Coloniality and the Courtroom: Understanding Pre-trial Judicial Decision Making in Brazil

This thesis focuses on judicial decision making during custody hearings in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The impetus for the study is that while national and international protocols mandate the use of pre-trial detention only as a last resort, judges continue to detain people pre-trial in large numbers. Custody hearings were introduced in 2015, but the initiative has not produced the reduction in pre-trial detention that was hoped. This study aims to understand what informs judicial decision making at this stage. The research is approached through a decolonial lens to foreground legacies of colonialism, overlooked in mainstream criminological scholarship. This is an interview-based study, where key court actors (judges, prosecutors, and public defenders) and subject matter specialists were asked about influences on judicial decision making. Interview data is complemented by non-participatory observation of custody hearings. The research responds directly to Aliverti et al.'s (2021) call to ‘decolonize the criminal question’ by exposing and explaining how colonialism informs criminal justice practices. Answering the call in relation to judicial decision making, findings provide evidence that colonial-era assumptions, dynamics, and hierarchies were evident in the practice of custody hearings and continue to inform judges’ decisions, thus demonstrating the coloniality of justice. This study is significant for the new empirical data presented and theoretical innovation is also offered via the introduction of the ‘anticitizen’. The concept builds on Souza’s (2007) ‘subcitizen’ to account for the active pursuit of dangerous Others by judges casting themselves as crime fighters in a modern moral crusade. The findings point to the limited utility of human rights discourse – the normative approach to influencing judicial decision making around pre-trial detention – as a plurality of conceptualisations compete for dominance. This study has important implications for all actors aiming to reduce pre-trial detention in Brazil because unless underpinning colonial logics are addressed, every innovation risks becoming the next lei para inglês ver (law [just] for the English to see)

Political Instability and Inflation in Pakistan

This study investigates the effects of political instability on inflation in Pakistan. Applying the Generalized Method of Moments and using data from 1951-2007, we examine this link in two different models. The results of the ‘monetary’ model suggest that the effects of monetary determinants are rather marginal and that they depend upon the political environment of Pakistan. The ‘nonmonetary’ model’s findings explicitly establish a positive association between measures of political instability and inflation. This is further confirmed on analyses based on interactive dummies that reveal political instability significantly leading to high (above average) inflation.political instability, inflation, Pakistan

Intracranial Hemorrhage Due to Secondary Hypertension from Intracranial Large Vessel Occlusion

Simultaneous hemorrhagic and ischemic strokes have been previously reported in the literature. Typically, these occur in patients secondary to dialysis, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.1,2,3 However, this is the unique case of a 62-year-old Asian female who presented with a hemorrhagic stroke suspected to be secondary to refractory hypertension from intracranial large vessel atherosclerotic flow limiting stenosis, with rapid subsequent large vessel occlusion and ischemic stroke. Questions arise such as ideal blood pressure parameters for dual management, timeliness of computed tomography angiography imaging in the emergency department for detection of large vessel occlusion during intracranial hemorrhage, and subsequent selection of treatment plan in the dual-lesion patient population

The Coloniality of Justice:Naturalized Divisions During Pre-Trial Hearings in Brazil

Custody hearings were introduced in Brazil in 2015 with the hope that prompt in-person presentation of detainees before a judge, rather than merely a police report, would de- crease the excessive use of pre-trial detention. However, the use of pre-trial detention remains high, especially for young Black men with low to no income. This chapter con- tributes to the literature by highlighting the coloniality of justice as manifested within ju- dicial decision-making at the pre-trial stage in Brazil. Analysis of twenty-six interviews with judges, prosecutors, public defenders, and specialists in Rio de Janeiro reveals the divergent treatment accorded to those on either side of the dichotomous notions of the bandido1 (criminal) and the cidadão de bem (the good citizen). A thematic framework analysis leads to a discussion of the white-centred nature of citizenship and justice and how stigmatized spaces are considered criminogenic. The chapter traces how colonial white-supremacist logic has persisted in naturalizing inhumane treatment of racialized groups in the collective consciousness of the gatekeepers of justice in Brazil

Inaugural Address

I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all of you assembled here this morning. It is a great honour for me to address this opening session of the Twentieth Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists. Recent decades have witnessed a proliferation of regional integration schemes around the world involving both developed and developing countries alike. In the context of developing economies, the promotion of regional economic cooperation and integration is increasingly being viewed as an important instrument for expediting the process of economic development. It is widely believed that regional economic cooperation yields gains in production specialisation, efficiency and improved quality of exports, all of which benefit the countries participating in the regional cooperation effort