Book reviews

Reckless Legislation: How Lawmakers Ignore the Constitution by Michael A. Bamberger. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000. Pp.ix + 233. $32 hb ISBN 0 8135 2732 5.

An Accidental MP by Martin Bell. London: Viking, 2000. Pp.230 £16.99 hb ISBN 0 670 89231 9.

Politico's Guide to Parliament by Susan Child. London: Politico Publishing, 1999. Pp.vi + 461 £25 hb ISBN 1 902301 23 4.

The European Parliament by Richard Corbett, Francis Jacobs and Michael Shackleton. London: John Harper, 4th edn, 2000. £37.50 hb ISBN 0 953 62782 9; £14.95 pb ISBN 0 953 62781 0.

The C‐Span Revolution by Stephen Frantzich and John Sullivan. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999. Pp.xiv + 433. $14.95 pb ISBN 0 8061 3130 6.

Pivotal Politics: A Theory of U.S. Lawmaking by Keith Krehbiel. Chicago, IL and London: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Pp.xvi + 258. £39.55 hb ISBN 0 226 45271 9; £13.50 pb ISBN 0 226 45272 7.

Legislative Enterpreneurship in the U.S. House of Representatives by Gregory Wawro. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2000. Pp.xiv+193. $39.50 hb ISBN 0 472 11153 1.     

Extra-judicial targeted killing

This paper asks fundamental questions about the legality of remote killings by drones outside combat zones. Despite the difficulty of obtaining accurate statistics from the Obama Administration, it argues that clear legal standards are being avoided and dangerous precedents are being established, including vaguely-defined licences to kill. It also criticises the US Administration's position justifying the use of such force, as identified by Harold Koh, the Legal Adviser to the State Department. The fundamental legal question of whether IHRL should apply is discussed.     

To Crack or Crumble: Use of the Thin Skull and Crumbling Skull Rules

The psycholegal and medicolegal assessment of injury-related physical and psychological impairments and disabilities is fraught with difficulties, including assessing for physical and psychological risk factors. In the injury litigation context, in Canada, issues related to pre-injury physical and psychological risk factors are best captured by the thin skull and crumbling skull rules. A review of court cases in which these rules have been considered suggests that the rules are not applied consistently. This inconsistency in the application of these rules has contributed to conflicting determinations of cause and damages across trial court, appeal court, and Supreme Court cases. This article provides operational definitions of the thin skull and crumbling skull rules, presents a case that involves a series of court decisions that exemplify the difficulties associated with the application of these rules, and provides recommendations for more effective application of the two rules.     

Atlantic capitalism versus Rhine capitalism in the European community

The advent of the Single European Market in 1993 has prompted a debate about the differences between the German social market economy and the British liberal market, and whether these can coexist. ‘Rhine Capitalism’ based on social solidarity will remain a source of competitive advantage through its emphasis on continuous development of labour skills and technology. Britain's ‘Atlantic Capitalism’ lacks such a framework for dialogue between government and producer interests, which will make the creation of a national competitiveness strategy to counter deindustrialisation problematic. At the European Community level, some regulatory framework similar to Germany's Ordnungspolitik will probably emerge to underpin the operation of the Single Market.     

Transnational Networking on the Far Right: The Case of Britain and Germany

This article examines an aspect of transnational activity that is often neglected, namely the transnational activism of the far right. It uses a case study of the British National Party (BNP) and the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD – German National Democratic Party) in order to explore how its leaders and activists share ideas and information, policy and praxis, and how this is employed in the development of a strategic ‘master frame’ that they believe will allow them to overcome the limits of purely national activity in a globalised world. It explores the evolution of the links between the two parties, their nature and indeed the limits of such transnational activism upon national ‘frames’ in order to present a historical overview of the diffusion of ideology and strategy within the contemporary European far right.     

Intelligence Analysis Theory: Explaining and Predicting Analytic Responsibilities

Theoretical work involves explanation and prediction, but thus far there has been little scholarly work explaining and predicting the role of intelligence analysts in support of foreign and national security policies. Without a theory of intelligence, it becomes difficult to decide what the appropriate substantive analytical responsibilities of the intelligence community should be. Accordingly, a theory of foreign intelligence analysis is necessary. This paper presents a theoretical framework developed during the immediate post-Cold War timeframe to explain why there was such a wide variety of perspectives regarding the future need for intelligence, embeds these ideas within the existing intelligence theory literature, applies this framework more generally in a way that can be used to explain variations in the substantive coverage of intelligence analysis in the past and predict possible variations in the future, and then tests the theory's ability to explain the analytical focus of domestic intelligence organizations.