Western pundits have warned about the risks posed by Chinese companies for exporting surveillance technologies to Africa (Bartlett 2023) due to not only risks in the technology but also the exportation of authoritarian development. Scholars who perceive Chinese technology companies as state instruments that facilitate the state’s agenda to expand authoritarian digital development in Africa support this view (Cheney 2019; Gravett 2020; Khalil 2020; Mozur, Kessel, and Chan 2019). This view is contested by empirical findings arguing that Chinese companies primarily engage in digital capitalism, providing products that meet certain African states’ digital control and heterogenous development needs (Bagwandeen 2019; Gagliardone 2019).

This article analyses the use of adversarial questions in oral hearings conducted by the Parole Board of England and Wales. This is important because the Board is supposed to use an inquisitorial approach to oral hearings, so adversarial questions are examples of where Parole Board members deviate from this norm. The article outlines the work of the Parole Board, the process for carrying out oral hearings and the recent move to increased remote hearings following the Covid-19 pandemic. Using conversation analysis, the research casts light on the relationship between mode of hearing (remote vs. in-person) and adversarial questions and how discourses of blame and responsibility operate in the production of these challenging question types. A chi-square test reveals that adversarial questions are statistically significantly more common in remote hearings, although they remain low in frequency. The article concludes with thoughts on why remote hearings are more conducive to adversarial questions. (Accounts, adversarial questioning, conversation analysis, parole, responsibility)*

This study discusses the Friday mosque of Sava in detail. The monument is significant among Iranian mosques due to its architectural evolution across various construction periods. These periods, which include the early Islamic centuries and the Saljuq, Ilkhanid, and Safavid periods, each have left their mark on the building’s design and decorative elements. The study provides as much descriptive information as possible of the mosque’s main characteristics, offering a comprehensive view of its architectural evolution. Drawing on previous studies, which were carried out mainly in the 1980s by the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization (ICHO) and author site visits, this paper elucidates building construction and modifications from the earliest Islamic centuries through the Saljuq, Ilkhanid, and Safavid periods.

The Insular Cases, a relic of imperial-era judicial reasoning, have long dictated the political and constitutional status of U.S. territories. In United States v. Vaello-Madeo, Justice Neil Gorsuch’s concurring opinion signaled a critical moment for reevaluating these precedents. This Note examines the enduring consequences of the Insular Cases, focusing on the Pacific Island Territory of Guam as a case study. Specifically, it explores how Guam’s political subordination—rooted in the judicial distinction between incorporated and unincorporated territories—has led to disparities in federal Medicaid funding. By analyzing the relationship between territorial representation in Congress and the structural inequities in health care funding, this Note argues that the constitutional instability caused by the Insular Cases presents a ripe opportunity for legal challenge. Justice Gorsuch’s opinion opens a path for reconsidering the Insular Cases, with federal Medicaid funding serving as a compelling vehicle for addressing the broader constitutional and democratic deficiencies imposed on U.S. territories.

International fisheries law has so far proven inadequate to prevent over-fishing on the high seas, a key cause of biodiversity loss in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). The negotiation 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) provided an opportunity to respond decisively to the worsening problem. After some 20 years of preparation and negotiations, the BBNJ Agreement was concluded in 2023 and will enter into force in early 2026. From about mid-way through the process, the major distant-water fishing States advocated for a treaty text that minimised any significant impact upon their distant-water fishing operations. The terms of the BBNJ Agreement do not preclude its operationalisation contributing to a step change in protecting ABNJ from biodiversity loss by distant-water fishing operations but, at this point, such an outcome appears unlikely given the attitude of the distant-water fishing States during the negotiations, in combination with the institutional and decision-making provisions of the BBNJ Agreement.

This article explores the law governing the nationality of ships in the context of the recent surge of the so-called ‘dark fleet’. Traditionally, international law governed the nationality of ships, inter alia, to ensure effective control by the flag State over its ships, a concern heightened by the rise of open registry States, which were supposedly unable to exercise effective control. Despite initial scepticism, the general acceptance of open registries as well as the fact that small States like the Marshall Islands can be responsible flag States have mitigated this concern. However, the emergence of ‘flags of deceit’ (FODs)—flag States consciously enabling the operation of dark ships—poses a different problem. In welcoming ‘fleets’ of ships that are poorly maintained, in breach of international maritime regulations or engaged in illicit activities, FODs are not simply unable but, rather, unwilling to exercise effective control over their vessels, threatening the public order at sea. This article argues that other States have the right to refuse to recognise FODs with a view to protecting their own rights from dark ships left adrift by their respective flag States through their unwillingness to exercise effective control.

Political philosophy has long been criticised for its state-centricity. A recent version of this objection asserts that the discipline perpetuates a problematic methodological nationalism. Critics argue that political philosophers are widely disposed to interpret political phenomena from the perspective of the nation-state, and that this is detrimental to normative theorising. In this paper I argue that the objection to methodological nationalism should be dropped, at least in its current form. Specifically, I reconstruct three variants of the objection, and – borrowing insights from the ‘hard’ sciences and Elisabeth Camp’s account of perspectives – ultimately show that methodological nationalism is not the kind of thing that can be decisively objected to in a widely-persuasive manner. Therefore, I recommend that sweeping objections to nation-state-centricity be generally replaced with traditional targeted analysis of specific claims made in specific contexts. Despite the fine-grained nature of this approach, I show that it remains a fruitful way of addressing pervasive problems in the discipline.

We establish a derived geometric Satake equivalence for the quaternionic general linear group ${\textrm{GL}}_{n}({\mathbb H})$. By applying the real–symmetric correspondence for affine Grassmannians, we obtain a derived geometric Satake equivalence for the symmetric variety ${\textrm{GL}}_{2n}/\textrm{Sp}_{2n}$. We explain how these equivalences fit into the general framework of a geometric Langlands correspondence for real groups and the relative Langlands duality conjecture. As an application, we compute the stalks of the IC-complexes for spherical orbit closures in the quaternionic affine Grassmannian and the loop space of ${\textrm{GL}}_{2n}/\textrm{Sp}_{2n}$. We show that the stalks are given by the Kostka–Foulkes polynomials for ${\textrm{GL}}_n$ but with all degrees doubled.

This bibliography collects sources on the independence and accountability of judges serving on international tribunals and domestic apex courts by focusing on selection, terms of service, and discipline and removal. It includes books, book chapters, and articles, primarily in English, with reference to some French-, German-, and Spanish-language materials. The ensuing text also discusses some logistical difficulties in compiling a bibliography on such a large topic, describes the contours of the subject matter, and concludes with some thoughts on the direction of the scholarship and the possible use of AI in international research such as this.

Armenia is notable for its wild pear diversity, which includes a large number of globally threatened endemic species. Despite progress in recent studies there still remains, however, a lack of data on the distribution and population sizes of some species, and any threats to them. This information is necessary to assess their conservation status and for the planning and implementation of conservation actions. I present the results of fieldwork in the Vayots Dzor province of Armenia on the globally threatened endemic pear species Pyrus daralagezi Mulk., Pyrus hajastana Mulk. and Pyrus gergerana Gladkova. I report new data on distribution, threats and species biology. I inventoried individual trees, discovering five new individuals of P. daralagezi in Herher sanctuary, rediscovering a population of P. hajastana in its locus classicus 52 years after the first record, and finding a new locality for P. gergerana around the village of Artavan. I make recommendations for the further study and conservation of these threatened pear species.