A dynamic approach to assess the International Criminal Court's performance in the Kenya cases
- Juma, Laurence, Khamala, C A
- Authors: Juma, Laurence , Khamala, C A
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125241 , vital:35749 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-e9dcefddf
- Description: Victims of crimes against humanity perpetrated during Kenya’s post-2007 conflicts may feel aggrieved by the International Criminal Court’s discontinuance of all Kenya cases without having found the suspects either culpable or non-culpable. Neither did the suspects benefit from acquittals. Unprecedentedly, Ruto and Sang’s charges were vacated at half-time. Cases against other suspects were withdrawn. Given the circumstances which led to the ICC’s intervention in the Kenyan situation, this paper argues that in lieu of either quantitative or qualitative studies, arguments of various proxy approaches for evaluating judicial performance, are problematic. Neither judicial independence, rule-compliance, community of purpose, nor even institutional design, adequately measure judicial performance. Besides interrogating limitations of using such proxies, the paper appraises the merits of constructing a modified version of the goal-based approach. It will demonstrate that by incorporating both process-oriented as well as strategic constituency models, a more dynamic evaluative methodology can be developed for measuring the ICC’s performance in the Kenya cases.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Juma, Laurence , Khamala, C A
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125241 , vital:35749 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-e9dcefddf
- Description: Victims of crimes against humanity perpetrated during Kenya’s post-2007 conflicts may feel aggrieved by the International Criminal Court’s discontinuance of all Kenya cases without having found the suspects either culpable or non-culpable. Neither did the suspects benefit from acquittals. Unprecedentedly, Ruto and Sang’s charges were vacated at half-time. Cases against other suspects were withdrawn. Given the circumstances which led to the ICC’s intervention in the Kenyan situation, this paper argues that in lieu of either quantitative or qualitative studies, arguments of various proxy approaches for evaluating judicial performance, are problematic. Neither judicial independence, rule-compliance, community of purpose, nor even institutional design, adequately measure judicial performance. Besides interrogating limitations of using such proxies, the paper appraises the merits of constructing a modified version of the goal-based approach. It will demonstrate that by incorporating both process-oriented as well as strategic constituency models, a more dynamic evaluative methodology can be developed for measuring the ICC’s performance in the Kenya cases.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Biological and geophysical feedbacks with fire in the Earth System
- Archibald, S, Lehmann, C E, Belcher, C, Bond, W J, Bradstock, R A, Daniau, A L, Dexter, K, Forrestel, E J, Greve, M, He, T, Higgins, Simon I, Ripley, Bradford S
- Authors: Archibald, S , Lehmann, C E , Belcher, C , Bond, W J , Bradstock, R A , Daniau, A L , Dexter, K , Forrestel, E J , Greve, M , He, T , Higgins, Simon I , Ripley, Bradford S
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61413 , vital:28024 , http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9ead/meta
- Description: Roughly 3% of the Earth’s land surface burns annually, representing a critical exchange of energy and matter between the land and atmosphere via combustion. Fires range from slow smouldering peat fires, to low-intensity surface fires, to intense crown fires, depending on vegetation structure, fuel moisture, prevailing climate, and weather conditions. While the links between biogeochemistry, climate and fire are widely studied within Earth system science, these relationships are also mediated by fuels – namely plants and their litter – which are the product of evolutionary and ecological processes. Fire is a powerful selective force and, over their evolutionary history, plants across diverse clades have evolved numerous traits that either tolerate or promote fire. Here we outline a conceptual framework of how plant traits determine the flammability of ecosystems and interact with climate and weather to influence fire regimes. We explore how these evolutionary and ecological processes scale to impact biogeochemistry and Earth system processes. Finally, we outline several research challenges that, when resolved, will improve our understanding of the role of plant evolution in mediating the fire feedbacks driving Earth system processes. Understanding current patterns of fire and vegetation, as well as patterns of fire over geological time, requires research that incorporates evolutionary biology, ecology, biogeography, and the biogeosciences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Archibald, S , Lehmann, C E , Belcher, C , Bond, W J , Bradstock, R A , Daniau, A L , Dexter, K , Forrestel, E J , Greve, M , He, T , Higgins, Simon I , Ripley, Bradford S
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61413 , vital:28024 , http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9ead/meta
- Description: Roughly 3% of the Earth’s land surface burns annually, representing a critical exchange of energy and matter between the land and atmosphere via combustion. Fires range from slow smouldering peat fires, to low-intensity surface fires, to intense crown fires, depending on vegetation structure, fuel moisture, prevailing climate, and weather conditions. While the links between biogeochemistry, climate and fire are widely studied within Earth system science, these relationships are also mediated by fuels – namely plants and their litter – which are the product of evolutionary and ecological processes. Fire is a powerful selective force and, over their evolutionary history, plants across diverse clades have evolved numerous traits that either tolerate or promote fire. Here we outline a conceptual framework of how plant traits determine the flammability of ecosystems and interact with climate and weather to influence fire regimes. We explore how these evolutionary and ecological processes scale to impact biogeochemistry and Earth system processes. Finally, we outline several research challenges that, when resolved, will improve our understanding of the role of plant evolution in mediating the fire feedbacks driving Earth system processes. Understanding current patterns of fire and vegetation, as well as patterns of fire over geological time, requires research that incorporates evolutionary biology, ecology, biogeography, and the biogeosciences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Eruptive history of the Karoo lava flows and their impact on early Jurassic environmental change:
- Moulin, Maud, Fluteau, Frédéric, Courtillot, Vincent, Marsh, Julian S, Delpech, Guillaume, Quidelleur, Xavier, Gérard, Martine
- Authors: Moulin, Maud , Fluteau, Frédéric , Courtillot, Vincent , Marsh, Julian S , Delpech, Guillaume , Quidelleur, Xavier , Gérard, Martine
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145098 , vital:38408 , https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JB013354
- Description: This paper reports new paleomagnetic and geochronologic data from a ~1500 m thick composite section belonging to the Drakensberg group, the thickest remnant of the Karoo lavas in Northern Lesotho. Flow‐by‐flow analysis of paleomagnetic directions reveals 21 magnetic directional groups, corresponding to single eruptive events, and 16 individual lava flows. The new age determinations of lava flows range from 180.1 ± 1.4 to 182.8 ± 2.6 Ma. These data, combined with previous results, allow us to propose that the main part of the Drakensberg group and the Karoo intrusive complex dated around 181–183 Ma may have been erupted over a period as short as 250 kyr and may have coincided with the two main phases of extinction in the Early Toarcian. This scenario agrees well with the discontinuous rhythm of environmental and biotic perturbations in the Late Pliensbachian‐Toarcian interval.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Moulin, Maud , Fluteau, Frédéric , Courtillot, Vincent , Marsh, Julian S , Delpech, Guillaume , Quidelleur, Xavier , Gérard, Martine
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145098 , vital:38408 , https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JB013354
- Description: This paper reports new paleomagnetic and geochronologic data from a ~1500 m thick composite section belonging to the Drakensberg group, the thickest remnant of the Karoo lavas in Northern Lesotho. Flow‐by‐flow analysis of paleomagnetic directions reveals 21 magnetic directional groups, corresponding to single eruptive events, and 16 individual lava flows. The new age determinations of lava flows range from 180.1 ± 1.4 to 182.8 ± 2.6 Ma. These data, combined with previous results, allow us to propose that the main part of the Drakensberg group and the Karoo intrusive complex dated around 181–183 Ma may have been erupted over a period as short as 250 kyr and may have coincided with the two main phases of extinction in the Early Toarcian. This scenario agrees well with the discontinuous rhythm of environmental and biotic perturbations in the Late Pliensbachian‐Toarcian interval.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
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