Conditions not to Dispute Wills and the Inheritance (Provisions for Family and Dependants) Act 1975

In this article, the author reviews the recent decision of the HighCourt in In the Estate of Nathan Deceased [2002] N.P.C. 79, TheTimes 6/4/02, relating to the validity and effect off conditionsnot to dispute wills (i.e., gifts by will on condition that thebeneficiary does not seek to challenge the will) and how such conditionsaffect claims made under the Inheritance (Provision for Family andDependants) Act 1975. The decision in this case reveals a considerabletension between the principle of testamentary freedom and the aims andoperation of public policy in this area of the law. In the article, theauthor maps out the changes which will have to be made in statements ofthe law in leading text-books relating to conditions not to disputewills and further argues that certain dicta in the case suggest that theHigh Court has now gone too far in preferring testamentary freedom overpublic policy, opening a door which may yet permit the triumph ofconstructive fraud in some cases.     

Redefining the roles of environmental NGOs in Africa

The article summarises issues identified in a study undertaken on behalf of the HIVOS Foundation of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs Development Division, which included a field study of 45 environmental NGOs in seven African countries. This generated an institutional database to support the aid strategies of the agencies commissioning the research, and forms the basis of an analysis of some of the broader issues concerning the role and behaviour of various types of NGO.     

Constituency campaigning in parliamentary systems with preferential voting: Is there a paradox?

This paper sets out to show whether constituency campaign effects exist, particularly in the context of a preferential electoral system such as Australia's. Data from the 1993 Australian Election Study suggest that, despite the best efforts of the candidates, local campaigning has a very limited impact on the vote. The paper considers a range of possible explanations for this limited impact: displacement, MPs' perceptions of their role, sources of campaign information, the importance of party labels in Australia, party discipline. It concludes with an explanation for the apparent paradox of why candidates bother campaigning when it does not make a difference to their vote.     

Britain and Japan: Long-Range Images, 1900-52

The Anglo-Japanese Alliance signed in 1902 was revised substantially in 1905 and 1911. It survived the First World War and did not lapse until 1923. For two decades, it enabled Britain to withdraw its navy from East Asia, leaving its commercial interests to the protection of Japan. Meanwhile it enabled Japan to expand its influence in Korea and China. There was not an immediate breach of the alliance, but interests clashed in China in the difficult world of economic collapse in the 1930s. When they failed to come to an accommodation, Japan declared war on Britain in 1941. After the war, Britain shared with the United States the task of policing the military occupation of Japan. But when that occupation came to an end in 1952 during the anxious days of the Korean war, the vast majority of Japanese believed that their country's future rested with Washington.