Normative Solution Research Articles

Settler Colonialism and Decolonization

Abstract This essay makes two arguments. First, it argues that the analytical frame of settler colonialism is very productive in order to understand, describe, and at times even predict certain future trends of the Israeli state and society, while putting aside questions of legitimation or justification. On the other hand, this analytical frame is underdetermined when it comes to offering possible solutions for the future of Palestine-Israel. From the mere fact that Israel is a settler colonial project no particular future normative solution could be deduced logically. Future situations are political, not logical, and as such they are subject to different kinds of considerations including ethical and practical ones. Furthermore, we bear certain responsibility for political decisions that we do not while making logical judgments, and this different must be kept.

A Critical Review of the Institute of Multiple Recidivism in the Modern Criminal Law of the Republic of Serbia: The Controversy of the Current Legal Solution and Possible Solutions

After being derogated several times, the institute of multiple recidivism was re-incorporated into the Republic of Serbia’s positive criminal legislation with the intention of giving intentional perpetrators of crimes punishable by imprisonment, who were previously convicted at least twice for criminal offenses committed with intent to imprisonment for at least one year, harsher penalties and disabling them from committing criminal offenses in the future. Numerous disputed scenarios required national jurisprudence to find solutions, with the challenges of calculating the criminal range and the level of the lower threshold of the imposed criminal sentence standing out in particular. The observed institute was analyzed primarily through the prism of rationality, justification, and expediency of the current normative solution, within which the author attempted to provide answers to potentially contentious issues. The findings of the conducted research indicated that the new concept of the institute of multiple recidivism is incorrect because the threshold of half the penal range is excessively high and does not leave enough space for the court to objectively weigh the circumstances of each specific case. Furthermore, the findings suggest that in some cases, an approach based on alternative measures may be a more convenient solution, as well as that the application of the existing legal solution regarding the observed institute is merely legitimate in relation to some categories of perpetrators who are declared “incorrigible.” The conducted research concludes that, due to the arguments presented in the paper, there is a high likelihood that the institute of multiple recidivism will again be derogated from the Republic of Serbia’s legislation if the provision of Art. 55a of the Criminal Code remains unchanged.

Bargaining over Treatment Choice under Disagreement

A group of experts with different prior beliefs must choose a treatment. A dataset is made public and leads to revisions of beliefs. We propose a model where the experts’ disagreements are resolved through bargaining, using the Nash bargaining solution. Experts bargain after disclosure of the dataset. Bargaining may lead to an inefficient use of information in a strong sense: experts receive a lower payoff in every state and for any prior belief (i.e., inadmissibility). Bargaining exhibits underreaction to information as compared to the normative solution in which experts bargain ex ante on the procedure used to exploit the data. (JEL C78, D82, D83)

Just energy business needed! How to achieve a just energy transition by engaging energy companies in reaching climate neutrality: (re)conceptualising energy law for energy corporations

Public administration and energy regulators provide policy and economic support to achieve climate neutrality; however, the role of key stakeholders in energy transition, such as energy companies, is critical to a just energy transition. Corporate voluntary incentives to guide, support and pressure companies to disclose their climate-related risks are becoming commonplace internationally. Yet, formal legal frameworks to engage energy companies in reaching net zero emissions have largely been confined to financial risk disclosure and voluntary regulation. In this context, the article offers a normative solution that enables the effective implementation of obligations imposed on energy companies related to the 2050 energy transformation, addressing the concept of ‘energy-just companies’. It also proposes the management of this process by illustrating a different, proactive approach to the role of effective obligations in the transformation process based on a novel understanding of energy law principles. These legal solutions consist of ‘corporate energy transformation plans’ based on energy justice applied by energy companies.

Insight with stumpers: Normative solution data for 25 stumpers and a fresh perspective on the accuracy effect

When people solve a problem, they can do in one of two ways - analytically or through insight. There is robust evidence showing that a problem solved insightfully is more likely to be correct than one solved through analysis, the so-called accuracy or correctness effect in insight research. However, the nature of the insight problems in the laboratory means that it is often not easy to disentangle whether a participant feels correct or whether she actually is correct. We report data from two studies using stumpers as stimuli. Stumpers are a form of riddle in which it is possible to generate a plausible but incorrect answer. Alongside normative data for 25 stumpers, we also demonstrate that insight is linked to certainty in the answer rather than whether the answer is correct or not and that certainty (subjective correctness) is a stronger predictor of the feeling of insight than objective correctness. The findings support work into false insight and further add to the understanding of the phenomenology of ‘aha’ moments.

Theoretical and Legal Problems in the Sphere of Operative Search Activities

In terms of the general theory of state and law, there is a number of problems in ensuring national security within the framework of the goals and tasks of operative search activities of internal affair’s departments. They include insufficient use of dialectic, systemic, functional, structural, specific historical approaches in modern research, and the analysis of the “security” category in isolation from the theory of social systems and the theory of management. The question of judicial technique is still relevant in connection with how accurately the concept of “security” is reflected in legislation, its distinction from similar legal concepts, the identification of its place in the system of Russian law, correlation between security and other functions of law, and a clear definition of the key principles of ensuring security. The doctrinal and normative solution of these problems will be relevant for teaching future lawyers such subjects as “Basics of the Theory of National Security”, “Operative Search Activities”, and other legal disciplines, it will also help specify the role and significance of operative search activities in the implementation of such a function of the Russian state as crime counteraction.

Blame for me and Not for Thee: Status Sensitivity and Moral Responsibility

In our day-to-day lives, we form responsibility judgements about one another – but we are imperfect beings, and our judgments can be mistaken. This paper suggests that we get things wrong not merely by chance, but predictably and systematically. In particular, these miscues are common when we are dealing with large gaps in social status and power. That is, when we form judgements about those who are much more or less socially powerful than ourselves, it is increasingly likely that “epistemic distorters” will reliably disrupt our reasoning. In response to this situation, I argue for the introduction of a new norm concerning blame and social status: “Powerful Restraint.” This norm suggests that the socially powerful ought to blame the socially dispossessed less frequently, and that social pressure be applied to achieve that compliance. I argue that such a norm is justified given the pernicious down-stream moral effects of the up-stream epistemic distortion I describe. I defend it against objections that it suggests a normative solution to an epistemic problem, that it is paternalistic, and that it involves a kind of disrespect to the less socially powerful.

CRIMINAL LIABILITY RELATED TO THE SYSTEM OF ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE AND CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH SENTENCED PERSON AVOIDS PERFORMING DUTIES ORDERED BY THE COURT

The crucial aim of this article is to indicate grounds of legal liability connected with situations in which person sentenced to penalty, punitive measure or safeguard measure, within the system of electronic surveillance, violates certain duties. Considerations concerning the aforementioned issues are preceded by the analysis on the essence of the electronic surveillance, reasons for its implementation into the applicable legal system and means of its usage related to legal instruments of penal reaction to perpetrator’s behavior. Moreover, author of the article analyses legal character of the prison sentence performed with the usage of electronic surveillance. This constitutes starting point for answering practically important question: whether leaving the place of performing prison sentence within the system of electronic surveillance can be qualified as the offence of self-release, determined in art. 242 § 1 of the Criminal Code. At the end of the article, author presents de lege ferenda postulates concerning normative solution related to the legal ground of qualifying behaviors consisting in avoiding electronic surveillance.

SOCIAL VALUE OF ETHICAL PROBLEMS FOR MODERN GENETIC RESEARCH IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY

This paper presents the multivariate analysis of the bioethical criterion for the understanding the social value of genetic research in medicine and biology. From the point of view of moral assessment, a historical retrospective and dialectics of genetic technologies development and their application in medical practice are given. The presented data indicate the social and moral conflict of the unbalanced genetic technologies using and the way for ethical and normative solution. The leading approaches to the search for optimization of genetic technologies based on improving the ethics of science, education, public confidence, and ensuring the ethical component of legislative regulation are considered. The construction of the work and the discussion of the results confirms by real and promising examples of genetic technologies: perinatal and pre-implantation diagnostics; genetic banks; editing the human genome. The specificity of the work lies in the direct long-term author's participation in the creation of an ethical concept of genetic research in medicine and biology on the national, regional and international levels.

Board Gender Diversity: A Path to Achieving Substantive Equality in the U.S.

While the United States made history this year with Kamala Harris becoming the first woman, Black, and Asian Vice President, the country overall has been rapidly losing its status as a global power founded on democratic principles. This is in part due to the leadership’s active involvement in reducing the rights of women, Black people, and other marginalized groups. We use gender diversity on corporate boards as a comparative example, to examine the legal frameworks designed to promote equality in the EU and U.S. While the European Union (EU) was founded on the concept of equality as a fundamental value in 1993, the United States (U.S.) was created at a time when women were considered legally inferior to men. This has had the lasting effect of preventing women in the U.S. from making inroads into positions of power. While legislated board gender diversity mandates have been instituted in some EU countries, the United States has been loath to take that route, relying instead on the goodwill of corporate boards with little progress. On September 30, 2018, however, California enacted a law that has stirred much controversy for requiring at least one woman to be on the boards of corporations headquartered in the state by 2020. Based on our analysis, the CA bill and other similar legislative efforts will fail without parallel constitutional action and cultural change in the United States. We begin by examining the individual, institutional, and cultural reasons why the U.S. lags so far behind the rest of the industrialized world. We then discuss recent activism by powerful institutions such as NASDAQ and Goldman Sachs that may be signs of broader cultural change and receptiveness to positive action. Next, we conduct an analysis of the legislative, cultural, and constitutional factors that have helped the EU succeed in increasing board diversity. We conclude by offering a normative solution that can pave the way to achieving gender equality in the United States. Learning from the EU model, the U.S. must let go of the Equal Rights Amendment and adopt a Substantive Equality Amendment to the Constitution requiring positive action to facilitate laws enabling gender equality. This solution will have broad cultural impact outside of the board context and will help change the lived experiences and outcomes for women in the United Stated for generations to come. It will change the course of history.

Sustainability Accounting—Cognitive and Conceptual Approach

Nowadays, the speed of changes in practical activities and scientific research in the field of sustainable development has not yet allowed to clearly indicate the role of accounting in this area. Therefore, the main goal of the paper is to present sustainability accounting in the light of positive and normative accounting theory and to propose its conceptual framework as a normative solution. Positive theories allow the author to use inductive reasoning and thus indicates the state of accounting development (opportunities and risks) in sustainable business, identifying three key gaps: theoretical, empirical and methodical. In turn, by means of normative theories, on the basis of deductive reasoning, the paper recognizes the desired directions and normatives of sustainability accounting changes. The research methodology is based on theoretical and methodological triangulation, using descriptive and comparative analysis. The main findings of the research focus on an original normative solution in the form of the author’s concept of sustainability accounting based on conclusions drawn in the light of positive and normative accounting theories. The presented potential research areas are meant to pose the directions of sustainability accounting development. The results of research may determine the future growth, importance and character of sustainability accounting in business, and thus help both shareholders and stakeholders to perceive and use company achievements for sustainable development.

Commitment of States, Access to Asylum, and Material Benefits: Assessing Key Legislative Battles and Their Structural Impact on the Common European Asylum System

Abstract In 2015, the movement of asylum seekers to the European Union (EU) increased dramatically and led to the factual invalidation of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). From the beginning, the European Commission’s objective was to create a fair system guaranteeing a European-wide protection status in line with the standards contained in the 1951 Refugee Convention. In order to understand why this system failed, it is important to look closely at the applicable laws. Which regulations were based on the Amsterdam and Lisbon treaty mandates? What were the key disputes and which normative solution was pushed through? Scholarly attention so far has focused on either external aspects of border policy or institutional and policy issues within the EU. By contrast, this article argues that the central gaps in the system present a multifaceted set of problems with three main weaknesses: the neglected geographic asymmetry enshrined in the European asylum system; a reliance on national standards that runs through all the legislative processes; and the over-emphasis of asylum rights in contrast to an under-regulation of access to asylum. This combination of problems helps to explain the rise of a serious protection crisis in Europe following the influx in 2015, a crisis that remains largely unresolved. These inherent weaknesses are analysed through an examination of key disputes in the legislative process establishing the CEAS. The article traces the different positions of the European institutions in the legislation process and assesses the shortcomings of the emergent system in two periods: during the establishment of this system from 1999 to 2005, and the reform period from 2008 to 2013. The article concludes with reflections on the current reform phase. The findings point to ineffective laws, unresolved normative disputes, and the need for further reforms to achieve a harmonized CEAS in line with treaty mandates.

The Return of Cultural Genocide?

Today, cultural genocide and the protection of cultural groups return to occupy criminal international law. Most writers see it as a new problem in need of normative solution. In this article we suggest that the problem is as old as the concept of genocide itself, and suggest to explore it through the lens of law and history. We argue that the original conceptualization of the crime of genocide-as presented by Raphael Lemkin-gave cultural genocide center stage. The novelty of the Nazi crime lay in the methodical attempt to destroy a group-well beyond typical war crimes and acts of repression-and what makes up a group's identity is its culture. Hence, for Lemkin, the essence of genocide was cultural. Ironically, the final text of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide does not prohibit cultural genocide as such. What led to this almost total inversion of the original meaning of genocide, from an encompassing concept of genocide to one limited to its physical and biological aspects? Explaining the riddle of cultural genocide is the aim of this article. It will examine the various junctures of law, politics and history in which the concept was shaped: the original conceptualization by Lemkin; litigation in national and international criminal courts; and the drafting process of the Genocide Convention. Against the dominance of criminal law, we return to the forgotten successful struggle for cultural restitution (books, archives and works of art) fought by Jewish organizations after the Holocaust as a countermeasure to cultural genocide. We show that only by bringing together these various struggles can we recover a robust understanding of cultural genocide, once repressed by international law, and now returns to haunt us by the demands of groups for recognition and protection.

The Return of Cultural Genocide?

Today, cultural genocide and the protection of cultural groups return to occupy criminal international law. Most writers see it as a new problem in need of normative solution. In this article we suggest that the problem is as old as the concept of genocide itself, and suggest to explore it through the lens of law and history. We argue that the original conceptualization of the crime of genocide-as presented by Raphael Lemkin-gave cultural genocide center stage. The novelty of the Nazi crime lay in the methodical attempt to destroy a group-well beyond typical war crimes and acts of repression-and what makes up a group's identity is its culture. Hence, for Lemkin, the essence of genocide was cultural. Ironically, the final text of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide does not prohibit cultural genocide as such. What led to this almost total inversion of the original meaning of genocide, from an encompassing concept of genocide to one limited to its physical and biological aspects? Explaining the riddle of cultural genocide is the aim of this article. It will examine the various junctures of law, politics and history in which the concept was shaped: the original conceptualization by Lemkin; litigation in national and international criminal courts; and the drafting process of the Genocide Convention. Against the dominance of criminal law, we return to the forgotten successful struggle for cultural restitution (books, archives and works of art) fought by Jewish organizations after the Holocaust as a countermeasure to cultural genocide. We show that only by bringing together these various struggles can we recover a robust understanding of cultural genocide, once repressed by international law, and now returns to haunt us by the demands of groups for recognition and protection.

Excessive Herding in the Laboratory: The Role of Intuitive Judgments

We designed four observational learning experiments to identify the key channels that, along with Bayes-rational inferences, drive herd behavior. In Experiment 1, unobserved, whose actions remain private, learn from the public actions made in turn by subjects endowed with private signals of medium quality. We find that when unobserved face a handful of identical actions that contradict their high quality signals they herd more extensively than predicted by Bayes-rational herding. Deviations from the normative solution result in severe expected losses and unobserved would be better off without the chance to learn from others. When unobserved are endowed with medium quality signals they learn rather successfully from public actions, but they overweight their low quality signals relative to public information. Experiments 2-4 reveal that non-Bayesian updating and informational misinferences are the two channels that drive excessive herding, while the strong (resp. mild) overemphasis on low (resp. medium) quality signals is caused by wrong expectations about others’ strategy. A model of intuitive observational learning accounts for the phenomenon of excessive herding, it captures well herd behavior with medium quality signals, but it fails to predict that the reluctance to contradict private signals is stronger for low than for medium quality.

Is Catholic Social Thought compatible with stakeholder theory? Towards human-centered businesses

The dominant view of the role and objectives of the firm is still based on neoclassical thinking, which maintains that short-term profit maximization is the basic driver of the firm. On the other hand, the stakeholder theory highlights the importance of considering the aims of all groups that participate or are affected by the functioning of the firm. For many economists, the stakeholder theory is a new stage for corporations, necessary in order to insert Corporate Social Responsibility at the strategic level and to find, first, new ways of maintaining the social legitimacy to operate and, secondly, new sources of competitive advantage through shared value creation. From the perspective of Catholic Social Thought (CST), the firm is considered as a positive institution with the aim of increasing the common good of society. This common good is linked with the achievement of the particular goods of all stakeholders of the firm. From this perspective, CST and the stakeholder approach seem to be compatible standpoints. However, stakeholder theory has not developed a clear criterion to take management decisions when stakeholders’ aims collide. CST proposes a normative solution to these situations, based on ethical and anthropological principles. This paper analyzes the compatibility of stakeholder theory and CST ethic- based approach to management decision taking. In our view, CST demands the introduction of morality in management, based on the achievement of the common good and the creation of a community inside the firm that goes beyond contractual bonds or the mere bargaining of stakes.

Pension Obligations in the European Union: A Case Study for Accounting Policy

AbstractPension obligations constitute a critical issue for public finances and budgets. This is especially true for the European Union whose institutional mechanism aims to supervise Member States’ spending through centralised budgetary rules based upon financial covenants. In this context, accounting methods of recognition and measurement of pension obligations become an integral and critical aspect of Europe’s transnational budgetary and financial supervision. Drawing upon a comprehensive overview of pension management and regulation, this article aims to analyse the ongoing debate on accounting for pension obligations with a specific attention to the harmonization of European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS). While the European Commission has been favouring the ‘indisputable reference’ to the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), European Member States’ practices and views remain inconsistent with the normative solution imposed by the IPSAS 25, which favours and facilitates Definite Contribution pension schemes. In this context, we do summarise the IPSAS position mimicking the IFRS, review the pension’s accounting in national statistics and EPSAS debate, and provide some building blocks for a comprehensive model of accounting for pension obligations that admits and enables several viable modes of pension management.

Building up collective actions to qualify GIs

The paper deals with the analysis of behind the procedures for the recognition of a geographical indication (GI). More precisely, by applying a new theoretical perspective, based on structure-conduct-performance paradigm and on seven variables of collective action recently provided in literature, the article tries to explain possible failures of strategies of valorization of agricultural products based on GIs. The application of the selected methodology to a case-study in Italy is effective in showing the specific variables affecting the failure of collective action. Therefore, this methodology permits limits and obstacles to implement the virtuous circle of collective action to emerge. Moreover, it addresses possible normative solution aiming at acquiring a more prudential approach before applying for a GI recognition, in order to avoid possible failures.

Minimax Play at Wimbledon Redux

Initial tests of the predictive power of the mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium in the laboratory pointed to significant deviations. In response to the flat maximum critique, that incentives in the lab were not high enough to induce Nash behavior, researchers turned to the field, particularly sporting environments, where the monetary incentives were high. Field experiments overall, found predictions closer to the marginal distribution of actions predicted by the mixed strategy Nash equilibrium; however, evidence of deviations from the prediction of independent behavior across rounds have been mixed. I use a new dataset of tennis match serves that is two orders of magnitude greater than those used in previous tennis studies. Similarly to previous findings, the marginal distributions of professionals’ serves are not significantly different from the prediction of the normative solution, but there exists significant serial dependence across serves. This behavior is found even among players who at some point in their careers were ranked Number 1 in the world. The deviations of these top players cannot be explained as a strategic best response to expectations of lower-ranked players’ deviations from the Nash equilibrium.

Accounting for Pension Obligations in the European Union: A Case Study for EPSAS and Transnational Budgetary Supervision

Pension obligations constitute a critical issue for public finances and budgets. This is especially true for the European Union whose institutional mechanism aims to supervise Member States’ spending through centralised budgetary rules based upon financial covenants. In this context, accounting methods of recognition and measurement of pension obligations become an integral and critical aspect of Europe’s transnational budgetary and financial supervision. Drawing upon a comprehensive overview of pension management and regulation, this article aims to analyse the ongoing debate on accounting for pension obligations with a specific attention to the harmonization of European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS). While the European Commission has been favouring the ‘indisputable reference’ to the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), European Member States’ practices and views remain inconsistent with the normative solution imposed by the IPSAS 25, which favours and facilitates Definite Contribution pension schemes. In this context, we do summarise the IPSAS position mimicking the IFRS, review the pension’s accounting in national statistics and EPSAS debate, and provide some building blocks for a comprehensive model of accounting for pension obligations that admits and enables several viable modes of pension management.