European political cooperation and Southern Africa

Since around the turn of the century, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has suffered fundamental challenges from several quarters, which has led to a number of proposals to reinforce the non-proliferation regime. Among the most effective are a ban on sensitive nuclear transfers and the universalisation of the Additional Protocol. The former proposal, although not agreed upon in the NSG, has been virtually realised as a moratorium within the G-8 framework. It would be advisable for the G-8 to do the same with regard to the latter proposal.     

Relationship of the Family Environment to Children's Involvement in Bully/Victim Problems at School

Previous studies regarding the relationship of the family environment to children's involvement in bully/victim problems at school primarily focused on children's perceptions of family dimensions. No studies were known using data from multiple reporters within 1 family (parents and children) on family characteristics of bully/victim problems. The aim of this study was to investigate differences between families of victims, bullies, bully/victims, and noninvolved children on family functioning, child-rearing practices, and problem-solving strategies in hypothetical conflict situations and perception differences between children and their parents on those dimensions. The findings revealed important perception differences between children and their parents, with parents holding up a more positive picture of their family. Important differences between families of bullies, victims, and bully/victims were documented looking at the family functioning and parent–child interactions from the perspective of the children. In contrast, almost no differences between the groups were observed if parents' reports were considered. Discussion leads to suggestions for further antibullying interventions at the school.     

A Competing Risks Model of Supreme Court Vacancies, 1789–1992

We hypothesize that Supreme Court justices will consider the likely ideological disposition of their successor in their decision to retire or remain on the Court. Furthermore, because a justice's decision to remain on the Court places him or her at risk of dying in office, it is necessary to consider a model of both voluntary and involuntary vacancies. Our study examines three broad classes of factors influential to Supreme Court vacancies: personal considerations, institutional context, and political influences. We assess the factors that affect the probability of a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court due to mortality and retirement at the individual level from 1789 to 1992, using a competing risk duration model and incorporating time-varying covariates. We find significant differences in the hazards of vacancy due to these two causes, and a number of factors are shown to influence the probability of a vacancy, including a general propensity to retire near the beginning of presidents' second terms. However, we find little evidence of the influence of political factors in either retirement-or death-related vacancies, suggesting that justices who retire do not generally do so for expressly political reasons and those who die in office rarely do so as a result of holding out for a like-minded replacement.     

An institutional assessment of the public interest and accountability committee (PIAC) in Ghana’s oil and gas sector

ABSTRACT

Ghana’s Petroleum Revenue Management Act 815 (amended to Act 893 in 2015) established the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) in 2011 with the mandate to ensure accountability and transparency in the management and usage of oil and gas revenue. This paper critically examines the activities and operations of the PIAC from 2011 vis-à-vis its legally reposed mandate. It points to severe deficit in accountability but improvements in transparency in the management of oil and gas revenues in spite of the existence and operations of the PIAC. After eight years of operation, the PIAC continues to suffer monumental challenges that undermine its effectiveness in serving as an accountability and transparency initiative in Ghana’s oil and gas sector. The paper makes some recommendation based on the empirical challenges of the PIAC identified to strengthen the PIAC to deliver effectively on its mandate.     

Reintegrating seriously violent and personality-disordered offenders from a supermaximum security institution into the general offender population

Offenders who have committed serious violent acts while incarcerated are often segregated and housed in supermaximum security facilities. Given the highly restricted regime under which they are detained, it is often difficult to decide if they are safe enough to be discharged. However, there is a need to reintegrate them into the general offender population in a lower security institution for humane, correctional, and financial reasons. We propose a transitional strategy to facilitate their reintegration by way of a maximum-security step-down treatment-oriented facility within which both their security requirements and treatment needs could be adequately met. The present study reports the results of such an approach. More than 80% of the offenders (n = 31) were reintegrated into a lower-security facility without relapsing and being returned to the supermaximum institutions within a follow-up period of 20 months. They also have lower institutional offense rate postreintegration compared to prereintegration.     

Effective Global Economic Governance by the World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization (‘WTO’) is the principalinternational institution for the management and regulationof the process of economic globalization. Its effectivenessin fulfilling this important task, however, leaves much to bedesired. On 4 and 5 February 2005, the Faculty of Law of MaastrichtUniversity organized an international research conference entitled‘In Search of Effective Global Economic Governance: TheCase of the World Trade Organization’. This conferencebrought together academics, WTO officials, government diplomats,national trade officials, representatives of business associationsand NGOs to discuss a wide range of issues, including: possibleimprovements to and alternatives for consensus decision-makingin the WTO; issues of transparency, democratic legitimacy andthe participation of civil society in WTO decision-making; secondarylaw-making by WTO bodies; and an expanded role for the WTO Secretariat.It is important that legal and political science scholars focustheir research efforts on the reforms needed to transform theWTO into an instrument of effective global economic governance.The main objective of the conference was, therefore, to definea comprehensive agenda for research into the institutional reformof the WTO. This article is, above all, a report of the conferenceand summarizes the main arguments made by the participants.     

A New Conceptual Framework for Analysing a Case Study on ICT and the Sanctity of the Home

The case study shows the complex reality with respect to processes of meaning construction. Ruiters framework provides a more sophisticated instrument to analyse these complex processes. Unlike the classic models of legal communication, based upon a linear causality between norm and action, and unlike the dual model of interplay between legal institutions and institutional legal facts developed by MacCormick and Weinbergers Institutional Legal Theory (ILT), the tripartite model of interplay between rule, application, and social practices, stemming from Ruiters analysis of ILT, can contribute to a more refined model of legal communication.