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This article argues that the years 1989-2010 can be hailed as an unprecedented epoch of international law during which domestic governance – understood here in a traditional way as the use of public authority at the domestic level through a central governmental authority – came to be regulated to an unprecedented extent. This materialized through the coming into existence of a requirement of democratic origin of governments which has been dubbed the principle of democratic legitimacy. However, this article submits that the rapid rise of non-democratic super-powers, growing security concerns at the international level, the 2007-2010 economic crisis, the instrumentalization of democratization policies of Western countries as well as the rise of some authoritarian superpowers could be currently cutting short the consolidation of the principle of democratic legitimacy in international law. Indeed, the role that democracy had played in the practice of recognition, State-creation, diplomatic relations, economic cooperation, multilateral uses of forces, approval of credentials in international organizations seems to be shrinking and losing its consistency, ushering in a possible end to this unique epoch of international law. After sketching out the possible rise (I) and fall (II) of the principle of democratic legitimacy in the practice of international law and the legal scholarship since 1989, this chapter seeks to critically appraise the lessons learnt from that period, especially regarding the ability of international law to regulate domestic governance (III). This brief study is capped by few critical remarks on the international legal scholarship and its internal dynamics (IV).

During the deliberations on the 1787 Constitution in the United States, the debate between federalists and anti-federalists contributed to the legal thought and evolution of the rule of law. While anti-federalists were proposing a political system based upon civic virtue and citizen participation, federalists were urging for a system based on the representation of the people. The first group was advocating for the decentralisation and the entrenchment of rights in the Constitution, whereas the second group relied upon federalism and the separation of powers to control and limit political power. Beyond the distinctions between those ideas, American Thought has participated to the emergence of the rule of law principle in itself.

Thomas Crow (1985) has established that the Academy's Salon was the theatre of an art crisis in the France of Louis XV. This has inspired a comparison between the tempests and shipwrecks of Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–1789) and his series Les Ports de France (1754–1765), commissioned on behalf of the King by Marigny. In the first part of the article, we examine the popularity of the former paintings. After analysing the enthusiastic response of Diderot in his Salons, directly inspired by Burke's treatise on the sublime, we show that the success of these paintings was in their power to produce strong emotions in the spectator's mind. We then describe the perception of the sea in the eighteenth century in order to anchor Diderot's critique in a body of non-artistic representations. The popularity of Vernet's tempests and shipwrecks rests on a lack of social symbolism. This gives them a universal character with which, unlike the more aristocratie history painting, spectators of ail origins can identify. The last section deals with Les Ports de France. We begin by discussing the choice of landscape for such a prestigious work, which can be explained by the necessity to renew the image of the state. The choice of the seaport motif answered both the need of propaganda by imposing a unitary vision of France and the wish to recall Colbert's heritage. Finally we analyse how the King and the Salon received the series by concluding that it was ultimately a failure for political and aesthetic reasons.

Keywords: Renaud Longchamps

Many words have been used to name and describe the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33, including “famine” and “catastrophe,” “the Holodomor,” and now “genocide.” Was the famine genocide? Was the famine part of a genocide? Is the word genocide an exaggeration? Is naming the famine a genocide part of an attempt to dramatize events for political purposes today? Is the refusal to call the famine a genocide an act of genocide denial? This article argues that, though more than seven decades have passed and the Soviet Union has come and gone, questions about genocide in Ukraine remain intertwined in the discourses and narratives surrounding conflicts over Ukraine’s economic, political, social, and cultural position between the European Union and the Russian Federation. Given the implications of this word—“genocide”—within the context of current conflicts over Ukrainian history and identity and even sovereignty, it is important to reflect on how this concept has been used and applied. This paper analyzes conflict in Ukraine in the 1930s using Raphaël Lemkin's definition of genocide, as opposed to the legal definition established by the UN Genocide Convention, and discusses the conceptual strengths of Lemkin's definition of genocide in terms of understanding a wide-spectrum of oppressive, repressive, and violent processes of empire-building and colonization that occurred in Ukraine, and which culminated in the Holodomor.

The life and work of R. Barthes are marked by many ambiguities, existential and rhetoric. Poor orphan of a father killed during the 1914 war when his son was just born, he lived attached to his widowed mother. A semiologist more by fate than by choice (tuberculosis since his youth, he could not accomplish a regular academic career like Sartre, his mentor), he was interested in the exploration and definition of a new type of text (Théorie du Texte). The novel occupies a good place in his research. He went from an uncompromising criticism of the novel as an outdated narrative genre (Le Degré Zéro de l'écriture, 1953) to a “desire for a novel” towards the end of his life (“La Préparation du roman”, seminar at the College de France, 1978-1980). This article tries to shed light on this rhetorical drift and provides some elements for establishing a Theory of Intertext, a post-novel literary genre.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the status of the precautionary principle of scientific and social controversies. This new normative reference has emerged in the recent years on the environmental scene. It is becoming acknowledged by international law and even by some national laws. This paper presents the foundations of the precautionary principle and discusses its main limits, either legal or practical ones. It puts forward some of the advantages from developing it further, including more decision transparency and a better efficiency assessment. It suggests that current practices of risk management and insurance are not always efficient. It explains that there are tensions between the efficiency and equity of prevention systems. It addresses the question of how to deal with the long run, with scientific uncertainties and with subjective risk perceptions by classic insurance. In a controversial scientific environment, the principle cannot be used as a tool for reducing uncertainty but as a way to elicit new collective procedures akin to precaution. The precautionary principle is there to lead social agents to explicitly address risk situations Godard (2000) and Triech (2001 et 2005).

Our study analyses the contribution of Openlabs through the viewpoint of traditional actors of an innovation ecosystem. We developed a novel Decisional Pyramid model to analyse the data. The research method is based on semi-guided interviews with innovative companies and organisations in the European Metropole of Lille (France). The results show that Openlabs have complex and, often periodical if not occasional, relationships with the ecosystem. The contribution of Openlabs is mainly in strengthening the business incubation system. Furthermore, there appears to be a setting up of internalised processes based on Openlabs practices, methods and tools within the companies and organisations.

Keywords: Créativité, Ecosystème d'innovation, Tiers-lieux, Réseaux, Métropole Européenne de Lille, France, Creativity, Openlabs, Innovation ecosystem, Third places, Networks, Fablab, European Metropolis of Lille, France, Creatividad, Openlabs, Ecosistema de innovación, Terceros Espacios, Redes, Fablab, Metrópoli europea de Lille, Francia