The African Commission on Human and People's Rights and the future African Court of Justice and Human Rights: Comparative lessons from the European Court of Human Rights

This article focuses on two regional human rights systems — the system that exists in Africa and the mechanism that exists within the Council of Europe. It examines the development and specifics of each system to determine what lessons the African Commission and the future African Court of Justice and Human Rights can learn from the European model and its Court of Human Rights. The article also examines what can be learnt from the role of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the role of the present human rights court: the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of each system and the challenges that exist for each. The article also examines the experience of the European Commission, which is no longer in existence, in addition to European Court on Human Rights, which has taken over the functions of the Commission, to determine what can be drawn from their experiences. Issues examined include the institutional strengths and weaknesses of these bodies, state compliance with the decisions of the human rights institutions and the resources available to these bodies.     

Greatness as Measure? Recent Writings on the High Court of Australia

Owen Dixon. By P. Ayres
Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia. Edited by T. Blackshield, M. Coper and G. Williams
The Brennan Legacy: Blowing the Winds of Legal Orthodoxy. By R. Creyke and P. Keyzer     

新马岛屿争端之判决:依据与启示

2008年5月23日,国际法院对新马岛屿之争做出判决,将白礁岛判给了新加坡.国际法院的判词表明:有力的证据,即官方在争端事项上代表政府权力行使的言词及行为是新加坡赢得白礁岛主权的关键.因此,进行相关研究,为通过法律途径解决中国与他国之间的领土争端解决提供充分的理论和事实依据,具有重要的意义.国际法院对一些证据效力的判定也启示我们:在涉及领土争端的问题时,国家间关系的利益权衡固然重要,但在权衡时,也要尽可能地考虑这种权衡将来在法庭上可能产生的证据因素和影响.     

The Turkish Constitutional Court and the Justice and Development Party (2002–09)

This article analyses the caseload of the Turkish Constitutional Court (TCC) during the Justice and Development Party's (JDP) tenure in office (2002–09). Contrary to expectations and public perception, TCC's caseload only showed a modest increase, reflecting increased legislative activity and the President's inability to influence parliamentary debates. As this article shows, judicialization of politics in Turkey preceded the emergence of JDP. Accordingly, it concludes that ‘controlled democratization' encourages judicial activism and can lead to ‘judicial tutelage’ over elected institutions, thus undermining the prospects for democratic deepening.     

The Russian Constitutional Court: The First Term

An American political scientist and constitutional scholar recounts the development, and analyzes the procedures and backstage activities, of Russia's highest judicial body. The study, based in part on personal interviews, traces the constitutional court's political influence up through the pivotal conflict between the Parliament's Speaker Khasbulatov and President Yel'tsin during the last week of March 1993. In addition to major decisions, notably that which followed 52 sessions from May 26 to December 16, 1992 devoted to the trial of the CPSU, the narrative focuses on the role of Chief Justice Zor'kin. Also discussed are the court's legislative mandate, its expanding caseload and legal shortcomings. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H11, K10, K41, P20.     

Coloured Judgements? The Work of the Thai Constitutional Court, 1998–2016

Created in 1997 as part of a major constitutional reform, Thailand’s Constitutional Court has since become embroiled in several high-profile political controversies. Since the 2006 coup, because a number of such decisions have favoured one political camp and considering obvious close and long-standing relations between judges and political elites, questions have arisen about the court’s ability to act as an independent arbiter. Is this view justifiable? To answer that question, this article first analyses how the court has behaved across political administrations in 32 high-profile cases since 2001. It then turns to the socio-biographic profile of the bench, the politics of nominations and changes to its composition, particularly since 2006. Finally, the article considers data on participants in classes offered by the Constitutional Court, which makes it possible to better understand the links between Thai political and judicial networks. The analysis finds evidence of politically biased voting patterns and increasingly partisan nominations to the court, though formally appointment procedures are apolitical, which suggests the politicisation of the court and growing ties between judicial and political elites. These findings raise new questions about the public’s perception of the Constitutional Court’s legitimacy and prospects for the rule of law.     

The Story of Central African Archives

This article represents part of a lecture by the distinguishedhistorian at a joint meeting at the Royal Empire Society onthe 30th, June, with Sir Cecil Rodwell in the chair. After recallingfamous names connected with Central Africa, like Rhodes, Bothaand Coghlan, he turned to the organisation of this history inthe making, which is as recent as 9th June, 1947, when an amendmentwas passed to the Act of 1935 creating the Southern RhodesianArchives.     

The Sudan: Past, Present and Future

Sir Angus Gillan Served in the Sudan Administration between1909-1939. He is now Director of the Empire Section of the BritishCouncil. This article is an abridgment of a lecture he gave,under the chairmanship of Mr. A.R.I. Mellor, at a combined meetingof the Royal African Society and the Royal Empire Society onthe 26th April. Sir Angus first gave reasons for the world'scomparative ignorance of the Sudan, broken only by events leadingup to the three dates: Khartoum 1885, Omdurman 1898, and Abyssinia1940.     

Inventing Tradition at Gunpoint: Culture,Caciquismo and State Formation in the Región Mixe,Oaxaca (1930–1959)

This article examines the links between the creation of a post‐revolutionary Mexican culture and the maintenance of traditional forms of cacical control. Taking as a case study Luis Rodríguez, a cacique from the state of Oaxaca, it is argued that he utilised state notions of indigenismo and indigenous cultural production to assert and maintain his position as the strongman of the Mixe ethnic group. However, despite the employment of state discourses, Rodríguez’s fiefdom was never subsumed into the corporate revolutionary state. Rather, these claims of ethnic unity were used as a smokescreen to deter state intervention. As a result, Rodríguez was forced to use intimidation and violence to control pueblos outside his immediate sphere of influence during the 1940s and 1950s.     

The Impact of the Palestinian Refugee Crisis on the Development of Amman, 1947–1958

Amman has been relatively underexplored in the literature on Middle Eastern cities. Using a broad range of primary and secondary sources, this article addresses the impact of the 1947–1949 Arab-Israeli War on the Jordanian capital during the late 1940s and 1950s. A number of themes are examined: Amman during wartime; the settlement of the Palestinians; change and continuity in terms of Jordan's centralization process and Amman's urban growth; and, finally, the city's transformative socio-economic structures and political forces. This article argues that the influx of Palestinian refugees transformed the public culture of Ammani society, which became much more politicized than before. It is also argued, however, that the political developments of the late 1940s and 1950s were not sufficient to overturn the defining characteristics of Amman as it had existed before the 1947–1949 Arab-Israeli War.     

Commonwealthmen and Republicans: Dr. H.V. Evatt, the Monarchy and India

H.V. Evatt's foreign policy has attracted considerable historical attention, but his response as Australian External Affairs Minister to Commonwealth constitutional issues remains neglected. Evatt sought to retain India in the Commonwealth in 1948–49, but he insisted that India ought to recognise the king's prerogatives in its constitutional arrangements. He had developed his defence of the monarchy and its place in the empire in his writings of the inter-war years, and sought to apply these ideas in his Commonwealth diplomacy of the late 1940s. Evatt's failure to have these ideas accepted resulted from his attempt to impose an ideal of the relationship between the monarchy and the Commonwealth, derived from his understanding of the evolution of constitutional relations between the United Kingdom and the old dominions, to the very different context of Asian postwar decolonisation.     

The Right to Gender Recognition before the Colombian Constitutional Court: A Queer and Travesti Theory Analysis

This article discusses the case-law on gender recognition of the Colombian Constitutional Court. It argues that the Court, paying attention to queer and trans theory and to the demands of trans activists, has interpreted mainstream constitutional rights in such a way that trans people can have their self-defined identities recognised. The article criticises the limitations of this case-law, which still does not explicitly include non-binary and gender fluid people. On the other hand, it highlights that the Court's doctrine has the potential to challenge both the gender binary and the very category of ‘sex’ or ‘gender’ in the law.     

论白礁岛主权争端及其对新马关系和东盟发展的影响

由于历史、地缘政治等原因和国际海洋法对马来西亚的刺激,新加坡和马来西亚对白礁岛的主权归属展开了长达29年的争夺.新马两国对白礁岛主权归属的争端对新马双边关系和东盟的发展造成了一定影响.同时,双方对白礁岛主权的争端过程和争端通过海牙国际法院得以解决也给了我们一定的启示.     

Diplomacy Interrupted?: Macmahon Ball,Evatt and Labor's Policies in Occupied Japan*

Historiography on the Australian political and diplomatic role in the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945–1952) gives disproportionate attention to the meetings between the Australian Minister for External Affairs, H.V. Evatt, and the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in Japan (SCAP), General Douglas MacArthur, in Tokyo during 1947. These meetings are then linked to the subsequent resignation from the Allied Council for Japan (ACJ) of William Macmahon Ball, an Australian academic representing the British Commonwealth, and used to justify the claim that Australian policy towards Occupied Japan was unpredictable and ad hoc. This attention to Ball's resignation has distorted analysis of Australia's role in, and policies towards, Japan during the Occupation. This article argues that there is a need to develop a new historical discourse for the Australian role in the Occupation, one that moves beyond the intrigues of personalities and investigates diplomatic policy practice and its underlying ideals. This, in turn, may encourage other scholars to rethink the wider conduct and practice of foreign policy under the Labor governments of the 1940s.     

Problems of European Union Citizenship Rights at the Periphery

European Union member states have different nationality laws. Those with overseas dependencies control access there to European Parliament (EU) voting rights. Gibraltar and French Polynesia are two dependencies in which the existing situation is contested. Gibraltar's British citizens live on EU territory and therefore resent their exclusion from European elections. French Polynesia on the other hand is outside the European Union. Its citizens regard voting for the EP as at best irrelevant; its leaders wish to create a category of French overseas citizenship exclusive of European voting rights. This article compares the two situations and suggests some possible solutions.     

J.B. Chifley and the Indonesian Revolution, 1945–1949

This article traces the role of the Prime Minister, Joseph Benedict Chifley, in Australia's response to the Dutch‐Indonesian colonial conflict. It argues for Chifley's centrality to the formation of Australia's eventual policy to support Indonesian nationalist aspirations, a policy often in antithesis to the views of H.V. Evatt. This is significant because a focus on Evatt has distracted historians from ascertaining the causes of Australia's policy. Examining Chifley's attitude and role reveals that Australia's response to revolutionary Indonesia stemmed from an application to the Southeast Asian colonial question of a labourist and post‐war reconstructionist ethos, an idea of sweeping reform to rectify deep economic and social grievances.     

Book Notes

SELECT DOCUMENTS: A Modern History Sourcebook. Selected and Edited by G. A. Cranfield, B. J. Dalton, F. G. Stambrook. TWO MEN WHO SAVED FRANCE: Petain and De Gaulle. By Major General Sir Edward Spears. SOE IN FRANCE: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France 1940–1944. By M. R. D. Foot. FRENCH REVOLUTION DOCUMENTS VOL. I. Edited by J. M. Roberts. BRITISH ECONOMIC HISTORY 1870–1914: Commentary and Documents. By W. H. B. Court. THE STRUGGLE FOR INDOCHINA 1940–1955: Viet Nam and the French Experience. By Ellen J. Hammer. A DECADE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 1955–1964. Edited by W. B. Hamilton, Kenneth Robinson and C. D. W. Goodwin. Durham, N.C. THE EXPLORATION OF THE PACIFIC. By J. C. Beaglehole. NEW ZEALAND ASPIRATIONS IN THE PACIFIC IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. By Angus Ross. THE AUSTRALIAN PUB. By J. M. Freeland. SOUTH AUSTRALIAN HISTORY: A Survey for Research Students. By F. K. Crowley. LIBRARY SERVICES TO THE LEGISLATURE: A Symposium. Issued by the N.S.W. SOVIET JEWRY AND THE AUSTRALIAN COMMUNIST PARTY: Documents. With an Introduction by Sam Lipski.     

Growing Up with Maya Angelou and Sindiwe Magona

This article compares and contrasts Angelou's “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” and Magona's “To My Children's Children,” in order to examine the emerging sense of female selfhood within the larger political and cultural structures of the United States and South Africa during the 1940s and 1950s.     

白礁岛、中岩礁和南礁案的国际法解读

不久前,国际法院主要依据实际控制原则和禁止反言原则对新加坡和马来西亚之间的白礁岛、中岩礁和南礁争端作出判决,这进一步延续了国际法院在解决领土争端中运用有效控制原则的趋势.但是,应当明确的是,有效控制原则、时效原则、先占中的有效占领原则、时际法原则、关键时刻等的适用场合及条件是有区别的.根据我国对钓鱼岛、南沙群岛等享有主权的历史事实,以及对有关国家非法占有我国岛礁等行动的持续反对,实际控制原则并不适用于钓鱼岛、南沙群岛等有关领土争端.此外,我国并未接受国际法院的管辖,有关争端不会诉诸国际法院解决.但为防止有关国家利用有效控制原则,通过向无人岛屿移民等行为企图造成有效控制事实,我国应对有关争端领土加强管理和控制,而对被他国控制的无人岛屿等应采取多种手段及早解决.     

‘Conflict and confrontation’: A comparison of the effect of trade embargoes on executive‐legislative relations in the USA during the Truman and Reagan years

This article examines the conflict between the American Congress and Presidency in US trade embargo policy during the Truman and Reagan years. After reviewing two cases of legislative‐executive confrontation over trade embargoes against the Soviet Union in the late‐1940s and early‐1950s and South Africa in the 1980s, it concludes that Congress has been successful in modifying presidential policy‐making that it believes does not serve the national interest. This is due to its powerful position in the American political process as the initiator of legislation. Its law making powers have allowed it to review executive foreign policy decisions forcing the Presidency to change its approach to particular policy concerns.