The end of impunity? Lessons from Sierra Leone

This article analyses the significance of the highly anticipated trial of Charles Taylor at The Hague which, after a false start in 2007, resumed in early January 2008. Starting with the historical background, the article assesses the major juris‐prudential issues which are likely to be considered during the course of the trial and to fit the case within the broader context of other developments both within the Special Court of Sierra Leone and other international tribunals. The funding problems that have beset the court and issues such as the handling of witnesses are also considered. The final outcome of the trial is as yet uncertain but it may suggest ways forward in terms of bringing greater accountability into the field of international criminal law. Ultimately, both retributive and restorative justice must play their part in ending the impunity of war criminals, whatever their status in society.     

The image of ‘all good Italians’. The Eichmann trial seen from Italy

ABSTRACT

The Eichmann trial held in Jerusalem in 1961 marked a turning point in the international public’s collective awareness of the extermination of Jews in Europe. In Italy, the trial contributed to the mainstream narrative of the events that concerned the deportations of the Jews. The Italian case was mentioned in the indictment of the attorney general, Hausner, and in the deposition of the only witness present at the trial, Hulda Campagnano. In this article, our analysis of the trial’s reception in Italian newspapers and media shows that the Jerusalem reports, especially through misrepresenting the words of Campagnano, created the image of Italians as ‘good people’, who would help Italian and foreign Jews, against the wishes of the Nazis. At the same time, the responsibility of Italian Fascism for the anti-Jewish laws in 1938 and the role of Italians in the arrests and deportations of Jews since 1943 have been neglected.     

“The Destruction of Utopia”A moral study of The ones walk away from Omelas

Being called as the ＂queen of science-fiction＂ by the readers, Ursula K Le Guin contributes her world-known Earth- sea book series to the literary field. Influenced by Lao Tze＇s Taoism and ideas from anthropology, she frequently analyzes the conflict between individual morality and society construction. This short story, her early work winning the Hugo Award, depicts that an Utopian future city named Omelas in fact hardly exists because this city hides an evil secret about a poor child. The sharp contrast between prosperous Omelas and the feeble-mind- ed child illuminates an ancient controversial topic about the contradiction between utilitarianism and public morality： through it, the author dissects the conflict of individual morality and public maximum happiness pointing out that any society must conceal a dark side though it seems perfect as Utopia.     

Original DocumentsExtracts from The Bursar’s Accounts,Preserved Among The Muniments of Winchester College

This paper challenges the interpretation of late Roman Verulamium which has stood since Frere's excavations in 1955–61. A quantitative analysis of construction work and occupation phases forms the basis of two new interpretative conclusions. First, in contrast to a view which sees urban vigour continuing to the end of the Roman period, it is suggested that the town experienced a sharp decline in both construction and occupation from the early fourth century onwards. Second, the late town is portrayed as radically different in character from that of the second century—a defended ‘post-classical’ outpost of the decaying empire rather than a garden-city of romanizing local gentry.     

The Muddle in the Middle Pleistocene: The Lower–Middle Paleolithic Transition from the Levantine Perspective

The terms Lower Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic represent research constructs within which cultural evolution and prehistoric hominin behaviours can be studied, with the transition usually understood as marking a watershed in our evolution: an adaptation with a million-year record of success that gives way to something new. The interpretation of the Lower Palaeolithic Acheulian technocomplex is usually understood as a period of cultural stasis that extends over much of Africa and Eurasia, principally associated with Homo erectus. Those innovations that can be observed occur widely separated from one another in space and time. Yet a closer and more detailed examination of the Middle Pleistocene records from East Africa, southern Africa, Europe and the Levant reveals significant variation in cultural repertoires. A kind of paradox emerges, in which an Old World Lower Palaeolithic, apparently lacking an overall dynamic of distinctive and directed change in terms of cumulative variation over time, nevertheless culminates in a transition which sees the universal appearance of the Middle Palaeolithic. The two main hypotheses that have been advanced to explain the global transition, which happens essentially synchronously, appear mutually exclusive and contradictory. One view is that altered climatic-environmental constraints enabled and encouraged an ‘Out-of-Africa’ dispersal (or dispersals) of a new type of genus Homo. This cultural replacement model has been challenged more recently by the alternative hypothesis of accumulating but unrelated and temporally non-linked regional, and in fact potentially autochthonous, processes. The Levant, by virtue of its position bridging Africa and Eurasia (thus being the region into which any out-of-Africa groups would have had first to disperse into), must be seen as a critical region for assessing the relative merits of these competing hypotheses. This paper deals with the Lower–Middle Paleolithic boundary in the Levant within a long temporal perspective. The Middle Pleistocene record in the Levant enables us to examine the amplitude of variation within each techno-complex, as well as to question whether there are diachronic changes in the amplitude of techno-typological variations as well as changes in the manner by which they appear in the record. The results carry significant implications for understandings of demographic and societal processes during the Lower–Middle Paleolithic transition in the Levant.     

The aeromobile tourist gaze: understanding tourism ‘from above’

ABSTRACT

While the impact of aeromobility on the growth of tourism and its destinations is well documented, the role of aeromobility in the process of experiencing and shaping place with specific regard to tourist destinations has received little attention from scholars. With the growth of commercial aviation and the increasingly mundane nature of the experience within mass tourism, I draw attention to the touristic experience of flying as the activity beyond its role in arriving at the destination. After a brief review of the genealogy of aeromobility and tourism, I reflect on examples of tourist aeromobility in Cape Town, South Africa in order to theorise the aeromobile tourist gaze. This paper analyses mobile testimonies from online travel reviews from airborne tourists performing helicopter ‘flips’ over Cape Town. Results highlight the need to focus on flying as tourism itself while they illustrate the role it plays in the aeromobile tourist gaze, a unique perspective and experience of the tourism destination as ‘tourism from above’ that emerges from the touristic dimensions of flight including the destination, the flying device and flight route. The findings underscore the role of flying-as-tourism. The aeromobile tourist gaze thus spectacularises the destination and disrupts the relationship between tourists and place.     

The English Medieval First-Floor Hall: Part 2 – The Evidence from the Eleventh to Early Thirteenth Century

The concept of the first-floor hall was introduced in 1935, but Blair’s paper of 1993 cast doubt on many of those buildings which had been identified as such. Following the recognition of Scolland’s Hall, Richmond Castle as an example of a hall at first-floor level, the evidence for buildings of this type is reviewed (excluding town houses and halls in the great towers of castles, where other issues apply). While undoubtedly a number of buildings have been mistakenly identified as halls, there is a significant group of structures which there are very strong grounds to classify as first-floor halls. The growth of masonry architecture in elite secular buildings, particularly after the Norman Conquest, allowed halls to be constructed on the first floor. The key features of these are identified and the reasons for constructing the hall at this level – prestige and security – are recognized. The study of these buildings allows two further modifications to the Blair thesis: in some houses, halls and chambers were integrated in a single block at an early date, and the basic idea of the medieval domestic plan was already present by the late eleventh century.     

The Middle Paleolithic from Mujina Pećina,Dalmatia, Croatia

Abstract

Mujina Pe?ina in Dalmatia, Croatia is the only systematically excavated and well-dated Middle Paleolithic cave site in the eastern Adriatic. Its stratigraphic sequence covers the period between 45 and 39 uncalibrated years ka. Results of sedimentological, lithic, faunal, and paleobotanical analyses of the upper levels (Levels B, C, D1, and D2) show that this was a hunting site only sporadically visited by humans. During these occupation episodes humans processed animal remains (mostly large bovids, cervids, and caprids) and produced tools from locally available raw material. Carnivore use of the cave is also indicated. This work contributes to our understanding of lifestyles and mobility patterns of the Middle Paleolithic inhabitants of this region.     

The tyranny of gendered spaces – reflections from beyond the gender dichotomy

This article argues critically that the consequences of a binary system of gender norms is experienced as a kind of gender tyranny both for those who transgress gender in their daily lives, but also for those whose lives are lived within such constraints. Feminist geographers and urban theorists have argued that space is gendered and that gendering has profound consequences for women. This article extends this analysis and shows how rigid categorizations of gender fail to include the intersexed and transgendered populations, a small and highly marginalized segment of the wider population. This article uses autoethnographic methods to illustrate the ways that those who transgress gender norms experience a tyranny of gender that shapes nearly every aspect of their public and private lives. The nature of these consequences is explored using citations from the transgender and queer literature as well as the lived experience of this tyranny by the author in a continuum of public to private spaces, including: parking lots, public restrooms, shopping malls, the workplace and the home.     

In from the margins? The changing place of Africa in International Relations

This article surveys recent literature on Africa and International Relations (IR) and reviews the current place of Africa within the discipline. It notes that critical debates continue around claims of a mismatch between Africa and ‘mainstream’ IR theories and concepts. However, alongside this set of issues, there is in fact a burgeoning literature on many aspects of Africa's international relations. While some of these studies utilize existing IR theories, and others explore empirical cases that could deliver important lessons for the wider discipline, much of this promise goes unfulfilled. The article reviews literature on China's role and on HIV/AIDS governance in Africa to illustrate how the study of African international relations, the wider IR discipline and international policy could all benefit from a closer engagement between Africa and IR. The article concludes by setting out three challenges for a renewed agenda: a need to address the problematic relationship between universal analytical concepts and regional particularities; a need to give recognition to, and analyse, African agency in international politics; and a need to address inequalities in knowledge production in the field of Africa's international relations.     

The Honours Year—A Reflection on the Experience from Four Former Students

An honours year is an introduction to new relationships with supervisors, fellow students, research participants and, importantly, yourself. This paper is based upon the experiences of four former Australian honours students who felt there was a distinct lack of guidance for first-time researchers in the available academic literature. In this paper, we explore the research experiences, processes and relationships that characterize the honours year including, working with theoretical frameworks and the student–supervisor relationship, providing examples from our own experience. We conclude by considering the ethical implications of the research and the power and ethical obligations of the researcher.     

The antiquity of the nation? Critical reflections from the ancient Near East

Debates over the antiquity/modernity of the nation have often made use of evidence from the ancient Near East. In doing so, these debates employ the distant past principally as a ‘mirror’ of the present, using contrast or similitude to argue for a particular understanding of nations and nationalism since the eighteenth century. In this manner, both ‘Modernist’ and ‘Perennialist’ approaches incorporate pre‐modern contexts into the categories and priorities of modernity. This article critically reviews several influential studies on nations and nationalism in light of ancient Near Eastern evidence in order to highlight the narrowing of possibilities that this practice involves. I argue that the cost of this narrowing is not so much a misunderstood past as a mystified present.     

The ‘Other’ on the Other Side of the Ditch? The Conception of New Zealand's Disassociation from Australia

A growing body of work has explored the shared qualities of Australian/New Zealand history and trans-Tasman association. Without denying these links, this article considers New Zealand's simultaneous history of disassociation from Australia and investigates the contours and cultural content of disassociation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.     

The seasonal variations in the nighttime 6300 Å emission at midlatitudes from ISIS-II spacecraft

Optical limb observations at F-region heights from the ISIS-II satellite have been used to study the seasonal variations in the 6300 Å limb emission for nighttime conditions and the aeronomic implications. The observations were carried out over the American zone at northern midlatitudes, and refer mainly to the period 1973–1975 of low solar activity.The observed seasonal variations in the emission seem to be mainly controlled by the electron density at F-region heights for nighttime and quiet geomagnetic conditions. The winter minimum is found to be deeper than the summer minimum. The obervations give clear evidence of semiannual variation in the emission. The phase variations agree closely with that of the semiannual variations in electron density and neutral atmospheric density at F-region heights. However, the amplitude variations of the semiannual variations are found to be larger than suggested by the observed F-region electron density. The observations during highly disturbed conditions possibly show the presence of gravity waves with wavelengths around 500 km, which could transport auroral energy to lower latitudes. The midlatitude enhancements observed during disturbed conditions seem to be related to the inward movement of the plasmapause.     

The Folk-Lore of Newfoundland and Labrador: Essays by the Reverend Arthur C. Waghorne from The Evening Herald 1892–1893

BY RITE: CUSTOM, CEREMONY AND COMMUNITY IN ENGLAND 1700–1880. By BOB BUSHAWAY. Junction Books, 1983. 293 pp. Ill. £14.50 (Hardback), £6.95 (Paperback). Reviewed by Victor Neuburg.

HARVESTERS AND HARVESTING 1840–1900. By DAVID HOSEASON MORGAN. Croom Helm 1982. pp. 224. £12.95. 0 7099 1735 X. Reviewed by Neil Philip.

OUR FORGOTTEN PAST: SEVEN CENTURIES OF LIFE ON THE LAND. Edited by JEROME BLUM. Thames &; Hudson 1982. pp. 240 illus. £12.50. 0 500 25080 4. Reviewed by Neil Philip.

SHAMAN: THE WOUNDED HEALER. By JOAN HALIFAX. Thames &; Hudson. London, 1982. 96 pp., illus. £3.95 p.b. Reviewed by Neil Philip.

SEAN Ó CONAILL'S BOOK: STORIES AND TRADITIONS FROM IVERAGH. Recorded and edited by SÉAMUS Ó DUILEARGA. Translated by MÁIRE MACNEILL. Comhairle Bhéaloideas Eireann, Dublin, 1981. 424 pp. £14.00 (Irish pounds). Available from An Ais, 31 Fenian Street, Dublin 2. Reviewed by Neil Philip.

BÉALOIDEAS The Journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society 50, 1982. Reviewed by Neil Philip.

CINDERELLA: A FOLKLORE CASEBOOK. Edited by ALAN DUNDES. Garland Publishing Inc. New York and London, 1982. 311 pp. $35. 0 8240 9295 3. Wildman Press, New York, 1983, $12.95 p.b., 0 030544 15 6. Reviewed by Neil Philip.

THE BOOK OF NASTY LEGENDS. By PAUL SMITH, illustrated by DAVID AUSTIN. Routledge &; Kegan Paul (London, Boston, Melbourne), 1983. 109 pp., ill. £7.95 cloth, £3.95 paperback. Reviewed by Jacqueline Simpson.

CELTIC MYTHOLOGY. By PROINSIAS MAC CANA. Newnes Books, Hamlyn Publishing Ltd. (Rushden, Northants, England), 1983. 141 pp., ill. £6.95. Reviewed by Jacqueline Simpson.

THE OXFORD BOOK OF ENGLISH TRADITIONAL VERSE ed. FREDERICK WOODS. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1983. 424 pp. £8.95. 0 19 214132 5. Reviewed by J. S. Bratton.

THE ROLLRIGHT STONES. By GEORGE LAMBRICK. Oxford Archaeological Unit, 1983. Pp. 60, 12 illus. A4. Price £1.50. Reviewed by Leslie Grinsell.

AMERICAN FOLKLORE FILMS AND VIDEOTAPES: A CATALOG. VOL. II. Centre for Southern Folklore. R. R. Bowker Co., New York and London, 1982. £34.75 paperback. Reviewed by Paul Smith.

CHILDREN'S SINGING GAMES. Recorded by Damian Webb. Saydisc Traditional Series SLD 338 Mono. Reviewed by Georgina Boyes.