Defending harmful tax practices: mining companies’ responses to the Australian Senate Inquiry into tax avoidance

This article examines the Australian Senate’s 2015–2017 inquiry into corporate tax avoidance to illuminate the tax strategies used by the multinational corporations (MNCs) most targeted by tax justice campaigners, versus those of particular relevance in an Australian context: mining companies. Using documentary analysis, we examine how these companies discursively defended their tax avoidance strategies. Despite differences in the context in which the issue of tax minimisation has risen to prominence, we show that in Australia, MNCs’ legitimacy in paying lower levels of tax has been challenged in a similar manner to that of MNCs in other industry sectors that were held responsible for post-global financial crisis austerity measures in states like the US and UK. This suggests that history and context matter not in and of themselves, but for the impact they have on the discursive power of the actors involved, depending on the visibility and salience of the issue associated with them.     

North Korea’s participation in the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights

North Korea’s participation in the UNHRC’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR)—a peer review in which states make recommendations to one another for improving human rights implementation—is a notable exception to its rejection of other human rights mechanisms. What explains North Korea’s willing participation in the UPR? This essay analyses North Korea’s participation in the first (2008–11) and second (2012–15) UPR cycles through its written submissions, responses to recommendations, and recommendations to other states. It finds that North Korea has consistently accepted weak recommendations, rejected more specific policy changes, and implemented accepted recommendations on a limited basis, allowing it to claim compliance with human rights at minimal cost. The UPR’s reliance on states’ self-reports and its inability to adjudicate competing factual claims allow North Korea to reject claims of egregious abuses, openly advocate for a radically state-centric vision of human rights, and challenge the legitimacy of human rights mechanisms like the Commission of Inquiry and Special Rapporteur while building support from other states with similar views. Notably, the Commission of Inquiry appears to have motivated North Korea to increase its cooperation with the UPR, demonstrating that the UPR complements but cannot replace other UN human rights mechanisms.     

Pronominalism

An essay seeking to identify under a single rubric a thought line linking a succession of scholarly clusters who over succeeding generations have investigated the primordial role of the pronouns in social interaction, and in the creation and manipulation of cultural capital and hence in the acquisition and maintenance of personal identity or personhood.     

在碰撞中强健思维的翅膀——浅谈幼儿语言活动中的问题设计

提问是幼儿教育阶段语言活动中最常用、最直接的交流,不仅能很好的促进师幼互动,更能激发孩子的思维,触动美的心灵,启迪孩子幼小的心智。     

Bridging the Gap: Hong Kong Senior Civil Servants and the 1966 Riots

The 1966 Hong Kong riots were the trigger for wide-ranging changes in relationships between the government and the public which shaped the political future of the colony. However, it is not immediately clear why a relatively small-scale disturbance which was quickly contained should have had such a considerable impact. The explanation, it is argued, lies in a confluence of factors. The riots were the first to be specifically concerned with events in Hong Kong rather than in China and therefore required attention to local causes; urban councillors were demanding more electoral representation and devolution of government functions to the Council; the Commission of Inquiry into the riots held public meetings raising political awareness; and reforming senior civil servants saw the riots as an opportunity for change. Because there was antipathy within government towards elections and to any devolution of functions, the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry were given priority, resulting in administrative rather than public policy or electoral solutions, a decision which retarded the development of democracy.     

试析汉墓壁画孔子问礼图

本文围绕孔子问礼于老子的历史故事绘画而展开论述。孔子问礼图是汉墓画像中比较典型的历史人物故事题材之一,在山东、江苏、河南、陕西和四川等广大地域的汉代石阙、祠堂、墓葬画像石中均有发现。考古发现的彩绘墓葬壁画孔子问礼图却并不多见,从近年发现并公布的几座汉墓壁画来看,无论壁画配置与绘制技法,抑或构图样式与绘画艺术,都具有显著的时代特征。