By analysing intelligence-gathering reform legislation this article discusses access to justice for communications interception by the intelligence and security services. In the aftermath of the Snowden revelations, sophisticated oversight systems for bulk communications surveillance are being established across the globe. In the Netherlands prior judicial consent and a binding complaint procedure have been established. However, although checks and balances for targeted communications interference have been created, accountability mechanisms are less equipped to effectively remedy indiscriminate interference. Therefore, within the context of mass communications surveillance programs, access to justice for complainants remains a contentious issue.
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The recent shift towards the interdisciplinary study of the human-environment relationship is largely driven by environmental justice debates. This article will distinguish four types of environmental justice and link them to questions of neoliberalism and altruism. First, environmental justice seeks to redress inequitable distribution of environmental burdens to vulnerable groups and economically disadvantaged populations. Second, environmental justice highlights the developed and developing countries’ unequal exposure to environmental risks and benefits. Third, temporal environmental justice refers to the issues associated with intergenerational justice or concern for future generations of humans. In all three cases, environmental justice entails equitable distribution of burdens and benefits to different nations or social groups. By contrast, ecological justice involves biospheric egalitarianism or justice between species. This article will focus on ecological justice since the rights of non-human species lags behind social justice debates and discuss the implications of including biospheric egalitarianism in environmental justice debates. https://doi.org/10.1186/2194-6434-1-8 https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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Dit artikel stelt dat beleidsverandering binnen de Europese Unie (EU) ook voortkomt uit besluitvorming op dagelijks niveau. Om veranderingen aan te kunnen wijzen en te verklaren dient de traditionele rationele keuzetheorie en de oriëntatie op instrumenteel-strategisch handelen te worden aangevuld met een constructivistische zienswijze op discours als bron van verandering. Met de inzichten van constructivisten en communicatiewetenschappers wordt in dit artikel gekeken naar de voorwaarden en het zich voordoen van deliberatie als discursief proces dat beleidsverandering op dagelijks niveau bevordert. In dat verband is onderzoek verricht naar een tweetal besluitvormingsprocessen op het gebied van EU-justitiesamenwerking. De ene betreft een casestudie omtrent de onderhandelingen over de totstandkoming van het Europees Bewijsverkrijgingsbevel van 2008. De ander gaat over de onderhandelingen over een Raadsbesluit betreffende de toegang van politie tot het Visa Informatie Systeem. Uit beide casestudies blijkt dat onder bepaalde omstandigheden deliberatie uitmondend in beleidsverandering zich feitelijk heeft voorgedaan. ABSTRACT This paper argues that, in addition to the practice of strategic bargaining, one may very well find in the day-to-day running of the EU decision-making instances where changes in policy outcome result from occurrences of deliberation. Occurrences have indeed been signalled in both the 'EEW' and 'VIS' cases where negotiating parties engaged in reasoned exchanges of views that resulted in position shifts and even agreements on certain issues. Analysis of both cases demonstrates that in settings where the conditions of 'insulation','intensity' or 'access of non-state actors' were prominently present, deliberation and ensuing progress towards a more reasoned understanding of the issue concerned was more likely to occur. Furthermore, a certain detachment from technical detail, yet sufficient proximity to subject matter, absence of agenda constraints and small-group dynamics made it more likely that discussants were inclined to engage in more open-minded exchanges of views based on reason and argument. On balance, clearly identifiable occurrences of deliberation-promoting progress in decisionmaking have been found in the institutionally quite diversified and multifaceted environment of the EU. They can certainly be regarded as representative of other decision-making processes operating under similar conditions, processes of which the institutionally dense EU is particularly rich. In a way, the occurrences of deliberation identified constitute a path of progressive understanding that is bound to extend beyond the temporal boundaries of a specific decision-making procedure. Reasoned understandings on certain issues achieved in either the EEW or VIS process were likely to provide a fertile basis on which further reasoned discussion can evolve into other, future decision-making processes. As such the deliberative instances found in the EEW and the VIS cases are of all periods, including the post-Lisbon period, and should be examined as alternative sources of policy change in the EU, irrespective of the timeframe.
Dit project onderzoekt ontwikkelperspectieven voor de krimpende stad door het realiseren van de Degrowth Daily, een themakrant over Degrowth en de krimpende stad. Tot nu toe wordt de ‘krimpende stad’ vooral als probleem neergezet en is er weinig aandacht voor alternatieve ontwikkelingsperspectieven. Twee vragen staan centraal in dit project: in hoeverre biedt Degrowth een ontwikkelperspectief voor de krimpende stad? En in hoeverre is de krimpende stad geschikt als proeftuin voor praktijken van Degrowth? Het startpunt van het project vormt de notie dat zowel Degrowth als de krimpende stad groei als het dominante ontwikkelingsparadigma in onze samenleving bevragen. De één doet dit vanuit economisch en ecologisch perspectief, de ander vanuit stedenbouwkundigperspectief. Het concept Degrowth raakt de laatste jaren steeds meer in zwang, getuige een toenemende stroom aan academische publicaties, conferenties en andersoortige initiatieven. Er is echter nog weinig over Degrowth vanuit stedenbouwkundig perspectief geschreven. Dit project bouwt voort op het concept ‘kleiner groeien’ (Hermans, 2016) en onderzoekt in hoeverre dit concept mogelijkheden biedt te werken aan een perspectief van “environmental sustainability, social justice and well-being”. De twee onderzoeksvragen worden geadresseerd middels een gerichte literatuurstudie De vondsten hieruit worden getoetst doormiddel van actieonderzoek in de “krimpregio” Parkstad-Limburg. Aan de hand van een focusgroep, interviews en een stakeholder engagement workshop brengt dit onderzoek diverse stakeholder perspectieven samen. Deze perspectieven worden aan de hand van diverse vertelvormen gepresenteerd in de themakrant Degrowth Daily. Deze krant beoogt het maatschappelijke en wetenschappelijke debat over perspectieven voor ‘de krimpende stad’ te verbreden.
The goal of this research is to develop an instrument for working with justice in urban development projects for urban professionals such as policy makers, urban planners and designers. The instrument will provide them with the tools to set up participatory processes for the development of urban areas where conflicting interests and perspective on justice form a challenge in working towards a just solution for a shared ambition. The plans for the future of de Wallen, Amsterdam’s Red Light District, will function as a case study for this research. There, conflicting interests have formed a challenge in creating a shared vision for the future of the neighborhood, mainly regarding the presence of sex work. The instrument will be developed in co-creation with the stakeholders of the neighborhood, with a focus on the involved policy makers and designers as the changemakers.
KLM published a climate plan (2023), which describes how the airline wants to reach its science-base targets for carbon intensity as developed by SBTi. The research question is "how does the KLM climate plan realistically relate to the emission reduction targets of a general 1.5°C climate scenario, Dutch policy, principles of climate justice, and legal climate obligations?" It is important that airline climate plans lead to a societal just reduction of emissions. The research is a first to apply principles of 'climate justice' to an airline. It will provide insights and facts for the societal and political discussions about sustainable aviation development.
