Factors influencing rubber marketing by smallholder farmers in Thailand

This article assesses the factors determining the type of rubber product that farmers are willing to sell and the factors influencing their marketing channel choice in Thailand. Primary data were collected through questionnaire administration from 280 rubber farmers in two southern provinces. The results of the logit regression model revealed that membership of farmers’ organisation, access to knowledge and information, and total area of immature rubber positively influenced the sale of fresh latex. Membership of farmer organisations and accessibility to market infrastructure also significantly positively influenced the sale of fresh latex to farmer groups. The implications for rubber marketing are presented.     

Undoing a co-operative bargain: The origins and dissolution of federal accommodation of provincial credit unions

The failure of several U.S. regional banks early in 2023 underlined Canada's reputation as home to a resilient banking sector where federal policymakers guard their jurisdictional responsibility over banking against populist impulses and trade off competition for financial stability. This article argues that conventional explanations for this observed stability are incomplete because they omit any discussion of federal policies that shaped the growth of a $550 billion provincially based credit union system. This article reconciles the resulting puzzle by showing how policymakers accommodated credit unions and used them to channel populist impulses but within the bounds of over-arching financial stability concerns.     

Assassination and the law: A policy memorandum

Normally, assassination is a crime under international law. Yet there are rare, residual circumstances where it may be not only permissible but law enforcing. Insofar as international law is part of United States law, assassination might—in these very extraordinary circumstances—not be unlawful. Drawing on the explicit expectations of international law and the natural law foundations of U.S. municipal law, this article acknowledges that assassination must always be impermissible as an instrument of Realpolitik, but that in a world that continues to confront innocent populations with terrible harms (terrorism, war, genocide) assassination does have a proper place. Throughout this examination, philosophical and jurisprudential perspectives are fused with both pertinent tactical considerations and utilitarian calculations.