Climate Change Litigation in Canada and the USA

This article examines the growing phenomenon of climate change litigation in the USA and Canada. It explores the expanding context in which this litigation is occurring and highlights key successes and failures of these actions. In the absence of a comprehensive federal framework in both countries, the article shows how litigation is being used by claimants to attempt to require government action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to force private entities to do the same and to pay damages. Whether a piecemeal approach to climate change engendered through litigation can provide a solution to this global issue remains to be seen.     

Book reviews

National Movements and National Identity Among the Crimean Tatars (1905–16) Hakan Kirimli Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1996, 242 pp, illus., bibliog., index

Crimean Tatars: Repatriation and Conflict Prevention New York: Open Society Institute, 1996, 95 pp

Between the Slogans of Communism and the Laws of Islam Marfua Tokhtakhodjaeva Lahore: Shirkat Gah, 1995, x, 268 pp, paperback

Household Welfare in Central Asia Jane Falkingham, Jeni Klugman, Sheila Marnie and John Micklewright (editors) Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1997, xii, 253 pp, hardcover

The Wars of Eduard Shevarnadze Carolyn McGiffert Ekedahl and Melvin A. Goodman University Park, Pennsylvania: Penn State Press, 1997

Dictionary of Afghan Wars, Revolutions and Insurgencies Ludwig W. Adamec Lanham, MD, USA and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1996, 384 pp, maps, illus, chronology, bibliog. $48, hardback

Domestic Culture in the Middle East Jennifer Scarce National Museums of Scotland: Edinburgh and Curzon Press, Richmond, UK 1996, £12.99

Imageries Populaires en Islam Pierre Centlivres and Micheline Centlivres‐Demont Geneva, Switzerland: Georg Editeur, 1997, 106 pp, illus. FfS39

Colour and Symbolism in Islamic Architecture: Eight Centuries of the Tile‐Maker's Art Photographs by Roland and Sabrina Michaud. Text by Michael Barry London: Thames & Hudson, 1996, 315 pp, illus, map, indices, glossary, £48 hardback

Traditional Textiles of Central Asia Janet Harvey London: Thames & Hudson, 1996, 160 pp, biblio, £35

The Carpets of Afghanistan R. D. Parsons Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors Club, 1994, 192 pp, £29.95

The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911: Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy and the Origins of Feminism Janet Afary New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, xxi + 448 pp., bibliography, glossary, index

Kochevaia tsivilizatsiia kazakhov: osnovy zhiznedeiatel'nosti nomadnogo obshchestva Nurbulat Masanov Almaty: Sotsivest, 1995     

Authorizing state crime in Mexico: the importance of a destructive social milieu

This essay seeks to specify some of the social–psychological determinants that led to the mobilization of deadly state crime in the Latin American authoritarian state context. The Mexican case provides an interesting case in which to specify some of these determinants because hundreds of leftist political party militants, often engaged in legal activities, have been gunned down by state agents (the police, the military, local politicians associated with the dominant party-state) or indirectly by hired guns on behalf of state leaders Schatz. S. (Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, 23:255–295, 2001). I argue, in the Mexican case, the leadership authorization of destructive behavior was the critical activating historical condition activating deadly state crime because it created a permissive social milieu that allows for the utilization of more extreme forms of violence including the use of political assassination as a mode of social control. This permissive social milieu was, of course, aided by a passive legal system that generated the almost complete lack of penalties for state-sanctioned brutality. While none of these determinants alone may be sufficient to produce a wave of political–electoral homicides, when they all combine, it makes such destructive behavior very likely to occur.     

Die Regulierung der Einführung invasiver gebietsfremder Arten durch Biofouling an der Schnittstelle zwischen Naturschutzrecht und Seeschifffahrtsrecht

Natur und Recht - Bewuchs an Seeschiffen (sog. Biofouling) ist ein bedeutender Vektor bei der Einführung invasiver gebietsfremder aquatischer Arten und damit eine Herausforderung für den...     

The role of capital accumulation in economic development

In an open dual economy, the reallocation of factors to the industrial sector is accelerated whenever the region can sell its industrial product on a world market, or can invest at a level greater than domestic savings, by borrowing abroad. The industrialization is slowed, however, by any increase in the demand for ‘backward'‐sector products, as for example, when such products are demanded as inputs into the industrial production process. In the model presented here, these industrial input requirements are an important determinant of the growth of per capita income and, especially, the borrowing‐lending position of a developing region.     

FIGHTING CORRUPTION WITH SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS' POTENTIAL TO REDUCE CORRUPTION IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Given the poor track record of traditional anti‐corruption initiatives, donors and governments are increasingly looking at how civil society can fight corruption in public administration. Social accountability mechanisms intend to perform this role by holding officials directly accountable through citizen engagement. However, this article argues that social accountability mechanisms are only capable of reducing corruption systemically if they activate horizontal accountability and sustain it through the sanctioning mechanisms of electoral accountability. A comparative case study analysis using the cases of the Ugandan Public Expenditure Tracking Survey and the Bangalore Citizen Report Card is applied to test this hypothesis. The Tanzanian Public Expenditure Tracking Survey and an example of citizen engagement in Mumbai are employed as shadow cases to provide additional evidence for the hypothesis. The results indicate that social accountability mechanisms must be inclusive, broad, with public effect and embedded in other accountability relationships to fight corruption effectively. Electoral accountability is key, and support to social accountability mechanisms should therefore always be well placed within a broader agenda aimed at strengthening democratic governance. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Methods for detection and confirmation of Hematide™/peginesatide in anti-doping samples

Since the 1990's, cheating athletes have abused substances to increase their oxygen transport capabilities; among these substances, recombinant EPO is the most well known. Currently, other investigational pharmaceutical products are able to produce an effect similar to EPO but without having chemical structures related to EPO; these are the synthetic erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs). Peginesatide (also known as Hematide?) is being developed by Affymax and Takeda and, if approved by regulatory authorities, could soon be released on the international market. To detect potential athletic abuse of this product and deter athletes who consider cheating, we initiated a collaboration to implement a detection test for anti-doping purposes. Peginesatide is a synthetic, PEGylated, investigational, peptide-based erythropoiesis-stimulating agent that is designed and engineered to stimulate specifically the erythropoietin receptor dimer that governs erythropoiesis. It is undetectable using current anti-doping tests due to its lack of sequence homology to EPO. To detect and deter potential abuse of peginesatide, we initiated an industry/antidoping laboratory collaboration to develop and validate screening and confirmation assays so that they would be available before peginesatide reaches the market. We describe a screening ELISA and a confirmation assay consisting of immune-purification followed by separation with SDS-PAGE and revelation with Western double blotting. Both assays can detect 0.5 ng/mL concentrations of peginesatide in blood samples, enabling detection for several days after administration of a physiologically relevant dose. This initial report describes experimental characterization of these assays, including testing with a blinded set of samples from a clinical study conducted in healthy volunteers.