Sino–Vatican Relations at the Century's Turn

In this article we discuss Sino–Vatican relations which have not evolved from dispute into rapprochement. Changes in the international political landscape have added new complications to old questions. The course of this relationship has not been smooth due to the ideological questions. The Chinese Communist Party and the Vatican have been struggling for teaching authority over 12 million Chinese Catholics over the last few decades. The fundamental difficulty rests in the ideological incompatibility between the dialectic materialism embedded in Marxism Leninism and religious idealism.     

Special Issue on Recklessness and Negligence

Criminal Law and Philosophy - This paper introduces the Special Issue on Recklessness and Negligence. It highlights the main issues and controversies that surround these concepts and then briefly...     

Sino–Vatican Negotiations: problems in sovereign right and national security

This article, in the context of sovereignty, discusses problems put to China and the Vatican in their long course of negotiations (1987–) which aim at a reconciliation. China’s past experience in negotiating with major powers (US and Great Britain) are reviewed while the Vatican’s aim of negotiating a concordat is also explained. The societal factors from the current Chinese political landscape, including social unrest as well as the Taiwan factor, are reviewed to identify problems in the ‘Sino–Vatican negotiations’.     

Custodial Relationships Of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren:Results of a home-based intervention study

The phenomenon of grandparents raising grandchildren has increased significantly over the past two decades. The literature documents that health, financial, and legal worries top the list of concerns for grandparents who raise grandchildren. The authors describe the results of a multidisciplinary study that provides home visitation with social, nursing, legal, and educational support to grandparents raising grandchildren in parent absent households. This article examines the custodial relationships of one hundred and sixty-three children being raised in sixty-eight families headed by grandparents in an urban population in the South. The data showed that of the 163 children, 70 were in the guardianship of their grandparents, 40 of the children had no legal relationship with their grandparents, 28 were in the custody of the State Department of Family and Children's Services, 21 were in the temporary custody of their grandparents, and four were adopted by their grandparents. Recommendations from this study include educating service providers and grandparents raising grandchildren regarding the potential financial benefits under Title IVE adoption assistance and supporting legislative reform to increase the stability of intergenerational kinship care. This project demonstrates an innovative approach of combining university-based research with multidisciplinary education while providing cost-effective support services through a partnership with the community.     

Political sources of growth: A critical note on measurement

This note critically reviews the research on the link between political systems and economic growth. Empirical attempts to capture this patent relationship have been met with mixed success. We conclude that the political variables used in these studies, i.e., democracy and political instability, do not adequately reflect the ‘investors problem’. We suggest that a political variable that encompasses all kinds of potential discretionary state interventions would be more effective in explaining cross-country differences in economic growth.