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Diversity and gender equality in executive boards, as well as finding ways to balance private needs and business requirements, are topics that are on the agenda of legislators around the globe. Given the significant role of executive board members in shaping organizational strategy and culture and for the company's success, understanding the impact of rules that allow a mandate pause for this group is essential. The German 'stay-on-board' rules grant a mandate pause to board members for maternity, parental or care leave or for a board member's convalescence since August 2021. The objective of this paper is to examine the necessity for a legal framework on the European Union level that provides for a mandate pause for board members as a way to increase gender equality on the board level. The author recommends closing the gap in gender equality on the board level at European level by adopting comparable measures to those implemented in Germany, supplemented by additional measures. The implementation of a comprehensive set of measures, in conjunction with widespread acceptance in society, is crucial for the advancement of gender equality within corporate boardrooms.

Why do small states invoke dispute resolution mechanisms against great powers when compliance seems unlikely? This article explores how and why litigation may be useful to small states even in cases where there is no prospect of immediate compliance. It suggests that small states use litigation as a tool of legal statecraft to achieve strategic outcomes. The author argues that litigation provides political leverage to small states by inflicting a 'legitimacy penalty' on a respondent state. Litigation allows a small state to frame its grievance as an attack on the community values enshrined in international law, mobilizing support to its cause while challenging both the legitimacy of the impugned act and potentially the respondent state. Using the dispute between Mauritius and the United Kingdom over the 'detachment' of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritian territory as a case study, this article argues that legitimacy concerns can be turned against a great or greater power by a smaller state to impose a cost and concludes that legally-framed arguments which also invoke community interests are most effective for applicants.

Abstract At the beginning of the XX century one of the people who contributed the most to Albania's religious issues was Hafiz Ali Korcha. He wrote various works in different fields, including the Tafsir science in which he clearly expressed his contemporary and progressive approach. He wrote a non-systematic interpretation of the meaning of the Qur'an, a commentary on the short suras, on the completeness of the prophethood of Prophet Muhammad, and an independent interpretation of the allegory of the Surah Yusuf. This article analyses Hafiz Ali Korcha's approach to the science of tafsir based on the main topics of tafsir methodology. The article consists of two parts. The first part provides a description of his work in the science of tafsir. The second part addresses main themes of the methodology of tafsir. The article concludes that Hafiz Ali Korcha was a very good connoisseur of methodological issues. In his work, the author followed certain principles, especially leaning towards the modernist school leaded by Muhammad Abduh. Keywords: Tafsir, Ali Korcha, interpretive tafsir, israiliyât, modernist approach.

Syria has returned to the stage of regional diplomacy with the readmission of Damascus to the Arab League after a 12-year suspension. The country's comeback is the outcome of regional diplomatic efforts that started in 2018 but reached their climax after the devastating earthquake in Syria and Turkey in February. Normalization with Syria comes without any accountability for the crimes the Syrian regime has committed against its own people nor a change in behavior that would signal the end of the suffering of Syrians. We argue that despite international and regional factors setting the stage, domestic factors are Arab states' main incentives for normalization.
Author information





Mustafa Karahamad



Mustafa Karahamad ist Doktorand im Programmbereich "Transnationale Politik" und Mitglied der Forschungsgruppe "Terrorismus" an der HSFK. Er forscht zu muslimischen religiösen Institutionen und der Legitimierung politischer Gewalt im Nahen Osten. // Mustafa Karahamad is a doctoral researcher in PRIF's research department "Transnational Politics" and member of the research group "Terrorism". His research interests are Muslim religious institutions and legitimization of political violence in the Middle East.

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Der Beitrag Arab States' Incentives Towards (not) Normalizing Relations with Syria – Islamists and Drug Trafficking? erschien zuerst auf PRIF BLOG.

Abstract. Over the last 2 decades, the topic of earthquake-triggered landslides (EQTLs) has shown increasing relevance in the scientific community. This interest is confirmed by the numerous articles published in international, peer-reviewed journals. In this work we present a database containing a selection of articles published on this topic from 1984 to 2021. The articles were selected through a systematic search on the Clarivate™ Web of Science™ Core Collection online platform and were catalogued into a web-based GIS (web-GIS), which was specifically designed to show different types of information. After a general analysis of the database, for each article the following aspects were identified: the bibliometric information (e.g. author(s), title, publication year), the relevant topic and sub-topic category (or categories), and the earthquake(s) addressed. The analysis allowed us to infer general information and statistics on EQTLs (e.g. relevant methodological approaches over time and in relation to the scale of investigation, most studied events), which can be useful to obtain a spatial distribution of the articles and a general overview of the topic.

One of the main critical notes on the effort to combat trafficking in persons is the lack of victim protection in favor of criminal prosecution. This paper argues that this problem can be explained by looking at the norm that shapes the effort to eradicate human trafficking. In this paper, the author will employ norm localization theory to explain how the existing patriarchal culture in Indonesia is threatened by the norm of human trafficking eradication socialized by the Palermo Protocol and localizes the norm to sustain their existence. This will be done by studying the implementation of human trafficking eradication law in Indonesia, i.e. Law No. 21 of 2007 concerning the Eradication of the Crime of Human Trafficking. Ultimately, this paper finds that the norm of human trafficking eradication in Indonesia has been localized by reducing the definition of human trafficking to a crime of rape against women. This localized norm then complements the rape culture in Indonesia by allowing the continuation of victim blaming practice, which in turn denies the victim their right to receive protection and freedom of movement.

Abstract
This essay discusses Jeanette Winterson's The Stone Gods (2007) in light of human and nonhuman relationships. The author presents us with quite a paradoxical situation, whereby what is human seems to be less human than what is said to be nonhuman. The ontological instability produced by such a peculiar paradigm generates interesting consequences in terms of fundamental rights, especially when applied to hybrid forms of life such as those represented by "Robo sapiens." Hence, Winterson's novel invites a reconfiguration of the notion of rights and "legal personhood" in the context of AI systems. Robots demand that their "humanity" is acknowledged and, as a consequence to that, they also demand that they are granted rights. One could notice that Robot's existential condition is very similar to that of slaves, precisely like slaves they are submitted to servitude, forced or bonded labour. And yet the fact that they are not "fully human", only very similar or close to them, puts robots in a juridical position that might be compared to that of animals and the way they are presented in animal law studies.

An emerging "new Cold War" appears to pit democracies, led by the US, against autocracies, led by Russia and China. But the analogy between today's regime competition and that of the "old" Cold War is deceptive. China and Russia today are much more closely intertwined with Western democracies than the Soviet Union ever was. These linkages will complicate the conflict considerably. There is already growing pressure to engage in "decoupling", that is, to break these interdependencies. Research on past instances of decoupling shows that such processes often exacerbate conflict. This research offers four lessons about the general dynamics of decoupling – and little cause for optimism about today's disengagement processes.
Author information





Matthias Dembinski



Dr. Matthias Dembinski ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im Programmbereich "Internationale Institutionen" und Projektleiter an der HSFK. Er forscht zu Fragen von Gerechtigkeit in den internationalen Beziehungen, regionalen Sicherheitsorganisationen und humanitären Interventionen. Sein regionaler Schwerpunkt ist Westeuropa. // Dr Matthias Dembinski is Senior Researcher in the research department "International Institutions" and project manager at PRIF. His research interests are questions of justice in international relations, regional security organisations and humanitarian interventions. His regional focus is Western Europe.

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Der Beitrag Decoupling and the "New Cold War": Cautionary Lessons from the Past erschien zuerst auf PRIF BLOG.

The March 2023 state visit of Chinese president Xi Jinping to Russia has attracted significant attention, and has been described as symbolic of growing cooperation between authoritarian states opposed to the current world order. However, as we argue in a recently-published article based on a review of Russian and Chinese expert statements, this partnership should best be understood as a limited, strategically motivated cooperation against shared threat perceptions. Meanwhile, there is much less agreement on normative questions, let alone a shared vision of an alternative world order.
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Pascal Abb



Dr. Pascal Abb ist Koordinator der Forschungsgruppe "Regimewettbewerb" und wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter an der HSFK mit Schwerpunkt China. Er betreibt aktuell ein Forschungsprojekt zu den Auswirkungen der Belt-and-Road-Initiative auf Konfliktstaaten. // Dr Pascal Abb is Coordinator of the Research Group "Regime Competition" and Senior Researcher at PRIF with a focus on China. He is currently conducting a research project on the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on conflict states.

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Der Beitrag Xi and Putin's Strategic Tango: Unpacking the Complexities of Russia-China Relations After the 2023 Moscow Summit erschien zuerst auf PRIF BLOG.

The ultimate goal of any communicative act is to create meaning. The meaningful combination of language units creates the overall content of oral or written communication and realizes the communicative intent of the writer or speaker. The aim of the present article is to study how the communicative intent of the writer unfolds through the use of words having a specific semantic component as part of the lexical meaning. Words that have a negative semantic component as part of denotative meaning as well as phrases which contain one or more words with negative denotative meaning have been picked out from the article "Genocide" by R. Lemkin[1] and studied. The communicative-semantic and pragmatic analyses of the practical material has revealed that with the help of the words and phrases containing negative referential meaning, the author creates a convincing and powerful content and achieves his goal, which is to condemn genocidal activities.
Key words: semantics, lexicology, word meaning, denotation, persuasion, genocide, communicative-pragmatic approach

[1] R. Lemkin, Genocide // American Scholar, Vol. 15, no. 2, 1946, էջ 227-230:

The study validates feasibility of interdisciplinary research into the problem of emotions and the language. The term text emotiogenicity is contrasted with the terms emotivity and emotionality. The emotional impact of the text upon the addressee is investigated experimentally. In accordance with V.P. Belyanin's classification, the two emotive literary texts, chosen as research material, represent "bright" and "sorrowful" types. The experiment involved the students of Saint Petersburg State Theater Arts Academy and the students of Herzen University. The auditive analysis of the readers' intonation was carried out to interpret the emotiogenicity of these texts. The high degree of text emotiogenicity actualizes when the addressee experiences the same emotions as the literary text character. In this case the emotions are expressed in reader's intonation. The prosodic correlates of admiration and tenderness when a person reads the "bright" text and the correlates of fatality and depression while reading the "sorrowful" text are described. The emotiogenicity of the same text is apt to vary depending on the personality of the recipient. The author identifies the main reasons for variable prosodic correlates of contrary emotions when reading emotive literary texts.

The purpose of this Case Note is to analyse the latest judgment of the Court of Justice related to Article 17(1) TFEU – the Freikirche case. After providing the key facts and the reasoning of the Court, the note outlines the common features and differences of the case with the previous case law related to this provision. The author claims that while the Court in the Freikirche case recognizes the protective effect of Article 17(1) TFEU, it implicitly creates potential to examine other national recognition systems of churches. In the author's view, in cases of a more restrictive national systems than the Austrian one, this provision should be used as a part of the proportionality analysis to balance the restrictions against the potential impact on the status of churches under national law and their autonomy. In the author's view, this would be the consequence of the protective effect of this provision, which may be perceived as the European Wall of Separation between the EU on one hand, and the status of churches under national law and the autonomy of churches on the other hand.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, hustlers and street queens staged countless food riots, sit-ins, and pickets in downtown "vice" districts across the United States. One cannot appreciate the indignation and rage that sparked these rebellions without understanding the moral values and economic norms shared by those who took collective action: the self-defined "kids on the street" who often traveled from central city "tenderloin" to "tenderloin," connecting far-flung districts through migratory circuits. Sustaining themselves through sex work and other criminalized economies, kids created in these districts a distinct counterpublic with its own moral norms, performance practices, rituals for renaming new members, conventions for collective housing, and networks for pooling resources. Urban renewal and increased policing in US cities violated these norms, providing the anger and indignation that fueled central city uprisings during the long 1960s. Understanding the anger that prompted street kids to rebel allows one to grasp what the author calls their performative economy: the reciprocities, obligations, and moral norms shared by the kids on the street and the ways they were materialized and transmitted intergenerationally via performance.

В статье проводиться анализ творчества Франсиско Гойи и его отражение в работах Пабло Пикассо, через травматически пережитый опыт и личное переживание событий истории, разрешение мировосприятия и центрирование метафизических категорий. Оба этих художника считались признанными мастерами той эпохи и оба они превзошли всех своих современников в изображении вещей такими как они есть на самом деле. Автор пришел к выводу о том, что творчество Франсиско Гойи и Пабло Пикассо определило не только все испанское искусство на двести лет, но и неизгладимый след в истории всего мирового искусства.
The article analyzes the work of Francisco Goya and its reflection in the works of Pablo Picasso, through traumatic experience and personal experience of the events of history, the resolution of the worldview and the centering of metaphysical categories. Both of these artists were considered recognized masters of that era, and both of them surpassed all their contemporaries in depicting things as they really are. The author came to the conclusion that the work of Francisco Goya and Pablo Picasso determined not only all Spanish art for two hundred years, but also an indelible mark on the history of all world art.

This study examines superpower competition in the Horn of Africa during the Ogaden War (1977-1978). It deals mainly with China's response to the Ogaden War. The author uses both primary and secondary sources. Primary research sources were collected from various agencies and institutions such as the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES), and periodicals using memoirs, speeches, and correspondence exchanges. Secondary sources are gathered from published and unpublished sources. The study defines conventional wisdom about superpower and Chinese intervention in the Horn of Africa during the Ogaden War; it seeks to highlight the complex interplay of real China's foreign policy toward the Horn of Africa. It also describes China's perspectives on policy in Africa and its response to the Ogaden War. The study claims that the Soviet Union's influence in the Horn of Africa generally draws China into regional affairs. Indeed, Soviet influence in the Horn of Africa shifted the Ogaden War into an international dimension. Thus, the study concludes that China's reaction to the Horn events was primarily aimed at leveling out the Soviet Union's sphere of influence in the region.