In this chapter I give a preliminary argument against suicide, based on the core argument of the book. Suicide is distinguished from permisible acceptance of death as a side effect of some other permissible action.

In the absence of a targeted legal framework, the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary’s ‘Guidance for Judicial Office Holders’ remain the primary source of regulatory guidance determining how artificial intelligence (AI) ought to be appropriately used by the judiciary in the United Kingdom. This chapter critically reflects upon the content and effectiveness of these guidelines, ultimately concluding that more extensive – and legally binding – regulatory action is needed to ensure accurate and accountable judicial decision-making in the era of AI. The chapter first surveys general attitudes towards AI within the UK judiciary, before engaging directly with the technical foundations of AI and examples of its usage in administrative and judicial decision-making in the UK. It concludes with an analysis of the guidelines, following discussion of several key legal and constitutional issues that may arise where AI is deployed in judicial settings. Throughout this contribution, we caution that the regular use of AI to make decisions does not simply change the process of discrete procedures, but rather, challenge existing structures within the legal and political system at a broader level.

This chapter introduces the main themes and arguments of the book. It opens by introducing the Church of God (Seventh Day) and its offshoots in the frontierlands of Gambella, and the preoccupation of Nuer Messianics with truth and biblical authenticity. It then discusses why and how exploring the ideas and practices of Nuer Messianics in the Ethiopia-South Sudan borderlands contributes to the study of religious mediation and to the literatures on African born-again Christianity, African Judaising movements, and spiritual life in Ethiopia and South Sudan.

In a world grappling with pressing environmental challenges, the intersection of Islamic epistemologies and sustainable development models offers a unique perspective. This chapter book delves into Islamic perspectives on environmental ethics and sustainability, exploring the theological foundations, ethical principles, and practical implications of stewardship and trust in Islam. Drawing upon Quranic teachings and scholarly insights, it examines humanity’s role as stewards of the Earth, emphasizing responsible resource management, moderation, and justice. Rooted in concepts of Khilafah (stewardship) and Amanah (trust), Islamic environmental ethics highlight the ethical obligation to ensure sustainable resource use and protect the environment for future generations. Additionally, the concepts of moderation and justice, known as "Al-Wasatiyyah," offer guidance for achieving balance, equity, and harmony in all aspects of life, including environmental conservation. Through case studies and examples, this chapter book demonstrates how Islamic principles can inform environmental decision-making processes and contribute to holistic, sustainable development efforts. By integrating spiritual dimensions into environmental conservation practices, it advocates for a more comprehensive approach to addressing contemporary environmental challenges, fostering a harmonious relationship between humans and the natural world.

Profiling as Policy

At the height of the Non-Cooperation movement in 1921, supporters of the Congress harassed six men – all of them labourers – trying to enter a toddy shop in Vellandivalasu, Salem district. The violence was enough to deter four of the men, who promptly turned away from the premises. However, Innasi Muthu and Sowariappan were determined to have their drink that day. Leaving the establishment later, Sowariappan was ‘garlanded and beaten with a shoe, and Innasi Muthu was garlanded and slapped on the cheeks’. The latter was reportedly so furious that he would have whipped out a knife in self-defence but for the number of assailants. Filtered through the perspective of colonial officials, this account noted that Innasi Muthu and Sowariappan were Dalit Christians and sympathised with the drinking public for the caste violence they had had to endure owing to Congress nationalism.

Excise records surfaced a distinctive administrative term towards the end of the nineteenth century: ‘the drinking public’. Akin to ‘the criminal tribes’, the term circulated through repeated usage, so much so that official correspondences often did not elaborate any further on the subject. As we have seen, drinkers came from every strata of society and drinking in public triggered a great deal of alarm. However, the drinking public meant something entirely different and very particular. Erected at the intersection of caste, class and gender identities, it referred to working-class men drawn from the lowest caste communities. In the Presidency of Fort St George, it also included tribal communities from the Nilgiris whom the state defined by their economic role as servants of the resident European community.

Chapter 14 examines how the rise of American philanthropic foundations – particularly the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) – shaped international law during the League of Nations era. Although the United States government remained formally outside most League institutions, American influence was felt as private organizations brought their considerable resources to bear on the development of the social sciences, including the discipline of international law. The chapter explores how the CEIP’s legal philanthropy sustained international law as a transnational professional practice linking League officials, judges, academics, and practitioners. Drawing on archival research from the League of Nations and the CEIP, as well as a dataset of roughly 25,000 individuals affiliated with League bodies and related NGOs, the chapter addresses several key questions: What strategy guided the Endowment’s funding decisions? How did this strategy interact with broader geopolitical dynamics, particularly the ambivalent US–League relationship? And how did recipients leverage foundation support to advance their own agendas? The chapter traces the CEIP’s project of replacing a militarized global regime with a rules-based international order administered by trained legal professionals but also offers insights into the structural impact of philanthropic funding on the sociological makeup of the legal profession in the League era.

This chapter focuses on the use of AI at sentencing. First, we note that AI can be used in different ways in the task of sentencing offenders. Second, the chapter considers when a ‘robot’ judge can be said to perform sufficiently well to replace a human judge. We argue that a plausible criterion for the assessment of the performance of a robot judge is contingent on penal ethical considerations and since these have not been sufficiently developed, we do not yet possess an applicable criterion for a comparison robot and human judges. Third, this conclusion also has implications for less radical applications of AI (such as the use of algorithms as sentencing advisory systems), for assessing competing types of AI models, and for carrying out post hoc evaluations of the performance of sentencing algorithms once they have been implemented.

Over the last two decades, new historical scholarship has greatly improved our knowledge and understanding of the history of the League of Nations beyond the old dichotomy of failure or success. Meanwhile, legal scholars are showing an increasing interest in the history of international law. Yet, a systematic account of the important role of international law in the League of Nations is lacking. Surveying the main state of the art, this introduction outlines how the Handbook aims move beyond these two separate strands. Moreover, it elaborates on its understanding of international law as the new ‘meta-language of global governance’, as well as on the methodological underpinnings the various chapters before briefly outlining the content of the Handbook.

This project is a close study of the legal and political aspects of management of water resources in semi-arid environments. The British in India laid the foundations of the modern irrigation system in what is now India and Pakistan. In semi-arid environments, the bulk of agriculture relies on irrigation, as it did in Spain under the Moors. We can observe a stark divide in the use of laws and institutions to manage natural resources in different societies, at different times and places. Some societies have managed in a way that achieved prosperity and long-term sustainability. The Moors of Spain created a vibrant civilization in the Middle Ages that lasted nearly eight hundred years. One of the reasons for the dynamism of their civilization was their judicious management of water resources on which foundation they created a thriving agricultural economy that produced the economic surplus for their vibrant urban culture. Of particular interest is what I regard as the essence of Moorish water management: its management of scarcity by borrowing principles from the great cradles of civilization, Mesopotamia and the Nile, which built abundance in harsh environments, along with principles of use, reuse and justice as conceived of in the Quran.

Chapter 11 argues that the absence of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) in the Manchurian dispute case at the League of Nations in 1931–33 had a significant impact on the development of the international judicial system for interstate conflict resolution. It argues that the dispute contributed to the ‘decoupling’ of the judiciary process from the League’s collective security mechanism which it had tried to build in the 1920s and of which the PCIJ was an integral part. The Japanese foreign policy elite’s shifting understanding of international law and the League, this chapter argues, was critical in underpinning this development. These elites had understood international law largely as a set of inter-imperial agreements and saw the League and the PCIJ as operating according to this norm. This understanding remained persistent at the beginning of the Manchurian dispute, and led them to argue that the case should be submitted to the PCIJ. In the course of the Manchurian case at the League, however, they recognized that the dominant norm was shifting, which prompted them eventually to opt for extra-League, bilateral inter-imperial relations.

Genetically modified food (GMF) is part of our realities as consumers worldwide. The techniques and possibilities involved do require an Islamic legal (fiqhi) study as to assess GMF with regard to its consumption, production and related research. The paper focuses on placing the study of GMF within a holistic context, under consideration of the societal background and rationale it has been developed under. It investigates into the possibility of transferring fiqhi devices such as istihalah (chemical transformation), istihlak (extreme dilution) and others to GMF combining genetic material from permissible and non-permissible sources. It raises a number of deliberations and concerns with regard to the usage of the maqasidi scheme and discusses the permissibility of GMF under the aspects of changing creation or harnessing nature.