The King of Farum—A Danish Corruption Tale

With the background knowledge that Denmark is one of the least corrupt nations in the world, this article explores the case of a mayor who for eight years worked ‘miracles’ for ‘his’ municipality but was later revealed to have built this community on circumvention of control mechanisms and laws. For this (and for his overwhelming consumption of expensive wines at the taxpayers’ expense) he was later sentenced to four years of imprisonment. He was not driven by personal economic gain, but more likely by a mixture between creating a municipality of his dreams and the almost absolute power that he ended up with just before the scandal hit the headlines. The case was revealed by two journalists from a yellow newspaper, but very soon police and other authorities as well as his fellow politicians followed up on the revelations, and his former political friends turned their back on him. It is not the story of a mayor who was bribed – but of a mayor who turned out to be ‘corrupt’ in a wider sense of the word.     

A Clash of Cultures? The UNESCO Diversity Convention and International Trade Law

The adoption, on 20 October 2005, of the Convention on the Protectionand Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (DiversityConvention) has returned the limelight to the suitability ofWorld Trade Organization (WTO) rules for cultural products.This article shows that the Diversity Convention, while an importantstep towards the recognition of cultural diversity as an internationallyrecognized public choice of states, does not affect the rightsand obligations of WTO Members as such. The original purposeof the Convention was to create a safe haven for cultural policiesand protect them from WTO disciplines. However, the centraloperative provision for bringing about the desired shieldingeffect for domestic policies safeguarding national culturalindustries against foreign competition, its now-article 20,while making a general claim to non-subordination in paragraph1, modifies this broad statement in paragraph 2 so as to onlyapply to treaties concluded at the same time or later. The articleexplores how to avoid or minimize an undesirable incongruencebetween liberal trade rules and the right of states to protectshelf-space for domestically produced cultural products.     

From Calculated Cruelty to Casual Violence – The United Nations War Crimes Commission and the Prosecution of Torture and Ill-Treatment

The article looks at the records of both the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) and national courts with respect to the post-World War II prosecution of the crimes of torture and ill-treatment. It illustrates how the UNWCC and national courts dealt with the relevant legal questions, applicable laws, crimes at hand, as well as issues of retroactivity and defenses. The article also discusses the UNWCC’s contribution to the development of relevant international law, both in terms of state practice and precedent. Finally, it acknowledges the legacy of the UNWCC and post-World War II prosecutions, which constituted a collaborative effort to bring perpetrators of international crimes to justice.     

The University of Barchester,Coketown University,Ipswich Cathedral Choir School,Gas Street Comprehensive School and the European Convention on Human Rights: A link?

This article focuses on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and especially Article 6 entitled Right to a Fair and Public Hearing , all now fully incorporated into the UK via the Human Rights Act (HRA, 1997). This article discusses the implications for UK education institutions and the potential conflict with the exclusive jurisdiction of the Visitor in English chartered universities and colleges. Also discussed are UK schools, colleges and universities as 'public authorities' and 'emanations of the state', the creation of a Higher Education Ombudsman as a 'Super-Visitor' or 'HERO' (Higher Education Regulatory Office), the impact of HRA and ECHR less dramatic for schools than for universities (or at least for the Visitor function within them), and finally the coming three decades of legal uncertainty and fees for lawyers.     

The Convention Method Revisited: Does It Have a Future and Does It Matter?

Scholars have argued that the convention method has democratised the process of treaty reform and increased the legitimacy of EU constitutionalisation. This article finds that the convention method has contributed to a slightly more democratic process, but has not, in any fundamental way, improved the democratic status of the EU's treaty reform process. We should accordingly not be too concerned over the future fate of the convention method. From a democratic perspective, we should be more worried over the possible scenario that future changes to the EU's institutional structure will come about through implicit constitutional change without any formal changes being made to the treaties. The often cumbersome ratification process could thereby be bypassed, but this would also deprive EU citizens of the only real opportunity they have of influencing decisions on the overall design of the integration project.     

The limits of policy: Rural children and work in the United States and New Zealand, 1870–1920

This article uses public documents and first-hand accounts of late 19th and early 20th centuries child life to examine attempts by public policymakers in the United States and New Zealand to change the quality of rural child life in those countries through compulsory schooling and other related measures. These attempts, however, largely failed due to the demands of the farming economy and the unwillingness of public officials to go to extraordinary lengths on behalf of farm children, as opposed to urban children. Rural children's lives would be changed, not by policy, but by technological developments and the vagaries of the farm economy.     

The United States‐China copyright dispute: A two‐level games analysis

United States media and computer software industries long have alleged they lose billions of dollars to copyright piracy in China. Negotiations between the countries have had little effect. This article uses two‐level games theory to explore why the United States is reluctant to impose sanctions, and why China is unwilling to take action against the pirates even at the risk of trade sanctions. Negotiations are examined at the usaional level and at the domestic level in both countries. At the usaional level, a two‐player sequential model of the game is presented. At the domestic level, the heterogeneity of interest groups in the United States, and the different agendas of central and provincial authorities in China are discussed. Based on this analysis, the article proposes, (1) a more flexible time‐frame for negotiations with foreign trading partners, (2) greater reliance on multilateral frameworks than on bilateral trade sanctions and (3) American efforts to distribute the gains from better copyright protection to local enterprises in foreign countries to create domestic pressure groups favoring stronger copyright regimes.     

Hate Crimes: The legality and Practicality of Punishing Bias—A Socio-Legal Appraisal

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - This paper assesses the extent to which enhancing a penalty for hate crimes is a necessity. It...     

The Nature and Prevalence of Familicide in the United States, 2000–2009

Familicide refers to the killing of multiple family members, most commonly the homicide of an intimate partner and at least one child. This study examines the prevalence of familicide in the United States. Second, it explores the relationship between the prevalence of familicide and the prevalence of financial problems in the United States by making use of Supplementary Homicide Reports data and newspaper reports. In the period of 2000–2009, familicide involving an intimate partner and child(ren) occurred approximately 23 times per year. The majority of the perpetrators were male, who committed the offense with a firearm. Familicides involving an intimate partner and child(ren) with financial motives alone occurred 4 to 5 times per year. The results showed that the association between familicide and financial problems is not a straightforward one. Even though correlational analyses suggest a relationship between the two, the prevalence of familicide motivated by financial problems was unrelated to periods of financial downfall. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Sea Grant — The MIT Sea Grant Marine Industry collegium: A partnership of industry,government and academia

The Collegium has fostered interaction and technology transfer between MIT and the Marine Industry for five years, resulting in early utilization of the fruits of marine research at MIT and valuable guidance for MIT Sea Grant in addressing needs of industry. For maximum technology transfer to take place effectively in an academic/industry program, a number of conditions have to be met. This paper discusses three of the most important conditions. First, industry people must be aware of the interests and research capabilities of the faculty and of the resources available to the university. Second, successful technology transfer is a person to person interaction between people of common interest and roughly equivalent technical background. Third, and very important, technology transfer is communication from the recipient, or user, to the source of technology. Along with these three conditions is the need for early involvement of industry and government user in the research activity. The Collegium is a unique arrangement to accomplish these conditions. This paper describes the program at MIT.     

A Voice for the Fish? Climate Change Litigation and Potential Causes of Action for Impacts under the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement

The seas—all the seas—cry for regulation as a veritable res communis omnium. ² Louis Henkin, Arctic Anti-Pollution: Does Canada Make—or Break—International Law? 65 AJIL 131, 136 (1971).      

The Impact of State Laws Protecting Abortion Clinics and Reproductive Rights on Crimes Against Abortion Providers: Deterrence, Backlash, or Neither?

Since Roe v. Wade, most states have passed laws either restricting or further protecting reproductive rights. During a wave of anti-abortion violence in the early 1990s, several states also enacted legislation protecting abortion clinics, staff, and patients. One hypothesis drawn from the theoretical literature predicts that these laws provide a deterrent effect and thus fewer anti-abortion crimes in states that protect clinics and reproductive rights. An alternative hypothesis drawn from the literature expects a backlash effect from radical members of the movement and thus more crimes in states with protective legislation. We tested these competing hypotheses by taking advantage of unique data sets that gauge the strength of laws protecting clinics and reproductive rights and that provide self-report victimization data from clinics. Employing logistic regression and controlling for several potential covariates, we found null effects and thus no support for either hypothesis. The null findings were consistent across a number of different types of victimization. Our discussion contextualizes these results in terms of previous research on crimes against abortion providers, discusses alternative explanations for the null findings, and considers the implications for future policy development and research.     

A Great Exploitation: The True Legacy of Property—A Review Essay

This review essay contains four parts. The first briefly recounts the contours of Rafe Blaufarb’s thesis in The Great Demarcation: The French Revolution and the Invention of Modern Property (Oxford University Press, New York, 2016). The review is not intended to be a full assessment of the book; rather, Blaufarb’s work sets the stage for the focus of my reflections, which begin in Part 3. Using Louis Althusser’s understanding of law, we can see how the demarcation identified by Blaufarb made possible a further deployment of bourgeois law, which perpetuates the dominant ideology ensuring the concentration of resources in a small number of people, seemingly without obligation to the great majority who hold no power in relation to any resources. Part 4 explains the true inequity which this demarcation has wrought, establishing and perpetuating deep divisions between those who hold the ‘social function’ inherent in property—the power unilaterally to alter social relationships—and those who do not—those who suffer the alteration of social relationships to their detriment. In short, property itself is an ideology of power, the legacy of which is not equality, but exploitation. Part 5 concludes that the great demarcation, which Blaufarb so skilfully explicates, turns out to be nothing in which humankind ought to take any pride. Rather, it has served and serves the purposes of the few to work untold misery and hardship upon the many.