‘Domestic transnationalism’: legal advocacy for Mexican migrant workers' rights in Canada

Every year thousands of Mexicans travel to Canada to work in Canadian fields and greenhouses under the Mexico-Canada Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program. While the programme is often praised, it has also been the subject of persistent criticism about its failure to meet certain human rights standards. In this article, we examine the legal strategies civil society advocates of migrant workers have adopted to promote migrant workers' rights in Canada. Specifically, we examine legal struggles undertaken by the United Food and Commercial Workers union to challenge Ontario government legislation that does not permit collective bargaining by farmworkers in the province. We argue that this case demonstrates that despite the fact that many of the workers involved are transnationalized, appeals to international bodies or to international human rights standards have been of limited utility in promoting their rights. Despite frequent arguments about the increased relevance of international human rights and citizenship norms and transnational human rights advocacy, in this case the national and sub-national scales remain predominant. The result, we argue, is a form of ‘domestic transnationalism’, in which domestic political actors engage in advocacy within domestic legal institutions to promote the rights of a transnational mobile labour force.     

Action research with children and adolescents working on the streets of Athens,Greece

In fieldwork with children and adolescents working on the streets of Athens, Greece, the authors applied a multidisciplinary methodology, through which participants were empowered to articulate their own voice. This article discusses some indicant themes which emerged through participants' narrations and through their active engagement in Theatre-for-Development: (1) the role of family attachment and social networks promoting the continuity of children's cultural identity; (2) their perception of working on the streets as a vital need to contribute to family income; and (3) the way young subjects resituated themselves both in their relation with the mainstream culture and within their own culture.     

The Science behind United States Smart Power in Honduras: Archaeological Heritage Diplomacy

The cultural heritage of Honduras offers a critical platform for United States heritage diplomacy under the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Cultural Heritage Center. Of specific note is the formal 2004 Honduran–American Memorandum of Understanding for the preservation of cultural property and, beginning in 2001, periodic projects under the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. The diplomatic efficacy of American cultural heritage policy and the Ambassadors Fund comes from long-term, sustained funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Program. Established networks by archaeologists have enabled the successful re-entry of United States cultural diplomacy in Honduras in the last decade.     

Harsh Discipline and Child Problem Behaviors: The Roles of Positive Parenting and Gender

This study examined harsh verbal and physical discipline and child problem behaviors in a community sample of 2,582 parents and their fifth and sixth grade children. Participants were recruited from pediatric practices, and both parents and children completed questionnaire packets. The findings indicated that boys received more harsh verbal and physical discipline than girls, with fathers utilizing more harsh physical discipline with boys than did mothers. Both types of harsh discipline were associated with child behavior problems uniquely after positive parenting was taken into account. Child gender did not moderate the findings, but one dimension of positive parenting (i.e., parental warmth) served to buffer children from the detrimental influences of harsh physical discipline. The implications of the findings for intervention programs are discussed. This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.     

Wasserentnahmeentgelt und erlaubnisfreier Eigentümergebrauch am Beispiel der Kieswäsche

Das nordrhein-westf?lische Wasserentnahmeentgeltgesetz – WasEG NRW – hat eine Vielzahl von Fragen aufgeworfen. Unternehmen der Kies- und Sandindustrie waschen das gef?rderte Rohmaterial in der Regel mit Wasser, das sie aus dem durch die Gewinnungst?tigkeit entstehenden Abgrabungsgew?sser entnehmen und nach Gebrauch wieder einleiten. Der „Wassercent“ belastet einzelne Unternehmen mit j?hrlich bis zu 1,0 Mio. Unter dem Druck des abgabenrechtlichen Zugriffs erf?hrt ein bisher wenig beachtetes Instrument Aufmerksamkeit: Der erlaubnisfreie Eigentümergebrauch. Als Eigentümergebrauch w?re die Kiesw?sche erlaubnis- und damit auch entgeltfrei. Nachdem sich die Festsetzungsbeh?rde2 – aus vorgeblich ?kologischen überlegungen – gegen die Anerkennung der Kiesw?sche als Eigentümergebrauch positioniert hat, befasst sich nunmehr auch die Rechtsprechung mit der Frage, sodass eine erste Bilanz geboten ist.     

Inter-/Intra-observer Reliability of Hand Assessment Using Skin Detail: A Count-based Method

Skin detail of the hand is used in photographic comparisons, yet its reliability has not been evaluated. This study examines a count-based method for documenting skin features. In Part I, 14 individuals counted skin features on 40 color images of the hand, three of which were repeated. An average correlation value of 0.557 was obtained for interobserver assessment; values ranged from 0.545 to 0.832 for intra-observer assessment. The variation in correlation values for hands suggests that there are certain distinguishing characteristics that increase reliability. In Part II, 17 examiners assessed 20 nonrepeated grayscale images of hands by circling skin features. An average correlation value of 0.674 was obtained, but visual assessment of examiner markings suggested some examiners grouped features whereas others viewed them individually. The results suggest further research is warranted, some hands may be more suitable for comparisons, and a standardized method for examining skin features is needed.     

Forensic Neuropsychology and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Over the last 20 years, the Courts and the legal community have increasingly relied on neuropsychologists to provide opinions, guidance, and expertise in the area of brain–behavior relationships. The purpose of this article is to review issues neuropsychologists commonly face when asked to evaluate cases with suspected mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in the civil or criminal legal context. In particular, we will discuss: (a) the neuropsychologist’s role in TBI forensic cases, (b) the attorney’s role in forensic TBI cases, (c) a neuropsychological framework to approach forensic mild TBI cases, (d) establishing working relationships with attorneys, (e) the Daubert and Frye standards, (f) symptom validity, (g) ethical issues, and (h) recommendations to improve the ecological validity of our tests and encourage test developers to provide alternate forms of tests.     

Making an Administrative Trustee Agent Accountable: Reason-Based Decision Making within the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism

Decisions within the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol are made by an expert body that acts as a trustee agent of the member states. Trustee agents help overcome the credible commitment problems of their principals and promise reason-based decisions. In contrast to traditional principal-agent settings, trusteeship relations are typically triadic. Beside the preferences of the principals and the trustee, decision criteria provide an external point of reference. They reflect the principals' long-term interest and define the trustee's decision rationale. The triadic structure helps protect the autonomy of trustees and allows for making them accountable for their decisions. Accountability mechanisms intend to ensure that a trustee's decisions are in line with established decision criteria. Against this backdrop, we explore the incentives created by the existing institutional arrangement for the making of CDM decisions and examine selected cases. We conclude that CDM arrangements provide a model for nonpartisan international regulation.     

Interagency implementation of government policy: Strategic management of maternal and child health care in texas

Focusing on a joint effort of the Texas Department of Health and the Texas Department of Human Services, this study examined the interagency implementation of maternal and infant health policy in the state. Thompson's typology of implementation⁽¹⁾ was integrated with the Montjoy and O’Toole⁽²⁾ model of overhead influence on intraorganizational factors in public policy implementation for analysis. The findings provide some support to the Montjoy and O’Toole model.⁽³⁾ The data suggested Type A Mandate Effects and Expected Activity for both departmental programs. Reciprocal Operating Interdependence existed between the two state departments.