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This report explores the history of Puerto Rico's relationship with the United States military and the resistance against militarization. Since the U.S. invasion in 1898, Puerto Rico has experienced the progressive takeover of land for military purposes, resulting in environmental damage and health repercussions. The resistance against militarism has taken various forms, including civil disobedience, marches, and armed struggle. The report showcases a collection of political propaganda, such as posters and pasquines, which were used to spread anti-militarist messages and mobilize people. These materials provide insight into the themes, styles, and campaigns of leftist propaganda between 1960 and 2000, highlighting the power imbalance between the armed forces and the common people. The report includes images and descriptions of selected propaganda pieces, demonstrating the diversity of styles and messages. [Extracted from the article]

University student activism is generally characterized by protests and demonstrations by students who are reacting to social, political, and economic challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic revolutionized university student activism, and closed the geographical space for protests and demonstrations. The pandemic locked students out of the university campus, thus, rendering the traditional strategies of mass protests and demonstrations impossible. The COVID-19-induced lockdowns made it difficult, if not impossible, to mobilise for on-campus demonstrations and protests. It seems the pandemic is the last nail in the coffin of on-campus student protests. This theoretical paper uses a collective behaviour framework to explain the evolution of student activism in Zimbabwe, from the traditional on-campus politics to virtual activism. It discusses the challenges associated with cybernetic activism. The paper argues that, despite challenges, Zimbabwean university student activists need to migrate to a new world of digital technology and online activism. In the migration to online activism, students activists face a plethora of challenges. On top of the already existing obstacles, activists face new operational challenges related to trying to mobilise a constituency that has relocated to cyberspace. Student activists utilize the existing digital infrastructure to advance their politics, in spite of a hostile state security system and harsh economic environment, and other operational challenges.

The paper intends to conduct a spatial reading of civil resistance movements taking Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) #FeeMustFall in India as the case study. Amidst the penetration of neoliberal politics in public goods like health and education, the pay-per-user principle is not limited to the argument of efficiency of allocation of resources. It can be comprehended as the larger strategy of the ruling dispensation to deplatform dissent and homogenise state space on an ideological singularity catering to majoritarian and hegemonic nationalism. The paper shall focus on the spatial reading of civil resistance movements using Lefebvre’s characterisation of state space and Gramsci’s understanding of hegemony and nationalism in the context of JNU’s #FeeMustFall movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the ways in which changes and experimentations in the realm of aesthetics,as well as in the new forms of political participation and representation in an era of global revolt, have resulted in a deep connection between the aesthetics and politics of civil disobedience, political activism and artistic representation. Specifically, the discussion is based on a comparative analysis of the urban activism of the Carnival Against Capital protests in London and Seattle, the Occupy Movement in New York, and the Gezi Park Movement in Turkey where the aesthetics of active participation represents a new kind of politicization--collective memory and language, sensual festivity and the forming of communitas--that goes beyond the conventional understanding of the convergence of politics and art. The author focuses on the notable carnivalesque character in those protests--the costumes, the masks, the performances, the interventional tactics and the aesthetics of community building. Based on the theories of aesthetics and rebellion the paper proposes the concept of carnival aesthetics as the study of the sensuous and subversive experience of the multitude when marching, throwing slogans, battling with police forces behind the barricades, performing and dancing together on the streets. Here carnivalesque aesthetics are employed as a means to create diversity, creativity, decentralization, horizontality, egalitarianism and direct action--the political principles that are at the heart of the recent protests. The discussion demonstrates that while thriving authoritarianism depends on disciplined individuals and the crisis in democracy, carnival aesthetics during protests present radicalized social relations that are increasingly becoming the core of the current social, cultural and environmental struggles around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds upon and extends Christian and legal scholarship on the civil rights movement by illuminating a climate of religious freedom that served as a catalyst for and was integral to the success of the spirited activism of the civil rights movement. To date, scholars have not extensively considered how the expansion of religious freedom in church and state jurisprudence both directly and indirectly created a climate that contributed to the success of the CRM, and how advancements in civil rights impacted the broader revolution occurring in constitutional rights. The climate of religious freedom included court support for evangelizing in residentially exclusive areas, exemptions for conscientious opposers from participating in oath swearing and other ceremonies, and exemptions from other general laws that unduly inhibited the free exercise of religious rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate movements have gained momentum in recent years, aiming to create public awareness of the consequences of climate change through salient climate protests. This paper investigates whether concerns about climate change increase following demonstrative protests and confrontational acts of civil disobedience. Leveraging individual-level survey panel data from Germany, we exploit exogenous variations in the timing of climate protests relative to survey interview dates to compare climate change concerns in the days before and after a protest (N = 24,535). Following climate protests, we find increases in concerns about climate change by, on average, 1.2 percentage points. Further, we find no statistically significant evidence that concerns of any subpopulation decreased after climate protests. Lastly, the increase in concerns following protests is highest when concern levels before the protests are low. Climate movements aim to raise public awareness of climate change through protests, but their efficacy is debated. Here, the authors show that concerns about climate change increased in Germany after climate strikes and non-violent acts of civil disobedience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Iuridica Lublinensia is the property of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Folklor / Edebiyat is the property of Cyprus International University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper argues that in Kierkegaard's works, in his upbuilding discourses and late journal entries in particular, meekness or gentleness (Danish: Sagtmodighed) is presented as a distinctive moral and spiritual quality that exhibits a number of characteristics that are usually regarded as attributes of a virtue. Following a "grammatical approach" to what counts as a virtue, rather than a specifically Aristotelian-Thomistic interpretation, it is argued that Kierkegaard presents meekness as an encompassing attitude, a character trait, which can be acquired through imitation of exemplary persons, Christ, in particular, which aims for the good life, is conducive of the good, and is for the benefit of others and the self. It is demonstrated that according to Kierkegaard, meekness differs from other virtues such as courage and patience by its forgiving attitude towards the wrongdoer and nonviolent resistance to injustice and evil. As a virtue that disposes a person to nonviolent resistance, meekness has socio-political implications: injustice is uncovered and criticized for the benefit of "the poor". A meek person does not confirm the world in its evil, but criticizes it, albeit in a way that is appropriate to meekness, i.e., in a forgiving and nonviolent way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between policy compliance, the emergence of alternate epistemes and authorities in online spaces, and the decline of trust and legitimacy in democratic institutions. Drawing on insights from public policy, regulation theory, and political theory, the paper critically engages with scholarship on "policy-takers" to illuminate the tensions of compliance and legitimacy in liberal states. It proposes a compliance--legitimacy matrix that identifies the features of policy compliance--including consent, legitimacy, expertise, and trust--and their relationship to the disaggregation of policy knowledge. The article applies this framework to a case study of social media posts that respond to policy information during the management of the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia. Through analysis of these posts, the study reveals the distrust in "the science" and experts advocated by government and the calls from skeptic groups for noncompliance with public health measures. The paper argues that public policy faces an epistemic crisis of public confidence, with significant downstream consequences for compliance with public policy initiatives that has been brought on both by the failures of states to cultivate trust in science and the government. The compliance--legitimacy matrix offers a useful tool for policymakers to anticipate and address objections from policy-takers and to preempt and diffuse their fears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Relaciones Internacionales (1699-3950) is the property of Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, International Relations Studies Group (GERI) Law Faculty and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Inonu University Law Review / İnönü Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi is the property of Inonu University Law Review (IULR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An introduction is presented in which author discusses articles on topics including focuses on a sample of the papers presented at meetings of the International Society for Environmental Ethics co-edited by the Vice-President and President of the Society.

Copyright of Spanish Journal of Comparative Education / Revista Española de Educación Comparada is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Filosofía UIS is the property of Universidad Industrial de Santander and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the notion of silence as representing civil disobedience in Harold Pinter's Mountain Language (1988). It argues that the old woman character in the play, who visits her imprisoned son, represents the figure of the speaking subaltern. The play's portrayal of the subaltern's rejection of the state oppression lies in Paulo de Medeiros' argument that literature itself is a domain of resistance in the face of discrimination. The paper thus examines the act of the woman - mainly performed in an intentional manner - in Mountain Language in the light of David Thoreau's arguments, in his Civil Disobedience - over the ideas of disobedience in a civil manner. The elderly woman, therefore, protests the state's policy of commanding by means of silence, a performative act putting Spivak's argumentation on the subaltern's inability to speak in dialogue and at question. The elderly woman correspondingly encapsulates the notion of resistance move and rejection in the face of commanding authorities and suppressive governments. The subaltern's silence is explored as being a matter of choice to annul the state's systematic domination as exercised by the so-called superior groups. The paper therefore argues that the formula of silence is a reference to a new form of outspokenness; it is both a peaceful from of resilience and is an empowered space for the oppressed thereby expressing their rejection to the state's divine laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the current COVID‐19 pandemic, governments have implemented a variety of containment measures, ranging from hoping for herd immunity (which is essentially no containment) to mandating complete lockdown. On the one hand, containment measures reduce lives lost by limiting the disease spread and controlling the load on the healthcare system. On the other hand, such measures slow down economic activity, leading to lost jobs, economic stall, and societal disturbances, such as protests, civil disobedience, and increases in domestic violence. Hence, determining the right set of containment measures is a key social, economic, and political decision for policymakers. In this paper, we provide a model for dynamically managing the level of disease containment measures over the course of a pandemic. We determine the timing and level of containment measures to minimize the impact of a pandemic on economic activity and lives lost, subject to healthcare capacity and stochastic disease evolution dynamics. On the basis of practical evidence, we examine two common classes of containment policies—dynamic and static—and we find that dynamic policies are particularly valuable when the rate of disease spread is low, recovery takes longer, and the healthcare capacity is limited. Our work reveals a fundamental relationship between the structure of Pareto‐efficient containment measures (in terms of lives lost and economic activity) and key disease and economic parameters such as disease infection rate, recovery rate, and healthcare capacity. We also analyze the impact of virus mutation and vaccination on containment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Direito e Práxis is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on 25 May 2020, sparked widespread protests led by the Black Lives Matter movement throughout the summer of 2020. Subsequent news coverage of these protests prominently featured acts of civil disobedience even though almost all protests were peaceful. In turn, protest "violence" was picked up by conservative political elites as evidence to promote legislation to control protests and keep communities safe. Since summer 2020, eight states have passed such legislation with additional bills pending in 21 states, raising concerns that the legislation suppresses political expression. This paper brings together literature on free expression, the protest paradigm, and news framing to provide the basis for a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 379 news stories and editorials covering Florida's HB1 protest legislation. Results reveal that the most frequent news frame was fighting crime, with relatively less attention to free expression, political strategy, and race frames. In addition, very little attention was paid to the legislation's potential chilling effects suppressing constitutionally protected speech and assembly. These results indicate news media were deficient in providing the public with a sufficient assessment of the implications of protest legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to avoid the occurrence of serious casualties and secondary injuries caused by high-speed splashing concrete fragments, pendulum impact test research and numerical analysis were carried out for the first time on the civil air defense wall sprayed with 2-mm polyisocyanate-oxazodone (POZD) coatings at different positions. The results showed that spraying a 2-mm POZD coating on the civil air defense wall can significantly reduce the damage area of the wall, restrain the splashing of concrete fragments, ensure the integrity of the wall, and improve the impact resistance and airtightness of the civil air defense wall. The large-rupture-strain fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) pasted on the back significantly improved the bending stiffness and deformation capacity and reduced the residual displacement of the wall. The failure modes and failure characteristics of the wall obtained through the experiments in this paper provide the failure evaluation criteria for existing civil air defense walls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Legal Records / Pravni Zapisi is the property of Union University Law School, Belgrade and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Justicia (0124-7441) is the property of Universidad Simon Bolivar and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This is a Political Economy study on migrants-citizens relations management in the United States of America, with special attention to the religious factor and the pendulum effect. There is a model switch, from integration policies (open doors and melting pot agenda, with expropriation of charity by Public Sector) to official persecution (state-raids and deportations, with re-privatization of charity), under a high social opportunity cost. Also, there is a split between the State and civil society (including the church), causing civil disobedience and sanctuary network across the country. The paper focuses on the development of the Sanctuary Movement, as a case of popular action against to the power elite policies and their sanctions. There was a revival of this movement during the values crisis or 2008 recession, but at the same time there was a critical division into the movement, with higher tension for the migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological developments increasingly enable monitoring and steering the behavior of individuals. Enforcement of the law by means of technology can be much more effective and pervasive than enforcement by humans, such as law enforcement officers. However, it can also bypass legislators and courts and minimize any room for civil disobedience. This significantly reduces the options to challenge legal rules. This, in turn, can impede the development of legal systems. In this paper, an analogy is made with evolutionary biology to illustrate that the possibility to deviate from legal rules and existing norms is sometimes necessary for the further development of legal systems. Some room to break the law, for instance, through civil disobedience or imperfect enforcement of the law, will ensure sufficient variation. This allows for properly evolving legal systems that can continue to provide fair solutions, even when society and concepts of fairness further develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the first twelve months of the civil disobedience movement in Myanmar following the 1 February 2021 coup d'état and its many dynamics and manifestations. Myanmar's 'Spring Revolution' generated a shared sense of national unity—overcoming gender, ethnic, religious and class boundaries, but raising questions about the long-term sustainability of nonviolent civil resistance in a state where the military has for decades wielded political and economic power. Since the coup, Myanmar has been in turmoil, paralysed by instability which escalated after the military's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy activists. The article charts the growth of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), its multiple methods of strategic resistance and non-cooperation, and the radicalisation of the resistance agenda. It analyses the formation of the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), the creation of the interim National Unity Government (NUG), the founding of the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) and the inauguration of the People's Defence Force (PDF). It examines the implications for Myanmar when the crisis reached a more complex phase after the military's open use of force and terror on the broader civilian population prompted the NUG to declare war on the junta, and to urge ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) and newly formed anti-junta civilian militias (PDF) to attack the State Administration Council (SAC) as a terrorist organisation. The NUG now opposes the military junta by strategic and peaceful non-cooperation, armed resistance, and international diplomacy. This paper considers whether the predominantly nonviolent civil resistance movement's struggle for federal democracy and inclusive governance is laying the foundations for eventual transition to a fully democratic future or whether the cycles of violence will continue as the military continues to control power by using intimidation and fear. It notes that the coup has destroyed the economy and expanded Myanmar's human rights and humanitarian crises but has also provided the opportunity for Myanmar's people to explore diverse visions of a free, federal, democratic and accountable Myanmar. It finally examines the possibilities for future peaceful nation building, reconciliation, and the healing of the trauma of civil war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Colombia Internacional is the property of Universidad de los Andes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Constitutional control in Romania implies the obligation of the courts to apply the decisions of the Constitutional Court and may involve the disciplinary sanctioning of judges for non-compliance with these decisions. Some judges considered that this mechanism may affect their independence, especially if the EU law may come into conflict with the decisions of the Constitutional Court. Our paper highlights that a proper understanding of the constitutional control underlines the essential role of the Constitutional Court for the protection of the democratic state and of the values of the European Union through its dialogue with the CJEU and with the national courts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Direito e Práxis is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT This paper examines the role that the notion of political obligation has in the thought of the Italian philosopher of politics and law Alessandro Passerin d’Entrèves (1902 - 1985), especially in its relationship with the democratic regime and forms of resistance on the part of citizens. By analyzing the author’s main arguments in this regard, it seeks to demonstrate the flexibility of the author’s concept of State, and the importance of philosophy as a point of intersection between morality and law, constituting itself as an instrument of phenomenological approach to the forms of human association.

In autumn 2022, the District Court of Flensburg justified the criminal trespassing of a climate activist under Section 34 German Criminal Code (necessity as justification). How can such a "climate necessity defence" be legally justified? The court's assessment calls for a special legal and legal-theoretical analysis. The legal interest in "Climate Protection" – derived from the Climate Order of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany and Article 20a of the Basic Law – is accorded particularly high value at several key points of the ruling. What is impressive here is that the court's reasoning is suitable for justifying a permanent state of climate necessity. In addition, the AG argued a novel standard for the suitability of the act of necessity, referred to in the judgement as "immediate interdependence". The weighing of interests regarding the adequacy of the act of necessity also shows a (new) interesting assessment regarding the priority of state measures to avert danger. These considerations are scrutinised with regard to German law. Subsequently, the legal theory of civil disobedience is used to outline parallel considerations. The court explicitly stated that it was not concerned with civil disobedience because the activism could not be qualified as such. Does this judgement hold water? In fact, the court's reasoning opens the very same field of tensions between legality and legitimacy that classical liberal theories of civil disobedience seek to explore. However, in a certain parallelism to the legal assessment, these too fail to satisfactorily grasp the peculiarities of the climate activism at hand. In any case, this paper seeks to present some of the overall weaknesses in statutory law and legal theory in adapting to the global climate crisis on a national level.

The world's understanding of the climate and ecological crises rests on science. However, scientists' conventional methods of engagement, such as producing ever more data and findings, writing papers and giving advice to governments, have not been sufficiently effective at persuading politicians to act on the climate and ecological emergency. To date, governments’ decisions (such as continuing with vast subsidies for fossil fuels) clearly show that powerful vested interests have been much more influential than the amassed scientific knowledge and advice. We argue that in the face of this inaction, scientists can have the maximum amount of influence by lending their support to social movements pressing for action, joining as active participants and considering civil disobedience. Scientists seeking to halt continued environmental destruction also need to work through our institutions. Too many scientific organizations, from national academies of science to learned societies and universities, have not taken practical action on climate; for example, many still partner with fossil fuel and other compromised interests. We therefore also outline a vision for how scientists can reform our scientific institutions to become powerful agents for change.

Virtual personal assistants (VPAs), such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, are software agents designed to perform tasks or provide services to individuals in response to user commands. VPAs extend their functions through third-party voice apps, thereby attracting more users to use VPA-equipped products. Previous studies demonstrate vulnerabilities in the certification, installation, and usage of these third-party voice apps. However, these studies focus on individual apps. To the best of our knowledge, there is no prior research that explores the correlations among voice apps.Voice apps represent a new type of applications that interact with users mainly through a voice user interface instead of a graphical user interface, requiring a distinct approach to analysis. In this study, we present a novel voice app similarity analysis approach to analyze voice apps in the market from a new perspective. Our approach, called SkillSim, detects similarities among voice apps (i.e. skills) based on two dimensions: text similarity and structure similarity. SkillSim measures 30,000 voice apps in the Amazon skill market and reveals that more than 25.9% have at least one other skill with a text similarity greater than 70%. Our analysis identifies several factors that contribute to a high number of similar skills, including the assistant development platforms and their limited templates. Additionally, we observe interesting phenomena, such as developers or platforms creating multiple similar skills with different accounts for purposes such as advertising. Furthermore, we also find that some assistant development platforms develop multiple similar but non-compliant skills, such as requesting user privacy in a non-compliance way, which poses a security risk. Based on the similarity analysis results, we have a deeper understanding of voice apps in the mainstream market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Spanish Journal of Comparative Education / Revista Española de Educación Comparada is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This Article examines the important role old growth forests play in mitigating climate change and argues there now exists both a social imperative and legal basis for our courts to recognize legal rights for these precious few remaining ancient ecosystems. The Article is written from a unique perspective. Using as context first person accounts from one of the authors’ two months living in an old growth forest and the events leading to her arrest during the largest civil disobedience protest in the history of Canada, the Article examines the disconnect between the current state of the law and science-based concerns about climate change. The Article describes one land defender’s thoughts and feelings as she contemplates the ancient ecosystem she seeks to protect, learns from First Nations’ Elders and encounters the Royal Canadian Mounted Police forces and frustrated loggers. The authors then present a legal analysis that addresses the science of old growth forests’ crucial role in mitigating future climate change, considers failed international commitments to protect and restore these vital ecosystems and draws guidance from court decisions in other jurisdictions that have recognized legal rights for nature. The Article then builds on concepts from the ancient traditions and customs of First Nations, academic writings and concepts from Aboriginal rights and title litigation in Canada to present a rationale for Canadian courts to apply ecocentric-based principles in the future development of the law. Ultimately, the authors propose the recognition of “Ancient Forest Rights” to provide a voice for old growth forests in the courts of Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hitit Theology Journal / Hitit İlahiyat Dergisi is the property of Hitit University Faculty of Divinity Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the author's personal experience with a college course titled "Towards a Socialist America" at Wesleyan University in the 1970s, describing how it transformed their political and intellectual outlook. Topics include the course's impact on the author's education, the reading materials used, and reflections on the course's relevance in contemporary academia.

Starting from Rawls's concept of civil disobedience, the author argues that it is carried out on justified moral grounds and must be distinguished from all other tortious actions. It is a communicative act that non-violently and publicly points out problems within a system, thereby guaranteeing itself a position of loyalty to the law, not the opposite. The paper first analyzes the concept of civil disobedience, along with the question of its justification, as well as Dworkin's point of view on the interpretation of disputed legal norms by citizens who refuse to obey them. It then examines the purposes of punishment as stated in the theory of sanctions - applied to civil disobedience, along with the potential treatment of civil disobedience by judges. The author believes that in each specific case, according to the judgment of the court, such disobedient individuals could either be given reduced sanctions or be completely exempted from punishment.

What happens when scientists become activists? In this paper, we discuss the principles, commitments and experiences of Scientist Rebellion (SR), a movement of scientists, academics, and researchers committed to activism, advocacy and non-violent civil disobedience against the (in)actions of governments, corporations and other institutions, including academic ones. In sharing experiences from the frontlines of direct actions with SR along with the perspectives from individual scientists, coming from a variety of geographical locations, and a range of academic levels and disciplines, we reflect on the need to transgress the boundaries of a system of knowledge production and education that is effectively reproducing the very structures that have led us into climate and ecological crises. This article provides a reflective and critical engagement with Scientist Rebellion, drawing on a range of interviews with activists, as well as material from and about Scientist Rebellion. We conclude with a reflection on the relation between scientists and their institutions, as well as a mobilizing plea to the scientific community to take action.

The article “Der Klimawandel als Chance für die Beziehung zwischen Recht und Gerechtigkeit” aims to further the discussion on a possible justification of environmental activism (particularly in the German legal system). The author, Tjarda Tiedeken, finds that actions of climate change activists may fall under the definition of civil disobedience. She states that due to the superiority over ‘common’ crime and the relative effect of majority decisions, civil disobedience aiming to prevent state decisions with irreversible consequences must be justified. The author discusses the ‘irreversibility criterion’ as part of this justification, yet she finds it to lack differentiation causing a lack of practicability. Despite the unsuitability of the criterion examined, the author concludes that anyone who stands up against climate change for the preservation of democracy and even of humanity itself, cannot be treated like a person who transgresses the law out of pure self-interest. How a justification could be designed instead remains subject of further discussion, to which the author attempts to find an answer in her dissertation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What effect do economic sanctions have on target governments' response to citizen campaigns? We assert that sanctions as a signal of international support for campaigners alter the bargaining environment between a target state and the campaign in ways that will likely draw more support from citizens and defections from the ruling base. This will in turn incentivize target leaders to be more conciliatory toward domestic campaigns with maximalist goals, especially when such campaigns are nonviolent. Results from a time-series, cross-national data analysis indicate that sanctions, particularly when they are enforced by multiple senders or with high cost, are effective in increasing the success rate of nonviolent campaigns. Given the plethora of sanctions research that points to their inefficacy and adverse effects, we show that sanctions could be an effective tool to extract concessions from governments facing nonviolent campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a critical theological reflection on the relationship between decolonial praxis, intersectionality, transnational feminism, and constructive liberationist theology. It starts with an analysis of a press conference by Keisha Lance Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta, in response to "violent protests" following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.

Careful reading of John Dewey's The Public and its Problems reveals a weak point at the stage when a given public became self-aware and proceeded to seek representation in the institutions of the state. Aside from a general emphasis on art and science, Dewey's political theory offered no concrete discussion of the means suitable for this phase of the democratic process. Furthermore, the dichotomy between violence and the peaceful means of art and science left no space for the affirmation of nonviolence - the method most capable of amplifying democracy during the decade following Dewey's death. Accordingly, the article hypothesizes a novel rendition of nonviolence from the standpoint of Dewey's understanding of art as social inquiry, compares it with Martin Luther King Jr.'s theory and practice of nonviolent dramatization, and ends by presenting a Deweyan reading of the civil rights movement in terms of the framework contained in The Public and its Problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Can civil disobedience be transnationalized? This question presumes civil disobedience to be a fundamentally domestic concept—one constitutively tied to both the nation-state and the normative underpinnings of liberal, constitutional democracies. This article shows how this assumption mistakes one version of civil disobedience's twentieth-century intellectual history for the whole of it, and risks reproducing binaries (domestic vs. international, democracies vs. non-democracies) that trouble attempts to theorize the transnational. Turning to an alternative intellectual history—a network of civil rights and anticolonial activists—reveals a novel theory of civil disobedience as decolonizing praxis, as well the stakes of these binaries: the disavowal of white supremacy as pervasive and durable global structure of governance, linking the domestic to the international, and democratic rule to domination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two years, against the backdrop of the Covid-19 epidemic, civil disobedience has been on the rise in Israeli society. While civil disobedience preserves the boundaries of discourse and democracy, it also poses a real danger to the existence of society. Attitudes toward civil disobedience reflect the core values of a particular culture. Thus, attitudes toward obedience or disobedience in Israeli society must be examined with respect to the religious roots of Jewish culture. This article examines attitudes towards the issue of obedience in the formative texts of Jewish culture. Revealing the religious past of the culture enables a re-evaluation of values and stances. To understand the sources of the values relevant to obedience in Israeli society today, I will analyze religious texts using the genealogical method. The subject area of genealogy is the past, yet its purpose is to understand and critique contemporary reality. The main finding is that obedience and disobedience do not appear to be in a dialectical relationship in today's society. Despite the fact that controversy is welcome and prevalent in Judaism, obedience and disobedience do not manifest as contentious or as two sides of a single issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The students were sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), selected in what was called the "Leadership Scholarship Program" - a joint endeavor between USAID and the SVN government with the aim of training future Vietnamese leaders and public servants in South Vietnam. By the 1970s, the leadership students' activism was made easier because the political environment in the United States at that time allowed more visibility of minority spokespersons or intellectuals in the political discourse.[94] When Saigon made good on its promise by requesting that USAID terminate their scholarship and the U.S. government deport them, USAID quickly acquiesced. On the other hand, if the United States granted the students asylum status, it would mean recognition by the U.S. government of the repressiveness of the SVN regime.[96] Despite being young and in a vulnerable situation, the antiwar students understood the dilemma the U.S. government faced. [Extracted from the article]