Fiscal Stress Management During the Financial and Economic Crisis: The Case of the Baltic Countries

The Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—were severely hit by the global financial and economic crisis in 2008–2011. In response to the crisis, all three states chose to undertake extensive fiscal consolidations. This article examines the strategies adopted by the Baltic governments for managing fiscal stress and consolidating their budgets in the light of the existing literature on cutback budgeting. In all three countries, the governments combined expenditure and revenue measures, with a larger share of adjustment taking place on the expenditure side. Among expenditure measures, a mix of across-the-board and targeted cuts was adopted, though the importance of targeted cuts increased over time. The case studies also indicate that although the theoretical propositions of the cutback budgeting literature point to the correct directions overall, further refinement is needed in several theoretical issues.     

Drug intelligence based on MDMA tablets data: 2. Physical characteristics profiling

One of the tasks of the European project entitled “Collaborative Harmonisation of Methods for Profiling of Amphetamine Type Stimulants” (CHAMP) funded by the sixth framework programme of the European Commission was to develop a harmonised methodology for MDMA profiling and the creation of a common database in a drug intelligence perspective. Part I was dedicated to the analysis of organic impurities formed during synthesis in order to investigate traffic tendencies and highlight potential links between samples, whereas this part focuses on physical characteristics of the MDMA tablets. Diameter, thickness, weight and score were demonstrated to be reliable and relevant features in this drug intelligence perspective. Distributions of samples coming from the same post-tabletting batch (post-TB) and samples coming from different post-TB were very well discriminated by using the squared Euclidean or the Manhattan distance on standardised data. Our findings demonstrated the possibility to discriminate between MDMA samples issued from different post-TB and to find out links between samples coming from a same post-TB. Furthermore, the hypothesis that most of the MDMA samples found on the international market come from the same countries was supported.     

The Rule of Reasons. Three Models of Deliberative Democracy

In this paper, the author contrasts three models of deliberative democracy: a liberal one, a communitarian one, and an alternative to both. Rather than understanding deliberative democracy as the rule of principles of justice or of communal values, the third model conceives of it as the "rule of reasons." On the basis of a discussion of seven components of an "ethos of democracy" (the cognitive capacities of citizens, political virtues, the cultural, institutional and material conditions of democracy, political legitimacy, and the "ground" of democracy), the third view, which is based on a theory of moral and political justification, emerges as superior.     

Ties, stories and events. Pl?doyer für eine prozessuale Netzwerktheorie

Networks and processes??two sociological concepts that stand in a relationship of tension to each other. While networks are mostly conceived as synchronic relations between ??ties??, processes??as diachronic phenomena??are represented in the form of ??stories??. More recently, attempts have been made from within the ranks of network theory or relational sociology to combine these ??ties?? and ??stories??. In this respect, the conceptions of Harrison C. White and Charles Tilly need to be mentioned in particular. The present paper offers an analysis of both approaches and points out that their missing time-theoretical foundation is a problematic issue concerning both conceptions.     

Creating Demand for Global Governance: The Making of a Global Money-laundering Problem*

In most studies on global governance, problems are treated as exogenous factors. Even constructivist global governance approaches normally concentrate on persuasion about global norms and rules, but take the existence of global problems as given. This ignores the fact that it may be necessary to persuade rule addressees of the existence of a problem in the first place. States comply with global rules voluntarily only if they agree that there is a problem. Hence international rule makers have to “problematise” the issue they attempt to regulate, i.e. to construct the issue as a global problem that requires global rules in order to be solved. This article inquires into the why and how of “problematisation” by international regulators. To this end it reconstructs how the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has turned the issue of money-laundering, which was not considered a problem until the late 1980s, into a global problem requiring a global solution.     

Weltkulturv?lkerrecht und nationalstaatliche Umsetzung

Die Turbulenzen, die der geplante Bau der sog. “Waldschl?sschenbrücke” in Dresden ausgel?st hat, haben inzwischen auch das lange Zeit als harmonisch betrachtete Verh?ltnis zwischen v?lkerrechtlichen übereinkommen zum Schutz von Kulturgütern und ihrem Schutz durch nationales Recht erreicht. Ihre Verbindlichkeit für die Praxis der beh?rdlichen Zulassungsentscheidungen steht dabei ebenso in Frage, wie Regelungstauglichkeit des deutschen Rechts. Im Folgenden wird der Gegenstandsbereich des Weltkulturv?lkerrechts umrissen (I.). Dabei wird auf die Welterbekonvention besonders eingegangen (II.). Ihre Umsetzung in Deutschland wird dargestellt (III.) und nach ihren Defiziten gefragt (IV.). Abschlie?end werden einige Schlussfolgerung zum ?nderungsbedarf entwickelt (V.).     

Competition law enforcement under informational asymmetry

China-EU Law Journal - Competition law enforcement, whether by public officials, private parties and consumers or the courts, has to resolve informational and resource asymmetries. Current EU...