Formation of a multicellular organism is a complex process involving differentiation and morphogenesis. During early vertebrate development, the radial symmetric organization of the egg is transferred into a bilateral symmetric organism with three distinct body axes: anteroposterior (AP), dorsoventral, and left–right. Due to cellular movements and proliferation, the body elongates along the AP axis. How are these processes coupled? Two recent publications now indicate that cell migration as well as orientated cell divisions contribute to axis elongation. The processes are coupled (...) through the planar cell polarity pathway.1 At the same time, the AP axis is patterned independently of convergent extension. This process, however, is required for cell migration and represents a cue for polarized cell motility during gastrulation. Thus, it is AP polarity that instructs individual cells how to orientate with respect to the embryonic axis and provides positional information for the process of convergent extension.2 BioEssays 26:1272–1275, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Much has been written about the global convergence on constitutional supremacy. Yet, a closer look suggests that while constitutional convergence trends are undoubtedly extensive and readily visible, expressions of constitutional resistance or defiance may in fact be regaining ground worldwide. This may point to a paradox embedded in global constitutionalism: the more expansive constitutional convergence trends are, the greater the likelihood of dissent and resistance are. In this article, I chart the contours of three aversive responses to constitutional convergence: neo-secessionism, (...) nullification, and deference to local authority, and draw on an array of comparative examples to illustrate the distinct logic and characteristics of each of these responses. Taken together, these increasingly common expressions of defiance provide ample evidence that global constitutionalism is not the only game in town. Neo-secessionism, nullification, and other forms of constitutional dissent and “opting out” may thus be viewed as a reaction against the centralization of authority and the decline of the local in an increasingly—constitutionally and otherwise—universalized reality. (shrink)

The global distributive implications of automatically allocating political membership according to territoriality (jus soli) and parentage (jus sanguinis) principles have largely escaped critical scrutiny. This article begins to address this considerable gap. Securing membership status in a given state or region--with its specific level of wealth, degree of stability, and human rights record--is a crucial factor in the determination of life chances. However, birthright entitlements still dominate both our imagination and our laws in the allotment of political membership to a (...) given state. In this article we explore the striking conceptual and legal similarities between intergenerational transfers of citizenship and property. The analogy between inherited citizenship and the intergenerational transfer of property allows us to use existing qualifications found in the realm of inheritance as a model for imposing restrictions on the unlimited and perpetual transmission of membership--with the aim of ameliorating its most glaring opportunity inequalities. (shrink)

Extensive urbanization is one of the most significant demographic and geopolitical phenomena of our time. Yet, with few exceptions, constitutional theory has failed to turn its attention to this crucial trend. In particular, the burgeoning constitutional literature aimed at addressing phenomena such as democratic backsliding, constitutional retrogression, and populist threats to judicial independence and the rule of law has failed to respond to the significance of place as an emerging cleavage in contemporary politics. An alarming disconnect has emerged between constitutionalism's (...) overwhelmingly statist (or Westphalian) outlook and the reality of geographically localized concentration of worldviews, policy preferences, and political identities. In this essay, I identify urban agglomeration and the accompanying resurgence of the urban-rural divide as posing a critical challenge to liberal constitutional democracy, and argue that the time is ripe to pay closer attention to the spatial dimension of constitutional governance and its impact on the rise of anti-establishment political resentment. To that end, in the essay's final part I identify several areas of constitutional law and theory that appear to hold some intellectual promise in thinking creatively about mitigating the urban-rural divide, and about the mounting urban challenge more generally. (shrink)

In this article, I consider a curious blind spot in constitutional scholarship concerning the resurging rural/urban divide—a readily evident phenomenon closely associated with political resentment and anti-establishment sentiments—and how we may begin to address that challenge through creative constitutional designs. Specifically, I draw upon insights from comparative constitutionalism to discuss four main areas of constitutional law and theory that appear to hold some intellectual promise in this context: formal constitutional commitment at the national level to recognizing the urban/rural divide and (...) commitment to addressing it; creative electoral system designs that take into account the spatial dimension of politics; spatial pluralization based on concepts such as “mixed constitutions,” “community standards,” and “margin of appreciation”; and rethinking elements of equalization and fiscal federalism more generally. Taken together, the four directions I discuss here offer a repertoire of constitutional design possibilities that hold promise in mitigating the resurging rural/urban gulf. More generally, they serve as an invitation to constitutional thinkers to shake up the rather stagnant constitutional thought of spatial governance, and to think creatively about the ever-expanding urban/rural divide and its consequences for the theory and practice of 21st century constitutional democracy. (shrink)

Journal Name: The Law & Ethics of Human Rights Issue: Ahead of print.

The availability of a constitutional framework that encourages deference to the judiciary, and the existence of a political environment conducive to judicial empowerment have helped bring about a growing reliance on adjudicative means for articulating, framing, and settling fundamental moral controversies and highly contentious political questions. This has resulted in the gradual erosion of the exclusive prerogatives of legislatures and executives.

Dieser Band untersucht die Beziehungen zwischen staatlichem (kolonialem und post-kolonialem) Recht, islamischem Recht und Gewohnheitsrecht in der islamischen Welt. Die geographische Spannbreite der zwanzig Beiträge reicht vom muslimischen Andalusien und Nordafrika über das osmanische Südosteuropa, den Jemen, Iran, Afghanistan, den Nordkaukasus und Mittelasien bis nach Uighurien (China) und Indonesien. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt auf den muslimischen Gesellschaften des Russischen Reichs bzw. der ehemaligen Sowjetunion, deren reiche regionale Rechtstraditionen in der allgemeinen Diskussion um den Rechtspluralismus bislang kaum Beachtung fanden. Der vergleichende (...) Ansatz zeigt nicht nur zahlreiche Parallelen in den Entwicklungen auf, sondern bietet auch einen Einblick in die unterschiedlichen Methoden und Herangehensweisen von Rechtsanthropologen, Islamwissenschaftlern, Historikern und Juristen in Ost und West. (shrink)

Wnt proteins can activate different intracellular signaling cascades in various organisms by interacting with receptors of the Frizzled family. The first identified Wnt signaling pathway, the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway, has been studied in much detail and is highly conserved among species. As to non‐canonical Wnt pathways, the current situation is more nebulous partly because the intracellular mediators of this pathway are not yet fully understood and, in some cases, even identified. However, there are increasing data that prove the existence of non‐canonical (...) Wnt signaling and demonstrate its involvement in different developmental processes. In vertebrates, Wnt‐11 and Wnt‐5A can activate the Wnt/JNK pathway, which resembles the planar cell polarity pathway in Drosophila. The Wnt/Ca2+‐pathway has only been described in Xenopus and zebrafish so far and it is unclear whether it also exists in other organisms. Two recent papers provide us with new insight into non‐canonical Wnt signaling by (1) presenting a new intracellular mediator of non‐canonical signaling in Xenopus1 and (2) implicating the existence of an additional non‐canonical Wnt signaling pathway in flies.2 BioEssays 24:881–884, 2002. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The case study is presented in the title: Hrabanus Maurus’s In honorem sanctae crucis and Berthold of Nuremberg’s two-part work Liber de misteriis et laudibus sancta crucis and the supplement Liber de misteriis et laudibus interemerate Virginis genitrices Dei et Domini nostril Ihesu ) are confronted and dissected; and the use of the word “transformation” is key to the analytical and interpretive possibilities concerning the medieval formulas the author presents. Close to five hundred years separate the carmina figurata of (...) the Carolingian abbot and the text-images of the Dominican lector and both follow on antique traditions. With more than two hundred pictures of diagrams and illuminations from a multitude of codices, architectural details and religious objects, Hamburger furnishes our understanding of transformation in medieval visual cultures and of the centrality of diagrams in artistic productions. (shrink)

Noyau de la future Articella, l’ Ars medicine est une collection de textes médicaux qui fut à la base de l’enseignement salernitain au xii e siècle ; en matière d’urologie ce programme prévoyait la lecture du Liber urinarum Theophili, traduction gréco-latine d’un texte byzantin à visée pratique. Lors de leur lecture de cet opuscule, les maîtres de Salerne utilisèrent aussi le Liber urinarum Isaac, monographie assez complète dont existait une version arabo-latine par Constantin l’Africain (fin xi e s.). Cet article (...) se propose d’évaluer l’importance doctrinale que recouvre l’œuvre d’Isaac dans les commentaires de Barthélemy et Maurus de Salerne. (shrink)

This article reconsiders the historical–philosophical significance of the monk and abbot of Corbie Abbey (est. 657), Paschasius Radbertus (c. 790–860). Radbert is contextualised within the cultural and academic setting of the Carolingian period of the eighth and ninth centuries while taking into account the diverse scholarly accomplishments of his contemporaries such as Alcuin of York (c. 740–804), Rabanus Maurus (c. 780–856), Walafrid Strabo (c. 809–849) and John Scottus Eriugena (815–877). The characteristic absence of contributions regarding Radbert in otherwise comprehensive (...) introductions and editorial works in medieval philosophy is subsequently surveyed. It is shown that only a few introductory works of note contain references to Radbert, while the current specialised research is also relatively limited. Reconsidering depictions of Radbert in several older commentaries, notably Martin Grabmann’s (1875–1949) Die Geschichte der Scholastischen Methode I ( 1957 ), it is suggested that Radbert’s philosophical importance could be traced to Vorscholastik or the earliest development of scholasticism, as presented in his extensive commentary Expositio in Matheo Libri XII – without diminishing the ecclesiastical weight of his dispute with Ratramnus (d.c. 868) regarding their interpretation of the Eucharist in their similarly titled but disparate treatises De corpore et sanguine Domini, for which Radbert is generally better known and accordingly reflected in studies of early medieval intellectual history. Contribution: This article contributes to scholarship in early medieval philosophy by reassessing the philosophical influence of Paschasius Radbertus, based on the most recent specialised analyses and older modern receptions of his texts De corpore et sanguine Domini and Expositio in Matheo Libri XII. (shrink)

Dieser Band dokumentiert die Vorträge einer Tagung, die im Oktober 2014 im Frankfurter Haus am Dom als Tagung der Katholischen Akademie Rabanus Maurus, der Kant-Gesellschaft und der Kant-Forschungsstelle der Universität Trier unter dem Titel "Das Verhältnis von Recht und Moral in Kants praktischer Philosophie" stattgefunden hat. Die Tagung war dem Problem der Gliederung der praktischen Philosophie Immanuel Kants, der systematischen Unterscheidung ihrer beiden Abteilungen, der Rechtslehre und der Ethik im engeren Sinne, sowie den daraus resultierenden Problemstellungen gewidmet. Naturgemäß steht (...) Kants Metaphysik der Sitten mit ihren beiden Systemteilen, den Metaphysischen Anfangsgründen der Rechtslehre und den Metaphysischen Anfangsgründen der Tugendlehre, im Zentrum der Beiträge, aber die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Recht und Ethik spielt auch in anderen Schriften Kants eine zentrale Rolle. Die in diesem Band versammelten Beiträge beziehen sich in ganz unterschiedlicher Weise auf das übergreifende Thema der Tagung. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei vor allem die Probleme der Abgrenzung, wie sie sich innerhalb der Rechtslehre selbst ergeben. Dies ist dadurch bedingt, dass Fragen, die sich innerhalb der juridischen Sphäre stellen, in der Ethik in veränderter Perspektive ebenfalls behandelt werden. This volume documents the papers given at the conference “The Relationship between Law and Morality in Kant’s Practical Philosophy”, held by the Rabanus Maurus Catholic University, the Kant Society and the Kant Research Centre at the University of Trier. The conference was devoted to the problem of classifying Kant’s practical philosophy, of the systematic difference between ist two parts, the theory of law and ethics, and the questions that arrive from this. Naturally Kant’s metphysics are central to the contributions, which take different approaches to the theme of the conference. The focus is on the problems of demarcation as they arise within the theory of law in consequence of the fact that questions posed within the judicial sphere are similarly examined from a different perspective in the ethics. (shrink)

Este artigo apresenta o conceito de juristocracia midiática como uma categoria política que indica uma desfiguração dos ideais normativos de democracia e do estado de direito. Essa categoria se apresenta como o desenvolvimento, por um lado, do conceito de juristocracia analisado e elaborado por Hirschl e, por outro lado, da categoria de democracia plebiscitária analisada e elaborada por Urbinati. Argumenta-se que essa categoria permite enquadrar alguns dos problemas políticos pelos quais o Brasil vem passando na última década.

Considerations about the evolution of the concept of "friendship", just as Cicero understands it, along the history (individual, social, political and religious friendship). Repetitions and interpretations of his definition and of other ciceronian texts. His influence on several authors (such as Augustinus, Isidorus Hispalensis, Rabanus Maurus, Petrus Venerabilis) and, above all, on the mediaeval treaties De amicitia written by Aelredus Rievallensis and Petrus Blessensis.

Considerations about the evolution of the concept of "friendship", just as Cicero understands it, along the history (individual, social, political and religious friendship). Repetitions and interpretations of his definition and of other ciceronian texts. His influence on several authors (such as Augustinus, Isidorus Hispalensis, Rabanus Maurus, Petrus Venerabilis) and, above all, on the mediaeval treaties De amicitia written by Aelredus Rievallensis and Petrus Blessensis.

How are we to understand and analyse the constitutional tension in Turkey between the judiciary and the political sphere? In this article the issue is mirrored in the political crisis which started in April 2007 with the nomination of Abdullah G l as presidential candidate by the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP). The more detailed empirical background consists primarily of the dress code problematics including the matter of party closure. Theoretically, the “hegemonic preservation” thesis elaborated by Ran Hirschl (...) turned out to be a useful instrument when it comes to explaining this political crisis as well as the origin of the so-called new constitutionalism. This is illustrated by the judicial activism in the headscarf affair as well as by the eagerness of the Republican People's Party (CHP), as the political representative of the secular establishment, to play the 'Atat rk card' and to submit the protection of their interest to an independent judiciary and not to the uncertainties of the mechanisms of majoritarian democracy. However, with regard to the current Turkish case my analysis also shows that Hirschl's thesis is too static and should be complemented with a more dynamic perspective of constitutional politics as a repeated game. One example of this is that even if the Turkish Constitutional Court (TCC) had declared the constitutional amendment on the headscarf invalid and voted for economic sanctions against the AKP, it did not close the party down. (shrink)

The early medieval exegesis of the Pentecost account in the Acts of the Apostles emphasised the divine origin of the light that some early medieval theologists, specifically Hrabanus Maurus, believed to have descended upon the Apostles and provided them with special powers. The following article links Hrabanus Maurus's exegetical work with early pictorial representations of Pentecost as well as medieval theories of action.