Constance Jocelyn Ffoulkes and the modernization of scientific connoisseurship

Constance Jocelyn Ffoulkes, a disciple of Giovanni Morelli, participated in the critical exchanges that modernized European art history at the turn of the twentieth century. In producing the first comprehensive study of Vincenzo Foppa, Ffoulkes also underwrote important methodological innovations in the practice of connoisseurship, notably the development of a philological method that blended documentary evidence with direct visual examination. This article investigates Ffoulkes’ interest in the use and function of photographic reproductions of archival documents and her allegiance to the “historical standpoint” championed by professional journals such as Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft and Rassegna d’arte, to which she contributed. Emphasizing the boundaries that Ffoulkes was obliged to negotiate to secure a foothold within the male profession of art history, this article tracks the evolution of her research methods relative to the international network that enabled and recognized her expertise in the connoisseurship of Italian art

Recognising Effective Legal Protection to People Smuggled at Sea, by Reviewing the EU Legal Framework on Human Trafficking and Solidarity between Member States

The death toll of migrants at sea is on the increase. The EU and its Member States are not addressing the situation by widening the EU legal framework on human trafficking to persons smuggled at sea. People smuggled at sea are extremely vulnerable at the hands of their smugglers and suffer serious abuse of their human rights from their journeys through the desert, on the boats and when they reach their final destination. They become victims of human trafficking and they should not be neglected anymore by the EU and its Member States. However, all EU proposals lack of concreteness as Member States do not want to support and host migrants at sea on their territories. They are reluctant to launch solidarity between each other as requested by the Lisbon Treaty and by doing this, they are indirectly responsible for the death of many migrants at sea and for the abuse of their human rights. This article proposes alternatives to explore that could change the situation if Member States show their willingness to cooperate with each other

Writing under pressure: Maud Cruttwell and the old master monograph

A nineteenth-century invention, the old master monograph corresponded with the increasing interest in life writing among the reading public and the development of connoisseurship in art history. This article looks at the production and reception of two major monographs to gauge the contribution of Maud Cruttwell to the study of old masters. In particular, it discusses her interest in the personality of the artist as an aesthetic and ethical project that she perceived as a form of self-cultivation in the wake of Walter Pater’s aesthetics

[Review] 'The gender of the art writing genre' Wendelin Guentner (2015) Women art critics in Nineteenth-Century France; Hilary Fraser (2016) Women writing art history in the Nineteenth Century

Wendelin Guentner, ed, Women Art Critics in Nineteenth-Century France. Vanishing Acts (University of Delaware Press, Newark, 2015), 19 b/w illns., 366 pp., ISBN 978-1611494464, paperback $44.99. Hilary Fraser, Women Writing Art History in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford University Press, 2016), 18 b/w illns., 230 pp., ISBN: 9781107428744, paperback £20. I

Identifying Victims of Human Trafficking at Hotspots, by Focusing on People Smuggled to Europe.

Research has shown that smuggling of migrants is associated with human trafficking. Hence, victims of human trafficking amongst smuggled migrants should be identified by EU Member States at hotspots established by the European Commission, to overcome the migrant and refugee crisis. Identified victims should be given a visa and a programme of protection to escape their traffickers. In order to achieve these objectives, research suggests that EU law on migrant smuggling should be amended and the Temporary Protection Directive should be applied to smuggled persons when there is an indication that they may be victims of human trafficking. This approach should be adopted by the EASO in cooperation with police forces investigating smuggling and trafficking at hotspots

European integration or democracy disintegration in measures concerning police and judicial cooperation?

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Sage in New Journal of European Criminal Law on 13/09/2013, available online: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F203228441300400308 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.In recent cases on the European Arrest Warrant, the Court of Justice of the European Union has made decisions which are incompatible with the requirements of national Constitutions on the protection of fundamental rights such as the right to freedom from imprisonment. National Constitutions are acts of national Parliaments which often require the completion of a very difficult procedure in order to be amended. Unfortunately, the Court of Justice has not taken these procedures into consideration when it has ruled that, in order to enhance mutual trust between national judicial authorities, the European Arrest Warrant can be issued even at the sacrifice of freedoms of individuals protected by national Constitutions. Similar judgements are incompatible with decisions made by Constitutional Courts such as the Italian Constitutional Court which states that the Union’s supremacy and the application of the European Arrest Warrant cannot encroach upon the fundamental principles of Constitutions. Elected bodies such as the European Parliament and national Parliaments should decide whether fundamental principles protected by national Constitutions should be set aside. The entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty could have made the difference as it increased the respective powers of national Parliaments and the European Parliament in the EU decision making procedure. Unfortunately, these changes have not led to more democracy in the criminal area. The result is that the Court of Justice case-law on the European Arrest Warrant is incompatible with the judgments of national Constitutional Courts. This article will show how incompatibility between the different courts and lack of democracy in the criminal area could lead to the failure of police and judicial cooperation between Member States. In order to avoid this failure, it is imperative that measures in the criminal area are adopted by the democratic institutions: the European Parliament and national Parliaments in cooperation with each other. Indeed, these institutions alone, not unelected bodies such as the Court of Justice, should evaluate whether national Constitutions should be set aside in order to fight against criminal organisations

The impact of Operation Sophia on the exercise of criminal jurisdiction against migrant smugglers and human traffickers

Following the incident of April 2015, when 800 people lost their life in the Mediterranean Sea, the EU has concentrated its efforts on fighting the smuggling of migrants by sea, with the European Council emphasising that all efforts should be made to prevent the loss of life in the sea, including by cooperating with transit and origin countries of migrants.[1] Hence, in May 2015, a EU Council Decision (Council) on the military operation called EU Naval Force for the Mediterranean Sea (EUNAVFOR MED) was adopted in order to detect the smuggling of migrants in the Southern Central Mediterranean Sea.[2] The military operation was renamed Sophia after a baby who was born on a boat which was rescued by the EUNAVFOR MED (Operation Sophia), on 22 August 2015.[3] On 20 June 2016, the Council extended Operation Sophia’s mandate until 27 July 2017, reinforcing it by adding two supporting tasks, namely: training of the Libyan coastguard and navy; and contributing to the implementation of the UN arms embargo on the high seas off the coast of Libya[4]. The aim of the Decision is ‘to identify, capture and destroy vessels before they are used by traffickers’[5] and consists of three phases which are analysed in section 2 of this article. Ten months after Operation Sophia transitioned from phase 1 to phase 2 and after the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 2240 (2105), it is opportune to evaluate the effectiveness of the Operation

Performance based earthquake assessment of an industrial silos structure and retrofit with sliding isolators

Recent seismic events pointed out the high vulnerability of existing industrial facilities, stressing on safety and high losses inherent to interruption of economic activities and release of environmentally hazardous materials. These structures often have irregular geometry and structural configuration, are subject to aging and corrosion, and are designed without specific performance-based or seismic design criteria. Due to these inherent complexities, retrofit using friction isolators can be a viable and practical solution for performance improvements. This work presents a case study of irregular industrial storage plant structure consisting of a group of six elevated silos resting on a steel frame on one side and connected to a vaulted RC structure on the other. A computational model is built incorporating nonlinearities from the components (braces, beams, columns, etc.) and from the mitigation devices. Retrofit using friction isolators is analyzed and evaluated through linear and nonlinear dynamic analyses under a set of natural ground motions. Results show the effectiveness of the mitigation strategy in terms of performance improvement