This article seeks to describe a paradigmatic view on legal research, based on the thought processes underlining Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, in particular as how revolutionary change is coming about through a reflexive attitude towards developments that do not fit in the prevailing assumptions in an existing paradigm or research methodology. It allows for a description of ‘normal legal research’ and the assumptions upon which normal legal research is based. It also allows for an explanation as to how these assumptions are no longer exclusively valid but carry with them limitations in the face of structural developments at the level of society. An important feature of the paradigmatic view, then, is that it is able to take issue with these developments by incorporating social theory in our understanding of law.

The current phase in which Dutch government increasingly criminalizes the illegal residence of migrants is simultaneously characterized by decreasing numbers of illegal migrants in this country. In the process of crimmigration, some newly developed policies indirectly influence daily lives of specific groups of illegal migrants while other policies and laws more directly try to hinder illegal stay. These policies that aim to exclude and ban illegal migrants are continued even though they are increasingly criticized by academics and divergent (inter)national actors. These policies and laws can be contradictory, sometimes conflict with international treaties, and lead to unforeseen and undesirable outcomes in which human dignity is challenged.

Private security is traditionally a highly fragmented industry with a national focus. However, with the arrival of multinational brands in the market such as Group 4 Securicor and Securitas, we are witnessing a rise of global private security. After providing the latest statistics on the growth of this industry in the Netherlands, the authors give examples of how private security is evolving throughout the world. Issues that are further addressed include the opportunities and challenges (multinational) private security companies present to the Netherlands.

In this paper I test the thesis that the different fortunes of the secular state in the predominantly Jewish, Christian and Muslim countries depend significantly, although not exclusively, on their different religious background and, in particular, on the conception of God’s law that developed in the theological and legal traditions of these three religions. My analysis will focus primarily on Sunni Islam, Orthodox Judaism and Roman Catholic Christianity. The model of the secular state appears to be connected to the Christian theological concept. It is not neutral and thus, it is futile to attempt to export this model to religious and legal traditions that do not meet the conditions for accepting it.

Steven Winter’s argument is premised on a sharp contrast of individualist and social revolutions. I elaborate my doubts about his argument on three accounts, involving feminist perspectives at various points. First, I take issue with Winter’s portrayal of liberal theory, redirecting the focus of his concern to economic libertarianism rather than liberalism, and arguing a more hospitable attitude to the Kantian pith in the theory of democracy. Secondly, I discuss his conceptualization of democracy, adding the conceptual distinction of civil society and public sphere. Thirdly, I question his normative notion of socially situated selves as having an intrinsic relation to social freedom. I moreover consult cultural history on the gendered symbolics of market and democracy to further problematize Winter’s take on either’s meaning for social freedom.

Winter’s criticism of the conventional account of freedom and democracy is best understood against the background of the history of Enlightenment critique. Winter claims that our current misunderstanding of freedom and self-governance is the result of the strict dichotomy between subject and object. This paper critically reconstructs Winter’s notion of freedom and self-governance which does not adequately address (a) the details of his anti-collectivist claim, and (b) the necessary conditions for the possibility of a moral point of view. This makes it difficult to determine how Winter can distinguish between freedom and lack of freedom, and to assess the limited or radical nature of his critique of Enlightenment universalism.

Two waves of democratization define the post-Cold War era of globalization. The first one saw democracies emerge in post-communist countries and post-Apartheid South Africa. The current wave began with the uprisings in the Middle East. The first focused on the formal institutions of the market and the liberal state, the second is participatory and rooted in collective action. The individualistic conception of freedom and democracy that underlies the first wave is false and fetishistic. The second wave shows democracy’s moral appeal is the commitment to equal participation in determining the terms and conditions of social life. Freedom, thus, requires collective action under conditions of equality, mutual recognition, and respect.

In this reply, Steven L. Winter adresses his critics.

This article presents an overview of various measures, initiatives and developments regarding to the fight against discrimination in the Netherlands since 1971. It also gives a short overview of relevant international treaties on discrimination and the obligations for the parties involved. The political and societal attention for combating discrimination has decreased in recent years. There is a tendency to deny that discrimination is a real problem. Also the tone of voice in the public debate on integration of ethnic minorities has hardened. Nowadays, antidiscrimination policies and initiatives take place at the local level and state involvement is limited to facilitating support. The registration of discrimination complaints continues to be a problem and minor progress has been made in the last twenty years.

Student requests for praying space are posing schools for important questions about their policy. These questions cannot be answered within the scope of relevant principles of law in the Netherlands. On the basis of religious studies research the author suggests that schools should respond to those questions with positive tolerance. Such a policy is most effective in promoting order and other educational objectives. However this tolerance should be bound to a responsibility of praying students towards the position of secular and moderate religious students.

Approaching the night as a particular time and space for secret transgressions, this article examines the nightlife of Antwerp youth in the early twentieth century. Although this period saw increased official attempts to legally regulate ‘immoral’ nocturnal juvenile amusements, the police allowed most young people to move around unbothered at night, intervening only in major public order disturbances and handling most juveniles informally. Parents were more ‘efficient’, filing complaints with the juvenile judge on charges of ‘misconduct’, seeking to end familial financial troubles caused by heavy spending on nightlife. Working-class youth increasingly turned to the movies and dancing, in search for a secret ‘second life’ of pleasures away from conventional social and sexual codes, where they could belong and feel special.

This article examines the silence of control agents. It is often said that control agents as representatives of the risk society are obsessed with control activities and fact-finding, and that rule breakers are regularly exposed by negative publicity. The author takes the contrary position that even major cases demonstrate the persistence of silence on the part of control agents. He distinguishes between two types of silence: denial and secrecy. Denial means that control agents saw nothing while they could have discovered wrongdoing. He points to the fact that this denial in the face of knowledge is the result of sociological ambivalence: control agents are often forced to reconcile conflicting interests, which supersede the importance of supervision. The article shows that secrecy plays an important role in trust relationships between control agents and the objects of their supervision. Secrecy enables control agents to better obtain information. In effect, with regard to the supply of information and the scrutiny of the objects under supervision, control agents are dependent on the cooperativeness of the objects of supervision. These days, much emphasis is placed on breaking the walls of silence. Perpetrators, victims and witnesses, as well as control agents, are being encouraged to break the silence through the use of star witness arrangements, whistleblower arrangements, witness protection, and reporting centres. But is this effective? The author suggests that maintaining secrecy is essential and that those measures limit the space for control agents to develop trust relationships with the objects of supervision, and thereby the opportunity to engage in fact-finding.

In cultural criminology, we talk about crimes as secrets and secrets as crimes. There is a close relationship between criminality and secrecy. The unravelling of secrets can help us discover the meaning criminals attach to their actions and contacts. Secrets have always been a topical issue, as they are strongly embedded in our social world. Secrecy used to be functional in times of war and under dictatorships as a symbol of political and/or religious protest. Today, however, secrecy is most often associated with illegality and criminality. It is not easy to study secrets and secrecy, and for this reason criminological research requires specific, mainly ethnographic, research methods.

In the public spheres of the global cities, religion is getting more visible. However, this is not an independent process, but is linked to broader urban processes like segregation, security and (fear of) crime. With two different examples from Istanbul, this article explains how religious motivations become ways of expression for existing or emerging lines of urban segregation. While religious motivations appear as a tool used against urban gentrification in the area of Tophane; in the gated community of Basaksehir, religion, together with ‘fear of crime’ and ‘fear of immorality’, serves to differentiate a middle class living space from the ‘scary’ and ‘immoral’ environment of the big city.

In this article, the authors explore how active state support for religions and worldviews could be in accordance with the principle of liberal neutrality. They focus on the Belgian church-state policy because this policy is characterised by an explicit and extended form of active support for recognised worldviews. If this policy is in accordance with liberal neutrality, some other, weaker forms of state support for religions and worldviews may also be in accordance with this neutrality principle. In the light of these considerations, the authors make some suggestions about possible ways to bring the Belgian church-state policy more in accordance with liberal neutrality.