral practice and a country's and its neighbours' history of unconstitutional changes of government influence approval of external democracy promotion. This article lays the foundation for further investigating the roots of legitimacy of actions taken by international organizations aimed at promoting good governance and democracy.

Neostructural Realism’s Explanation on Russia-Ukraine War

This article aims to explain why NATO keeps expanse on Ukraine, and why Russia responses it through invasion now. By using qualitative methode, library research, and the neostructural realism theory founded that since the dissolution of Soviet Union, NATO has been no longer appropriate abstracted as an alliance but an unipole security coalition, then the NATO expansion on Ukraine can be seen as the continuity of U.S.’ containment policy to Russia, and adding its coalition partners for unilateral action legitimacy in order to maintain its hegemon position which undermine Russia’s Eurasia great power vision and its crucial national security. Meanwhile the uneven distribution of power elements between U.S. and Russia as the macro international structure constraint Russia invasion but the bipolar world through Russia-China unlimited strategic partnership, and the shifting of U.S. offset strategy to Russia on hypersonic missile as the micro structure encourage Russia to take invasion now.

From mercenary to legitimate actor? Russian discourses on private military companies

ABSTRACT The Russian private military company (PMC), the Wagner Group, went from being a public secret to openly fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s war in Ukraine. By looking at Russian pro-government media discourses on PMCs, this paper argues that this development is largely made possible by a discursive shift, which happened before the war. Two basic discourses are found in the period leading up to the war – a discourse that denies the existence of Russian PMCs, and a discourse of normalization, which constructs PMCs as legitimate businesses and Russia as a great power. The two discourses previously kept the PMCs in a grey zone, allowing the Russian political elite deniability, while also taking credit for the foreign policy successes the PMCs achieved. However, this paper shows a discursive shift of recognizing PMCs as legitimate actors, which allowed for the Wagner Group to play a key role in Russia’s war.

CSR managers as hybrid professionals: managing at the intersection of coexisting logics

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is evolving, with new sustainability issues and related tasks emerging as priorities for large hotel groups. Within this institutionally complex environment, the role of CSR manager (a relatively new professional role) is becoming ever more diverse and contextualised. We unveil how CSR managers advance their work amidst logic plurality in the early stages of institutionalising CSR. Through interviews (with eight senior managers responsible for sustainability and eight sustainability experts) and pattern-inducing interpretive analysis of the resulting data, we gain a practical understanding of CSR under four institutional logics: corporate, market, professional and sustainability. Three micro-level strategies - anchoring, switching and interlinking - allow individuals to advance organisational CSR work where multiple logics are pertinent for legitimate actions. Adherence to a single frame of reference (e.g. one logic) guides most organisational practices, with managers rarely switching between logics to adapt to situations and audiences, or linking practices enacted from different logics. This results in low problematisation of the work of CSR managers, and avoidance of tensions. Implications are discussed for organisations engaging in CSR, including the organisational advantages and risks that emerge as CSR managers evolve to become hybrid professionals.

Collective Authoring: Constructing the Legitimacy of Action in Post-bureaucratic Settings

Collective Authoring: Constructing the Legitimacy of Action in Post-bureaucratic Settings

Change of Ownership of the Waqf in the area of Gornji Rahic in the Socialist period (1945-1990)

One of the important measures of the communist government after the Second World War was the change of ownership of private property and the property of religious communities. For the mentioned changes in the field of ownership, numerous regulations were passed, which related to the nationalization, confiscation and expropriation of real estate. The regulations were for the purpose of the legitimate action of the state in terms of changing the ownership of real estate. With these measures, the entire waqf property, which until then was outside the scope of state interventions regarding the change of ownership, came under attack. The aforementioned processes were carried out in a short period of time and very radically, whereby in many cases the established legal procedures adopted by the communist authorities were not followed. Through nationalization, confiscation and expropriation, significant property of the Islamic community in Bosnia and Herzegovina was usurped. The usurpation of property significantly weakened the Islamic community economically, which had an impact on the work of its most important institutions. Due to additional government measures, the most important religious and educational institutions of the Islamic community, such as madrasahs and sharia courts, ceased to exist, while the number of schools was significantly reduced. With the usurpation of property, the Islamic community lost a significant economic support, which had an impact on its further functioning and influence on the wider masses, which to a good extent were very quickly affected by the process of atheism, which was one of the important goals of the communist government. The Islamic community in the Brcko region had significant waqf property at its disposal. It was about various properties, which were of great importance in the religious, educational, economic and social segments in the places where the waqfs were located. The Islamic community in the area of the municipality of Gornji Rahic, which was located in the Brcko region at the time, had significant waqf real estate, especially land holdings. Until the establishment of the communist government, they were used to support religious buildings in this area. With the establishment of the new government, according to the available data of a significant land area, four waqfs in this area were hit by the measures of the new communist government. It was about the foundation of the Gornji Rahic mosque, the foundation of the Ograđenovac mosque, the foundation of the Iptidaija school in Gornji Rahic and the Fatima Kujundzic foundation. The aforementioned waqfs came under attack based on the Law on Agrarian Reform and Colonization, because they had more land than was determined by the said regulation. Therefore, already in 1946, the government carried out the process of expropriation of the land of the mentioned waqfs and took a total of 66 dunums of land and 320 m2 from them, while leaving a total of 17 dunums and 532 m2 of land to the Islamic community, i.e. the mosque waqf in Gornji Rahic. The Islamic community sent a series of complaints to the competent institutions regarding this attitude of the authorities, which were not accepted. So it was left without an important economic basis necessary for its continued existence. The aforementioned expropriated land was included in the land fund as state property, which was allocated to various users: agrarian interests, agricultural cooperatives and other state institutions. It is interesting that the waqf property, which had the status of a cemetery (cemetery), was the subject of expropriation in this case. In the process of cadastral marking of expropriated land, numerous mistakes were made, which in the later period represented a problem in the implementation of the process of registering the allocated land in the ownership of agrarian stakeholders. The mentioned problem in the paper is treated on a micro level, but the available facts indicate that it was an established practice of the communist government, which was widely used immediately after the Second World War, related to the change of property ownership of religious communities, including the Islamic community. In this way, the economic strength of the Islamic community was significantly reduced, which will have an impact on its overall status in the time of socialism, which was also shown in the example of the usurpation of the Islamic community's waqf in the municipality of Gornji Rahic in Brcko county.

Concept of Government Civic Responsibility in Administrative Law

Administrative law is responsible for explaining an administrative rule and expressing the correct manner of an administrative lawsuit to provide administrative justice in public administration in the best way. One of the important topics of administrative law is government civil responsibility. The government, such as the ordinary people, is responsible for its actions and administration. And This responsibility requires that harmful action issued from the government, which causes damage caused by the legitimate action of the administration. The importance of research is that it paves one of the ways to know by that the relationship between administrative rights and civil rights and awareness of administrative rights in Afghanistan's legal system. This research is a descriptive and library of quotes and tries to simplify the authoritative sources of administrative rights in Afghanistan. The research findings show that the government must compensate for the actions and acts of their administration, which result from the person's losses. But which losses are compensable and which losses are not compensable? The administrative procedures law explicitly states that another law regulates the Government's civil responsibility. Because there is no specific law in this case, we must search for its rules in other country documents.

Нематериально-правовой аспект убытков, причиненных в результате принудительного прекращения права собственности

The latest views of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on judicial practice on compensation for moral damage reveal not only new grounds for paying compensation for physical and moral suffering to victims, but also lead to a rethinking of the content of other legal institutions, such as property, civil liability, losses, etc. From the decisions of the highest judicial bodies considered in the article, it follows that the right to compensation for moral damage arises from the victim and as a result of violation of his property rights, if such a violation caused the victim physical and moral suffering. The detailed analysis of the philosophical understanding of the categories of “property” and “alienation” given in the article suggests that in the future moral damage can be compensated by virtue of the fact of its infliction, regardless of the legality of the causal actions. The main content of the text is an analysis of the positions of the Constitutional Court of Russia and other judicial bodies in terms of the ratio of norms on the inadmissibility of forced termination of property rights and norms on the specifics of compensation for harm caused by legitimate actions.