Crisis in Kosovo: A Just Use of Force?

This article looks at NATO's armed intervention in Serbia from the perspective of international law, and especially just war theory. After explaining the principles by which just war theory permits armed intervention, the crisis in Kosovo is used as a fascinating and relevant case study.     

The Impact of Fiscal Illusion on Housing Values: An Australian Test of the Debt Illusion Hypothesis

The debt illusion hypothesis holds that taxpayers may underestimate the present discounted value of future tax liabilities under debt finance. The empirical question arises as to whether debt illusion at the local government level can affect housing values. This proposition is evaluated by investigating whether local fiscal variables are fully capitalized into housing values by means of a pooled time-series, cross-sectional analysis of twenty-seven metropolitan municipalities in Sydney, Australia, for the period 1989 to 1991. The results indicate that municipal debt is under-capitalized into housing values and, accordingly, suggests that local government expenditure may be systematically biased upwards.     

Mexican Conservatives, Clericals, and Soldiers: the 'Traitor' Tomás Mejía through Reform and Empire, 1855–1867

General Tomás Mejía (1820–67) became a leading Mexican opponent of the Liberal Reform Movement in the mid-nineteenth century. Originating from the Querétaro Sierra Gorda, where for twenty years he had a strong power base, he took his stand in defence of the Catholic religion. A devotee of the local cult of the Virgin of the Pueblito, Mejía cooperated first with the Conservative Party and subsequently with the Second Mexican Empire (1862–67). Beween 1864 and 1866, he became the Empire's principal military commander. Juárez had him shot, along with Maximilian, when the Empire fell. Triumphant Liberals blotted out his name from the history of the nineteenth century. Mejía defended an alternative, Catholic vision of Mexico to the Liberal secular state and its Revolutionary successor.