Search Results (36)

Environmental crime has been increasingly recognised as transnational organised crime, but efforts to build a coherent and effective international response are still in development and under threat from shifts in the funding landscape. This mixed methods study addresses the role of one significant group of actors in environmental crime enforcement, which are non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who gather intelligence that can be shared with law enforcement and regulatory agencies. The study compares their intelligence practices to findings from traditional intelligence sectors, with a focus upon criminal justice and policing. The research generated quantitative and qualitative data from NGO practitioners, which is integrated to discern three overarching themes inherent in these NGOs’ intelligence practices: the implementation of formal intelligence practices is still underway in the sector; there remains a need to improve cooperation to break down silos between agencies and NGOs, which requires an improvement in trust between these entities; the operating environment provides both opportunities and challenges to the abilities of the NGOs to deliver impact. The study concludes by positing that the characteristics of NGOs mean that this situation constitutes ‘green intelligence’, contextualising intelligence theory and highlighting areas in which agencies can further combat environmental crime. Full article

The landmark Philippine Supreme Court case Llorente vs. Llorente illuminates the complex intersections of transnational migration, inheritance law, and colonial legacies in the Philippines. The case centers on Lorenzo Llorente, a Filipino US Navy serviceman whose estate became the subject of a fifteen-year legal battle between his first wife Paula and his second wife Alicia. Lorenzo returned from the battles of World War II to find his wife in Nabua living with his brother and pregnant with his brother’s child. Lorenzo obtained a divorce in California in 1952. He later returned to the Philippines and married Alicia, naming her and their three adopted children as heirs in his will. Upon his death in 1985, Paula challenged the validity of the US divorce and claimed rights to Lorenzo’s estate under Philippine succession laws. While lower courts initially favored Paula’s claims by rigidly applying Philippine laws that are rooted in the colonial era and privileged blood relations, the Supreme Court ultimately upheld Lorenzo’s will in 2000, recognizing his right to divorce as a US citizen. This case reveals how postcolonial Philippine legal frameworks, still heavily influenced by Spanish colonial law, often fail to accommodate the complex realities of transnational families and diverse kinship practices, instead imposing rigid interpretations that fracture rather than heal family relations. Inheritance, previously a highly shared and negotiated process mediated by the elders, can now escalate to family disputes which play out in the impersonal space of the courtroom. Full article

The Philippines’ new religious movements (NRMs) emerged in the context of the rise of the religious nationalism movement and gradually flourished during the martial law period in the 1970s. Compared with traditional Catholicism, the theology of NRMs is more realistic and temporal, therefore creating an inherent demand to become politicized. After the People Power Movement, changes in the social environment, media technology, and electoral system in the Philippines created conditions for NRM groups to participate in politics more extensively and directly. They intervened in the political process through various means, such as bloc voting and running for public positions, with characteristics such as opposition to the Catholic Church, proactive and pragmatic political strategies, grassroots appeals, and a transnational mass base. The participation of NRM groups in politics has impacted the Catholic Church’s transcendental political status, enriched the political ecology dominated by oligarchic families, improved public welfare, and provided new channels for the voice of the grassroots. Overall, the rise of NRMs has not only changed the religious landscape of the Philippines but also profoundly affected its democratization process as an important factor, especially in the coming 2025 election. Full article

Brain drain represents a critical challenge to global development, reflecting structural inequalities and tensions between mobility and rootedness. This study analyzes the determinants of skilled migration in 178 countries (2006–2022) using a regression model based on panel data, identifying six key variables: uneven economic development, the quality of public services, external intervention, voice and accountability, the rule of law, and political stability. Governance, particularly political stability and the rule of law, stands out as crucial for retaining talent, while external interventions and economic inequality exacerbate emigration. From a sociological perspective, migrants are active agents who transform transnational networks, challenging traditional notions of citizenship and belonging. Civil society organizations play a central role by facilitating sociocultural inclusion, mediating resettlement processes, and promoting brain circulation as an alternative to retention-focused models. Additionally, this study highlights the cultural and symbolic dimension of migration, revealing the impact of uprooting on communities of origin. Future research should explore how inclusive policies, digital nomadism, and remittances can reduce structural inequalities, strengthen the connection between migrants and their communities, and advance towards a sustainable and equitable mobility model. Full article

This article for the first time examines the activities of transnational information campaigns initiated by young Shiʿa Muslims across European, Russian, and Armenian cities. These campaigns aim to disseminate knowledge about Imam Hussain and his mission to non-Shiʿa audiences. The campaigns serve as vivid examples of the struggles faced by Muslims in relatively hostile contexts as they seek integration and acceptance as law-abiding and peaceful citizens. They also represent new avenues of Islamic activism, focusing on dismantling stereotypes and correcting “misunderstandings” within host societies. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and an analysis of campaign handouts and social media content between 2018 and 2024, this study explores how campaigners adapt the narrative of the Karbala tragedy—widely regarded as the metahistorical cornerstone of Shiʿa identity—to make it accessible and relevant to external audiences. These strategies enable campaigners to engage with out-group communities, testing and refining effective methods for presenting this pivotal historical event. The findings reveal that, through this process, the Karbala narrative undergoes both content-based and linguistic modifications, while the concept of justice—central to the commemoration of this tragedy—is reinterpreted in new contexts. This research contributes to the understanding of transnational Islamic activism and highlights the importance of strategic communication in fostering intercultural dialogue and promoting mutual understanding in diverse societies. Full article

Practical challenges and special threats from scam-related fraud exist for regional and local communities in Southeast Asia during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The rise in pig-butchering operations in Southeast Asia is a major concern due to the increased use of digital technology and online financial transactions. Many of these operations are linked to organized crime syndicates operating across borders, posing challenges for law enforcement. As a first study in Vietnam, we combined the primary and secondary databases to unveil the nature of transnational scam-related fraud. Findings show that scammers are using advanced methods such as phishing, fraudulent investments, and identity theft to maximize their sophisticated tactics for achieving financial possession. There are organized crime rings operating in Vietnam and Cambodia, with Chinese groups playing a leading role behind the scenes. Social media and its various applications have become common platforms for these criminal activities. This study also calls for practical recommendations to consider specific challenges in combating these crimes, including building a strong framework with clear policies, encouraging multiple educational awareness campaigns in communities, enhancing effective cooperation among law enforcement and others, and supporting evidence-based approaches in research and application. While we recognized and assumed that pig-butchering operations with scam-related fraud are a complex problem that requires a well-rounded and coordinated response, the exact approach would depend on each country’s specific circumstances. Full article

This research explores the interplay between innovation, economic systems, governance structures, and law, and how they interact with one another in the context of China and Ethiopia’s investments in the Digital Silk Road. The way cutting-edge methods related to governance and economic systems might help lower the risks involved in major infrastructure projects, like the Digital Silk Road, particularly in light of law and 5G developments, is investigated. China–Africa connections are to be strengthened, sustainable development is to be encouraged, and healthy economic progress is the goal of the partnership between Ethiopia and the Hainan Free Trade Port. The impact of these transnational investments on fair growth and sustainable development is assessed, while exploring the evolving agendas and procedures governing investments. This research draws attention to how the law and legal cooperation between Ethiopia and China may promote mutually advantageous outcomes, promote transparency and governance mechanisms, and lessen the likelihood of disputes. This research on the factors influencing the future of the Digital Silk Road and its consequences for long-term, sustainable economic growth, and business in the area, aims to provide valuable insights for policymakers, development professionals, and academics, and for the copromotion of China and Ethiopia in terms of digital investment. This research relates to the promotion of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), in terms of construction and economic development. It also examines how the DSR raises concerns about data security and privacy, cross-border transactions, technology transfer, and cyberterrorism, as well as encourages digital investment, such as through enhancing digital governance regulations, modernizing international investment agreements (IIAs), and bolstering global health, coordination, and cooperation; the article concludes by analyzing the implications for Africa. The findings show that such cooperation would support Africa’s digital transformation and sustainable development, while strengthening China–Africa cooperation. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted families and displaced individuals. For migrant workers, these disruptions and displacements exacerbated the state-imposed constraints on family formation. But how did high-skilled and high-wage immigrants, presumably immune from these challenges, provide care to and receive care from families during the pandemic? Based on 33 in-depth interviews with high-skilled Asian Indian immigrants in the USA during the pandemic, we note disruptions in their care to and from families. These disruptions reveal a persistent pattern of dispersion in immigrant families which leads to what we call “dispersed care.” By “dispersed care” we identify the effects of various state-imposed immigration laws and policies, which force immigrants to divide and allocate care among multiple fragments of their families in home and host countries. Dispersed care affects immigrant workers’ professional output, forcing them to make difficult choices between their career and care commitments. To unsettle the assumed homogeneity of high-skilled “Asian Indians,” we choose participants at diverse intersections of their migration pathways—naturalized US citizens, permanent US residents, and temporary visa holders or nonimmigrants. While naturalized US citizens and permanent residents have better resources to maintain transnational family ties than nonimmigrants, all of them face the intersectional challenges of dispersed care. Full article

Desertification is a transnational, cross-regional, and global eco-environmental problem that seriously restricts sustainable socioeconomic development. As Mongolia is a typical arid and semi-arid region, the evolution of desertification in the country is closely related to major global issues such as climate change, global carbon cycling, and biodiversity. In this article, we analyze the background, development process, limitations, and other aspects of Mongolia’s desertification prevention and control policies and regulations and conclude that Mongolia needs to formulate a “Desertification Prevention and Control Law.” In particular, it needs to clarify the responsibility subjects, beneficiaries, interest compensation subjects, and illegal punishment subjects for prevention and control, as well as the responsibilities and obligations of relevant legal subjects. The research results show that it is important to form a solution mechanism in legal research on the joint prevention and control of desertification between Mongolia and China. We propose a concept of best future practice, highlighting the urgent need to establish a framework for the joint prevention and control of desertification via a cooperative mechanism between Mongolia and China and for the two countries to jointly promote global cooperation in combating this important environmental issue. Full article

Objective: The objective of this study was to document how Ethiopia adopted a WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)-based tobacco control law. Methods: We analyzed publicly available documents, including news media articles, advocacy reports, and government documents. We triangulated these findings by interviewing nine key stakeholders. Data were analyzed to construct a historical and thematic narrative and analyzed through a retrospective policy analysis. Results: Local and international health advocacy efforts helped introduce and support WHO FCTC-based legislation by (1) educating policymakers about the WHO FCTC, (2) providing legal assistance in drafting legislation, (3) generating local data to counter industry claims, and (4) producing media advocacy to expose industry activity. Health advocates worked closely with government officials to create a multi-sectoral tobacco committee to institutionalize efforts and insulate tobacco companies from the policymaking process. Japan Tobacco International bought majority shares of the government-owned tobacco company and attempted to participate in the process, using standard industry tactics to undermine legislative efforts. However, with health advocacy assistance, government officials were able to reject these attempts and adopt a WHO FCTC-based law in 2019 that included 100% smoke-free indoor places, a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, and large pictorial health warning labels, among other provisions. Conclusion: Sustained local health advocacy efforts supported by international technical and financial assistance can help establish WHO FCTC-based tobacco control laws. Applying a standardized multi-sectoral approach can establish coordinating mechanisms to further institutionalize the WHO FCTC as a legal tool to build support with other government sectors and insulate the tobacco industry from the policymaking process. Full article

From the beginning of European overseas expansion in the fifteenth century, religious missions occupied an important place in the internal organisation of colonial empires. Their contribution to the ideological structuring of imperialism and the interaction with local populations is undeniable. With the emergence of the new imperialism and the scramble for Africa (after the 1870s), the missions, often anticipating the colonial political and administrative presence, enhanced their role as advocates of Europe’s “civilising mission”, above all through the education of the colonised peoples. For Portuguese decision-makers, the religious missions, with a multi-century tradition, had an important role in defending territorial claims overseas and promoting the empire’s nationalisation. However, the lack of national missionaries, Christianity’s inter-confessional competition in the nineteenth century and the emergence of international legal rules protecting missionary activities hindered Portugal’s strategies. Using sources from several archives (in Lisbon, the Vatican, and elsewhere) to emphasise the role of a transnational missionary staff and the international law of missions, this text intersects these aspects, examining their convergence in the controversial case of the exit and replacement of Jesuit missionaries in Mozambique in 1910–1911, to demonstrate the need to look at the missionary issues in the Portuguese overseas domains from perspectives that go beyond nation and empire. Full article

The German Constitutional Court’s climate verdict provided a re-interpretation of core liberal-democratic concepts, and it is highly relevant for liberal constitutional law in general, including EU and international law—where similar issues are currently being discussed in ongoing trials before the European Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice. The present article applies a legal interpretation to analyse the national and transnational implications of the ruling. The results show that the verdict accepts human rights as intertemporal and globally applicable. It applies the precautionary principle to these rights and frees them from the misleading causality debate. However, the court failed to address the most important violations of human rights, it categorised climate policy as a greater threat to freedom than climate change, and the court failed to acknowledge that the Paris 1.5-degree limit implies a radically smaller carbon budget. Furthermore, little attention has so far been paid to the fact that the ruling implies an obligation for greater EU climate protection, especially since most emissions are regulated supranationally. Against this backdrop, the EU emissions trading system demands a reform, which has to go well beyond the existing EU proposals so as to enable societal transformations towards sustainability. Full article

Water resources are the most contentious, scarce, and contestable natural resources at any geographical scale. Where water resources cross international boundaries, additional uncertainties arise for access to and distribution of available water. Here, we examined three transnational water partnerships by focusing on Iran as a dryland country with a developing economy. Thus, Iran has a key interest in water policies and the development and governance of water resources. Within Iran’s regional context, we considered whether the country obtained a geopolitical advantage from three regional water partnerships, involving the Caspian Sea, the Helmand River, and the export of hydroelectricity. We used a global database and several years of Iranian newspaper articles to explore possible linkages between contemporary and historical challenges while looking at international laws and conventions. We highlighted (a) the transboundary Helmand River as the most unstable partnership; (b) the complexities of the relationships between the Caspian Sea’s beneficiaries, including Iran, in utilising its vast resources in an environment with unclear rules; and (c) the rainfall- and geopolitically dependent hydroelectricity exchange agreements with neighbouring countries. Although Iran pursued such international involvement through treaties and economic initiatives, its water-based geopolitical influence in the region remains constrained by domestic demand, hydrometeorological geography, and the involvement of major world powers. Full article

Migration research often focuses on exclusionary laws and social processes and how they impact children and the families they are embedded within. While important, this focus on harmful social structures can obscure forms of creative agency that are also inherent to young people’s migration, even in the face of racialized immigration policies that erect barriers to integration. In this theoretical article, we contend that spaces of belonging, where connection, sustenance, and recognition are readily available, are equally essential to immigrant youth and families’ experiences of migration. We conceptualize how these spaces are constructed at the relational, community, and national level, demonstrating how place, including physical, legal, political, and cultural geographies, shape these multilayered opportunities for belonging. First, we demonstrate how place informs the relationships that young people form with each other, with their families, and with other adults, and how the care that can emerge from these relationships is a critical foundation for spaces of belonging. Second, we articulate the conditions that enable spaces of belonging at the community level by examining how the geographic features of neighborhoods and cities shape young people’s opportunities for agency and recognition beyond their immediate relationships. Finally, we address the national-level dynamics that foster spaces of belonging, while attending to the reality that migrant young people and their families often live transnational lives across nation-state borders. This paper offers new ways of understanding how place informs migrant youth and children’s sense of inclusion and agency, illuminating how spaces of belonging at the relational, community, and national level support their dignity and well-being. Full article

The rapid development of the social economy and science and technology has led to more frequent transnational movements of people, goods and vehicles. At the same time, various cross-border risks have significantly increased. The rapid global spread and continuous mutation of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) have again exposed the international community’s extreme vulnerability to major transnational public health emergencies. China started a “war against the epidemic” with tight quarantine regulations and border restrictions on people, vehicles and international goods. However, it also revealed the weaknesses in and incapacity for disease prevention and control at ports in terms of obstructed performance of the whole chain of public agencies, incompatible laws and regulations, lack of key technologies, and difficulties in international cooperation. Combined with persuasive data, this paper systematically illustrates how transnational infectious diseases lead humans to be “united by contagion”. On this basis, this paper makes a targeted analysis of the deficiencies of port epidemic prevention and control in China’s fight against COVID-19 and suggests corresponding countermeasures and reflections. Full article