The ministerial power to set up a public inquiry: issues of transparency and accountability

The Independent Panel Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was left in crisis following intense pressure from survivors and their families, the public and media. Two senior legal figures, Baroness Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf, both resigned from the position of chair to the inquiry following concerns over their links with the establishment. Questions were raised over the independence of a process convened by the Home Secretary, to investigate apparent failures on the part of institutions, which would include scrutinising the actions of a former Home Secretary in handling allegations of child sexual abuse in the past. Demands for an inquiry with greater statutory powers, including the power to compel the giving of evidence on oath, ultimately resulted in the Independent Panel being disbanded and a new public inquiry, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, being convened. Against the background of this and other inquiries, this article examines the serious questions raised about the powers of a minister to set up a public inquiry, the lack of open and transparent decision-making processes and the extent to which those ministerial decisions are open to public scrutiny and accountability

An analysis of legal and political influence on the form and nature of post-2005 public inquiries and their significance

Public inquiries are major instruments of accountability, convened to address matters of public concern. Every time a new inquiry is convened, decisions are made by government ministers and inquiry chairs to determine their form and nature, which in turn affect their independence, powers, subject matter, and openness to public scrutiny. This research is a systematic, library-based analysis of: witness evidence to the 2013-14 House of Lords Select Committee on the Inquiries Act on the law and practice of public inquiries, legislation, case law and other documentary sources to observe, in practice, what political and legal influence is being exerted on the form and nature of public inquiries, by whom, and to what effect. The research uses a mixed-method approach of inductive analysis and critical examination of secondary data; doctrinal legal research; and broader desk-based research. The research found that attempts by parliamentary committees to reform the decisionmaking process have been largely unsuccessful, with successive governments rejecting attempts to restrict the power of the minister. The courts' involvement has been restricted to clarifying the legal requirements for an effective inquiry. There is a statutory framework for public inquiries. However, the research found that the form and nature of public inquiries has been evolving within and outside that statutory framework, not through legislative change, nor directly because of action through the courts, but through political pressure exerted at the level of individual inquiries, often due to conflicting expectations about the role of an inquiry. The research concludes that: this provides an arbitrary and inconsistent source of scrutiny; the conflicting expectations must be addressed; and the recent move towards greater formal consultation is welcome. It recommends that future reviews of the public inquiry process be addressed not only to government but more widely and urges greater public education to enhance wider public scrutiny

Competition between honey bees (Apis mellifera) and native bees: an investigation in urban community gardens in St. Louis, Missouri

The European honey bee (Apis mellifera), is considered one of the worlds more important pollinator species and is often the focal species for bee conservation. However, lesser known native bees are equally, if not more valuable for pollination services. Native bees are better pollinators for native crop plants, but often must compete with honeybees for floral resources. There has been an increase in support for including honeybee hives in private and public spaces, but recent studies suggest that interactions between resident native bees and introduced honeybees can have long lasting and detrimental effects on population persistence. These interactions have been well documented in natural landscapes, but competition between bee species in the context of urban agriculture remains unknown. Therefore the goal of this study was to document interactions between native bees and honeybees in urban community gardens to elucidate differences in the number of competitive interactions and the competitive behaviors used by bees in urban regions. To accomplish this, we filmed flowers in three community gardens in Saint Louis, MO, one of which has four managed honey bee colonies and two that do not. We quantified known competitive behaviors for bees including chasing, dive bombing, pollen robbing and attacks. We found significant differences in both the frequency and type of competitive interactions between bee species and across surveyed community gardens. This information is vital for understanding the effects of introduced honeybee colonies in local landscapes, particularly in urban regions with already high selection pressures

Black Africans’ Freedom Litigation Suits to Define Just War and Just Slavery in the Early Spanish Empire

This article explores how some enslaved black Africans litigated for their freedom in Spanish royal courts in the sixteenth century on the basis that – as Christians – they had been unjustly enslaved in Africa. With a focus on the port cities of Seville and Cartagena, I explore how freedom litigation suits illuminate how individuals from starkly different social worlds and intellectual milieus – who inhabited the same urban sites – affected and shaped one another’s intellectual landscapes. I trace how enslaved Africans’ epistemologies of just slavery shaped broader discourses on the just enslavement of Africans in the Spanish empire

Royal vassals : Old African Christians in the Atlantic world

In the sixteenth century, hundreds (if not thousands) of free blacks, some of them first generation Africans (manumitted slaves) acquired royal permits to embark in fleets to cross the ocean as vassals of the Castilian crown, that is, as Old Christians. Free bozales (recently arrived from Africa as slaves) and their descendants, ladinos (hispanized Iberian-born Africans), successfully argued in the House of the Trade in Seville that they should be given permission to travel to the New World because they were Old Christians from West Africa. While such applicants may be considered as hispanicised (ladinos) as they were fluent in Castilian and were well known in the Iberian cities where they lived, ultimately it was the colour of their skin and African heritage that enabled them to successfully argue that they were as Old a Christian as any white Iberian and that they should be given permission to travel to the New World. In my paper I explore this puzzle: how did free Sub-Saharan Africans manage to successfully claim an Old Christian status and travel in the Iberian Atlantic?Histor

Avertissement & Présentation de l'Égypte au présent

International audienceThe "people's revolution" in Egypt - Thawrat al-Sha'b - erupted Jan. 25, 2011 while our editor was laying out this work. The inventory of the Egyptian society that this book is offering therefore is published timely when Egypt lives a turning point in its history. Many connoisseurs of this country envisioned that large movements of political and social challenges can happen and lead to profound changes, however, no one would venture to forecast the timing, modalities and scope. Number of chapters in this book shed light on socio-economic and political issues that became intolerable in the eyes of many Egyptians, and shed light also on various social groups that became leading forces of this movement. This Egypte au présent (Egypt of today) gives a "full-size" image of the multiplicity and extent of the problems, that will have to face as challenges, the democratic system which, hopefully, will be the outcome of the process.La " révolution du peuple " en Egypte - thawrat al-cha'b - a éclaté le 25 janvier 2011 alors que cet ouvrage en était à l'étape de sa mise en page chez notre éditeur. L'inventaire qu'il propose de la société égyptienne paraît donc opportunément au moment où celle-ci vit un tournant de son histoire. Beaucoup de connaisseurs de ce pays envisageaient que d'importants mouvements de contestations politique et sociale puissent advenir et aboutir à de profonds changements ; nul ne se serait cependant aventuré à en prévoir les échéances, les modalités et la portée. Nombre de chapitres de cet ouvrage jettent un éclairage sur des situations socio-économiques et politiques devenues insupportables aux yeux de très nombreux Égyptiens et sur divers groupes sociaux devenus les forces porteuses de ce mouvement. Cette Egypte au présent donne une image "grandeur nature" de la multiplicité et de l'étendue des problèmes qu'aura à affronter, comme autant de défis, le régime démocratique qui, espérons-le, constituera l'aboutissement du processus en cours