A major challenge for contemporary legal constitutionalism is a crisis of public ethics that manifests in the lack of mutual toleration and institutional forbearance towards the judiciary. To showcase the importance of these norms in the relationship among co-equal branches of government, I focus on three cases, one where these norms have been present—South Africa—one where they have been absent—Mexico—and one case in between—United States. Until this crisis is addressed, the authority of apex courts will continue to be under threat. The Article suggests that a starting point to address the public ethics deficit may lie in shifting comparative constitutional law scholarly attention to the political sphere.

This paper analyses linguistic information regarding signage developed by Ugandan English speakers at the grassroots level, as a category of non-elite users of English. It specifically examines linguistic signs displayed at small‑scale informal businesses, focusing on the source of the signs and the language(s) used in terms of features and the justifications for the choice of the language(s). The results show three types of signs: those written in English (which are predominant), those that blend English and Acholi, and those written in Acholi. Where English is involved, the findings reveal that the choice was mainly based on attracting a wider readership and thus clientele, as well as the fact that English is the functional official language in Uganda. It was also observed that both standard and nonstandard English were used. The source of the signs was reported to be grassroots users of English but sometimes artists and/or acrolectal users of English were involved in writing/drawing the signs.

By April 1942, Japan had cut off almost all US supplies of natural rubber, a key raw material for which the country had effectively no domestic sourcing. The resulting shortage aggravated downward pressure on manufacturing productivity and seriously jeopardized military capability. The risks that this would happen, widely foreseen, could have been mitigated by more or earlier stockpiling, subsidization of domestic plant-based sources of latex, or development of a synthetic rubber industry. At the time of Pearl Harbor, each route had been pursued in a limited fashion or not at all. This paper explores why, highlighting the outsized role played by businessman/politician Jesse Jones, as well as the multiple channels through which the rubber famine adversely affected the country’s wartime economy. This history starkly illuminates a policy dilemma still with us: How much “insurance” should a country carry when it depends heavily on interruptible foreign sourcing of a strategic input?

According to the dominant narrative in international humanitarian law, the 1949 Geneva Convention on Civilians is part of the discipline’s humanitarian progress, driven by the International Committee of the Red Cross, in response to atrocities committed during World War II. This paper argues that historical research enables a more nuanced historical account which challenges when, how and by whom the protection of civilians was developed. It demonstrates that the Convention’s protection regime was shaped by the efforts of a variety of non-state actors during the inter-war years. In particular, it focuses on attempts by the International Committee of the Red Cross, International Law Association and International Committee of Military Medicine and Pharmacy to advance the law independently and in cooperation in relation to ‘enemy civilians’ and safety zones after World War I. However, it suggests that these actors were to some extent inhibited by conceptual limitations and self-restraint, which ultimately led to some of the weaknesses in the protection regime under the 1949 ‘Civilian Convention’. The paper thus reveals the struggle over the conceptualisation of individuals who are today considered civilians in the inter-war years which is embedded in the text of the adopted treaty.

This article addresses the underrepresentation of “blackness” within Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS), which has historically concentrated on the United States, western Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Despite calls for global expansion, CWS has so far inadequately engaged with the ways in which individuals perceived as “Black” were excluded from the idealized national community in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The marginalization of blackness profoundly influenced discussions around national belonging throughout the twentieth century and continues to shape debates on race in the region today. We re-examine the significance of blackness, particularly through the racialization of Roma communities in interwar Romania and the implications of blackness elsewhere in CEE, while challenging the portrayal of this region as homogeneous and exclusively white.

Meconopsis florindae Kingdon-Ward, an alpine species endemic to Xizang, China, is extremely scarce and restricted in distribution. Prior to this study, the first and only collection was in 1924. During three targeted field surveys, we rediscovered one small population not far from its type locality but at a significantly higher elevation and occupying a highly specialized ecological niche. Meconopsis florindae is a monocarpic perennial at high risk of extinction and categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List because of its limited population and restricted geographical range. Its survival is threatened by anthropogenic activities including nomadic livestock grazing, disturbance and habitat destruction, and habitat alteration as a consequence of climate change. We recommend comprehensive in situ and ex situ conservation measures to protect this species, including establishing a micro-reserve, implementing practical conservation interventions and long-term monitoring, and collecting seeds and preserving them in the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species to safeguard genetic diversity. Field surveys should be expanded to locate additional populations, and local communities should be engaged to raise awareness and support the conservation of this rare plant.

This essay looks at blackness in the USSR from its contested margins. Focusing on South Africans categorized as “Coloured,” I explore dynamics of translation, solidarity, misunderstanding, and invisibility that arose when differing systems of racial classification interacted. In South Africa under segregation and apartheid, an intermediate category emerged between the dominant white minority and the subjugated black majority: Coloured. As the USSR became involved in South African anti-racist struggles, Soviet citizens did not know how to see and understand these lighter-skinned people who did not fit neatly into Soviet preconceptions about darker-skinned people of African descent. A handful of Coloured activists took on particularly prominent roles representing the plight of black South Africans for Soviet audiences, and being lighter skinned shaped their experiences of the USSR in significant ways. Traversing the realms of Soviet policy, scholarship, cultural production, and everyday interactions, we see remarkable inconsistency in how Coloureds were regarded: as invisible and also hypervisible, artificial and also real, black and also not black. This essay traces Soviet trajectories of the liminal category “Coloured” to explore the extraordinary chaos at the edges of blackness in the USSR.

This qualitative study was conducted through focus group discussions with members from three township communities in South Africa: Alexandra; Diepkloof; and the eThekwini Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu area. The primary objective of this study was to examine the crime of rape committed against patients and apprentice healers/initiates by traditional health practitioners. For generations, the Black population in South Africa has relied on Indigenous healers to address their healthcare needs. Many communities believe that Indigenous or traditional healers play a crucial role in providing primary healthcare and treating various ailments. However, this study found that some unscrupulous practitioners exploit their authority by engaging in non-consensual sexual intercourse with their patients or initiates under the pretext of healing or transferring healing powers to them. The findings advocate for the mandatory registration of all practitioners with the Traditional Health Practitioners Council of South Africa, as stipulated by the Traditional Health Practitioners’ Regulations 2024, as one measure to combat the atrocious behaviour of those meant to heal communities.

In 2019 British choreographer Seke Chimutengwende began research on a new project exploring horror, haunted houses, and the hauntings of colonial history. It begins in darkness (2022) emerged in collaboration with the dancers who perform each iteration. Working through the figure of the haunted stately home, It begins in darkness excavates—and exorcises—the horror of slavery’s histories through dance.

The European Semester is an economic governance tool that the European Union (EU) uses to monitor and coordinate national policies, but it has also evolved into a mechanism to address rule-of-law risks in Member States. By linking financial support to reforms, particularly through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the Semester helps enforce rule-of-law standards and represents an innovative approach to safeguarding EU values. However, this process raises concerns about democratic accountability, and it overlooks broader societal concerns.

The German Federal Constitutional Court has defined constitutional limits for exclusionary legislation in social law. In these judgments, the Federal Constitutional Court has used human dignity and social equality doctrines to address poverty and social exclusion based on a specific group status as constitutional issues. In doing that, the Federal Constitutional Court has developed practices of a social constitutionalism. While the reviewing power of apex courts for restrictions in classic civil liberties is generally accepted, it is more contested and less obvious for distributive welfare policies. That is why, the practices of social constitutionalism of the Federal Constitutional Court have been an important constitutional development in recent years. The case law shows that they strengthen the social rights protection of the most vulnerable groups in society: people in need and refugees.

Ce sont la captivité, la migration et les marchés du travail, plutôt que les missions « civilisatrices » ou l’évitement anarchiste de l’État, qui définirent la frontière du sud-ouest de l’empire des Ming. Revenant sur la thèse de James C. Scott sur la Zomia, cet article montre que les communautés des hautes terres n’ont pas simplement fui l’État ; elles lui firent concurrence en acquérant des personnes, de la main-d’œuvre et des compétences. Obtenus par la capture forcée, le recrutement ciblé ou la défection volontaire, certains de ces nouveaux arrivants étaient recherchés pour leur travail manuel, d’autres pour leurs capacités militaires ou reproductives, ou encore pour leurs connaissances dans l’art de gouverner. Pour illustrer cette économie du travail, le présent article s’appuie sur deux études de cas. Le Duzhang, d’abord acéphale, construisit un régime grâce à des raids de grande ampleur menés au cours du xvie siècle, absorbant des captifs han et non han, et des transfuges qui lui apportèrent de la légitimité et des compétences. Bozhou, entité longtemps gouvernée par des fonctionnaires natifs (tusi), attira des migrants et des conseillers volontaires han et non han. Les Ming répliquèrent non seulement par la guerre, mais aussi par le droit, utilisant la loi comme une arme pour affaiblir la politique des Bozhou avant le conflit décisif de 1599-1600 qui se conclut par leur « barbarisation ». De l’autre côté de la frontière, des mercenaires miao utilisaient leur bravoure militaire pour obtenir des ressources précieuses auprès du plus offrant, telles que des terres, des femmes ou de l’argent. Il en résulta un champ politique hybride, marqué par la confusion entre coercition et consentement, par l’accroissement des migrations et par une lutte farouche entre régimes rivaux – impérial et indigène – pour le contrôle de la main-d’œuvre. L’expansion impériale des Ming apparaît non pas comme l’aboutissement d’une véritable conquête, mais comme une réaction pragmatique et improvisée à la compétition acharnée pour la main-d’œuvre qui se jouait à ses marges.

Millions worldwide face poverty daily. While its effects vary by society, poverty consistently marginalizes individuals, limiting their opportunities and access to societal benefits. Myths about poverty undergird and perpetuate socioeconomic exclusion, being the vehicles for cultural processes, such as stigmatization, racialization, and rationalization. These myths abound in law. They include the conception of poverty as solely concerned with the deprivation of basic material goods; equal opportunities and collective amnesia about the past; stigmatization of people in poverty as irresponsible and lazy; the categorization of aspects and elements of their poverty condition as criminal. This Article argues that judges, as (meta)narrators, have the power to challenge myths and develop new narratives about poverty, through the language of non-discrimination and equality. This could open the way to judicially redress certain troubling situations of misrecognition, social exclusion and inequality. Ultimately, as long as myths about poverty prevail in law any attempt to tackle the issue of socioeconomic exclusion is destined to fail. This article contributes to the law and sociology literature on poverty in judgecraft by addressing the research gap on narratives of poverty within judicial reasoning and practice.

Guerrilla rewilding, the unsanctioned release of species into the wild, is a controversial activity criticized by most conservation professionals. In this Forum article we argue that despite this criticism, it has played a significant but underexplored role in the UK’s rewilding movement. Using examples including butterfly species, goshawk Astur gentilis, wild boar Sus scrofa, beaver Castor fiber and lynx Lynx lynx, we argue that examining these guerrilla rewilding acts provides valuable insights into public preferences for certain species, their perceived acceptability, and the ways in which they shape knowledge and practices of human–wildlife coexistence. However, our analysis also suggests that in some cases guerrilla rewilding can undermine the very species it seeks to restore. Animals released without preparation or monitoring, particularly those habituated to human presence, often lack the ability to survive independently, leading to welfare issues, human–wildlife conflict and wider ecological impacts. Furthermore, by circumventing the social and collaborative dimensions of rewilding, these actions risk deepening divisions among stakeholders, which are critical to ensuring long-term success. Nonetheless, this type of rewilding can also potentially trigger more positive emotions of recovery whilst raising the species’ profile. We find that guerrilla rewilding has in some cases influenced formal rewilding practice and the broader discourse in the UK, in stark contrast to the official government position on nature recovery. This paper draws together some key learning points and highlights areas for future research on guerrilla rewilding.