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The Bengal Famine of 1770 and State Formation in Two Spaces
No full textThe famine of 1770 marked the beginning of colonial control of Bengal as the famine of 1943 signaled its end. The former claimed roughly a third of the population, inspired the descent of the state into civil war and its citizens into cannibalism, and ruined the once-prosperous region for decades to come. With some exceptions, scholars observing this period are broadly satisfied that the East India Company, which held near-total administrative control over the region, neither directly caused the famine nor did much to address it. In contrast, I argue that the British not only caused the famine but their response to it stimulated state formation in multiple spaces—the liberal, constitutional state in England and the colonial state in India. The British East India Company’s rule over pre-famine Bengal was defined by neglect, rapaciousness, indifference, and ignorance. For observers around Europe and the United States, the famine reflected a moral crisis around political corruption within English society. The British interpreted the famine as a moment of reckoning with the moral ambivalence and logistical enormity of their colonial endeavors — a bridge they crossed by interpreting the calamity as a reflection of nature’s hold over the landscape of Bengal and the character of its people. If the famine was but a symptom of the natural risk of moral corruption endemic in Indian society, then native corruption was the real crisis that needed managing. Through the self-involved gaze of colonialism, in Bengal’s darkest hour, it was British society that was deemed vulnerable. By narrating the disaster along these lines, the East India Company, the British elite, and media construed the finale of countless lives as an occasion for affirming the English state; for refining, not questioning, their imperial, state-like ambitions abroad
Symposium on The Sentimental Life of International Law: On Lateness, Style and Sentiment
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Workers\u27 Boards: Sectoral Bargaining and Standard-Setting Mechanisms for the New Gilded Age
No full textThis article explores the potential of sectoral standard-setting models (often referred to as “wage boards” or “workers’ boards”) as a solution for contemporary workplace issues, which existing labor relations and minimum standards regulatory systems continue to struggle to address. This argument, the article examines three historical statutory systems of sector-based minimum workplace standard-setting established in the early 20th century as a response to unacceptable wages and working conditions: the British Wages Council system, the Canadian Industrial Standards Act, and the US Fair Labor Standards Act. The article applies the conceptions of fairness identified in Seth Harris\u27s study of the origins of the Fair Labor Standards Act to analyze the three systems and offers a three-step approach to constructing a sectoral workplace standard-setting mechanism. This paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on worker representation and workplace standards by offering a conceptual starting point for designing a sectoral workplace standard-setting mechanism. The article highlights key design decisions and alternatives and maps out essential interrelated considerations, providing valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders seeking to improve worker representation and workplace standards
Provincial Constitutions, the Amending Formula, and Unilateral Amendments to the Constitution of Canada: An Analysis of Quebec’s Bill 96
Get PDFThis article critically analyzes provincial authority to unilaterally amend the Constitution of Canada. Via an assessment of the purported amendments in Quebec’s Bill 96, which would recognize Quebecers as a nation and French as the only language of the province, the article argues that provinces cannot make direct amendments altering, adding, or repealing provisions of the Constitution of Canada. This argument is reflected in the wording of the various constitutional amending procedures, the historical and contemporary constitutional practice, and the underlying purpose of, and fundamental distinction and complex relationship between, the Constitution of Canada as supreme law and the constitution of the province. Notwithstanding this argument, the article also analyzes the specific matters in the Bill 96 provisions and concludes that their addition requires recourse to an amending procedure other than section 45. Adding recognition of Quebecers’ status as a nation to the Constitution Act, 1867 exceeds the scope of provincial authority, in part because it would not reflect a statement by Quebec in its own provincial constitution, something it would be free to enact via ordinary legislation. Instead, what Quebec proposes is to confer such recognition by the entire country. The language provision requires recourse to either the bilateral procedure under section 43 or the unanimity procedure of section 41, given the express requirements of those amending procedures. Finally, the unilateral enactment of these amendments would be contrary to the constitutional architecture. The article concludes by briefly examining subsequent provincial attempts to amend the Constitution, finding them equally illegitimate
Your Boss Is an Algorithm: Artificial Intelligence, Platform Work and Labour by Antonio Aloisi and Valerio De Stefano
Get PDFIn March 1964, the cover page of a popular German weekly magazine entitled Der Spiegel painted a frightening picture: An anthropomorphic robot with six mechanical arms commands an assembly line while a displaced human worker floats aimlessly in the foreground. Ejected from his station, the worker throws up his hands in despair next to a headline that reads, “Automation in Germany, the arrival of robots.” Over fifty years later, a cover page from the same magazine evoked similar themes: A giant robot arm yanks an office worker away from his computer under the headline, “You’re fired! How computers and robots steal our jobs – and which jobs will be safe.” The more things change, the more they stay the same
The International Labour Organisation and the Future of Work
No full textIn 1969, David A. Morse received the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Labour Organization (ILO). In his Nobel Lecture, the then Director-General (DG) explained how the organization contributes to ‘an infrastructure of peace’ by providing Member States with ‘a meeting ground’ for cooperation and dialogue. This meeting ground is characterized by tripartism and universalism, two qualities that make the ILO stand out. Tripartism, in which governments and workers’ and employers’ representatives discuss and decide on all ILO action, ‘was both the most daring and the most valuable innovation of the Peace Conference’. By setting up the ILO in tripartite fashion, the social dialogue between trade unions, employers’ organizations, and governments was presented as a viable approach to resolving social conflict. As Morse suggested, if tripartism ‘could be accepted and applied in Geneva, why not at home?’
An Imperial History of Race-Religion in International Law
Get PDFMore than half a century after the UN’s adoption of the International Convention on the Prohibition of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, a debate has emerged over whether to extend the Convention’s protections to religious discrimination. This Article uses history to intervene in the debate. It argues that racial and religious othering were mutually co-constitutive in the colonial encounter and foundational to the making of modern international law. Moreover, the contemporary proposal to address the interplay of racial and religious othering is hardly new; iterations of that demand surfaced in the earlier twentieth century, as well. By illuminating the centrality of race-religion othering to the colonial encounter and chronicling failed attempts by Europe’s “others” to secure international legal protections, this Article makes a case for crafting an attuned response in the present
Insulating the Church: Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church of Canada St. Mary Cathedral v. Aga and the Suppression of Public Law in the Construction of Religious Communities
Get PDFIn Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church of Canada St. Mary Cathedral v. Aga, the Supreme Court of Canada undertook to grapple with the question of whether, when, and to what extent courts should get involved in the internal decisions of religious groups where there are allegations of procedural unfairness. This paper approaches Aga with an interest in the issue of state regulation of religion through law. The paper (1) reviews and assesses the Court’s judgment; (2) summarizes and analyzes the 12 intervener submissions, many of which were made by religious groups likely to be affected by the Court’s eventual judgment; and (3) outlines some conclusions that interpret Aga in light of the intervener submissions and the Court’s lead precedent on point, Wall. The paper argues that Wall’s tenuous suppression of public law in the internal matters of religious organizations is affırmed and advanced in Aga. For all the Court’s insistence that the “private law” construction of religious associations does not completely insulate religious groups from judicial oversight, there appears to be no place for public and constitutional law in setting norms for how religious groups should treat their members, including whether and how they offer avenues for grievances and redress
