New crimes – new tactics: the emergence and effectiveness of disruption in tackling serious organised crime

Whilst the encouragement to use disruption techniques in tackling organised crime has emerged in government and law enforcment rhetoric, little is known about its importance. This study examines how two UK police forces use a disruption approach to target 100 organised crime suspects. The findings show that a disruption approach offers a more dynamic and flexible approach, when compared with traditional prosecution and is popular with practitioners. However further research is needed to understand the most effective method of delivery and the level of impact the approach can bring

Federalism and Comprehensive Environmental Reform: Seeing Beyond the Murky Medium

This article examines the legal constraints that Canadian federalism places on comprehensive environmental reforms. Having specific regard for the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and its regulation of toxic substances, the article questions the ability of federal constitutional powers to support a broad scope for the statute. The article then examines two approaches to this problem. First, it examines an alternative vision of federalism which provides the federal government with broad environmental authority. Secondly, it examines various mechanisms of federal-provincial cooperation for their application to comprehensive environmental schemes. It concludes that these options provide enough scope to regulate environmental activities comprehensively and imaginatively

All That Was Lost. German Life in Kafka’s Prague Before World War I, During the War, and At Its End

In this paper I want to trace briefly how Franz Kafka reacted to some salient cultural features of his time. I will select segments of his writings which I believe reflect his view, or even his characterization of the three main historical periods he lived through: pre-World War I, the war years 1914 to 1918, and five and one half of the postwar years. Of course, this is by no means a complete, thorough discussion of those periods and his works that I mention

Conflicting Principles of Canadian Environmental Reform: Trubeck and Habermas v. Law and Economics and the Law Reform Commission

Early in the 1970s, the American legal scholar, David Trubeck, made a far-reaching observation: Law is a practical science. It does not ordinarily dwell on fundamental questions about the social, political and economic functions of the legal order. Satisfied with implicit working assumptions about these matters, legal thought moves rapidly to more tractable questions. But when law\u27s solutions to social problems fail to satisfy, it becomes necessary to examine the basic theory from which they derive. Trubeck expounded this thesis in connection with legal developments in the Third World. Using an idea he termed the core conception of law, Trubeck argued that this conception has misdirected the study of law and development by asserting that one type of law - that found in the West - is essential for economic, political, and social development in the Third World. This paper applies Trubeck\u27s observation to Canadian environmental law reform. It emphasizes two points. First, environmental law is not centered in the environment or in the law; it is centered in a particular society\u27s social, political and economic outlook. Trubeck suggests that law is best considered as only an effect of progressive society, not a cause. As such, law is confined to an instrumental status: it is the means of reform, but not itself the impetus. For this reason, legal reform is not simply a matter of looking elsewhere for interesting approaches and then legislating them into a particular society. Instead, law reform is dependent on appreciating a society\u27s particular composition

Spaces of youth politics and the Arab uprisings:environmental activism and the Algerian Hirak

The two waves of uprisings in the Arab world in 2011, then 2019, have brought profound changes. In the second wave, including Iraq, Lebanon and Sudan, the Algerian hirak of 2019 constituted a massive political and social movement, bringing a new president and government, and affecting the popular consciousness that change was now possible. While participation in formal politics remains low, new spaces of participation have emerged. Environmental activism in the public space, as well as deeper challenges to extractivist development ideology, have inspired new practices of youth politics. From the disruption of the hirak to subsequent active citizenship, Algerians have proposed alternative development models. Drawing on findings from a participatory research project working with a network of Algerian youth researchers, and interviews with Algerian young people, associations and entrepreneurs, it is argued that the practices of the hirak have consolidated and amplified the everyday activism of Algerian civil society. Organising environmental protests and action, Algerian youth have created new political spaces and inspired deeper reflections about the future of their country. These findings offer new insights into the longer term impacts of the Arab uprisings and of environmental activism, on spaces of youth political participation

Cultural Mapping with a View Towards Discipleship in Cayambe, Ecuador

God is a global God. He has a desire for all the nations to hear His Word. This is realized through discipleship. To effectively create disciples, it is necessary that the missionary understands the culture. Cultural mapping is a systematic way to observe and grow to understand a culture. It is beneficial to see how a model is applied to grasp this concept. This thesis examines the example of the culture of Cayambe, Ecuador, to see cultural mapping at work in an actual ministry. It will use the four layers of culture as presented by Donald K. Smith in his book Creating Understanding

On the Hasse Principle for Systems of Forms

We prove the Hasse principle for a smooth projective variety $X\subset \mathbb{P}^{n-1}_\mathbb{Q}$ defined by a smooth system of two cubic polynomials in $n\geq 39$ variables. The main tool here is the development of a version of Kloosterman refinement for a smooth system of equations defined over $\mathbb{Q}$