Impact from beyond the grave: how to ensure impact growsgreater with the demise of the author

The impact of a scholar’s work can increase greatly following its author’s death, writes Professor Geoffrey Alderman, who outlines the steps he has taken to ensure the post-mortem impact of his work

“Jews, Judaism and the Jewish State: ethnic rights and international wrongs”

"Under international law, following the promulgation of the Palestine Mandate by the League of Nations, ethnic Jews enjoy the right of "close settlement" in the entire area of Mandate Palestine west of the Jordan River. This right, which is guaranteed and underpinned by Article 80 of the UN Charter, is enjoyed by Jews whether or not they are citizens of the State of Israel. It is not enjoyed by Israelis who are not ethnically Jewish. The right of ethnic Jews to establish communities in the area of the Mandate east of the Jordan River was for all practical purposes extinguished by the First Partition of Palestine (1922). In this territory (subsequently The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan - now "Jordan") Jews were prohibited from settling, and even now it is exceedingly difficult for any ethnic Jew to own property in less still to become a citizen of the Jordanian state. It will be argued that, although relinquished by the United Kingdom (1947) the Mandate persists, and that, therefore, the State of Israel (even within the 1949 Armistice Lines) was, is and remains under an obligation to facilitate and protect such settlement, which obligation is fully in accord with relevant Geneva Conventions. We must note in this connection that whilst the oft-cited UN resolution 242 (November 1967) calls for the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from the West Bank (as part of an overall peace settlement) it makes no mention of Jews (or even of Israeli civilians).

Disentangling the influence of three major threats on the demography of an albatross community

Climate change, fisheries and invasive species represent three pervasive threats to seabirds, globally. Understanding the relative influence and compounding nature of marine and terrestrial threats on the demography of seabird communities is vital for evidence-based conservation. Using 20 years of capture-mark-recapture data from four sympatric species of albatross (black-browed Thalassarche melanophris, gray-headed T. chrysostoma, light-mantled Phoebetria palpebrata and wandering Diomedea exulans) at subantarctic Macquarie Island, we quantified the temporal variability in survival, breeding probability and success. In three species (excluding the wandering albatross because of their small population), we also assessed the influence of fisheries, oceanographic and terrestrial change on these rates. The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) explained 20.87–29.38% of the temporal variability in survival in all three species and 22.72–28.60% in breeding success for black-browed and gray-headed albatross, with positive SAM events related to higher success. The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Index explained 21.14–44.04% of the variability in survival, with higher survival rates following La Niña events. For black-browed albatrosses, effort in south-west Atlantic longline fisheries had a negative relationship with survival and explained 22.75–32.21% of the variability. Whereas increased effort in New Zealand trawl fisheries were related to increases in survival, explaining 21.26–28.29 % of variability. The inclusion of terrestrial covariates, reflecting extreme rainfall events and rabbit-driven habitat degradation, explained greater variability in trends breeding probability than oceanographic or fisheries covariates for all three species. These results indicate managing drivers of demographic trends that are most easily controlled, such as fisheries and habitat degradation, will be a viable option for some species (e.g., black-browed albatross) but less effective for others (e.g., light-mantled albatross). Our results illustrate the need to integrate fisheries, oceanographic and terrestrial processes when assessing demographic variability and formulating the appropriate management response

The violent frontline: space, ethnicity and confronting the state in Edwardian Spitalfields and 1980s Brixton

This article discusses in comparative terms the relationship between space, ethnic identity, subaltern status and anti-state violence in twentieth century London. It does so by comparing two examples in which the control of the state, as represented by the Metropolitan Police, was challenged by minority groups through physical force. It will examine the Spitalfields riots of 1906, which began as strike action by predominantly Jewish bakers and escalated into a general confrontation between the local population and the police, and the Brixton riots of 1981, a response to endemic police harassment of mainly Caribbean youth and long-term economic discrimination in that area of South London. It will begin by dissecting the association of physical metropolitan space with the diasporic ‘other’ in the Edwardian East End and post-consensus South London, and how this ‘othering’ was influenced both by the state and the anti-migrant far right. It will then interrogate the difficult relationship between the Metropolitan Police and Jewish and Caribbean working class communities, and how this deteriorating relationship exploded into in extreme violence in 1906 and 1981. The article will conclude by assessing how the relationships between space, identity and violence influenced long-term national and communal narratives of Jewish and Caribbean interactions with the British state