This ar ti cle is part of the anal y sis of the his tory of ideas in Latin Amer ica, which is a field of thought that con trib utes to re cov er ing con tri bu tions from di verse fields of knowl edge, and which has been fo cused on by in tel lec tu als who con sider our iden tity to be a theme..

Eric Prieto is a professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Listening In: Music, Mind, and the Modernist Narrative, and numerous essays on music-and-literature, literary spatiality, Caribbean literature, and literary theory.

Por supuesto se expresa como quien conoce muy bien los términos jurídicos pero con la habilidad de no abrumar al interlocutor. Inspira confianza. Es una mujer grande que mira directamente a los ojos y sonríe casi siempre. Escucha con atención y acierta a comunicar desde la propia experiencia no ya de brillante profesional de la judicatura, sino de mujer, madre, compañera� Enseguida hemos pasado del usted al tú�.

Constitutional law in the United States is, for most practical purposes, the product of ‘judicial review’, the power of judges to disallow policy choices made by other officials or institutions of government, ostensibly because those choices are prohibited by the Constitution. This extraordinary and unprecedented power, America's dubious contribution to the science of government, has made American judges the most powerful in the world, not only legislators but super-legislators, legislators with virtually the last word. Because lawmaking power divorced from popular (...) will is tyranny, most states have attempted to reconcile the lawmaking power of judges with representative self-government by subjecting all or some judges to some form of popular election. In all but four such states, judges, encouraged and supported by their fellow lawyers in the organized bar—would-be judges and beneficiaries of judicial power—have responded by adopting codes of judicial ethics that limit what candidates for election to judicial office are permitted to say. The effect is to undermine elections as a control on judicial power by limiting criticism of judicial activism, the misuse of judicial power. (shrink)

In the post-1945 world, constitutionalism has transcended the nation state, with an array of transnational arrangements now manifesting constitutional characteristics—so says a growing number of scholars. This article reveals an earlier but largely forgotten discourse of transnational constitutionalism: the constitutional theory of the British Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Focusing on the work of Albert Venn Dicey, the article shows that, when the Empire was at the height of its power and prestige, British constitutional scholars came (...) to see the Empire as a constitutional order and project. For Dicey, a committed constitutionalist and imperialist, the central dynamic of the imperial constitutional order was balancing British constitutional principles with imperial unity. This article focuses in particular on parliamentary sovereignty, a constitutional principle that, for Dicey, was both necessary for and dangerous to the Empire’s integrity. An exercise in intellectual history, the article rethinks Dicey’s work and the constitutional tradition in which Dicey has played such an integral part, seeking to reveal empire's forgotten significance. (shrink)

Adult learners demand teaching innovations that are ever more rapid and attractive. As a response to these demands and the challenges of skills training, this article presents a conceptual analysis that introduces competitive debate as an impact training model. The aim is to learn whether debate can be considered to fall within the frame of gamification, so that the full potential of debate as gamification can be exploited. There is a significant research gap regarding competitive debate as a game, with (...) the training mechanics for adult learners remaining practically unexplored. Through a conceptual analysis of game, game experience, and gamification, and their respective characteristics, we conclude that competitive debate is an ideal instrument for gamification. (shrink)

El acceso equitativo a la energía y a la vivienda es una preocupación básica de la justicia social. A pesar de los numerosos vínculos entre estos dos bienes esenciales, los marcos teóricos de la justicia y la pobreza energética se han referido casi exclusivamente a la cuestión de la vivienda en términos de la eficiencia energética de los edificios residenciales. En respuesta a esta carencia conceptual, se propone la reintegración del factor vivienda en el marco de la justicia y pobreza (...) energética a lo largo de los siguientes tres ejes: dimensiones materiales y temporales; dimensiones políticas; y dimensiones éticas y legales. Como ejemplo empírico de la importancia del nexo vivienda-energía en la práctica de la justicia social, se presenta el caso de dos movimientos sociales surgidos en Barcelona que trabajan con una perspectiva conjunta de derecho a la vivienda y a la energía: la Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH) y la Aliança contra la Pobresa Energètica (APE). El artículo subraya la importancia de la vivienda y la energía como fundamentos materiales de una vida digna y su naturaleza conflictiva como necesidades esenciales y bienes de mercado. (shrink)

This article intends to contribute to the science–religion historiography with two topics—philology and the construction of national identities—that can help provide a more complex picture of the relations between science and religion. We use the life and work of the Mallorcan Catholic priest Antoni Maria Alcover (1862–1932) as a case study that puts language, linguistics, and nationalism on the board of science and religion studies. Alcover was the main driving force of the Catalan Dictionary, a collective enterprise that set out (...) to inventory the complete oral and literary lexicon of this language, and which mobilized thousands of people, many of which were clergymen, from all over the Catalan‐speaking territories. In the article, we will explore Alcover's education; the way he established a link between language, religion, and fatherland; the shaping of his identity as a philologist in the image mainly of new German notions and practices; as well as his role in the institutionalization process of the Catalan language as a scientific language, as a language for science and for religion. (shrink)

Las metodologías activas son unas excelentes herramientas para la mejora del desarrollo de competencias, así como del aprendizaje del alumnado. Se recogen las percepciones y el uso que 92 profesores de educación secundaria de la Comunidad Valenciana (España) manifestaron en un cuestionario tras haber realizado una formación en las mismas. Los resultados permiten constatar que, si bien se produce un aumento en el uso y una mejora en las percepciones, sigue habiendo una considerable resistencia al cambio de este colectivo de (...) profesorado. Encuentran desventajas como considerarlas muy exigentes con el tiempo y son escépticos en el aprendizaje real del alumnado. (shrink)

Industrial (“white”) biotechnology promises to contribute to a more sustainable future. Compared to current production processes, cases have been identified where industrial biotechnology can decrease the amount of energy and raw materials used to make products and also reduce the amount of emissions and waste produced during production. However, switching from products based on chemical production processes and fossil fuels towards “biobased” products is at present not necessarily economically viable. This is especially true for bulk products, for example ethanol production (...) from biomass. Therefore, scientists are also turning to genetic modification as a means to develop organisms that can produce at lower costs. These include not only micro-organisms, but also organisms used in agriculture for food and feed.The use of genetic modification for “deliberate release” purposes, in particular, has met great opposition in Europe. Many industrial biotechnology applications may, due to their scale, entail deliberate releases of GM organisms. Thus, the biobased economy brings back a familiar question; is it ethically justifiable, and acceptable to citizens, to expose the environment and society to the risks associated with GM, in order to protect that same environment and to sustain our affluent way of life? For a successful innovation towards a biobased economy, its proponents, especially producers, need to take into account (take responsibility for) such issues when developing new products and processes. These issues, and how scientists can interact with citizens about them in a timely way, are further explored in projects at Delft University and Leiden University, also in collaboration with Utrecht University. (shrink)

The main object of this paper is classifying the prerequisites required for a candidate to attain the consulate. Framed within Cicero's theory of action, it is a structural analysis where it is concluded that there are three: the titles of lineage, the merits due to actions, and the trust in public opinion. Once the classification has been established, the paper is focused on the merits-trust binomial and stresses its meaning and interest nowadays, such as it stated in the papers on (...) justice by Michael Walzer. (shrink)

Ante el pensamiento del neocapitalismo y su poder actual, el autor se pregunta su hay razones para reivindicar la justicia social en nuestros días. Para responder a esta interrogante realiza un análisis de algunos elementos históricos que habrían sido en su opinión decisivos para llegar a la situación actual de la democracia en Occidente, desgranando algunas de las diferencias ideológicas que sobre la gobernabilidad de la democracia surgieron en la izquierda, y que condujeron a dos vías diferentes en el seno (...) de la misma y al triunfo de la identificada con las posiciones socialdemócratas. Así, señala, una socialdemocracia reconvertida en tercera vía, y un comunismo pertrechado de consignas altisonantes con poca sustancia ideológica se reparten la clientela política de izquierda a este lado del mundo. (shrink)

Resumen: Este trabajo tiene como principal objetivo el de lograr una comprensión de la la filosofía en cuanto fundamento insoslayable para la teología. Sostiene, en primer lugar, la necesidad de desarrollar una teología más autocosciente en el sentido racional del σὺν λόγω, es decir, desde el programa plenamente actual de la fides quarens intellectum. Defiende, en segundo lugar, que la filosofía solo puede entenderse partiendo de la pretensión que la ha animado desde el comienzo de su andadura: la búsqueda de (...) la verdad de las cosas (veritas rerum). Y para este fin tendrá necesariamente que dotarse de densidad metafísica suficiente y apostar por las tesis de un sano realismo cognoscitivo. Este estudio concluye con una reflexión, en tercer lugar, sobre el uso teológico de la filosofía. La tesis que se defiende es que sin el fundamento filosófico, la fe y la teología pierden lo más nuclear de su misión, la posibilidad misma de presentarse todavía con algún rastro de significatividad para el hombre de hoy. Palabras clave Filosofía, Teología, Universidad, Facultad Eclesiástica, Fe, Razón Summary: This work has as principal objective the achievement of an understanding of philosophy in such as it forms an inescapable foundation for theology. It sustains, in the first place, the need to develop a more self-aware theology in the rational sense of the σὺν λόγω, that is to say, from the fully current program of the fides quarens intellectum. It defends, in the second place, that philosophy can only be understood parting from the pretension that has animated it from its outset: a search for the truth of things (veritas rerum). And to this end, it must necessarily equip itself with the sufficient metaphysical density and wager upon the thesis . (shrink)

An undiscovered chapter in the history of architecture comes from the ex-Soviet Republic of Georgia. Poetics of Architecture is the name given to the studioworkshop at the Georgian Technical University set up by the Georgian architect Shota Bostanashvili (1948–2013). From 1990 until his death he delivered insightful, playful and rather provocative lectures on architecture at this university. He preferred to call his architectural philosophy, critical discourse on architecture. Themes ranged from poetics to metapoetics of architecture. His philosophy of architecture is (...) illustrated by some of his designs and executed projects which demonstrate a drift from existentialism to the philosophy of play. This study includes reference to his last building, a project whose demolition Bostanashvili witnessed before passing away. Based on the concept of the return of the sacred, this edifice was a sort of counter movement to technogenic architecture. (shrink)

El legado enciclopedista de Diderot sobre el poder político y el derecho en vísperas de Revolución -- Un célebre profesor de jurisprudencia de siglo XVIII, después marginado durante siglos: el caso de Jean Jacques Burlamaqui y sus Elementos de derecho natural -- Lardizábal, jurista "ilustrado" en los albores de la Independencia de México -- Los ilustrados, infatigables inventores de derechos vitales. Escolio a una obra de Lynn Hunt -- Lichtenberg, un ilustrado minimalista. A manera de epílogo.