Pointing, for humans, is a communicative act – we intend to share information with one another by pointing. The intentional nature of ape pointing has been questioned, but a substantial set of data show that apes in communicative contexts alter their behavior with audience and attentional variables, indicating intentional communication. In contrast, the comprehension (receiving and understanding the information) of the point gesture in apes and other nonhumans has most often been tested using object choice task (OCT), an artificial experimental task removed from typical communicative contexts. This recent preoccupation with nonhuman point following has been fueled, in part, by the claim that dogs perform well at these tasks and apes do not. This claim, in turn, was built on the assumption that the OCT requires the understanding of the communicative nature of the point gesture – specifically it requires understanding the signaler’s intent to communicate – an assumption not backed up by historical or recent data. The chapter presents a review and a case study supporting three hypotheses: 1) Apes and dogs follow points quite well in the OCT if simple associative mechanisms like local enhancement can be used to solve the problem; 2) Some apes and dogs may understand the communicative intent underlying point gestures, however, these are the minority and likely require enriched environments; and 3) Methodologies and interpretations must be continuously and critically evaluated, especially when drawing species comparisons.

This fairly long introduction provides context for the subsequent chapters. Here, I intoreduce some of the key concepts that will be further unpacked, along with some background about me and my situation at the time of the story.

The mid 1960s and early 1970s Black Arts Movement (BAM) was an artistic and cultural renaissance rooted in the desire to mobilize an aesthetic tied to black self-determination. Like the multidirectional flow of this regional, national, and transnational movement (east, west, north, and south), the lines of the poetry were moving in many unexpected directions. BAM poets were committed to representing blackness, but the impulse to represent blackness often became inseparable from the impulse to experiment with new ways of representing blackness. The movement set in motion a deeper understanding of the inseparability of forms of black representation and forms of black experimental space. With a particular focus on the BAM in the South and black women poets who developed a southern Black Power feminist orientation, this chapter examines the subtleties and nuances of the poetics of space that shaped the BAM.

In humans, clinical and experimental research has demonstrated that language is lateralized to the left hemisphere. The evolutionary precursors and factors that selected for language lateralization have been the topic of considerable scientific debate. The chapter summarizes evidence that the emergence of left hemisphere dominance for language may lie in in the use of gestural communication by chimpanzees and other great apes. One section focuses on behavioral studies that have examined lateralization in the production and use of manual and oro-facial gestures. A second section focuses on the neuroanatomical substrates for language evident in the chimpanzee brain and their association with lateralization for different, multimodal communicative behaviors. The chapter summarize the collective findings by discussing some limitations in their interpretation and by suggesting direction for future research.

In Chapter 4, we contribute to the debate of aligning green transition goals with the incentive structures inherent in IP law, with a focus on design law. Bringing together theoretical and practical perspectives on upcycling in design, we review the state of the art in the scholarly literature and analyze findings from our qualitative research, including interviews with Nordic designers who integrate upcycling into their design and business strategies. We examine the economic incentives and disincentives of design upcycling and assess the competitive advantages and disadvantages of shifting from a linear to a circular approach in design. Against this background, we discuss the extent to which the European design law framework aligns with upcycling as a design and business strategy, including the effects of the scope of protection, the definition of infringement, limitations, and the doctrine of exhaustion. We emphasize that undue legal uncertainty arises from the ineffectiveness of limitations and exceptions, and that horizontal problems result from overlaps between IP rights. Taking stock of challenges and opportunities faced by design upcyclers we propose principles from circular economy that may be infused into design law to counterbalance the economic and legal disincentives that design upcyclers are faced with.

This concluding chapter synthesises insights from across The Cambridge Handbook of AI in Civil Dispute Resolution, offering a forward-looking reflection on the ethical, institutional, and technological dimensions of AI integration in civil justice systems. It traces the evolution of AI in dispute resolution – from rule-based automation in e-commerce to the emergence of agentic AI – and evaluates how foundational principles such as transparency, accountability and human-centred design must guide future developments. Drawing on the book’s thematic parts, the chapter emphasises the importance of hybrid human–AI collaboration, stakeholder-driven system design and robust governance frameworks. It warns against over-reliance on opaque technologies and highlights the need for legal professionals to maintain core skills in empathy, discretion, and communication. Ultimately, the chapter calls for a principled approach to AI adoption that enhances, rather than undermines, fairness and access to justice in both public and private dispute resolution contexts.

This chapter examines the evolution and deployment of AI tools in the delivery of dispute resolution in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) with particular focus on arbitration. The chapter draws on publicly available original data to argue that there indeed is greater opportunity to deploy AI in arbitration as a tool for efficiency, which may lead to cost and time savings. It also explores the emerging regulation of these tools globally, regionally, and in some SSA countries and concludes that regulation of the use of AI must maintain the right balance of achieving efficiency in the process of arbitration and mitigation of its negative effects.

This chapter takes a postcolonial-ecocritical perspective on a particular mode of empire referred to as ecological-agrarian imperialism. It examines aesthetic articulations of colonial agrarianism with a special view to James Fenimore Cooper’s Littlepage trilogy and The Crater, which are read in the context of Indian Removal and the Anti-Rent conflict in the Hudson River area. It argues that Cooper registers a remarkable critical awareness of the historical origins of the sociocultural conjunctions of soil depletion, food scarcity, biodiversity reduction, and colonial capitalism. Cooper’s works can help us think through the interrelated ecological challenges of our own time such as climate change, soil degradation, and biodiversity loss, and to reflect on utopian possibilities and roads not taken when the social and economic foundations of the United States were laid out.

Fashion upcycling offers unprecedented opportunities for the sustainable reuse of clothing: using second-hand garments as raw materials for new creations, upcyclers can transform used pieces of clothing into new fashion products that may become even more sought-after than the source material. The productive reuse of garment components in upcycling projects is socially desirable in the light of the overarching policy goal to achieve environmental sustainability. However, the more individual fashion elements are protected by IP rights, the more legal obstacles arise. Fashion items may enjoy cumulative copyright, industrial design, and trademark protection. Accordingly, infringement claims may be based on several rights. Seeking to enhance legal certainty for upcyclers in light of the overarching objective to ensure a circular economy, it is thus important to develop horizontal defences that are applicable across different domains of IP law. Against this background, the essay will explain how the referential use concept known from trademark law can be transformed into a cross-cutting defence that dispels concerns about infringement not only in trademark law but also in industrial designs and copyright law.

The chapter examines the adjudication of AI-related disputes as well as the application of AI-driven technologies in international commercial courts (ICommCs), a relatively new adjudication forum. It argues that ICommCs are well-suited for resolving digital technology disputes due to their publicness, transparency, and capacity to develop jurisprudence for the digital economy – advantages that set them apart from ADR and ODR mechanisms. Their international nature also aligns with the transnational character of digital disputes. Additionally, ICommCs are ideal for integrating AI-driven innovations in dispute resolution, as they are more agile and adaptable than other forums, particularly ordinary domestic courts. Their specialised judges, manageable caseloads, and ability to swiftly address emerging technological challenges further enhance their suitability.

This chapter describes the evolution of agriculture sector policies during the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rule. Most Rwandans still live in rural areas, and agriculture continues to employ most Rwandans. Prior to RPF rule, the Grégoire Kayibanda and Juvénal Habyarimana governments presented their parties as prioritising rural interests, as well as the production of cash crops for export (particularly coffee). However, since the RPF assumed power, policy priorities have shifted to diversifying agriculture exports (including producing higher-value coffee and tea) and encouraging the market-oriented commercialisation of agricultural production. The RPF’s attempts at reorganising rural society has been characterised by rural resistance and increasing inequality. However, there have been some successes, which have been driven by RPF-affiliated firms, sometimes in partnership with philanthropic investors. Successes include upgrading primary commodities and diversifying agricultural exports. However, agrarian policies have also been marked by increased land differentiation and rural inequality. Ultimately, sustained structural transformation is inhibited by elite vulnerability. The chapter highlights that there are few signs of the emergence of leading domestic agrarian capitalists.

We introduce the concept of molecular dynamics. We explore the different possible ensembles and the properties that can be revealed. We discuss various technical aspects.

Since time immemorial The non-stop river of our life deemed Your statement as truth And we considered ourselves untouchables.

—Amgai (2016), translated by Rabindra Chaulagain and Narayan Pokhrel

Caste System and Practices in Nepal

The Western District Court of Nepal issued a ruling on December 5, 2023, finding 26 individuals guilty of murder and caste-based discrimination (Amnesty International 2023). Out of the 26, 24 received life sentences, while the remaining 2 were sentenced to two years in prison. The tragic incident that led to this verdict occurred on May 23, 2020, when Nawaraj B. K. from Jajarkot district ventured into Rukum district with his companions to bring back his girlfriend as his betrothed. Unfortunately, they were met with hostility from villagers, who hurled stones at them, eventually driving the group of 19 young men to the banks of the Bheri River, where they met a catastrophic fate (Adhikari 2020). Nawaraj, a member of the Dalit community, was in a relationship with Sushma Malla, who was from the so-called higher caste of “Thakuri.” Sushma had invited Nawaraj to her village with the intention of eloping. However, what was meant to be a romantic rendezvous turned into a massacre due to the perceived insult to the honor of the upper-caste family and their neighbors.

Chapter 4 considers a variety of legal theories that have been applied to protect the rights of wildlife. In recent years, the protection of wildlife has been enhanced by extending gains secured in strategic litigation to protect the rights of nature in Latin America. Beyond the cases that leveraged rights of nature, however, many of the creative theories seeking to protect the rights of wildlife in captivity, such as habeas corpus, have not been successful in courts in the United States, whereas a few such cases outside the United States have been successful. The obstacle in most of these cases is the courts’ reluctance to interpret the term “person” to extend to non-human animals. The chapter lays a foundation to explore the troubling dichotomy of how the law is more ambitious in protecting non-human elements of nature through a variety of legal mechanisms, addressed in Chapter 5, than it is in protecting non-human animals, addressed in the cases in Chapter 4.

In a 2009 op-ed in the New York Times, journalist Paul Krugman described the vitriol between the Obama administration and its opponents as ‘the politics of spite’. Political relations in the US have not improved – if anything, polarisation seems worse. If negative emotions play a role in partisanship, spite is surely among them. When we’re spiteful, we are gleeful when our opponents fail or suffer setbacks. Worse, we often revel in what they reject just because they reject it. It’s tempting to think that getting over spite would help address polarisation. In this chapter, I argue that spite all by itself isn’t the problem. Spite is an emotion of defiance: we feel it towards people who we believe are trying to boss us around. We’re liable to spite because we value our independence and we want to be the authors of our own lives. I argue that spite is not to blame for the ugly forms of partisanship. Instead, the culprit is what I call ‘adversarial self-expression’. Self-expression becomes adversarial when we either: (a) interpret people’s self-expression as a challenge to our own or (b) use our self-expression as a way to provoke others.

Race has been a dominant theme in studies of US black art and politics in the 1910s and 1920s. This chapter shifts focus to imperial concerns during a period marked by US occupations in Haiti, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic, as well as the acquisition of the Danish Virgin Islands. It explores how the era’s print culture both revealed and obscured the expansion of a US Empire or Greater United States in the Caribbean. US governance in places like Haiti did not go unchallenged in leftist and race-conscious periodicals such as The Nation, The Crisis, and The Crusader. While non-fiction provoked anti-imperial analyses, fiction did not prompt the same responses. Assessing reviews and commentary of fiction, including Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones, Carl Van Vechten’s Nigger Heaven, Claude McKay’s Home to Harlem and Eric Walrond’s Tropic Death, this chapter examines why anti-imperial reading proved so elusive in this context.