Pathogens co-transported with invasive non-native aquatic species: implications for risk analysis and legislation

Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) can co-transport externally and internally other organisms including viruses, bacteria and other eukaryotes (including metazoan parasites), collectively referred to as the symbiome. These symbiotic organisms include pathogens, a small minority of which are subject to surveillance and regulatory control, but most of which are currently unscrutinized and/or unknown. These putatively pathogenetic symbionts can potentially pose diverse risks to other species, with implications for increased epidemiological risk to agriculture and aquaculture, wildlife/ecosystems, and human health (zoonotic diseases). The risks and impacts arising from co-transported known pathogens and other symbionts of unknown pathogenic virulence, remain largely unexplored, unlegislated, and difficult to identify and quantify. Here, we propose a workflow using PubMed and Google Scholar to systematically search existing literature to determine any known and potential pathogens of aquatic INNS. This workflow acts as a prerequisite for assessing the nature and risk posed by co-transported pathogens of INNS; of which a better understanding is necessary to inform policy and INNS risk assessments. Addressing this evidence gap will be instrumental to devise an appropriate set of statutory responsibilities with respect to these symbionts, and to underpin new and more effective legislative processes relating to the disease screening and risk assessment of INNS.

Who generated the loopholes? A case study of corporate tax advisors’ regulatory capture over anti-tax avoidance legislation in Finland

Recently welfare economists and international political economy scholars have increasingly discussed how the corporations seek profits by corroding policies that tackle tax avoidance and undermine public interest. This article contributes to these discussions on so-called regulatory captures in the global wealth chains by providing a comprehensive case study on anti-tax avoidance legislative processes in Finland. The author analyzes the statements that various stakeholders provided during several phases of enacting the interest deduction limitation rule that targets so-called thin capitalization arrangements. Because of this specific research material, the author is able to undertake a nuanced analysis in describing how and whose statements made the difference from the draft version of legislation to the final wording of the law. The evidence suggests corporate interest groups and tax advisory firms influenced the content of the rule as notable tax base eroding loopholes have been included in the Finnish anti-tax avoidance rule. The author also assesses remedies of regulatory captures.

Russian Legal Anthropology

This chapter traces the development of legal anthropology in Russia from imperial times to the present. The authors suggest an innovative research agenda based on thorough consideration of Russia’s long history of legal ethnography, a strong applied orientation, and interdisciplinary cooperation between legal scholars and anthropologists, which ideally would start from the conception of a research project and would include joint fieldwork. They provide a brief overview of the different types of studies of law and society in Russia that claim the name ‘legal anthropology’ (iuridicheskaia antropologiia, antropologiia pravo), but which in fact come out of different disciplines; have different approaches, aims, and orientations; and are not in conversation with one another. On the basis of their fieldwork, the authors identify two contrasting types of societies that exist among the Indigenous peoples of Russia: non-state societies (on the example of the Nenets in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug) and almost-state societies (on the basis of the Sakha in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)). The examples illustrate why, in one society, non-state legal activity is pragmatically geared towards ‘getting things done’ and solving internal questions, while in the other there is a quest to contribute to legislative processes on a more general, countrywide level. Doing so also means mapping the cultural diversity of the current social life of legal systems that coexist within one state. This has both scholarly and practical value and can lead to wider recognition of legal anthropology as a unified field within and beyond academic scholarship.

Pathogens co-transported with invasive non-native aquatic species: implications for risk analysis and legislation

Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) can co-transport externally and internally other organisms including viruses, bacteria and other eukaryotes (including metazoan parasites), collectively referred to as the symbiome. These symbiotic organisms include pathogens, a small minority of which are subject to surveillance and regulatory control, but most of which are currently unscrutinised and/or unknown. The (putatively) pathogenic symbionts co-transported by an INNS host may be latent or associated with asymptomatic infection and unable to cause disease in the INNS, but may be opportunistic pathogens of other hosts, causing impact to one or more hosts in their new range. These pathogens potentially pose diverse risks to other species, with implications for increased epidemiological risk to agriculture and aquaculture, wildlife/ecosystems, and human health (zoonotic diseases). Aquatic INNS and their symbionts have many introduction pathways, including commodity and trade (releases, escapes, contaminant), transport (stowaway), and dispersal (corridor, unaided). The risks and impacts arising from co-transported pathogens, including other symbionts of unknown pathogenic virulence, remain largely unexplored, unlegislated, and difficult to identify and quantify. Here, we propose a workflow to determine any known and potential pathogens of aquatic INNS. This workflow acts as a prerequisite for assessing the nature and risk posed by co-transported symbionts of INNS. A better understanding of co-transported organisms, the risks they pose and their impact, is necessary to inform policy and INNS risk assessments. This leap in evidence will be instrumental to devise an appropriate set of statutory responsibilities with respect to these symbionts, and to underpin new and more effective legislative processes relating to the disease screening and risk assessment of INNS.

Are emergency measures in response to COVID-19 a threat to democracy?

The unprecedented outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 virus in the world and its grave consequences on human health, the economy and the everyday life forced national parliaments either to change its standard work mode or transfer their constitutional competences to the executive by declaring state of emergency. The detrimental effects of this unorthodox situation, especially on functioning of democracies, government branches’ division, economic disturbances and losses of jobs are yet to be determined and analyzed. Not expecting that the virus will reach pandemic proportions, the Macedonian parliament was dissolved for early parliamentary elections that ought to be carried out by a technical government, a commitment taken from the Przino Agreement in 2015. The state had faced a unique situation to get through the pandemic with a dissolved parliament and a technical government with limited competences. The constitutional vagueness regarding the work of the parliament in emergency situations and the duration of mandate of the parliamentarians allowing for different interpretation thereof, made the situation even more complicated than before. Consequently, the Government had to propose a proclamation of state of emergency for the first time since the independence, in order to be able to adopt legally binding regulations to manage the crisis. The State President proclaimed state of emergency on 18 March 2020 that had to be extended two more times, once for an additional 30 days and another for 8 days, in order to observe the electoral deadlines for the re-scheduled parliamentary elections. Some experts have strongly argued that the government with its hands untied in these challenging and de-parliamentarized times might abuse its competences by adopting regulations that have nothing to do with the state of emergency. This paper will reflect on the unique political and legislative processes in the state and its effects on the parliamentary democracy.

Lingua-pragmatic characteristics of bilingualism coverage in media discourse of Tatarstan

The article represents the results of the Tatar media discourse analysis aimed to the defining the lingua-pragmatic characteristics of bilingualism coverage and pragmatic settings of the Tatar linguistic identity as well (in relation to regional and individual bilingualism), as media discourse has “exclusive suitability […] in researches on bilingual linguistic identity discourse” (ANTONOVNA; RISHATOVNA; GUMEROVNA, 2019). Having analyzed 50 newspaper articles and 16 posts (all found) in social network Vkontakte (VKONTAKTE vk.com). with bilingualism as the central topic, the authors came to the following conclusions about the peculiarities of bilingualism coverage in Tatar media discourse: in traditional media discourse the problem of bilingualism is widely covered, while in Tatar internet discourse it finds rather weak coverage, but much more emotional (as the topic is raised by speakers with strong national identity only). Due to the fact that “Russian is still the prevalent functional language in all spheres of language use in Tatarstan” (VESSEY, 2013). both in traditional media discourse and internet discourse the use of the Tatar language in all spheres of life is understood as bilingualism, not the coexistence of the two official languages of the Republic, though the recognition of bilingualism as the part of national identity also takes place. The actual position of the Tatar language is stated not legitimate and both the government of the Republic and the ordinary native speakers are to be blamed for it. It is frequently mentioned that the development of harmonious bilingualism in Tatarstan requires the adoption of additional legislative measures, strict control over their compliance, wider and better implementation of the Tatar language in the educational and legislative processes, holding events in support of the tatar language, etc. in internet discourse, the problem of bilingualism in family circle is also raised.

The Durability of China’s Lawmaking Process under Xi Jinping: A Tale of Two Foreign Investment Laws

On March 15, 2019, the National People’s Congress passed a long-anticipated Foreign Investment Law (FIL) after a short deliberation period of only three months. This expedited legislative process seems unusual, considering that the original draft of the FIL proposed by the Ministry of Commerce in January 2015 was tabled indefinitely after a brief period of public consultation. How can we explain this stark difference? Comparing the legislative processes and contents of the two laws, this paper shows that, as with many previous laws, bureaucratic politics likely contributed to an impasse in the 2015 draft, whereas external shocks—in this case, the escalating trade war between China and the United States—helped accelerate the deliberation process and the passage of the new FIL. These two cases demonstrate the durability of lawmaking institutions and procedures under Xi Jinping despite the recentralization of power in the executive after changes to the constitution.

Technofeudalism illustrated by Trump's Twitter suspension and Australia vs. Google and Facebook dispute

Social media are becoming an indispensable communication tool today, including political communication. Therefore, technological companies running them have a great power. Every intervention they have in the public sphere may have far-reaching consequences. We will focus on two cases of the influence of technological companies on media, election and legislative processes as basic factors of democracy. We will consider the implications of the prohibition of Donald Trump's use of Twitter, as well as the conflict of Australia's media policy with Facebook and Google. We have reached the conclusion that in these cases technological companies took over the power that used to belong to the judicial and legislative branch of power, in terms of defining what hate speech, as well as media regulation is. Accordingly, this threatens the information system and sovereignty of the countries where these interventions are made. These events indicate that the world is entering a period of domination of technological companies, which may be called technocracy or technofeudalism. Further considerations should be directed towards defining social media as a public good that should be influenced by societies and not only technological companies as the owners of these communication platforms.

Between Relative Deprivation and Gratification: A Study in the Gals for Gals’ Sense of Reproductive Security

The study examines the political thought of the pro-choice Dziewuchy Dziewuchom (Gals for Gals) movement, which was active in Poland in 2016–2018. The main goal of the analysis was to determine how the sense that one’s needs were satisfied was changing during the political activity of the Gals and to what extent these changes depended on the external stimuli provided by Polish Parliament working on two bills to tighten the anti-abortion law. The research issues were resolved using qualitative source analysis, relational content analysis and the dyad of the theoretical categories of relative deprivation (RD) and gratification (RG). The study shows that the Gals for Gals movement created an internally coherent picture of their situation. However, relative deprivation and gratification were manifested only immediately after the movement was established and on its first anniversary. The manifestations did not depend on external stimuli provided by the successive stages of the legislative processes. The manifestations of deprivation served the purpose of discursive self-legitimation of the movement, and of gratification expressed organizational success. These types of attitudes emerged during the second stage, that is after the rejection of the first bill at the second reading, when the Gals discursively self-relegitimated the movement and expressed a sense of organizational success and satisfaction of the need for social recognition. This means that the Gals were not satisfied with achieving the goals of the movement, and the efforts to neutralize relative deprivation did not motivate their political activity.

hermeneutical injustice and outsourced domestic girl-child labour

We observed that despite international declarations on child-rights, outsourced domestic girl-child labour still persists. Raising the question whether outsourced domestic girl-child labour constitutes hermeneutical injustice, we respond affirmatively. Relying on two indigenous victimology-narratives that are newspaper reports, we expose some of the horrors that the victims of outsourced domestic girl-child labour suffer. Comparing these reports with other victimology-narratives of hermeneutical injustice as reported by Miranda Fricker and Hilkje Hänel, we argue that the victims of outsourced domestic girl-child labour suffer a hermeneutical gap and hermeneutical interference; and that the perpetuators of this practice, help to foster what we call ‘hermeneutical obstruction’. We recommend different counteracting measures such as: a radical feminization of educational curricula, which will allow for the introduction of the relevant hermeneutical resources that female children need in making sense of their experiences, into the classrooms and other places of learning; establishing feminist liberation agencies in all schools, religious institutions and hospitals, as ways of increasing the level of awareness about the rights of the girl-child in children and adults; feminizing legislation and legislative processes, to allow for the enactment of laws to protect the rights of the girl-child; and campaigning for a more rigorous enforcement of child-rights laws.