Law & Human Rights

Evolution from Violence to Law to Social Justice

The emerging individual is less deferential to the past and more insistent on his or her rights; less willing to conform to regimentation, more insistent on freedom and more tolerant of diversity...Read more

Seeding Intrinsic Values: How a Law of Ecocide will Shift our Consciousness

The ripples of disharmony are being felt across the world and it is a system that cannot be sustained. We can however, rebalance the scales. To do that requires a shift in the laws that govern us as a collective ... Read more

Human Rights, Liberty & Socio-Economic Justice: Economic Theory and the Ascent of Private Property Values

According to Roosevelt, “necessitous men are not free.” The narrow conception of individual freedom founded on private property rights advocated ... Read more

Brief History of Alternative Dispute Resolution in the United States

The wide range of innovative mechanisms commonly employed to settle disputes outside the courtroom is illustrative of the larger potential for organizational innovation in other fields designed ... Read more

Simulated ICJ Judgment : Revisiting the Lawfulness of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons

The very possession of nuclear weapons violates the fundamental human rights of the citizens of the world and must be regarded as illegal.... Read more

New Paradigm for Global Rule of Law

The evolution from physical violence to social power to authorized competence and higher values is an affirmation of the value basis of law... Read more

Law in Transition Biblioessay: Globalization, Human Rights, Environment, Technology

The clearing house should encourage thinking ahead so that law and governance can attempt to accommodate the numerous challenges of globalization, many new technologies, and the emerging ....Read more

Sovereignty and Nuclear Weapons: The Need for Real Sovereign Authority Rooted in the People’s Global Expectations about Survival, Peace and Security

The paper argues for a wider, inclusive concept of sovereignty that accords full recognition ... Read more

The Right to Development

There should be a recognition of a global commitment to a right to development with an explicit emphasis on the development of human and social capital as the true repository and generator of human values on a global scale ... Read more

Integrated Approach to Peace & Human Security in the 21st Century*

We propose the establishment of an International Center on Human Security (ICHS) committed to an integrated approach that encompasses the political, economic, social, cultural and ecological dimensions of human security .. Read more

Social Power, Law and Society

It is necessary to identify the essential traits of common mankind in each of us. This is the essence and the goal of Social Power .. Read more

Toward a New Theory of Sustainable Development: Drawing on Insights from Developments in Modern Legal Theory*

A new paradigm for the political economy of shared prosperity, is clearly needed to eliminate radical inequality as a mission-critical step toward the achievement of sustainable development .. Read more

The Future of Democracy Challenged in the Digital Age

Reforming and expanding the UN is a necessary condition for the future of democratic states, international agreements and the subsidiarity allowing autonomous, equitable decision-making at regional and local levels ... Read more

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Leadership, Human Needs, and Values: The Importance of World Constitutionalism Winston P. Nagan, Samantha R. Manausa Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This article introduces the twin themes of leadership and global constitutionalism. Today, we have a global constitution: the UN Charter. It has evolved into a weak instrument of global governance, and it needs to be strengthened by wise and brave leadership. The article provides a short overview of the historic emergence of constitutionalism, stressing the... Read more	Advantages and Disadvantages of Global Unity & Disunity Ashok Natarajan Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Humanity has evolved from the family and local community over millennia through several stages to finally create the present fractured and unstable global community of nearly 200 nation-states, some of which are barely a few decades old. But already there are signs that the process of social evolution will continue until it eventually results in some form of... Read more
Book Review: “Taming the Wicked” James Surwilo Get Full Text in PDF The SIMPOL Solution: A New way to think about solving the world’s Biggest Problems, 2018, Amherst: Prometheus Reviewed by James Surwillo* In The Simpol Solution, John Bunzl and Nick Duffell take a multi-disciplinary approach to what systems theorist Horst Rittel forty-five years ago called a “wicked problem”. Wicked problems are insoluble, contradictable, multi-... Read more	International Competitiveness and its threat to Democracy and the Planet John Bunzl Get Full Text in PDF Abstract When considering governments’ failure to act on global problems such as climate change, the comment often heard is “all that is required is the political will”; the implication being that governments are somehow negligent, irresponsible and do not care sufficiently about such issues. The article explains that it is not that governments do not want to solve... Read more
The Leadership the World Needs Ashok Natarajan Get Full Text in PDF Abstract As society evolves in consciousness, the character of its leadership evolves as well. The physical stage of human development is characterized by the rule of physical strength and directed by military leaders with the capacity to mobilize and exercise physical force through violence. In the vital-social stage, leadership shifts to the authority of custom and... Read more	The Principle of ‘Unity in Diversity’ as a Measured Response to Resurgent Nationalism: Valuing local diversity as well as global citizenship is not a contradiction Thomas Reuter Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The ideological war between globalism and resurgent nationalism in recent years is seen as an invitation to take sides by many intellectuals. Demonising or dismissing followers of the new right-wing nationalism is easy, but the outcome of the Brexit referendum and the last presidential election in the USA should have taught us that ignoring the genuine... Read more
System Change Investing and Political Reform Frank Dixon Get Full Text in PDF Abstract System change is the most important sustainability issue. Flawed economic and political systems compel all companies to degrade the environment and society. For nearly all of US history, these systems enabled vested interests to strongly influence government and unfairly concentrate public wealth, in large part by deceiving, dividing and disempowering... Read more	The Future of Democracy Challenged in the Digital Age Hazel Henderson Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Recent evidence is marshalled concerning the impact on democracies of the global explosion of electronic platforms and digital companies, based initially on the US government- supported and now worldwide Internet. These companies, driving Wall Street stock prices, are still largely unregulated and unchecked by conventional anti-trust regulations, especially... Read more
The Context and Values Inherent in Human Capital as Core Principles for New Economic Theory Winston P. Nagan, Samantha R. Manausa Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This paper has a specific focus on the core foundation of New Economic Theory. That is, the focus on human capital and its implications for the theory and method of the new form of political economy. The central issue that is underlined is the importance of scientific and technological innovation and its necessary interdependence on global values and value... Read more	Book Review of Come On!: A Report to the Club of Rome: New Frontiers Michael Marien Get Full Text in PDF Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism, Population and the Destruction of the Planet. A Report to the Club of Rome. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker and Anders Wijkman (CoR Co-Presidents), with 34 more CoR Members. New York: Springer Science, Jan 2018, 220 pp, $29.99. The Club of Rome is an unusual organization with an unusual history. The initial 1972 report to CoR on the... Read more
Social Democratic Constitutionalism, New Economic Theory, and the Dangers of Neoliberalism’s Attacks on Rational Government Regulation Winston P. Nagan, Craig Hammer Get Full Text in PDF Abstract This paper examines the foundations of economic neoliberalism and underlines the implications of the foundations of this economic theory in its reliance on economic value as ownership, property, and commodity which misdirects economic inquiry from the real value of human capital as the proper foundation of a viable economic system. It focuses on the role of a... Read more	Toward a New Theory of Sustainable Development: Drawing on Insights from Developments in Modern Legal Theory* Winston P. Nagan, Craig Hammer, Maxat Akhmetkaliyeva Get Full Text in PDF Abstract In the light of the countless hours invested in the development of the Sustainable Development Goals—the set of targets and indicators relating to future international human and sustainable development, which replaced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the end of 2015 —by hundreds of the world’s top minds, in addition to more than twenty-five years of... Read more
Social Power, Law and Society Saulo Casali Bahia Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The article aims to discuss some aspects of the formal centers of social power. Thus, it seeks to answer how power becomes institutionalized in formal social organizations; what is the source of political power and how it is converted into institutions of governance; how legal power is generated by society and how it grows; what is the relationship... Read more	Integrated Approach to Peace & Human Security in the 21st Century* Garry Jacobs Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Humanity has made remarkable progress during the past two centuries in advancing peace, democracy, human rights, economic development and social equality. The evolution of human relations has progressed far from the time when physical violence, war and conquest were the predominant form of international relations. Diplomacy has evolved from political... Read more
The Right to Development Winston P. Nagan Get Full Text in PDF Abstract One of the most far-reaching decisions of the United Nations General Assembly was the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development in 1986. The Declaration was adopted with an expectation of optimism about progression to a new global economic dispensation. This did not happen. However, the Declaration remains an important symbol of global expectation.... Read more	World Peace Through Law: Rethinking an Old Theory James Ranney Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The author sets about re-thinking the old concept of “World Peace Through Law” (WPTL), meaning replacing the use of international force with the global rule of law. He traces the history of the WPTL concept back to the British legal philosopher Jeremy Bentham, whose 1789 ‘Plan for an Universal and Perpetual Peace’ proposed “a plan of general and permanent... Read more
Sovereignty and Nuclear Weapons: The Need for Real Sovereign Authority Rooted in the People’s Global Expectations about Survival, Peace and Security Winston P. Nagan, Garry Jacobs Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The current international security framework is based on an incomplete, anachronistic conception of sovereignty shaped largely by historical circumstance rather than principles of universal justice. Evolution of the global community over the past half century necessitates a reformulation of the concept to justly represent the rights of individual citizens and the... Read more	Seeding Intrinsic Values: How a Law of Ecocide will Shift our Consciousness Polly Higgins Get Full Text in PDF “Currently, our world is predominantly driven by laws that put profit first. So how do we shift to a new way of being that prioritises intrinsic values? How do we shift away from valuing something for its price-tag to valuing something in and of itself, regardless of whether or not it has a pecuniary value?” In April 2010, I proposed to the United Nations a law of Ecocide.... Read more
Law in Transition Biblioessay: Globalization, Human Rights, Environment, Technology Michael Marien Get Full Text in PDF Abstract As globalization continues, many transformations in international and domestic laws are underway or called for. There are too many laws and too few, too much law that is inadequate or obsolete, and too much law-breaking. This biblioessay covers some 100 recent books, nearly all recently published, arranged in four categories. 1) International Law... Read more	New Paradigm for Global Rule of Law Winston P. Nagan, Garry Jacobs Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Law is both a condition and a consequence of social development, an outcome of the broader social process, a form of social organization which channels social energies based on the relative strength of past practice and precedent, the present balance of power and emerging social values. Values are the bedrock of social process and the driving force for social... Read more
Simulated ICJ Judgment : Revisiting the Lawfulness of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons Winston P. Nagan Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The author prepared this simulated judgment at the request of Cadmus editors to demonstrate that there is ample ground for revisiting and revising the landmark 1996 advisory opinion of the ICJ on the legality of nuclear weapons. The ICJ failed to anticipate the proliferation of nuclear weapons, which expands the evolution of the concept of sovereignty, the potential... Read more	Evolution from Violence to Law to Social Justice Winston P. Nagan, Garry Jacobs Social development is largely a subconscious process. It expresses irresistible human aspirations and social tendencies but works itself out through a long process of trial and error, advance and retreat, conflict and resolution. Law is a complex phenomenon. The principles and practice of law are a composite of multiple forces – the force of past precedent, established... Read more
Brief History of Alternative Dispute Resolution in the United States Michael McManus, Brianna Silverstein Get Full Text in PDF Editor’s note: This issue of Cadmus focuses on the power of organizational innovation to address social problems and enhance social effectiveness. The development of law marks the evolution of civilization. Survival of the fittest is the law of the jungle based on strength alone. As society developed, rule by the governing principle of physical strength on the battle field... Read more	Human Rights, Liberty & Socio-Economic Justice: Economic Theory and the Ascent of Private Property Values Winston P. Nagan Get Full Text in PDF 1. Introduction In the Introduction to the first issue of CADMUS, Ivo Šlaus and Garry Jacobs essentially provide us with a reminder that the founders of modern economics were also important moral philosophers. In particular, Adam Smith would appear to be influenced by the idea that economics has a great deal to do with human well-being. His theory was meant to be a tool to... Read more