Food Brexit and Chlorinated Chicken: A Microcosm of Wider Food Problems

This paper situates food safety concerns raised in the Brexit debate since the referendum and suggests that, although the issue of chlorinated chicken entered public discourse, it represents wider concerns about food safety standards. Food safety has had high resonance in the UK since the 1980s, but Brexit shows how it connects to wider concerns also raised about Brexit, such as impacts on healthcare, the effects of austerity on food poverty, the limitations of low waged employment, concerns about migration and labour markets, and regional economic disparities. Brexit’s impact on the UK food system is immense because food has been highly integrated into EU governance. While food standards can be portrayed as a single narrow issue, the paper suggests it provides a useful lens with which to examine, interrogate and comprehend these wider Brexit politics. The complex realities of food politics and wider food system dynamics undermine any simplistic political narrative of ‘taking back control’.     

Contingent fees meet the British rule: an exploratory study

Compensation schemes in which lawyer’s fees are contingent on winning the suit are becoming increasingly popular throughout Europe. At the same time, the British rule of legal cost allocation is applicable in many European countries. As a result, it is of policy relevance how their coexistence may be harmonized. This paper uses the litigation-contest framework to analyze the consequences of three different cost-allocation regimes if a plaintiff’s attorney is compensated on a contingent fee basis. We compare the equilibrium contest effort, justice, and payoffs for affected parties in the different regimes and find arguments in favor of not reimbursing contingent fees.     

An International Environmental Regime for Population?: from Bucharest to Cairo

The problem of over population has been the subject of much debate since Malthus's 'Essay on the Principle of Population' in 1798. This debate has taken on a new sense of urgency, however, during the last 25 years, as the global implications of rapid population growth have became apparent. Attempts by the international community to establish a regime to deal with the problem have led to the convening of three conferences, Bucharest (1974), Mexico City (1984) and Cairo (1994) But despite propitious signs of consensus during the run up periods to each of these conferences, no international regime has been created This article examines the reasons for both the initial consensus and the eventual dissensus in each case, and concludes that several pre-conditions must be met if a regime is to be established in the future.     

B. Reviews: general

EUROPE'S FUTURE IN THE ARAB VIEW. Edited by Dieter Beilenstein. (Paper of the Institute for International Relations, No.7), Saarbrücken, Breitenbach, 1981. pp.163.

A CHANGING IMAGE: AMERICAN PERCEPTIONS OF THE ARAB‐ISRAELI DISPUTE. By Richard H. Curtiss. Washing D.C., American Educational Trust, 1982.

THE BATTLE OF BEIRUT: WHY ISRAEL INVADED LEBANON. By Michael Jensen. London, Zed Press, 1982.

FIRE OF ISLAM. By Desmond Meiring. London, Wildwood House, 1982.

PUBLIC DUTIES IN ISLAM: THE INSTITUTION OF THE HISBA. By Ibn Taymiya, Al‐Shaykh Al‐Imam Taqi Al‐Din Ahmad (trans. Mukhtar Holland). (Islamic Economic Series 3), Leicester, The Islamic Foundation, 1982.

ISSUES IN ISLAMIC BANKING: SELECTED PAPERS. By M.N.Siddiqui. (Islamic Economic Series, 4), Leicester, The Islamic Foundation, 1983.

REGESTEN PUBLIZIERTER SAFAWIDISCHER HERRSCHERURKUNDEN: ERLASSE UND STAATSSCHREIBEN DER FRUHEN NEUZEIT IRANS. By Renate. Schimkoreit. (Islamkuhdliche Untersuchungen, Bd 68), Berlin, Klaus Shwarz Verlag, 1982. pp. 552. DM.87.

THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH PETROLEUM COMPANY.‐ VOLUME I: THE DEVELOPING YEARS 1901–1932.. By R.W.Ferrier. Cambridge University Press, 1982. pp.801. £37.50.

THE CHALLENGE OF ENERGY: POLICIES IN THE MAKING. Edited by Mohammad W. Khouja. (Energy Resources and Policies of the Middle East and North Africa.) London‐New York, Longman, 1981. pp.127. Paperback.

THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF IRAN. Volume 3: THE SELEUCID, PARTHIAN AND SASANIAN PERIODS. Edited by Ehsan Yarshater. Vol. 3(1), pp. lxxv, 624, 48 pl., 4 line drawings, 13 maps; vol.3(2), pp.xix, thereafter pagination continuous with that of 3(1), ending at p.1488, 99 pl. (4 in colour), 25 line drawings, 3 maps. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983. £37.50.

TA ‘LIKI‐ZADE'S ?EHNAME‐YI HÜMAYUN: A HISTORY OF THE OTTOMAN CAMPAIGN INTO HUNGARY 1593–94. Edited with introduction and notes by Christine Woodhead. (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, Band 82.) vii, pp.421, map. Berlin, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1983.

OTTOMAN YEAR BOOKS (SALNAME AND NEVSAL). Compiled by Hasan Duman. Istanbul, Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), 1402/1982. pp.144.

THE CRISIS OF TURKISH DEMOCRACY. By C.H.Dodd. Hull, Eothen Press, 1983. pp.136. £9.50 (cloth); £4.95 (paperback).

CULT, GHETTO AND STATE: THE PERSISTENCE OF THE JEWISH QUESTION. By Maxime Rodinson. London, Al Saqi Books, 1983. pp.239. £5.95.     

Jail drug and alcohol treatment program reduces recidivism in nonviolent offenders: a longitudinal study of Monroe County, New York's, Jail Treatment Drug and Alcohol Program

Substance abuse treatment has become the new fashion for reducing recidivism among inmates. But the question is, does this work? Various studies have been done tracking the same cohort of inmates over time to assess the validity of treatment. This study assesses one treatment program's success over 5 years to determine if drug and alcohol treatment reduces recidivism among nonviolent, short-term (sentence of less than a year) inmates. Monroe County's drug treatment program demonstrates that for 1 year after receiving the treatment, three different cohorts of nonviolent, short-term inmates (1995, 1998, and 2000) were found to be substantially less likely to be recidivists than control group inmates.     

'It's Labour, But Not as we Know it.' Media Lesson-drawing and the Disciplining of Social Democracy: A Case Study

A qualitative content analysis of New Zealand newspapers from 1997 to 2002 shows how the overwhelmingly conservative print media in that country used a highly partial version of Tony Blair's New Labour to try to help set parameters for its New Zealand counterpart and point it in what it saw as the right direction. Globalisation rests on the flow of ideas as well as the flow of trade: it has an important ideational component that the media—internationally owned though often parochially focused—helps construct by drawing lessons from abroad. The thrust of the coverage analysed was to transnationalise a business-friendly common sense concerning the proper—indeed the inevitable—response of a modern social democratic party to a globalised political economy. Whether this actually affected the behaviour of the New Zealand variant of social democracy, however, is a moot point. Finally, in keeping with Lijphart's seminal discussion of the purpose of case studies, this one generates the following hypothesis: that the print media in one country will interpret the domestic politics of other countries (other than those which are geographically closest or economically crucial) in such a way as to try to influence the outcome of political and policy debates at home.     

Performance Indicators for Police Oversight Agencies

This study addresses the question of performance indicators for police oversight agencies through a survey of the directors of agencies in Australia and an analysis of annual reports. The findings show that a variety of targets and measures are in place. The majority of oversight bodies adopt fairly basic and largely quantitative measures on matters processed, supplemented by case study accounts of positive impacts.