TRIPS-Plus Free Trade Agreements and Access to Medicines

The battle over access to essential medicines revolves around the rights to issue compulsory licenses and to manufacture and export generic versions of brand name drugs to expand access. Global brand name pharmaceutical firms have sought to ration access to medicines and have used their economic and political clout to shape United States trade policy. They have succeeded in getting extremely restrictive TRIPS-Plus, and even US-Plus, intellectual property provisions into regional and bilateral free trade agreements. Asymmetrical power relations continue to shape intellectual property policy, reducing the amount of leeway that poorer and/or weaker states have in devising regulatory approaches that are most suitable for their individual needs and stages of development. While the overall trend is disturbing, some recent activities in the World Health Organization and evidence of greater unity behind health-based TRIPs flexibilities provide some grounds for cautious optimism.     

债权让与通知的效力

关于债权让与通知的效力 ,我国合同法仅设三个条文进行规定 ,与法律实践中的复杂情况相比显得过于简略。应对债权通知方式、债权通知对债务人、债权人以及第三人的效力等问题作具体研究 ,完善我国《合同法》的相关规定。     

The impact of plurilateral trade agreements on developing countries – to participate or not to participate?

In the wake of the impasse in the Doha Development Round of multilateral trade talks, sector-specific plurilateral trade agreements (PTAs) have been gaining traction. However, PTAs mostly appeal to developed countries, with the uptake among developing countries (including least-developed countries) being very limited. This article investigates the factors contributing to such a phenomenon, whether there is indeed merit in developing countries playing a more active role in PTAs and how they might be encouraged to do so. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted with specific attention being given to the effects, on a selection of developing countries, of participation in four PTAs: the Trade in Services Agreement, the Government Procurement Agreement, the Environmental Goods Agreement and the Information Technology Agreement II. Among the findings was that although, according to the qualitative analysis, policymakers are generally disinterested in the four PTAs because they are not aligned to the countries’ economic interests or they threaten policy space, the quantitative analysis revealed that gains could often be made from more active participation in these agreements. This clearly points to a research gap and highlights the need for more in-depth analysis of the potential of PTAs in the developing world.     

UNESCO’s Tangled Web of Preservation: Community,Heritage and Development in China

In the past two decades the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has broadened its focus on heritage from tangible sites to intangible cultural practices. It has also, according to supporters, advocated for the inclusion of local residents at heritage sites in management plans, emphasised the need to promote and protect human rights, and sought to balance preservation and conservation with what it terms “social and economic” needs. This article examines these claims via a case study on world heritage in China. It is suggested that UNESCO’s embrace of community involvement in heritage management is underpinned by a reliance on two fictive categories: an “international community” that agrees on heritage policies and a fictive homogeneous “local community” assumed to share the institutional values of UNESCO. This in turn reflects assumptions found at the centre of UNESCO’s cosmopolitan project going back to its establishment in 1948.     

Folklore as a source for creating exile identity among Latvian Displaced Persons in post-World War II Germany

This article draws on archival and print materials produced by Latvian Displaced Persons during the years they lived in UNRRA refugee camps after World War II. Its focus is on the ‘how’ of their cultural production and identity formation in camps that were established to expedite repatriation but became instead contexts in which Latvians as social actors opposed the goals of authoritative others to endow experience with their own textual meanings. This essay demonstrates how they recontextualized a variety of folklore genres as flexible and powerful resources for addressing their existential crisis and for solidifying exile as the basis for living purposefully off the territory of ‘home.’     

从浪漫主义到审美现代性——沈从文小说思想解读

在对现代性的批判与反思上,沈从文的小说创作契合了西方浪漫主义思潮。他批判都市文明、质疑启蒙运动、反对历史进化论,使他的小说呈现出鲜明的浪漫主义精神特质。他在批判的同时,企图对现代性进行修复与救赎,对人自身、人与人、人与自然的关系作出了不同于中国现代启蒙思想作家的思考与设定,其思想性质属于审美现代性思想体系。     

“应当首先满足业主需要”的规范性质探究————《物权法》第74条第1款的解释论

《物权法》第74条第1款的规范性质不同于任意性规范，其不是对合同当事人的意思表示的解释或者补充，也不同于授权第三人规范，所涉及的利益不是特定第三人的利益，而是业主群体的利益，同时也得不出赋予业主撤销权的解释结论。按照强制性规范所规范的三种领域而言，《物权法》第74条第1款应当属于强制性规范，且属于其中的效力性强制规范。违反此种具体强制性规范的后果，须结合《合同法》第52条第5项的规定，当属无效。     

近年来国内《资本论》世界历史理论研究综述

国内学者对《资本论》世界历史理论的研究主要集中在三个方面:一是探讨解读《资本论》及其手稿世界历史理论的新语境、新原则,二是厘定《资本论》世界历史理论的基本方位、梳理主要内容,三是揭示《资本论》世界历史理论的历史与现实意义.深化相关研究应当注意三点:首先,从思想特质角度,准确把握和阐发《资本论》世界历史理论的批判本质.其次,结合马克思思想发展史确定《资本论》世界历史理论的基本方位.最后,结合资本全球化当代发展及其问题阐发《资本论》“世界历史批判”理论的当代意义.     

World Bank Lending And Other Financial Flows: Is There a Connection?

At a time when there is a serious debate about reforming the international financial architecture, it is important to understand how existing multilateral agencies affect financial flows to emerging and less-developed countries. This paper extends past research - which has focused on the International Monetary Fund - by examining the various mechanisms through which the World Bank may be associated with other financial flows, and by presenting new empirical evidence based on regression analysis. Little support is found for a positive connection. The implications of this finding for effective reform of the Bank and its various activities are then discussed.     

农民工城市生活的实践逻辑——基于济南市的个案研究

本文运用实践社会学的研究方法,试图把握农民工在城市生活的实践逻辑。根据布迪厄四大资本类型将实践世界分析性地划分为经济世界、社会世界、文化世界和象征世界,运用统一的数学语言和术语提炼出了四大实践逻辑:经济世界的非线性逻辑、社会世界的同心圆逻辑、文化世界的临界点或者拐点逻辑和象征世界的坐标系逻辑。