How Can the European Union Contribute to a COP-6 Agreement? An Overview for Policy Makers

During the 6th Conference of Parties (COP-6) in The Hague, the Netherlands, November 2000, crucial progress on a number of outstanding issues related to the Kyoto Protocol will have to be made to open the way for its early ratification, if not to save it from complete failure. Given the present lack of internal US political support for the Kyoto Protocol, the EU may play a pivotal role in making the Kyoto Protocol agreement a reality even without initial ratification of the US, if its able to provide sufficient leadership. In this overview article we discuss the main issues under negotiation, the problems of finding agreement and opportunities for the EU to catalyse a compromise agreement at COP-6, building on key scientific papers as included in this issue and discussions at the European Forum on Integrated Environmental Assessment Climate Policy Workshop in Amsterdam. Key elements are the inclusion of sinks, the use of the Kyoto Protocol mechanisms as a supplement to domestic action and the international compliance system. Domestic implementation of climate policy is a major factor for the EU's credibility.     

Effi Böhlke: „Esprit de nation“, Montesquieus politische Philosophie

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Government Shekels without Government Shackles? The Administrative Challenges of Charitable Choice

As President Bush plans to expand "Charitable Choice," civil libertarians worry that the legislation is part of a new assault on separation of church and state. Religious Right activists demand assurances that funds will not flow to groups like the Nation of Islam or Scientologists. African American pastors in urban areas—arguably the main targets of the initiative—are concerned that "government shekels" will be accompanied by "government shackles," that the costs and regulatory burdens accompanying collaborations with government will divert resources from client services and mute their prophetic voice.
Caught in the middle are public managers, who must make the legislation work in the face of significant administrative challenges. Those challenges occur in three areas: contracting procedures, contract administration, and evaluation. In each of these categories, political realities and constitutional constraints will significantly complicate the manager's job.     

COPARENTING ARRANGEMENTS IN A JURISDICTION WITH STATUTORY GUIDELINES

Some states have recently moved away from the traditional winner-loser model of child custody to one focused on coparenting. Under the old approach, divorce decrees typically "awarded" custody to one parent while relegating the other to a "visitor" with poorly defined status. The new system is premised on the child's need for a continuing relationship with both parents and promotes this goal by upgrading the noncustodial parent's status and time-share, assigning substantive rights and responsibilities to both parents. To give effect to the shared parenting idea, Texas adopted joint custody and statutory visitation guidelines legislatively. The policy covers all major aspects of parental rights and duties with great specificity (not just child support, for which all states must have guidelines). It applies equally to divorce and paternity cases. Judges are authorized to deviate from standard visitation guidelines but must state a rationale for doing so on request. Parties may also negotiate and agree to arrangements at variance with the guidelines, subject to approval by the court. This article describes the statutory regime in Texas and its implementation in the family court system. Based on a sample of divorce and paternity cases in the state's largest jurisdiction, it documents innovative court interventions and a wide array of coparenting and support arrangements.     

Conviviality,ego, team and theme behavior in transrational peace education

ABSTRACT

The Innsbruck School of Peace Studies is known for its innovative academic teaching methods under the title Transrational Peace Philosophy. This essay introduces the epistemological fundament of this approach to peace education. It presents the didactic principles for its Strategic Capacity and Relationship Building, combined with Strategic Leadership Training. They are based on the conviviality of students and a curriculum that follows the stages of groups’ task behavior and individual learning by `peeling the onion´ of the Ego. It describes how the didactics are designed for the international, intercultural, interreligious and interdisciplinary groups of students. It demonstrates the five stages of Ego, Team and Theme Behavior during a semester and how the curriculum places courses for best learning results. It discusses the main presumptions on convivial learning processes for academics. The focus is on students who want to work later in a broader field of conflict transformation.     

Bio-Kraftstoff, Nachhaltigkeit, Boden- und Naturschutz

Um ihr Klimapaket und die damit verbundenen Ziele im Bereich der erneuerbaren Energien umzusetzen, hat die Europ?ische Kommission eine Richtlinie zur F?rderung der Nutzung von Energie aus erneuerbaren Quellen vorgeschlagen. Um den Richtlinienentwurf rankt sich – auch noch zur Zeit – eine breite noch nicht abgeschlossene Diskussion, in deren Rahmen unter anderem Bedenken gegen die F?rderung von Energiepflanzen, die als nachhaltig deklariert wird, ge?u?ert werden, da blühende Kulturlandschaften dadurch verschandelt werden. Der Beitrag besch?ftigt sich mit der politischen und rechtlichen Diskussion des Richtlinien-Entwurfs.     

Molecular study of time dependent changes in DNA stability in soil buried skeletal residues

In the past years, many publications about identification and sex-determination of dry human bones by means of DNA analysis have been published. However, few studies exist that investigate the potential use of DNA technique to determine the postmortem interval (PMI). In the present study we analyzed the rate of increasingly smaller fragments of chromosomal DNA and PMI.