The Invisible Worlds of Religion and Economy

Twelve years ago I accepted my Chair at ISS with an inaugural lecture entitled Rats, Cockroaches and People Like Us, in which I discussed the relation between people’s views of humanity and actual human rights. In it I made a plea for an intelligent use of the wide range of religious and spiritual resources available to people all over the world for the sake of human rights. In subsequent years I have expanded this argument by advocating the inclusion of religious resources for development in the broadest sense. Twelve years later it seems that, at least in the Netherlands, this remains a controversial proposal, especially in view of the great changes in the political climate at home and abroad since the dramatic events in 2001

The Influence of Plastic Bulk Deformation on Surface Roughness and Frictional Behavior during Deep Drawing Processes

In Sheet Metal Forming (SMF) processes, friction does play an important role. This with respect to the increase of product quality demands and the ability of predicting these processes by for instance finite element simulations. The existing simulation models do not contain an adequate friction model. In SMF processes different contact situations can be distinguished. As a result different coefficients of friction are locally present, which influences the forming process.\ud \ud Experiments are performed on a testing device by which it is possible to simulate the operational conditions as present in SMF processes. This test rig is a combination of a tensile tester and a friction measuring device, by which it is possible to measure the coefficient of friction as a function of the operational conditions (velocity and contact pressure) and deformation (elastic or plastic) in a well controlled way. Friction is presented in a generalized Stribeck-curve in which the different lubrication regimes can be distinguished, i.e. Boundary Lubrication (BL) and Mixed Lubrication (ML), which are also occurring during SMF processes.\ud \ud In SMF processes the sheet material deforms elastically and plastically and therefore the surface roughness will change and as a consequence will influence the frictional behavior between sheet and tool. In this paper, the influence of plastic deformation on A) the surface microgeometry and B) as a consequence of that on the frictional behavior of the sheet-tool system is studied. With the aid of a 3D-surface interference microscope, the microgeometry of the deformed material has been analyzed. The result of this investigation is that the CLA-roughness due to the deformation first decreases and then increases with increasing deformation. Furthermore, friction is hardly influenced due to the change in surface roughness. No change in the shape and the level of the generalized Stribeck curve is found

Rats, cockroaches and people like us : views of humanity and human right

Many people appear to believe that there are a growing number of religious conflicts in the world, particularly since the end of the Cold War. On closer examination, however, it seems that the number of conflicts of the type which are today often labelled 'ethnic' or' 'religious' has in fact been growing since the 1950s'. Many such conflicts were already detectable in the period of the Cold War, but at that time, they were usually interpreted within a framework of East-West relations

Is the CJEU Discriminating in Age Discrimination Cases?

Claims have been made that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is more lenient in accepting age discriminating measures affecting older people than in those affecting younger people. This claim is scrutinised in this article, first, by making a quantitative analysis of the outcomes of the CJEU’s case law on age discrimination cases, followed by a qualitative analysis of the line of reasoning of the CJEU in these cases and concluding with an evaluation of the Court’s reasoning against three theoretical approaches that set the context for the assessment of the justifications of age discrimination: complete life view, fair innings argument and typic

The collapse of Rana Plaza and the limits, options and challenges of transnational labour regulation

The collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh on 24 April 2013 resulted in the death of over 1,100 workers and many more injured workers. Consequently, it has again raised the debate about the social responsibility of multinational companies (MNCs) for their full production chain. European and North-American MNCs have responded to this with the adoption of two agreements. Although these agreements have been welcomed, being transnational private agreements, from a legal point of view, they raise some questions, especially about their legal status. This paper describes in brief the main legal challenges of these transnational, private agreements and how they can be (partially) be met. Secondly, the two agreements are analysed to what extent they meet those challenges. The paper concludes with some general considerations about their promises and limits to actually make a difference