Administrative Seals from the Fire Temple of Ādur Gušnasp at Takht-e Solaymān

This paper examines three Sasanian bullae, to date unpublished, from the fire temple of Ādur Gušnasp at Takht-e Solaymān, located in the Northwestern Azerbaijan province of Iran. The bullae, excavated in 2003 by Yousef Moradi and his team, feature impressions of administrative seals with Middle Persian inscriptions. Additionally, these bullae display impressions of so-called "witness seals", used by individuals who were required to authenticate the validity of the documents or objects to which the bullae were once affixed. The administrative seals represent juridico-religious, clerical, and civil administrations. The article discusses the significance of each office within the Sasanian administrative structure. Furthermore, it argues that, unlike other bullae archives, which were predominantly 'local' or 'provincial' , the archive at Takht-e Solay-mān functioned as a 'supraregional' archive. It contained impressions of both personal and administrative seals from not only Ādurbādagān but also from other provinces. The article also provides evidence for the first time, that the šahrab of Ādurbādagān held two different administrative seals

The colonial migration state

This article sheds new light on the historical roots of contemporary migration politics by introducing the notion of the colonial migration state. Bringing together research on colonial population politics and the political science literature on the ‘migration state,’ we compare modes of migration management in three distinct cases of colonialism – settler colonialism in Algeria, protectorate colonialism in Egypt, and corporate colonialism in Saudi Arabia. We show that migration management in these three colonial spaces operated according to similar hierarchically-structured logics of economic extraction and legal-political differentiation. At the same time, these produced different local migration regimes based on variations in modalities of colonial rule, imperial economic interests, and pre-existing local institutions. Through a careful empirical exploration of migration and mobility practices in colonial peripheries, we contribute both to the global history of colonialism and empires, and to more recent work that rethinks the ‘migration state’ concept and its application to contexts across the Global South. We draw attention to the relationship between historical and contemporary forms of hierarchically structured regimes of mobility management, including the enduring importance of racial and religious categories as significant markers of differentiation in global migration, and suggest ways in which contemporary mobility regimes intersect with larger structures of economic extraction and socio-legal differentiation

Patterns of Trust in Financial Services: Critical Factors and Gender Differences

This study investigates the interrelationships among factors of trust in financial services. Additionally, it examines how these factors correlate with gender differences, offering insights into trust patterns in emerging markets. Ethiopia, characterised by economic and financial volatility, was selected as a case study for an emerging market. A sample of 470 individuals was surveyed with the assistance of interviewers to overcome language and literacy obstacles, with balanced representation across key demographics, particularly gender, enabling robust statistical analysis. Logistic regression and correlation matrices were employed to analyse trust. The study reveals that correlations between trust factors vary widely but are predominantly positive, with only one exception. Gender differences in trust factors are evident but do not represent significant schisms in financial behaviour. Unexpectedly, digital trust exhibits a strong positive correlation with age, challenging assumptions about generational preferences for financial technologies. While the sample size aligns with standard practices in similar studies, expanding the dataset would improve the precision of the analysis. The complexity of administering detailed surveys at scale poses a challenge for single studies. This study demonstrates the utility of combining traditional determinants of trust with advanced statistical methods, such as logistic regression, to uncover probabilities and interactions among trust factors. Gender differences in trust patterns exist but are less pronounced than expected, even in a society with significant gender disparity. Other demographic factors, such as age, education, and income, play more substantial roles in shaping trust behaviours, suggesting that financial inclusion efforts should prioritise these variables. This research highlights the transformative potential of digital trust, which extends beyond traditional definitions of trust. Despite operating in a society with high gender disparity, the findings indicate that gender is not a significant concern in financial trust patterns

Rights of Nature and the right to a healthy environment: Jurisprudence of the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court

In this essay I analyse some relationships among the rights of nature and the human right to a healthy environment. I show these relationships describing several rulings of the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court, and specially the Los Cedros judgement, which is a ruling on mining concessions granted within a cloud forest located in a highly biodiverse area. Judges must impartially examine the arguments and evidence presented by the parties involved. However, to issue a ruling, they must ultimately adopt a position based on their own interpretation of the law and understanding of the facts. The author of this essay served as the rapporteur judge for the Los Cedros ruling when I was a member of Ecuador’s Constitutional Court. During this judicial process and afterward, I have reflected on the relationship between the rights of nature and the right to a healthy environment. While drafting the ruling and later, after leaving the Court, analysing it as an academic—considering its precedents, context, and consequences—I have developed several scholarly arguments that are expressed in this essay

Crossing Emotions: Chosŏn Koreans’ Emotions and Emotional Practices towards Modern Society, 1876-1896

The historiography of Korea’s modernisation has been narrated to follow a linear progressive process, resulting in rigid periodisation and binary views. This interpretation inevitably juxtaposes the concepts of tradition and modernity and oversimplifies Korean reactions to Western acceptance as a stark confrontation between traditionalists versus modernisers. However, historical time cannot be neatly divided and the intrinsic nature and assets of different societies must be taken into account as they do not converge towards a similar path of modernisation. Koreans initially engaged with and reacted to new elements through the lens of their own underlying values, which had developed over centuries, yet, less attention has been paid to the pivotal moment when Koreans encountered Western modernity. In light of this problematisation, this thesis aims to reconsider Korea’s modernisation by highlighting the experiences and recognitions of modernity among Chosŏn Koreans within their distinctive context. It examines Chosŏn Koreans’ travelogues of modern society with a particular interest in emotions and emotional expressions. Since the authors travelled in the course of their official duties and their potential readers were Chosŏn people, their writings had to transcend personal expression to conform to societal norms despite being physically abroad. Their emotions, too, had to adhere to social expectations and sometimes exploded against the violation of the ideological foundation of Chosŏn. As the emotional regime evolved over time, so did their emotions. Furthermore, they began to be triggered by various objects with multilayered implications intertwined with the social turn. In this way, this thesis vividly restores transitional Korea and illustrates the hybridity of the time while avoiding the technical application of periodic and dichotomous perspectives. Which is no different from revisiting Korea’s trajectory in itself whilst capturing its particularity. It further demonstrates why it is vital to incorporate an emotional framework in identifying Korea’s modernisation

Navigating Personal Law in the Gulf: a Sociolegal Analysis of Nationality and Family Law in Qatar and select GCC jurisdictions

Gulf state laws benefit from religion and custom as sources of legitimacy, particularly when state law’s provisions are based on or similar to them. For example, Arab states sometimes justify their nationality laws, which allow males only to transmit nationality to their children by default, through nasab, which in Islam and customary law holds that affiliation and membership in the kin-group is patrilineal. Moreover, part of family law’s legitimacy stems from its positivised Shari‘a provisions. These laws have a personal scope of application: they construct or manage certain subjectivities and ascribe specific rights to them. Family law codifies specific opinions within the Shari‘a to the exclusion of all others, and makes this code the ‘personal law’ of Muslims/Sunnis/Shi‘a and/or nationals. Nationality law makes nationality and its type (i.e., original or acquired nationality) a determinant of certain political and socioeconomic rights, such as voting, candidacy, housing, and employment. Additionally, nationality and religion determine the family rights of foreigners and non-Muslims in Gulf states. A number of studies have addressed how Arab states construct and manage subjectivities and ascribe specific personal laws to certain intersections of identity through law, bureaucracy, and the court. Less attention has been directed towards the way in which different actors, including judges, litigants, and laypeople navigate these laws, particularly in the Gulf. Therefore, informed by theories of intersectionality and normative and legal pluralism, this thesis explores 1) the ways in which nationality, religion, sect, gender, and tribe determine the political, socioeconomic, and family rights of individuals in Qatar and select Gulf jurisdictions 2) how different actors in these jurisdictions navigate the state-sanctioned personal law corresponding to their intersecting identities, and negotiate tensions between their national, religious/sectbased, and tribal subjectivities, and between state law and its sources of legitimacy, particularly Shari‘a and customs, both in the court setting and outside it. To do so, the thesis employs a sociolegal approach informed by theories of intersectionality and legal pluralism and involving a doctrinal and comparative analysis of legislation and court judgements in family or nationality-related disputes, and a qualitative analysis of archival and in-situ online discussions and campaigns concerning nationality-related rights in Qatar, ensuing from announcements of draft laws or laws regarding Shura Council elections in 2008 and 2021, on QatarShares Forum and Twitter. The thesis finds that while the legal positions of persons in the Gulf are impacted by the intersection of factors such as nationality, religion, sect, gender and tribe, actors find ways to assert rights or subvert the law, particularly by accounting for legal or normative pluralism. For instance, while the court has the final say on the applicable law, litigants in Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain employ varied strategies to participate in deciding their personal law in the family court, depending on the connecting factors and substantive rules at stake, including: certifying their marriage before the sect-specific circuit with the ruling potentially more favourable to them and less favourable to their spouse, claiming to differ or be united in sect/religion with their spouse, or claiming that the application of their own sect’s rules is inconsistent with public order. In relation to restrictions based on nationality, people rely on the same sources of legitimacy as the state law to transcend or challenge it, both in the court setting and outside it. In particular, Qataris who marry foreigners inconsistently with state law, do so by concluding marriages in accordance with what they understand to be the rules for marriage validity under Shari‘a; thereby reclaiming the Shari‘a as their ‘personal law’. While the Interior Ministry challenges the legitimacy of these marriages, judges attempt to reconcile between positive law and Shari‘a. Furthermore, in online discussions and campaigns for nationality-related rights, hadith and ethical tenets of Shari‘a are often invoked to support arguments for equality between men and women, and between Qataris of original and naturalized status. Thus, the same normative orders that the state relies on to justify its laws are utilised as sources for reclaiming rights, and imagining an alternative, more just la