Defending the Individual: the Personal Rights Association and the Ligue des droits de l'homme, 1871–1916

This article investigates the conceptual and organisational connections between late nineteenth-century civil-liberties activism and the emerging human-rights paradigm of the twentieth century. The comparison of the two largest and most influential civil-liberties organisations to emerge in Britain and France before the First World War (the British Personal Rights Association and the French Ligue des droits de l'homme) has three objectives: to place the two groups in a wider context of civil-liberty organisations of the pre-First World War era and to identify personal connections and inspirations. Secondly, by analysing functional definitions of ‘rights’ and who these rights should apply to, the article argues that although one group conceptualised their activism on the basis of ‘civil liberties’ and the other on ‘human rights’ there were significant similarities between the approaches of the two groups. Moreover, differences stemmed from internal politics within each group rather than the dissimilar conceptual framework. Finally the article seeks to understand why the Ligue des droits de l'homme was much more successful than the British Personal Rights Association both in its ability to mobilise supporters, and in inspiring sister organisations in other European countries.     

Ancient Israel on Political Leadership: Between the Book Ends

Abstract

Looking to the US presidential election of 2008, this paper considers models of leadership as they are rendered in the Books of I and II Kings in the Hebrew Bible. That corpus of historical memory is informed by the theo-political traditions of covenant in the book of Deuteronomy. At the beginning of the corpus, Solomon is presented as a leader committed to the pursuit of self-aggrandizement on the basis of political autonomy that need account to none. At the end of the corpus Josiah is presented as a king who practiced public power congruent with the neighborly requirements of Torah. The issue raised by this critical tradition concerns autonomy and moral accountability. There is, of course, no direct transfer of this tradition to US politics. But the testimony of the text lingers, ever critical, even until our time and place, a testimony about limit, connectedness, and consequences.     

A Parliamentary Victory: The British Labour Party and Irish Republican Deportees, 1923

After the 1918 general election the Labour Party became the official opposition party at Westminster. In response to the growing Irish republican campaign to establish an independent Irish state the Labour Party had to re-assess its relationship with Irish nationalism. The Labour Party was now acutely conscious that it was on the verge of forming a government and was concerned to be seen by the British electorate as a responsible, moderate and patriotic government-in-waiting. Although it had traditionally supported Irish demands for home rule and was vehemently opposed to the partition of Ireland, the Labour Party became increasingly wary of any closer relationship with extreme Irish nationalism which it believed would only damage its rapidly improving electoral prospects. Therefore the Labour Party supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 even though it underpinned the partition of Ireland and sought to distance itself from any association with Irish republicanism as the new Irish Free State drifted into civil war. In early 1923 the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) alighted upon the new issue of the arrest and deportation without trial, to the Irish Free State, of Irish republicans living in Britain who were obviously British citizens. The attraction of this campaign for the Labour Party was that it enabled the party to portray itself as the defender of Irish people living in Britain without having to take sides in the Irish civil war. In addition the Labour Party was able to present itself as the protector of civil liberties in Britain against the excesses of an overweening and authoritarian Conservative government. One of the main reasons the issue was progressed so energetically on the floor of the House by the new PLP was because it now contained many Independent Labour Party (ILP) ‘Red Clydesiders’ who themselves had been interned without trial during the First World War. Through brilliant and astute use of parliamentary tactics Bonar Law's Conservative government was forced into an embarrassing climb-down which required the cobbling together of an Indemnity Bill which gave tory ministers retrospective legal protection for having exceeded their authority. By any standard, it was a major achievement by a novice opposition party. It enhanced the party's reputation and its growing sophistication in the use of parliamentary tactics benefited it electorally at the next election which led to the first Labour government.     

环境史中的欧洲特殊道路问题

欧洲为什么率先进行工业革命是一个永恒的问题,从东西方环境史比较的角度可能会对此得出独特的解释。当然,这种比较必须建立在坚实的实地研究的基础上。本文要分析的十个问题是：谨慎对待精神观点,环境史的制度分析,耕地与牧场的平衡与失衡,西欧的婚姻模式,延续、持续性和自给自足,森林和权力,欧洲多中心主义的优势,魏特夫“亚细亚生产方式”的绿色复兴,欧洲殖民主义的环境影响,环境史上是否存在一个“欧洲奇迹”。从这十方面的比较中会对“环境史中的欧洲特殊道路问题”有更清楚的把握,进而揭示出一个辩证的历史逻辑,即“长期的成功恰恰加剧了危机”。这或许就是东方前现代的繁荣昭示给现在西方文明的前景。     

IS COMPARATIVE HISTORY POSSIBLE?

In recent years the trend toward comparative histories, frequently read in terms of transnational studies, has produced some remarkably exciting work. The prospect of the comparative is gaining broader appeal, a development we should applaud but at the same time begin to examine in a critical fashion. This essay lays out some of the problems involved in comparative work and suggests ways in which we might profitably utilize these potential snares in productive ways. Comparative history has the potential to operate as a “bridge‐builder,” encouraging inventive thinking that moves scholars beyond the familiar terrain of their training. In this respect, it encourages original and innovative ways of approaching historical work. But there are lessons to be learned and problems to be faced in managing a complex scholarly enterprise of this kind. Comparative work runs the risk of reproducing and consolidating older models of universalist history that assume universal standards. It further runs the risk of assuming rather than historicizing the idea of the nation as a fixed point of historical reference rather than seeing the nation itself as a site for historical scrutiny. In this paper, my goal is to lay out these problems alongside the palpable rewards of comparative work, and then to suggest how we might turn such problems to our advantage.     

民国时期公务员(文官)考铨制度研究述评

民国时期开始实行且步履艰难的公务员(文官)考铨制度,历经北京政府、南京政府和抗日战争的动荡,成为民国时期行政管理体制近代化的重要标志.伴随着制度性建设的日益完善和具体实践上的相对混乱,这一时期公务员(文官)考铨制度在理论与实践上的得与失,为后人留下了宝贵遗产.近年来,史学界对这一问题的探讨日益重视,取得了一系列的成果.     

明代徽州的民事纠纷与民事诉讼

本文利用大量的原始资料和地方志 ,论述了明代徽州民间诉讼增多的原因、诉讼的基本内容、处理程序和依据标准等。在明代 ,包括徽州在内的全国许多地区诉讼案件的增多 ,一方面说明人们的法制观念增强 ,越来越懂得用法律保护自己的权力 ;另一方面反映了商品经济的发展和社会文明的进步。这一点在徽州地区尤其显著     

旅游业可持续发展中的伦理辩护

旅游业可持续发展应遵循伦理学准则.本文从分析中西方伦理入手,对旅游业可持续发展中所涉及的道义学、目的论、生态伦理、旅游伦理等准则进行了辨析和论证,目的是呼吁人们管束自己的"非伦理行为",以真正实现旅游业可持续发展.     

On the frontier of the Western Shire,British Central Africa

Superficial deposits (residual, colluvial, alluvial) are important as environmental resources in tropical environments. An understanding of their formation through varying time periods is essential to a correct interpretation of their economic and hazard potentials. This requires an integration of process studies with a reconstruction of longer term development. Saprolite formation is considered over 10⁵‐10⁷ yr, while colluvial and alluvial sediments are commonly Late Quaternary (10³‐10⁵ yr) in age. The importance of Quaternary environmental changes in the humid tropics to an understanding of heavy mineral placer deposits in West Africa and Indonesia is illustrated. It is concluded that geomorphologists can often make their most important contributions to developing areas by offering a sound interpretation of landsurfaces and their underlying deposits for engineers, geologists and pedologists, with whom a close working relationship is essential.     

旅游伦理学引论

探讨旅游伦理学之定义、地位、性质、内涵、功能,以及研究、倡扬旅游伦理之意义.着重从个人伦理、社会伦理、政治伦理、职业伦理、生态伦理五方面构架旅游伦理体系.     

How Capitalism Was Built. The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe,Russia, and Central Asia. Anders Åslund

An American political geographer and noted specialist in the electoral geography of the post-Soviet states explores the extent to which underlying social, political, and economic conditions in North African countries experiencing regime change prompted by mass political unrest (Egypt, Tunisia) resemble those prevailing in the five Central Asian states. The author compares the countries' rankings on a number of relevant indicators (e.g., Human Development Index, Corruption Perceptions Index, Freedom House indices of political rights and civil liberties) before undertaking a more qualitative assessment of human rights, institutional control, and external support for current Central Asian regimes. Although Uzbekistan, the most populous state with the most repressive regime in the region, is a focus of attention, the same abuses and challenges are evident, albeit in varying degrees, in other vulnerable post-Soviet countries of Central Asia.