The Bill of Rights applies to all law, and binds the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and all organs of state.

This chapter addresses Kelsen’s democratic theory through the distinction that he established between ideal and real democracy. Starting from a reconceptualisation of Rousseau’s definition of democracy as full political self-determination, Kelsen negated the feasibility of ideal democracy as direct democracy while stating that heteronomy was impossible to overcome. Kelsen thus posed the problem of how heteronomy and freedom were reconciled in real democracy. By differentiating between the ideal and real significance of concepts such as the people and parliamentarism, Kelsen argued that such a reconciliation was made possible in the form of a ‘government by’ the people, based on freedom rights, parliamentarism, political party pluralism and respect of the minority. The chapter also shows how Kelsen critically addressed a series of political projects, movements and figures, from Lenin to Neo-jusnaturalism, passing through the supporters of corporative representation. Kelsen retained that their common objective to go beyond what he meant by real democracy was destined to create a political system characterised by heteronomy without freedom. In this respect, Kelsen developed a theory of democracy that was both a theory on how freedom and heteronomy could be reconciled and a defence of democracy against ideologically and politically connotated targets.

This introduction to the book sets the context for the larger work – the European Commission’s declaration of the existence of the Geopolitical Union and the approach to technology it is taking. This approach, more interventionist and assertive, can be framed as regulatory mercantilist – combining economic and security goals, promoting increased regulatory oversight and industrial policy inside the EU, and seeking to promote its rules, values, and norms externally, in a form of ‘regulatory balance of trade’. This part of the book provides a structure for the rest of the book to allow for the development of its theoretical approach, case studies, and consideration of the future of the Geopolitical Union.

Vom Wesen und Wert der Demokratie is certainly Kelsen’s best-known contribution to democratic theory. To be adequately understood, however, it must be seen not as a one-shot theoretical effort, but as the epitome of a decade-long inquiry into the foundations of democracy. Indeed, the book was not written at a single stroke: it was first published in 1920 as a short essay and reappeared in 1929 in a revised and significantly expanded form. This chapter unearths the forgotten genealogy of Kelsen’s seminal work by comparing its two editions and exploring their profound and overlooked differences; by doing so, it unearths, contextualises, and unpacks the transformations, both normative and practical, that took place in Kelsen’s democratic theory between the two versions of Vom Wesen und Wert der Demokratie. A careful textual and contextual analysis shows that Kelsen’s most famous publication on democracy was a response to the multiple challenges that gradually emerged throughout the 1920s. It also reveals how Kelsen’s analysis of party democracy grew out of a careful study of actual democratic institutions and their fragile stand in the intellectual and political landscape of interwar Europe.

This chapter explores the journey from principles to the practical implementation of sustainable development and subsequently the codified global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It begins by examining the foundational principles of international law that guide sustainable development efforts by reviewing in detail the history and motivation behind adopting a global set of goals to achieve holistic and measurable sustainable development by 2030. Then, the chapter focuses on the intersection between Indigenous peoples and the SDGs, acknowledging the historical disparities faced by these communities and how treaties have the potential to foster or frustrate the achievement of these goals. It then delves into guidelines for sustainable resource management and Indigenous development within the SDG framework, emphasizing inclusive approaches and participatory decision-making. By bridging principles with practical strategies, this chapter underscores the importance of integrating Indigenous knowledge, fostering partnerships, and implementing the SDGs to achieve sustainable development while respecting Indigenous rights and aspirations.

The conclusion revisits the findings of the empirical chapters by focusing on the characteristics of transitional justice in process. It therefore highlights their conceptual and argumentative implications. It then goes on to outline the study’s contribution to different knowledge areas. The conclusion shows what the study teaches us about the Tunisian case with its unique political backdrop by providing new empirical insights and a unique perspective on a particular timeframe. It outlines for the field of transitional justice that transitional justice may be political exactly because of its technocratic nature and not despite it, and that there is a problem–capacity nexus in transitional justice: measures that seem to fit the problems to be dealt with in transitional justice processes and that fit the capacities of international transitional justice professionals may not necessarily fit domestic institutions. They run the risk of overburdening them, so that they cannot fulfil the promises transitional justice makes. Thus, more may not always be more in transitional justice, and a holistic approach may therefore not always be the best one – even if the grievances to be addressed are manifold. Finally, the conclusion discusses what we can learn from the study for other cases and for policy. It concludes by identifying potential avenues for future research and gives an outlook for current developments.

This chapter engages with activist texts published by DMSC. In conversations with sex worker activists and staff members of the organisation, a reading of these texts are located at their collective organisational site in Kolkata. Through my reciprocal exchanges with the members of DMSC, I draw out the conversations which inhabit their ideas and practices of collectivisation. I show that the formation of their collective thinking emerged through sex workers’ conversations with public health practitioners and state officials in mid-1990s post-liberalisation India. These conversations informed women’s collectivisation in Kolkata as sex workers, or jouno kormi, to form mutual relations between sex workers’ lives and law. The women shaped their role and responsibility in public life as jouno kormi by forming DMSC as a registered society under state-authorised rules. In doing so, they reorganised the specific hierarchical relations of gender, class and caste experienced by sex workers in Kolkata. Mediated by such alteration of hierarchies, sex workers’ relationship to the Indian state was also altered and made distinct from the criminalised status and conditions that are accorded to sex workers by the Indian state.

This chapter presents a case study on New Zealand, examining the paradigm of giving nature legal standing within the country’s judicial and legislative framework. It begins with an introduction that sets the stage for the discussion. This chapter then explores the Māori philosophy of a relationship with nature, emphasizing the profound connection and inherent value Māori place on the environment. It delves into the ways in which New Zealand law has affirmed this philosophy, particularly through the roots of the country’s environmental achievements as anchored in the Treaty of Waitangi. The chapter then presents two case studies – the Te Urewera Land Legislation and the Whanganui River Legislation – showcasing the innovative approaches taken to grant legal personhood to natural entities. It further explores the incorporation of Māori Indigenous traditional knowledge in sustainable development practices, highlighting Māori trade and the introduction of new measures of well-being and environmental protection. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the significance of giving nature legal standing and the implications for both Māori and New Zealand’s approach to sustainable development.

In order to set the scene for the book, the introduction begins by briefly recounting the so-called Arab Spring and the fall of the repressive Ben Ali regime in Tunisia. It lays out Tunisia’s prompt efforts to seek justice and accountability and how the much-lauded, comprehensive transitional justice project was developed with international support. It discusses the conflicts the transitional justice process has been embedded in since the beginning, as well as the attempts to hamper the work of the Truth and Dignity Commission, the central transitional justice institution, as the process went forward. The introduction furthermore lays out the fundamental questions addressed in the book and the ideas it is based on, as well as the relevance of studying Tunisia’s transitional justice in process. It situates the case within transitional justice research and introduces the processual heuristic and the arguments. The introduction also gives brief insights into the interpretive research process and methods and introduces a conceptualisation of ‘process-concurrent’ research. It closes with an outline of the remainder of the book.