WTO Government Procurement Rules and the Local Dynamics of Procurement Policies: A Malaysian Case Study

This article examines efforts to create binding internationalrules regulating public procurement and considers, in particular,the failure to reach a WTO agreement on transparency in governmentprocurement. The particular focus of the discussion is the approachtaken by Malaysia to these international procurement rules andto the negotiation of an agreement on transparency. Rules governingpublic procurement directly implicate fundamental arrangementsof authority amongst and between different parts of government,its citizens and non-citizens. At the same time, the rules touchupon areas that are particularly sensitive for some developingcountries. Many governments use preferences in public procurementto accomplish important redistributive and developmental goals.Malaysia has long used significant preferences in public procurementto further sensitive developmental policies targeted at improvingthe economic strength of native Malays. Malaysia also has politicaland legal arrangements substantially at odds with fundamentalelements of proposed global public procurement rules. Malaysiahas, therefore, been forceful in resisting being bound by internationalpublic procurement rules, and has played an important role indefeating the proposed agreement on transparency. We suggestthat our case study has implications beyond procurement. Thedevelopment of international public procurement rules appearsto be guided by many of the same values that guide the broadereffort to create a global administrative law. This case study,therefore, has implications for the broader exploration of theseefforts to develop a global administrative law, in particularthe relationship between such efforts and the interests of developingcountries.     

向中国读者介绍美国检察官协会

上海<检察风云>杂志的广大读者们,你们好!我非常高兴应<检察风云>杂志社的邀请向你们介绍美国检察官协会的基本情况.我知道,中国检察官也有自己的组织----中国检察官协会.去年我来北京出席国际检察官联合会第四届年会时,曾和中国的同行们进行了广泛地交流,收获很大.     

Youth alcohol use and dating abuse victimization and perpetration: a test of the relationships at the daily level in a sample of pediatric emergency department patients who use alcohol

Objective: This study retrospectively examined the daily-level associations between youth alcohol use and dating abuse (DA) victimization and perpetration for a 6-month period. Method: Timeline Followback (TLFB) interview data were collected from 397 urban emergency department patients, ages 17 to 21 years. Patients were eligible if they reported past month alcohol use and past year dating. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) analyses estimated the likelihood of DA on a given day as a function of alcohol use or heavy use (≥4 drinks per day for women, ≥5 drinks per day for men), as compared with nonuse. Results: Approximately 52% of men and 61% of women participants reported experiencing DA victimization ≥1 times during the past 6 months, and 45% of men and 55% of women reported perpetrating DA ≥1 times. For both men and women, DA perpetration was more likely on a drinking day as opposed to a nondrinking day (ORs = 1.70 and ORs = 1.69, respectively). DA victimization was also more likely on a drinking day as opposed to a nondrinking day for both men and women (ORs = 1.23 and ORs = 1.34, respectively). DA perpetration and DA victimization were both more likely on heavy drinking days as opposed to nondrinking days (2.04 and 2.03 for men's and women's perpetration, respectively, and 1.41 and 1.43 for men's and women's victimization, respectively). Conclusions: This study found that alcohol use was associated with increased risk for same day DA perpetration and victimization, for both male and female youth. We conclude that for youth who use alcohol, alcohol use is a potential risk factor for DA victimization and perpetration.     

Two Properties, One Land: Law and Space in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand

If we use the word land to refer to the physical substance, and reserve the word property for the intellectual apparatus that organizes rights to use land, we can say that in colonial New Zealand, the British and the Maori overlaid two dissimilar systems of property on the same land. That difference in legal thought structured each side's perception of what the other was doing, in ways that illustrate unusually clearly the power of law to organize our aware' ness of phenomena before they reach the level of consciousness. Over the course of the nineteenth century, as the balance of power gradually swung to the side of the British, they were largely able to impose their property system on the Maori. The centrality of property within the thought of both peoples, however, meant that the transformation of Maori into English property rights involved much more than land. Religious belief, engagement with the market economy, political organization–all were bound up in the systems by which both peoples organized property rights in land. To anglicize the Maori property system was to revolutionize Maori life.     

The recovery of latent fingermarks and DNA using a silicone-based casting material

There are many techniques available for the recovery of fingermarks at scenes of crime including the possibility of taking casts of the marks. Casts can be advantageous in cases where other destructive recovery techniques might not be suitable, such as when recovering finger marks deposited on valued or immobile items. In this research, Isomark (a silicone-based casting material) was used to recover casts of finger marks placed on a variety of substrates. Casts were enhanced using cyanoacrylate fuming. Good quality marks were successfully recovered from a range of smooth, non-porous surfaces. Recovery from semi-porous surfaces was shown to be inefficient. DNA was subsequently extracted from the casts using QIAamp Mini extraction kits, amplified and profiled. Full DNA profiles were obtained 34% of samples extracted.     

Narratives and Symbols in Violent Mobilization: The Palestinian-Israeli Case

According to symbolic politics theory, group fears and narratives of group identity that justify hostility are key causes of violent ethno-national conflict. In the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, widely accepted narratives on each side define group identity and group relations in ways that generate incompatible demands on Jerusalem, territory, refugees, security, and other issues. Historical memories of the Holocaust, the Nakba, and other tragedies generate fears of extinction on both sides, and stereotypes encourage beliefs on each side that the other responds only to force. These narratives enable hard-line leaders on both sides to manipulate emotive symbols to block compromise and escalate conflict. Thus the cause of both the failure of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations in 2000-01 and the simultaneous outbreak of the latest Palestinian-Israeli war lies in the irreconcilable demands that are rooted in each side's competing narratives of national identity.