Scientists have long warned about the severe environmental consequences if global temperatures continue to rise. According to the 2021 IPCC report, the Earth's temperature has increased by 1.1°C above preindustrial levels, and the world is projected to exceed 1.5°C within two decades, even with emission reduction efforts. International initiatives, starting with the 1992 UNFCCC and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, laid the groundwork for climate action. The 2015 Paris Agreement, a pivotal moment, set a goal to limit warming to below 2°C, ideally 1.5°C, through nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Addressing climate change requires systemic shifts in economic structures, moving away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy, promoting decarbonization, and emphasizing resource efficiency. While transitioning to a low-carbon economy poses initial costs, the long-term benefits include reduced environmental damage, better health, and enhanced energy efficiency. The ongoing global cooperation and economic transformation are crucial for mitigating climate change impacts.

Globally, there exists no legitimate international tax policy-making institution. This has perpetually led to inequalities and deepening economic disparities in the current international tax governance system. This chapter argues that African countries should use the spirit of cooperation that the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) encapsulates to make difficult decisions about African tax governance. Since international tax governance is at a critical stage where it is uncertain that the status quo can continue, it is important for African countries to seize this opportunity to create a regional governance structure that could bring more fairness and justice to the international tax system as a whole. This chapter proposes that African countries through the African Union form their own international tax governance structure which would bring together existing regional economic communities (RECs) and the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) to create an international tax forum that would address specifically African concerns. Moreover, such a structure would give African countries the critical mass needed to rebalance the unequal power relations in international tax while also offering benefits to the African people.

One of the conversion stories related to Augustine in the run-up to his own conversion was that of the philosopher and orator Marius Victorinus, who had translated the “books of the Platonists” that Augustine encountered in Book 7. What he does not tell us, however, is how important Victorinus was, not only as an exemplar of boldness in confessing Christ, but in shaping Augustine’s own reading of Plotinus. This chapter compellingly lays out Victorinus’ influence on Augustine’s Trinitarian theology as expressed in a brief and bewildering passage in Book 13. It shows that wherever Augustine departs from Plotinus, he does so in a way that he found in Victorinus; Victorinus also taught Augustine distinctions and arguments from Platonic and Aristotelian metaphysics that he could not have known from other Latin texts available to him. Through Augustine, then, Victorinus had a much larger influence on the history of metaphysics than has been appreciated up to now. Moreover, we find that “Augustine’s common designation as ‘Platonist’ would be more precise if it were revised to ‘Victorine Neoplatonist.’”

This chapter looks for a doctrine of separate gendered spheres, occupied by 'public' man and 'private' woman. Perhaps only the innermost and uncommunicated thoughts and feelings of the individual are absolutely private, and perhaps only political institutions like parliament are absolutely public. Therefore, the meaning of these concepts can never be taken for granted; it must always be elucidated in specific contexts. What might be called the 'classic' doctrine of separate spheres, of public man and private woman, can certainly on occasion be found, most often in the writings of 'proper' females, but occasionally slipping from the pens of 'unsex'd' ones also - as in Wollstonecraft. Women were not entirely excluded from politics in Britain at the end of the eighteenth century. The lack of formal political rights is not the same as exclusion from the political sphere.

The book concludes with the practical and theoretical implications of the study. The chapter shows that ZANU PF gained from a combined HIV/AIDS and migration exit premium of 5 percent in the 2000 and 2002 elections, 2 percent in the 2005 elections, 12 percent in the 2008 elections, and 4 percent in the 2013 elections. If not for voter exit, the opposition would have had more parliamentary seats and won the presidency in the disputed 2008 elections. This chapter also demonstrates that the theory of exit and party sustainability can be generalized to other states, including but not limited to Russia, Venezuela, and Syria—countries that have also experienced a mass exodus of citizens from authoritarian regimes. This chapter provides a brief comparison of the role of migrant voters in Ghana and the Gambia, where democracy struggled but ultimately thrived. I discuss the study’s policy implications, considering ongoing debates about the global immigration crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the rise of illiberal democracy and authoritarianism globally, granting governments unchecked power. In contrast, Asian jurisdictions like Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore have resisted this trend. This chapter investigates the respective constitutional foundations, jurisprudential developments, and democratic processes in Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore that enabled the varying degrees of resistance against the rise of illiberal and authoritarian governance during the pandemic. For example, in Taiwan and South Korea, democratic competition continued unabated during the pandemic, and rights assertions by affected individuals and human rights groups became stronger. In Singapore, albeit usually seen as an authoritarian constitutional polity, the government proactively sought community engagement and social support for undertaking pandemic measures, which were surprisingly less restrictive and more transparent. Moreover, nongovernmental organizations and courts provided counterbalancing forces, ensuring accountability, civic participation, and due process. These experiences show that tensions between the rule of law, human rights, and crises such as COVID-19 can still be mitigated democratically.

Doing useful research, or wanting to do research, or not having sufficient skills to do research are ongoing concerns for teachers, despite an increasing expectation that teacher research should be part of a teacher’s professional life. Cases in this chapter look at high school teacher-researchers in Vietnam, an MA student choosing a dissertation topic in the UK, and an ethical dilemma experienced by a student teacher while on a teaching practicum in the US.

A framing case study examines North Korea’s nuclear tests. Then the chapter examines how states make international law. The chapter specifically discusses: (1) treaties, including entry into treaties, reservations, interpretation, and exit; (2) customary international law, including state practice, acceptance as law (opinio juris), and conceptual challenges; and (3) other important factors, including general principles, unilateral declarations, and peremptory norms (jus cogens).

The mobility of individuals raises a host of tax and non-tax issues. This chapter explains an underappreciated phenomenon: how the corporate income-allocation rules have developed in recent years in a way that magnifies the impacts of human mobility on the corporate income tax system. For example, activities of a relocated or remote employee might trigger the permanent-establishment threshold, thereby creating a taxable presence for the relevant employing company (and/or other group companies) in the state of relocation. In that event, additional questions would arise about the level of the reward to be assigned to those activities for the purposes of the transfer-pricing and/or profit-attribution rules. This chapter demonstrates how recent controversies about the interpretation of the income-allocation rules in the light of the BEPS changes to the arm’s-length principle and the taxable threshold rules are likely to further fuel corporate income tax difficulties from mobility, and in some cases create entirely novel problems. A prognosis of the likely future outturn relating to these issues concludes the discussion.