Security of international civil aviation: The role of ICAO

Abstract

The International Civil Aviation Organization in the last twenty years has marshaled support of the overwhelming majority of its 150 member states in developing security programs and establishing a legal framework of international cooperation against terrorism in international aviation. The Tokyo Convention of 1963 establishes jurisdiction over offenses while an aircraft is in flight and grants a wide spectrum of powers to the aircraft commander to restrain a passenger. The Hague Convention of 1970 obliges states to punish the unlawful seizure of aircraft with severe penalties and to either extradite the offender or try him. The Montreal Convention of 1971 establishes a system of suppression of acts against aircraft, covering mostly acts on the ground that might endanger an aircraft in flight, and requires states to take practicable measures to prevent such offenses. In the past few years the number of countries adhering to these pacts and instituting improved security measures has increased significantly. Accompanying this trend has been a downward trend in acts of unlawful interference and seizure of aircraft to 147 in the 1978–1980 period compared to 245 in the 1969–1971 period. Nevertheless, only steadfast efforts by all nations can complete the job of eliminating unlawful interference with international civil aviation.     

Botswana: Industrial Court tackles HIV testing in the workplace

The Botswana Industrial Court recently decided two cases regarding mandatory HIV testing in the workplace. One case addressed constitutional rights of HIV-infected people, expanding the reach of the Bill of Rights to the private sphere and potentially offering wide protection to people living with HIV/AIDS. Both cases highlight the glaring need for HIV-related legislation in Botswana.     

Points of departure: re-examining the discursive formation of the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990

Leung’s article re-examines the political and legislative history of the debates that led up to the passage of the 1990 Hate Crime Statistics Act, in particular the 1980 House committee hearing on Increasing Violence against Minorities and a 1983 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report entitled Intimidation and Violence: Racial and Religious Bigotry in America. Both identify organized white supremacy as the cause of the nation’s epidemic of racial intimidation and violent bigotry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many significant recommendations were made, but data collection became the first piece of legislation to address the national problem of hate violence. Leung seeks to explain why. By analysing the relationship between committee hearings, the key report and the political context of the Reagan administration, he demonstrates how ‘hate crime’ became an object of knowledge, and how its definition had implications for policy development.     

FIFA’s Hegemony: Examples from World Cup Hosting Countries

The hegemonic power of FIFA over countries hosting its capstone World Cup tournament is worth examining in the context of hegemony theory in International Relations literature. To understand FIFA’s hegemonic role on the global stage, it is best to place it within the context of two major shifts in the international system—power transition and diffusion. This study provides an insight into the dispute between transnational and national law in sports, which FIFA has used to strengthen its hegemony. This has empirical support as seen in four World Cup cases: previous Cups in Brazil (2014) and South Africa (2010) and the forthcoming tournaments in Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022). These cases reveal FIFA’s hegemonic power both through the overruling of national law in favour of transnational law, and by the questionable bidding processes to host the games in Qatar and the Russian Federation. In addition, this study examines whether Switzerland is capable of regulating or restricting FIFA’s hegemonic power. While removing FIFA’s legal status as a non-profit organisation seems not to be an option, the executed amendment of the Swiss anti-corruption law is a step forward. Furthermore, FIFA needs to continue its recently initiated internal reforms.     

Human subjects protections in biomedical enhancement research: assessing risk and benefit and obtaining informed consent

The protection of human subjects in biomedical research relies on two principal mechanisms: assessing and comparing the risks and potential benefits of proposed research, and obtaining potential subjects' informed consent. While these have been discussed extensively in the literature, no attention has been paid to whether the processes should be different when the objective of an experimental biomedical intervention is to improve individual appearance, performance, or capability ("enhancement research") rather than to prevent, cure, or mitigate disease ("health-oriented research"). This essay examines this question in order to ensure that subjects in biomedical enhancement research receive adequate protection.     

Constitutional law in social choice perspective

Constitutional scholars do not typically employ spatial reasoning in their work. And yet, constitutional jurisprudence and much work in judicial politics implicitly rest on assumptions best cast in spatial terms. These include assuming that positions in constitutional disputes, and the views of Supreme Court justices, generally lie along a common liberal-to-conservative ideological dimension. Although the single dimension assumption is often appropriate, it suffers inherent limitations. First, Supreme Court decision-making rules, both within and across cases, expose problems of dimensionality. Second, important substantive doctrines likewise reveal dimensionality. Third, and finally, throughout the Supreme Court’s history, positions deemed liberal (or conservative) in one period have emerged as conservative (or liberal) in a later period, suggesting that dimensionality is a persistent feature in our jurisprudential history. Social choice proves uniquely suited to explaining these important aspects of constitutional law. After briefly introducing the discipline of constitutional law and its relationship to social choice, this article offers three illustrations of how social choice analysis deepens our understanding of important substantive areas. The analysis exposes dimensionality within Supreme Court decision-making rules, within separation-of-powers doctrine, and over historical shifts in the liberal and conservative valence of once-prominent jurisprudential positions. Failing to appreciate dimensionality, which lies at the core of social choice theory, when studying the Supreme Court and constitutional law risks a truly one-dimensional understanding of a richer and multidimensional institution and body of doctrine.     

Breaking the Cycle: Association of Attending Therapy Following Childhood Abuse and Subsequent Perpetration of Violence

Despite “cycle of violence” (Widom Psychological Bulletin, 106, 3–28, 1989, p. 4) theories prevailing for the past 30 years, few studies have looked at the empirical relationship between experiencing childhood physical abuse and becoming perpetrators of violence in adulthood. Those studies that do exist omit consideration of intervening therapeutic experiences. In the present study, archival data from an outpatient mental health clinic was used to examine whether therapeutic experiences mediate the relationship between experiencing childhood physical abuse by a parental figure and subsequent involvement as a perpetrator of physical violence. Treatment-seeking individuals (N?=?816) responded to three items about whether they had experiences of childhood physical abuse, whether they acted violently in adulthood, and whether they had ever before received counseling or therapy. Past counseling/psychotherapy treatment was a significant mediator between experiencing childhood physical abuse and perpetrating physical violence in adulthood, even after controlling for the effect of the victims’ gender. Findings suggest that psychotherapeutic experiences after experiencing childhood physical abuse may decrease the likelihood of perpetrating violence in adulthood. Limitations, implications, and directions for future research are discussed.