The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management: Lost Opportunity or Foundation for a Brave New World?

Numerous international instruments have been developed to promote sustainable chemicals management. However, until recently, a common overarching framework for sustainable chemicals policy was missing. The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) was developed to address this challenge. This article will provide a short overview of the context and the negotiation process of SAICM, and it will give a short summary and assessment of its content. The article will conclude that SAICM is neither a lost opportunity nor the foundation of a brave new world of chemicals policy, but that it establishes a comprehensive institutional framework that can be further developed into an effective instrument of international chemicals policy.     

International Cougar Management Guidelines: Processes for Collaboration and Implementation

This article briefly describes the development of international cougar management guidelines for use in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Release of the guidelines in mid-2005 is intended as the prelude to a further round of redrafting and revision, based on the experience of managers in the field, new scientific developments, and comments from various stakeholders. The guidelines are notable as the outcome of extensive scientific collaboration and careful consultation with wildlife agency administrators. The guidelines draw on the work and experience of cougar specialists in western North America through the regular meetings of the Mountain Lion Workshop.     

REACH: A Step Change in the Management of Chemicals

The EU has regulated chemicals since the late 1960s using both general and sectoral legislation, and exposure-based, hazard-based and risk-based decisions. A new proposal from the European Commission – on the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) – will build on the experiences of the existing legislation and introduce some new concepts in the management of chemicals. This article is aimed at assessing the current chemical control mechanisms in the EU and those put forward in REACH to demonstrate how REACH is a new paradigm in chemicals management. REACH will carry forward today's experience and approach to the management of chemicals in the EU and introduces some novel aspects, such as utilizing market-based mechanisms and putting into operation the 'substitution principle'.     

Testing Toxicity: Proof and Precaution in Canada's Chemicals Management Plan

This article explores questions of proof and precaution in the context of Canada's new Chemicals Management Plan. That plan includes a bold initiative known as the 'Challenge', under which the government has identified 200 high priority chemicals for which it is 'predisposed' to a finding of toxicity. The presumption will operate unless the challenged stakeholders submit 'information' sufficient to rebut it. Through comparison with the European REACH regulation, this article explores exactly what burdens have been shifted, to whom and why. It also evaluates the significance of this move for the governance of chemicals in Canada and for the health of Canadians. It looks specifically at the case of Bisphenol A, which was one of the 200 chemicals included in the Challenge, and was recently declared toxic under that process. The Challenge forces us to confront the 'dilemma of industry data', which complicates the debate over a shifted burden of proof in the context of chemicals management .     

国际法中健康权的产生、内涵及实施机制

健康权作为二战后兴起的一项重要人权,其发展路径具有从国际法向国内法扩展的特点。"人身的固有尊严"是健康权的正当性基础所在,也决定着健康权的基本内涵。《经济、社会和文化权利国际公约》第12条第1款规定的健康权既是自由权,也是社会权,既指获得卫生保健的权利,也包括获得构成健康基础条件的权利;第12条第2款规定只是列举了公约起草者认为特别重要的四项义务,而非缔约国的全部义务。缔约国义务的性质和范围必须结合公约第2条规定的一般义务条款加以判定。健康权的实施机制包括缔约国报告机制、书面申诉机制,以及调查报告机制三种,不同机制对缔约国的约束力不同,综合运用多种机制确保健康权的有效实施是今后的发展趋势。     

Taming the Beast: The UK Approach to the Management of Behavioral Investigative Advice

The goal of this paper is to reflect on the pertinent issues surrounding the effective management of behavioral investigative advice, by making explicit the experiences, developments, learning and achievements of such endeavors from a UK perspective. Specifically, the issues of national regulation of professional and ethical standards, working conditions for behavioral investigative advisers, audit and evaluation, strategic development, and learning and development of profiling skills are explored. Some broad observations regarding evaluation of the UK approach are discussed and consideration is given to the future challenges facing the field of behavioral investigative advice provision to major crime investigations.

The Public Participation Act: A Comprehensive Model Approach to End Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation in the USA

Commentators have documented the disturbing use of the courtroom to silence those who speak out on important issues. Too often, parties resort to meritless lawsuits in response to another's free expression or communication with the government. These lawsuits are called SLAPPs, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. In the USA, they have emerged as a significant threat to the rights of expression and petition guaranteed in the First Amendment to the US Constitution. A majority of the US States have passed 'anti-SLAPP laws', but there is no uniform protection. The model legislation outlined in this paper is intended to guide those who seek uniform, comprehensive protection against SLAPPs.     

A New Approach to the Interpretation of the French Constitution in Respect to International Conventions: From Hierarchy of Norms to Conflict of Competence

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Implementation Between Tradition and Management: Structuration and Styles of Implementation

This article presents a diachronic perspective for implementation research. It analyzes implementation practices in relation to their changing institutional context. Therefore, a comparison is made between different styles of implementation.
The relationship between implementation practices and institutional context is analyzed as a structuration process, following Giddens's theory. Four styles of policy implementation are distinguished: a traditional, bureaucratic, professional, and managerial style. These four styles are connected with different phases in the development of the welfare state. This developmental model is illustrated with an analysis of policy implementation in Dutch public assistance between 1950 and the early 1990s.     

The Outpost Office: How International Law Firms Approach the China Market

How are international law firms faring in China? Drawing on 2013 data, this article presents the first comprehensive overview of the field, including information about the global mix of players and variation in market niche. Three variables—years present in China, global strategy, and level of localization—help explain why some China practices grow bigger than others. Overall, however, there is a great deal of convergence on one business model: an outpost office with a median size of eleven lawyers responsible for under 5 percent of worldwide revenue. The common experience of stagnation following market entry illustrates the strength of hype, the constraints of partnership, and the persistent power of the Chinese state to shape the legal services market. At the same time, the rarity of market exit reflects perceptions that a China presence is a valuable symbol of global commitment and a worthwhile bet on future growth.     

The global stocktake: design lessons for a new review and ambition mechanism in the international climate regime

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - The pledge-and-review architecture of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change has been praised as a new model of global...     

国际社会的法治路径

国际社会是一个无政府社会,但并非没有法治的可能。国际法治的纽结在于指引和约束国家的行为,与之紧密相连但又具有独立意义的是在新的时代背景下清晰地界定国家利益。为了解决这对关键的问题,需要树立和深化人本主义、文化和谐、可持续发展的理念,构建和巩固国际制度。在这些方面,不仅需要国家、国际组织、非政府组织的共同努力,更需要理论界、知识分子的倡导和贡献。     

International regime complexes and corporate crime: a research agenda based on the Volkswagen diesel fraud case

Crime, Law and Social Change - Criminological literature has often pointed to the absence or weakness of existing international regulation as important explanatory factors of corporate crime in...     

技术和管理:罪犯危险性评估实施体系的运行

罪犯危险性评估可以为监狱管理和罪犯矫正工作提供一定的科学依据.因此,有必要通过归纳和概括评估目的、评估方法、评估工具等,全面理清由入监评估、中期评估、出监评估和即时评估构成的我国罪犯危险性评估实施过程,以期促进罪犯危险性评估从技术到管理层面的规范化和系统化.