Liability and Risk Assessment in Student Activity Abroad—The UKCOSA Survey

Universities in England are required to assess risk in all activities they undertake. This enables proper procedures to be put in to place to provide effective delivery whilst at the same time minimising risk and potential liability. The individual components of the law involved in student activity abroad are essentially 'standard' but the total package of law and the procedures that it is advisable to follow is more complex. A survey of universities was carried out to ascertain what procedures they had in place and what their level of awareness was. The findings of the survey have been used to indicate what management procedures should be put in place in order to minimise risk in the form of answers to a series of Frequently Asked Questions (UKCOSA, 2002). The total elimination of risk is not possible, but use of information can reduce risk, minimise liability and enhance the quality of service provided.     

New ideas in political ecology

Alain Lipietz, Green Hopes: The Future of Political Ecology, (Polity Press, Cambridge 1995). 169pp. ISBN 0–7456–1327–6.

Andrew Dobson and Paul Lucardie, The Politics of Nature: Explorations in Green Political Theory, (Routledge, London and New York 1995). 240pp. ISBN 0–415–12471–9.

Tim Hayward, Ecological Thought: An Introduction, (Polity Press, Cambridge 1995). 259pp. ISBN 0–7456–1320–9.     

Bringing the British back in: Sephardim,Ashkenazi anti-Zionist Orthodox and the policy of Jewish unity

This article analyses the British role in establishing and maintaining a Jewish–Arab demarcation line by means of a policy of Jewish unity and by enabling Ashkenazi Zionist control of the Yishuv. In the first part, it analyses British policy towards the local Sephardi as well as the local Ashkenazi anti-Zionist Orthodox communities, both of which for different reasons did not neatly fit into the Jewish/Zionist–Arab binary. I argue that the British followed a policy of Jewish unity at the inception of the Mandate which they upheld repeatedly against Ashkenazi anti-Zionist Orthodox efforts and which by 1936 had created a truism enforcing a binary understanding of the conflict. In the second part, this article analyses the ways in which these communities presented themselves vis-à-vis the British. I argue that despite different strategies of maximizing their influence, both communities foundered on the existing power configurations.     

Conflict diamonds and the Kimberley process: Mission accomplished—or mission impossible?

The Kimberley Process, which seeks to eradicate the sourcing and sale of conflict diamonds, underwent a three‐year review in 2006, which highlighted the success of the initiative to date and the challenges that remain.