The influence of the Regional Coordinating Unit of the Abidjan Convention: implementing multilateral environmental agreements to prevent shipping pollution in West and Central Africa

The Regional Coordinating Unit of the Convention for Co-operation in the Protection and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment for West and Central Africa (the Abidjan Convention) has under its wings several multilateral environmental agreements including those addressing shipping pollution. Shipping, potentially, has negative impacts on marine fauna and flora and air quality, with implications for public health. The Regional Coordinating Unit seeks to strengthen implementation of the Abidjan Convention by party-states through co-operation with state actors using various pathways based on its internal resources and competencies but the Unit is also starting to explore engagement with potential non-state actors. The ability of the Unit to exert influence on implementation is constrained by domestic politico-administrative institutions. This paper seeks to understand the influence of the Regional Coordinating Unit on the implementation of the Abidjan Convention in the field of shipping pollution. It uses three theoretical perspectives for the analysis: the influence of international environmental bureaucracies, domestic regulatory-politics and transnational governance. The paper shows how these theories are complementary because the influence of international bureaucracies such as the Regional Coordinating Unit cannot be adequately understood through factors internal to their organisation alone but needs to be analysed in relation also to external factors, both domestic politico-institutional ones in states that international bureaucracies work with, and the role of relevant non-state actors in the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements. It is concluded that, although influence cannot be measured directly, it is likely that Regional Coordinating Unit’s influence through its autonomy-centred efforts are quiet strong but negatively constrained by the traditional state-centric responsibility for implementation of international legal instruments where domestic regulatory-politics lack sufficient political will and support from and engagement with non-state actors.     

Editor's Note

An evaluation approach that is collaborative and elicitive may well serve as a catalyst for transforming relationships of power, standing in stark contrast to more conventional and staid evaluation practices that are technical in nature and actuarial in intent. Election of an orientation is the most decisive and strategic choice that is made in approaching evaluation and articulating value imperatives in fieldwork, coloring as it surely does the pragmatic stages of evaluation and good practice for the peacebuilder.     

Context and Continuity: Philistines,Pharisees and Art in English Culture

Cultural identity is an important facet of globalization, and cultural policy involves an international network of policymakers at the subnational, national, and supranational levels. It is often unclear what cultural identity means and who effects policy change, especially in a fast-changing world. The author examines one of the most important cultural policy conflicts of the last two decades to suggest that the intersections among multiple policymakers led to considerable learning through interaction and clear articulation of policy preferences. The author examines the culture war between the European Union (EU) and the United States over trade in cultural products.¹ The conflict played out in international organizations and allowed the EU to come together to articulate a somewhat coherent cultural identity policy, while the United States realized the difficulty of sustaining cultural exports in the context of provocative cultural identity frames.     

Abstracts of papers given at the 25th annual conference of the Scottish legal history group

Modern Legal History. A. H. Manchester. London. 1980. Butterworths. xxv and 419 pp (incl. Index). £14.50 cased, £9.75 limp.

Introduction historique au droit. John Gilissen. Brussels. 1979. Emile Bruylant. 756 pp. 2200 Bfr. (2075 Bfr. abroad).

Legal Evolution: The Story of an Idea. Peter Stein. Cambridge. 1980. Cambridge University Press. xi and 131 pp (incl. Index). £15.00 cased.

Judecata Domneasca în Tara Româneasca ?i Moldova (1611–1831) (Princely Justice in Wallachia and Moldavia, 1611–1831) Part I. Judicial Organisation, 1611–1740 by V. A. Georgescu and P. Strihan. Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, Bucharest, 1979, 218 pp. Lei 17.

Bizantul ?i Institutiile Române?ti pîna la Mijlocul Secolului al XVIII lea (Byzantium and Romanian Institutions until the mid‐18th century) by V. A. Georgescu. Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste Romania, Bucharest, 1979, 296 pp. Lei 22.50.

TUC: The Growth of a Pressure Group 1868–1976. Ross M. Martin. Oxford. 1980. Clarendon Press. xiii and 394 pp (incl. Index). £14.00 cased.     

Agile small state agency: heuristic plays and flexible national identity markers in Finnish foreign policy

Studies of small state foreign policy tend to draw relatively bleak conclusions when it comes to small state agency. However, I will examine alternative and more positive modalities of small state agency. One such modality is agility, the strategic maneuverability to take advantage of a chancy environment. Besides leading to dangerous rigidities and biases, particular types of foreign policy imageries and heuristics may also facilitate experimental and agile agency. In studying this possibility, Finland is chosen as an illustrative case because historically Finland has faced a particularly constraining geopolitical context and because it has managed to adapt to multiple upheavals and to different geopolitical contexts. The emphasis is on the heuristic dynamics inherent in Finnish foreign policy culture that have allowed it to actively meet the emerging challenges. Instead of taking a detailed historical approach, I seek to understand the role of the relatively flexible and combinable embodied cultural models, i.e. thick images. They allow for agency-related experimentation that may bring added value that allows Finland to exceed the constraints of the brute geopolitical position. After reviewing multiple embodied foreign policy images, I will use them to analyse New Year's speeches by the Finnish Presidents Ahtisaari and Halonen in order to see how the fickle present is made to resonate innovatively with the known, commonplace, and mythical.     

British Foreign Policy,the Financial Elite,and the Nationalisation of the Constantinople Quays Company, 1934–1945

The analysis examines the role of British financial institutions, namely the Bank of England and the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders [CFB], in the making of British policy towards Turkey. The nationalisation of the Constantinople Quays Company, a port operator purchased in 1907 by the British and French governments, serves as a case study through which business–state relations, the role of finance in the conduct of international relations, and the impact of perceptions on policy decisions are explored. In this case, the financial elite’s role was minimal during most of the period considered, becoming more important in the final war years in a framework of the Anglo–Turkish debt restructuring negotiations of 1944. Significantly, the CFB, rather than the Bank, represented the British government in the negotiations. There exists an abundance of evidence of the divergent views between Whitehall and the financial elite about Turkey’s trustworthiness as a debtor and a signatory to treaties. The British government’s perceptions were much more positive than those of the financial elite. This difference stemmed from the different interests involved: Whitehall sought to secure Turkey’s collaboration in the increasingly unstable global security environment while the Bank and the CFB were more concerned with investor and bondholder interests and attempted to avoid further financial losses.     

EU developments in IP,IT & telecommunications law

This is the latest edition of Baker & McKenzie's column on developments in EU law relating to IP, IT and telecommunications. This article summarises recent developments that are considered important for practitioners, students and academics in a wide range of information technology, e-commerce, telecommunications and intellectual property areas. It cannot be exhaustive but intends to address the important points. This is a hard copy reference guide, but links to outside web sites are included where possible. No responsibility is assumed for the accuracy of information contained in these links.     

Finnish professional criminals and their organisations in the 1990SA

This article concentrates on Finnish professional criminals and their organisations in Finland and in cross-border crime operations. It is based on qualitative empirical material. It focus on 14 different Finnish groups active in the 1990s in smuggling (alcohol, tobacco and drugs), and/or procuring prostitutes, and/or handling stolen goods. The objective of the study was twofold: 1) to gather collective information about the world of the Finnish professional criminals by studying the personal characteristics of the group members, the crimes they commit, and the structures of the criminal groups, 2) to compare differences and similarities of professional criminals and organised crime groups in Finland and abroad. The study clearly shows, that Finnish professional criminal groups are loosely structured networks that based on trade relations between the participants. The operational time of the groups is short and laundering of profits is not planned beforehand. The comparison of studied groups and internationally well known organised crime groups shows, that the Finns are a long way behind in all matters related on organised crime and its criminality. Finnish groups are loosely structured networks working on ad hog basis, at the moment and a certain time. International groups are monopolistic business enterprises that corrupt and threats state authorities and surrounding society to leave them in peace, promote its own business matters and reputation of top men.

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Determining security level in forensic psychiatry: a tug of war between the DUNDRUM toolkit and the HoNOS-Secure

ABSTRACT

Criteria to determine in which level of security forensic patients should receive treatment are currently non-existent in Belgium. Research regarding the assessment of security level is minimal, and limited instruments are available. This study investigated the instruments that measure the need for security level: DUNDRUM-1 and the HoNOS-Secure. The psychometric properties of the DUNDRUM-1, DUNDRUM-2 and the HoNOS-Secure were investigated.

A random selection was made of 100 male forensic patients in prison. The DUNDRUM-1, DUNDRUM-2 and the HoNOS-Secure were scored retrospectively. A subsample of the files was rated by four researchers (n?=?38). Comparisons were made with the security level as decided by the court.

The DUNDRUM-1 achieved excellent inter-rater reliability, and the HoNOS-Secure and DUNDRUM-2 got a moderate score. The internal consistency was highest for DUNDRUM-1 followed by the HoNOS-Secure and was low for the DUNDRUM-2. Both the DUNDRUM-1 and the HoNOS-Secure predicted allocations by the court to high security.

The DUNDRUM-1 outperforms the HoNOS-Secure on psychometric properties and provides clear instructions with regard to the assessment of the security level. Training seems to be important for scoring the DUNDRUM-1. The current study provided more evidence for the applicability of the DUNDRUM-1 in Belgian settings with regard to determining the need for security.