Anordnung des Ruhens einer Genehmigung für das Inverkehrbringen gentechnisch ver?nderter Organismen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Linkages between the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols – Enhancing Synergies between Protecting the Ozone Layer and the Global Climate

The international treaties for the protection of the ozone layer and the global climate are closely related. Not only has the Montreal Protocol for the protection of the ozone layer served as a useful example in developing the international climate regime, but policies pursued in both issue areas influence each other. This paper gives an overview of the many ways in which both treaty systems are linked functionally and politically. It investigates, in particular, the tension that has arisen with respect to the use of fluorinated greenhouse gases and the potential for drawing on the experience under the Montreal Protocol regarding data reporting and policy design on fluorinated greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The potentials for enhancing synergy in these areas are explored, and related options discussed. Some initiatives for exploiting these potentials are already underway, aiming in particular at enhancing learning and exchanging of information. However, political choices concerning some of the issues willeventually need to be made, if action at the international level is to contribute to their solution.     

Citizenship gone wrong

This paper examines how and why a deliberate enactment of the state got out of control. It does so by outlining three phases of border management in Tusheti, a highland province of post-Soviet Georgia. In the first phase, control was directly exercised by the local population. At the same time, border transgression for economic and political purposes was encouraged. A second phase of border management was triggered by the Chechen war in the mid-1990s. In order to discredit claims that Chechen ‘terrorists’ were hiding in Georgian territory, the Georgian government, monitored by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, effectively brought border transgression to a standstill. Finally, a third phase was initiated by a mission of the Georgian Orthodox Church sent to Tusheti with the aim of ‘spiritual fortification’. In the end, despite their courageous civic engagement, the locals had fewer entitlements than before. In order to explain what went wrong, I reflect on the downside of performing and incorporating the state and elaborate three different models of citizenship enacted by the key players in each distinct period. Finally, I argue for a temporalisation and hence deconstruction of the notion of ‘post-socialism’.     

The Taliban and Islam

This paper examines the aims, motives and methods of the Taliban, the present rulers of most of Afghanistan. In accordance with their fundamentalist views the Taliban have established an Islamic system which focuses on the implementation of Shariah. This paper argues that the Taliban apply directly the divine injunctions which they have drastically sharpened ‐ that means without being sanctioned by act of law of men. The government which the Taliban have set up has so far reached only a low level of institutionalization; the real power emanates from their leader, Mullah Omar.     

Confronting earthquake risk in Japan—are private households underinsured?

Despite the fact that Japan is an earthquake-prone country and Japanese people are known to be highly risk averse, less than half of Japanese households are insured against earthquake risk. Based on a survey among experts in the field, the article gives an overview of earthquake insurance schemes and evaluates possible reasons for the relatively low level of insurance and ways for improvement. Experts agree that more insurance is desirable, but they share a less clear opinion about the causes and possible remedies. More research is warranted.