School-wide publications
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://dspace.njala.edu.sl/handle/20.500.144402/177
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Item The Principle of Non-Intervention in the Age of Humanitarian Crises(Universitas Muhammadiyah Surabaya, 2025-10-31) Marah, Thomas ShekuThis research critically describes the evolving tension between the principle of non-intervention and the newly arising norm of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) under international law. While state sovereignty has long been considered the pillar of the international order, increasing numbers of mass atrocities and humanitarian crises have prompted international actors to reassess their obligation to intervene where states fail to protect their citizens. This study undertakes a doctrinal and qualitative analysis of significant international legal instruments, case studies such as Libya and Syria, and scholarly writings to ascertain the normative and legal validity of humanitarian intervention and R2P. It analyzes the legal basis of the principle of non-intervention, the ethical grounds for humanitarian intervention, and the practical application of R2P through international organizations such as the United Nations. The research also explores the issue of operationalizing R2P, including selectivity, political manipulation, and inconsistency in state practice. The research demonstrates that while R2P offers an attractive normative framework for responding to mass atrocities, its enforcement is thwarted by geopolitical interests and the lack of binding legal status. The findings of the research demonstrate a clear need for reform of the international legal system and a more robust institutional commitment to balancing state sovereignty with humanitarian obligations, thereby conducting interventions within a legal, consistent, and accountable framework.Item From Local to Global : Multidisciplinary Insights on Education, Governance, and Technology for Societal Progress(2025-12-31) Marah, Thomas ShekuEducation together with governance and technology represent a core transformation that drives societal advancement throughout the twenty-first century. The intersection between these elements enables expanded knowledge access and better service delivery along with increased civic participation. Digital transformation encounters barriers because of inadequate digital infrastructure and unequal literacy rates and uncoordinated governance systems which restrict its advantages in developing countries. Solving this problem demands a combined approach which describes both the potential advantages of innovation alongside the dangers of marginalization. The research sets out to establish a combination framework which explains how governance controls technology-education interactions and their joint effects on social inclusion along with sustainable development. The research implemented mixed-methods design through bibliometric analysis of worldwide studies between 2020 and 2025 and systematic literature review and comparative case study focusing on Indonesia. The findings reveal four central themes: digital learning and resilience, e-governance and participation, technological innovation for sustainability, and ethical challenges of digitalization. The findings demonstrate that inclusive governance together with strong institutional capacity serves as the decisive factor to convert technological progress into educational and social benefits that reach everyone. The research shows that successful digital innovation transformation into sustainable societal engines needs coordinated multidisciplinary approaches.Item ASSESSING THE IMPLEMENTATION AND OUTCOMES OF SIERRA LEONE’S RADICAL INCLUSION POLICY FOR MARGINALIZED LEARNERS(Muhammadiyah University Press, 2025-12-30) Marah, Thomas ShekuThe Sierra Leone National Policy on radical inclusion in Schools was created to deal with inequalities in the education of pregnant girls, teenagers, children with disabilities, and rural and lower-income students. This paper evaluates the implementation of the policy, the disabilities that hinder its effectiveness, and the impacts on marginalized learners by conducting a qualitative desk-based review of government reports, peer-reviewed articles, international agencies’ reports, and recent research on inclusive education in Sierra Leone. Results indicate that radical inclusion has helped to reinforce the legislative framework, enhance advocacy, increase opportunities for pregnant learners to return to school, and enrich provisions for learners with special needs. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of effective implementation, including incompetence in inclusive and special needs instruction among teachers, inadequate facilities, ineffective data systems, cultural stigmatization, and economic constraints affecting rural and disadvantaged populations. Ongoingchallenges within the Education Management Information System (EMIS) undermine effective monitoring of inclusion indicators. Given that the study relies more on sources of secondary data, the findings present patterns of implementation and reported results instead of empirical evidence from schools or learners. Despite its limitations, the policy has clear potential when supported by strong school leadership, meaningful community involvement, and also sustained long-term investment. The findings of this study demonstrate that the radical inclusion policy marks a very important step toward achieving equality in the educational system of Sierra Leone, but fulfilling these promises requires deliberate and targeted actions to remove systemic barriers, empower teachers, and strengthen data-driven accountability systems.Item Judicial independence without public trust? Reassessing institutional legitimacy in Sierra Leone's democratic governance(Diponegoro University, 2026-06-20) Marah, Thomas ShekuThis study examines the relationship between judicial independence, public trust, and institutional legitimacy in Sierra Leone's democratic governance framework. Using a qualitative case study approach, the research analyzes constitutional provisions, governance reports, institutional assessments, and relevant scholarly literature to evaluate whether formal judicial independence is sufficient to generate institutional legitimacy. The findings indicate that judicial independence alone does not automatically translate into public confidence or institutional authority. While judicial reforms have strengthened constitutional safeguards and institutional autonomy, legitimacy remains contingent upon citizens' perceptions of judicial effectiveness, fairness, accessibility, and accountability. The study demonstrates that public trust functions as a critical mechanism linking judicial independence to democratic governance outcomes. Consequently, institutional legitimacy emerges not solely from legal protections but from the interaction between judicial autonomy and societal confidence. The article argues for a governance-centered understanding of judicial independence that incorporates public trust as a fundamental dimension of institutional legitimacy.Item From ownership to stewardship: reimagining intellectual property governance through the Knowledge Commons Framework(Cogent OA, 2026-09-12) Marah, Thomas ShekuContemporary intellectual property (IP) governance remains strongly shaped by proprietary logics of exclusivity, control, and rights allocation, even as knowledge production becomes increasingly collaborative, cumulative, and digitally mediated. This study examines how the Knowledge Commons Framework can inform a stewardship-oriented reconceptualization of IP governance. Using a qualitative conceptual design combining systematic literature synthesis with abductive theory building, the analysis integrates scholarship on intellectual property, commons governance, stewardship, knowledge governance, responsible innovation, and collaborative innovation. The findings identify four recurring governance deficits access, participation, coordination, and sustainability that rights-centered approaches do not fully resolve. In response, the study develops an IP-specific stewardship framework organized around inclusivity, responsibility, adaptability, and sustainability. The contribution does not lie in presenting stewardship as a new concept, but in theorizing how established stewardship principles can be integrated with the Knowledge Commons Framework to connect proprietary authority with continuing governance responsibilities. The framework is further operationalized through applications to AI training data, open science, and traditional knowledge, and through policy pathways addressing institutional design, accountability, and sector-specific governance, while preserving innovation incentives and recognizing institutional risks and power asymmetries.Item From legal dualism to polycentric governance: reframing authority and legitimacy in Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka(Cogent OA, 2026-08-25) Marah, Thomas ShekuThis article examines how the interaction between customary law and state institutions shapes governance outcomes in Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka, where plural legal systems persist as central features of post-colonial state formation. Existing scholarship recognizes legal pluralism but insufficiently explains its implications for institutional coherence and state authority. The study aims to address this gap by analyzing how institutional arrangements produce and sustain fragmented governance. Employing a qualitative comparative design grounded in socio-legal analysis, the article draws on legal texts, policy documents, and doctrinal interpretation. The findings demonstrate that institutionalized ambiguity and asymmetrical power relations generate fragmented legitimacy, producing regulatory uncertainty, inconsistent adjudication, and uneven enforcement. Rather than facilitating coordination, plural legal orders are strategically structured to preserve state dominance while delegating localized authority. The article advances a reconceptualization of legal pluralism as a governance mechanism and highlights the need for institutional designs that address fragmentation without erasing normative diversity.Item Disinformation as a weapon: legal limits of cognitive warfare under International Humanitarian Law(Cogent OA, 2026-07-06) Marah, Thomas ShekuContemporary armed conflict increasingly operates through cognitive and informational domains, where disinformation functions as a strategic instrument capable of producing significant societal and operational effects. This development challenges the adequacy of International Humanitarian Law, which remains structured around kinetic assumptions of harm, targeting, and violence. Existing scholarship identifies regulatory gaps but lacks a systematic framework for interpreting how current legal principles apply to non-kinetic operations. This article addresses this gap by examining whether and under what conditions disinformation can be regulated within the Law of Armed Conflict. It adopts a doctrinal methodology grounded in treaty interpretation and functional, effects-based legal analysis, drawing on primary legal sources and contemporary operational practices. The findings demonstrate that disinformation does not fall outside the law but exposes limitations in prevailing interpretive paradigms, particularly regarding harm, targeting, and thresholds of conflict. By advancing a structured interpretive and threshold framework, the study refines existing doctrine and informs ongoing debates on the regulation of cognitive warfare.Item Decentering the Sharia Court: Practical Authority and Islamic Legal Pluralism in Sierra Leone(Postgraduate Programme of Universitas Islam Negeri Kiai Haji Achmad Siddiq Jember, 2026-10-16) Marah, Thomas ShekuScholarship on Islamic legal pluralism has largely taken the Sharia court as its measure of institutional significance, asking how Islamic norms are incorporated, accommodated, or made enforceable by the state. Sierra Leone resists that starting point. Its Constitution and the local courts Act 2011 recognise customary adjudication, and the Mohammedan Marriage Act gives civil effect to Muslim marriages, yet no Sharia court exists and no Islamic adjudicatory jurisdiction has been delegated to any religious institution. This article asks how Sharia-informed mediation acquires practical authority under these conditions. It uses a qualitative documentary socio-legal case study of constitutional and statutory texts, justice-sector and governance reports, and peer-reviewed scholarship, read through Griffiths, Moore, Tamanaha, and Weber. The analysis finds that such mediation derives no jurisdiction from the state but operates in a plural justice environment. Community recognition, Islamic normative legitimacy, established mediation practice, and uneven access to courts and legal aid leave room for religious actors to take part in dispute resolution. The article defines practical authority as the socially recognised capacity of a non-state normative institution to structure, facilitate, or influence dispute resolution without state-delegated adjudicatory competence, and distinguishes it from formal jurisdiction, normative authority, and social legitimacy. Because the evidence is documentary, the findings do not establish how often mediation occurs, whether disputants prefer it, or whether its outcomes are complied with. The article decentres the court as the measure of Islamic legal authority and shows how religious normativity can matter institutionally without becoming jurisdictional.