Departing from a critical understanding of the relationship between state, law and power, we pro... more Departing from a critical understanding of the relationship between state, law and power, we propose a critical overview of the concept of the state of exception developed by Giorgio Agamben. We emphasise the idea that the principle of legal exceptionality is not as merely used in response to the current crisis in capitalism, but is an enduring and core technique of power used by states to reproduce economic and colonial power relations. Thus, this paper offers three core points of departure from dominant understandings of the state of exception. First, we urge a rupture of the crude opposition between positive law and the state of exception. Second, we argue for a rejection of limited Western concept of (liberal, political) rights. Finally, we argue for an attention to the materiality of power relations, rather than a narrow focus on the power projected by formal institutions of state power.
The common properties in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh have been degraded due to curtailme... more The common properties in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh have been degraded due to curtailment of right of the indigenous people by the Forest Department, government policy relating to modernization of the central economy, deployment of military and settlement programs in the land of indigenous people. Therefore, in the context of common property management, the research study aimed to identify state’s role on conversion of indigenous people’s common property and also discovered customary practice of the indigenous people in common lands. The findings of the study reveal that government policy regarding conservation of forest and non-recognition of the indigenous people’s customary rights over their land in the national legal frameworks have negative consequence over the natural environment of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The study shows that indigenous peoples have their traditional knowledge which is effective for the conservation of nature and supporting livelihood which are not being recognized by the state legislation. The study found that detachment of the indigenous people from the nature brings destruction of nature as well as misery for the people. The study also found that international legal instruments and practical experiences as well as local knowledge could be applied for the required policy interventions in order to address the conflicting issues of Common property and livelihood of the indigenous people’s.
The 2012 Onati Workshop, ‘Human Rights and the Environment: In Search of a New Relationship’, beg... more The 2012 Onati Workshop, ‘Human Rights and the Environment: In Search of a New Relationship’, began to trace outa new, imaginative and paradigm-challenging framework calling on philosophy, legal doctrine, policy, praxis and activism and drawing them together in a coherent, but non-monolithic new socio-juridical approach to the important relationship between human rights and the environment. The workshop was part of the on-going work of the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and Environment (GNHRE) – the largest existing network of scholars in the world specifically addressing the important nexus between human rights as the dominant global language of ethical claim and the ‘environment’. In short, the GNHRE workshop at Onati developed the on-going efforts of the GNHRE network and its partners to contribute to the important task of re-imagining the human relationship with the living world. We were incredibly fortunate to be awarded an International Workshop by the Onati Inst...
This work aims to analyse LGBT discourse in Russia conducted by human rights non-governmental org... more This work aims to analyse LGBT discourse in Russia conducted by human rights non-governmental organisations concerned with the protection of gay and lesbian rights in the country. The main emphasis is given to deconstruction of subjectivities of the discourse with tools of Foucaultian and critical discourse-analyses. One of the most evident examples is provided in the last section of the work. It is concerned with strategies employed by the organisations under research to guarantee marriage opportunities to homosexuals in Russia. It was also important for the purposes of the research to uncover the meanings of discursive practices employed by the officials in their discussion of gay and lesbian issues. In this regard, a brief analysis of relevant legal norms and public policies is included in the work. The attitude of state power towards LGBT problems is described in the terms of environment where the human rights organisations have to perform their activities. The role of state power turns out to be important in organising and correcting the strategies of the organisations so long as the strategies are influenced by governmentality of the discourses. It results into a situation where the non-governmental organisations are to some extent governed through workings of political discourses where the power of the authorities sets the scene.
Arana, X.; Márquez, I. y Montañés, V.; Diferencias Invisibles: Género, Drogas y Políticas Públicas. El enfoque de género en las políticas europeas de drogas, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, Vol 2, No 6, 2012
Tanto la cuestión género como las políticas públicas en materia de drogas son una realidad relati... more Tanto la cuestión género como las políticas públicas en materia de drogas son una realidad relativamente reciente en Europa. El texto es una contextualización de los dos siguientes artículos de la publicación, donde se pretende sintetizar, además del proceso de UE, el sistema de género y el fenómeno social de las drogas, desde una perspectiva de políticas públicas. La ambivalente perspectiva jurídica (legal-ilegal) a la que se someten determinados comportamientos relacionados con este tipo de sustancias, ha llegado a condicionar el ámbito científico de las políticas públicas en materia de drogas en la UE.
Spanish Abstract: El presente artículo explora y analiza las narraciones del conflicto y la viole... more Spanish Abstract: El presente artículo explora y analiza las narraciones del conflicto y la violencia política en Colombia inmersas en Cien años de soledad de Gabriel García Márquez. Como uno de los más destacados libros colombianos del último siglo, esta novela propone una narración que se desliza en un vaivén de magia e imaginación, tanto como de realidad. Un vaivén de vida y muerte, que transita por la familia, el amor, el trabajo, los conflictos sociales y otros tantos ingredientes fundamentales para entender y explorar las percepciones de justicia de una cierta sociedad. Después de hacer un recuento breve de las narraciones del libro, a través del análisis de estos relatos, el presente trabajo reflexiona sobre diferentes aspectos de la realidad colombiana inmersos en la novela, concentrándose en las narraciones de violencia política y del conflicto armado en Colombia.
English Abstract: This paper intends to explore the narrations of the conflict and political violence embedded in the novel One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. As one of the most important Colombian books of the last century, “One Hundred years of Solitude” evidences the magical narrative and imagination of the Caribbean as well as the reality of life, death, family, love, work, social conflicts and other aspects that are relevant for understanding and exploring the perceptions of justice of a certain society. After a brief recount of certain relevant descriptions of the novel, this essay proposes the analysis of these narrations focusing in the narrations of violence and of the Colombian armed conflict in the novel.
The eleven papers in this volume address a range of theoretical and empirical issues examined at ... more The eleven papers in this volume address a range of theoretical and empirical issues examined at the Oñati workshop, "Law in the Age of Media Logic." Several papers explore the politicization of the media's reporting of the Courts and of judicial nominations, and consider how this reporting affects public support of the judiciary in different countries, including Israel, the United States, and Canada. Several other papers assess the "trials by media" that play out in the coverage of the criminal justice system. These papers consider a number of topics, including the criminalization of firearms litigation, the tension between a free press and fair trials, and the social media depictions of criminal justice. Finally, several papers analyze the judiciary's public relations strategies, and examine the various institutional changes that shape the public image of legal systems today.
The 2012 Oñati Workshop on Human Rights and the Environment sought to begin the important task of... more The 2012 Oñati Workshop on Human Rights and the Environment sought to begin the important task of developing a new framework that could contribute to re-imagining the relationship between human rights and the environment. Doing full justice to the vibrant and sustained discussion that took place in response to the papers delivered in the Workshop is near impossible in an ex post facto account that can only convey the merest flavour of the richness and complexity of what took place. Nonetheless, the following sections briefly recollect common themes and valuable insights that emerged during the workshop discussions and attempt to reflect the energy and creativity that accompanied them, with a view to setting out the general context within which the various individual papers in this volume should be considered. We have arranged the subsequent discussion to centre on the core discrete yet interrelated themes that emerged and developed during our workshop deliberations, namely: vulnerability; the limits of the law; the limits of rights; responsibility; interconnection; and thinking ecologically.
This article explores the proper role of judicial evaluation in relation to the various branches ... more This article explores the proper role of judicial evaluation in relation to the various branches of government and a range of disciplines. Judicial evaluation is a practical, interpretive sphere of inquiry, based on dialogue and collaboration. It must respect important shared values, based on human rights and dignity, responsible approaches to research, and the conservation of resources. After outlining two contrasting approaches, from the European Commission and from Sweden, the article considers the roles of politics and knowledge or science (broadly defined) in judicial evaluation. Then nine values are enunciated, based on the common heritage of courts, government and scientific research. In the practice of judicial evaluation, meaningful data must be collected, reported clearly and interpreted transparently in dialogue with stakeholders. Conclusions should be consistent with the shared values, derived from honest arguments and communicated effectively. Researchers should be impartial, treat participants with equal dignity and respect their rights to privacy. Judicial evaluation must be useful in improving the administration of justice, without wasting time or resources of the courts or researchers.
Departing from a critical understanding of the relationship between state, law and power, we pro... more Departing from a critical understanding of the relationship between state, law and power, we propose a critical overview of the concept of the state of exception developed by Giorgio Agamben. We emphasise the idea that the principle of legal exceptionality is not as merely used in response to the current crisis in capitalism, but is an enduring and core technique of power used by states to reproduce economic and colonial power relations. Thus, this paper offers three core points of departure from dominant understandings of the state of exception. First, we urge a rupture of the crude opposition between positive law and the state of exception. Second, we argue for a rejection of limited Western concept of (liberal, political) rights. Finally, we argue for an attention to the materiality of power relations, rather than a narrow focus on the power projected by formal institutions of state power.
The common properties in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh have been degraded due to curtailme... more The common properties in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh have been degraded due to curtailment of right of the indigenous people by the Forest Department, government policy relating to modernization of the central economy, deployment of military and settlement programs in the land of indigenous people. Therefore, in the context of common property management, the research study aimed to identify state’s role on conversion of indigenous people’s common property and also discovered customary practice of the indigenous people in common lands. The findings of the study reveal that government policy regarding conservation of forest and non-recognition of the indigenous people’s customary rights over their land in the national legal frameworks have negative consequence over the natural environment of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The study shows that indigenous peoples have their traditional knowledge which is effective for the conservation of nature and supporting livelihood which are not being recognized by the state legislation. The study found that detachment of the indigenous people from the nature brings destruction of nature as well as misery for the people. The study also found that international legal instruments and practical experiences as well as local knowledge could be applied for the required policy interventions in order to address the conflicting issues of Common property and livelihood of the indigenous people’s.
The 2012 Onati Workshop, ‘Human Rights and the Environment: In Search of a New Relationship’, beg... more The 2012 Onati Workshop, ‘Human Rights and the Environment: In Search of a New Relationship’, began to trace outa new, imaginative and paradigm-challenging framework calling on philosophy, legal doctrine, policy, praxis and activism and drawing them together in a coherent, but non-monolithic new socio-juridical approach to the important relationship between human rights and the environment. The workshop was part of the on-going work of the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and Environment (GNHRE) – the largest existing network of scholars in the world specifically addressing the important nexus between human rights as the dominant global language of ethical claim and the ‘environment’. In short, the GNHRE workshop at Onati developed the on-going efforts of the GNHRE network and its partners to contribute to the important task of re-imagining the human relationship with the living world. We were incredibly fortunate to be awarded an International Workshop by the Onati Inst...
This work aims to analyse LGBT discourse in Russia conducted by human rights non-governmental org... more This work aims to analyse LGBT discourse in Russia conducted by human rights non-governmental organisations concerned with the protection of gay and lesbian rights in the country. The main emphasis is given to deconstruction of subjectivities of the discourse with tools of Foucaultian and critical discourse-analyses. One of the most evident examples is provided in the last section of the work. It is concerned with strategies employed by the organisations under research to guarantee marriage opportunities to homosexuals in Russia. It was also important for the purposes of the research to uncover the meanings of discursive practices employed by the officials in their discussion of gay and lesbian issues. In this regard, a brief analysis of relevant legal norms and public policies is included in the work. The attitude of state power towards LGBT problems is described in the terms of environment where the human rights organisations have to perform their activities. The role of state power turns out to be important in organising and correcting the strategies of the organisations so long as the strategies are influenced by governmentality of the discourses. It results into a situation where the non-governmental organisations are to some extent governed through workings of political discourses where the power of the authorities sets the scene.
Arana, X.; Márquez, I. y Montañés, V.; Diferencias Invisibles: Género, Drogas y Políticas Públicas. El enfoque de género en las políticas europeas de drogas, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, Vol 2, No 6, 2012
Tanto la cuestión género como las políticas públicas en materia de drogas son una realidad relati... more Tanto la cuestión género como las políticas públicas en materia de drogas son una realidad relativamente reciente en Europa. El texto es una contextualización de los dos siguientes artículos de la publicación, donde se pretende sintetizar, además del proceso de UE, el sistema de género y el fenómeno social de las drogas, desde una perspectiva de políticas públicas. La ambivalente perspectiva jurídica (legal-ilegal) a la que se someten determinados comportamientos relacionados con este tipo de sustancias, ha llegado a condicionar el ámbito científico de las políticas públicas en materia de drogas en la UE.
Spanish Abstract: El presente artículo explora y analiza las narraciones del conflicto y la viole... more Spanish Abstract: El presente artículo explora y analiza las narraciones del conflicto y la violencia política en Colombia inmersas en Cien años de soledad de Gabriel García Márquez. Como uno de los más destacados libros colombianos del último siglo, esta novela propone una narración que se desliza en un vaivén de magia e imaginación, tanto como de realidad. Un vaivén de vida y muerte, que transita por la familia, el amor, el trabajo, los conflictos sociales y otros tantos ingredientes fundamentales para entender y explorar las percepciones de justicia de una cierta sociedad. Después de hacer un recuento breve de las narraciones del libro, a través del análisis de estos relatos, el presente trabajo reflexiona sobre diferentes aspectos de la realidad colombiana inmersos en la novela, concentrándose en las narraciones de violencia política y del conflicto armado en Colombia.
English Abstract: This paper intends to explore the narrations of the conflict and political violence embedded in the novel One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. As one of the most important Colombian books of the last century, “One Hundred years of Solitude” evidences the magical narrative and imagination of the Caribbean as well as the reality of life, death, family, love, work, social conflicts and other aspects that are relevant for understanding and exploring the perceptions of justice of a certain society. After a brief recount of certain relevant descriptions of the novel, this essay proposes the analysis of these narrations focusing in the narrations of violence and of the Colombian armed conflict in the novel.
The eleven papers in this volume address a range of theoretical and empirical issues examined at ... more The eleven papers in this volume address a range of theoretical and empirical issues examined at the Oñati workshop, "Law in the Age of Media Logic." Several papers explore the politicization of the media's reporting of the Courts and of judicial nominations, and consider how this reporting affects public support of the judiciary in different countries, including Israel, the United States, and Canada. Several other papers assess the "trials by media" that play out in the coverage of the criminal justice system. These papers consider a number of topics, including the criminalization of firearms litigation, the tension between a free press and fair trials, and the social media depictions of criminal justice. Finally, several papers analyze the judiciary's public relations strategies, and examine the various institutional changes that shape the public image of legal systems today.
The 2012 Oñati Workshop on Human Rights and the Environment sought to begin the important task of... more The 2012 Oñati Workshop on Human Rights and the Environment sought to begin the important task of developing a new framework that could contribute to re-imagining the relationship between human rights and the environment. Doing full justice to the vibrant and sustained discussion that took place in response to the papers delivered in the Workshop is near impossible in an ex post facto account that can only convey the merest flavour of the richness and complexity of what took place. Nonetheless, the following sections briefly recollect common themes and valuable insights that emerged during the workshop discussions and attempt to reflect the energy and creativity that accompanied them, with a view to setting out the general context within which the various individual papers in this volume should be considered. We have arranged the subsequent discussion to centre on the core discrete yet interrelated themes that emerged and developed during our workshop deliberations, namely: vulnerability; the limits of the law; the limits of rights; responsibility; interconnection; and thinking ecologically.
This article explores the proper role of judicial evaluation in relation to the various branches ... more This article explores the proper role of judicial evaluation in relation to the various branches of government and a range of disciplines. Judicial evaluation is a practical, interpretive sphere of inquiry, based on dialogue and collaboration. It must respect important shared values, based on human rights and dignity, responsible approaches to research, and the conservation of resources. After outlining two contrasting approaches, from the European Commission and from Sweden, the article considers the roles of politics and knowledge or science (broadly defined) in judicial evaluation. Then nine values are enunciated, based on the common heritage of courts, government and scientific research. In the practice of judicial evaluation, meaningful data must be collected, reported clearly and interpreted transparently in dialogue with stakeholders. Conclusions should be consistent with the shared values, derived from honest arguments and communicated effectively. Researchers should be impartial, treat participants with equal dignity and respect their rights to privacy. Judicial evaluation must be useful in improving the administration of justice, without wasting time or resources of the courts or researchers.
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English Abstract: This paper intends to explore the narrations of the conflict and political violence embedded in the novel One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. As one of the most important Colombian books of the last century, “One Hundred years of Solitude” evidences the magical narrative and imagination of the Caribbean as well as the reality of life, death, family, love, work, social conflicts and other aspects that are relevant for understanding and exploring the perceptions of justice of a certain society. After a brief recount of certain relevant descriptions of the novel, this essay proposes the analysis of these narrations focusing in the narrations of violence and of the Colombian armed conflict in the novel.
English Abstract: This paper intends to explore the narrations of the conflict and political violence embedded in the novel One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. As one of the most important Colombian books of the last century, “One Hundred years of Solitude” evidences the magical narrative and imagination of the Caribbean as well as the reality of life, death, family, love, work, social conflicts and other aspects that are relevant for understanding and exploring the perceptions of justice of a certain society. After a brief recount of certain relevant descriptions of the novel, this essay proposes the analysis of these narrations focusing in the narrations of violence and of the Colombian armed conflict in the novel.