A very short guide to an awful lot

Harmonised Trade Mark Law in Europe By Ulrich Hildebrandt 2005,Cologne: Carl Heymanns Verlag Price: 48, Hardback, ISBN: 3-452-25922-6. pp.150   Dr Ulrich Hildebrandt, a lawyer in private practice in Berlinand a lecturer at the Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf,has had an interesting and useful idea. In this book he hasproduced a compilation of the case law of the European Courtof Justice interpreting the Council Directive 89/104 to approximatethe laws of the Member States relating to trade marks (includingdecisions     

Response to Steven Plaut

The standard requirement of monotonicity of a voting procedurestates that an improvement in the ranking of the winningalternative, ceteris paribus, should not make itnon-winning. A concept apparently closely linked tomonotonicity is known as the participation axiom whichrequires that it should never be advantageous for a voter toabstain rather than to vote according to his/her preferences.Situations in which a group of voters may end up with a betteroutcome by not voting at all than by voting according to theirpreferences are called instances of the no-show paradox. Astrong version of the paradox occurs when the abstainers endup with their most preferred outcome by abstaining. A thirdrelated concept is invulnerability to preference truncation.This is satisfied by such procedures that make itadvantageous for voters to always reveal their entirepreference rankings. The fourth concept, Maskin monotonicity,plays an important role in mechanism design literature. Wediscuss these requirements in the context of votingprocedures. Particular attention is paid to the plausibilityof conditions guaranteeing various forms of monotonicity.     

Putting the Cart before the Horse: Accountability or Performance?

Conventional wisdom argues that a good set of performance measures builds accountability and that improved accountability generates better productivity in the organisation. By way of an analysis of a case study in one inland Chinese county, this article shows that the assumed relationship between performance and accountability is more rhetoric than real. In practice, the implementation of performance measurement in local China leads to an accountability paradox, in which enhanced accountability tends to hinder the improvement of government productivity. The implementation of the Chinese target-based responsibility system risks boosting the short term accountability of public employees while undermining the long term productivity of government agencies. With the deepening of China's market-oriented reform, this choice appears to put the cart before the horse.     

A COMMENT ON WILLIAM J. HOWE AND HUGH MCISAAC'S ARTICLE “FINDING THE BALANCE” PUBLISHED IN THE JANUARY 2008 ISSUE OF FAMILY COURT REVIEW

This article is a response to an article written by William Howe and Hugh McIsaac that questions their recommendations that court‐based mediation not be used when certain types of persons appear in court. We assert that it will be very difficult for the court to identify these people. Further, we argue that mediation practice has advanced so far that even these persons (those with serious issues of domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental health) should be given an opportunity to participate in mediation before being referred to the adversarial court process.     

INTERNATIONAL ABDUCTION OF CHILDREN

Justice Kay discusses the abduction of children and the application of the Hague Convention from the Australian perspective. The article begins with an outline of the common law and the appropriate legislation. Signatory nations to the Hague Convention are listed and Australian case law reviewed. Statistics are also given regarding children who have been taken to what nations.