Oxford University Press's Blog, page 424

Gandhi in Bombay: towards swaraj

The symbiotic relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and Bombay spanned many decades and only strengthened over time. Their shared story is both unique and informative. In the history of India’s freedom struggle towards Swaraj or self-governance under Gandhi’s leadership, Bombay deserves special mention. The city, now known as Mumbai, welcomed Gandhi on his return from South Africa in 1915 and the warmth displayed by its people towards Gandhi has never diminished. During the freedom struggle, the people of Bombay discovered new opportunities to flourish under Gandhi’s leadership. It’s illuminating to glimpse the historical events that characterised this symbiosis between the man and the city by exploring archival materials, including photographs, and reading excerpts from Gandhi’s writings.

Bombay vibrated with vitality and energy during the freedom struggle. A number of important events demonstrated the fearlessness and determined involvement of the people of Bombay, including the Hartal against the deportation of independence supporter B. G. Horniman, participation in the Khilafat movement, the boycott of the Prince of Wales, the protest against the Simon Commission, and participation in the Civil Disobedience and Quit India movements. Chief among these was Gandhi’s first nationwide protest, the satyagraha against the unjust Rowlatt Act in 1919, a move that made him an undisputed leader of the nation. Bombay’s citizens enthusiastically supported Gandhi’s calls for the satyagraha and the collection of funds for nationalist causes. The city also served as the site for the launch of the non-cooperation movement in 1920. In 1921, Gandhi responded to generous contributions to the Tilak Swaraj Fund by bestowing Bombay with the title “the beautiful.”

this relationship is both illuminating and enriching as it reveals the journey of this extraordinary leader and this wonderful city to independence

Events like the spectacular bonfires of foreign clothes in the compound of the Elphinstone Mill at Parel in 1921 attracted the attention of the nation. Nonviolent demonstrations, meetings, and the prabhat pheries (early morning processions) became familiar sights in Bombay, particularly after Gandhi’s Salt March in 1930. In 1942, the city’s response to his speech for the Quit India movement was unprecedented. Delivered at the All-India Congress Committee session on 7 and 8 August at the Gowalia Tank maidan, a park in Bombay, Gandhi’s call to ‘Do or Die’ left an indelible mark on the India’s history. After the session, the city protested against the British rule through hartals, processions, demonstrations, and outbursts of popular unrest. The operation of the Congress Radio from Bombay during 1942 was a highlight of the movement and was supported by The Bombay Chronicle which played a notable role in covering Gandhi’s movements and activities.

These are just some of the exciting and unexplored facets of Gandhi’s activities in Bombay and the city’s response to them. It is remarkable to learn how Gandhi drew support from women, small merchants, shop-keepers, and students. Bombay responded brilliantly to his determination and this unique amalgam created history. A contemporary re-examination of this relationship is both illuminating and enriching as it reveals the journey of this extraordinary leader and this wonderful city to independence through non-violent means.

Featured image credit: Bombay – Gateway of India by Rajendrakumar Sahani. CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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Looming, looming, looming: Part 2

The New Year is looming! I can write a most edifying post about 2017, or rather about what happened a hundred years ago, in 1917, but this is an etymological blog, so I, a hard-working cobbler, will stick to my last. On 21 December, discussion turned around the noun loom. Now is the time to look at the homonymous verb. But before I come to the point, I would like to say some more things about the noun.

A cobbler sticking to his last is a brother of an etymologist on his last legs.

In the modern language, loom “utensil” seems to be a sole remnant of the gelōme group (we’ll disregard heirloom). But Middle English also had lome “penis” (an implement of sorts!) and “fellow,” the latter with derogatory epithets (compare Modern Engl. tool and fellow, both used for “penis”). It has an analog in German Lümmel “lout” and again “penis.” English dictionaries record loon “a stupid fellow; a clown; with various shades of intensity as an opprobrious epithet” (so The Century Dictionary). Shakespeare and much later Coleridge knew loon as a term of abuse. In today’s American English, loon “fool, idiot” is believed to be an abbreviation of lunatic, but this looks like an unusually apt case of folk etymology, because loon is a common alternation of loom, as in the bird name loon. Joseph Wright’s The English Dialect Dictionary gives examples of loom “scoundrel, etc.,” which may be a borrowing from Scandinavian. In the previous post, I mentioned the little-known Modern English adjective loom “gentle, easy,” said about a wind or breeze. Of special importance is the fact that this adjective, which has several well-attested cognates elsewhere in Germanic, is a nautical term and that it turned up in texts only in the sixteenth century. It might have been borrowed from Danish, but, perhaps it is native English or a loan from Low (that is, northern) German or Frisian. Why this fact is important will become clear below.

Thus fortified, we can go on to the verb loom. The oldest English dictionaries that risked saying anything about its origin derived loom from some word pertaining to light and its absence. Among the favorites were gleam and gloom. However, g- is not an ancient prefix in either. More realistic were the attempts to trace loom to Old Engl. lēoman “to shine.” Although at one time even Skeat favored this etymology, it has no merit, for it can account for neither the vowel (oo) nor the change of meaning: from “shine” to “appear faintly in the distance.” The crucial facts can be found in the OED: loom emerged first in the north and only in nautical use, in descriptions of ships seen from a distance and moving slowly; no citation of it predates 1587. A well-reasoned etymology should account for those facts. In any case, a late attestation of loom in English suggests that the verb was borrowed.

The beginning of looming.

We owe the solution to Skeat, who gave up his initial etymology of loom. At some time after the publication of the first edition of his etymological dictionary (1882), he discovered East Frisian lōmen and Swedish dialectal loma, both meaning “to move slowly.” Such was also the first recorded meaning of the English verb. Apparently, Skeat informed James Murray about his discovery, for the entry appeared in the OED with reference to him. This etymology can hardly be improved. Loom “to move slowly” (that is, “faintly”) was a verb known to northern sailors: the Frisians, the English, and Swedes used it. The English, more likely, took it over from the Frisians. The adjective loom “gentle, easy” must be closely related to this verb. Its appearance in English at the same time as the verb loom could not be fortuitous.

I am unable to explain why the borrowing took place at that time rather than later or earlier. Reference to the busy contacts between the Frisians and the English at sea five hundred years ago would sound hollow. As pointed out last week, etymologies, unlike Praxiteles’s statues, are seldom perfect (Greek statues have unforgettably proportional faces, while human faces are not such; etymologies are even more skewed). In a comment to the last week’s post on loom, Elvira Gutieva cited Ossetian læmeğ “weak, unstable, tender” and wondered whether this adjective is a cognate of Engl. loom. The greatest specialist in Ossetian historical linguistics was V. I. Abaev (stress on the second syllable). According to his great etymological dictionary, the connection is possible but not very probable. He preferred to derive l- from n- and dealt with the root nam-. But, considering how widespread the cognates of the Indo-European root lam- weas, the idea that the Ossetian adjective is related to the Germanic ones looks inviting.

Now all that remains is to discover the distant origin of the verb loom. I think the development went in the following way. The original meaning of the Indo-European root underlying the entire group was, as pointed out in the previous post, “broken” (seen in Slavic lom-iti “to break”). It yielded the sense “slack, weak” (still felt in Engl. lame and loom “gentle,” the first native, the second borrowed in late Middle English) and “moving slowly” (so in the English verb loom, likewise borrowed from a Germanic cognate of the same meaning at the same time as loom “gentle”). Additionally, “broken” meant “formless, all of a heap;” hence “odds and ends; implements, tools.” This yielded Engl. loom “an apparatus for weaving,” along with “loose pieces” (still observed in the words for “penis” and terms of abuse for despised people). From “formless” we can go to “thick,” the proto-meaning of “often” (this is how Old Engl. gelōme arose).

A few minor questions pertaining to German and the chronology of borrowing have not been cleared up, but the scheme offered above looks, I hope, plausible. Regrettably, etymologies seldom go beyond being plausible or, to put it differently, reasonable. If my scheme is right, Jacob Grimm has been vindicated for the umpteenth time. There are several English words and their cognates sounding as loom, and all of them seem to be the offspring of the same root.

Jacob Grimm and Walter W. Skeat are the two scholars to whom we owe the answer about the origin of the verb loom. Etymology should not be anonymous.

“The Oxford Etymologist” is now saying goodbye to its readers and correspondents in every corner of the world until early 2017. I wish all of them good health and success in their enterprises, whatever the weather. My thanks to those who have been following the essays, commenting on them, and agreeing and disagreeing with me. I would also plead for more questions and comments, because the success of any blog depends on the interaction with its users.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Images: (1) Cobbler by cegoh, Public Domain via Pixabay. (2) “Container Ship passing in the distance” by Daniel Ramirez, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. (3) “Jacob Grimm” by Franz Hanfstaengl, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. (4) “Portrait of Walter William Skeat” by Elliott & Fry, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. Featured image: Loon by slip acre, Public Domain via Pixabay.

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A tragic necessity? The Reformation approaches 500

Pope Francis recently visited Lund, Sweden to acknowledge with Lutherans the religious significance of the coming year leading up to the 500th anniversary of the Reformation on 31 October, 2017. This is the customary date given when Martin Luther placed his 95 Theses on the Castle Church door of Wittenberg, Saxony. A plethora of events across the globe are in the works to commemorate the epochal event.

But as preparations get underway, the question arises: how should one remember something as complex and contested as “the Reformation”? One might as well commemorate “the Enlightenment” or “the Industrial Revolution” or even “modernity.” The difficulty of answering the question has not dampened the desire to ask it.

Toward these ends, “REFO 500” was launched several years ago. Seated in the Netherlands but with connections worldwide, REFO 500 has emerged as a central hub networking scholars and institutions interested in reflecting on Protestantism’s far-flung influence. The project exists, according to its directors, “to make connections between items from the time of the Reformation and our time. It helps people to understand the meaning of the Reformation…, to see and experience the influence of the Reformation in several spheres.”

Of course, Germany has a special claim on the Reformation’s memory. Cities in the former “East Germany,” where many key sixteenth-century events occurred, have long been sprucing up, eager for international attention—and for tourist spending. Heavily subsidized by German taxpayers, the “Luther Decade” project was launched in 1508 with the purpose of focusing attention on the upcoming quincentenary. “The effect of the Reformation was momentous,” the project’s website reads; “in fact, it was such an important part of world history that a one-year commemoration of the 500th anniversary is not enough.” Each year building up to 2017 has been dedicated to a special topic, such as the Reformation and music, the Reformation and toleration, or the Reformation and education.

How, then, ought one to remember the Reformation?

The looming milestone poses special challenges and opportunities my home country, the United States. The United States distinguishes itself from Europe in not having a “Catholic” or “medieval” past to break from, but sprang into existence, at least in its influential New England colonies, on purely Protestant foundations. Absent the national state church environment of Anglican England or of the Lutheran Scandinavian countries, American Protestantism quickly found itself in a democratizing process, which, while empowering the laity, also fragmented churches into countless “denominations.” The Swiss-German theologian Philip Schaff, a contemporary of Alexis de Tocqueville, memorably described the American religious scene in his The Principle of Protestantism (1845):

“Tendencies, which had found no political room to unfold themselves in other lands wrought here without restraint. Thus we have come gradually to have a host of sects which is no longer easy to number…Every theological vagabond and peddler may drive here his bungling trade, without out passport of license, and sale his false ware at pleasure. What is to come of such confusion is not now to be seen.”

Unlike Europe, which has witnessed extensive secularization in recent decades, the United States retains its religious vitality, even if this had dipped in recent decades. This land of Protestant peddlers has also produced a robust Catholicism, which is now in fact the nation’s largest religious body. Confessional tensions between Protestants and Catholics have lessened significantly in recent decades. A tell-tale sign is that when JFK ran for president in 1960, many, especially evangelical Protestants, worried that his loyalties rested with a foreign despot – the Pope! By contrast, evangelicals have more recently wondered why prominent Catholic politicians are not in step with the social teachings of Rome.

How, then, ought one to remember the Reformation? One provocative possibility comes from the late dean of American church historians, Jaroslav Pelikan. For the interests of truth and conciliation to be served, Pelikan once argued, Protestants and Catholics should think of the Reformation as a “tragic necessity.” Partisans on both sides, he elaborated, will have difficulty acknowledging this: “Roman Catholics agree that it was tragic, because it separated many millions from the true church; but they cannot see that it was really necessary. Protestants agree that it was necessary, because the Roman church was so corrupt; but they cannot see that it was such a tragedy after all.” The task for 2017 then, I would hazard, is for Protestants to try to assess the tragic dimensions of the Reformation while Catholics consider why, then and now, many Protestants felt it was necessary.

Pelikan’s words might not be the final word on the Reformation. But as we look ahead to 31 October, 2017, they might not be a bad place to start.

Featured image credit: Martin Luther by andibreit. Public domain via Pixabay.

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5 things to do in Denver during the 2017 AHA conference

The 2017 American Historical Association conference is coming up fast, and we know you’re excited to attend your panels, debate ideas with some of the most respected historians in the world, and, of course, buy fantastic books. We also know you’d love to do some exploring when the day’s events are done. This year, AHA’s annual conference is being held in at the Hyatt Regency in Denver, which also houses the Colorado Convention Center. It’s a central location, making it incredibly easy to go sightseeing without traveling long distances. We’re here to help you narrow down your list of places to visit:

It may be cold in Denver, but we recommend taking a scenic walk through the Denver Botanical Gardens, which is a short 15-minute Uber ride from the Colorado Convention Center or a 35-minute walk, which will take you through Civic Center Park right by the Colorado State Capitol Building.
In the heart of the beautiful City Park are two must-see Denver attractions. The Denver Zoo is worth a visit, especially if your family is traveling with you. And after viewing the stunning Amur leopard and impressive black rhinoceros, you can walk on over to the Museum of Nature & Science, a mere 15-minutes away.



Coloradocapitolhill2 by Cris Gonzales. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Looking for delicious eats after a long day at the convention center? Try the food over at Sam’s No. 3, only a 10-minute walk. With great variety and even better prices, Sam’s is good for the whole family. If you’re looking for something a little fancier, try the seared Columbia River steelhead and apple tarte tatin over at Fruition Restaurant.
If you’ve got some time in the evening and just want to relax, head over to the Landmark Mayan Theatre, where you can view screenings of new releases as well as independent, foreign, and avant-garde movies housed in a beautifully preserved building with retro décor.
Staying in Denver a little longer? There are some fantastic day trips you can go on in the Denver area. Enjoy the majestic scenery of the Rocky Mountains by driving along the Continental Divide and Trail Ridge Road. Check out the ski town of Winter Park with tons of local shops, and try to snap a photo of a moose!

We hope you enjoy your time in Denver and at AHA, and look forward to seeing you there.

Featured image credit: Denver Skyline at Sunset by Larry Johnson. CC BY 2.0 via Flickr.

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Who could thrive in late career? Answers for both employees and employers

The alarming statistics about the fast rates of population aging in the last 30 years and the possible negative economic and societal consequences of this process, have prompted many employers to consider their aging workforce more seriously. Yet, workers aged 55 years and over are not always utilized or valued as much as they could be in the workplace. Many of them realize the need to work for longer than anticipated, due to economic pressures and changes in official retirement ages. For some, this will require a change in perspective and strategies for managing self and career.

The emerging concept of ‘successful aging at work’ is one good way for explaining constructive changes in self-image and strategies in late career. For some researchers successful aging at work is a developmental process where growth is still possible. Others talk about ‘thriving at work’, which expresses the idea of people’s simultaneous experiences of both a sense of vitality and learning/growth in the workplace. As common age stereotypes question older workers’ ability to be pro-active and develop themselves, then is it possible to thrive in late career and if so, what does thriving look like?

In 2013 we decided to investigate how people age in the workplace and, more specifically, what personal and organizational strategies are most effective in helping late career workers to not just survive (i.e. focus mostly on meeting inevitable job demands), but also thrive (i.e. still aspire for and achieve personal and professional development) at work. In late 2013/ early 2014 we interviewed 37 employees aged 55 years and over from 10 large organisations in 2 sectors (healthcare and information and communication technologies) in 2 European countries (the United Kingdom and Bulgaria).

Overall, we found that late career employees across countries and sectors, were likely to recognize the occurrence of some age-related changes in their work values, needs, approaches, and capacity. Further, the process of aging at work was conceptualized in rather positive than negative terms (i.e. development instead of decline). These changes, in turn, shaped workers’ views about the types of work environment and organizational support they wanted. Most importantly,  older workers appeared to be more aware of their own potential and needs, willing to take a pro-active approach in managing late careers, and desiring opportunities for personal and professional growth than they are traditionally portrayed in the aging workforce literature.

Most of our interviewees shared that they still felt energized and were learning/developing themselves (i.e. thriving), though perhaps in slightly different ways than earlier in their career. For instance, finding meaningful work and a positive social work environment was considered more important than achieving a promotion or cutting off work hours. However, the priority for some participants was to survive in the workplace, i.e. cope with high work demands by preserving and/or maintain their mental and physical resources.

Workers aged 55 years and over are not always utilized or valued as much as they could be in the workplace.

We identified two sub-categories of surviving in late career: meeting job demands (i.e. updating job skills and using strategies to ensure adequate job performance) and preserving the status quo (i.e. unwillingness to learn or update skills, and desire to stay away from workplace change initiatives).

We also found that late career workers were likely to self-regulate their successful adaptation to age-related changes in the workplace by using three types of individual strategies: selection (reducing one’s range of tasks to 1-2 priorities), compensation (demonstrating one’s strengths in front of others), and optimization (improving one’s skills through training and development). Our interviewees felt that when able to use these strategies (e.g. have more autonomy and control over their jobs), they were performing better and deriving more pleasure from their work.

Finally, we found associations between late career employees’ experiences of thriving and surviving in the workplace and the types of desired organizational support. Work meaningfulness, knowledge transfer, and inclusion in organizational decision making appeared as the types of organizational support associated only with thriving at work. Contributing to one’s own work design, socializing with colleagues, equal access to formal and informal learning, constructive feedback from line managers, access to flexible working options, and access to good benefits systems with bigger focus on healthcare and extra holiday seemed to be associated with feelings of surviving. However, only the last two were associated with surviving protecting the status quo.

These results are important, because they suggest some general patterns of workers’ self-regulation in late career, as well as insights about what particular types of organizational practices can be efficient in supporting employees in terms of both thriving (i.e. development) and surviving (i.e. maintenance) in the workplace and potential paths to successful aging at work.

Featured image credit: Office by Benjamin Child. Public Domain via Unsplash.

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The end of the Cold War and the End of History?

Twenty-five years ago today, the Soviet Union of Socialist Republics collapsed, effectively ending the Cold War that had defined the latter half of the twentieth century and had spanned the globe. The previous day, 25 December 1991, General Secretary of the Communist Party Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned, transferring the Soviet nuclear codes to Russian president Boris Yeltsin. The communist flag over the Kremlin was replaced by the Russian flag at 7:32 pm, and the communist hegemon officially split into 15 independent republics.

This event was the culmination of the democratic changes that swept Eastern Europe in the late 1980s. Gorbachev had loosened the Soviet Union’s grip on the Iron Curtain through his policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), but these political and economic reforms ultimately backfired. Ordinary people with the desire for freedom rose up throughout Europe after years of oppression, and the Soviet Union was unable to hold back the floodgates: the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and two years later, with the Soviet Union’s dissolution, “a new world order” had begun.

Was the end of the Cold War the End of History? Twenty-five years ago, many people across the globe thought so. The United States was the lone superpower, and lasting peace seemed to finally be at hand.

The last two and a half decades have shaken this theory. Now, twenty-five years later, the reemergence of Russia on the world stage through its role in the Syrian Civil War and a renewal of its rivalry with the United States have brought the fears of the Cold War back to the forefront of many people’s minds. Has history resumed?

Featured Image credit:  US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Red Square at the 1988 Moscow Summit. US National Archives and Records Administration. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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A disconnect between physicians and laboratory professionals

Many clinical decisions are based on laboratory test results. The rapidly expanding number and complexity of these tests present physicians with many challenges in accurately and efficiently ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests. Diagnostic errors affect 5% of US adults who seek outpatient care each year, and contribute to approximately 10% of patient deaths and 6 to 17% of hospital adverse events. The 2015 Institute of Medicine report, Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, highlighted diagnostic errors cause patient harm and that improvement in the diagnostic process requires collaboration among physicians and laboratory professionals. We investigated the interactions between physicians and laboratory professionals to understand why physicians might not collaborate with laboratory professionals when facing diagnostic challenges and to identify opportunities for laboratory professionals to become a more integral part of the clinical care team. Our report identifies pathology laboratory professionals, which includes pathologists, board-certified doctoral-level directors, and other laboratory professionals in technical and management positions, as critical to diagnosis but insufficiently engaged as full members of the diagnostic team. These US medical laboratory professionals possess a wealth of knowledge that would be valuable in consultation with physicians to improve diagnosis.

To assess how laboratory professionals could be better integrated into the clinical care team, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Clinical Laboratory Integration into Healthcare Collaborative (CLIHC™) surveyed family medicine and general internal medicine physicians. The survey was designed to gain insights into their uncertainty and challenges in ordering clinical laboratory tests and interpreting results and identifying solutions for improvements. The survey revealed physicians are uncertain in ordering diagnostic tests in 14.7% of patient encounters and in interpreting test results in 8.3% of encounters. With millions of visits to primary care physicians each year, this amount of uncertainty raises serious concerns about the efficacy of laboratory testing resources and supports the magnitude of diagnostic errors. The survey also revealed only 6% of physicians contact laboratory professionals at least once a week, primarily for technical questions, such as status of missing results, preliminary test information, and assistance regarding sample collection. Even though laboratory professionals possess the most knowledge about laboratory tests and their use, consulting with them was the least used tactic to address uncertainty in ordering and interpreting laboratory tests. These findings suggest that laboratory professionals have some work to do in order to improve their image since physicians ranked them almost the least useful source of information about new laboratory tests. Only laboratory sales representatives were ranked lower.

Reasons physicians frequently do not consult with laboratory professionals. All response categories. Figure from “Opportunities to Enhance Laboratory Professionals’ Role On the Diagnostic Team” in Laboratory Medicine. Used with permission.

Why don’t the majority of physicians contact laboratory professionals when facing diagnostic questions? It’s not because they would obtain unreliable information, but because of the challenges in the ordering process. Physicians considered it too difficult and time consuming to order tests and often did not know whom to contact. Only 20% of them have found an effective way to access laboratory professionals. They rarely ask laboratory professionals about medical significance of results or what to do for follow-up testing.

Physicians in our survey provided some insight into what laboratory professionals can do to help them when facing challenges in clinical laboratory test ordering. Physicians reported using both electronic and paper-based references for helpful information. While a majority of physicians surveyed had a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) available to them, only 11% of the CPOEs had electronic suggestions for appropriate ordering. Laboratory professionals in collaboration with information technology specialists can develop mobile applications and electronic health record (EHR) systems that have clinical decision support guides for appropriate laboratory test ordering. Diagnostic management teams that include laboratory professionals are collaborative teams that can guide physicians in test selection and result interpretation for individual patient cases. Multidisciplinary rounds are also other ways to improve the collaborative process. Physicians who reported having professional relationships with laboratory professionals noted these relationships to be a valuable resource when they needed help with appropriate test selection, result interpretation, and complicated diagnoses. Physicians noted that laboratory updates would be helpful and appreciate learning about new tests through training programs.

Healthcare professionals should work together to change the opinion that everyone will have a diagnostic error in their lifetime. We have a better chance to reduce diagnostic errors and improve patient care if the diagnostic process becomes more collaborative with laboratory professionals engaged as full members of the clinical care team.

Featured image credit: Microscope by PublicDomainPictures. CC0 Public Domain via Pixabay.

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Top ten developments in international law in 2016

This year seems to have packed in more news events and shocking developments than any other in recent memory. As 2016 draws to an end, many are fearful of how the political trends that surfaced this year will play out and what their long-term effect will be on the international legal order. At the same time, the year has seen a number of successes in international law, most notably in judicial decisions that championed the rule of law against the interests of powerful states and corporations. This post highlights and discusses ten international law victories and failures in 2016.

Marshall Islands Nuclear Arms Race case

In February, the International Court of Justice heard a case brought by the Marshall Islands against a number of states in possession of chemical weapons, asking the Court to find these states in violation of their obligation to negotiate in good faith for the elimination of these weapons. The Marshall Islands are an apt applicant because of the 67 nuclear tests the US notoriously conducted there in the 1940s and 50s. In the end, the case was dismissed by the Court on the basis of the Marshall Islands’ failure to raise the dispute with the defending states before starting judicial proceedings (a reason found overly formalistic by some commentators). Still, this keeps the door open for future claims either by the Marshall Islands or other states.

Failure to address war crimes in Syria

When future generations look back on 2016, it is likely to be the war crimes and genocide committed in Syria, rather than Brexit or Trump, that stands out as the year’s most terrible and toxic legacy. It is depressing that there is no realistic prospect of prosecuting any of those involved at the international level, though some countries, including Germany, are putting those present on their territories on trial for crimes committed in Syria. Evidence has steadily been collected by the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, which may in turn lead to prosecutions if the political will materializes.

Turn away from ‘mega-regional’ trade deals

Last year’s blog post heralded the negotiation and adoption of big regional trade deals like the TPP, TTIP, and CETA. This year saw the tide move decidedly in the other direction. CETA, the big trade deal between the EU and Canada, was rescued in the nick of time after a recalcitrant regional parliament nearly derailed the whole enterprise. The TTIP and especially the TPP however now look dead in the water after US President-Elect Trump’s commitment to abandon the first and withdraw from the second. With little sign of interest in reviving the WTO’s Doha Round, trade liberalization looks likely to either stall or be rolled back.

Turbulent times at the International Criminal Court

The second half of the year started well for the ICC with the first ever conviction for attacking cultural heritage, after a guilty plea from Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi. Al Mahdi was sentenced to nine years in prison for his part in the destruction of century-old shrines in Timbuktu. Barely a month later, South Africa, Burundi, and Gambia announced their decisions to leave the Court. It remains to be seen whether this heralds an African exodus, but tensions over the Court’s perceived anti-African bias and its arrest warrant for Sudan’s head of state Al-Bashir run high. The ICC’s Prosecutor is preparing an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan, including those allegedly committed by the US, so 2017 promises more controversy.

Gavel in a courtroom. CC0 Public Domain via Pixabay.

UN Human Rights Committee rules on abortion

In June, the UN Human Rights Committee issued a decision on a very contentious issue: Ireland’s abortion ban. The case was brought by a woman who was forced to travel to the UK to terminate her pregnancy after her foetus was diagnosed with a fatal abnormality. The Committee found that, as the baby had no chances of survival, there were no rights to balance and the denial of a termination and appropriate after-care constituted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and was discriminatory. The Irish government has since offered the claimant €30,000 in compensation and will start consultation next year on any changes to its abortion law and constitution.

The UK votes for Brexit

The UK’s Brexit vote has thrown up a whole host of interesting questions not only of constitutional and EU law, but also of international law. To what extent can the rights of existing EU migrants be reversed once the UK leaves the EU? Are EU states allowed to start requiring visas for British visitors? Can the UK start trade negotiations while still going through the Article 50 withdrawal process? Could the UK leave the EU even without going through the Article 50 procedure? All of these questions are highly contentious and may end up before the courts, giving some credence to the claim that the real victors of Brexit are the lawyers.

A win against tobacco

In July, an arbitral panel ruled on a case brought by Philip Morris against Uruguay for its efforts to remove branding from tobacco packaging and increase the size of health warnings. The panel found that Uruguay’s measures were a valid exercise of its power to protect public health and dismissed Philip Morris’ claims. The arbitration fits into a wider debate on investors’ attempts to block or receive compensation for public health legislation which affects the value of their investment. Increasingly, arbitrators are ruling in favour of the states enacting this legislation.

Philippines v China South China Sea arbitration

Also in July, the arbitral panel dealing with The Philippines’ claim against China’s self-proclaimed maritime zone in the South China Seas surprised the international law world by handing down an award that was much more critical of China’s actions than expected. The Tribunal found no basis in history or law for China’s ‘nine-dash-line’ and concluded that it therefore cannot possibly have sovereignty over some of the disputed territory, making its enforcement actions in these areas unlawful. Commentators predicted a serious Chinese backlash and a sharp increase in tension, but this has thankfully failed to materialize (yet).

Rolling back immunities?

Two very different disputes put a spotlight on sovereign and personal immunity in 2016. The first is France’s ongoing prosecution of Equatorial Guinea’s Vice-President (and son of the President) Teodore Obiang Mangue for corruption and money laundering. Equatorial Guinea filed a case at the International Court of Justice to try and stop the French proceedings. Meanwhile, the US Congress overrode a Presidential veto and passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which removes sovereign immunity in terrorism-related civil suits. The Act could be seen as a success in the fight to end impunity for acts of terrorism, but it is widely considered to violate customary international law and many states are alarmed about this attack on one of international law’s foundational principles.

The turn away from international law

It would be impossible to finish this overview without saying something about the turn to populist, isolationist politics in countries from the Philippines to the US and the UK, with strong movements in many other countries. For many international lawyers, it feeds into a concern that many of the world’s major countries are moving away from international law and careful diplomacy as a means of regulating international relations and creating a more peaceful world order. At times, it appears that large groups of the public are not just indifferent to these efforts, but are hostile to them. There are no easy answers, but these times call for reflection and re-engagement. Let us hope that 2017 brings more good news.

Are there any important developments we have missed? Get in touch with us on Twitter or Facebook to continue the debate.

Featured image credit: “Globe-1626692_1920” by PIRO4D. CC0 Public Domain via Pixabay.

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Curious Christmas celebrations around the world

Celebrated as both a sacred religious holiday, as well as a commercial phenomenon, Christmas has been observed, denounced, and defended for two thousand years by people all around the world. The long history of battles fought in the war on Christmas, and the conflicts of early Christianity all the way up to the controversial coffee cups of today, illustrate the resilience of Christmas spirit.

To portray its significance and longevity, the map below shows a collection of the exciting, magical, and often strange celebrations that go on during the Christmas season around the globe. From the pooping caganer of Spain to KFC feasts of Japan, each tradition has its own unique history and cultural impact.

Featured image credit: Untitled by Markus Spiske. CC0 Public Domain via

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Understanding insults

When I was growing up in New Jersey, trading insults was part of making your way through the middle school: “If they put your brain on the edge of a razor blade, it would look like a BB rolling down a four-lane highway.” “His parents used to put a pork chop around his neck to get the dog to play with him.” “If you could teach him to stand still, you could use him for a doorstop.” It was wordplay, imagery, and linguistic sparring—a show for an audience.

Later, I learned about Shakespearean insults (“Thy tongue outvenoms all the worms of Nile”), along with those of Winston Churchill (who described Clement Atlee as “A modest man, who has much to be modest about”), Oscar Wilde (who said of Henry James that he “writes fiction as if it were a painful duty”) and Dorothy Parker (who described the novice actress Katharine Hepburn as running “the gamut of emotions from A to B”). I learned about the tradition of flyting, about the dozens and roasting, and about trash talking in sports.

At the same time, I read in the media about hate speech and scapegoating and, in recent years, about bullying and shaming, and mobbing on the internet. I still appreciate verbal pugilism among equals, but today I’m more aware of the potential harm words can do. In my work on apologies, I’ve seen how sincere and specific apologies can clarify harms, restore respect, and repair relationships. Insults are in many ways the opposite of apologies. An insult is a verbal punch–a characterization of others seeking to injure.

  Directed toward those with less power, an insult is not sparring but a verbal mugging.

Insults can have an aesthetic aspect, evident in the complex verbal dexterity of a Churchill, Wilde or Parker. Insults can also be much more mundane (Teddy Roosevelt saying of President William McKinley that he had “no more backbone than a chocolate éclair”). And they can be simpleminded and crude expressions of hate at the lowest extreme.

Another aspect of insults is their lack of empathy. A verbal attack is often launched from a position of power, or anger. When we call someone a name, whether it is pseudo-intellectual, blockhead, criminal, deplorable, we are privileging our own judgments, biases, and prejudices without regard for the effect of our words on other.

Insults are also matters of perception as well as intention. We inadvertently insult by calling someone the wrong name, implying that they are not worth knowing. We insult with back-handed compliments and condescending remarks: “I wish I could be as laid back about things as you are” (you slacker) or “You really clean up well” (you slob), or questions “Did we do anything important in class today?” (you bore). We can insult by micro-aggression, when we comment or act from stereotypes, for example by asking an Asian-American “Where are you from?” (you’re not from here).

When insults are traded among equals, as in roasts and rituals, intentions are clear, empathy is voluntarily suspended, and aesthetics are pre-eminent. It is sparring with words, a limited performance for an audience and bragging rights. Otherwise though, insults are unequal battles. Directed toward those with less power, an insult is not sparring but a verbal mugging. And when insults are back-handed remarks or micro-aggressions, they are sucker punches.

In a civil society, it’s worth thinking carefully about who we choose to insult and why. And it’s worth remembering something else from middle school: Nobody respects a bully.

Featured Image Credit: “Arguments” by Artis Pupins. CC BY 2.0 via Flickr.

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