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This paper seeks to describe an attempt to assess at the local level the progress that has been internationally achieved in recognition of community and indigenous rights, and of indigenous and community conserved areas. An action‐research exercise was implemented in Ethiopia with a mobile indigenous people of evaluating customary as well as government‐led governance of the environment, with the objective of strengthening the capacity of the Borana‐Oromo to conserve their landscape.

This paper is based on collaborative research implemented by the authors in 2002 while SOS Sahel Ethiopia was introducing collaborative forest management, and on a 2007 action research project specifically designed to broaden the scope of the involvement of the customary leadership in sustainable landscape management.

The research demonstrates the high degree of articulation and efficacy of customary governance as opposed to the failure of State‐centric attempts to protect specific areas within the broader landscape. Customary institutions, however, are increasingly delegitimised and incapable of coping with new challenges such as massive immigration, political marginalisation and de facto land privatisation.

The action‐research was insufficient to achieve the goal due to limitations in the national legislation, inefficiency by the government in implementing the existing policies, and the persisting practice of imposing development with insufficient prior consultation.

Based on an informed review of the international and national legislation and policies, the customary leaders of the Borana have released a public statement asking for support in addressing the gaps and problems they have identified, particularly achieving legal recognition of the customary institutions and customary laws in relation to biodiversity conservation. At national level it was recommended to organize a workshop on community conservation of biodiversity and community rights, with the objective of disseminating awareness about the latest instruments and Resolutions in the context of IUCN and the CBD.

The customary governance of the Borana is based on the gadaa generation class system, highly articulated in terms of norms and procedures. The territory is vast and it includes government‐protected areas due to the importance of the biodiversity. The case contributes to raising awareness about the relevance of legislation and enhancement of rights at national level.

How organisations interact with and respond to environmental pressures has been a long-term interest of organisational scholars. Still, it remains an under-theorised phenomenon from a project perspective. So far, there is limited understanding of how projects, which are composed by a constellation of organisations, “respond” to institutional pressures that are exerted on them. This research takes the perspective of projects as adopters/implementers of institutional pressures and analyses how they interact with, and respond to, such pressures. More specifically, this research explores how construction projects respond to the pressure of a Building Information Modelling (BIM) mandate.

Multiple in-depth case studies were conducted to explore the practical implementation of a BIM mandate in the UK and understand how the construction projects responded to the coercive pressures to implement a new policy mandate for process digitalisation. Multiple sources were employed for data collection and the data were analysed inductively. The findings identify a hybrid response comprising four distinct ways that projects might respond to an institutional pressure.

We find that projects decouple both from the content and from the intended purpose of a policy, i.e. there are two variance of a policy-practice decoupling phenomenon in projects. The findings also reveal the underlying conditions leading to decoupling.

We advance decoupling literature so that it better applies to the temporary, distributed and interdependent work conducted via projects. Second, we define decoupling in projects as a provisional and fragmented process of wayfinding through heterogeneous institutional spaces, and discuss the potential policy-practice assemblages in projects, influenced by how, if and when project members' activities decouple from the many and often contradicting institutional pressures they face. Third, we discuss how the qualitatively different forms of decoupling that we identified in our work may act as part of a legitimation process in ambiguous situations whereby projects might share a resemblance of conformity with institutional pressures when they are de facto only partially conforming to them.

Difficulties in implementing change in schools have been explained either by referring to the concerns of teachers or to the organizational dynamics of the school. This article presents a framework in which these two sets of factors are linked. It is suggested that the school, in responding to major policy change, triggers specific organizational issues that in turn will arouse specific concerns on the part of the individual teacher. The implementation of major change is seen as the resolution of these issues and their related concerns. The framework maps the interplay of organizational issues and personal concerns; it serves as a reflection on the dynamics of change and on the management of “the implementing school”.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the interplay between customary norms and organised crime and consider their implications for judicial corruption.

This paper analyses the links between judicial corruption and organised crime in the Western Balkans generally, and focuses on the role of customary norms in Albania in particular. The paper takes stock from secondary sources and a series of semi‐structured expert interviews with judges, prosecutors, and lawyers in Albania.

This study explains that the impact of customary norms in the interplay between organised crime and judicial corruption in the Western Balkans generally, and in Albania more specifically, although not frequently used, is real and that it carries significant consequences.

Due to differences among cultures in the Western Balkans, findings based on Albania are suggestive only for similar societies and indicate areas for future research.

The paper demonstrates that mechanisms of customary norms such as vendetta and blood feud killings can neutralise the judiciary and law enforcement agencies when they have been manipulated by organised crime out of their social context for criminal purposes.

The present exploratory study aimed (1) to explore the traditional dietary habits of local communities, (2) to analyze the shift in traditional eating practices and (3) to examine the changes observed in socio-cultural beliefs system due to climate change.

A cross-sectional study was conducted with purposive sampling of 210 households in the select ten villages of the western Himalayan region. Open-ended interview questionnaires and a close-ended survey on a 5-point Likert scale are used. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 is used for the exploratory factor analysis. Further, Atlas-ti version 8 is also employed for thematic analysis.

The exploratory and thematic analysis illustrated that socio-ecological beliefs are crucial in food choices, but cultural beliefs are also changing due to climate change. Thus, the shift in socio-cultural beliefs can significantly affect the nutritional security of the indigenous societies during climate-induced emergencies in the mountain regions.

Therefore, the findings of the study are significant for a comprehensive understanding of the traditional dietary practice of the indigenous community for an evidence-based inclusive food security and climate change adaptation policy.

The inclusion of cultural practices is evident for ensuring the nutritional security. But, the magnitude of the climate-induced impacts on customary societies is not yet fully understood. Thus, the current study was conducted.

This paper aims to explore the evolution of the notion of peremptory norms (Jus Cogens) in international law through the work of the International Law Commission on unilateral acts.

The study depended on analyzing the work of the International Law Commission on two topics: Unilateral Acts 2006 and Reservations to treaties 2011 to reveal the relation between jus cogens and unilateral acts.

Jus cogens restrict unilateral acts like treaties due to the recognition of the importance and necessity of the concept of Jus cogens in protecting the fundamental interests of the international community.

States must be compatible with jus cogens when making any reservation on a treaty and also when taking any unilateral act.

This paper reveals the importance of jus cogens in promoting the values of the international community and the need of such notion to protect the common interest of that community.

The paper aims to argue the case for the introduction of a global anti‐money laundering (AML) court. The proposed court as an institution can engender a rule‐based ethos as well as an environment for the transposition of AML regimes and requisite global changes into the society.

The paper was written by exploiting the significance of the court system to the development of any society. In particular, the paper draws on a pivotal role played by the European Court of Justice in enhancing economic integration of European member countries. Another example utilised by this paper was the dispute settlement mechanism (DSM) in the WTO. The DSM evolved an effective framework for settling international trade disputes and fundamentally helped to streamline the system. This paper is of the contention that the court would ease the adoption of global AML regimes and consequently ease the co‐existence of countries in relation to global AML initiatives.

The paper has delineated that any global initiatives either on money laundering (ML) or otherwise will have to reside in a form of institutional framework for them to work effectively. Short of that, it is possible that there will be enormous challenges for global AML regimes to function properly as envisaged.

The author is cognizant of the fact that states are still mandated to veto his prepositions based on the principle of sovereignty of nations. States can also refuse to lend their support – in its various dimensions to the proposed court.

It has to be noted that creating global AML regimes that are not going to work is not good enough and in case it amounts to a wastage of scarce resources that would better be utilised somewhere else.

ML in its various manifestations has far reaching consequences for lives of people wherever it is committed and should be accorded the seriousness it deserves.

The paper has been written based on the appreciation of the need to create enforcement mechanisms of engendered global AML/combating financing of terrorism (CFT) regimes. There are so many regimes masquerading as global, having been constituted with the mandate that give them a global reach and yet, they do not live up to their expectation.

This article aims to examine the sustainability of European and SADC states' practice of agreeing bilateral investment agreements (BITs) for the promotion and protection of foreign investments in light of the latter's recent inauguration of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) as a basic norm of regional customary international law and strategy for countering the social and economic legacy of apartheid rule on their territories for over half a century.

The approach taken is textual analysis and deconstruction of emergent SADC BEE legislation, substantive BIT legislation provisions, dispute settlement mechanisms and emergent jurisprudence on the tensions between BEE policy and BIT obligations.

The strong elements of exclusivity between European/SADC BIT dispute settlement mechanisms on the one hand, and the “ouster clauses” of SADC BEE legislation and regulations on the other, are mutually incompatible. This incompatibility threatens the sustainability of the EU/SADC states' BIT dynamic for the promotion and protection of foreign direct investments (FDIs).

Demonstration of BEE as SADC's emergent basic norm of social reconstruction for countering the social and economic legacy of apartheid rule in affected states and implications of that for EU/SADC policy on the promotion and protection of FDIs.

To know the control of Halong State against coastal and marine areas in the area that has been divided into Latta village and Lateri urban villages.

This type of writing of research is in the field of law, so the research method used is juridical normative, by using the approach of legislation and conceptual approach, intending to answer the temporary problem issues encountered.

Article 18B paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution of the State of the Republic of Indonesia is the constitutional basis of the state's recognition of the unity of indigenous and tribal peoples based on their traditional rights. One of the rights of customary law community is the control over its territory, which is called indigenous rights for both land and coastal and sea. In its development, there are some areas of indigenous village released for villages' formation or villages in coastal and marine areas. However, the expansion of indigenous villages did not affect the loss of customary village tenure to the Indigenous rights of coastal and marine areas in the area of a village or urban village which was expanded from a custom village.

Related to this Halong State in Ambon City is one of the indigenous villages which occupies the area within the bay of Ambon Island which has the right of customary law community area in the land area, and has a sea fishing territory. In its development, part of Halong State has been divided into a village and urban village, namely Lata Village and Lateri Urban Village. Latta village and Lateri village are also located in the coastal area of Ambon Bay. The problem that arises from the division is whether the coastal areas and the sea in Latta and Lateri villages remain part of the Halong state territory or not.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between gender disparities in rural education attainments and agricultural landownership (ALO) in Sub-Sahara Africa with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) perspective.

This study uses SDG indicators interactions and pairwise correlation analysis.

There is a significant negative association between gender disparities in rural education attainments and ALO in Sub-Sahara Africa. Such negative relationship is not influenced by national economic development and living standards.

The data is limited with 16 Sub-Sahara African countries, and as this is an early output of a number of follow-up studies in the author’s plan, the methodology is relatively simple.

Reducing gender disparity in rural Sub-Sahara Africa especially in ALO requires more integrated approaches which also address other aspects of sustainable development. This is particularly the situation because of the strong male-favored customary practices in rural Sub-Sahara Africa. The prioritization of different dimensions of sustainable development is also important in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Strong awareness of SDGs is important. Further efforts in collecting data for and use data of sustainable development, especially the SDGs, are essential. Emerging trend of studying the interactions across SDGs reflects the future direction of relevant fields.

This paper has high originality because it is an early-stage research in the SDG interactions in Sub-Sahara African countries with the perspective of gender, gender disparity, Sub-Sahara Africa, SDGs, ALO and rural education attainments. This paper has both academic and practical values because of its innovative research thoughts and policy-oriented implications.