Collective Litigation and the Constitutional Challenges to Decriminalizing Homosexuality in Singapore

This article examines collective legal mobilization through the courts, or collective litigation, in a non‐liberal regime. It analyses the emergence and development of collective litigation to challenge the constitutionality of section 377A of the Penal Code, the law that criminalizes same‐sex sexual conduct in Singapore. The analysis focuses on the relational dynamics of collective litigation and legal subjectivities of the social actors involved, highlighting how social positions and strategic interests shaped their interactions and decisions on litigation. While gay rights activists emphasized their movement's collective interests when choosing the appropriate case and lawyers, a movement outsider pursued individual interests on behalf of a client. Due to their divergent social positions and strategic interests, the two teams competed with each other as they initiated two separate constitutional challenges. Tension between the teams led to conflict with constituents of the gay rights movement and influenced their relational dynamics with other parties.     

马来西亚印度人社群研究——以印度人社群语言状况为例

马来西亚的印度人社群来自印度,以淡米尔语言群占大多数。印裔族群的内部差异相当大,可以从语言、宗教、社会地位、教育、种姓分别开来;也依来源地分成两大阶层：一为来自印度东南部的穷困劳工,二为来自斯里兰卡受教育懂英语的淡米尔人。本文拟从语言的角度,实地调查马来西亚老中青3个不同年龄层的印裔,探讨印裔的语言问题。研究发现,不论在社会或家庭里,马来西亚印裔的常用语言是淡米尔语,其次为英语和马来语。但淡米尔语的使用在逐代减少,而英语有慢慢取代淡米尔语的趋势。在政经文教条件的影响下,印裔族群语言态度开始改变,要维持淡米尔语为主的语言,情况并不乐观。     

Corruption and Policy Implementation in the Philippines: A Comparative Analysis of the Teacher Training and Textbook Delivery Programmes

Corruption is a perennial obstacle to the Philippines’ pursuit of development. The Department of Education (DepEd) is considered to be one of the most corrupt agencies in the Philippines. However, there are two DepEd programmes with different levels of effectiveness in controlling corruption. The Textbook Delivery Programme has been ineffective while the Programme on Basic Education has been successful. The article explains the different levels of implementing these programmes by using local perspectives via the ‘narratives of implementation actors’. Apart from providing insights on the challenges facing the evolving educational bureaucracy in the Philippines, this article also demonstrates the utility of network actor perspectives in appreciating the many concerns that determine and impede implementation performance and discusses the causes and impact of corruption and policy implementation on two public educational programmes.     

新韩国常识问答

跟以往相比，带着各种不同目的访问韩国的外国人迅速增加。体验过韩国的文化的外国人对于韩国的生活方式既感觉吸引又感觉困惑。韩文的字母到底有何特征？为什么韩国人不用刀而用剪刀切肉呢？对于以上这些问题，作者试图为韩国的日常生活和文化提供一个掠影式的解答。     

Simultaneous analysis of d-3-methoxy-17-methylmorphinan and l-3-methoxy-17-methylmorphinan by high pressure liquid chromatography equipped with PDA

d-3-Methoxy-17-methylmorphinan (Dextromethorphan, DXM), which is a structural analog of morphine and codeine, has been widely used as a non-narcotic antitussive agent. It is a safe drug in therapeutic dose and does not produce analgesic effects, while its enantiomer, l-3-methoxy-17-methylmorphinan called levomethorphan (LXM) is a potent narcotic analgesic. DXM has been widely abused in Korea due to its hallucinogenic effect in large doses; therefore, the health authorities have regulated its use as a psychotropic agent since 2003. As its abuse has been serious, a possibility that DXM would be smuggled into Korea has also increased. Moreover, it has been suspected that there was the possibility of the adulteration or substitution of DXM with LXM due to their chemical similarities. Therefore, it was necessary for us to establish the enantiomeric separation of DXM and LXM. In this study, a liquid chromatographic method using a chiral column capable of separating stereoisomers of DXM as well as analyzing the major metabolites of DXM, 3-methoxymorphinan, 3-hydroxymorphinan, and 17-hydroxymethylmorphinan was developed. The validation of a method was studied through repeatability of retention times. Using this method, 32 confiscated DXM samples were analyzed to identify the enantiomers of DXM. As a result, DXM was detected in all samples and there was no evidence of the adulteration or substitution of DXM with LXM. Nevertheless, the stereochemical analysis of DXM and LXM is important not only to identify starting materials for illegal drug manufacture but also to understand the trends of abused drugs.     

Becoming a “Good Nixon Doctrine Country”: Political Relations between the United States and Singapore during the Nixon Presidency

The Nixon Doctrine, which devolved US troops from direct involvement in Asian conflicts but gave priority to military sales and economic assistance, was considered by some commentators to be an inefficacious foreign policy approach that did little to serve US interests in Asia during the Cold War. Using Singapore as a case study, this article demonstrates that Richard Nixon's foreign policy approach improved US‐Singapore relations significantly from 1970 onwards. After a period of flirtation with the Soviet Union during 1968–72, Singapore came to be labelled a “good Nixon Doctrine country” by the US government in 1973. Through the sale of US military equipment and economic assistance, Singapore and the US cultivated bilateral ties that endured after the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam in 1973 and the fall of Saigon two years later.     

Modeling complexity: Using dynamic simulation to link regression and case studies

The success or failure of programs typically depends on how numerous variables interact over time. Individuals adjust their strategies continuously on the basis of prior events. Unintended consequences abound. And the very meaning of success or failure may change over time. Yet the studies that command the most influence in the policy community are typically based on multiple regression, a technique whose capacity to capture these complexities is sharply limited. Accordingly, findings based on regression studies and findings based on the study of individual cases commonly conflict. Dynamic simulation modeling can serve as a methodological bridge between case studies and regression-based studies of policy systems. The results of some early experiments along these lines indicate how the bridge can be fashioned.     

Do Industrial Tax Abatements Spur Property Value Growth?

Despite ongoing debate regarding the effectiveness of tax abatements, Michigan's Industrial Facilities Tax (IFT) abatement program has been widely and extensively used to boost local economic development. In this article, we estimate the effects of industrial property tax abatements on industrial, residential, and commercial property value growth in the context of regional competition for a panel of 152 communities in the five counties surrounding Detroit from 1983 through 2002. We find that: (1) offering tax abatements yields statistically significant positive impacts on industrial property value growth; (2) the impacts are larger in high tax than in low tax communities; (3) there are positive spillover effects of industrial tax abatements on residential and commercial property value growth; (4) tax abatements offered in competitor communities do not appear to influence own industrial property value growth; and (5) changes in the own as well as competitor property tax rates are important determinants of industrial property value growth. However, the fiscal benefits of tax abatements are quite small as compared with the costs of offering abatements even when spillover benefits to residential and commercial properties are considered.