If in its simplest form, hermeneutics is a quest for understanding, then part of that quest will always include striving to understand being and the meaning of being. This open access book takes that ambition seriously, arguing that hermeneutics and metaphysics, so central to philosophical thought but so rarely put in tandem, are two complementary fundamentals of human existence.

Metaphysical Hermeneutics puts forward the argument for a hermeneutical metaphysics in service of philosophy's basic aim: to make sense of our experience. Jean Grondin builds his argument for this combined discipline around the idea of 'sense' - a theme that is both hermeneutical and metaphysical. What we seek to glimpse is not just a figment of the mind but always the meaning of something. Grondin calls on one of the founding figures of contemporary hermeneutics Hans-Georg Gadamer to test his theories, singling out the metaphysical dimension of Gadamer's ideas and questioning his seeming embrace and rejection of that dimension. Rooting these questions in the human search for meaning is a major contribution to the scope and resources of hermeneutic philosophy.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Department of Philosophy at the University of Montreal.

This open access book hinges on 3 broad but interlinked elements: sustainable development as a concept, sustainable development in the Global South, and implementation challenges.

The advent of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda have contributed to the deepening of the concept of sustainable development within global and national policy schemes. The fact that sustainable development is crucial for our very survival is no longer a contested issue; rather, the key concern now is how this can be achieved equitably by reconciling competing priorities and concerns of the Global South and the Global North. While the Global South countries are eager to adopt and integrate the 2030 Agenda in their respective policy frameworks, local contexts are often at odds with the global model of sustainable development.

The book examines national capacities and institutional arrangements in countries in the Global South. It considers the challenges of integrating sustainable development in national policy frameworks. This includes the role, interactions, and inter-dependence of different branches of international law in, inter alia, protecting human rights, promoting access to justice, ensuring environmental justice, guaranteeing social protection, and safeguarding the rule of law for sustainable societies. This book explores the emerging patterns and processes of development projects that have either succeeded or failed, critical reflections on what has been achieved and whose interests the projects served, and the costs and benefits of particular interventions.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

The main debates in the philosophy of time have centred on whether A-theory, with events ordered by pastness, presentness and futurity, or B-theory, ordered by earlier than or later than, are equally fundamental. Emiliano Boccardi, L. Nathan Oaklander and Erwin Tegtmeier instead uphold the Russellian theory, or R-theory, and consider not only the fundamental differences but also its superiority. They argue McTaggart's misinterpretation of Russell has led to a false dichotomy between the A- and B-theories, while exploring the connection between temporal relations, temporal facts and time.

In defence of the R-theory, they argue how it offers a metaphysical explanation of the nature of time, in addition to investigating whether ontological theories of time can be considered from a moral or existential point of view. Using an ontological approach, this volume clarifies what is mistaken about both theories can only be resolved by adopting a Russellian philosophy, reaching beyond the A-theory vs B-theory debate.

This book uses the early twentieth century surveillance reports of urban vice reformers in New York, Chicago, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as well as the US vice report for the League of Nations' Special Body on Trafficking in Women and Children (from 1927) and French police memoirs, treatises, and histories of vice enforcement in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century Paris to highlight the way in which American reliance on undercover tactics drove American vice enforcement policy, leading to a clash with French vice enforcement policy before the League of Nations. Both the failure of that early effort to exert international influence on vice enforcement and the American embrace of undercover tactics would set the stage for the later American efforts to promote a global war on drugs.

Before the League of Nations, in particular, the American delegation's notable lack of success in mobilizing European crackdowns on prostitution created a blueprint for how not to project American influence overseas, once American advocates of narcotics interdiction sought to promote a global war on drugs. Yet private reformers' reliance on undercover tactics to investigate prostitution modeled the investigative tactics on which American law enforcement would come to depend, and which it would later seek to export, as a primary weapon in the war on drugs.

This is the second in a 4-volume set that provides the definitive account of the major issues of comparative constitutional law in Asian jurisdictions.

Volume 2 looks at constitutional amendments and offers answers to questions about the formal rules for amending the constitution such as:
- Who initiates an amendment proposal?
- How is the amendment proposal adopted?
- How are the amendments codified?
and the neo-institutional questions regarding amendment practices such as:
- Why is the constitution amended?
- Who engages in the amendment process?
- How does the amendment affect the political system and the society?

Volume 2 covers 17 Asian jurisdictions including: Bangladesh, Cambodia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, North Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand.

This book challenges the common view that the Russian Constitution is a sham or a reflection of Russia's authoritarian past.

It instead shows that the Russian Constitution was a product of the constitutional 'dark arts', an increasingly common constitutional practice that seeks to guarantee liberal democracy and individual rights in a system of highly centralised power.

Over time in Russia, the centralisation of power in the president has undermined the constitution's democratic and rights protections. This Russian experience matters for three reasons.

First, it shows that Russian authoritarianism is neither the personal creation of Vladimir Putin nor a natural reflection of Russian history. It is instead the product of a centralised constitutional system. A democratic Russia is possible but requires more than just Putin leaving office - it also requires breaking with Russia's constitutional commitment to centralisation.

Second, it demonstrates the role that the constitutional dark arts play in populist authoritarianism around the world. In these contexts, centralisation allows one office to claim popular legitimacy and dominate politics while (generally falsely) also claiming to respect individual rights and democracy.

Third, it reveals that democratic constitutions are more than legal texts enforced in court. They are more fundamentally political texts that create a balanced state with political checks on the centralisation of political power. These checks and balances do not just limit state power and protect rights; they also enable the state to better understand and advance the general well-being of its citizens.

This book therefore provides critical guidance to those involved in building democracy in a post-Putin Russia. It is also important to those seeking to better understand the role that constitutions play in shaping both authoritarian and democratic politics.

This book explores new societal paradigms related to current debates and discusses how we can confront aspects of those debates which do not fit into a traditional social model. It proposes a theoretical and reflective framework for understanding new social discourse, particularly related to issues of diversity, feminism, and liminal societies. The goal is to explore such issues via humanities-centered lens, rather than just sociological or psychological. Furthermore, the book adheres to the responsibility to generate a way of thinking related to a "new" way of manifesting for our society and generating a culture for the future.

This book offers a philosophical analysis of the role played by legal scholarship in the written judicial decisions of different Western legal systems. Based on a positivist (and, more specifically, Hartian) theory of law, the book discusses the concept of a source of law and the possibility of including within that concept the writings of legal scholars. It also discusses the concept of authority and the structure of authority-based arguments, such as those that judges often employ when referring to legal scholarship in their judgments.