Neutral Partisan Lawyering and International Human Rights Violators

This Essay considers the applicability of a particular model of legal ethics, neutral partisanship, to American lawyers’ representation of those who violate, or are accused of violating, international human rights. I maintain that neutral partisanship, a deficient model for American lawyers in their domestic practice, is even more problematic when applied in the international arena. The central question is this: are there limits, short of engaging in illegal conduct, that should constrain lawyers in the representation of those who violate international human rights? Neutral partisanship holds that any lawyer may, or, more strongly, must, pursue any legal end for any client by any legal means. I disagree, both in general and with respect to international human rights practice in particular

The Challenge of Local Responses to Climate Change

Abstract The arena of locally embedded and engendered responses to climate change offers a particularly fruitful and challenging space in which to scrutinise the encounters between established forms of governance and knowledge as they become entwined with locally generated forms of self- organisation. The issue of climate change offers a particularly fertile case for study because to date it has largely been dominated by state and market- based responses and associated forms of governance selectively articulated with knowledge generated through scientific and expert modes of knowledge. The central focus of the article is on identifying the variegated forms of understanding associated with the groups we researched and how they drew upon/utilised knowledge (knowledge-in-action) vis-à-vis the governance of ecological politics and environmental governance. The article draws on case studies of self-organising locally based groups in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom that are addressing climate change, in a broad sense, within their locality. These groups represent a range of responses to the issue and associated modes of action, exhibit different levels and forms of ‘organisation’ and may challenge more established forms of governance and knowledge in different ways

U–Pb zircon age constraints for the Ordovician Fishguard Volcanic Group and further evidence for the provenance of the Stonehenge bluestones

New U–Pb zircon ages from rhyolite samples of the Fishguard Volcanic Group, SW Wales, confirm a Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) age for the group. One of the samples is from Craig Rhos-y-felin, which has recently been identified on petrological and geochemical grounds as the source of much of the debitage (struck flakes) at Stonehenge. Analysis of a Stonehenge rhyolite fragment yields an age comparable with that of the Craig Rhos-y-felin sample. Another Stonehenge fragment, thought to come from orthostat (standing stone) 48 and on petrographical grounds to be derived from the Fishguard Volcanic Group (but not Craig Rhos-y-felin), yields an age also consistent with a Fishguard Volcanic Group source. Supplementary material: Details of analytical methods and a table of data are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3518175

Report of the user requirements and web based access for eResearch workshops

The User Requirements and Web Based Access for eResearch Workshop, organized jointly by NeSC and NCeSS, was held on 19 May 2006. The aim was to identify lessons learned from e-Science projects that would contribute to our capacity to make Grid infrastructures and tools usable and accessible for diverse user communities. Its focus was on providing an opportunity for a pragmatic discussion between e-Science end users and tool builders in order to understand usability challenges, technological options, community-specific content and needs, and methodologies for design and development. We invited members of six UK e-Science projects and one US project, trying as far as possible to pair a user and developer from each project in order to discuss their contrasting perspectives and experiences. Three breakout group sessions covered the topics of user-developer relations, commodification, and functionality. There was also extensive post-meeting discussion, summarized here. Additional information on the workshop, including the agenda, participant list, and talk slides, can be found online at http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/685/ Reference: NeSC report UKeS-2006-07 available from http://www.nesc.ac.uk/technical_papers/UKeS-2006-07.pd

Policies for small and medium-sized towns: European, national and local approaches

© 2017 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG This paper addresses the ‘policy dimension’ of the TOWN project drawing on the implications of the case studies for policy(ies) for small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) across Europe. It first considers approaches at European and national levels to SMSTs arguing in recent years there has been limited recognition that SMSTs have a significant role to play in the European territory. The paper provides an illustrative selection of towns from the ten case study countries. The research shows that the category SMSTs contains a varied and often dissimilar group of towns in a wide variety of regional contexts. This is true not only between countries but within them. The results indicate that while there are actions to support SMSTs that can be done at European level a prescriptive ‘one-size fits all’ approach should be avoided. Policy approaches should be developed within particular national and regional contexts supported by the European level

Melville\u27s Billy Budd and Plato\u27s Republic: Sea Captains and Philosopher-Kings

This article shows how Melville\u27s Billy Budd, rightly one of law and literature\u27s most widely studied canonical texts, answers Plato\u27s challenge in Book X of the Republic: Show how poets create better citizens, especially better rulers, or banish them from the commonwealth of reasoned law. Captain Vere is a flawed but instructive version of the Republic\u27s philosopher-king, even as his story is precisely the sort of poetry that Plato should willingly allow, by his own republican principles, into the ideal polity. Not surprisingly, the novella shows how law\u27s agents must be wise, even as their law must be philosophical, if they are to do justice. Paradoxically, the novella also shows how poetry can save law\u27s agents, particularly the more Platonic, from Captain Vere\u27s veer, a dangerous turn from fully legal justice to false and fatal severity. Captain Vere has a tragic flaw all too common among leaders otherwise completely conscientious and competent: When faced with a range of courses-all legal, moral, and practicable- Vere invariably charts the most personally painful. Part of his no pain, no gain course steers him into fastidious studies that exclude both mere fiction and pure theory, ironically banishing Plato himself along with his poets But Vere\u27s own story, with its narrator\u27s frequent theoretical interruptions and occasional allusions to Plato, demonstrates that the reading ofjust such stories may deliver leaders like him from over-harsh treatment of themselves and their most vulnerable charges. The novella, then, not only reveals Captain Vere\u27s veer ; it also shows a way to avert that ever dangerous, often fatal tack. If the studious captain had been prepared to study stories like his own, his readings might have made him a vastly better guardian of his symbolic flock, particularly of Billy Budd, his most innocent sheep; had Starry Vere been more a philosopher-king and less a surrogate father-god, he need never have made his excruciating mistake, sacrificing his most beloved foster son to save their microcosmic world