Anti-perfectionism and Rawlsian Liberalism

This article examines the justifications of anti-perfectionism given by John Rawls in his recent work Political Liberalism. Rawls, I argue, gives one major argument in defence of anti-perfectionism (what I shall call the 'reasonableness among free and equal persons' argument) and two subsidiary arguments (what I shall call the 'social unity' argument and the 'stability' argument). None of these arguments, I claim, are persuasive. Rawls's most recent justification of anti-perfectionism is therefore unsuccessful.     

Region, Local Context, and Voting at the 1997 General Election in England

There has been considerable debate in recent work on voting patterns in Great Britain regarding the importance of regional effects: are these “real” or are they simply statistical artifacts of decision‐making processes at smaller spatial scales which are aggregated up to the regional scale if not incorporated directly into any modeling? Using a multilevel model design, this article reports on analyses of survey data for the 1997 general election in England which allows tests of whether regional variations are no more than aggregation effects. Individual voters are nested within households, neighborhoods, constituencies, and regions and when all of the smaller‐scale spatial levels are included in the model, the observed regional effects are statistically insignificant. At the 1997 general election, at least, regional variations within England in support for the three main parties—basically, a north‐south divide—are aggregation effects.     

Understanding Contemporary Cryptography and its Wider Impact upon the General Law

As the move toward the wider regulation of cryptography, both within the United Kingdom and elsewhere, becomes increasingly irresistible, the degree of understanding afforded to cryptography at the level of policy formation remains underdeveloped, ambiguous and, at times, misleading. One corollary of such solicitude is that a number of the most important and pervasive legal issues that flow naturally from the widespread availability of cryptography remain largely unexplored. This article attempts to remedy these deficiencies. It begins by offering a brief historical perspective before progressing to consider more substantive issues such as cryptography's aims, power, limitations, effectiveness and future. Ignoring, to a large extent, issues of law enforcement, and focusing, in particular, upon both the law of data protection, and, to a lesser extent, the general law of obligations in the United Kingdom, this article argues that the decision to utilise cryptography will not simply prove a matter of choice, preference or expediency, but of legal and commercial necessity in order to avoid the potential imposition of widespread indeterminate liability.     

The British consulate-general in Hanoi, 1954-73

Traditionally, there has been a rigid distinction made between British consular and diplomatic missions abroad: the former is concerned largely with trade, visas and the more mundane tasks of foreign representation, while the latter deals with the glamorous political world of interstate relationships at the highest level. As a general rule of thumb this may be true, but in accepting unequivocally this notion one overlooks those instances where a significant political role has been played by consulates. This article examines one such instance and in doing so raises questions relating to diplomatic and consular relations, disguised embassies, political reporting and the importance of experienced onsite personnel.