Le débat autour du bilinguisme des juges à la Cour suprême du Canada: analyse de la doctrine et des débats parlementaires

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - Il n’existe aucune disposition législative ou constitutionnelle qui oblige les juges...     

Domestic Contestation and Presidential Prerogative in Colombian Foreign Policy

The study of Colombian foreign policy emphasises external constraints and presidential prerogative in foreign policymaking. Drawing on insights from recent foreign policy analysis literature and evidence from several cases (Plan Colombia, US military bases, free trade talks with China, and ICJ arbitration of a maritime border with Nicaragua), this article challenges commonplace presidentialist assumptions. A novel model of ‘contested presidentialism’ better captures how Colombian domestic actors mobilise to raise political costs to block or modify presidential preferences. When the opposition fails to raise costs, presidentialist assumptions apply. Otherwise, presidents respond strategically by abandoning policies or substituting second-best alternatives.     

Performance and Compensation: An Analysis of Contract Damages and Contractual Obligation

Although there is an increasing body of opinion that awardsof damages for breach of contract should take account of theclaimant’s performance interest, there has been littlein the way of analysis of what the performance interest is.Commonly the concept is put forward as simply a reformulationor reconceptualization of the expectation interest, itself hithertoregarded as the one true contractual interest. Such thinkingis flawed. A closer analysis of contract doctrine shows thereto be two distinct contractual interests; in receiving performance,and in being compensated for losses caused by non-performance.Receiving compensatory damages for non-performance is not thesame as receiving performance. At present, this important differenceis not fully appreciated, resulting in a failure to developa principled approach to the claims that can be made followinga breach of contract. Recognition of this distinction forcesus to confront the fundamental question of how committed weare to the notion that contracts entail a right to performance.This article examines the distinction between these two interests,how the performance interest may be given effect by a damagesaward, and what the consequences of this analysis are for ourunderstanding of the nature of contractual obligation.     

Reviews

Culture in Africa: An Appeal for Pluralism edited by Raoul Granqvist. Seminar Proceedings No.29. The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala. 1993. 204 pp. illustrated.

Social Change And Economic Reform in Africa edited by Peter Gibbon. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala. 1993. 379 pp. including references and notes on contributors.

The Idea of Africa by V.Y.Mudimbe. Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, and James Currey, London. 1994. xvii plus 234 pp. including illustrations, bibliography and index.

Can National Dialogue Break the Power of Terror in Burundi? Report on the Impact of the International Conference National Dialogue Held in Bujumbura, May 15–18, on Burundian Efforts to Restore Domestic Process in the Country by Zdenek Cervenka and Colin Legum. Current African Issues 17. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, Sweden. 1994. 29 pp.

Ethnicity in Focus: The South African Case by Simon Bekker. Indicator SA Issue Focus, Centre for Social and Development Studies, University of Natal. 1993. iii plus 117pp. including notes, bibliography and index.

Liquor and Labour in Southern Africa edited by Jonathan Crush and Charles Ambler. Athens and Pietermaritzburg: Ohio University Press and University of Natal Press. 1992. 412 pp. including figures, tables and index.

Chelewa, Chelewa, The Dilemma of Teenage Girls edited by Zubeida Tumbo‐Masabo and Rita Liljestrom. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. 1994. 218 pp.

Towards More Appropriate Technologies? Experiences from the Water and Sanitation Sector by Mariken Vaa. Report No. 94, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala. 1993. 91 pp. including references.

From the Mountains to the Plains. The Integration of the Lafofa Nuba into Sudanese Society by L.O. Manger. Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala. 1994. 175 pp.

The New Local Level Politics in East Africa. Studies on Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya edited by Peter Gibbon. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala. 1994. Research Report No. 95. 118 pp. including figures, notes and references. Paperback. US$9.95.

Tanzania: The Limits to Development from Above by Kjell J. Havnevik. The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden. 1993. 343 pp. including tables, bibliography and appendices.

A Blighted Harvest: The World Bank and African Agriculture in the 1980s by Peter Gibbon, Kjell J. Havnevik and Kenneth Hermele. James Currey, London and Africa World Press, Trenton, New Jersey. 1993.     

EU Citizenship and Political Identity: The Demos and Telos Problems

Citizenship is the cornerstone of a democratic polity. It has three dimensions: legal, civic and affiliative. Citizens constitute the polity's demos, which often coincides with a nation. European Union (EU) citizenship was introduced to enhance ‘European identity’ (Europeans’ sense of belonging to their political community). Yet such citizenship faces at least two problems. First: Is there a European demos? If so, what is the status of peoples (nations, demoi) in the Member States? The original European project aimed at ‘an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe.’ Second: Citizens are members of a political community; to what kind of polity do EU citizens belong? Does the EU substitute Member States, assume them or coexist alongside them? After an analytical exposition of the demos and telos problems, I will argue for a normative self‐understanding of the EU polity and citizenship, neither in national nor in federal but in analogical terms.