Oil has seriously impacted the institutional development of the state in the Arabian Peninsula. More specifically, the sudden and unprecedented acquisition of massive oil revenues resulted in the freezing of the state’s formal and informal institutions, at the point at which petrodollars were injected into the state’s coffers. From then on, state leaders were able to deploy the state’s wealth to dictate the pace and direction of institutional change. Over time, any institutional change has been directed towards enhancing regime security, and the pace of change has been calculated and deliberately slow. Any political opening has been dictated by the logic of state power maximization (in relation to society). At the same time, partly to ensure its popular legitimacy and partly through the vision of its leaders, the state has deployed its massive wealth both to foster rapid economic and infrastructural development, and to enhance the living standards of its citizens. In other words, whereas oil may have stunted institutional development –– i.e., an institution’s curse –– it has been an economic blessing.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is used in criminal courtrooms to support judicial decision- making. Despite heavy criticism on opacity, complexity, non-contestability, or unfair discrimination, such uses have been favoured, given AI’s promises of efficiency, effectiveness, and accuracy in the overall decision-making process. Focusing on the use of AI-generated evidence, this chapter analyses various European frameworks on evidence and fair trial scheme, the data protection guarantees under the Law Enforcement Directive (LED) and the requirements for AI use by the judiciary set out by the AI Act. We assess whether and to what degree the use of AI in criminal courtrooms can respect fundamental European principles regarding human rights and defence rights.

Chapter 21 offers the first source-based historical analysis of the League of Nations’ attempt to codify international law between 1925 and 1930. Drawing on institutional archives and private papers, it demonstrates that codification was for the League Secretariat not merely a legal endeavour, but also a strategic tool to engage the United States – either as a League member or as part of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ). Encouraged by important middlemen such as Manley O. Hudson and Arthur Sweetser, the initiative aimed to rekindle US legalist Republican support and counter alternative projects that could challenge the League’s role in international peace and cooperation. Beyond US–League relations, the chapter reveals persistent divisions over the aims and methods of codification, reflecting broader struggles within international legal circles. The failure of the project was not just an institutional setback for the League but also a symptom of the legal community’s inability to promote a shared agenda. Rather than an isolated episode, the codification effort was part of a longer trajectory, shaped by both disruptions and continuities. While it barely produced immediate results, it laid important groundwork for later developments in international law.

Chapter 5 addresses the German–Polish Convention of 15 May 1922, a legal instrument that was negotiated with the direct participation of the League Secretariat and whose aim was the smooth partition of the multi-ethnic industrial region of Upper Silesia. It shows that while this treaty provided opportunities for ‘peace through law’, it ultimately failed to meet this expectation. After providing an overview of the Convention’s drafting process and its key features, notably its reliance on international procedural avenues to guarantee individual rights, the chapter examines these guarantees and how they came into being. It then focusses on the role of the president of the Mixed Commission for Upper Silesia, Felix Calonder, a vocal proponent of ‘peace through law’. In his role as local guarantor of minority rights, Calonder developed a systematic case law that was unequalled before the advent of the international human rights law bodies after the Second World War and foreshadowed some of the principles adopted by them. It concludes by reflecting on the various limitations that this law shared with other attempts to use legal techniques to solve interstate conflicts of the interwar period.

Religious codes possess social control effects that can potentially change the behaviour of their adherents towards becoming pro-environment. In the case of Islam, Muslim-majority states since the time of the Prophet Muhammad have implemented Islamic environmental law to this effect. Unfortunately, accounts of its implementation today in the legal literature are scant, thereby requiring fresh insights that consider changes in the application of Islamic law in modern states. Generally, this article observes that the implementation of Islamic environmental law today takes two forms: first, implementation through constitutions; and, second, implementation through non-binding religio-legal instruments. Focusing on the second form, application in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia is analysed and evaluated. In these three Southeast Asian states non-binding religious rulings (fatwa) and mosque sermons (khutbah) have been used to implement Islamic environmental law. There are two key factors which contribute to ensuring that these non-binding instruments achieve their social control objectives: first, local legal and political contexts shaped by religion-state relations that help their implementation and legitimation; and, second, the pursuit of post-fatwa/khutbah follow-up action by religious authorities to put Islamic environmental law into actual practice.

A hima is a reserved pasture, where trees and grazing lands are protected from indiscriminate harvest on a temporary or permanent basis. It existed in the Middle East before Islam; it was treated as a private reserve for powerful chieftains who were said to have used it as a tool of oppression. With the emergence of Islam, its function changed; it became a property dedicated to the well-being of the whole community around it. Tribes had their own himas with the permission of the state, and acted as self-government in the absence of state control. This institution flourished through the first half of the 20th century, when major political, economical, and social changes took place in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. The paper reviews the changes that have taken place in Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen with regard to the himā. Modern researchers and consultants of governments in the region still recommend using this traditional institution, because they believe that its revival and extension for land improvement based on cultural principles would be successful; it would not require the introduction of alien social institutions or values. This paper recommends some modifications required to adopt this traditional system in the current societies of the region.

This chapter offers a historical and legal reinterpretation of the minority protection clauses of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, with a particular focus on their implications for the Kurds living in Turkey. While the treaty is often cited as excluding the Kurds from formal minority status, on the one hand, this chapter argues that Articles 38 and 39 of Lausanne nevertheless extended certain rights and protections to all inhabitants of Turkey, including the Kurds. Drawing on the treaty’s drafting history, diplomatic correspondence, and international jurisprudence this article demonstrates that Turkey’s subsequent denial of Kurdish rights therefore constitutes a breach of its treaty obligations. On the other hand, it further explores how Ankara, through military leverage, strategic ambiguity, and political assurances, succeeded in “de-internationalising” Kurdish claims, effectively shielding its domestic policies from external scrutiny. The article concludes by highlighting the shared responsibility of the Allied Powers and the League of Nations in allowing these violations to go unchallenged, and calls for renewed scholarly attention to Lausanne’s unfulfilled Kurdish question.

Adjudication in the various courts in Nigeria has been struggling to break through the jinx of case backlogs, slow legal service delivery, limited access to justice, particularly in rural areas, overburdened courts, and insufficient legal resources. However, Covid-19 led to the adoption of digital technology in the filing, service of court processes, and speedy dispensation of justice through virtual court sittings. Technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) are the driving force behind the digital administration of law and justice, and courts in Nigeria stand at the precipice of a potential technological breakthrough. However, this is not without challenges, such as inadequate infrastructure, poor funding, and lack of capacity building for the judges to understand the complexities. This chapter examines the development of the AI-driven court system and attempts to put in place a national AI policy for the justice sector in Nigeria.

In today’s climate, researchers may feel pressured to always adopt the most complex, cutting-edge research techniques. Although such techniques have advantages, they also have disadvantages. In this chapter, we walk the reader through each stage of the research process: developing research questions and hypotheses, recruiting participants, selecting a study methodology and associated statistics, and disseminating results. At each stage, we compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of what we call “Column A” approaches (i.e., relatively simple, tried-and-true research techniques) versus “Column B” approaches (i.e., newer and more complex techniques). We argue that the best overall solution, both for individual researchers and for the field as a whole, is to adopt a diverse mix of different techniques. Throughout, we consider how open science techniques might potentially aid in achieving a healthy balance between different approaches. We also suggest mechanisms whereby often-expensive Column B approaches could be made more widely accessible.

Relationship science has grown tremendously in the four-plus decades since its inauguration as a distinct social science discipline. Much has been accomplished. A deep, conceptually rich literature has begun to take shape; the field’s methodological toolbox has evolved to the point where specialized tools for studying relationships are well-known and accessible; and the importance of relationships for human health and well-being is firmly established. At the same time, further advances in knowledge and impact will require surmounting several headwinds. We outline these challenges, focusing on four general themes: the need for more cumulative, better integrated core organizing principles; fuller appreciation of the role of context and diverse relationship structures; continuing development of the field’s research methods; and the need to more effectively disseminate its findings into interventions and the public sphere. In our view, the field’s future influence will depend on its ability to meet and capitalize on these challenges.

Relationship satisfaction has major implications on individuals’ health and subjective well-being, and prominent theories in relationship research have assigned relationship satisfaction an important role. In this Handbook chapter, we first introduce conceptual perspectives on relationship satisfaction, showing that relationship satisfaction is a characteristic of both the individual and the relationship. We then provide an overview of the measurement of relationship satisfaction and discuss common affordances in its assessment. Next, we report empirical evidence on how relationship satisfaction evolves over time, showing that relationship satisfaction changes both normatively and depending on the eventual outcome of the relationship. We then report how relationship satisfaction is associated with different relationship-specific facets, such as perceptions, emotion regulations strategies, and communication styles. To conclude, we discuss a series of unresolved issues in the area of relationship satisfaction research and propose an agenda for future research, such as the usage of modern technologies.

This concluding chapter synthesises the handbook’s exploration of victim engagement in transitional justice. It emphasises how the generational framework sheds light on historical shifts and contemporary dynamics throughout the chapters and cases in this book, from the foundational influence of early mobilisation to disruptive modes of resistance today, and how it deepens understanding of the proliferation of intersecting justice struggles through innovative adoption and adaptation of the paradigm. These developments challenge static, state-centric understandings of transitional justice and reveal its porous, evolving boundaries. Key themes for future research include the importance of relationality and relational justice approaches, the sustainability and intergenerational character of justice efforts, and the interplay between decentralisation and translocal agency in victim-led initiatives. Framing transitional justice as an expanding, victim-driven practice embedded within a wider justice ecosystem, the chapter argues for reimagining the field through epistemological and methodological pluralism, alongside deeper ethical reflexivity in scholarship, policy, and practice.

In the present chapter, the authors offer a social exchange theory analysis of processes within intraracial versus interracial relationships. After commenting upon “the rise in intermarriage” (particularly within the United States during the past 50 years), the authors draw upon Levinger’s (1980) Acquaintance-Buildup-Continuation-Deterioration-Ending (ABCDE) model regarding stages of relationship development, highlighting several quantitative studies that examine social exchange processes at each transition or turning point between stages of intraracial and (especially) interracial relationships. Furthermore, the authors address implications of certain interdependence processes for the stability of intraracial and interracial relationships, as well as gaps in the evidence that is available concerning turning points within both types of relationships. Subsequently, the authors identify particular studies that serve as points of departure for suggestions about methodological changes and theoretical additions in future research on intraracial and interracial relationships. Finally, the authors provide examples of still-unanswered questions within the literature on interracial relationships in particular.

This chapter examines the engagement of women next of kin of forcibly disappeared individuals in Sri Lanka with the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTF). The CTF was tasked with consulting on the design of four transitional justice mechanisms in 2016, including an Office on Missing Persons. Even though the government refused to respect the findings of this process, the chapter shows that the CTF generated a significant archive that can be probed as an ‘archive of desire’. This archive can help us to understand not only the demands of victim-survivors in relation to what form of justice or what kind of mechanisms they believe can deliver justice, but also the depth of affective feelings and investments underlying these demands. In post-war Sri Lanka, this archive continues to challenge and resist dominant narratives of denial and efforts to entrench impunity for forced disappearances. However, such archives equally serve as a resource to build solidarity across differences, to cultivate practices of listening to the ‘Other’, and to refigure the state towards recognising and redressing its sovereign violence.