Given the fact that there is no existing history of juvenile justice in Ireland, this chapter provides a straightforward historical account of some of the main developments that have occurred from the emergence of the Irish juvenile justice system in the early nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. It offers the reader a general overview of these developments and provides a historical context for the main study without attempting any theoretical explanation. It also reviews some of the existing literature relating to the Irish juvenile justice system. It highlights the fact that there have been no serious attempts to account for the historical development of juvenile justice in Ireland. Only fragments of this history have been written, for example, histories of the borstal system and of the industrial school system. However, these accounts are largely descriptive and do not engage in wider theoretical debates.

Chapter 3 explains how the juvenile justice system became visible in Ireland. It highlights how the ‘problem’ of the juvenile delinquent emerged in the mid-nineteenth century. Both the problem of delinquency and its government are framed within various official reports by means of statistics. In addition, a new system of governing the delinquent population emerged in the form of the reformatory and later the industrial school and these regulatory sites supplemented existing sites such as the workhouse and the prison. From a governmentality perspective, the growth in bio-political knowledge surrounding the child results in the greater classification of delinquency and also results in a more refined calibration of the system itself. Although legislation providing for the borstal system and probation were later enacted, these initiatives never challenged the dominance of the reformatory and industrial school system and it was to be the early 1970s before this model began to be replaced. Around this time we see the emergence of a range of regulatory sites located within the ‘community’. The juvenile justice system has since become less visible but more pervasive within a myriad of governmental spaces within the community.

Chapter 6 examines the specific forms of childhood identity that are employed to govern young people within the Irish juvenile justice system. This chapter does not attempt a narrative history of ‘childhood identity’ but rather seeks to unsettle the various regimes of subjectification to which the concept of identity is linked. With this in mind, ‘identity’ is examined in terms of its function as a regulatory ideal rather than trying to construct a historical narrative of the subject. It is within this context that the chapter looks at the most prominent forms of identity that are employed to govern within the ‘youth justice’ space. Various forms of identity, such as the ‘delinquent’, the ‘reformable child’, the ‘psychological child’, the ‘at risk child’ and the ‘child as a bearer of rights’, are examined. These forms of identity are not employed in isolation but often complement each other in the process of governing the offender and potential offender.

This study set out to do two things. For one, it sought to gain a better understanding of the existing international legal framework for large carnivore conservation in southern Africa. Secondly, it aimed to study policy instrument selection in the multi-layered context of large carnivore conservation. The central question that guided the analysis was condensed as follows: what policy instruments make up the international legal framework for the conservation of large carnivores in southern Africa, what are their implications, and how are such policy instruments implemented?

In this final part, I pull together the different threads of inquiry that were spun in search of answers to this question and provide some ideas on how to take this research forwards.

Having described and analysed the policy instruments that make up the international legal framework for the conservation of large carnivores, and having delved into the implications of said legal framework, it is now time to shift perspective. In this part, I explore two examples of how the international legal framework for large carnivore conservation is operationalised and implemented. These are purely illustrations of the different ways of implementing international legal obligations. My aim here is to explore how policy instruments that were developed on the international level are translated (if at all) on the international and national levels. I address the final research question, specifically: How are the policy instruments that shape the international legal framework for the conservation of large carnivores in southern Africa implemented?

As wild areas ranging from tropical rain forests and wetlands to deserts and grasslands are being devastated, the world's wildlife has also plunged into an increasingly alarming downward spiral. The 2020 Global Living Planet Index showed an average decline of 68% in monitored populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish in the period from 1970 to 2016. Some say that the sixth mass extinction is already underway. But as opposed to previous mass extinction events, this extinction has a distinctly human face.

In an attempt to stem the ongoing devastation that is being wreaked on global wildlife populations, the international community has made considerable efforts to establish a protective legal framework. International wildlife law has expanded at pace. Although international environmental law and its subset of international wildlife law are quite young, the number of environmental treaties has mushroomed in the past few decades.

Before plunging into the heart of this study, I briefly pause to explore the particular considerations that are raised by the specific and multi-layered nature of international wildlife law, and how these considerations may affect international policy instrument selection.

In order to provide a solid starting point for the substantive legal parts, this study then goes on to identify and map the different types of policy instruments that are currently available in international wildlife law, and examines how those instruments generally operate. The aim of this mapping exercise is to catalogue the instruments that are employed in wildlife-related treaties into a working typology, and thus provide a comprehensive overview of the existing toolbox of policy instruments.