NATO enlargement and Russian security: A comparison of findings from two analytical approaches

The article compares the results of two model analyses on the implications of NATO enlargement for Russia's security in six regions: North‐West, West, South‐West, Caucasus, Central Asia, and Far East. One was done by Vitali Tsygichko using his ‘Model of Defense Sufficiency’ (MDS), the other one by these authors using Tsygichko's data as input to the ‘Generalized Force Ratio Model’ (GEFRAM). While agreeing with regard to the general trend in the development of Russia's security situation, the results differ significantly as to whether these trends indicate a reduction of security below Russia's stated requirements. The results are preliminary and meant as an input to a continued debate on the subject among analysts.     

Rape as Genocide: The Group/Individual Schism

This paper discusses, within the context of analytical theory, some of the implications when rape is subsumed within the international crime of genocide and concludes that this type of enquiry is essential for creating a clearer framework to address and understand this violation. From the analysis undertaken, two critical questions become apparent: a) Does compatibility exist when rape is subsumed within the category of a group violation (genocide), if rape is constructed as a violation of an individual’s sexual autonomy? ⁱ b) Is the link between rape and genocide necessarily problematic within this notion of autonomy for the individual victim of rape? The process unfolds within an analytical theoretical approach that touches upon the current concept of human rights with its focus on the individual. Although the key element is the individual, the concept of human rights also creates a space, albeit limited and at times controversial, for the group. As such, this paper identifies some of the theoretical implications that emerge once rape is subsumed within the international crime of genocide, which is defined as a violation committed against particular groups.     

Minderheitsgesellschafter einer GmbH ist Verbraucher

Ein Minderheitsgesellschafter, dessen Gesellschaftsbeteiligung eine blo?e Finanzinvestition ist und der (daher) keinen relevanten Einfluss auf die Gesch?ftsführung der Gesellschaft ausübt, ist jedenfalls nicht Unternehmer. Die blo?e Anlage von Kapital ist noch nicht unternehmerisches Handeln. Es fehlt hier der Zusammenhang zwischen dem Betrieb des Unternehmens und einem darauf bezogenen Handeln des Gesellschafters. Die übernahme einer Bürgschaft ist in diesem Fall nur eine Folge der Anlageentscheidung; sie ist daher ebenso wie diese als Verbrauchergesch?ft zu betrachten. Die §§ 25c und 25d KSchG sind nicht von Amts wegen anzuwenden. Den Interzedenten trifft die entsprechende Behauptungs- und Beweislast. Der Gl?ubiger muss nach § 1364 ABGB den Regressan-spruch des Bürgen gegen den Hauptschuldner schützen. Er darf nicht durch den Verzicht auf eine dingliche Haftung in Rück- oder Weitergriffsansprüche von Bürgen eingreifen. Ein Versto? gegen diese Pflicht führt zu einem Schadenersatzanspruch, mit dem der Bürge gegen den Zahlungsanspruch des Gl?ubigers aufrechnen kann. Dem ist gleichzuhalten, wenn ein Mithaftender auf eine Sicherheit vertraut, die im Kreditvertrag angeführt ist und auf die auch in der Bürgschaftserkl?rung hingewiesen wird, deren Einholen der Gl?ubiger aber unterl?sst. In diesem Fall besteht nicht nur eine Informationspflicht über die beabsichtigte Auszahlung. Vielmehr muss der Kreditgeber die Auszahlung des Kreditbetrags teilweise verweigern. Die H?he des Schadenersatzanspruchs ergibt sich aus dem (hypothetischen) Innenverh?ltnis der im Kreditvertrag vorgesehenen Bürgen. Da zwischen den vorgesehenen Bürgen ein Gesellschaftsvertrag besteht und für eine Schuld der Gesellschaft gebürgt werden sollte, bestimmt sich dieses Innenverh?ltnis nach den Anteilen am Gesellschaftsverm?gen.     

Institutional Sources of Legitimate Authority: An Experimental Investigation

Unelected officials with coercive powers (e.g., police, prosecutors, bureaucrats) vary markedly in the extent to which citizens view their actions as legitimate. We explore the institutional determinants of legitimate authority in the context of a public goods laboratory experiment. In the experiment, an “authority” can target one “citizen” for punishment following citizen contribution choices. Untargeted citizens can then choose to help or hinder the authority. This latter choice may be interpreted as a behavioral measure of the authority's legitimacy. We find that legitimacy is affected by how authorities are compensated, the transparency with which their decisions are observed, and an interaction between these. When transparency is high, citizens are more willing to assist authorities who receive fixed salaries than those who personally benefit from collected penalties, even when citizens' material incentives are controlled for. Lower transparency reduces support, but only for salaried enforcers.     

'Cheese for Thought' for the European Court of First Instance

The name ‘grana’ is not generic and the existenceof the protected designation of origin (PDO) for the ‘GranaPadano’ cheese precludes the registration of the trademark GRANA BIRAGHI for related products.     

Holocaust Compensation Payments and the Global Search for Justice for Victims of Nazi Persecution

Dormant bank accounts, insurance policies, communal property, and most recently the question of compensation for slave and forced labour: more than fifty years after the Second World War, the crimes committed by the National Socialist régime have returned to the agenda. Negotiations between governments, class-action lawyers, and Jewish and non-Jewish organisations have led to a series of agreements to compensate Holocaust victims. These agreements also have consequences for the study of the Holocaust: a global commitment to archival openness; the globalisation of historical research; a "reorientation" in the study of the economic aspect of the Holocaust, and the globalisation of the memory of the Holocaust. This article elaborates on these aspects and demonstrates how the parties involved (governments, NGOs) have made "competitive use of history" in order to advance and further their cause.     

Hermes: God of Thieves. Plagiarism in Twentieth Century Literature

The question of imitation moves from an open and obvious phase, the phase of Classicism, during which the models from antiquity were imitated with pride and with a conscious desire to set fixed and codified models for compositions, following norms for distinction in well-defined genres, to the period of Romanticism, during which the concept of the work's uniqueness predominated, and the work was seen as the link between God and the world. During the twentieth century the attitude towards plagiarism changed again: in our century the question of artistic originality becomes anxiety-provoking and the relationship with tradition becomes competitive. The heavy weight of tradition creates in the writer a desire to exorcise in some way the fear of the death of creative originality and gives rise to the playful, demystifying re-presentation of previous works, in an attempt to desecrate genres and precursors, re-creating them overtly and covertly at the same time. Thus plagiarism transforms itself into a new creative force, in which tradition is no longer imitated in a subservient, nor a reverential fashion, nor in the sense of the subdivision of pre-established genres. Plagiarism becomes instead a challenge on the same grounds of the canonical authors, demonstrating in this manner a strong capacity to capture the essence of the author's own language (a link to the new emphasis on the act of reading). This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The impact of participation in European joint research projects on knowledge creation and economic growth

This paper investigates the impact of participation in European scientific networks on the stock of knowledge and on economic growth. We use scientific links in FP programmes to weight foreign R&D in order to construct two different measures of foreign R&D spillovers and we assess their impact on the production of knowledge (patents) and on economic growth in a panel of countries participating in FP over the period 1994–2005. We find that participation in EU funded projects is an important channel of knowledge transfer. However, while for countries with high levels of R&D expenditure R&D spillovers contribute to the generation of new knowledge, for low R&D spenders knowledge spillovers facilitate technological imitation and catching up.     

Correction sequences and semiotic resources in ensemble music workshops: the case of Conduction®

The paper examines the phenomenon of correction of musical action by analysing ensemble music workshops devoted to Conduction®, a way of making music together on the basis of a codified gestural lexicon addressed by a conductor to instrumentalists. In particular, it focuses on correction sequences initiated by the conductor and related to the musical material to be played and discusses the techniques used by the conductor to construct and sequentially organize correction, showing how these are accomplished through the interplay and mutual contextualization of talk and further audible and visible semiotic resources. Based on the fine-grained analysis of two correction sequences, the study stresses the role of multimodality for investigating music and pedagogy from an interactional perspective, while highlighting the peculiarities of Conduction as performative and educational practice.