EU update: Baker & McKenzie’s regular article tracking developments in EU law relating to IP, IT & telecommunications

This is the latest edition of Baker & McKenzie's column on developments in EU law relating to IP, IT and telecommunications. This article summarises recent developments that are considered important for practitioners, students and academics in a wide range of information technology, e-commerce, telecommunications and intellectual property areas. It cannot be exhaustive but intends to address the important points. Additional commentary is also provided in relation to a few select areas of particular interest. This is a hard copy reference guide, but links to outside web sites are included where possible. No responsibility is assumed for the accuracy of information contained in these links.     

Demythelogizing Personal Loyalty to Superiors

This article examines the practice of personal loyalty to superiors, in general, and in criminal justice agencies, in particular. While practitioners are taught that their primarily loyalty is to the United States Constitution, State laws, departmental rules and regulations, they are organizationally taught that personal loyalty to superiors is paramount if they wanted their career to continue and prosper. As a result many practitioners are rightfully confused (even exhibiting paranoia) over who or what to be primarily loyal to, and at what price or risk. This unwarranted fear has been behind numerous acts of malfeasance and misfeasance; it can lower the workers’ morale, confuses the practitioners, and destabilizes the agency’s equilibrium. This article examines three types of workplace loyalties, and suggests, as an attempt toward reform, the use of a more sensible duty-based paradigm. Such a paradigm can be based on four practical propositions: (1) seriously examining why personal loyalty to superiors is deemed essential, if at all, especially since it is never mentioned in the agency’s rules and regulations; (2) taking the fear out of the language of “loyalty-disloyalty” by perhaps replacing the term with more benign and rather measurable terms such as “performance and collaboration;” (3) strengthening dutiful supervision; and (4) maximizing professional accountability.     

Reviews

E. Comisso and L. D'Andrea Tyson eds. Power, Purpose and Collective Choice. Economic Strategy in Socialist States. Cornell University Press: Ithaca and London, 1986, 422 pp. $43.45 h/b, $16.45 p/b.

Dietrich Andre Loeber ed. Ruling Communist Parties And Their Status Under Law. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1986, xxi + 550 pp. £101.50 h/b.

E. S. Williams, The Soviet Military: Political Education, Training and Morale. London: Macmillan, 1987, xv + 203 pp. £27.50.

John Erickson, Lynn Hansen and William Schneider, Soviet Ground Forces: An Operational Assessment. London: Croom Helm & Westview, 1986, xix + 267 pp. £25.00.

Kurt M. Campbell, Soviet policy towards South Africa. London: Macmillan, 1986, xii + 223 pp. £27.50.

David A. Korn, Ethiopia, the United States and the Soviet Union, London: Croom Helm, 1986, 199 pp. £19.95.

Samuel M. Makinda, Superpower Diplomacy in the Horn of Africa, London: Croom Helm, 1987, 241 pp. £22.50.

Ivan Volgyes, Politics in Eastern Europe. Chicago: Dorsey Press, 1986, xvii + 368 pp. $20.00.

Olga A. Narkiewicz, Soviet Leaders: from the Cult of Personality to Collective Rule. Brighton: Wheatsheaf, 1986, ix + 256 pp. £18.95.

Simon Bergstrand and Rigas Doganis, The Impact of Soviet Shipping. London: Allen & Unwin, 1987, xvi + 184 pp. £30.00.

Martin Kitchen, British Policy towards the Soviet Union during the Second World War. London: Macmillan, 1986, viii + 309 pp. £29.50.

Alexandre Popovi?, L'lslam balkanique. Les Musulmans du sud‐est européen dans la période post‐ottomane, Osteuropa‐Institut an der Freien Universitat Berlin, Balkanolo‐gische Veröffentlichungen, edited by Norbert Reiter, vol. 11, Berlin, in conjunction with Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1986, xii + 493 pp.

Bernard Lory, Le Sort de l'Héritage Ottoman en Bulgarie; l'Exemple des Villes Bulgares, 1878–1900. Published at the initiative and with the help of the Institut Français d'Etudes Anatoliennes d'Istanbul and l'Association pour le Développement des Etudes Turques, Paris, Editions Isis, Istanbul, 1985, viii + 235 pp.

Shirin Akiner, Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union. 2nd ed. London: KPI, 1986. xiii + 462 pp.

Bruce W. Watson and Susan M. Watson, eds., The Soviet Navy: Strengths and Liabilities, Westview Press/Arms and Armour Press, London, 1986, xv + 333 pp. £19.95.

Robert Conquest, ed., The Last Empire: Nationality and the Soviet Future. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, Calif, (distributed in UK by Clio), 1986, xiv + 406 pp. £23.45.

Jeffery Simon and Trond Gilberg, eds. Security Implications of Nationalism in Eastern Europe, Westview Press. Boulder, Colorado and London, 1986 xvi + 327 pp. £27.75.

K. R. M. Short, ed., Western Broadcasting over the Iron Curtain, Croom Helm, London, 1986, 274 pp. £22.50.

John Bushnell, Mutiny amid Repression: Russian Soldiers in the Revolution of 1905–1906. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985, ix + 334 pp. £24.50.

Roger Woods, Opposition in the GDR under Honecker 1971–85. Macmillan, London, 1986, x + 257 pp. £27.50.

Yury Boshyk, ed., Ukraine during World War II— History and its Aftermath. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1986, xix + 219 pp. no price quoted.

Peter Beilharz, Trotsky, Trotskyism and the Transition to Socialism, London: Croom Helm, 1987. 197 pp. £25.00.

A. Buick & J. Crump, State capitalism: the wages system under new management. Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1987, ix + 165 pp. £25.00 h/b, £8.95 p/b.     

Resistance to Neoliberal Globalisation: A Case of 'Militant Particularism'?

This article seeks to help redress the relative lack of discussion of the movement against neoliberal globalisation and the relative lack of empirical work about this movement. Firstly it argues that this movement is not opposed to globalisation per se but instead is developing a new internationalism in the course of challenging the neoliberal nature of contemporary globalisation. Secondly it argues that this challenge is producing a universalising dynamic which is moving the movement beyond being a series of isolated militant particularist struggles. The article uses interviews with leading participants within the movement to help clarify these arguments.     

A Facebook post is born: exploring the process of generating MPs’ social media presence

Research on political communication between MPs and the public has focused on the role, activities and perceptions of the members of parliament (MPs) themselves. However, the authors’ prior research demonstrated that in fact social media necessitate a new prism through which to study such communication. The contribution of the present study is to look at this relationship through the heretofore under-researched prism of those who in fact are doing much of the actual communication (at least in Israel): the parliamentary assistants (PAs). Whereas other studies tend to focus on the communicative contents, the present research deals mainly with the behind-the-scenes processes that produce such content.

In this study 26 PAs were interviewed in Israel’s Knesset regarding three central questions: What are the goals of the MPs’ activities on Facebook? What are the key obstacles perceived by the assistants while maintaining MPs’ Facebook presence? What are the main professional dilemmas that PAs run into during their Facebook activity on behalf of MPs? By addressing these questions, the paper contributes to generating a more comprehensive picture of the ways political Facebook posts are born, and of the processes through which MPs’ social media presence is generated.     

Does investing in identity work? An examination of the ethnocentric social capital theory from an oriental perspective

The central thrust of this paper questions the notion of ‘investing in identity’ in the current approach to social capital, and challenges the assumption that the poor can draw upon their identities as productive resources to alleviate poverty. This paper argues that the mainstream social capital model is largely based on the economic model of rationality, which assumes that individuals are rational, and consciously construct social identities with purposive reasons. This perspective, however, neglects agency, subjectivity and the power dimension in the process of identity building. This paper also questions the ethnocentric nature of social capital thinking which plays down the influences of culture and context. Drawing upon the structuration theory of Anthony Giddens, and based on my ethnographic research on Chinese migrants in Hong Kong, I challenge the ‘Hong Kong-derived Chinese identity model’ by Gregory Guldin. Using the concept of ‘acknowledgeable agents’, I argue that the construction of ethnic identity amongst migrants is far more complicated, and agents may use their hyphenated identities to seek room for manoeuvre. I also highlight the transformative, fluid and fragile nature of identity to suggest that he notion of ‘investing in identity’ is problematic because which and what identities, and where and how to invest, are not properly addressed. Taking agents’ subjectivity into account, disinvestment, rather than investment, in identity may be a more desirable livelihood strategy adopted by migrants. Finally, I draw attention to the dark sides of identity, and point out that without a clear understanding of the existing structures of interaction, investing in identity may result in poverty aggravation and further exclusion of the poor.The writer is currently an assistant lecturer at the University of Bradford, UK.