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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Antibiotic resistance is on the rise while the number of antibiotics being brought to market continues to drop. While this is a dire situation, a number of emerging technologies have the potential to reverse this trend. These, and supporting legislative initiatives, promise to stave off the post-antibiotic era.

This article discusses Hugo Grotius's 'pamphlet' Ordinum pietas in the political and religious setting of 1613, attempting to draw some lessons from a contemporary perspective. At a time of religious struggle and strife De Groot felt himself committed to ´religious peace´, implying freedom of conscience as a public-political principle coupled with toleration of religious diversity in practice. It is in the context of religious conflict at a time of transition that his allegiance to an established confession and his rejection of sectarian sectarian concepts of theocracy, may be understood. A connection is made to both modern requirements of 'religious peace' and universal human rights as a 'global faith'.

Abstract: This article discusses the role of human rights as general principles of law guiding judicial decision-making. After an introduction into the dialectics of legality versus legitimacy, it focuses on the Courts' need for public-political constituency that carries their judgments. It is in that context that the old regulae iuris have always played their part. Based on the overriding principle of universal human dignity human rights are conceived as modern rules of justice throwing light upon concrete cases. Although in terms of sheer legality their impact is rather trivial, a focus on legitimacy evidently enhances their impact. This is illustrated in regard to human rights in private law. In conclusion, a shift in emphasis from quasi-legal international procedures in semi-judicial UN Charter and Treaty bodies lacking any power to enforce their 'resolutions' and 'concluding observations', to human rights as general principles guiding judicial decision-making appears to be worth consideration.

This article explores the difficulties inherent in the conceptualization, legal definition, and use of the term "minorities," framing these issues in the context of global efforts toward human rights realization. It argues that the critical concern is not majority or minority status as such, but rather the construction of dominant positions based upon collectively exclusive elements and the actual abuse of such positions. After delineating the limited role that law can and does play in the actual protection of non-dominant collectivities on the global and national planes, this article urges laying aside the term "minority" as both a label and a concept and reconceptualizing the mission in terms of collective human dignity protection, with this concept's deep roots in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This might well be linked to the urgently needed operationalization of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).

This article explores the difficulties inherent in the conceptualization, legal definition, and use of the term "minorities," framing these issues in the context of global efforts toward human rights realization. It argues that the critical concern is not majority or minority status as such, but rather the construction of dominant positions based upon collectively exclusive elements and the actual abuse of such positions. After delineating the limited role that law can and does play in the actual protection of non-dominant collectivities on the global and national planes, this article urges laying aside the term "minority" as both a label and a concept and reconceptualizing the mission in terms of collective human dignity protection, with this concept's deep roots in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This might well be linked to the urgently needed operationalization of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). Adapted from the source document.