From Konfrontasi to Disintegrasi : ASEAN and the Rise of Islamism in Southeast Asia

This article evaluates the development of militant Islamic threats in Southeast Asia from the early 1990s onwards and its security implications for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The analysis contends that the extent of extremist Islamic infiltration of the region was obscured by governmental rhetoric, along with much Western opinion, which argued erroneously that ASEAN was following a unique developmental path based on shared regional values that had resulted in economic growth and political stability. However, by ignoring underlying religiously motivated tensions within and among its membership, and by refusing to countenance mature debate about them within their societies, ASEAN has succeeded only in incubating its potential nemesis.     

Predatory versus developmental rule in Africa

Political economy predicts that national leaders opt for economic development when institutions encourage them to extend their time horizons. By contrast, leaders turn predatory if they feel at risk. Leaders are most able to bear risk right upon taking office, but this can be offset by a perception of high volatility in office holding or by concern about catastrophic losses. Political institutions can therefore discourage predation by fostering recurrent, predictable replacement of leaders without harsh payback for ex-leaders who acted developmentally. Cataloguing all national leadership transitions in Africa since 1960, the article demonstrates that electoral cycles, term limits and the prospect of judgement before international tribunals have lately led to declines in the volatility of top office holding and in the risk of catastrophic loss to the occupants. These new institutions have yet to establish full credibility, but they show promise of altering African leaders' risk assessments to encourage more developmental rule.     

Assessing oral skills—time for reflection,time for risk

Abstract

THIS PAPER aims to establish a framework from which we can explain our dissatisfaction with defining what we teach and what and how we assess within legal education. To what extent can we, the professions or the public, have confidence that our assessment processes predict effective professional competence?

We will try to establish this framework by placing the discussion in the context of a workshop of assessment of oral skills run at the 2001 Bar Vocational Course conference. The workshop raised issues which we believe encapsulate the difficulties of measuring performance in such a way that it reliably predicts professional effectiveness. From this we will attempt to highlight the shortcomings of the current teaching, learning and assessment strategies more generally.

We go on to consider the role of student reflection in support of summative assessment: is it a reliable way of helping to plug the competence‐performance gap we have identified? What is its role in summative assessment? What demands does it make on tutor and learner? Since we cannot guarantee to find the best solutions first time, we make a plea for taking the risk of failure as well as success, and trying out ideas.     

Developing a Spatial-Temporal Method for the Geographic Investigation of Shoeprint Evidence

Abstract:  This article examines the potential of a spatial-temporal method for analysis of forensic shoeprint data. The large volume of shoeprint evidence recovered at crime scenes results in varied success in matching a print to a known shoe type and subsequently linking sets of matched prints to suspected offenders. Unlike DNA and fingerprint data, a major challenge is to reduce the uncertainty in linking sets of matched shoeprints to a suspected serial offender. Shoeprint data for 2004 were imported from the Greater London Metropolitan Area Bigfoot database into a geographic information system, and a spatial-temporal algorithm developed for this project. The results show that by using distance and time constraints interactively, the number of candidate shoeprints that can implicate one or few suspects can be substantially reduced. It concludes that the use of space-time and other ancillary information within a geographic information system can be quite helpful for forensic investigation.     

An Economic Justification for Open Access to Essential Medicine Patents in Developing Countries

This paper offers an economic rationale for compulsory licensing of needed medicines in developing countries. The patent system is based on a trade-off between the "deadweight losses" caused by market power and the incentive to innovate created by increased profits from monopoly pricing during the period of the patent. However, markets for essential medicines under patent in developing countries with high income inequality are characterized by highly convex demand curves, producing large deadweight losses relative to potential profits when monopoly firms exercise profit-maximizing pricing strategies. As a result, these markets are systematically ill-suited to exclusive marketing rights, a problem which can be corrected through compulsory licensing. Open licenses that permit any qualified firm to supply the market on the same terms, such as may be available under licenses of right or essential facility legal standards, can be used to mitigate the negative effects of government-granted patents, thereby increasing overall social welfare.     

Plea Bargainings: Ethics and Politics

This article argues for a re-orientation of the debates concerning plea bargaining in the light of a process of re-legitimation currently under way in which professional codes of ethics are given new importance. In the new rhetoric, plea bargaining is claimed to be in line with rather than contrary to traditional adversarial principles. The focus of this paper is to argue for a re-affirmation of deep-seated principles which contextualize professional ethics in the wider domain of the politics of criminal justice.     

A Case Study: Sale of Railway Consulting Services

Queensland Rail has developed a market niche in South East Asia, where it advises on profitable narrow-guage rail operations. This article outlines the extent of Queensland Rail involvement with the region and offers practical advice for commercial dealings with one important customer, Vietnam.     

Constructing the Market: Commercialization and Privatization in the Royal Mail

The public sector in the UK has become the object of constant reform and change as part of the government's project to increase the remit of the private sector and the role of markets. There is much debate about the effect such a move to market relations has on public services. There is increasing concern with the way market–based reforms are linked to a new pattern of organizational structure and strategy that negates and/or opposes the traditional political processes associated with the public sector. This article focuses on the case of the Royal Mail to explore how such a transformation is both complex and contested. It reveals how 'the market' within the public sector is to a large extent politically constructed, and that the public–private dichotomy over–simplifies what is a complex process of negotiating meaning, forming alliances, lobbying for support, handling conflict and exerting influence. It demonstrates how various readings of 'the market' emerge, and that any solutions of how to become more commercial can be the result of political machinations. The implications of this analysis go beyond Royal Mail and can be generalized across the public sector.