Un aspect de l'insertion des militaries dans le processus de développement national en Afrique: Étude de quelques contradictions

At independence, Botswana, like many other countries in Anglophone Africa, inherited a dual legal system that was undergoing a significant shift towards convergence in the areas of criminal law and procedure. In Botswana's case, convergence was driven by a desire to minimise or, more speculatively, to gradually eliminate the gap between the normative standards of common law/general and customary courts in criminal trials. The country chose to follow a route that involved the universalisation of a penal code based on English common law, and the partial standardisation of procedure rules for customary courts. The present article considers how codified law and written procedure rules have transformed the substance and classification of legal wrongs, disputes and dispute processes, as well as the context and meaning of punishment in traditional settings.     

Crimes of Color: Risk, Profiling, and the Contemporary Racialization of Social Control

In the United States the phenomenon of racial profiling has emerged as an important and controversial issue within political and criminal justice policy debates. For the most part, these debates have assumed a sort of racism at work in order to explain law enforcement's use of criminal profiles largely determined by racial classifications. Accordingly, many have worked to expose this allegedly racist behavior in the hopes that such exposure will bring an end to the practice. This essay argues that racial profiling is embedded in much larger social developments that must be explored in order to understand the role race now plays in the maintenance of social order in contemporary American society.     

Bosses,Soldiers and Rice Grains. Vietnamese Criminal Networks and Criminal Activities in the Czech Republic

Since 1975, the numbers of Vietnamese living in Europe have steadily increased. As new emigrants appeared in various countries, new types of crime came with them. Also in the Czech Republic, where a relatively large Vietnamese diaspora has been in existence since communist times, numerous Vietnamese criminal networks were established. The Vietnamese networks have a specific structure and modus operandi. Their bosses create parallel power structures within the Vietnamese diaspora and frequently merge together legal and illegal activities. The Vietnamese criminal networks are engaged in a broad spectrum of criminal activities, including economic crime, people smuggling and trafficking in drugs.     

Criminalisation of Free Speech in Russia

Abstract

The essay addresses the current trends in the criminalisation of free speech in Russia. It critically discusses the amendments to the Russian Criminal Code, criminalising various forms of public expression of opinions, adopted in the years following the presidential elections in March 2012, and questions their compliance with international human rights law. Seeking to identify the motives behind the new provisions, the article argues that the amendments are intended to cause a ‘chilling effect’, to control public dissent by selective or random criminal prosecution. Two of the new criminal law provisions—‘Public Calls for Separatism’ and ‘Rehabilitation of Nazism’—are considered in detail to illustrate the author’s conclusions.     

Justice in Siberia: a case study of a lower criminal court in the city of Krasnoyarsk

Empirical investigation of justice administration udertaken in post-Soviet Russia has been insignificant. Consequently, there is a dearth of knowledge about realities of justice administration ‘on the ground’, at the level of districts or towns. The author's research project, an in depth empirical investigation of the activity of a single criminal court located in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, represents a step toward filling this gap. This paper concludes that the rule of law has made rather limited inroads in the day-to-day operations of criminal courts in the Russian deep provinces. The correspondence between earnestly declared legal principles and the mundane reality of judicial practice is loose and at some junctions non-existent.     

Reconsidering the Role of the Prefects in Turkey: Public Policies and Metropolization

Prefects are considered important actors in the formation of different public policies in Turkey. While prefects and sub-prefects are empowered by means of new policies, their roles are also altered during the process of strengthening local governments. This alteration process represents the spirit of the state reform in its broadest range, that is, the conflict between the central and the local. Another new public policy for Turkey is metropolization. The administrative structure of Turkey has been dramatically changed by the introduction of the new Metropolitan Municipality Law (Law No. 6360, 2012). Representing a major change, this law added 14 more metropolitan municipalities to the already existing 16, and abolished Special Provincial Administrations within the metropolitan municipalities. This study aims to explain the reforms made on a metropolitan level together with the transformation of the government, the central–local conflict, and the prefects’ role in these reform and transformation processes in Turkey.     

The code of conduct against harmful tax competition: open method of coordination in disguise?

The European Union is experimenting with new, non‐binding policy instruments in business taxation, namely a voluntary code of conduct among member states against harmful tax competition. This article raises the question to what extent can the code be considered a manifestation of the open method of coordination (OMC)? Is an open method (based on guidelines, peer review, best practice, benchmarking, learning and diffusion of shared beliefs among policy‐makers) emerging as a new governance architecture in tax policy? If so, what can the code achieve in terms of policy learning and convergence? There are similarities between the code and the open method of coordination – especially with reference to guidelines, peer review, timetables and the identification of ‘worst practice’. However, the political logic of the code does not fit in well with the OMC aims of participatory governance and social learning. In terms of achievements, the code has contributed to the creation of a community of discourse and the diffusion of shared beliefs about what constitutes ‘acceptable’ and ‘harmful’ tax competition. Convergence at the level of discourse, however, should not be confused with convergence of actual tax policies in the member states.     

Local Fiscal Stress in California: Out of Local Control and Driving Toward Growth

Abstract

Many regions of the United States have experienced rapid growth in recent decades with California being the best example of this growth. The dangers of such growth have been evident since the 1970s and yet, neither the state nor local governments have been very successful in implementing growth control policies. Why it is that government has been unable to rein in the growth has been the focus of much research in recent decades. There are essentially two schools of thought with regard to this question. One is that pro‐growth forces—essentially landowners, business elites, and elected officials—actively promote growth because it provides them personally with benefits. The other view, advocated most by Paul Peterson back in the early 1980s, is that elected officials do support and adopt pro‐growth policies, but not by choice. Cities, Peterson argued, are constrained by the economic situation around them and they must do what they can to raise revenues and reduce, or hold steady, expenditures. This research examines a region of southern California that has experienced tremendous growth despite the fact that surveys of resident attitudes within the region indicates that in general, residents favor growth control. This research contributes to an understanding of the driving forces behind the pro‐growth policies of local governments by considering how fiscal constraints placed on local governments by the state may limit the policy options of local elected officials, as Peterson predicted. This study finds that there is evidence to indicate that the revenue‐raising options available to cities may be contributing to pro‐growth policies. And this could help explain why elected officials continue to support growth within their cities despite the fact that residents express negative views toward growth.     

Terrorism and piracy: A legal view

Abstract

Terrorist attacks on persons or property on the high seas or in the newly designated “exclusive economic zones” bear analogy closer to the traditional international law of “piracy” than most observers suspect. In traditional practice “private ends” in the usual sense was not an essential element of the offense; the label and its legal results were attached to unrecognized belligerents too. The latest codifications of the international law relating to piracy, principally those deriving from the 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas, are patently defective. A new formulation is proposed, with a commentary that, among other things, points out how international criminal law and universal jurisdiction can be coordinated with the generally accepted international law of armed conflict to clarify what is currently a chaotic legal situation.     

The Struggle for Meaning of Obshchestvennyi Kontrol’ in Contemporary Russia: Civic Participation between Resistance and Compliance after the 2011–2012 Elections

This article explores contrasting conceptions of the essentially contested concept obshchestvennyi kontrol’, as understood by the anti-systemic opposition and the Kremlin. It shows that the period of contention accompanying the 2011–2012 elections allowed competing narratives of this concept to emerge. First, the opposition presented it as a means for citizens to hold corrupt authorities accountable to the law; second, the Kremlin promoted it as a means to enhance government efficiency. The article shows that the Kremlin has co-opted the counter-hegemonic discourse into a new law which delimits the possibilities for enacting this concept in a fashion that recalls Soviet governance practices.     

Law and psychiatry: Scandinavia in the 1980s.

The major policies and practices with regard to the civil and criminal commitment of the mentally ill in the Scandinavian countries during the 1970s and 1980s are described and discussed. Deinstitutionalization, community work, and outpatient treatment within geographically defined sectors have been introduced in all the Nordic countries. At the same time, criminally committed mental patients constitute an increasing proportion of the involuntarily hospitalized population. The special defense of insanity and tests such as McNaughtan are not used in the Scandinavian countries. The handling and disposition of severely mentally ill criminal defendants is closer to the notions of guilty but mentally ill in some U.S. jurisdictions, although in Scandinavia such persons are hospitalized and do not receive penal sentences. Even though forensic psychiatry has come under much criticism, there is still a need for psychiatric evaluations for courts and there is still a need for the provision of mental health treatment, rehabilitation, and follow-up for mentally disordered offenders.     

Evaluation, Policy Learning and Evidence-Based Policy Making

The increasing emphasis on the need for evidence-based policy indicates the continuing influence of the 'modernist' faith in progress informed by reason. Although the rationalist assumptions of evidence-based policy making have been subject to severe challenge from constructivist and post-modernist perspectives, it is argued that the attempt to ground policy making in more reliable knowledge of 'what works' retains its relevance and importance. Indeed, its importance is enhanced by the need for effective governance of complex social systems and it is argued that 'reflexive social learning' informed by policy and programme evaluation constitutes an increasingly important basis for 'interactive governance'. The expanded use of piloting of new policies and programmes by the current UK Government is considered to provide limited scope for evaluation to derive reliable evidence of whether policies work. There is a need for greater clarity about the role of evaluation in situations where piloting essentially constitutes 'prototyping'. More emphasis should be placed on developing a sound evidence base for policy through long-term impact evaluations of policies and programmes. It is argued from a realist position that such evaluation should be theory-based and focused on explaining and understanding how policies achieve their effects using 'multi-method' approaches.     

International Criminal Law and Russia: From ‘Nuremberg’ Passion to ‘The Hague’ Prejudice

Abstract

This essay outlines the history of international criminal law scholarship in Russia. I use a politically based explanation of the changing positive and negative attitudes regarding international criminal law, and show that the discourse on these issues in contemporary Russia is subject to serious political pressure. Changing such a situation is a difficult but essential task, mainly because of the over-riding need to free current scholarship from political control.     

The need for international cooperation in combating terrorism

Abstract

As this paper briefly notes, an elaborate international legal system has been established to combat terrorism. But this system has two primary deficiencies: There are serious gaps in the current law and the law already on the books is not being implemented vigorously. The paper examines the specific nature of the gaps and recommends the establishment, under the auspices of the United Nations Security Council, of a committee to oversee implementation of the antiterrorist conventions. The paper also examines some recent work of a less well‐known branch of the United Nations, the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control. Finally, the paper considers the possibility of establishing an international criminal court with jurisdiction over drug trafficking and related acts of terrorism, a proposal that is currently on the agenda of the United Nations International Law Commission.     

The Institutional Foundations of China’s Unbalanced Economy

China has become a fast-growing economy with an unbalanced economic structure. Economic policies, especially fiscal and financial policies, contribute to the current growth model by depressing household disposable income and reducing the social services provided by the government. Laws that have been used by the government to subsidise investment and production by distorting factor markets are also to blame. Finally, rebalancing China’s growth pattern has proven to be extremely difficult due to political obstacles, including pressure from interest groups, gridlock caused by factional politics, and ideological discrimination against private entrepreneurs.     

Care and treatment of the mentally ill in the United States: historical developments and reforms

Three major cycles of reform in public mental health care in the United States--the moral treatment, mental hygiene, and community mental health movements--are described as a basis for assessing the shifting boundaries between the mental health, social welfare, and criminal justice systems. Historical forces that led to the transinstitutionalization of the mentally ill from almshouses to the state mental hospitals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have now been reversed in the aftermath of recent deinstitutionalization policies. Evidence is suggestive that the mentally ill are also being caught up in the criminal justice system, a circumstance reminiscent of pre-asylum conditions in the early nineteenth century. These trends shape the current mental health service delivery system and the agenda for policy-relevant research on issues involving the legal and mental health fields.     

Do You Wish to Prosecute the Person Who Assaulted You?: Untested Sexual Assault Kits and Victim Notification of Rape Survivors Assaulted as Adolescents

In jurisdictions across the country, sexual assault kits (SAKs) have not been consistently submitted for testing and many cities are now submitting large quantities of SAKs for forensic DNA testing. As a result, some survivors will be asked to re-engage with the criminal justice system, a process that may raise complex issues for victims who were adolescents at the time of their assaults. The authors examine the experiences of 15 adolescent victims whose SAKs were not tested, and their decision-making pathways regarding reengagement with the criminal justice system years after the initial investigation. Findings reveal that characteristics of the initial assault, victim-blaming experiences, and the social support appear to be related to the decision to re-engage with law enforcement years after the initial assault. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Economic transformations in Cuba: a review

After Raul Castro’s accession to the presidency of Cuba, the country has witnessed the most far-reaching process of economic reforms for more than five decades. The government has expanded the private and cooperative sectors, has passed a new foreign investment law, restructured most of its old debt and has sought to end the long-standing dispute with the USA. Yet economic performance has been poor and the country faces significant challenges and contradictions arising from the reforms. This paper analyses the macroeconomic environment and the changes introduced by the Cuban government over the period 2007–15. While successful at restoring macroeconomic equilibria, restrictive macroeconomic policies have hurt economic growth, whereas growth- and efficiency-enhancing measures are yet to produce results. Moreover, transformation of the economic model is slow because of its many internal contradictions. The paper also discusses some of the main impediments to future change.     

Globalization,State Autonomy and the Fight against Cross-Border Crime: Greater China's Cooperation with the World

Although globalization has stimulated the rise in cross-border crime, it does not really undermine the autonomy of the mainland Chinese state, the Taiwan state, and the city-states of Hong Kong and Macao. Instead, through cooperation with law-enforcement agencies in other countries, the law-enforcement agencies of these four places, notably the police and customs, have ensured the persistence of state autonomy vis-à-vis cross-border criminal groups and individuals. In the case of Greater China (mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao), interstate cooperation involving the police and customs can maintain state autonomy vis-à-vis criminal groups and individuals. The mechanisms of such interstate and intergovernmental cooperation embrace the sharing of criminal intelligence, the occurrence of anti-crime joint operations, the holding of seminars and conferences, and the administrative arrangements of extraditions. In a nutshell, intergovernmental cooperation in the combat against cross-border crime can maintain state autonomy in the midst of globalization, as the case of Greater China shows.     

China’s development: a new development paradigm?

The emergence of China as a development actor across the global South has raised significant questions regarding the extent to which the country presents new development opportunities to its compatriots in the South. My aim is to reflect on and parse out the experiences and policies that have shaped China’s development to assess how it can inform the field of development studies. I argue that we need to critically engage in China’s development process, as China’s own development has led to the emergence of many more problems than solutions, ranging from increasing inequality to exclusionary development practices pertaining to ethnic minorities.