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Suspended disbelief:the curious endurance of the deterrence rationale in international criminal law
No full textPractitioners and advocates of international criminal law frequently justify this body of law and its institutions on the basis of the deterrent effect that it has on those who might commit mass atrocity. Nevertheless, detailed studies by external critics in the past 20 years of globalised justice have strongly called into question this deterrence rationale as it lacks support in the historical record. It is therefore necessary to explain why arguments based on the deterrent capacity of internationalised justice endure given the weight of evidence against the preventative potential of criminal proceedings. This article argues that for practitioners of international criminal law, belief in the deterrence rationale rests on a passionate legalistic belief in the possibilities of law. But as well, for many in the non-governmental organisation and policy-making communities, the avowal of the deterrence argument may owe more to its potency as a rhetorical device than to true belief – these actors suspect it may not work but deliberately forget this in order to promote international criminal justice institutions. Faith in the deterrence rationale is also bolstered for some by studies that purport to prove its validity through anecdote or through employment of overly simplistic correlations between the fact that trials have taken place, and the fact that conflict or oppression has ended
The Gasotransmitter Hydrogen Sulfide Induces Nrf2-Target Genes by Inactivating the Keap1 Ubiquitin Ligase Substrate Adaptor Through Formation of a Disulfide Bond Between Cys-226 and Cys-613.
No full textAbstract Aims: The signaling molecule hydrogen sulfide (H2S) protects cells against oxidative stress and activates NF-E2 p45-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a transcription factor that regulates antioxidant genes. We sought to establish whether H2S requires Nrf2 to protect against oxidative stress, and whether activation of Nrf2 by H2S involves antagonism of Kelch-like ECH-associated protein-1 (Keap1), a redox-sensitive ubiquitin ligase substrate adaptor that represses Nrf2 under normal homeostatic conditions. Results: H2S stabilizes Nrf2 protein and induces Nrf2-target genes via an antioxidant-/electrophile-response element. In mouse embryonic fibroblasts, the ability of H2S to protect against cell death caused by the redox-cycling agent menadione is dependent on Nrf2. Moreover, Nrf2 regulates murine genes involved in the production of H2S (Cystathionine-beta-synthase [Cbs] and Cystathionine-gamma-lyase [Cse]) and the degradation of H2S (Sulfide:quinone reductase-like [yeast] [Sqrdl]). We found that H2S stabilizes Nrf2 through inhibition of Keap1, an event that requires covalent modification of amino acids C226 and C613 in the substrate adaptor. Upregulation of Nrf2 by H2S partially involves the production of H2O2, which inhibits Keap1 by stimulating the formation of an intramolecular disulfide bond between C226 and C613. The Keap1 C226 and C613 residues are also S-sulfhydrated by H2S, and this may entail reduction of the C226-C613 disulfide bridge formed by H2O2. Innovation: Upregulation of Nrf2 by H2S and H2O2 involves inactivation of Keap1 through modification of C226 and C613. Conclusion: Inhibition of Keap1 by H2S leads to Nrf2-mediated induction of cytoprotective genes. Nrf2 controls Cbs, Cse, and Sqrdl, suggesting that a feedback loop exists between Nrf2 and H2S. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 00, 000-000
Can the Dragon and Bear drink from the same well?:Examining Sino-Russian Cooperation on Transboundary Rivers through a Legal Lens. Part 1
No full textResearching Distressing Topics:Emotional Reflexivity and Emotional Labor in the Secondary Analysis of Children and Young People’s Narratives of Abuse
No full textQualitative researchers who explore sensitive topics may expose themselves to emotional distress. Consequently, researchers are often faced with the challenge of maintaining emotional equilibrium during the research process. However, discussion on the management of difficult emotions has occupied a peripheral place within accounts of research practice. With rare exceptions, the focus of published accounts is concentrated on the analysis of emotional phenomena which emerge during the collection of primary research data. Hence, there is a comparative absence of a dialogue around the emotional dimensions of working with secondary data sources. This article highlights some of the complex ways in which emotions enter the research process during secondary analysis and the ways in which we engaged with and managed emotional states such as anger, sadness and horror. The concepts of emotional labour and emotional reflexivity are employed to consider the ways in we ‘worked with’ and ‘worked on’ emotion. In doing so, we draw on our collective experiences of working on two collaborative projects with ChildLine Scotland in which secondary analysis was conducted on children’s narratives of distress, worry, abuse and neglect
Soil bentonite wall protects foundation from thrust faulting:analyses and experiment
No full textWhen seismic thrust faults emerge on the ground surface, they are particularly damaging to buildings, bridges and lifelines that lie on the rupture path. To protect a structure founded on a rigid raft, a thick diaphragm-type soil bentonite wall (SBW) is installed in front of and near the foundation, at sufficient depth to intercept the propagating fault rupture. Extensive numerical analyses, verified against reduced-scale (1 g) split box physical model tests, reveal that such a wall, thanks to its high deformability and low shear resistance, "absorbs" the compressive thrust of the fault and forces the rupture to deviate upwards along its length. As a consequence, the foundation is left essentially intact. The effectiveness of SBW is demonstrated to depend on the exact location of the emerging fault and the magnitude of the fault offset. When the latter is large, the unprotected foundation experiences intolerable rigid-body rotation even if the foundation structural distress is not substantial.</p
Cost of Environmental Litigation:R (Edwards) v Environment Agency (No.2)
No full textCase-note on Supreme Court resolution of case about litigation expense
Four Minutes of Midday
No full textThe first output from research into small region in southern Italy (Molise) and the notion of witness, memory and timelessness. A Hi-Definition Video installation that exploits the super-real photographic quality of the form. The work is shown on an LCD panel inset into a wall as though it is a scene through a window. The scene of rooftops and a church in the foreground appears to be still, but slight movements of distant cars, people and birds reveal that time is passing. Church bells may be heard at first in the distance and then nearer until the bells in the middle of the scene swing and peal. The work explores the slowly changing pace of life and the title refers to the time base and the pejorative term given to the ‘lazy’ south of Italy. The work’s motifs are Time, Memory and Identity. Each of the works in the exhibition addressed Time in one aspect or another, each suggesting routes travelling backwards through time and the possibility of a return, to re-view and re-experience in order to make meaning afresh. “Filmed in the town of Venafro, in Molise, Quattro Minuti di Mezzogiorno (2010, employs a fixed camera position which at first frustrates before revealing the very immediacy of its story. At the announcement of midday, the many church bells of Venafro compete in succession for almost 240 seconds and we realise that we can no longer trust technologies as there is in fact, no single moment of midday.” D MacKenna. This output led directly to further studies in 2012 and will culminate in 2013 with further research supported by an RSE Caledonian European Fellowship Sep- December 2013
Ecosystem services:a possible new approach in the valuation of compensation for land expropriation in Cameroon
No full textEquivalent-linear stiffness and damping in rocking of circular and strip foundations
No full textAn approximation is developed for obtaining the nonlinear stiffness KR and damping CR of a shallow circular or strip footing undergoing rocking oscillation on a homogeneous but inelastic undrained clayey stratum. Based on the parametric results of 3-D and 2-D finite-element analyses, equivalent-linear KR and CR are expressed in readily usable dimensionless forms. KR, normalized by its linear elastic value, is shown to be a unique function of: (1) the vertical factor of safety Fs against static bearing capacity failure, and (2) the angle of rotation θ{symbol} normalized by a characteristic angle θ{symbol}s. The latter is approximately the angle for which uplifting usually initiates at one edge of the foundation. Three sources contribute to the value of the dimensionless damping ratio ξR (derived from CR): wave radiation, which is a function of frequency but is shown to amount to <3 %; soil inelasticity (hysteresis), for which graphs are developed in terms of θ{symbol}/θ{symbol}s and Fs; and energy loss due to impact and the collateral vertical motion when severe uplifting takes place, which is tentatively determined from dynamic M: θ{symbol} loops. Comparative parametric seismic time-history analyses provide an adequate validation of the iterative equivalent-linear approximation which implements the developed equivalent KR and ξR, but they also highlight its limitations.</p
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