Justice Research Articles

Grounded governance: Cultivating social justice through community-engaged learning with PEPAKEṈ HÁUTW̱ (Blossoming Place)

By deepening student relationships to local governance systems, they become better equipped to envision and enact the worlds they seek to create. This paper discusses a community-engaged learning initiative facilitated by a University of Victoria instructor that centered on the theme of “Grounded Governance” to anchor student learning about governance and social justice theories, movements and practices. The overall approach draws inspiration from bell hooks who explains the value and significance of engaged learning. Specifically, this paper discusses the experience of teaching place-based learning through engagement with Indigenous-led ecological restoration efforts, including collaboration with PEPAKEṈ HÁUTW̱ (Blossoming Place). The author reflects on community site visits with a W̱SÁNEĆ nonprofit organization to learn about ecological restoration and decolonial governance. This grounded approach to teaching is inspired by Indigenous-led place-based learning. As a collaborative effort between the Studies in Social Justice program, the School of Public Administration and community partners, this pedagogy aims to integrate community-engaged learning more deeply into the study of public administration. Doing so in practice emphasizes relationship-building with local Indigenous-led community organizations while supporting student learning objectives by teaching about social justice through collaborative and meaningful public engagement.

Equity in Education: How Classroom Practices Can Promote Social Justice

This paper investigates how classroom practices can actively promote equity and social justice in education by focusing on three core strategies: inclusive teaching, differentiated instruction, and fostering teacher-student relationships. Using a case study approach, the research examines classrooms in underfunded urban schools where these practices have been implemented. Social justice theory serves as the foundation for this analysis, emphasizing how classroom practices directly address disparities in academic outcomes among students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Findings show that inclusive teaching practicessuch as using diverse curricular materialsencourage greater participation from marginalized students. Differentiated instruction tailored to individual learning needs reduces performance gaps, while teacher expectations significantly impact student motivation and success. Prior studies are reviewed to contextualize these findings, highlighting a gap in the literature concerning real-world application of these strategies in disadvantaged communities. This research uniquely contributes by providing a concrete analysis of how these practices are applied in practice, offering practical insights for educators and policymakers aiming to reduce inequality in education.

The Impact of Holistic Justice on the Long‐Term Experiences and Wellbeing of Mass Human Rights Violation Survivors: Ethnographic and Interview Evidence From Kosova, Northern Ireland and Albania

ABSTRACTResearch highlights the long‐term collective effects of mass human rights violations (MHRVs) on survivors’ wellbeing. This multi‐method, multi‐context paper combines the social identity approach (SIA), transitional and social justice theories and human rights‐conceptualised wellbeing to propose a human rights understanding of trauma responses and experiences in the context of MHRVs. In Study 1, ethnographic research in four locations in Kosova, 5 years post war indicates that lack of perceived conflict‐related and social justice is experienced as a key contributor to survivors’ individual and collective wellbeing. In Study 2, 61 semi‐structured interviews with MHRVs survivors from post‐war Kosova, post‐conflict Northern Ireland and post‐dictatorship Albania two to three decades post conflict also show that such justice experiences inform wellbeing. These studies illustrate the importance of expanding the SIA to health and trauma theories by taking account of a human rights‐conceptualised wellbeing as well as adopting a holistic analysis of justice perception.

Social workers’ support of the status quo: Results from a national survey

Summary Social work has an intimate and complex relationship with the systems that shape the social, political, economic, and environmental fabric of the United States. System justification theory helps explain why people are motivated to accept the status quo of systems and unequal social arrangements. This study examined the system-justifying beliefs of a national sample ( N = 516) of master’s-level social workers to better understand how beliefs about the status quo may shape job outcomes (e.g., burnout and satisfaction) and practice outcomes (e.g., goals, motivations, perceptions of clients, and endorsement of practice behaviors). Findings Ordinary least squares regression analyses adjusting for demographic characteristics indicated significant relationships with both practice outcomes and job outcomes. Higher system-justifying beliefs were associated with less social justice motivation, more practical motivation, less transformative practice goals, and less understanding of clients’ needs as symptoms of structural failures. However, higher system-justifying beliefs were also associated with more compassion satisfaction, less secondary trauma, and less emotional exhaustion. Applications Key interventions into the structural conditions of social work practice so that social workers rely less on system-justifying beliefs to cope with burnout and increase satisfaction are discussed. Examples include investments in support resources, workplace empowerment, increased discretion, and workload reduction. Cognitive and psychological interventions, specifically the development of critical consciousness and critical thinking, are also suggested.

Ethical Issues in Memory Modification Technology: A Scoping Review.

Memory modification technology (MMT) refers to the use of neurotechnologies to intervene in memories. Many scholars have reflected on the ethical issues in MMT, but a comprehensive review of this topic has not been seen. This article presents the first scoping review study of ethical issues in MMT using a bibliometric and systematic approach. After thorough examination, 133 records of key literature are included in this scoping review. Six core ethical themes are extracted: (1) self, identity, and authenticity; (2) autonomy and informed consent; (3) welfare and happiness; (4) safety and risks; (5) responsibility and obligation; (6) social and legal justice. More detailed analyses are conducted on the moral stances and reasons held by different scholars concerning these ethical themes. As can be seen, current debates exhibit certain shortcomings, including ambiguous ethical concepts and a restricted scope of analysis. Therefore, we call for deeper reflections on the philosophical foundations, more precise definitions of ethical terms, and more comprehensive examinations of neurotechnological applications, in order to better address the ethical challenges in the future.

Legal Certainty for Providing Preferential Tariffs in the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) Agreement Based on Operational Certification Procedures (OCP) in Tax Court Decisions

The ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) is an agreement made by the member countries of ASEAN and the People's Republic of China with the aim of promoting a stable and harmonious economy through the free flow of goods. ACFTA also supports the idea that barriers to international trade, both tariff and non-tariff, should be reduced or even eliminated, which is known as preferential tariffs. The countries involved in the ACFTA agreement agree that the Rules of Origin (ROO) provisions are necessary to obtain preferential tariffs. ROO establishes three criteria: Origin Criteria, Consignment Criteria, and Procedural Criteria. (Procedural Criteria). The Procedural Criteria are regulated in the Operational Certification Procedures (OCP) in Appendix 1 of Attachment A of Annex 1 ROO. The OCP contains regulations regarding the time for submitting a Certificate of Origin (SKA) in order to obtain a preferential rate. There are parties that think about the implementation of OCP ACFTA in Indonesia, that further regulations on OCP cannot be made without an agreement from both sides to do so. Research conducted using a normative legal approach with data collection methods through literature study, concluded that there are still differences in the application of Operational Certification Procedures (OCP) in the imposition of preferential rates by customs officers and Tax Court judges in the region in resolving disputes regarding preferential tariff. Therefore, adjustments are needed in the legal products regarding the implementation of preferential tariff imposition, as well as an enhancement of legal understanding and reasoning in the Tax Court to provide legal certainty, justice, and benefits for all stakeholders. Keywords: ACFTA, Preferntial Tariff, OCP.

Racial Violence in ‘Action’: Police Storytelling and Narrativisation in the Inquiry of Jermaine Baker

Abstract Police tell stories not only to make sense of their experiences but also, as this paper argues, they tell stories to establish legal doctrines and support justifications for their decisions. Departing from police ethnography and narrative criminology, adopting a deconstructive and critical Black Studies perspective, this paper reads the narrative W80 (a London Met police firearms officer) provided in the inquiry into the death of Jermaine Baker, a 28-year-old Black man, in 2015, to examine how uncertainty was both conditional and functional in the narrative to sustain the justification of racial violence. W80’s narrative reveals how causality undergirds the law of self-defence he cited and related on. Problematizing the distinction of story and action, this paper analyses W80’s narrative for its thematic of fiction and truth. Attending to this, the paper argues the conditions of uncertainty and open-endedness of W80’s narrative reserved for racial violence to be reasoned and justified as lawful.

Implementation of Legal Quality Audit on Electronic Civil Trial Procedures (E-Court)

Currently, electronic court (e-court) systems are being implemented in several countries. The Supreme Court in Indonesia has also been adopted e-court for legal administration tasks, such as determining judicial panel compositions. A qualitative approach is proposed to explore the implementation itself. The concept and characteristics of the Special Legal Quality Audit System for electronic justice arrangements (E-court) encourage the realization of an effective and fair Civil Justice System. The concept in this context is a philosophical aspect that serves as the source of the Legal Quality Assurance Paradigm, including: defect-free (deficiency), customer satisfaction, and continuous improvement without end. This concept is elaborated in parameters that are measured or evaluated to determine the quality level and make improvements to increase the level of quality. The quality parameters used by the researcherinclude: product reliability, minimal cost, accessibility, security, service friendliness, systematicity, and keeping pace with global developments.

Restitution of African Cultural Heritage: Revisiting Natural Law Concepts of Statehood and Property in the Context of Colonial Spoliation

Abstract In the late nineteenth century, Western Powers launched military campaigns in sub-Saharan Africa resulting in the colonization of vast territories and the spoliation of cultural property. To justify the conquest, they asserted the supremacy of Western culture and disregarded principles of international law in their dealings with African states, communities, and individuals. This article examines colonialist legal justifications such as the denial of statehood of pre-colonial sub-Saharan African societies, the notion that conquest and spoliation were justifiable, and the belief that African legal systems lacked concepts of property. The article details why these arguments contradict well-established nineteenth-century legal principles, particularly state sovereignty and private property, which together form the conceptual basis for the prohibition of spoliation. The universal nature of those principles allows for the nondiscriminatory application and interpretation of historical law and consequently the protection of African pre-colonial states and private as well as public cultural property.

Difficulties Of Kindergarten Teachers In The Blocks Of Time

Teaching kindergarten comes with its fair share of challenges, but it can also be an incredibly rewarding experience watching your learners grow and learn during their time in school. In this context, this study aimed to determine the difficulties kindergarten teachers face in the blocks of time regarding learning domains, transition activities, and musical instruments. The study targeted 65 kindergarten teachers using a self-made questionnaire that passed stringent tests of validity and reliability to collect information from the respondents. The results revealed that kindergarten teachers’ level of difficulty in learning domain and transition activities was low, while musical instruments were high. In addition, there was no significant difference in the level of difficulties of kindergarten teachers in the blocks of time in terms of learning domains, transition activities, and musical instruments when compared according to age, civil status, number of training attended, and family income. The result provides evidence that kindergarten teachers need to improve themselves in the delivery of instruction in the kindergarten program and calls for conducting an enrichment plan focusing on learning domains, transition activities, and musical instruments in the kindergarten curriculum throughout the region. Keywords: Blocks of time, difficulties, kindergarten teachers, Bindoy, Negros Oriental.

The principles of the exercise of civil rights in the dynamics of contractual obligations

The article is devoted to the general principles of the execution of civil rights upon the occurrence, performance, change and termination of a contractual obligation. Such general patterns are the principles, the application of which is a legal fact that causes the dynamics of a contractual obligation (emergence, implementation, change, suspension, termination), as well as the protection and protection of civil law and interest). It has been proven that there is a group of principles that are characteristic of all stages of the dynamics of a contractual obligation, which are the principles of legal equality, justice, good faith and reasonableness, dispositiveness. It was analyzed that the principle of freedom of contract and free expression of will are determining principles for the execution of civil rights by participants in contractual obligations, because such principles are designed to ensure the validity of the deed, which will subsequently undergo its dynamic development. The basis of these principles is a voluntary action, without any coercion, to enter or not to enter into contractual relations (that is, emergence as a stage of dynamics), as well as to choose a counterparty, its conditions, methods of provision, special conditions for the exercise of rights and performance of duties, freedom of change and termination of the contract. Therefore, this principle will be relevant for almost all stages of dynamics, only with a different magnitude of its role. It has been proven that the principles of the fulfillment of obligations, namely the principles of proper and real fulfillment of obligations, complement the above-mentioned principles of freedom of contract and free expression of will in importance for the realization of civil rights in contractual obligations. The principles of the exercise of subjective civil rights establish fundamental requirements for the conduct of participants, in particular in contractual obligations. It is proposed to highlight such principles of the exercise of civil rights by participants in contractual obligations as the principles of consistency, unimpededness and full satisfaction of interest. The principle of protection of civil rights is manifested in the abnormal dynamics of the contractual obligation. It has been proven that a certain set of basic principles for the exercise of civil rights is inherent to each stage of the dynamics of a contractual obligation.

Dualistic View in the Formulation of Criminal Offenses in the National Criminal Code

This article discusses the shift in criminal law perspectives in Indonesia from monist to dualist within the National Criminal Code (Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Pidana or KUHP). The term "pidana," originating from the Dutch word "straf," is defined as the punishment imposed by the state for criminal law violations. Since the colonial era, Indonesia inherited Dutch criminal law, which underwent reforms starting in 1958. These reforms were driven by the need for a better criminal legal framework in line with societal developments. The aim of criminal law reform is to achieve legal certainty, justice, and utility. The reasons for reform are influenced by political, sociological, psychological, and practical aspects. Reform efforts include legal discoveries through interpretation, analogy, and legal refinement, covering substantive, structural, and cultural aspects of the law. The National Criminal Code of Indonesia has shifted its perspective from monist to dualist. Monist theory unifies the wrongful nature and culpability as elements of a criminal act, while dualist theory separates them. The National Criminal Code affirms this separation but still formulates the subjective element of negligence in specific criminal acts. This shift in perspective has implications for law enforcement processes in courts. Prosecutors are not required to prove intent, and courts must balance criminal acts and criminal liability. However, there is a need for the development and understanding of these concepts by law enforcement, legal advisors, and judges to maintain a balance between legal certainty and justice. In conclusion, the National Criminal Code adopts a dualist perspective to strengthen the role of criminal law. The separation of criminal acts and criminal liability is expected to enhance the balance between legal certainty and justice in criminal court decisions in Indonesia.

The Profitable Art of Managerial Responses to Online Reviews: A Justice-Based Investigation of Service Recovery and Firm-Level Operating Performance

ABSTRACT Building on the justice theory, managerial responses (MRs) to negative online reviews are investigated for their service recovery efficacy. MRs (>2,000) for 106 hotels were analyzed for interactional, procedural, and distributive justice and matched with their property-level room revenue, total revenue, and gross operating profit. Service recovery’s importance was empirically demonstrated via a negative association between negative reviews and performance outcomes and a positive association between MRs and performance outcomes. Justice-based MRs revealed differential impacts on performance outcomes: those with interactional justice were most effective in improving profitability. Findings further highlighted product positioning as a moderator. On one hand, interactional justice worked for lower-positioned hotels by being positively associated with total revenue. On the other hand, distributive justice backfired by being negatively associated with total revenue, suggesting that compensation in service recovery does not necessarily add value.

Socioeconomic status self‐deception as a way to perpetuate classist societies

AbstractSocioeconomic status self‐deception refers to the motivated tendency to perceive oneself as having a higher subjective status than would correspond to objective conditions. This can be a powerful mechanism to legitimize the social order. We proposed that when people perceive the surrounding social environment to be classist, people tend to self‐deceive themselves by overestimating their socioeconomic status. This mechanism, in turn, would lead to justify the system to a higher extent and show less support for redistribution, and reduce relative deprivation and status anxiety. These hypotheses were tested across four pre‐registered studies on different high‐quality samples, different operationalization of the variables in our model, and both cross‐sectional and longitudinal observations. On the one hand, the results do not provide evidence of a link between perceiving a classist climate and socioeconomic status self‐deception. On the other hand, socioeconomic status self‐deception was confirmed to predict higher system justification, and lower support for redistribution, status anxiety and relative deprivation. The construct and operationalization of socioeconomic status self‐deception proposed in this research could help reconcile opposing predictions by system justification theory and social dominance theory, and understand why individuals low on socioeconomic status would oppose policies which could benefit them.

Mobilizing Critical Occupational Therapy Praxis to Promote Structural Justice, Equity, and Rights[Formula: see text

Societal structures and systems compel occupational therapists, at times, to behave in ways that perpetuate injustices. Justice theorists have described how Global North social structures have created the conditions for oppression of some groups while enabling additional groups to have unearned privileges. Mobilizing critical occupational therapy praxis is an essential response. This lecture addresses three questions: why should occupational therapists integrate structural justice, equity, and rights into their everyday practices?; what gives occupational therapy the potential to be a structural justice-, equity-, and rights-oriented profession?; and, how can occupational therapy mobilize critical praxis that will promote structural justice, equity, and rights? Occupational therapy's embeddedness in structures of injustice and therapists' obligations to integrate justice, equity, and rights into their everyday practices are increasingly evident. A focus on occupational participation, growing critical consciousness, socially transformative practices, and capacity for collective action position occupational therapy to be a structural justice-oriented profession. Critical reflexivity and reflection; justice-, equity-, and rights-based lenses; and acts of resistance and disobedience to oppressive systems can help mobilize critical praxis. Occupational therapists have individual and collective opportunities for exercising the moral imagination and moral courage to mobilize critical occupational therapy praxis.

Сергей Александрович Корф: развитие теории административной юстиции в межреволюционный период

The article examines the legal views of the prominent imperial administrator Baron Sergei Alexandrovich Korf. Baron became one of the first lawyers in Russia who examined the institution of administrative justice in a comprehensive manner and touched upon its historical development in foreign countries and Russia. The main attention of S.A. Korf devoted his time to studying the formation of the domestic theory of administrative justice, while simultaneously presenting his vision of the prospects for its implementation.

Unveiling the impact of school organizational justice on students’ professional commitment through academic stress mediation

Accurately understanding the critical elements influencing college students’ professional commitment is both an urgent practical requirement and a critical theoretical proposition in today’s intensely competitive job market. In order to provide new light on career development in the context of higher education, this study intends to investigate the complex interactions among college students between perceived organizational justice, academic stress, and professional commitment. Using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling, we carried out a thorough investigation of H University’s full-time undergraduate students in Central China in order to thoroughly examine our hypothesis. The results show that students’ professional commitment is much lower when they view organizational justice to be lacking, and that there is a partial mediating role for academic stress in this relationship. Interestingly, organizational justice has a positive correlation with professional commitment and a negative correlation with academic stress. These findings provide educators and policymakers with insightful information, indicating that, in an increasingly competitive labor market, professional commitment is largely dependent on students’ ability to manage their academic stress and develop a sense of organizational justice. This study adds a new understanding of career development in higher education settings by merging professional commitment research with organizational justice theory. It also has significant implications for educational practices and career support measures.

Reconstructing AI Ethics Principles: Rawlsian Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

The popularisation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies has sparked discussion about their ethical implications. This development has forced governmental organisations, NGOs, and private companies to react and draft ethics guidelines for future development of ethical AI systems. Whereas many ethics guidelines address values familiar to ethicists, they seem to lack in ethical justifications. Furthermore, most tend to neglect the impact of AI on democracy, governance, and public deliberation. Existing research suggest, however, that AI can threaten key elements of western democracies that are ethically relevant. In this paper, Rawls’s theory of justice is applied to draft a set of guidelines for organisations and policy-makers to guide AI development towards a more ethical direction. The goal is to contribute to the broadening of the discussion on AI ethics by exploring the possibility of constructing AI ethics guidelines that are philosophically justified and take a broader perspective of societal justice. The paper discusses how Rawls’s theory of justice as fairness and its key concepts relate to the ongoing developments in AI ethics and gives a proposition of how principles that offer a foundation for operationalising AI ethics in practice could look like if aligned with Rawls’s theory of justice as fairness.

Separating McDowell’s two Myths of the Given - or on how to best explain the conceptuality of the space of reasons

In his book, John McDowell on Worldly Subjectivity, Tony Cheng argues that recent changes to McDowell’s theory of perceptual justification should lead him to accept that experiences possess non-conceptual content. In this paper, I take issue with Cheng’s conclusion. Instead, I argue that McDowell should adopt Travis’s position, where experiences aren’t taken to possess content at all. I argue that we can distinguish two separate Myths of the Given in McDowell’s writings. While McDowell often seamlessly moves from one to the other, I argue that it is difficult to see how he can justify this due to his recent alterations to his position. I argue that if we reject one Myth and retain the other, then McDowell can both hold on to a version of his view that the space of reasons is the space of the conceptual, all the while he accepts Travis’s arguments to the effect that experiences are devoid of content. Finally, I consider some arguments McDowell might present against accepting Travis’s position. While these objections do not convince me, what is notable about them is that, if they are sound, then they will equally count against Cheng’s intermediary position where non-conceptual contents are ascribed to experiences. Hence, I conclude that there are no grounds on which McDowell can reasonably endorse that experiences possess non-conceptual contents. Either he should stick to his conceptualism, or he should follow Travis and reject that experiences possess contents at all.

Assessing social equity of federal disaster aid distribution: A nationwide analysis.

In this study, we conduct the first comprehensive, nationwide assessment of social equity performance of multiple federal post- and pre-disaster assistance programs that differ in targeted recipients, project types, forms of aid, and funding requirements. We draw on the social equity and distributive justice theory to develop and test a set of hypotheses on the influence of program design and specificity on their aid distributional patterns and equity performance. The analysis uses panel data of about 3000 US counties to examine the relationship between a county's receipt of federal assistance and its recent disaster damage, socioeconomic, demographic, political, local government, and geographic characteristics in a two-stage random effects Tobit model. Expectedly, we find that post-disaster grants are largely driven by recent disaster damage, while damage is simultaneously influenced by local socioeconomic conditions. For all disaster programs, disproportionately more federal aid is allocated to populous counties. For programs geared toward state and local governments and targeting community recovery and mitigation, more aid is received by counties with better socioeconomic conditions. Conversely, for programs targeting individual relief and recovery, more aid is given to counties with lower incomes and greater social vulnerability. Results also indicate that counties located in high-risk regions receive greater outlays. These findings shed light on the varying degrees of social equity of federal disaster assistance programs tied to their cost-share requirement, funding caps, and inherent complexity of application procedures.