This article argues that the concept of dualism has ceased to operate as a reliable indicator of, or guide to, the relationships between domestic and international laws in the UK’s constitutional order. Dualism, it is argued, provides only a partial account of the complex interactions between domestic and international laws, cannot accommodate the hybrid products of interactions with European legal orders and ignores the post-“incorporation” processes of domestication through which international and domestic norms are reconciled. The connections between domestic and international laws are – in contrast to dualism’s binary simplicity – multi-dimensional and interconnected with the UK’s (recently turbulent) constitutional politics.

A dramatic increase of small (“arrow-sized”) points, typically beginning after about 2,000 years ago (depending on locality), has often been characterized as marking the introduction of the bow and arrow throughout the Americas, eventually replacing earlier dart-and-atlatl weaponry in most areas. We analyze a large point assemblage from sites in the central Willamette Valley of western Oregon with a 6,000-year-long cultural record. We easily sorted the assemblage into small (“arrow-sized”) and large (“dart-sized”) sets using standard metrics, but we noted extreme temporal overlap, suggesting that (1) atlatls and bows continued in regular use as companion weapons; (2) both large and small projectile tips were affixed to arrows, depending on the target; or (3) there was some combination of these factors. Given the range of point forms, it appears that some served specialized functions (e.g., social conflict, hunting conditions, prey type), suggesting that the uses of stone-tipped weaponry may be more nuanced than has generally been acknowledged. Consequently, we find that assigning points to specific weapon systems requires assumptions we cannot support.

The Parsi Sanskrit Yasna, attributed to Nēryōsangh, presupposes a sophisticated philological system that features historical, religious, and cultural elements. This philological system, developed in a multicultural environment, reflects both the Zoroastrian tradition and contemporary Indian society. Centuries later, Eugène Burnouf effectively utilised the same system to make significant advances in comparative Indo-Iranian studies. This article examines Burnouf’s philological approach and his rediscovery and revival of the original philological system of the Sanskrit Yasna, thanks to a multilingual and multicultural scope that allowed him to understand the text and draw important comparative patterns from it. The article emphasises the importance of multidisciplinary studies to fully explore the historical implications of the philological system, urging us to revisit its methodology in light of current knowledge and technology.

In Tuscany, music is employed by park authorities, as well as cultural and conservation organisations, to attract visitors to natural and protected areas. This article examines the benefits of incorporating music performances within these natural settings, highlighting improvements in management, income generation for maintenance and conservation, increased visitor numbers, and enhanced environmental awareness. Through qualitative interviews and the analysis of four case studies, this article explores how integrating musical performances into ecotourism activities can foster a sense of place and stewardship among visitors and local communities.

Maritime security challenges are intensifying globally, from armed attacks on shipping in the Red Sea to critical infrastructure sabotage and environmental threats from shadow fleets. These developments have led some to question whether the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) remains ‘fit for purpose’. This article reframes that debate, suggesting that maritime security operates through a complex assemblage of institutions and mechanisms. In this context, UNCLOS is best understood not as a monolithic ‘constitution’, but as one important site in a more complex and dynamic system of maritime security governance. It examines how the United Nations (UN) system, regional organisations and informal arrangements collectively address maritime security challenges, revealing both the strengths and limitations of this diverse governance landscape. The analysis shows that while this complexity enables flexible responses to varied challenges, it also creates coordination problems and accountability gaps. Rather than calling for a revision of UNCLOS, the article proposes three pathways for recalibrating the system: establishing a dedicated UN maritime security body; addressing interface conflicts through targeted interventions; and selectively formalising successful informal mechanisms.

In this paper, I want to challenge the rationalist-compatibilist intuition that for freedom to be a rational two-way power, the relation to reasons cannot be a mere necessary condition for the actualization of the power. To this end, I discuss Crusius’s voluntarist conception as a historical case study.

According to Crusius, any choice of an action, as the activity of freedom, requires not only the evaluation of the available options but also something like the ‘active embrace’ of an option as a necessary condition. It will become clear that this ‘active embrace’ is Crusius’ way of expressing the incompatibilist idea that there is no necessary, determining connection between judgement and choice. This conception of freedom has the advantage over rationalist-compatibilist approaches that it is much better suited to account for the case of choosing between equally good options. This case is crucial to us as rational agents when it comes to the question of what to make of one’s life, what career to choose. In my view then, that Crusius’s approach can account for this case is a reason that strongly speaks in favor of his conception of freedom.

Cyprian of Carthage’s On the Lapsed, written in the aftermath of the third-century Decian persecution, contains several stories of the eucharist attacking apostate Christians. These Christians claimed they had been admitted to the eucharist by local, highly esteemed martyrs and confessors. Cyprian, who had fled during the persecution and been unpopular since the day of his election, could not afford to confront this group directly. Instead, he crafted a text that conjured up an autonomous eucharist that policed itself against unworthy intruders. Moreover, he used the graphic language of bodily suffering and dismemberment to scramble the boundaries between lapsed Christian, bishop, and martyr, essentially reconfiguring himself as a martyr.

The shuhūr sanah, also called the Shuhur era, was a solar calendar used in Deccan India in the pre-modern and early modern periods. Scholars have long assumed that the calendar was instituted in the early fourteenth century, sometime in 1344–1345 CE, although, to date, no primary evidence from the fourteenth century has been examined to substantiate this inaugural date or explain the circumstances that led to the genesis of the calendar. In the present article, I discuss a 1333–1334 CE Persian epigraph from Daulatabad that uses the phrase shuhūr sanah and argue that the calendar was instituted during a period of economic, administrative, and agricultural uncertainty in the reign of the Delhi Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq (r. 1325–1351). In so doing, I re-date the inauguration of the calendar to a decade prior to what has been assumed thus far and posit a new theory about the calendar’s longevity in the Deccan. More broadly, I examine the historiography and the historical usage of the Shuhur era in the Persianate epigraphic corpus. The survey reveals how the Shuhur era was used to make public-facing pronouncements and also clarifies the limits of the calendar’s usage. The calendar was popular in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; after this period, it was phased out by other calendrical systems preferred by the Mughal (1526–1857) and the Maratha (1674–1818) empires, who came to control the Deccan.

The Song of Songs—a biblical celebration of love and desire—holds a unique place in literary history, revered not only for its religious significance, but also for its poetic beauty. Early Chinese translations of this biblical book struggled to resonate with local audiences until the release of the Delegates’ Version, which is acclaimed as the first Chinese Bible that can truly be regarded as a work of Chinese literature. The Song of Songs in the Delegates’ Version, titled Yage 雅歌 (The Refined Song), undergoes a noticeable acculturation in which its imagery and themes are intricately woven into the fabric of Chinese literary tradition. This article explores how this biblical love song has been recontextualised to resonate with Chinese cultural and literary sensibilities. By examining the portrayal of lovers, the nature of love, and the poetic resonance established through the integration of verses from the Shijing in the Yage, it highlights the intricate interplay between biblical text and Chinese literature. Ultimately, this study reveals that, while the Bible shapes the life of its community, it is also shaped by the cultural and linguistic contexts in which it is translated.

Whether the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is being praised or criticized, the focus often is on the perceptions of it in African countries rather than how it is conceptualized in those countries and by continental entities such as the African Union (AU). As a result, there is no understanding of the collective African conceptualization of the BRI and how that conceptualization shapes the continent’s engagement with China and, in turn, the perceptions of the BRI. By employing the intentionality, instrumentalist, and geopolitical approaches, this study analyzes Africa’s conceptualization of the BRI as a global project through the lens of strategic utility, intentionality, and geopolitical positioning, which can be summarized as “strategic globalism.”

The increasing presence of private equity investment in physician practices reveals that current health law practice sites such as in-house, corporate law firms, and Medical Legal Partnerships (MLPs) are ill equipped to address patient harm from health care corporatization. A new type of health law practice is needed to address the adverse impact health care corporatization is having on health care purchasers (primarily employers and patients) and physicians. I label this new health law practice the Wellness Legal Partnership (WLP), modeled after the Medical Legal Partnership (MLP). WLP lawyers can look to systems leadership theory, lawyer fiduciary duties, and health justice frameworks as guides to combat the adverse impacts of health care corporatization. WLPs would work best rooted in corporate health and wellness benefit settings, and they would improve patient wellbeing using a three-fold approach of individual advocacy, organizational change, and systemic change.

This article examines historical perceptions of the territorial extent of Bod, the Tibetan toponym for ‘Tibet’. In a bid to establish what area second-millennium authors (and audiences) may have pictured when this toponym was invoked, we analyse instructive passages from five historiographical works, mostly dating from between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. The rough-hewn maps of Bod ‘Tibet’ that emerge from this procedure differ quite radically from one work to the next, and at times even between different passages from a single source. While one work may see ‘Tibet’ as the territory directly centered on the Tibetan Plateau’s south-central river valleys, another source may forward an image of a ‘Tibet’ that is thrice as large. Works may also allow for shifts in its borders from one political period to the next, or incorporate multiple incongruous territorial descriptions. This material helps answer what ‘Tibet’ meant in different periods and places, and to different people—questions that have only poorly been studied outside of modern political history. One relevant finding, among others, is that the notion of a ‘Tibet’ that covers a large part of the Tibetan Plateau, incorporating for instance sites in contemporary eastern Qinghai, was not in fact a modern innovation.

Due regard obligations require both States and non-State actors to reasonably consider the rights or interests of other States or non-State actors when exercising their own rights and performing their duties. This article examines how due regard obligations should be interpreted in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) in light of the adoption of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement). As human activities in ABNJ increase, due regard obligations become crucial for balancing the competing rights and interests of States, non-State actors and relevant institutions, frameworks and bodies (IFBs). The literature and case law have mainly addressed conflicts between coastal and flag States concerning the application of due regard obligations within national jurisdictions. Different dynamics arise in ABNJ from potentially conflicting activities and disagreements between States with the same rights or interests, or those between States, non-State actors and IFBs. This article addresses this gap by analysing the new dynamics of due regard that are expected to arise concerning marine genetic resources and area-based management tools with the implementation of the BBNJ Agreement.