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Proceedings of the 10th International RAIS Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities Cover Image

Proceedings of the 10th International RAIS Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities
Proceedings of the 10th International RAIS Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities

Contributor(s): Julia M. Puaschunder (Editor)
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Education, Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Foreign languages learning, Media studies, Civil Law, International Law, Sociology, School education, Higher Education , Behaviorism, Criminology, Economic development
ISSN: 2352-5398
Published by: Scientia Moralitas Research Institute
Keywords: Social sciences; Economics; Language and Literature Studies; Law;
Summary/Abstract: The 10th International RAIS Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities was organized by the Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (RAIS) and was held at Princeton, The Erdman Center, 20 Library Place, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA, August 22-23, 2018.

  • E-ISBN-13: 978-94-6252-573-3
  • Page Count: 264
  • Publication Year: 2018
  • Language: English
Should Taxpayers Have Access to the International Tax Arbitration Procedure?

Should Taxpayers Have Access to the International Tax Arbitration Procedure?
(Should Taxpayers Have Access to the International Tax Arbitration Procedure?)

  • Author(s):Gilda Almeida
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):International Law
  • Page Range:1-6
  • No. of Pages:6
  • Keywords:Action 14; arm’s length; Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS); diplomatic protection; international taxation; investment arbitration, mutual agreement procedure (MAP); OECD; Section 482;Tax arbitration;
  • Summary/Abstract:Globalization has subjected corporations to multi-jurisdictional tax systems. As a result, cross-border entities are exposed to the possibility of being audited and undergoing tax adjustments more than once for their transactions. In addition, various states’ measures — such as Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA) and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) — have promoted international cooperation, thereby allowing tax authorities to have access to a vast volume of data. The risk of double taxation has greatly increased due to the multi-jurisdictional authorities’ easy access to data. To address and balance the overlap of jurisdictions in tax matters, states are signing bilateral and multilateral treaties consenting to mandatory and binding tax arbitration, thereby expanding states’ mutual agreement procedure “MAP,” a historic competent authority negotiation process. However, taxpayers are not part of the arbitration process. The focus of this analysis is on demonstrating the benefits of taxpayers’ access to the state-to-state MAP arbitration procedure, which was intended to provide taxpayers relief from double taxation.
Law’s Argumentative Structure Belies the New “Moral Impact” Theory of Law

Law’s Argumentative Structure Belies the New “Moral Impact” Theory of Law
(Law’s Argumentative Structure Belies the New “Moral Impact” Theory of Law)

  • Author(s):Alani Golanski
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Philosophy of Law
  • Page Range:7-13
  • No. of Pages:6
  • Keywords:Dworkin; Hart; jurisprudence; legal philosophy; legal theory; Mark Greenberg; moral philosophy; Richard Hare;
  • Summary/Abstract:The new Moral Impact Theory (“MIT”) of law is novel, innovative, and influential. It claims that the moral impacts of legal institutional actions, rather than the linguistic content of any “rules” or pronouncements, determine law’s content. MIT’s corollary is thereby that the practice of legal interpretation consists in the inquiry into what is morally required as a consequence of the lawmaking actions. This paper challenges MIT by critiquing its attendant view of the nature of legal interpretation and argument. First, it is not practicable to predicate law’s content on the ability of legal officials to resolve moral controversies. Second, it would be impermissibly uncharitable to claim that participants in the legal system commit widespread error in rejecting a moral argument as a focus of legal interpretation. Third, MIT ultimately rests on a confusion between two levels of thought, the intuitive and the critical, the latter being the deliberative level at which moral and legal thinking diverge. Fourth, because no two cases are precisely alike, and owing to the open texture of natural language, extra-jurisdictional “persuasive” and “secondary” authority permeates legal argument; yet, nearly by definition, such writing cannot have engendered significant moral impacts in the home jurisdiction. Fifth, one way or another, we arrive at linguistic contents.
Dropout from Higher Education in Colombia: A Peer Effects Approach

Dropout from Higher Education in Colombia: A Peer Effects Approach
(Dropout from Higher Education in Colombia: A Peer Effects Approach)

  • Author(s):Carlos Andrés Rocha-Ruíz, Adriana Carolina Silva Arias, Jaime Andrés Sarmiento Espinel
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Education
  • Page Range:14-20
  • No. of Pages:7
  • Keywords:dropout; higher education; logit model; peer effects; social networks;
  • Summary/Abstract:Higher education dropout in Colombia has been an issue. One of each three students has not continued their undergrad studies. It is relevant to analyze associated factors with dropout in Colombian higher education. This study could be useful to analyze and mitigate this social problem. Literature about higher education dropout focuses in individual and socioeconomic characteristics associated with students’ dropout. However, peer effects in academic performance and dropout has been less studied. In that way, social relationships and peer interactions could influence student dropout. This article analyzes the incidence of peer effects on student dropout from undergraduate students in Colombia. We used SPADIES data from 1998 to 2015 (Sistema para la Prevención de la Deserción en las Instituciones de Educación Superior). The logit model estimated the incidence of peer effect on dropout undergraduate students. We found a statistically significant relationship between peers dropout and the probability to dropout of a Colombian undergraduate student.
Development of Mathematical Skills Like a Support to Executive Functions in Mexican Students and the Psycho-pedagogical Benefits

Development of Mathematical Skills Like a Support to Executive Functions in Mexican Students and the Psycho-pedagogical Benefits
(Development of Mathematical Skills Like a Support to Executive Functions in Mexican Students and the Psycho-pedagogical Benefits)

  • Author(s):Dan-el Neil Vila Rosado, Miriam Minerva Garcia Durán, Jose Luis Rodriguez Riera
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):School education
  • Page Range:21-27
  • No. of Pages:7
  • Keywords:divided attention; executive functions; mathematical skills; response inhibition;
  • Summary/Abstract:The development of our skills in any area is important to overcome difficulties and to grow both personally and professionally. The executive functions are the main tools of an individual to achieve goals or for adaptation to several contexts of development, particularly in education. Mexican education is not at its best, evaluation programs such as the National Assessment of Academic Achievement in Schools (ENLACE), Quality Exams and Educational Achievement (EXCALE) and PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) proves that Mexican infants have a deficit in the learning of basic skills such as mathematics and reading comprehension. Theoretically, the Mexican education is focused on the development of the executive functions, but in practice the educational models implemented does not have an effective strategy. The Mathematical Center Campeche is aware of the situation and proposes as a first step the development of basic mathematical skills at a level before the executive functions. We developed educational material to support children to suppress inappropriate responses that interfere with the achievement of a goal (inhibitory control) and respond to several tasks simultaneously or plenty objectives of a single task (divided attention). This activity was carried using slideshows and working in sessions between 10 and 15 minutes long. The present paper shows our proposal to improve mathematical skills and their results like the remarkable improvement that learners and teachers had while the investigation was taking place, not only on the activity but on the development of different behaviors.
Financial Aid and Higher Education Dropout in Colombia

Financial Aid and Higher Education Dropout in Colombia
(Financial Aid and Higher Education Dropout in Colombia)

  • Author(s):Lesly Katheryne Durán Cabieles, Jaime Andrés Sarmiento Espinel, Adriana Carolina Silva Arias
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Higher Education
  • Page Range:28-32
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:dropout; duration analysis; financial aid; higher education;
  • Summary/Abstract:One of the reasons for a government to support an education system is its role in productivity growth of its citizens and nation’s economic development. Although in some less-developed countries, such as Colombia, there is low levels of non-participation in primary and secondary education, there are high levels of dropout in higher education. The Colombian educational loan system experienced some changes to comply the 2010 National Agreement to Reduce Dropout. This paper analyzes the behavior of higher education dropout and its relation with financial aid before and after this Agreement. By means of a discrete-time logit model and a difference-in-differences approach, there is evidence that loans conditions after the National Agreement would not have achieved its goal.
Writing Anxiety, Self-efficacy, Effort, and Their Roles in Writing Achievement

Writing Anxiety, Self-efficacy, Effort, and Their Roles in Writing Achievement
(Writing Anxiety, Self-efficacy, Effort, and Their Roles in Writing Achievement)

  • Author(s):Nawal Khelalfa
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Education, Foreign languages learning
  • Page Range:33-37
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:effort; Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA); writing anxiety; self-efficacy; writing achievement;
  • Summary/Abstract:Recurring observation has revealed language learners’ successful completion of writing tasks at an acceptable and sometimes even impressive level only to complete the same tasks afterwards on evaluated assignments in a manner which sometimes fails to meet minimum standards. This leads to the assumption that such learners may be influenced by an extraneous factor functioning as an impediment in applying, upon evaluation, already-learned and mastered skills and knowledge. This factor is believed to come in one or more of the forms of Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA), which may influence and be influenced by other factors. The current study examined the association between some of these factors among Algerian EFL learners (N=148). Writing anxiety was measured using the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI; Cheng 2004). Two other factors, efficacy and effort, were measured using questions retrieved from the Academic Writing Motivation Questionnaire (AWMQ; Payne 2012). To test for an association between the variables, Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used. Results from the analysis have revealed that a significant positive correlation exists between writing self-efficacy and effort put forth in writing, and between writing self-efficacy and writing achievement. A significant negative association was found between self-efficacy and anxiety. However, a non-significant negative association exists between anxiety and effort and between anxiety and writing achievement. These findings suggest that self-efficacy may mediate or may be mediated by writing anxiety and effort put forth into the writing task, which in turn may impact the overall achievement in writing courses. Implications for further research are discussed.
An Analysis of the Factors Affecting Individual Perception about the Difficulty in Accessing Government Services in China

An Analysis of the Factors Affecting Individual Perception about the Difficulty in Accessing Government Services in China
(An Analysis of the Factors Affecting Individual Perception about the Difficulty in Accessing Government Services in China)

  • Author(s):Ling Xu, Xiyang Feng
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Governance
  • Page Range:38-44
  • No. of Pages:7
  • Keywords:Difficulty in accessing government services; Government service quality, Government service items; Government service methods; Reform of administrative examination and approval system;
  • Summary/Abstract:Recently, the reform of administrative examination and approval system has greatly enhanced the quality and efficiency of public service in China. However, with the rapid increase of public demands, the public service reform has to transform from the physical reaction stage to the chemical integration phase. In other words, we must change the traditional reforming measures, such as setting up the unified service hall, improving serving attitude, simplifying the approval process, monitoring the approval efficiency, to the holistic government construction stage that sets up an integrated platform for multiple public services by using the information system. In this study, we conduct a public opinion survey in Guangzhou, and aim to figure out the factors that influence individual perception about the difficulty in accessing public services. Based on the development process of service reforms conducted by the Guangzhou government, we propose three key factors affecting individual perception about the difficulty in accessing public services, including government service quality, government service items, and government service methods. The results provide some support to our argument that the government service items and methods exert significant influence on individual perception about the difficulty in accessing public services. Based on our empirical result, we offer some policy suggestions for the local government.
A Behavioral Economics Approach to Digitalisation – The Case of a Principles-based Taxonomy

A Behavioral Economics Approach to Digitalisation – The Case of a Principles-based Taxonomy
(A Behavioral Economics Approach to Digitalisation – The Case of a Principles-based Taxonomy)

  • Author(s):Julia M. Puaschunder, Dirk Beerbaum
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Behaviorism, ICT Information and Communications Technologies
  • Page Range:45-53
  • No. of Pages:9
  • Keywords:Artificial Intelligence Ethics; Behavioural Economics; Digitalisation; Human-Computer Interaction; Nudging; Principles-based Taxonomy and XBRL; Taxonomy;
  • Summary/Abstract:A growing body of academic research in the field of behavioural economics, political science and psychology demonstrate how an invisible hand can nudge people’s decisions towards a preferred option. Contrary to the assumptions of the neoclassical economics, supporters of nudging argue that people have problems coping with a complex world, because of their limited knowledge and their restricted rationality. Technological improvement in the age of information has increased the possibilities to control the innocent social media users or penalise private investors and reap the benefits of their existence in hidden persuasion and discrimination. Nudging enables nudgers to plunder the simple uneducated and uninformed citizen and investor, who is neither aware of the nudging strategies nor able to oversee the tactics used by the nudgers (Puaschunder 2017a, b; 2018a, b). The nudgers are thereby legally protected by democratically assigned positions they hold. The law of motion of the nudging societies holds an unequal concentration of power of those who have access to compiled data and coding rules, relevant for political power and influencing the investor’s decision usefulness (Puaschunder 2017a, b; 2018a, b). This paper takes as a case the “transparency technology XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language)” (Sunstein 2013, 20), which should make data more accessible as well as usable for private investors. It is part of the choice architecture on regulation by governments (Sunstein 2013). However, XBRL is bounded to a taxonomy (Piechocki and Felden 2007). Considering theoretical literature and field research, a representation issue (Beerbaum, Piechocki and Weber 2017) for principles-based accounting taxonomies exists, which intelligent machines applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Mwilu, Prat and Comyn-Wattiau 2015) nudge to facilitate decision usefulness. This paper conceptualizes ethical questions arising from the taxonomy engineering based on machine learning systems: Should the objective of the coding rule be to support or to influence human decision making or rational artificiality? This paper therefore advocates for a democratisation of information, education and transparency about nudges and coding rules (Puaschunder 2017a, b; 2018a, b).
Effects of Exchange Rate on Value-Added International Trade

Effects of Exchange Rate on Value-Added International Trade
(Effects of Exchange Rate on Value-Added International Trade)

  • Author(s):Myoung Shik Choi
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Business Economy / Management
  • Page Range:54-59
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:Exchange Rate; Global Value Chain; International Trade; Value-Added Exports;
  • Summary/Abstract:In this study, value-added perspective focuses on the role of exports within a bilateral trading partner in the process of global value chains with vertical specialization, which is one of the various innovations in the world economy. Theoretically, we determine a proper model to connect both the value-added exports (Hummels et al. 1999; Johnson & Noguera 2012; Koopman et al. 2010; Koopman and Wei 2014; UNCTAD 2013) and the changes in value-added exchange rates (Bems & Johnson 2012, 2015; Patel et al. 2014; Yang et al. 2014). Then, based on their relationships, we investigate the value-added effects of exchange rate changes on international trade. Empirically, we adopt the calculating methods of using the value-added trade statistics (TiVA) developed by OECD-WTO. In particular, proper time series econometric models are tested for the United States of America and South Korea. We find that increase in foreign income increases the value-added exports, and increase in domestic income increases the value-added imports, but that currency appreciation decreases the value-added exports in Korea while currency appreciation increases the value-added exports in the US. We would judge that the export competitiveness relies on the currency devaluation in Korea but the domestic industry/economic growth in the US. Also, the value-added exports to gross exports are higher in Korea than the ones in the US as using more the global value chains. This will contribute to mitigate the global imbalances and exchange rate conflicts.
The Effects of Cost Management Quality on the Effectiveness of Internal Control and Reliable Decision-Making: Evidence from Thai Industrial Firms

The Effects of Cost Management Quality on the Effectiveness of Internal Control and Reliable Decision-Making: Evidence from Thai Industrial Firms
(The Effects of Cost Management Quality on the Effectiveness of Internal Control and Reliable Decision-Making: Evidence from Thai Industrial Firms)

  • Author(s):Kanthana Ditkaew
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Social Sciences
  • Page Range:60-69
  • No. of Pages:10
  • Keywords:Cost Management Quality (CMQ); Decision-making Reliability;
  • Summary/Abstract:This study investigated the consequences of cost management quality on the effectiveness of internal control and reliable decision-making in Thai industrial firms. With this information, the firms were then tested against performance. A sample of 354 new manufacturing industries in year 2017 of Thailand was chosen and data was collected through mailed questionnaires. Only 340 (96.05%) respondents contributed to the database of this report. The result of ordinary least squares regression revealed that the cost management quality was positively related to the internal control effectiveness and decision-making reliability. In addition, internal control effectiveness and decision-making reliability also had positive effects on firm performance. This implied that without accounting information system quality, a firm had a greater chance of failure. Contributions and suggestions for future research are presented.
The Forgery in Identity and Traveling Documents

The Forgery in Identity and Traveling Documents
(The Forgery in Identity and Traveling Documents)

  • Author(s):Nicoleta-Elena Heghes
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Criminology
  • Page Range:70-74
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:documents; forensic investigation; forge; probation;
  • Summary/Abstract:This work we propose an analysis of some aspects regarding forged identity and travel document, because, the forgery of identity cards, passports, driver licences, weapon licences has become a very frequent felony in the legal practice in Romania. The most frequent documents that are forged in Romania are passports, driver licence and the documents regarding certain merchandise. The counterfeit of administrative documentation, of pay instruments, identity theft are more frequent along with other type of criminal offences. Regarding the identity theft, the most common way to do the forgery is by replacing the photo or by replacing certain pages of the document with personal information. Usually this fake information is easily to discover because of the security details that every official document has, there by, any mechanical of chemical intervention will alter the protection fund and the forgery can be exposed under ultraviolet radiation.
Recent Advances in Social & Cognitive Robotics and Imminent Ethical Challenges

Recent Advances in Social & Cognitive Robotics and Imminent Ethical Challenges
(Recent Advances in Social & Cognitive Robotics and Imminent Ethical Challenges)

  • Author(s):Ali Meghdari, Alemi Minoo
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Social Informatics
  • Page Range:75-82
  • No. of Pages:8
  • Keywords:cognitive robotics; emerging technologies; ethical issues; human robot interaction;
  • Summary/Abstract:One of the main challenges in developing and applying modern technologies in our societies is the identification and consideration of ethical issues. With the dramatic growth of emerging technologies in today's societies, such as social robots, lifelike computer graphics (avatars), and virtual reality tools and haptic systems, the social complexity of these challenges is on the rise. To be prepared to face these challenges, researchers in engineering sciences and humanities are forming interdisciplinary research groups/activities and try to determine the rate of evolution as well as the effects of socio-cognitive systems on human interaction with intelligent tools and/or artificial agents. A growing number of social robotics researchers are seeking to create a framework to benefit from humanities, philosophy, sociology, and social neuroscience expertise and research. Likewise, growing trends of mutual collaboration among scholars in the field of human sciences, linguistics, and psychology with the robotics scientists are producing quite noticeable valuable results. This paper presents an overview of the novel and multidisciplinary area of socio-cognitive robotics, and further explores the possible ethical challenges of emerging technologies on education, culture, entertainment, gaming, nursing, and therapy. In addition, some key ethical features based on our past and present research experiences in a variety of areas in designing safe social robots are also presented.
Artificial Intelligence as Global Commons and the “International Law Supremacy” Principle

Artificial Intelligence as Global Commons and the “International Law Supremacy” Principle
(Artificial Intelligence as Global Commons and the “International Law Supremacy” Principle)

  • Author(s):Themistoklis Tzimas
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):International Law, Social Informatics
  • Page Range:83-88
  • No. of Pages:6
  • Keywords:Artificial Intelligence; Autonomy, Global Commons; International Law; Legal Personhood;
  • Summary/Abstract:The current paper analyzes the issue of Artificial Intelligence—AI—focusing on Artificial General Intelligence—AGI—and Artificial Super Intelligence—ASI—from the perspective of international law. It begins with the acknowledgment of the fact that AI poses historically unique challenges on the basis of its ontological characteristics and mainly of the emerging autonomy. Its autonomy bears the potential of leading to actual personhood—or raising AI entities to the status of “being”—thus necessitating the attribution of legal personhood too. Such a situation would be groundbreaking for all legal systems as well as for the way we comprehend various conducts, terms and legal relationships. In this framework, of the ecumenical challenges that AI poses, the article argues in favor of a common, international response, through the international law supremacy principle. In addition to that, the article makes the argument for the regulation of AI entities that lie at an intermediate technological phase, meaning for those which have surpassed the level of “res”, without constituting fully autonomous “beings” yet and thus raising the issue of the attribution of legal personhood, that the regulatory framework of global commons could be adopted, both for the entities themselves, as well as for their creations.
Student Dropout and Graduation in Colombian Economics Programs

Student Dropout and Graduation in Colombian Economics Programs
(Student Dropout and Graduation in Colombian Economics Programs)

  • Author(s):María Camila González Gutiérrez, Adriana Carolina Silva Arias, Jaime Andrés Sarmiento Espinel
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Higher Education
  • Page Range:89-94
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:Student dropout; graduation; higher education; economics; multinomial logit regression;
  • Summary/Abstract:Dropout and graduation from undergraduate students were associated with the socioeconomic context, academic performance and characteristics of the educational institutions. In this paper, we did a characterization of dropout and graduation of students from programs related to economics in Colombia. We estimated a multinomial logit regression to measure marginal effects from a set of individual, familiar, institutional and context factors on dropout and graduation probabilities of Colombian economics students during the 1998 to 2015 time period.
Culture of Peace and the Fundamental Human Rights

Culture of Peace and the Fundamental Human Rights
(Culture of Peace and the Fundamental Human Rights)

  • Author(s):Titus Corlăţean
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
  • Page Range:95-98
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:Christians; culture of peace; education; European Union; Human Rights; international security; migration flow; military tools; radicalization; Romania; terrorism; war;
  • Summary/Abstract:Peace and different challenges we are currently facing in Europe, the need for a coordinated political European effort for promoting public policies and allocating appropriate resources in supporting a refreshed culture of peace inside and outside Europe represent the essence of this article. War and peace, international security, military tools and education, the priorities of the European Union are the basic references used on this purpose. From a historical perspective, the desire for peace of the humankind was supported in the 20th Century by important decisions taken by the international society, such as the signature of the Briand-Kellogg Pact (1928), the London Convention for the definition of the aggression (1933) and the UN Charter (1945). Nowadays, an appropriate and coordinated European political, economic, social and security management of the huge migration flow, generated by the conflicts in some other parts of the World, of terrorism and radicalization, the situation of different groups based on faith (for instance the Christians) should facilitate the promotion of a peaceful environment between and within the nations and discourage the tensions, conflicts and radicalization.
The Catastrophic Impact of Right

The Catastrophic Impact of Right
(The Catastrophic Impact of Right)

  • Author(s):Agata Mihaela Popescu
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Migration Studies
  • Page Range:99-105
  • No. of Pages:7
  • Keywords:counter-civilization; despair; migration; phenomenon; port-terrorism; terrorism;
  • Summary/Abstract:Each human being on planet Earth has his/her own place under the sun, a house, a country, and also freedom which enables the person to change all these how everyone wants or simply obliged to do so. Some people emigrate leaving their own country when the political regime changes, and when economy and security orders are destroyed, like the things happened in 1989. Following that catastrophe launched in the name of democracy, millions of people have remained jobless, homeless and hopeless. Ohers have left their country because God Mars has caused crises on their mother’s land, the way things take place in Syria, in Northern Africa, and of course in many other places on the Blue Planet nowadays. This type of migration, in the high technological century in which hypersonic speed is practised, has not contributed to improving migratory people’s human condition, it led on the contrary to humanitarian, demographic, existential and catastrophes of civilization. The migrating human floods that have covered Western Europe – the praiseworthy tree – have generated such effects, that by respecting proportions, they could be comparable to those produced by the Second World War. Suddenly, the great European capitals, the perils of the western civilization settled there thousand years ago (as a result of the battles they had always won), have found themselves overrun by Moslems, Africans, Asians and other peoples who shuddered the West, like the crusaders had terrified the East centuries ago. The huge economic power and the Western grand resources of civilization have not succeeded either to blur such phenomenon or to assimilate immigrants. Thus, one of the most human Man’s right – the right to migration – has generated a nightmare in the most civilized and elegant places on the Earth.
Considerations Regarding the Combat of Illegal Criminal Punishment of “Disagreeable” Magistrates by using an Instigator Agent

Considerations Regarding the Combat of Illegal Criminal Punishment of “Disagreeable” Magistrates by using an Instigator Agent
(Considerations Regarding the Combat of Illegal Criminal Punishment of “Disagreeable” Magistrates by using an Instigator Agent)

  • Author(s):Bogdan David
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Criminal Law, EU-Legislation
  • Page Range:106-109
  • No. of Pages:4
  • Keywords:anticorruption; criminal prosecution; magistrates; unjust repression; unlawfulness;
  • Summary/Abstract:The present study is proposing to draw the attention of the international public to the methods and customs used by Romanian criminal prosecution institutions against some Romanian magistrates that either refused to collaborate with secret services or did not answer to political commands and, as a result, some criminal prosecution institutions belonging to a so called anticorruption structure undertook against those magistrates the usage of instigator agents, informers, in order to convict and dispose those magistrates from the judicial structure. We will present in this study a national and also European law that prohibits the use of illegal criminal investigation tools in order to obtain altered and unrealistic information of people targeted by NAD with the use of instigator agents called denunciators, the latter being people convicted of criminal offenses for various crimes, in order to enable the individuals concerned to be victim of unjust repression.
Guarantees of Juveniles in the Penal Proceedings in Albania Seen through the Principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Guarantees of Juveniles in the Penal Proceedings in Albania Seen through the Principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(Guarantees of Juveniles in the Penal Proceedings in Albania Seen through the Principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child)

  • Author(s):Yllka Rupa
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Criminal Law
  • Page Range:110-116
  • No. of Pages:7
  • Keywords:convention; court; human rights; juvenile; legal procedure; legislation; procedural;
  • Summary/Abstract:The Albanian Legislation on juveniles was compiled based on the basic principles that affirm the fundamental international acts. Therefore, it seems that the guarantee of the basic rights and freedom of the juveniles is in very satisfactory levels. Special attention was given to the importance of legal intervention in the legal system for the juveniles. The Criminal Code, as the most important corpus in the protection of the right of juveniles in the legal proceeding, was compiled in such a way as to regulate the phases through which a suspect juvenile of a delinquency goes. Considering the main problematics of this field, a range of procedural guarantees for the juveniles’ protection were agreed upon. This leads to the Albanian State creating a Codification of the Criminal Law on the Juveniles based on the basic principles of the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of the Child. All the new approaches of the new legislation as well as the principles of the Convention regarding the procedural guarantee of the juveniles in the legal proceeding will be treated in this article.
Prohibition of Torture and Punishment or Inhuman or Degrading Treatment in Criminal Law

Prohibition of Torture and Punishment or Inhuman or Degrading Treatment in Criminal Law
(Prohibition of Torture and Punishment or Inhuman or Degrading Treatment in Criminal Law)

  • Author(s):Victoria Cristiean
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Criminal Law
  • Page Range:117-121
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:discrimination; justice; punishment; torture; violence;
  • Summary/Abstract:Regulating the ban on torture in the Romanian Criminal Code is the consequence of Romania's accession to the Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Incriminating torture, as in international law, is a guarantee that the individual will not be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment. Through this study, we wanted to highlight the importance of banning torture and inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment, primarily for the good functioning of justice, which implies the exclusion of any violent action, physical or psychological pressure or suffering to obtain information, statements, punishing her or a third person for an act which she has committed or is suspected of having committed, or for any reason based on any form of discrimination.
What Rules, if not Customary International Law – Articles 31-32 of the Vclt – Are the U.S. Courts Relying upon while Applying and Interpreting Tax Treaty Provisions?

What Rules, if not Customary International Law – Articles 31-32 of the Vclt – Are the U.S. Courts Relying upon while Applying and Interpreting Tax Treaty Provisions?
(What Rules, if not Customary International Law – Articles 31-32 of the Vclt – Are the U.S. Courts Relying upon while Applying and Interpreting Tax Treaty Provisions?)

  • Author(s):Dalton Luiz Dallazem
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):International Law
  • Page Range:122-127
  • No. of Pages:6
  • Keywords:customary international law; interpretation; tax; treaties; United States courts;
  • Summary/Abstract:The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) contemplates the interpretation of treaties topic in its articles 31, 32 and 33, portraying the frame to be followed by one who is engaged in this difficult endeavor. Tax treaties are, fore and foremost, treaties. Therefore, the VCLT is the leading guideline for their interpretation. The United States has sixty-eight income tax treaties in force. If one logs on any website provider of case-law services and types “tax treaty,” more than six hundred cases will pop up. This paper focuses both on what courts have been doing and on what they could have been doing, according to the VCLT, when ruling about tax treaties, but theorizing an approach to the interpretation of tax treaties is not its intent. Regardless of the inference of Savigny and other jurists that “interpretation is an art” and “cannot be learned and governed by any specific rules,” in accordance with the preponderant point of view, customary international law has developed rules on interpretation of treaties, which are accurately contemplated in the VCLT. Still, the American judiciary does not exactly follow its rules. Nonetheless, the U.S. court decisions that have already applied the interpretation rules of the VCLT are “especially valuable” as substantiation of international law since they are rendered by courts of a nation not a party to the Convention, and their importance is further reinforced because the United States, as the most active treaty-maker in the world, decidedly influences the law applicable to treaties.
Mechanisms for the Production of Injuries in the Case of Road Traffic Accidents

Mechanisms for the Production of Injuries in the Case of Road Traffic Accidents
(Mechanisms for the Production of Injuries in the Case of Road Traffic Accidents)

  • Author(s):Lucia Cerasela Balan
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Criminology
  • Page Range:128-131
  • No. of Pages:4
  • Keywords:mechanisms; phenomenon; the blow; traffic accidents;
  • Summary/Abstract:The phenomenon of road traffic accidents is a global problem and is an active and growing phenomenon. The main factor contributing to road traffic accidents is the human factor. The main simple mechanisms that cause traumatic injuries in road accidents are: The impact mechanism, the most common mechanism of injuries; The fall mechanism is present when traumatic injuries are the result of contact with a rough plane such as soil or other vehicle; The design mechanism is a simple mechanism that targets both vehicle occupants and pedestrians; The limestone is the passage over the victim of the rolling stock of the vehicle; Hyperrendemia and / or hyperreflexia of the spine, this mechanism is frequently the one responsible for the determination of traumatic vertebral-medullary lesions, also called whiplash.
The Impact of Basel Standards on Financial Management: The Case of the Republic of Serbia

The Impact of Basel Standards on Financial Management: The Case of the Republic of Serbia
(The Impact of Basel Standards on Financial Management: The Case of the Republic of Serbia)

  • Author(s):Ivana Marinović Matović
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Business Economy / Management, Public Finances
  • Page Range:132-137
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:Basel standards; banking, capital requirements; financial management; Republic of Serbia;
  • Summary/Abstract:The traditional role of a financial manager, based on securing sources of financing and cash management for the smooth running of a business organization, has changed significantly over the last decades. To a large extent, external factors have contributed to that; such as the globalization of financial markets, the liberalization of capital flows, changes in the macroeconomic environment, and the development of new products and services. Basel standards have a special impact on the financial management in banking organizations. Basel standards, as the basis of regulatory regimes in banking systems around the world, have especially contributed to the development and improvement of risk management and financial management processes. This paper identifies the challenges in the process of financial management in banks in the Republic of Serbia, conditioned by Basel standards, especially regarding the capital requirements. Faced with extremely strong competition and a trend of declining margins in the banking market in the Republic of Serbia, finding the way to optimize available capital is an imperative. One of the ways is the application of advanced approaches for calculating capital requirements. Through the example of capital requirements for operational risk, the paper confirms that the advanced calculation of capital requirements is one of the ways to optimize capital and its further more productive use.
Capitalism Crowding out Fertility

Capitalism Crowding out Fertility
(Capitalism Crowding out Fertility)

  • Author(s):Julia M. Puaschunder
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Economic development, Socio-Economic Research
  • Page Range:138-141
  • No. of Pages:4
  • Keywords:Artificial intelligence; Business freedom; Capitalism; Capitalism-Fertility Index; Economic Freedom Index; Ethics; Fiscal health; Foreign Direct Investment;
  • Summary/Abstract:ABSTRACT: In a realm of literature on influence factors on fertility rates; this paper innovatively introduces capitalism being associated with lowered fertility rates. Based on a 180 country strong worldwide data set and cross sectional correlation studies, this paper outlines that hallmark pillars of capitalism are all negatively associated with fertility rates. The 2017 Economic Freedom Index – comprising of input variables such as property rights protection, judicial effectiveness, government integrity, fiscal health, freedom of business, labor, monetary policy, trade, investment, finance, taxation, GDP freedoms as well as FDI inflows – is significantly negatively correlated with fertility rates around the globe. Based on a 139 country strong worldwide dataset on industrialization as measured by the UNIDO in the Industrialization Intensity Index of 2014 and fertility rates, a highly significant negative relation is found between industrialization and fertility rates around the world. Urban areas around the world tend to have higher fertility rates and access to markets within rural communities lowers fertility rates measured by the World Bank Rural Access Index for 64 countries around the world. The inverse relation of economic freedom and fertility was also found for 50 U.S. states based on the 2017 Economic Freedom Index and fertility rates in the United States. The historic examples of communism imploding giving way to free market mechanisms but also an Islamic regime changing towards a Western free market approach captures capitalism to crowd out fertility in a meta-analysis, which also finds higher education levels not being stringently related to fertility rates. Industrialization, globalization and capitalism lead to vanishing populations. Being occupied by production and consumption but also the entertainment of capitalist markets, economic mobility and international trade may distract societies to prosper regarding fertility. Focus on competing in markets may hinder from procreation. Equilibria und markets may have an undocumented negative effect on fertility. Unruled capitalism may lead to a falling rate of fertility, decimating the populace and eventually also the reserve pool of economic agents. The paper concludes with proposals how to use these novel insights as (1) birth control mechanism in those parts of the world, where overpopulation is currently demanding governments to find ways how to lower the fertility rate and (2) means to avert the falling rate of fertility in capitalist societies with a shrinking, aging population. Infusing capitalistic market freedoms in birth control needed territories but also taxing capitalist activities to fund parenthood through direct investment in social benefits and/or via subsidized parenthood to alleviate the tendency of the falling rate of fertility in the eye of capitalism is recommended concurrently, depending on the starting level on the overpopulation-low capitalism versus under-reproduction-high-capitalism spectrum. Revealing the found mechanism has also implications for advocacy to strengthen fertility and the intergenerational glue in light of vanishing populations in the Western world. In addition, the findings have innovative and futuristic prospects in the age of artificial intelligence. Robotics and artificial intelligence slowly taking over human capital labor activities but not being able to reproduce a human DNA is argued to increase the future value of humanness – and with that human fertility – in the artificial age.
Billets, Bombs and Babies: How the State Shaped the Narrative of Birth during the Second World War

Billets, Bombs and Babies: How the State Shaped the Narrative of Birth during the Second World War
(Billets, Bombs and Babies: How the State Shaped the Narrative of Birth during the Second World War)

  • Author(s):Carly-Emma M. White
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Family and social welfare
  • Page Range:142-147
  • No. of Pages:6
  • Keywords:England and Wales; health and social care; maternity care;
  • Summary/Abstract:The health and social historiography of the Second World War is closely bound to the British national narrative of total war and the conflagration of the home front. The organisation of welfare structures during the conflict put enormous strain on existing socio-political constructs, if only because the state had to intervene in the day to day life of the nation on a scale not seen before. The prime initial concern was to minimise civilian death during enemy bombing, as losses in the hundreds of thousands were expected in the first few months of war. Plans were made to evacuate non-essential and vulnerable inhabitance from major cities and towns of. Displacement on this scale meant that medical and social services were similarly likely in need of significant reorganisation to match patient need and service location. In anticipation of this, the state created the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) to re-organise services within a supposedly more unified, planned national system. Using the Emergency Maternity Service as a case study, this paper seeks to explore the way in which the disruption of total war prompted the state to cross the threshold of the home into what was previously a private sphere - the family.
Yemeni Crisis Dynamics: Water Security and Possible Routes to Civilian Casualty Minimization

Yemeni Crisis Dynamics: Water Security and Possible Routes to Civilian Casualty Minimization
(Yemeni Crisis Dynamics: Water Security and Possible Routes to Civilian Casualty Minimization)

  • Author(s):Darcy Pollard
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Civil Society, Security and defense
  • Page Range:148-153
  • No. of Pages:6
  • Keywords:crisis; defense; security; water; Yemen;
  • Summary/Abstract:In a 2013 report released by the United Nations water insecurity was identified as a national security issue. This is due to the close correlation between mismanagement of water resources and acute conflict. With humanity's available potable water table under increasing stress from pressures like population growth, the effects of climate change and privatization, the potential for conflict to arise becomes more likely. This has been made painfully clear in Yemen, where a complex humanitarian crisis has evolved in recent years, called one of the worst crises of 2018. Disease, famine and conflict have spread rapidly, aggravated and in part induced by the consequences of being one of the most water-stressed countries in the world. This research examines the nature of the Yemeni crisis, particularly the role that water has played in it. It makes the case that in order for civilian casualties to be minimized, access to water must be protected.
Forensic Expertise of the Traces of Break-in Instruments

Forensic Expertise of the Traces of Break-in Instruments
(Forensic Expertise of the Traces of Break-in Instruments)

  • Author(s):Marilena Cristina Chera
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Criminology
  • Page Range:154-157
  • No. of Pages:4
  • Keywords:break-in instruments; forensic expertise;
  • Summary/Abstract:There are many crimes that implicate different instruments that can leave contact traces. For making a felony against patrimony, such as theft, housebreaking or destruction, the offender needs instruments to get in certain polices or areas by forcing or breaking the objects that block the access to those areas. The felons can use simple instruments like those for material processing or they can use instruments that they built. The forensic expertise of instruments traces can figure out the nature of type of instrument they used, the mechanism of the breaking and succession of facts for accessing a patrimony. The expertise can also say if there were one or more instruments. Analyzing the mode of operation and the procedures used during the crime, the expertise can determine the number of persons involved in the felony.
Criminal Profiling in Homicide Offenses

Criminal Profiling in Homicide Offenses
(Criminal Profiling in Homicide Offenses)

  • Author(s):Petronela Diana Ferariu
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Criminal Law, Criminology
  • Page Range:158-162
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:crime scene; criminal profiling;
  • Summary/Abstract:The behavioral investigation of homicide crimes involves a thorough activity to identify the psychological trail left by the author at the crime scene, during committing the deed. This research method provides details of the typology of the person who committed the murder offense and reduces the number of suspects. Identifying the traits of the psychological profile of the killer is particularly effective and can prove itself valuable in investigating homicides with unknown authors, especially in those involving various forms of psychopathology, expressed through mutilation, multiple postmortem stabbing, sadism, evisceration, ritual crimes, burning of the corpse and so forth. The scientific progress of society, through its strongest propulsion power, respectively the technological development, provides a source of information for many offenders by suggest alternatives to alter the crime scene, so that the traces of the act are altered or even lost. This aspect is one of the reasons why the profiler should carefully analyze and investigate the scene of the crime in order to discover and fix all traces and subsequently to be able to reproduce the events scene as accurately as possible. Psychological profiling is an important component of forensic research, given its role in the reconstitution of the crime scene, the discovery, fixation and interpretation to traces and, last but not least, the identification of the perpetrator. The research highlights the need to have a clear view of homicides, in a national context and the general objective is to highlight the characteristics of the murders committed by Romanian perpetrators.
The Forensic Psychiatric Expertise in Romania: The Legal Medicine Implications

The Forensic Psychiatric Expertise in Romania: The Legal Medicine Implications
(The Forensic Psychiatric Expertise in Romania: The Legal Medicine Implications)

  • Author(s):Cristina Gabriela Șchiopu
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Criminal Law, Criminology
  • Page Range:163-168
  • No. of Pages:6
  • Keywords:discernment; dissimulation; expertise;
  • Summary/Abstract:The Penal Code of Romania, describes a list of paragraphs about the criminal offences made by people with unknown or acute mental illness or in circumstances that can affect the judgment of the one directly involved. In these cases, the only way to investigate the state of mind of a criminal in the moment that he produced that offence, is by analysing his mental capacity, his reactions in those circumstances, to investigate his social and family history and by interviewing him in front of the medico-legal psychiatric committee after a clinical and paraclinical assessment. The felon is brought by a police or a prosecutor order in front of the committee, after the investigations demonstrated that he or she is for sure the criminal offender and there are no longer suspicions about the identity of the felon. The offender can be brought for forensic psychiatric examination if he is already known with a mental illness or if, during the investigations, the police observes suspect changes of the behavior. There are also some crimes, the severe ones, that are mandatory to be investigated psychiatrically. The procedure is very complex but the investigations often depend entirely on the conclusions of the medico-legal psychiatric expertise.
The Lack of Decentralization of Data: Barriers, Exclusivity, and Monopoly in Open Data

The Lack of Decentralization of Data: Barriers, Exclusivity, and Monopoly in Open Data
(The Lack of Decentralization of Data: Barriers, Exclusivity, and Monopoly in Open Data)

  • Author(s):Carla Hamida, Amanda Landi
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Social development, Social Informatics
  • Page Range:169-174
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:centralization; data openness; government; institutions;
  • Summary/Abstract:Recently, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg was on trial for the misuse of personal data. In 2013, the National Security Agency was exposed by Edward Snowden for invading the privacy of inhabitants of the United States by examining personal data. We see in the news examples, like the two just described, of government agencies and private companies being less than truthful about their use of our data. A related issue is that these same government agencies and private companies do not share their own data, and this creates the openness of data problem. Government, academics, and citizens can play a role in making data more open. In the present, there are non-profit organizations that research data openness, such as Open Data Charter, Global Open Data Index, and Open Data Barometer. These organizations have different methods on measuring openness of data, so this leads us to question what does open data mean, how does one measure how open data is and who decides how open should data be, and to what extent society is affected by the availability, or lack of availability, of data. In this paper, we explore these questions with an examination of two of the non-profit organizations that study the open data problem extensively.
Mathematical Analysis of PSF (Proportion Spent on Food) in Specific Communities

Mathematical Analysis of PSF (Proportion Spent on Food) in Specific Communities
(Mathematical Analysis of PSF (Proportion Spent on Food) in Specific Communities)

  • Author(s):M. Rama Mohana Rao, Chandrasekhar Putcha
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Social differentiation, Economic development
  • Page Range:175-178
  • No. of Pages:4
  • Keywords:Fishermen; Household expenditure; Mathematical Analysis;
  • Summary/Abstract:This paper is mainly based on establishing a relation between PSF (Proportion Spent on Food) and factors affecting poverty in India. The work is mainly based on the doctoral thesis of the first author (Rao 1995). Seminal work was done and reported in various conferences/Journals in India (Rao 1998). The collaboration between the Indian and American faculty lead to this research paper. The data used in the analysis is that of fisherman community in the eastern part of India. PSF has been shown to be a critical parameter. It was reported (Rao 1998) that based on the grouped per capita monthly expenditure spent on food (PSF), the pattern of change in PSF lies in the range of 79.1 and 83.8. The present research study is based on a detailed mathematical analysis of the poverty data as related to fisherman. It establishes a linear and non-linear equation (2nd order polynomial) between % of PSF and % of households and per capita monthly expenditure based on principles of regression analysis (Chapra and Canale 2010). Using these equations one can easily determine the optimal value of PSF which is indirectly connected to poverty level. The validity of the fitted equation is studied with respect to correlation coefficient (r) and standard error of estimate (sy/x). These results will be very useful to a wide cross section of the community.
Judicial Activism: A Catalyst to Facilitate Sustainable Abstraction of Groundwater Resources of Bangladesh?

Judicial Activism: A Catalyst to Facilitate Sustainable Abstraction of Groundwater Resources of Bangladesh?
(Judicial Activism: A Catalyst to Facilitate Sustainable Abstraction of Groundwater Resources of Bangladesh?)

  • Author(s):Mohammad Sohidul Islam
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Civil Law
  • Page Range:179-186
  • No. of Pages:7
  • Keywords:abstraction; compliance; court; groundwater;
  • Summary/Abstract:Unsustainable groundwater abstraction is now an acknowledged problem in Bangladesh. Current water laws, policies, and institutions are widely recognized to have failed in addressing this problem effectively and efficiently. Moreover, the relevant laws and policies are themselves defective and deficient in controlling the free-style extraction of this precious resource, and compliance is very weak. The institutions responsible for enforcing the legal regulation of groundwater abstraction are also weak, fragmented and patchy. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates whether judicial activism could be one of the avenues to promote the sustainable abstraction of groundwater resources of Bangladesh. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh could be a catalyst in facilitating, though not ensuring, the sustainable abstraction of groundwater resources, not least it could declare laws as well as promote compliance and enforcement by applying its unique judicial activism tool. The Court has made a laudable contribution to the protection of the environment. Despite the intrinsic connectivity of water (both surface and ground) with environment, Court’s activism in relation to this resource is very poor and limited, and this is more true in relation to the protection of groundwater resources. In fact, till date the Court has not explicitly dealt with the groundwater depletion issue, and as such judicial activism has not found its way to tackle this menace.
Media Regulation: Why, How and to What End?

Media Regulation: Why, How and to What End?
(Media Regulation: Why, How and to What End?)

  • Author(s):Tulishree Pradhan
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Media studies, International Law
  • Page Range:187-191
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:Cross-media holdings; media regulation;
  • Summary/Abstract:In a democracy, the significance of the media as a primary information source cannot be over accentuated, but it cannot be denied on the fact that democracy requires citizens to be informed for an effective administration and governance within the ambit of egalitarianism. Undoubtedly, commercial and technology progress are continuously changing our perception, still both print and digital media play a vital role in opinion building. The administration and regulatory mechanisms are sort of adopted at various levels to improve the role of media, however the focal thrust of this paper is based on how the regulatory mechanisms are not adequate therefore again and again being refined and reformed. In essence, it is argued in this article that the rationales for regulation (why regulate?) and the objectives of regulation (with what end in mind?) have been insufficiently addressed. Hence, the sophisticated regulatory mechanisms are failed to sustain the clear goals of the mass media across the globe. With this in mind, it is both inevitable and proper that the focus of this study of media regulation is confined to a pre-eminently comparative analysis of media regulations across the world.
Virtual Communities and Social Change: Intertextuality in Saudi English-language blogs

Virtual Communities and Social Change: Intertextuality in Saudi English-language blogs
(Virtual Communities and Social Change: Intertextuality in Saudi English-language blogs)

  • Author(s):Shrouq Al Maghlouth
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Media studies
  • Page Range:192-196
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:blogging; critical discourse analysis;
  • Summary/Abstract:This paper examines the discourse on social change in women-related posts on Saudi English-language blogs. These posts negotiate many reforming measures proposed by the Saudi government to facilitate more women’s empowerment. An eclectic approach to intertextuality is adopted to explore the virtual community and the connections created on such platforms. The methodology adopted is based on Koller’s (2012) work on analyzing collective identities and draws primarily on Reisigl & Wodak’s (2009, 90) view of Intertextuality. It also examines more direct and explicit instances of the recontextualization of other texts or discourses through hyperlinked clauses on such blogs. The findings of the analysis reveal that the community at hand is quite closed, exhibiting an example of what has been identified in psychology as confirmation bias (Nickerson 1998, 175), which jeopardizes the potential of blogging for promoting change. A supporter/opponent struggle is vigorously expressed in these posts, to the point that it overlooks the bigger picture, i.e. women’s empowerment. Women who are expected to be at the centre of these topics are sidelined by such struggles.
Metaphors of Crime and Punishment in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”

Metaphors of Crime and Punishment in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”
(Metaphors of Crime and Punishment in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”)

  • Author(s):Marina A. Pershina
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Social Sciences
  • Page Range:202-207
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:crime; Lady Macbeth;
  • Summary/Abstract:The aim of the article is to study the notions of crime and punishment in the Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth”. It analyses the role of supernatural elements and metaphorical symbols as key components of the images of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Complex metaphors and poetic symbols go through the play’s plot. They follow the development of the characters’ inner struggle, reveal their intentions, and finally reflect their fall. Most symbols represent the supernatural dichotomy of the heaven (king Duncan’s virtues are compared to angels) and the hell (Macbeth is called a devil). Even the scenes of nature are depicted fantastically. The words of Hecate and the ‘weird sisters’ express the idea of existence in the external human world of something unknown that affects people’s internal motivation. At the end of the tragedy, metaphors in Macbeth’s soliloquies embody the themes of death, destruction, moral disintegration of the personality of the person who lost the meaning of life. The results of the research show that metaphors and symbolic elements are implied in the tragedy to create a psychological portrait of main characters. On the one hand, Shakespeare used them to show individuals. On the other hand, these characters become the collective images of sinners and righteous men.
On the Model Setting of an Ecological Accountable Government

On the Model Setting of an Ecological Accountable Government
(On the Model Setting of an Ecological Accountable Government)

  • Author(s):Ling Xu, Xiyang Feng
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Social Sciences
  • Page Range:208-216
  • No. of Pages:9
  • Keywords:ecological accountable government; executive contract; government’s ecological responsibility ecological accountable government; executive contract; government’s ecological responsibility;
  • Summary/Abstract:Today, under the background the ecological civilization construction, many scholars are focusing on the issue of how to keep the balance of the economical, social, political and cultural development and try to make all of them in a sustainable development way. In this paper, we put forward the concept of ecological accountable government. On the analysis of the responsibility system of an ecological accountable government, we try to construct the ecological accountable government in the contract way. Then, we consider that the ecological accountable government’s contract system was composed of three contract levels, which including the moral contract, the political contract and the executive contract. All these three levels of contract have different functions and definitions, but their goals are the same, which is to try to make the government fulfill its ecological responsibility. Finally, we talk about the constructional thoughts which including six different dimensions, such as the administrative value’s construction, the theory basis of the political ethics and some relevant background system settings, the subject of responsibility, the responsible receptors, the content of responsibility, and the responsible mechanisms.
Interest Rates, Fuel Subsidies, and Investment Friendliness in Southeast Asia

Interest Rates, Fuel Subsidies, and Investment Friendliness in Southeast Asia
(Interest Rates, Fuel Subsidies, and Investment Friendliness in Southeast Asia)

  • Author(s):Siangling Lu
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Economic policy
  • Page Range:217-222
  • No. of Pages:6
  • Keywords:Fuel Subsidies; Gross Fixed Capital Formation; Interest Rates;
  • Summary/Abstract:The question of investment determinants has been widely debated in the economic field, with scholars such as Daude and Stein (2007) and Waheed (2015) citing institutional quality as key while Ibrahim (2011), Jongwanich and Kohpaiboon (2008) cite financial market conditions as key. However, the role of fuel subsidies in affecting investment friendliness in smaller-scale oil producing countries have not been sufficiently addressed. My paper investigates determinants of investment friendliness in Southeast Asia with special attention to fuel subsidies. Specifically, in my project, I examined the interactions between lending interest rates, fuel subsidies, and gross fixed capital formation to carry out qualitative case studies on oil producing countries. I theorize that countries with higher fuel subsidies are likely to be less investment friendly than countries with lower fuel subsidies. This project, by closely examining fuel subsidies, sheds new light on the rarely acknowledged issue of fuel subsidies and investment friendliness.
On the Public Affairs Openness in Chinese Local Government: A Case Study in Guangzhou

On the Public Affairs Openness in Chinese Local Government: A Case Study in Guangzhou
(On the Public Affairs Openness in Chinese Local Government: A Case Study in Guangzhou)

  • Author(s):Ling Xu, Qianfan Li
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Government/Political systems
  • Page Range:223-229
  • No. of Pages:7
  • Keywords:citizens’ satisfaction; local government; public affairs openness;
  • Summary/Abstract:With the development of civilization, more and more citizens began to engage in public affairs, and it greatly pushed the government to pay much attention to building a transparency government. In light of this background, the public affairs openness becomes a hot topic not only on the theoretical research level but also in the government’s practical sphere. In 2015, we held a cooperative research program with Haizhu District government in Guangzhou, which mainly focuses on the public affairs openness in Chinese local government. Then, we describe a case study on the Haizhu District government. Based on the first stage investigation, we found that the Haizhu District government’s public affairs openness can be improved, or is just in the very beginning. Public affairs openness demands should be led by the citizen’s desire instead of the upper-level government. Hence, the Haizhu District government should transform the whole public affairs openness model from the bureaucracy guiding style to the citizen guiding way.
Challenging Binaries in Migration: The Role of the Environment in Mobility

Challenging Binaries in Migration: The Role of the Environment in Mobility
(Challenging Binaries in Migration: The Role of the Environment in Mobility)

  • Author(s):Azin Emami
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Environmental interactions, Migration Studies
  • Page Range:230-234
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:displacement; environmental change; environmental refugees;
  • Summary/Abstract:The rise in global temperatures and extreme weather events has affected agricultural trends throughout the world and threatened the livelihoods of entire communities. Although not a determinant on its own, environmental degradation constitutes one of the overlooked causes of mass displacement in the 21st century. This paper critically examines the notion of ‘environmental refugees’ and its linkages with the formation of new forms of precarious labor in the Global South. The aim of this paper is to survey the available literature on environmental migration in order to explore some of the humanitarian consequences of anthropogenic climate change. More specifically, this paper works with the myth of ‘invasion’ by environmental refugees in order to understand the systemic nature and demographic characteristics of population displacements related to the erasure of the means of survival, land and work for communities en masse, compelling members of these communities to take severe risks for survival. Drawing on the available literature on climate change and migration patterns, this paper will consider the debate on international recognition for environmentally displaced persons (EDPs). Finally, the ways in which the international community can begin to respond to anthropogenic climate change and the associated ecological crises will be considered. The paper concludes that existing binaries in refugee law fail to capture the intricate relationship between social, economic, political and environmental factors in human mobility, leaving many environmentally displaced people without protection. In order to overcome this oversight, we must critically analyze existing categories and prioritize the voices and lived experiences of those impacted by environmental change.
The Falange Española: a Spanish Paradox

The Falange Española: a Spanish Paradox
(The Falange Española: a Spanish Paradox)

  • Author(s):James Slaven
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Military history
  • Page Range:235-242
  • No. of Pages:8
  • Keywords:Spain; Fascism; Falange Española; Political Party; Civil War;
  • Summary/Abstract:"The Falange Española: a Spanish Paradox" discusses the Falange Española, a fascist political party in interwar Spain, and its power during various periods: before the Spanish Civil War and after the Spanish Civil War. First, the paper examines how the Falange Española remained a fringe movement during the time of the Second Republic, looking specifically at: the overcrowding of the political right, the lack of finances, the political mergers, etc. It then examines how the party rose to power following the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936 and the Decree of Unification in 1937, looking specifically at: membership statistics, military strength, Falangist legislation under the Franco regime, etc. The paper concludes that the party was simultaneously at the height of its power and yet the most distant from implementing its vision of a Falangist state.
The Travali of Criminal Thinking, a Psychoanalytic Interpretation of the Absence of the Superego

The Travali of Criminal Thinking, a Psychoanalytic Interpretation of the Absence of the Superego
(The Travali of Criminal Thinking, a Psychoanalytic Interpretation of the Absence of the Superego)

  • Author(s):Gabriel Tănăsescu
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Behaviorism, Criminology
  • Page Range:243-247
  • No. of Pages:5
  • Keywords:aggressiveness; criminal; criminal personality;
  • Summary/Abstract:The human being (the active subject of the crime of murder) cannot commit the crime unless it has first killed the suzerain. As long as the suicide still exists and is present in the being, crime cannot be achieved, it cannot become reality, as individual is not prepared to act to commit the criminal act. Hate, evil, aggression build up in consciousness when the suzerain begins to die gradually. Deicide is not only the killing of God by its own being, but also the death of superstition, the killing of the images of ideal parents, the death of any symbol representing ethics, the assassination of the moral court, and all the positive feelings of the individual engaged in society, the realization of existential projects. The construction of the criminal personality is born only after the neurotic ego has killed its own moral court. This is easy when the overhead is not strong, that is, it does not manifest itself as a true barrier, supreme inhibition, in the face of existential pulses.
The Research of Motivational Factors and the Psycho-Behavioral Footprint of Sexually Motivated Homicide

The Research of Motivational Factors and the Psycho-Behavioral Footprint of Sexually Motivated Homicide
(The Research of Motivational Factors and the Psycho-Behavioral Footprint of Sexually Motivated Homicide)

  • Author(s):Andrei Armeanu
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Criminology, Penology
  • Page Range:248-253
  • No. of Pages:6
  • Keywords:forensic; investigation; psycho-behavioral footprint;
  • Summary/Abstract:Sexually motivated homicides can be committed for a variety of reasons, rooted in the authors deviant personality, from reducing the victim to an object state and defeating its will to the violence of the sexual assault. The sexual assault, whether heterosexual or homosexual, and the manner of commission, involving sexual acts, sodomy or the insertion of objects, has a sexual motivation and the murder of the victim arises as a result of the brutality manifested through sadism and mutilation, specific for serial sexual abusers, or extreme violence in the case of non-serial sexual aggressors. Identifying the motivational factors of sexual abusers involves analyzing, from a psychological and criminological perspective, the way of committing the crime, the behavior of the attacker and his reporting to his acts, revealed during the interrogation. Knowing the motivational factors can play a fundamental role in shaping the psychological profile of the sexual aggressor. Corroborating the motivational factors with other elements of the authors criminal history or other behavioral marks of deviance leads to a psycho-footprint of the author, whose role can go beyond the strict investigation of the incriminated act, ranging from the identification of other acts previously committed by the assailant to anticipating its chances of rehabilitation. The present research brings to the forefront the interpretation of the motivational factors and their transposition into the criminal behavior of the authors and the general objective is to highlight the role of establishing their psycho-behavioral footprint in sexual crimes.
The Manifestation of Will: The Vectorial Force of Accepting Guilt

The Manifestation of Will: The Vectorial Force of Accepting Guilt
(The Manifestation of Will: The Vectorial Force of Accepting Guilt)

  • Author(s):Camil Tănăsescu
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Penology
  • Page Range:254-257
  • No. of Pages:4
  • Keywords:aggressor; behavior guilt; crime; individual need; intention;
  • Summary/Abstract:Individual conduct involves the orientation of actions in a certain way by making a decision. The attempt to establish the unique and appropriate purpose of the action is based on the intention to achieve that goal, followed by the elaboration of the mental plan for the realization of the action. In the deliberation, certain processes are underway to investigate the conditions for carrying out the criminal activity, assessing its effects in the objective reality. Following the analysis of the meanings, the reasons and the purpose pursued, the mental plan for the concrete realization of the criminal activity is finalized by making the decision to commit the crime. Finalizing the decision is followed by its execution to achieve the goal pursued, the aggressor using is hull psychophysical ability, knowledge, skills and ability in adopting a method of action. The manifestation of will is realized when the individual acts knowingly, even if the purpose of his actions coincides with the interests and needs of others. The guilt appears to be a force contrary to the manifestation of freedom of each individual, considered as the original behavioral form of any collectivity that opposes block of opposite behavior.
The Relationship between Culture and Communication within the Ecclesia

The Relationship between Culture and Communication within the Ecclesia
(The Relationship between Culture and Communication within the Ecclesia)

  • Author(s):Samuiel Balc
  • Language:English
  • Subject(s):Sociology of Culture
  • Page Range:258-264
  • No. of Pages:7
  • Keywords:culture; communication; community; ecclesia; thinking;
  • Summary/Abstract:Culture, communication and community are not separable from each other. In order to have proper relationships, culture plays a very important role as a means by which these relationships are expressed, but at the same time there must be adequate communication. Reflecting on the different ways in which the human being is understood is also very important. There is, as can be seen, an almost universal tendency to judge other cultures and communities based on someone's cultural predispositions. Thus, how to think, feel, communicate, and behave in a particular culture becomes good or bad, understandable or incomprehensible, acceptable or ridiculous, if they are in accordance with our "way of thinking, feeling," communicate and behave. In order to overcome many barriers and prejudices, it is especially important to know the relationship between culture and communication and the role they have within the ecclesial community. All this is outlined in a practical way in this article.
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