Providing justice and reconciliation: The criminal tribunals for Sierra Leone and Cambodia

The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) and the Extraordinary Chambers for Cambodia (ECC) represent a departure from the model established by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yygoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The SCSL and the ECC have often been referred to as “mixed” or “hybrid” tribunals in which there are significant domestic and international components. The tribunals include a combination of domestic and international judges, utilize domestic and international laws and are administered by a prosecutorial team composed of domestic and international lawyers. Many of these institutional changes have been brought about because of criticisms of the ICTY and the ICTR. The fundamental question of this article is whether these mixed tribunals are a more effective mechanism for providing justice and reconciliation than purely international solutions. This is an important question because both the international community and states are moving in the direction of mixed tribunals.     

C. Reviews and notes: bibliographies and works of reference

THE CONCISE ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF ISLAM. By CYRIL GLASSÉ. London, Stacey International, 1989. 472pp. Ills., maps, plans. £30.00

THE NEAR EAST NATIONAL UNION LIST. Volume 1. Compiled by DOROTHY STEHLE, under the direction of GEORGE N. ATIYEH. Washington, Library of Congress, 1988. ix, 867pp. USS 47.00.

MUDEJARES: REPERTORIO BIBLIOGRAFICO. Compiled by PAZ FERNANDEZ. (Cuadernos de la Biblioteca Islámica ‘Félix María Pareja’, 18.) Madrid, Instituto Hispano‐Árabe de Cultura, 1988. iii, 42pp.

INFORMATIONS BIBLIOGRAPHIQUES. I'LAMAT BIBLIYUGHRAFIYYA. 3 et 4–1986; 1 et 2–1987. Tunis, Bibliothèque Nationale, Service des Dépots et des Publications/Dar al‐Kutub al‐Wataniyya, Maslahat al‐Ida’ wa‐1‐Nashr, 1987. 45 + 23; 49 + 46pp.

L'ÉCONOMIE DES PAYS ARABES: PRÉSENTATION THÉMATIQUE DES TRAVAUX DE LA PÉRIODE 1979–1984. By CHANTAL BERNARD. (Cahiers du C.R.E.S.M., 20.) Paris, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1988. 156pp. FF 90.‐.

SYRIA. Compiled by IAN J. SECCOMBE. (World Bibliographical Series, 73.) Oxford, Clio Press, 1987. xxxii + 341pp. £45.00.

MALTA. Compiled by J.R. THACKRAH. (World Bibliographical Series, 64.) Oxford, Clio Press, 1985. xviii, 153pp. Map. £23.50.

BIBLJOGRAFIJA NAZZJONALI TA’ MALTA. MALTA NATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY, 1983–1987. Valletta, National Library of Malta, 1984–1988. 5 volumes. 41; 60; 59; 64; 76pp. Each LM 1.50 or US $9.00 (incl. air mail postage).

MELITENSIA: BOOKS IN PRINT 1985. Valletta, Sapienzas, 1985. 55pp.

ARABIC LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: 1988 DIRECTORY. Compiled by DIONISIUS A. AGIUS. [Leeds,] Folia Scholastica, 1988. 36pp. £2.50.

QUR'ANS OF THE MAMLUKS. By DAVID JAMES. London, Alexandria Press in association with Thames and Hudson, 1988. 270pp. 170 illustrations (80 in colour). 1 map. £35.00.

CALLIGRAPHIE ISLAMIQUE, TEXTES SACRES ET PROFANES. ISLAMIC CALLIGRAPHY, SACRED AND SECULAR WRITINGS. By DAVID JAMES & others. Geneva, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire and Treasures of Islam, 1988. 200pp. Colour illus.

KAYF NU'ALLIM AL‐KHATT AL‐'ARABI. By MA'RUF ZURAYQ. Damascus, Dar al‐Fikr, 1407/1987 (2nd edition, reprinted from the 1985 edition). 150pp. 51 illustrations. US$ 2.50.

IMAGES OF WOMEN: THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE EAST 1860–1950. By SARAH GRAHAM‐BROWN. London, Quartet, 1988. 288pp., 216 b/w ills. £22.50.     

Konstanz und Konkordanz. Die Stabilität kantonaler Regierungen im Vergleich

Die Instabilität kantonaler Regierungszusammensetzungen im Sinne wechselnder Parteienkoalitionen hat seit der Einführung der Volkswahl einen neuen Höhepunkt erreicht. Gleichzeitig finden sich in der Nachkriegszeit frappante Unterschiede zwischen den einzelnen Ständen, die sich gegen Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts noch akzentuiert haben. Der vorliegende Artikel versucht, die verschiedenen Determinanten zur Erklärung der unterschiedlichen parteipolitischen Regierungsstabilität in den "präsidentiellen" Konkordanzsystemen der Kantone theoretisch herzuleiten und empirisch zu überprüfen. Die empirischen Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass die Ursachen für die unterschiedliche Stabilität der parteipolitischen Zusammensetzungen kantonaler Exekutiven nicht etwa mit dem Typ des Wahlsystems oder spezifischen Regierungsmerkmalen zusammenhängen, sondern vielmehr mit dem Grad elektoraler Kompetition und damit mit den Kooperationsstrategien der Regierungsparteien sowie – in weit schwächerer Form – mit dem Fragmentierungsgrad des Parteiensystems.     

Book reviews

KUL B. RAI, DAVID F. WALSH and PAUL J. BEST (eds), America in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities in Foreign Policy (Prentice‐Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1997), 259 pp., ISBN 0–13–570961‐X (pb)

BRIAN JENKINS and SPYROS A. SOFOS (eds), Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe (Routledge, London, 1996), 294 pp.

WESLEY D. CHAPIN, Germany for the Germans? The Political Effects of International Migration (Greenwood Press, Westport, 1997), 173 pp., ISBN 0–313–30258–8 (hb)

JOHN REES, The Algebra of Revolution. The Dialectic and the Classical Marxist Tradition (Routledge, London, 1998), vi + 314 pp., ISBN 0–415–19876–3 (hb), 0–415–19877–1 (pb)

RANDY E. BARNETT, The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998), 337 pp., ISBN 0–19–0829324–0 (hb)

J#AUURGEN HABERMAS, A Berlin Republic: Writings on Germany (Polity Press, Cambridge, 1998), 187 pp., ISBN 0–7456–2045–0 (pb)     

Adolescents' Intergroup Attributions: A Comparison of Two Social Identities

This study investigated the intergroup perceptions of 2 social groups. English adolescents aged 14–15 years were asked to make causal attributions for various positive and negative behaviors performed by members of an in-group and an out-group. In the first condition (n = 45), participants rated members of their own peer group and members of a peer group to which they did not belong. Participants in the second condition (n = 45) rated English adolescents and members of a national out-group (either France or Germany). Results showed that participants in both conditions reported perceptions that were biased towards the formation of a favorable in-group evaluation. However, the relationship between intergroup discrimination and identification with the in-group was in the expected direction for participants in the peer group condition only. This observation is explained in terms of the potential level of identity threat posed by the prevalent intergroup context.     

Swiss Federalism from a Comparative Perspective –Dealing with Reform Obstacles

Swiss Federalism from a Comparative Perspective ‐ Dealing with Reform Obstacles In the first part of this introductory contribution, the authors present the content of this special edition as well as the individual articles and their main findings. The contributions are organized along three main comparative themes: the international and inter‐temporal comparison of Swiss federalism, the comparison of the constituent units from an institutional point of view, and the comparative analysis of their functioning in specific policy areas. In the second part of this article, the authors develop three theses concerning reform obstacles and opportunities of Swiss federalism related to polity, politics, and policy. They argue that federalism reforms are difficult to undertake given the conjunction of both centrifugal and centripetal dynamics. However, reforms are facilitated in Switzerland because institutions of federalism hardly ever turn into a politically contended issue and because federal conflicts and reform obstacles can be avoided by means of informal coordination.     

CHILDREN,THE UNCRC,AND FAMILY LAW IN ENGLAND AND WALES

There is no doubt that, overall, there has been a great deal of activity in relation to children's rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) since it was ratified by the UK government in 1991. Of particular significance in the context of family law, however, are the provisions of Article 12, which have in many ways proved to be more problematic than other provisions, not least because, in the context of family law, children's participation rights are necessarily juxtaposed with the long‐standing and hitherto unchallenged rights of parents to make important decisions about family life. The reorganisation in 2001 of the family court welfare services in England and Wales with the creation of the Children and Family Courts Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS), generated a new impetus for the consideration of children's participation rights and, at an organizational level, considerable progress has been made in embracing the provisions of the UNCRC. More problematic, however, is the acceptance of children's participation in making decisions about their futures by adults using and working in the family justice system. At the level of the courts, judicial attitudes are slow to change and in England, as court judgments often demonstrate, these are firmly rooted in a view of children as being incompetent in such issues; at the level of parents using the system, it is arguable that new discourses about the best interests of the child serve as a proxy for continuing discourses about parents’ rights that have become evident, most recently, in the context of an increasingly influential fathers’ rights lobby; and at the level of welfare practitioners, recent research also demonstrates that, although the rhetoric of children's rights is widely accepted, the willingness and ability to make these real in the context of family proceedings is, for a variety of reasons, less in evidence.     

From semi-presidentialism to parliamentarism: Regime change and presidential power in Moldova

This article examines Moldova's constitutional change in 2000 from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary regime and analyses what the Moldovan case tells us about the nature of executive power. One of the interesting issues that this case raises is whether our definition of regime really captures the locus of political power. While Moldova has evolved from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary regime, the president is more powerful under the current regime than previous presidents were in a semi-presidential regime. The consolidation of the president's party in the parliament explains the concentration of executive power more than constitutional prerogatives.     

Paradoxes of Voting Power in Dutch Politics

In this paper we first evaluate thirteen seat distributions inthe Second Chamber of the Dutch parliament by means of severalindices of voting power. Subsequently, we search for theoccurrence of the paradox of redistribution, the paradox ofnew members, and the paradox of large size for each powerindex. The indices used are the Shapley-Shubik index, thenormalized Banzhaf index, the Penrose-Banzhaf index, theHoller index, and the Deegan-Packel index.