Normative Dilemmas Research Articles

Migration and the EU Global Strategy: Narratives and Dilemmas

Migration did not figure in the European Security Strategy of 2003. Never mentioned as a threat, it was not even mentioned as a risk. Thirteen years later, migration is widely cited in the new European Union Global Strategy. Much richer than the previous security document and global in aspiration, the Global Strategy treats migration as a challenge and an opportunity, recognising the key role it plays in a rapidly changing security landscape. However, this multi-faceted perspective on migration uncovers starkly different political and normative claims, all of which are legitimate in principle. The different narratives on migration present in the new strategic document attest to the Union’s comprehensive approach to the issue but also to critical and possibly competing normative dilemmas.

Normativitet: utfordring i psykoterapeutisk og pedagogisk arbeid. Den profesjonelle mellom tvang og frihet

In this article we wish to discuss different normative dilemmas that teachers and psychotherapists meet in their work with the student and the patient. We argue that crucial for a good practice is not the actual choice between normativity and freedom, between generalized or authorized standards and individual dialogue. Rather it is the professional’s continuous reflection on the form and quality of the interactions with the pupil and the patient, and the preservation of the balance between personal ethos and professional responsibilities that best safeguard respect for the other's autonomy and self-determination. By illustrating psychotherapeutic malpractice and systematic mistreatment of children in the name of education, we wish to remind the reader that official governmental authorization of the professions pedagogy and psychology/psychotherapy is not automatically a guarantee for high professional standards or for the best possible teaching and psychotherapy.

Should We BeCharlie? A Deliberative Take on Religion and Secularism in Mediated Public Spheres

The terror attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 serves to explore the role of religion and secularism in mediated public spheres. We argue that deliberative theory, including its recent criticisms and extensions, helps navigate normative dilemmas presented by the attacks. From a deliberative perspective, journalists should reprint Charlie cartoons that are perceived by Muslims as insulting and incendiary only if this fulfills a real need for public reflection and enlightenment. Media and the wider public should engage in differentiated solidarity with Charlie Hebdo, help transfer the hidden argumentative potential of its cartoons into the realm of truly argumentative discourse, and engage in metadeliberation that explicitly reflects the contexts and rules for public debate.

Big Data Surveillance and the Body-subject

This paper considers the implications of big data practices for theories about the surveilled subject who, analysed from afar, is still gazed upon, although not directly watched as with previous surveillance systems. We propose this surveilled subject be viewed through a lens of proximity rather than interactivity, to highlight the normative issues arising within digitally mediated relationships. We interpret the ontological proximity between subjects, data flows and big data surveillance through Merleau-Ponty’s ideas combined with Levinas’ approach to ethical proximity and Coeckelberg’s work on proximity in the digital age. This leads us to highlight how competing normativities, and normative dilemmas in these proximal spaces, manipulate the surveilled subject’s embodied practices to lead the embodied individual towards experiencing them in a local sense. We explore when and how the subject notices these big data practices and then interprets them through translating their experiences into courses of action, inaction or acquiescence.

Care as Norm in French Schools

French female teachers seek to work at the first years of schooling and express an overwhelming preference for the nursery school. This longstanding gendered division of social roles in schools presents no sign of abating. We will explore here the underlying mechanisms of this conservative inertia. Women’s preference for nursery schools will be addressed on the basis of “care” having become the norm in French schools and professional roles and teaching jobs being ascribed along a gendered hierarchy of teaching jobs. We will then focus on the hurdles young women face when they enter the teaching profession and how balancing work and family is tantamount to “squaring the circle”. We will look at the family environment in order to substantiate the pressure exerted on women so that they “put family first”. Finally, we will explore how women try to solve this normative dilemma linked to their working lives. We will analyze the mechanisms that underlie their choices in the context of the general hostility of the world of work and the internal institutional mechanisms that operate in schools.

Contending metaphors of the European Union as a global actor: Norms and power in the European discourse on multilateralism

The legitimacy crisis that existing institutions of global governance are undergoing has led the European Union (EU) to place the idea of “effective multilateralism” at the heart of its foreign policy doctrine. This article draws inspiration from debates on the notion of power in International Relations to expose the normative dilemmas behind multilateralism in EU foreign policy. To do this, the article systematically analyses the metaphors on the EU’s role in global governance that are present in political speeches that address the question of multilateralism during the period 2004 to 2011. This analysis shows that the most sedimented metaphor on the EU’s role as a promoter of multilateralism – the EU as MODEL – is precisely the one that entails the most serious normative concerns from the perspective of the ideal traits of multilateralism described in the literature.

Does it Matter that Most Representatives are Higher Educated?

Does it Matter that Most Representatives are Higher Educated?

Deliberation, Participation, and Democratic Legitimacy: Should Deliberative Mini‐publics Shape Public Policy?

In this article I defend the view that only a participatory conception of democracy is compatible with the criterion of democratic legitimacy that deliberative democrats endorse. I do so by analyzing proposals to use mini-publics for shaping public policy and showing that their generalized use would diminish rather than increase the legitimacy of the deliberative system as a whole. These proposals face a normative dilemma. Their implementation would be a superfluous shortcut if the shaping relies on the uptake of the mini-publics’ recommendations for deliberation in the public sphere. Alternatively, if the mini-publics’ recommendations were to directly feed into a decision-making process bypassing deliberation in the public sphere, its implementation would be incompatible with the criterion of legitimacy endorsed by deliberative democrats.

Increasing Professional Self-Understanding: Self-Study Research by Teachers with the Help of Biography, Core Reflection and Dialogue

There is growing interest in self-study methods being used by teachers and teacher educators to improve their own practice. The focus of these self-studies seems to be more on acting than on understanding, and here we focus on a group of teachers who explore their professional identities. Teachers participating in a Master’s degree study were asked to formulate critical moments in their development in which they felt their values were challenged and they were faced with a dilemma connected to these challenges. They then used different self-study research methods to dig deeper into their reports. This article focuses on exploring the normative dilemmas that teachers face in their daily practice and how their self-understanding is influenced by studying these dilemmas. We found that participating teachers faced two main dilemmas between external guidance and self-regulation, and between self-consciousness and relatedness. We also found that the effects of self-study research are connected to a deeper understanding of how things work and that finding core values such as trust, connectedness, and creating space can generate a breakthrough in the two main dilemmas.

Four Patterns of Non-resident Voting Rights

Although the number of external voters has increased significantly in the past decades, the normative and political dilemmas of absentee voting still receive little scholarly attention. The few theoretical attempts that try to analyze systematically non-resident political rights from a normative perspective focus exclusively on dilemmas presented by expatriate citizens. The aim of this article is to contextualize the normative dilemmas and practical problems related to non-resident voting, with a special emphasis on the dilemmas related to the enfranchisement of ethnic kin populations created by shifting borders. The article identifies four patterns of external enfranchisement and offers an analysis of the reasons behind the political inclusion of the different types of external population. The main argument of the article is to highlight the different reasons behind the enfranchisement of temporary absentees (including refugees), economic migrants, exiles of past undemocratic regimes and kin-minorities. While in the case of expatriates, the existence of effective ties between migrants and homelands is used as the normative basis for the maintenance of extraterritorial political rights, ethnic kin-minorities are enfranchised as part of ethnic engineering projects.

NORMATIVE DILEMMAS AND ISSUES FOR ZIMBABWEAN PRINT JOURNALISM IN THE “INFORMATION SOCIETY” ERA

While new digital technologies offer mainstream journalism in Africa (and elsewhere) alternative opportunities to engage and deliver content to their audiences, few studies have explored their disruptive implications to the practice of the profession. This study thus confronts the normative dilemmas and challenges facing Zimbabwean print journalism in the era of the rapid proliferation and appropriation of new digital technologies. It specifically explores how the appropriation of the internet and the mobile phone by Zimbabwean print journalists has contributed to a transformation of the profession at a number of levels, including news sourcing routines, and the structuring of the working day. While broadly affirming findings from previous studies, the paper submits that the information society era has spawned a number of localised professional dilemmas that border around copyright infringements as well as concerns relating to the invasion of journalists’ personal space and privacy. It contends that despite the wide-ranging resources and technological possibilities emerging with new digital technologies in Zimbabwe, their appropriation in journalism (and in everyday life) presents several unsettling challenges and modifications to the profession.

A Critical Application of Securitization Theory: Overcoming the Normative Dilemma of Writing Security

A Critical Application of Securitization Theory: Overcoming the Normative Dilemma of Writing Security

Should Police Threats to Torture Suspects Always be Severely Punished? Reflections on the Gafgen Case

In Ga« fgen v Germany the majority of a Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights affirmed that police threats to torture suspects always violate Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, but that in certain circumstances such as those presented by this case, charging and convicting but leniently punishing the officers concerned provides adequate redress. A majority of the Grand Chamber held that, on the contrary, such violations should always be severely punished even when motivated, as here, by the urgent imperative of rescuing a kidnapped child. This article argues that, on Article 3, the majority of the Chamber reached the right result but not entirely for the right reasons, while the judgment of the majority of the Grand Chamber is methodologically, substantively and morally flawed. Having explored the central underlying normative dilemma neglected by all judges on both panelschow should conflicts between two competing instances of the same ‘absolute’ human right be resolved?cit concludes that, in such circumstances, courts have no legitimate alternative but to make a moral rather than a legal choice taking fully into consideration what is at stake for both parties in the widest possible senses. The verdict of the majorities on both panels that there was no violation of the applicant’s right to a fair trial is also defended, and the issues raised by the Ga« fgen case are contrasted with the much-debated ‘ticking bomb’ scenario with which it is easily but mistakenly confused. *Professor of Human Rights, School of Law, University of Bristol (steven.greer@bristol.ac.uk). I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to Richard Young, Julian Rivers and the Human Rights Law Review’s anonymous referee for helpful comments on an earlier draft. The usual disclaimers apply. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Human Rights Law Review11:1(2011), 67^89 at C orte Ineram ecana de D erchos H um anos on July 7, 2011 hrlr.oxjournals.org D ow nladed fom

A Call to Arms: Fundamental Dilemmas Confronting the Interpretation of Crimes in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

This article seeks to initiate a dialogue within international criminal law (ICL) on treaty interpretation. The state of the art is reviewed and three fundamental interpretive dilemmas are identified and analysed. In the author's view, these dilemmas need to be addressed before a method of interpretation for crimes in Articles 6, 7, and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court can be formulated and operationalized. The �normative dilemma� highlights how the normative tensions underlying ICL might be perpetuated by the interpretive imperatives in Articles 21(3) and 22(2) of the Rome Statute. The �interpretive aids dilemma� concerns the respective roles of the Elements of Crimes and custom as aids to interpreting crimes in the Rome Statute. The �inter-temporal dilemma� pertains to whether these crimes are �frozen� or are to be interpreted in light of relevant and applicable legal developments. Throughout, the aforementioned dilemmas are grafted onto Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties to illustrate that they are, at their core, universal problems of interpretation.

Terror and Beyond: Moral and Normative Dilemmas

Law, Ethics, and the War on Terror. By Matthew Evangelista. Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2008. 202 pp., $19.95 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-4109-6). Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism: Ethics and Liberal Democracy. By Seumas Miller. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2009. 222 pp., $27.95 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-3943-4). The books under review join the debate on the acceptable extent of interference with human rights in the pursuit of political and military objectives. Their respective scopes of analysis are, however, ostensibly different. Law, Ethics, and the War on Terror by Matthew Evangelista explores the legal and ethical dilemmas of counter-terrorism, and it focuses on controversial developments in international law prompted by state practice rather than by moral concepts. Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism: Ethics and Liberal Democracy by Seumas Miller offers an ethical-philosophical analysis of the permissible boundaries of organized political violence, whether terrorism or counter-terrorism. Evangelista discusses whether state behavior (for example, treatment of terrorist suspects/civilians in conflict zones) can generate new, less protective international human rights norms (chapter 1). The author argues that the war on terror has led to setbacks in many areas in which the efforts of the transnational civil society had fostered human-rights enhancing norms (for example, the ban on certain weapons or methods of warfare such as antipersonnel mines, the stigmatization and prohibition of torture, and the prosecution of individuals for mass atrocities). He suggests, nevertheless, that widespread reactions might lead to further restrictions on states’ discretion. Miller inquires whether there are circumstances in which the use of lethal force against non-combatants for political causes can be morally justified, and the infringement upon civil liberties to protect citizens against terrorist attacks can be deemed acceptable. Miller examines high-profile terrorist campaigns and emphasizes the differences between them, for example, action maximizing the loss of innocent life (Al-Qaeda) versus action seeking to discriminate among targets (African National Congress’ struggle against the apartheid state of South Africa) (chapter 1, “The varieties of terrorism”). The author maintains that effective counter-terrorism might require political solutions in addition to military and policing measures, because terrorism sometimes stems from legitimate grievances. Both …

Energy Security, Normative Dilemmas, and Institutional Camouflage: Europe's Pragmatism

The European Union's dense web of institutions is usually regarded as enabling better decision making and interest representation in the European Union's external relations. Combined with the European Union's ambiguous nature, the institutional complex can also function as a foil for governments when tension between material imperatives and declared normative foundations and ambitions is high. The energy–democracy relationship divulges a “pragmatic–realist institutionalism” on the part of European politicians, officials, and agencies. A logic of collective inaction toward difficult but essential “partners,” rather than one of ethical “appropriateness,” has developed and indicates the limits of normative policy and theory.La densa red de instituciones de la Unión Europea es usualmente aclamada por facilitar una mejor toma de decisiones y representación de intereses en las relaciones de la Unión Europea en el exterior. Combinada con la naturaleza ambigua de la Unión Europea, el complejo institucional puede también funcionar como un impedimento para los gobiernos cuando la tensión entre los imperativos materiales y los declarados fundamentos normativos y ambiciones es alta. La relación energía‐democracia divulga un “institucionalismo pragmático–realista” por parte de los políticos europeos, oficiales y agencias. Una lógica de inactividad colectiva hacia los difíciles pero esenciales “compañeros,” en vez de una lógica de “propiedad”ética, ha desarrollado e indica los límites de la política y teoría normativa.

The soft budget constraint syndrome in the hospital sector

Research to date has focused mainly on the soft budget constraint syndrome in the corporate sector and in the credit system. This article concentrates on the hospital sector. It describes the motivations and the contradictory nature of the behaviour of the patient, the physician, the hospital director, the politician and the hospital owner. The motivations explain the reasons behind the strong inclination to overspend and the tendency of softening budgetary limits. The burden of overspending and debt is pushed upward at each level of the decision-making and financing processes. This article covers the relationship between the various ownership types (state, non-profit and for-profit non-state ownership types) and the soft budget constraint syndrome. Finally, it looks at the phenomenon from normative aspects: the favourable and unfavourable consequences of the hardening of the budgetary limit and how normative dilemmas are reflected in the minds of the participants of the events.

Operationalizing the 'Responsibility to Protect' and Conflict Prevention: Dilemmas of Civilian Protection in Armed Conflict

The responsibility to protect is a nascent, highly contentious concept. Although a restrictive understanding of the concept was agreed upon by world leaders in 2005, the perspective of conflict prevention reveals the conceptual gap in terms of its scope, stage, and strength, failing to bridge the gulf between rhetorical support for prevention and tangible commitment to international action. It is argued that this commitment gap can be bridged by exploring the basis and boundaries of the legal responsibility that encompasses the transcending nature of the responsibility to prevent and react at the operational level. The reach of legal responsibility to protect can be defined by drawing on the existing rules of international law relating to the protection of civilians. While such an extension of the legal responsibility to protect can be appreciated as furthering the agenda of conflict prevention, the marriage of the two concepts appears to be destined to failure, causing normative, operational and ethical dilemmas. It will be suggested that a Human Protection Council be established as an alternative ‘right authority’ in order to resolve or mitigate those dilemmas by separating the responsibility to protect civilians from the Security Council's primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.

The Imperative to Rebuild: Assessing the Normative Case for Postconflict Reconstruction

The past two decades have witnessed the proliferation of comprehensive international missions of peacebuilding and reconstruction, aimed not simply at bringing conflict to an end but also at preventing its recurrence. Recent missions, ranging from relatively modest involvement to highly complex international administrations, have generated a debate about the rights and duties of international actors to reconstruct postconflict states. In view of the recent growth of such missions, and the serious challenges and crises that have plagued them, we seek in this article to address some of the gaps in the current literature and engage in a critical analysis of the moral purposes and dilemmas of reconstruction. More specifically, we construct a map for understanding and evaluating the different ethical imperatives advanced by those who attempt to rebuild war-torn societies. In our view, such a mapping exercise is a necessary step in any attempt to build a normative defence of postconflict reconstruction. The article proceeds in two stages: first, we present the various rationales for reconstruction offered by international actors, and systematize these into four different “logics”; second, we evaluate the implications and normative dilemmas generated by each logic.

Just wars: from Cicero to Iraq

In what circumstances is it legitimate to use force? How should force be used? These are two of the most crucial questions confronting world politics today.The Just War tradition provides a set of criteria which political leaders and soldiers use to defend and rationalize war. This book explores the evolution of thinking about just wars and examines its role in shaping contemporary judgements about the use of force, from grand strategic issues of whether states have a right to preemptive self-defence, to the minutiae of targeting.Bellamy maps the evolution of the Just War tradition, demonstrating how it arose from a myriad of sub-traditions, including scholasticism, the holy war tradition, chivalry, natural law positive law, Erasmus and Kant's reformism, and realism from Machiavelli to Morgenthau. He then applies this tradition to a range of contemporary normative dilemmas related to terrorism, pre-emption, aerial bombardment and humanitarian intervention.Copyright © Alex J. Bellamy 2006