The States of Law in Papua New Guinea

This article employs a consideration of Peter Fitzpatrick’s early work in Papua New Guinea to reflect on legal and social developments in the country since his residence there during the independence period. In particular, Fitzpatrick’s concerns about the emergence of a Papua New Guinean bourgeois legality that would shape the postcolony are shown to have been prescient in some respects, and also to have had other outcomes unanticipated by the Marxist legal and anthropological imagination of the 1970s. Finally, I use examples from the heterogeneous lawscape of Papua New Guinean cities to illustrate how the ‘true people’s law’ envisioned by Fitzpatrick is in the process of emerging in spaces outside of formal legislative or court processes.

     

The unrecognised uses of legal education in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

POSTAL CORRESPONDENCE courses were for many years the traditional means to acquire qualifications, gain promotion or change one's career, and thus to get on in life. Radio and television came to play their respective parts in the process, and these in turn have been supplemented although not supplanted by a variety of on‐and off‐line electronic delivery modes. However, the means to learn are delivered, students must study and be assessed, and it is likely to remain necessary to retain a variety of traditional learning, teaching and assessment modes and methods, whilst building on them for the future.

In an era when the process of globalisation operates in a variety of spheres, not least in respect of education and communication, the importance of distance learning is bound to be of continuing and probably increasing importance, and the quality of the teaching delivered and the learning absorbed is crucial.

This paper, based on recent research undertaken by members of the School of Legal Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, set out to investigate some aspects of the effectiveness of law students’ distance learning with particular reference to how they acquire legal knowledge and the extent to which they take a deep or surface approach to that learning.¹     

Lessons from Srebrenica: the contributions and limitations of physical anthropology in identifying victims of war crimes

In July 1995, the town of Srebrenica fell to Bosnian-Serb forces, leaving more than 7000 Muslim men missing and presumed dead. Anthropologists participating in the identification process were faced with a unique problem: the victims appeared identical. All were adult males of a single ethnic group. Decomposition as well as the absence of antemortem (AM) medical and dental records confounded identification. As of December 1999, only 63 men had been positively identified using DNA, personal effects, and identification papers. Are current anthropological methods of sex, age, and stature estimation and AM trauma assessment sufficiently accurate to differentiate the remaining victims and aid in their identification? Comparisons of relative-reported AM information and postmortem examination records for 59 of the 63 identified individuals indicated that while all individuals were sexed correctly, only 42.4% were accurately aged and 29.4% had a stature estimate that included their reported height.     

反腐败的关键在于制度的设计

反腐败不能主要依赖严刑峻罚,也不能过多地依靠国家工作人员自律。反腐败的成效不是看出台了多少反腐的政策文件,关键在于设计一整套严密的制度,让人无法腐败。     

Managing Complex Collaborative Projects: Lessons from the Development of a New Satellite

This paper examines the case of a Complex Product System (CoPS)—a new satellite—and the combination of international firms and agencies that contributed to its development. Despite many political, organisational and interpersonal tensions, divergent objectives and strategic misjudgements, the satellite was successfully launched in 2002. It was found that a number of factors contributed to the successful conclusion of the project, including the evolution of organisational structures between different actors as the project progressed, the use of a range of innovation management tools accompanied by personnel with significant discretion and judgement, and a unifying methodology for satellite production called the Small Satellite Philosophy (SSP), which helped provide an approach for its effective integration. The paper describes the satellite project and the problems of technology transfer it confronted, then examines whether the solutions adopted could be appropriate for other complex innovative projects, particularly those involving joint public–private investments. It also describes the interaction between development time, mission cost, risk and return in reduced resource CoPS. Although the satellite itself was a technical success, government policy objectives for the project were not realised and the paper considers mismatches between policy objectives and mechanisms in complex projects.     

The origins of Iran-Contra: Lessons from the Durrani Affair

This essay concentrates on the hitherto unknown origins ofIran-Contra. Through a series of interviews with participantsand access to previously private papers, the essay establishesthe role played by the U.S. and Israel in initiating arms deals with Iran before any hostage taking in Lebanon. Therefore,it corrects the proposition advanced by Special Prosecutor Walsh and others who linked the clandestine sale of weaponsto Iran with the deteriorating situation in Lebanon.     

法律逻辑研究对象新论

在新的情境下，法律逻辑学的研究对象可做新的定位：法律逻辑学是研究法律思维的逻辑学科，是法学与逻辑学的交叉，是面向法律制度、法律实践和法律适用的应用逻辑，是法学方法论的理论基础和重要的组成部分。     

明朝反贪对当前反腐监督的借鉴作用

当前,反腐工作形势严峻,借鉴明朝的反腐经验,我们应建立健全反腐监督制度,特别是要加强纪检监察、检察等机关的专门监督,强化群众监督、舆论监督、网络监督等各种形式的社会监督,编织强大的反腐监督网,实现对权力的监督,让权力在阳光下运行。     

Defying institutional failure: learning from the experiences of anti-corruption agencies in four Asian countries

This article compares the effectiveness of the anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) in four Asian countries: the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) in Singapore, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in Hong Kong, the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) in Thailand, and the Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption (KICAC). The CPIB and ICAC are more effective than the NCCC and KICAC because of the political will of the governments in Singapore and Hong Kong and the more favourable policy contexts of these two city-states. The lack of political will in curbing corruption in Thailand and South Korea is reflected in the fact that the NCCC and KICAC are not as well staffed or funded than the CPIB and ICAC. Moreover, the KICAC is the weakest of the four ACAs as it does not have the power to investigate corruption cases. The policy contexts of Thailand and South Korea are less favourable because of their larger populations and land area, and lower GDP per capita. To avoid institutional failure, ACAs must be supported by their governments in terms of the provision of adequate personnel and budget. They must also be able to investigate all cases of corruption without any political interference. The example of the KICAC shows the futility of establishing an ACA without the ability to investigate corruption cases.     

The dual nature of anti-corruption agencies in China

As the pace of modern life quickens considerably and changes come fast and furious in public affairs, the qualifications based on which public servants are recruited, the skills they are required to master in order to deal with the new situation, the challenges they are faced with, and the administrative behavior they demonstrate are all no longer the same. Bureaucrats in anti-corruption agencies are no exception. This article will review the latest development in China’s public administration, as unethical bureaucratic behavior in anti-corruption agencies has been among the increasingly vexing pathologies the authorities have to cope with.

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