The politics of humanitarian intervention: a critical analogy of the British response to end the slave trade and the civil war in Sierra Leone

A leading scholar of humanitarian intervention, Brown (2002) Brown, C. 2002. “Humanitarian intervention and international political theory”. In Human rights and military intervention, Edited by: Mosley, A. and Norman, R. 153–69. Aldershot: Ashgale Publishing.  [Google Scholar] refers to British internal politics to satisfy the influential church and other non-conformist libertarian community leaders, and above all ‘undermining Britain's competitors, such as Spain and Portugal, who were still reliant on slave labour to power their economies, as the principal motivation for calls to end the slave trade than any genuine humanitarian concerns of racial equality or global justice’. Drawing on an empirical exploration, this article seeks to draw a parallel between this politics of humanitarian intervention which characterised the abolition movement, albeit rarely recognised in the academic literature, and the British intervention to end the almost 11 year civil war in Sierra Leone. The article concludes with a discussion on the implications of this politics of humanitarian intervention in the reconstruction of post-conflict Sierra Leone.     

Participatory Policy-Making,Participatory Civil Society: A Key for Dissolving Elite Rule in New Democracies in the Era of Globalization

The author argues that in democracies a strong state and strong civil society are not mutually exclusive. Only a democratic, legitimate, and strong state can provide the environment for civil society activities to flourish; in return, only a strong and a participatory civil society can outline the reach of state strength vis-à-vis the society. The author discusses the need for civil society organizations to collaborate with policy-making institutions, in which they can negotiate policy concerns with ministers and officials while retaining an independent distance from the state and the political parties. Further, the author argues that an environment as such would provide for the transformative capacity of human agency to manifest itself in full in a globalizing world. The author discusses how participatory state and civil society structures will enhance the role of the human agency in order to dissolve elite rule, especially in new democracies.     

Features of a Paradigm Case of Civil Disobedience

The purpose of this paper is not to define civil disobedience, but to identify a paradigm case of civil disobedience and the features exemplified in it. After noting the benefits of this methodological approach, the paper proceeds with an examination of two key, interconnected features: conscientiousness and communication. First, a link is made between the conscientious aspect of civil disobedience and moral consistency; a civil disobedient demonstrates a conscientious commitment to certain values through her willingness to condemn, and to dissociate herself from, governmental decisions that violate those values. A parallel is then drawn between the communicative aspect of civil disobedience and the communicative aspect of lawful punishment by the state. Both practices are associated with an aim to demonstrate protest against certain types of conduct and an aim to bring about a change in that conduct. In paradigm situations, a civil disobedient aims to lead policymakers not only to reform existing law, but also to internalise her objections so as to produce a lasting change in the law. Having such aims places some constraints upon the modes of communication that she reasonably may use to achieve these aims. This paper concludes by considering three controversial modes of communication -- coercion, publicity and violence.I wish to thank Adam Cureton, John Gardner, David Garrard, Kinch Hoekstra, Peter Jones, Christoph Ortner and John Tasioulas for their helpful comments on previous drafts of this paper. For one definition of civil disobedience, see John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1971), 364. See also Hugo A. Bedau, On Civil Disobedience, Journal of Philosophy, 58/21 (1961), 653--61. For an alternative definition, see Joseph Raz, The Authority of Law: Essays on Law and Morality (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), 263.     

Go Set a Watchman: revealing phantom narratives and shattering projections in the era of Black Lives Matter

Harper Lee’s novels, To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, are examined through the lens of reader-response theory and the Jungian concept of the cultural complex or phantom narratives. Socio-historical context includes the American civil rights movement of the 60’s as well as Black Lives Matter. The clinical and institutional implications are briefly considered.     

在当今中国为合理个人主义正名并无可能——与黄显中同志《个人主义与市民社会》一文商榷

合理个人主义既不合理,也不现实,它存在着逻辑矛盾。合理个人主义不是商品经济的反映,而是资本主义私有制商品经济的必然。传统意义的市民社会在本质上是资本主义性质的世俗社会,它是政治社会的经济基础。我国当今不存在合理个人主义的经济基础。     

代理行使知情同意权的有关问题探讨

代理行使知情同意权在医疗实践中广泛存在,也面临一些争议。对代理权设置的法律意义、代理行使知情同意权在医疗实践中的种类以及不同情况下的问题与对策作出分析,为这个领域的代理实践提供一些思路。     

西方公民道德研究

我国的民主法治社会最直接的价值依托是公民道德,公民道德建设是我国社会道德建设的核心。西方公民道德的四个理论问题：公民道德的本质、公民道德为何必要、公民道德与国家的关系、公民不服从,可为我国公民道德建设提供某种理论参照。