Jayson Lamchek
Deakin University, Deakin Law School, Faculty Member
- The Australian National University, College of Law, Department Memberadd
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
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Pitched as an aid to better development decision-making, the digital platform HungerMap LIVE presents composite data on, and machine-learning-derived predictions of, food insecurity in 90 countries. Of its current version, this article... more
Pitched as an aid to better development decision-making, the digital platform HungerMap LIVE presents composite data on, and machine-learning-derived predictions of, food insecurity in 90 countries. Of its current version, this article asks the following questions: What work is HungerMap LIVE called upon to do in ICT for development (ICT4D) practice? How well is it set up to do that work? Combining technical (both computer science and statistical) and social analysis, this article employs a close reading method drawn from humanities and legal research not usually directed at digital platforms in combination with interviewbased techniques. By this means, it scrutinizes HungerMap LIVE's potential to guide or mislead users and canvasses some elaborations that could enhance its usability. It argues that interdisciplinary research of this kind can counter both the historical and technological determinism troubling the ICT4D field and better position decision-makers to employ machine learning in history-and contextattentive ways.
Research Interests:
The "War on Drugs" in the Philippines resulted in the arrest of unprecedented number of suspects of drug-related crimes. Legal professionals managed this deluge of cases by embracing the device of plea bargaining,... more
The "War on Drugs" in the Philippines resulted in the arrest of unprecedented number of suspects of drug-related crimes. Legal professionals managed this deluge of cases by embracing the device of plea bargaining, previously banned from those types of cases. Given the weakness of the legal cases of drug-related offenses assembled by the police, conviction of the accused is often in serious tension with the duty and commitment of legal professionals to decide cases on the basis of law and evidence. At the same time, acquittals appear anathema both to the government's aggressive anti-drugs campaign and legal professionals' own moral judgment of drug users. Plea bargaining allows legal professionals to avoid these unwanted outcomes and satisfies their belief in rehabilitation. This chapter draws from interviews with prosecutors, public attorneys, and judges to explore their moral discourse against poor defendants and how it affects the justice system's response to drugs cases. Locating the "war on drugs" within an understanding of neoliberalism as the ascendance of "markets-and-morals", the chapter shows how legal professionals' embrace of plea bargaining continues the weaponization of morality against the poor within the criminal justice system.
Research Interests:
Pitched as an aid to better development decision-making, the digital platform HungerMap LIVE presents composite data on, and machine-learning-derived predictions of, food insecurity in 90 countries. Of its current version, this article... more
Pitched as an aid to better development decision-making, the digital platform HungerMap LIVE presents composite data on, and machine-learning-derived predictions of, food insecurity in 90 countries. Of its current version, this article asks the following questions: What work is HungerMap LIVE called upon to do in ICT for development (ICT4D) practice? How well is it set up to do that work? Combining technical (both computer science and statistical) and social analysis, this article employs a close reading method drawn from humanities and legal research not usually directed at digital platforms in combination with interviewbased techniques. By this means, it scrutinizes HungerMap LIVE's potential to guide or mislead users and canvasses some elaborations that could enhance its usability. It argues that interdisciplinary research of this kind can counter both the historical and technological determinism troubling the ICT4D field and better position decision-makers to employ machine learning in history-and contextattentive ways.
Research Interests:
This study aims to stimulate discussion of the country’s policy framework for managing existing and potential energy resources. It argues that a well-designed Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) can positively transform the country’s management... more
This study aims to stimulate discussion of the country’s policy framework for managing existing and potential energy resources. It argues that a well-designed Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) can positively transform the country’s management of proceeds from energy resources as well as bolster Philippine sovereignty over those resources. Towards this goal, we set three specific tasks: (1) to provide a survey of the literature on SWF, with a focus on instructive examples from the region; (2) to derive policy standards and other lessons from selected case studies of SWFs in the region, particularly Singapore, East Timor and Indonesia and (3) using these lessons, to discuss policy options for a Philippine SWF. Existing discussion of SWF in the Philippines tends to start with a privileged set of putative universal or international norms for the design of SWFs, namely, the so-called Santiago Principles promoted under the aegis of a working group of the International Monetary Fund. Instead of presuming global consensus, the study unpacks the historical and political backgrounds of SWFs of the three case studies. The study formulated the insights derived from the case studies in terms of policy standards, political conditions, and consequences. The paper then applied these insights to the question of designing a Philippine SWF. It approached this question by reimagining the Malampaya Fund as a SWF, thus laying down policy options that avoided resource plunder and promoted better outcomes in terms of transparency, governance, and benefit to Filipinos. Finally, it provided a discussion of the potential contribution of SWF to Philippine sovereignty, with a specific commentary on the management of the yet-to-be developed resources of the Philippine Rise.
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT The Philippine left’s short-lived association with the government of Rodrigo Duterte from 2016 vexed political observers, whether sympathetic to or critical of the left. Against the charge that the left was simply subordinated as... more
ABSTRACT The Philippine left’s short-lived association with the government of Rodrigo Duterte from 2016 vexed political observers, whether sympathetic to or critical of the left. Against the charge that the left was simply subordinated as a political force to Duterte’s multi-class populist-cum-fascist project, this article argues that the left was both friend and foe of Duterte, who promised an aggressive War on Drugs as well as socioeconomic reforms. It situates the left–Duterte relationship within the history of engagement by new political actors with elite democracy in the Philippines since 1987. The friend-and-foe or dual strategy analysis uncovers some of the richness of the left’s progressive engagement with Duterte. This contributes to an understanding of Philippine political history by providing a profile of progressive engagement involving a set of actors different from those who have previously been analysed – viz. national democrats rather than social democrats – and an increasingly authoritarian administration explicitly espousing anti-human rights rhetoric. We specify the conditions for the emergence of the left–Duterte relationship, how it unfolded, and the tipping points that led to its collapse. The findings underscore the complexities and extreme difficulty of transforming Philippine politics through progressive engagement.
Research Interests: Social Movements, Asian Studies, Human Rights, Political Science, Fascism, and 12 morePhilippines, Multidisciplinary, Authoritarianism, Philippine government and politics, Social Science Research Network, War on Drugs, Party List System Philippines, Routledge, National Democracy, Left Wing Parties, Communist Party of the Philippines, and Duterte
This article suggests that a critical Third World approach to human rights does not have to be reduced to scepticism, but should rather incite a pragmatic sensibility towards the use of rights talk in struggles of Third World peoples. Two... more
This article suggests that a critical Third World approach to human rights does not have to be reduced to scepticism, but should rather incite a pragmatic sensibility towards the use of rights talk in struggles of Third World peoples. Two examples of collective struggles are considered: in the first, involving indigenous people in Chiapas, Mexico, a human rights vocabulary is redeployed in such a way as to escape state capture; in the second, involving undocumented migrant workers in the US state of Tennessee and in the Netherlands, rights talk is avoided in order to maximise the chances of obtaining rights. I argue that both cases illustrate a route to rights based on a performative ontology or exercise-based theory of human rights that eschews the need for state recognition or the existence of a receiver or verifier of claims or expressions for rights to exist. The view that there is no better evidence of the existence of human rights than their exercise or enjoyment radically adjusts rights talk by countering the state’s claimed monopoly to legal authorship or production and locates a realm of power and law in people’s actions and practices.
Research Interests:
In the Philippines, transitional justice is plagued by questions about whether and how to deal with the past as well as whether and what kind of justice is possible in the present. In 2014, the government ended its armed conflict with... more
In the Philippines, transitional justice is plagued by questions about whether and how to deal with the past as well as whether and what kind of justice is possible in the present. In 2014, the government ended its armed conflict with Muslim secessionists by enacting a peace deal with transitional justice provisions, but also proposed federalism as a more lasting solution to conflict. This article reads the agreement’s ‘dealing with the past’ framework as reflecting a conventional approach. It then highlights continuing Muslim experiences of land dispossession and human rights abuses. It shows how transitional justice can come with uncertainty about what it means to “move forward,” what “past” to overcome, and how the past is related to “justice.” Furthermore, it argues that as the country increasingly veers towards authoritarian rule, conventional applications of transitional justice are further impeded. It explores how federalism receives more enthusiastic support than transitiona...
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ion would have implications for beliefs and judgments at other levels. This means not only that our normative understandings (beliefs and judgements at an abstract level) entail beliefs or judgements in particular cases, but also that... more
ion would have implications for beliefs and judgments at other levels. This means not only that our normative understandings (beliefs and judgements at an abstract level) entail beliefs or judgements in particular cases, but also that judgements about particular 11 David Thacher, ‘The Normative Case Study’ (2006) 111 American Journal of Sociology 1631 -1676, 1631–1632. 12 ibid 1647 (commenting on Jacobs’ study of the vitality of cities ). 13 ibid 1645–1646 (commenting on Selznick’s study of management’s role debunking the view that it is primarily a technical activity). 14 Willard van Orman Quine, From a Logical Point of View (2nd edn, Harper Torchbooks 1961) 42, 46. 15 In the words of Rawls, “By dropping and revising some [beliefs or judgments], by reformulating and expanding others, one supposes that a systematic organization can be found [among our beliefs or judgments]. Although in order to get started various judgments are viewed as firm enough to be taken provisionally as fixe...
Research Interests:
The Philippine left's short-lived high-level association with the government of Rodrigo Duterte from 2016 to 2017 vexed scholars and observers, whether sympathetic or critical to the left. Against the charge that the left was simply... more
The Philippine left's short-lived high-level association with the government of Rodrigo Duterte from 2016 to 2017 vexed scholars and observers, whether sympathetic or critical to the left. Against the charge that the left was simply subordinated as a political force to Duterte's multi-class populist or fascist project, the paper argues that the left during this period was both friend and foe of Duterte, the president who promised both an aggressive War on Drugs and socioeconomic reforms. It situates the left-Duterte relationship within the history of progressive engagement by new political actors with elite democracy in the Philippines since 1987. The friend-and-foe or dual strategy analysis recovers some of the richness of the left's engagement with Duterte. This contributes to Philippine political history by providing a profile of progressive engagement involving a set of actors different from those that have been previously analysed, viz., national democrats rather than social democrats and an increasingly authoritarian administration explicitly espousing anti-human rights rhetoric. We specify the conditions for the emergence of the left-Duterte relationship, its unfolding in key issues, and the tipping points that led to its collapse. The findings underscore the complexities and extreme difficulty of transforming Philippine politics through progressive engagement.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The "War on Drugs" in the Philippines resulted in the arrest of unprecedented number of suspects of drug-related crimes. Legal professionals managed this deluge of cases by embracing the device of plea bargaining, previously banned from... more
The "War on Drugs" in the Philippines resulted in the arrest of unprecedented number of suspects of drug-related crimes. Legal professionals managed this deluge of cases by embracing the device of plea bargaining, previously banned from those types of cases. Given the weakness of the legal cases of drug-related offenses assembled by the police, conviction of the accused is often in serious tension with the duty and commitment of legal professionals to decide cases on the basis of law and evidence. At the same time, acquittals appear anathema both to the government's aggressive anti-drugs campaign and legal professionals' own moral judgment of drug users. Plea bargaining allows legal professionals to avoid these unwanted outcomes and satisfies their belief in rehabilitation. This chapter draws from interviews with prosecutors, public attorneys, and judges to explore their moral discourse against poor defendants and how it affects the justice system's response to drugs cases. Locating the "war on drugs" within an understanding of neoliberalism as the ascendance of "markets-and-morals", the chapter shows how legal professionals' embrace of plea bargaining continues the weaponization of morality against the poor within the criminal justice system.
Research Interests:
In the Philippines, transitional justice is plagued by questions about whether and how to deal with the past as well as whether and what kind of justice is possible in the present situation. In 2014, the Philippine government formally... more
In the Philippines, transitional justice is plagued by questions about whether and how to deal with the past as well as whether and what kind of justice is possible in the present situation. In 2014, the Philippine government formally ended its armed conflict with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front by enacting a peace deal with transitional justice provisions. This article critically explores transitional justice in the Bangsamoro. It first offers a reading of the 'dealing with the past' framework of transitional justice endorsed by Swiss donors as largely reflecting a conventional approach that assumes that justice entails overcoming the past and transitioning to democracy. It then highlights continuing Moro experiences of land dispossession and human rights abuses, underscoring the limits of the 'dealing with the past' framework's recommendations on reparation and impunity. In doing so, it shows how transitional justice approaches can come with uncertainty about what it means to "move forward," competing strategic elite decisions about what "past" to overcome, and how the past is related to "justice." Finally, it argues that, as the country veers further towards authoritarian rule, conventional applications of transitional justice are further impeded. This article explores how federalism, in this context, receives enthusiastic support from elite and civil society actors in Mindanao for addressing the questions above more so than the transitional justice provisions of the peace agreement under the Duterte administration. Without offering measures for individual accountability for past violations, the government and supporters present federalism as a vision of historic justice, promising development and 'moving forward'.