“‘What on Earth Was I Thinking?’ How Anticipating Plan’s End Places an Intention in Time”

How must you think about time when you form an intention? Obviously, you must think about the time of action. Must you frame the action in any broader prospect or retrospect? In this essay I argue that you must: you thereby commit yourself to a specific prospect of a future retrospect – a retrospect, indeed, on that very prospect. In forming an intention you project a future from which you will not ask regretfully, referring back to your follow-through on that intention, “What on earth was I thinking?” I argue that this broader attitude expresses the self-accountability necessary for practical commitment

New Forms of Judicial Review and the Persistence of Rights - And Democracy-Based Worries

Recent developments in judicial review have raised the possibility that the debate over judicial supremacy versus legislative supremacy might be transformed into one about differing institutions to implement judicial review. Rather than posing judicial review against legislative supremacy, the terms of the debate might be over having institutions designed to exercise forms of judicial review that accommodate both legislative supremacy and judicial implementation of constitutional limits. After examining some of these institutional developments in Canada, South Africa, and Great Britain, this Article asks whether these accommodations, which attempt to pursue a middle course, have characteristic instabilities that will in the long run lead constitutional systems back to wither judicial or legislative supremacy

Toward a global coal mining moratorium? A comparative analysis of coal mining policies in the USA, China, India and Australia

To stop global warming at well below 2° C, the bulk of the world’s fossil fuel reserves will have to be left in the ground. Coal is the fossil fuel with the greatest proportion that cannot be used, and various advocacy groups are campaigning for a ban on the opening of new coal mines. Recently, both China and the USA implemented temporary moratoria on the approval of new coal mining leases. This article examines whether these coal mining bans reflect the emergence of a global norm to keep coal under the ground. To that end, we review recent coal mining policies in the four largest coal producers and explain them comparatively with a framework based on interests, ideas and institutions. We find that the norm of keeping coal in the ground remains essentially contested. Even in those countries that have introduced some form of a coal mining moratorium, the ban can easily be, or has already been, reversed. To the extent that the norm of keeping coal in the ground has momentum, it is primarily due to non-climate reasons: the Chinese moratorium was mostly an instance of industrial policy (aiming to protect Chinese coal companies and their workers from the overcapacity and low prices that are hitting the industry), while the USA’s lease restrictions were mainly motivated by concerns over fiscal justice. We do not find evidence of norm internalisation, which means that the emerging norm fails to gain much traction amid relevant national actors and other (large) coal producing states. If proponents of a moratorium succeed in framing the issue in non-climate terms, they should have a greater chance of building domestic political coalitions in favour of the norm

The Taint of Torture: The Roles of Law and Policy in Our Descent to the Dark Side

Was the Bush administration’s decision to employ “enhanced interrogation techniques” a mistake of policy, a violation of law, or both? This essay responds to Philip Zelikow’s insider account of how the decision to use these techniques was reached. The author suggests that while Zelikow makes a strong case that the decision to authorize the CIA to use coercive interrogation tactics was a mistaken policy judgment, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that it was also illegal. The latter conclusion demands a different response than the former. In particular, it underscores the necessity for accountability. The author of this essay makes the case that the policy was in fact illegal, and that the nation must hold the architects of the plan accountable. He also offers brief thoughts on the legal and policy issues surrounding detention and targeted killing in the ongoing conflict with Al Qaeda, stressing that while neither is flatly impermissible in an armed conflict, accountability and democracy concerns demand greater transparency

Trajectory generation for multi-contact momentum-control

Simplified models of the dynamics such as the linear inverted pendulum model (LIPM) have proven to perform well for biped walking on flat ground. However, for more complex tasks the assumptions of these models can become limiting. For example, the LIPM does not allow for the control of contact forces independently, is limited to co-planar contacts and assumes that the angular momentum is zero. In this paper, we propose to use the full momentum equations of a humanoid robot in a trajectory optimization framework to plan its center of mass, linear and angular momentum trajectories. The model also allows for planning desired contact forces for each end-effector in arbitrary contact locations. We extend our previous results on LQR design for momentum control by computing the (linearized) optimal momentum feedback law in a receding horizon fashion. The resulting desired momentum and the associated feedback law are then used in a hierarchical whole body control approach. Simulation experiments show that the approach is computationally fast and is able to generate plans for locomotion on complex terrains while demonstrating good tracking performance for the full humanoid control

Nash Equilibrium and International Law

Game theory has been a mainstay in the international relations literature for several decades, but its appearance in the international law literature is of a far more recent vintage. Recent accounts have harnessed game theory\u27s alleged lessons in service of a new brand of realism about international law. These skeptical accounts conclude that international law loses its normative force because states that \u27follow international law merely are participants in a Prisoner\u27s Dilemma seeking to achieve self-interested outcomes. Such claims are not just vastly exaggerated; they represent a profound misunderstanding about the significance of game theory. Properly conceived, the best way to understand international law is as a Nash Equilibrium-a focal point that states gravitate toward as they make rational decisions regarding strategy in light of strategies selected by other states. In domains where international law has the greatest purchase, the preferred strategy is reciprocal compliance with international norms. This strategy is consistent with the normativity of law and morality, both of which are characterized by self-interested actors who accept reciprocal constraints on action to generate Nash Equilibria and, ultimately, a stable social contract. These agents- constrained maximizers, as the philosopher David Gauthier calls them-accept the constraints of a normative system in order to achieve cooperative benefits. This Essay concludes by explaining that it is also rational for states to comply with these constraints: agents evaluate competing plans and strategies, select the best course of action, and then stick to their decision, rather than obsessively reevaluating their chosen strategy at each moment in time. A state that defects from international law when the opportunity arises may, in the long run, reduce its overall payoff as compared to a state that selects and adheres to a strategy of constrained maximization

What nudges will matter? An empirical study of female joblessness

The purpose of this empirical study is to use an interdisciplinary approach across labour economics, behavioural economics and social economics to explain female labour market statuses, in particular joblessness choices and conditions. We propose a new theoretical framework, based on Sen’s capability approach, new derived variables for the British Household Panel Survey and a new empirical methodology to estimate the probabilities of different labour market categories. Our results show that, in addition to the standard human capital variables, labour market statuses are markedly influenced by the interplay of environmental, social, psychological factors and personal views and values, such as disposition and conformity towards local social rules and to social relations’ (network) norms, degree of confidence and optimism, risk attitude, job and life satisfaction, preferences for the status quo and plans for the future. We find that the predicted probability of joblessness improves substantially when we move from the traditional into the multi- dimensional approach. Adding new variables to allow for more constraints and opportunities provides a richer and more refined view of factors affecting non employment and helps to recognize and explain better status of people within “similar” groups as well as to identify more accurately those people whose status in not in line with the “expected” (such as the employed against the odds and the voluntary” non- employed). We found that there are some clear idiosyncrasies across the different types of joblessness in particular when it comes to the category of carers, a unique feature of female joblessness. Our model predicts that being more embedded in a local community, having stronger values for family life and stronger ties with close “inactive” friends, facing potential income losses in changing labour market status (as measured by counterfactual labour income versus actual non labour income), are all factors that increase the odds of being a carer relative to being unemployed and that prompt carers to choose or preserve their status quo. Social environment matters in reinforcing personal attitude producing a sort of confirmation bias effect that suggests that social influence is more effective across similarly minded people. The results suggest that policies focused on areas where high levels of inactivity is present, working with large friendship groups within these areas could be used to motivate groups of individuals into work. Prospective financial losses (of receiving a labour income lower than non labour income if a carer became employed) increase the odds of being a carer while potential labour income gains would always decrease the odds of being carers versus any other category, particularly when the other categories are students and unemployed (i.e., those more potentially “attached” to the labour market). The results suggest a role for in work benefits such as the tax credits system, the national minimum wage and benefit reforms as policy options to help make work pay and provide incentives to work. Finally, designing active labour market policies that are more tailored to the characteristics of the individual job seeker could prove a fruitful avenue for policies such as the Work Programme