From security to justice? The development of a more justice-oriented approach to the realisation of European minority rights standards

The aim of this article is to reassess the development and consolidation of minority rights in Europe with reference to Kymlicka’s liberal theory of minority rights and to his own critique of the European minority rights framework

A right to cultural identity in a UK Bill of Rights?

This article considers the possible inclusion of a right to cultural identity in a UK Bill of Rights, highlighting the centrality of culture to debates about the accommodation of diversity in the UK as well as the increased recognition of the importance of cultural rights under international human rights law. The article argues that the inclusion of a minimal minority rights guarantee based on Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 would be an innocuous step that would provide the impetus needed for greater cultural sensitivity in decision-making processes in a way that acknowledges the centrality of culture to people’s identities and everyday lives. It claims that the inclusion of such a right alongside a freestanding right to equality would provide a useful addition to the rights currently recognised as ‘Convention rights’ under the UK Human Rights Act 1998. This is argued on the basis of both international and domestic case law on culture identity, including opinions of the UN Human Rights Committee, developments in European human rights law and experiences in other jurisdictions

Seabird and Plastic Ingestion Data Set

Plastic debris is a pervasive and critical environmental challenge that is being described as a world-wide crisis for marine life. Seabirds are sensitive to pollutants and are of critical conservation concern. Because seabirds are excellent bioindicators of marine ecosystem health, information about their plastic ingestion can serve as an indicator of plastic exposure across multiple marine trophic levels. Our study describes the prevalence of plastic ingestion for four seabird species: Great Black-backed Gulls (Larus marinus), Herring Gulls (L. argentatus), Common Terns (Sterna hirundo), and Roseate Terns (S. dougallii) nesting in the Gulf of Maine. Samples were collected opportunistically, including pellets, regurgitant, discarded fish, and deceased seabirds. Plastics were primarily found in pellet samples, and common types included fragments and sheets. Herring Gulls displayed significantly higher plastic exposure than the other three species across all metrics analyzed (p-valu

Primer selection impacts specific population abundances but not community dynamics in a monthly time-series 16S rRNA gene amplicon analysis of coastal marine bacterioplankton.

Primers targeting the 16S small subunit ribosomal RNA marker gene, used to characterize bacterial and archaeal communities, have recently been re-evaluated for marine planktonic habitats. To investigate whether primer selection affects the ecological interpretation of bacterioplankton populations and community dynamics, amplicon sequencing with four primer sets targeting several hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene was conducted on both mock communities constructed from cloned 16S rRNA genes and a time-series of DNA samples from the temperate coastal Santa Barbara Channel. Ecological interpretations of community structure (delineation of depth and seasonality, correlations with environmental factors) were similar across primer sets, while population dynamics varied. We observed substantial differences in relative abundances of taxa known to be poorly resolved by some primer sets, such as Thaumarchaeota and SAR11, and unexpected taxa including Roseobacter clades. Though the magnitude of relative abundances of common OTUs differed between primer sets, the relative abundances of the OTUs were nonetheless strongly correlated. We do not endorse one primer set but rather enumerate strengths and weaknesses to facilitate selection appropriate to a system or experimental goal. While 16S rRNA gene primer bias suggests caution in assessing quantitative population dynamics, community dynamics appear robust across studies using different primers

Minority rights, integration and education in the Western Balkans

Using the lenses of minority rights and developments in education in the Western Balkans, this article analyses the adaptability of the European minority protection framework and identifies ongoing challenges in relation to its implementation. It focuses in particular on the balance between the accommodation of minority education rights and integration, arguing that there is an inherent flexibility within the European minority protection framework that has been used to challenge segregation in education. It claims that a shift towards a more integrated approach to education in the Western Balkans was a necessity and one that strengthens rather than weakens the European minority protection framework. The argument is developed through consideration of the case-studies of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where ongoing challenges remain in relation to implementation

The Dilemma of Direct Democracy

The dilemma of direct democracy is that voters may not always be able to make welfare- improving decisions. Lupia’s seminal work has led us to believe that voters can substitute voting cues for substantive policy knowledge. Lupia, however, emphasized that cues were valuable under certain conditions and not others. In what follows, we present three main findings regarding voters and what they know about California’s Proposition 7. First, much like Lupia reported, we show voters who are able to recall endorsements for or against a ballot measure vote similarly to people who recall certain basic facts about the initiative. We show, second, that voters whose stated policy preferences would otherwise suggest they would favor the “no” position cast their ballots with far less error than do people who favor the “yes” position. One thing this suggests is that many voters may employ a “defensive no” strategy when faced with complex policy choices on the ballot. Our third result is a bit surprising: we find that better- informed voters, whether this information is derived from factual knowledge of the initiative or from knowledge of well-publicized voting cues, are no more likely to make reasoned decisions than those who are, by our measure, uninformed. This suggests that existing theories of voter choice, especially in direct democracy, may be inadequate. We conclude with some preliminary policy recommendations that could help improve the information environment for initiatives and referenda by providing key information on the ballot

Social capital in Norfolk: building bridges, 1778-1821

This poster investigates the impact of social capital accumulation on agricultural productivity in Norfolk, 1778-1821

[Review] Eduardo J. Ruiz Vieytez (2014) United in diversity? On cultural diversity, democracy and human rights

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Who are the minorities? The role of the right to self-identity within the European minority rights framework

This article examines the implications of both individual and collective dimensions of the right to self-identify and reappraises the key challenges to its realisation. The article argues that the status of the right to self-identify as a fundamental right remains unclear over a quarter of a century after its inclusion in the CSCE/OSCE Copenhagen Document in 1990. The article starts by revisiting some of the ‘justice-oriented’ arguments made in the early 1990s about the need for group-differentiated rights in order to highlight the importance of the right to self-identify as an integral part of the European minority rights framework. It then proceeds to argue that the case for giving greater prominence to this right is strengthened if the challenge of cosmopolitanism is also considered. The second part of the article is focused more specifically on the challenges to the realisation of the right, particularly the collective dimension. It argues that this can be attributed to the continued deference to States in relation to the scope of application of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and that there needs to be a greater focus on the internalisation of the right at the domestic level