Explaining Divergent Attitudes Toward Lethal Drone Strikes

Although lethal drone strikes have become a central component of the U.S. campaign against international terrorism, the program remains a low salience issue with considerable bi-partisan consensus and a supportive U.S. general public. This article explains American attitudes toward lethal drone strikes by testing arguments based on partisanship and ideology, core values and abstract beliefs, and elite cues. Results suggest that respondent core values and governmental cues offer important insights. Consequently, the political environment under certain conditions may not frame important issues in such a way that the general public is likely to gain a knowledgeable understanding of the alternatives.     

Profit Neutrality in Licensing: The Boundary Between Antitrust Law and Patent Law

We address the patent/antitrust conflict in licensing and developthree guiding principles for deciding acceptable terms of license.Profit neutrality holds that patent rewards should not dependon the rightholder’s ability to work the patent himself.Derived reward holds that the patentholder’s profits shouldbe earned, if at all, from the social value created by the invention.Minimalism holds that licenses should not be more restrictivethan necessary to achieve neutrality. We argue that these principlesare economically sound and rationalize some key decisions ofthe twentieth century such as General Electric and Line Material.     

The impact of police reform on communities of Trinidad and Tobago

Objectives  

Reforms were implemented at five selected police stations in Trinidad and Tobago. The reforms were designed to improve the services delivered by police stations, to reduce crime, and to increase public confidence in the police. The intervention involved improving police facilities, vehicles, and equipment, and enhancing station staffing, training, and technical assistance to improve basic police work and station management/supervision. It introduced service-oriented, problem-solving approaches to replace the traditional colonial and post-colonial models of policing.     

An ounce of prevention? The reform of the German trade union Federation

This article investigates the causes and content of the ongoing reform of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB). We argue that problems predating German unification ‐ in particular, a skewed demographic profile, financial crisis and waning political clout ‐ are the central factors that led German unionists to undertake reform and have largely determined the reform's content. German unification acted simply as a catalyst rather than the cause prompting union reform. German unions can only retain their prominent economic and social position if they promote genuine democratic reform within their ranks. Otherwise unions will never attract employees from the high technology and service sectors that are essential to the union movement's survival in the coming century. German unions should also resist the temptation to take on all of the problems plaguing German society. They must instead concentrate on the essential tasks of all labour movements: discerning the ever‐changing wants of today's increasingly heterogeneous work force and fighting with employers and governments to obtain them.     

Information technology in the legal curriculum—reaction and realities*

Abstract

In the light of official apparent assumptions about the use and effectiveness of C & IT in teaching and learning this article, by reference to empirical studies carried out by the authors and others, offers observations and conclusions about the most effective use of CAL in delivering legal education. We detail the type of electronic packages used in delivering modules to Woherhampton students (studying both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes), evaluate their responses and conclude by making recommendations as to the most effective use of CAL in academic programmes; in particular that by itself it be limited to providing a foundation of basic legal knowledge upon which the higher cognitive skills can be developed by face to face contact     

From Civic Pluralism to Ethnoreligious Majoritarianism: Majority Nationalism in India

Abstract

This article analyzes the changing nature and substance of Indian nationalism since independence in 1947. India provides insights into how state and majority nationalism manifests itself in a democratic post-colonial society. It also draws attention to how state-making and nation-building reflect the dominant political position of the majority nation in a specific state. In India, the state actively sought to accommodate ethnic and linguistic demands through a consensual federal system. In this form, the majority nationalism did not always imply majoritarianism. The outcome was complex asymmetrical federalism that sought accommodation but also actively opposed secessionist demands by nationalist movements. This accommodationist form of majority nationalism has in recent decades been replaced by an ethnoreligious nationalism based on majoritarian and exclusivist principles. The political success of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has weakened India’s asymmetrical federalism. The trend is away from pluralistic possibilities to a unitary nation-state model. This majoritarian nationalism is characterized by an insistence on Hindutva or Hindu nationalism, intolerance of difference and an insistence that all those who live in India share a common culture, Identity and historic past. The decision to repeal Article 370 of the Constitution, which provides a special status for Jammu and Kashmir, is discussed in this context.