Cohabitation and the Law Commission’s Project

In 2004, the U.K. parliament passed the Civil Partnership Act which provides a scheme to enable same-sex couples to obtain formal recognition of their relationships through the registration of a civil partnership. When the Civil Partnership Bill was making its way through parliament, attempts were made in the House of Lords to derail the Bill through amendments seeking to extend the Bill to certain familial relationships of care and support. In order to counter these attempts and to facilitate the removal of the amendments, the government gave the assurance that the matter of the economically vulnerable cohabitant would be referred back to the Law Commission for England and Wales for review. Consequently, in July 2005, the Law Commission commenced its project on cohabitation. This paper seeks to examine models of reform (such as the one proposed by the Law Society of England and Wales in its 2002 Cohabitation report) as well as those introduced in other Commonwealth countries. The aim is to identify some of the crucial questions that the Law Commission will need to give careful consideration to if they are to make recommendations that will provide a more radical approach to this area of the law, rather than adopt the more conservative approach of including cohabitation in ‘piggy back’ mode on the marriage model.     

Competitive Institution Building: The PT and Participatory Budgeting in Rio Grande do Sul

In the late 1990s, the Workers' Party (PT) government of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul introduced participatory budgeting, a process in which citizens establish annual investment priorities in public assemblies. This innovation was one of several attempts by incumbent parties to structure political conflict using budget institutions. The character of participatory budgeting is most evident in its policymaking processes and policy outcomes. The process circumvented legislative arenas where opponents held a majority, privileged participation by the PT's voter base, and reached into opposition strongholds. The outcomes favored the interests of potential supporters among poor and middle-class voters. The political project proved vulnerable to its own raised expectations: it failed to sustain the image of clean government; brought tax increases along with fiscal insecurity; and left unfulfilled the participants' expectations for targeted investments. This article highlights the role of participatory budgeting, indeed all budgeting, in partisan actors' institutional choices.     

Differenzierte Mitgliedschaft und die EU‐Osterweiterung: Das Beispiel der Arbeitnehmerfreizügigkeit

Die Arbeit untersucht die Auswirkungen der Vergabe eingeschränkter Mitgliedschaftsrechte auf den Verlauf und die Ergebnisse der EU‐Osterweiterung. Die Studie zeigt auf, dass die EU‐Mitgliedstaaten Übergangsfristen für die Liberalisierung der Arbeitsmärkte durchsetzten, um die zu erwartenden Erweiterungsgewinne zugunsten der, von der Freizügigkeit negativ betroffenen Altmitglieder ‐ Deutschland, Österreich und Italien ‐ umzuverteilen und so ein Scheitern der Aufnahmeverhandlungen zu verhindern. Die Diskussionen der EU‐Mitglieder über die Einführung einer eingeschränkten Arbeitnehmerfreizügigkeit für die Neumitglieder und ein Überblick über andere Verhandlungskapitel legen nahe, dass die Verteilung differenzierter Mitgliedschaftsrechte an neue Mitglieder eine bedeutsame Handlungsalternative insbesondere zur Nichtmitgliedschaft darstellt.     

A porous humanitarian shield: The laws of war,the red cross,and the killing of civilians

An important literature examines the attempts by the international community in inducing or coercing conflict parties in civil wars to refrain from committing atrocities against the civilian population. We examine in this article whether a non-governmental actor, the distinctively neutral and independent International Committee of the Red Cross, whose mission includes the promotion of humanitarian law and the protection of the civilian population, has such a restraining effect on the conflict parties. Our results suggest that the more time has passed since the ratification of the relevant Geneva Conventions and Protocols, the larger is the risk of civilian victimization. We cannot find evidence that the ICRC’s presence in conflict zones and the seminars it conducts to spread humanitarian law make a crucial difference. Case studies of Bosnia and Darfur indicate that shaming strategies and thus a relatively unusual instrument for the traditionally neutral actor did not abate the killings; the statistical evidence in the form of Granger causality tests rather show that the killing and harming precedes the naming and shaming.     

Organized crime or crime that is organized? The parrot trade in the neotropics

The illegal wildlife trade is one of the most profitable illegal industries in the world, only behind the trafficking of drugs, guns, and humans. Because of the relative ease in poaching wildlife combined with the possibility of high profit margins, many assume that organized crime is heavily linked to the trade. One group of species that is poached, trafficked and sold in illicit markets throughout the world are parrots. While some have claimed organized crime groups are involved in the trade, parrot experts contend there is no evidence of organized crime being involved. The purpose of this paper is to examine the structural organization of the illegal parrot trade in the neotropics to determine if the trade is driven by organized crime or if it is a simply a crime that is organized. The following study is based on 38 interviews with parrot poachers, middlemen, wildlife market sellers, and others knowledgeable on the trade in multiple cities within Bolivia and Peru to better understand the organization of the trade. The results garnered from these interviews do not support the notion that organized crime is involved in the illegal parrot trade in either country. The vast majority of participants are freelance operators where there appears to be no formal organization between or amongst those operating in the parrot trade. Implications of findings are discussed.     

Acting on delusions: the role of negative affect in the pathway towards serious violence

Acting violently on delusions is a significant clinical problem. Recent research has identified state anger as key component in the pathway from persecutory/threat delusions to serious violence. To determine the magnitude of the effect of delusional anger and to investigate a dose-response relationship we carried out a prospective follow-up study of forensic in-patients discharged into the community. Men and women (n = 409) were assessed before/after discharge at 6 and 12 months (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, MacArthur Community Violence Interview). No association was found with a content un-specific measure of delusions, thought disorder, hallucinations, grandiosity and violence. Suspiciousness/persecution was significantly associated with both violence and anger. Anger was also associated with violence. Mediation analyses suggested that 84% of the association between suspiciousness/persecution and violence was explained by anger. Key target of interventions should primarily be the anger; treatment of delusional beliefs plays a secondary role in the management of risk.