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This chapter examines the global minimum that people everywhere can claim as a matter of justice, and proposes that this should be understood as respect and protection for their basic human rights. When basic rights are threatened or violated, this triggers a responsibility on the part of outsiders to come to the aid of those whose rights are imperilled. The problem is to find a way of specifying the rights in question. There are two main desiderata. On the one hand, the grounding we give for basic human rights must explain their moral urgency, in particular why rights-violations can impose relatively demanding obligations on third parties who are not themselves responsible for the violations. On the other hand, the justification we present should have universal reach — it should appeal to reasons that everyone has reason to accept, regardless of their personal religious commitments or cultural values. It is argued that human rights can meet these desiderata, but only if the list of rights is kept fairly short and basic. More ambitious lists run the risk both of losing their moral urgency and of becoming unjustifiable except on partisan grounds.

Evangelical Cold War missionaries spread a premillennial and “American” gospel in the Cold War. A “culture of urgency” drove both evangelical missionaries and U.S. political leaders, who spread their own Cold War message abroad. The American government sometimes used missionaries in its interactions with other nations, while foreign missionaries closely intertwined anticommunist and evangelical messages.

Advancing technology and global commerce have created a 24-hour society where the natural constraints on human activity of geography and distance are dissolving. The competitive challenge of this world offers excitement and opportunity, but also chronic stress, which is frequently experienced by individuals as anxiety and time urgency. Sleep deprivation is commonplace and often self-imposed. The cascade of physiological disruption so engendered has unintended health consequences including cardiovascular disease and obesity. In the latter, there is growing evidence that, together with reduced exercise, short sleep may help drive weight gain by disrupting the bi-directional communication among the body's autonomic, endocrine and immune systems and the brain. The homeostasis of the pro-inflammatory cytokines, and the appetite-modulating peptides, ghrelin and leptin, in each instance is disturbed by sleep debt. This biology is reviewed, together with a discussion of its implications within the broader social context.

This chapter links the parable of the Doorkeeper and other “parables of vigilance” with the eighteenth‐century spiritual writer Jean Pierre De Caussade's “spirituality of the present moment.” It points out that the metaphor of the doorkeeper illuminates the idea of fulfilling God's appointed task (being a watchman, a doorkeeper) and the idea of urgency, and that it is aimed in particular at the following way of thinking:

If God wants me to do something I don’t have to do it now

I can do it at some other time (later)

This chapter argues that de Caussade's notion of “the sacrament of the present moment” illuminates the parable's message that God appears incognito in the duty or task of the present moment, and that watchfulness and readiness to recognize him, alert one to the opportunity to enter the Kingdom of God, by meeting God in the present moment.

In this chapter, procrastination is viewed as a species of a more general phenomenon, bad timing, which also includes premature decisions. The badness of bad timing is defined in terms of rational-choice theory. Sources of premature decisions include emotionally induced urgency and hyperbolic time discounting. Procrastination may also result from the latter mechanism, as well as from loss aversion and the need to act for sufficient reasons.

Continues the discussion of organ distribution for transplantation presented in the last four chapters of Part III of the book. Discusses the relative weight that should be assigned to urgency and outcome when need is constant, although the discussion also bears on the relation of need to outcome. Various hypothetical cases are presented that involve varying outcomes in absolute numbers of years, and these are discussed in the contexts of a determining organ distribution by a maximin approach (the approach of aiding the much worse off before the better off) that is modified so that consideration is given to outcome. Aspects addressed include unavoidable inequality, chances, lending organs, and various alternatives to the modified maximin approach — Dan Brock's proposal of chances proportional to outcome, multiplying outcomes, and outcome as sole determinant. The last section of the chapter looks at the justification for moving from the maximin approach to the modified maximin approach and then even further toward an approach that shows an even greater concern for outcome.

Though utilitarianism has been highly influential as a normative theory of public action, it has faced many searching criticisms throughout its history. In welfare economics, where the dominant conceptual framework was basically utilitarian for a long time, many distinctly non‐utilitarian ethical concerns have been explored in the last few decades. This chapter provides a review of some of the arguments advanced by the critics of utilitarianism as the basis of public action. The chapter starts with a discussion of some basic features of utilitarianism and then reviews a number of objections to utilitarianism, grouping them in three categories: (i) “problems of exclusion” (ii) “problems of inclusion” and (iii) “problems of aggregation”.

Rights that flow from a premise concerning the equal importance of individuals are not absolute and can be overridden by other weighty normative factors. This chapter draws an important distinction between ‘conditional rights’ and ‘unconditional rights’. It is argued that the rights argued for in Chapter 2 only become unconditional after a range of other important normative and pragmatic considerations are taken into account. Since these ‘conditional rights’ do not automatically result in clear practical obligations, the chapter considers several important considerations that could justify the failure to realise such rights fully. These include considerations of scarcity, sacrifice, urgency, effectiveness, and allocation. Ultimately, in determining the unconditional obligations upon the state, an all-things-considered consequentialist judgment must be made as to which state of affairs best succeeds in treating individuals with equal importance.

This chapter examines whether labor rights are human rights. Labor rights appear in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and are covered by the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Nevertheless, there are three primary objections to the notion that labor rights are human rights: the nature-of-rights objection, the inferior urgency objection, and the cultural imperialism objection. In light of the persistent skepticism confronting the idea of labor rights as human rights, the chapter traces the historical development that brought labor rights into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also considers whether we can derive labor rights from the various substantive sources of membership rights in the global order.

This chapter examines the power of international courts to grant provisional measures and analyses whether there is an emerging common practice. It first describes the purpose of provisional measures in international adjudication. It then considers the source of the power to grant provisional measures. Many international courts have an express power in their constitutive instruments, but several international courts have exercised the power as an inherent power. The chapter then examines the features common in the exercise of the power by a range of international courts — consideration of the question of jurisdiction over the merits of the dispute; the circumstances relevant to the granting of provisional measures; and the binding quality of provisional measures. Finally, the chapter considers the power of international courts to grant provisional measures ultra petita and proprio motu. It concludes that there is substantial commonality in the practice of international courts concerning provisional measures.

Begins the discussion of organ distribution for transplantation presented in the last four chapters of Part III of the book by analysing factors that may be relevant in three situations: true scarcity of resources, temporary scarcity of resources, and uncertainty as to the type of scarcity. The first two sections of the chapter consider the different concepts of need and urgency and their relation to each other: what makes one person needier than another and why is greater need a factor that should give one person a stronger claim to resources? Arguments are presented for and against the view that the younger are needier than the older, and proposals offered concerning a possible diminishing marginal utility of life and diminishing marginal value of life, fairness, and the relation between helping the worst off and equality. The last section of the chapter starts by examining the concept of outcome with an eye to deciding what effects of a transplant and differential effects between potential recipients are morally relevant and irrelevant. It then considers the relation between the factors of need and outcome, and presents several rationales for procedures that give outcome more weight relative to need — moving away from the maximin approach (that of aiding the much worse off before the better off).

Continues the discussion of organ distribution for transplantation presented in the last four chapters of Part III of the book. Considers whether and why, when need and urgency are held constant, greater (better) outcome should be given weight in making decisions. An examination is made of various theories in more detail, including that of contractualist moral reasoning as proposed by Thomas Scanlon. Aspects addressed include the substitution of equivalents, counting numbers vs concentrated benefit, worse vs better outcomes, the weight to be given to death, equal rights, and social utility in relation to outcome, and the role of the doctor in relation to consideration of outcome and social policy. Discussions of how much weight to give to waiting time, the role of ability to pay in distribution decisions, and problems in deriving the government's duty to pay complete the chapter.

This chapter explores the war poetry of Wilfred Owen. Soldier-poet anthologies published during the First World War confirm that ‘urgency of concern’ does not often ‘produce irreplaceable poems’, and that incompetent poets never do. Owen's urgency is considered a masterly effect of language. Owen argues that the subject of War precludes a concern with Poetry, those two capitalized abstractions existing in an antagonistic relationship which may render the phrase ‘War Poetry’ oxymoronic.

This chapter discusses the most important similarities and differences between business and higher education and explores ways in which businesspeople can effectively bring their knowledge and expertise to bear in improving academic institutions. Universities are fundamentally different organizations than businesses. Not only is there a vast divergence in mission (profit vs. reputation), there are also inherent differences in perspectives, particularly in terms of time and urgency. Business is known for its focus on immediacy. And although many aspects of a university’s operations may be time sensitive (such as turning in grades), measures of its reputation, such as the quality of students in the incoming class or the level of research funding received, are often only calculated and reported annually. In the book we provide a lens through which to consider this gap in perspective: the rates of organizational failure in the two sectors. Business failure is routine, while university failure is fairly unusual. The book cites research (Hendrickson et al., 2004) that points out, “None of the original 30 industries listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1928 are on the list today, and many no longer exist at all, yet all 30 of the top universities in the country in 1928 still exist, and most of them would still be considered among the best.” One may argue that this is an apples to oranges comparison, but that’s exactly the point.

Judicial vacations at the UPC will be fixed by the President of the Court of Appeal after consultation with the Presidium, which will make suggestions (Rule 342 UPCARoP). Official holidays will be those relevant in the CMS where the respective local or regional division or section of the central division or the Court of Appeal has its seat (see Rule 300 lit f UPCARoP). In cases of urgency, the President of the Court of Appeal can convene the judges.

Urgency, which is specifically mentioned as one of the requirements for the prescription of provisional measures, is the focus of this chapter. Urgency as such is not mentioned in the Statute of the International Court of Justice; however it can be implied when the Court considers that the circumstances so require it. As a matter of substance, the International Court of Justice has rarely mentioned urgency by name, preferring to recite the circumstances, which have led it to exercise, or not its power. Thus, urgency is mentioned specifically only in Article 290, paragraph 5, of the Law of the Sea Convention, and for International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea it is regulated in Articles 89 to 95 of the Rules of the Tribunal.

Rule 15.1 UPCARoP puts in more specific terms for the infringement proceedings the obligation of the parties to the proceedings, stipulated in Art 70(1) UPCA, to pay Court fees by imposing on the claimant the obligation to pay a fixed fee. The level of that fee is set in Rule 370.2, Fee Scale Section I at €11,000. Pursuant to Rule 371.1, the fee is to be paid by lodging the action (with regard to derogations from this requirement, → Rule 371 UPCARoP) by transfer to one of the bank accounts of the Court stating the party or his representative, the patent number, and the case reference. Pursuant to Rule 371.2, proof of payment is to be provided together with the Statement of claim.

Rule 209.1 UPCARoP gives the Court the power to use its discretion to decide on further proceedings. It has three options: giving information to the defendant about the application and inviting him to file an objection to the application (lit a); summoning both parties to an oral hearing (lit b); or summoning only the applicant, not the defendant, to an oral hearing (lit c).

Section 17 of the Land Acquisition Act 1894 was used to forcibly dispossess people of their land in a frequent and brutal fashion by suspending the requirement for due process. An anachronism in this day and age this clause was widely regarded as draconian. This chapter explains the debate that went into diminishing this clause and explains the current form.