Electricity Market Restructuring and Energy Contracts: A Critical Note on the EU Commission’s NEA Decision

As highlighted in the economic literature, contracts are crucial policy instruments to organize and manage restructured electricity markets. In the early 90’s, during the restructuring of the electricity market in UK, the three main Scottish electricity generators stipulated a long-term, “take-or-pay” contract, the Nuclear Energy Agreement, which contained provisions for the trade of wholesale electricity in Scotland.The European Commission scrutinized such contract in order to derive the congruity of the agreement to European laws. Whilst the NEA was awarded an exemption under Article 85, paragraph 3 of the EU Treaty, the Commission recognized the inner anticompetitive content and potential effects of the contract.In this paper, we criticize the Commission NEA decision and economic reasoning and provide an alternative reading and analytical approach, which lead to opposite results and conclusions (the NEA contract is not anticompetitive and it enhances efficiency in competitive electricity markets). Given that the restructuring process in the EU electricity market is still in fieri, we select the NEA contract as a benchmark-case, in order to provide an alternative reading and a case-study for eventual, future energy contracts administration and authority decisions.JEL K, K2, K230     

Face Off: The Ironic,The Irenic and the Face Between

The formation of a school, whether feminist, critical, Marxist or other involves the establishment of a doctrine – literally a teaching – and a group of students or followers – the disciples who form the discipline. No doctrine without disciples has been the history of the schools and the formative principle of academic movements. They exist in the end to convert their students, old to young, male to female, female to male, or female to female, or any other possible combination of orientations. And conversion implies orthodoxy, institutionalization and hierarchy or at least a relation to hieros and hierarchy. This paper examines these themes in terms of the specific example of feminist legal studies and a curious recent discursive event, a polemical exchange on the identity of the movement, the face of feminist legal studies, as viewed through a eulogy and a challenge to that praise. Thanks to Richard Collier, Margaret Davies, Margaret Halliwell, Elena Loizidou, Desmond Manderson, Ngaire Naffine for correspondence, for relevant discussions, and candid responses. Especial thanks to Thanos Zartaloudis for a peculiarly detailed and hospitable reading, offered at a time when it would have been much easier, both just and more appropriate for him to say very little, almost nothing. And emotive thanks as well to Linda Mills for her customary frankness and finely honed attention.     

城乡融合：和谐社会的根基——从生态视角审视

城市化的推进,必然伴随着"城市问题"出现,客观需要城市与周边乡村地区和谐发展,实现城乡融合.城市化发展,其终极目标生态城市;空间布局亦城亦乡的空间结构;产业方向循环经济.     

谈公安学员的个性发展与警务化管理的统一

随着公安教育改革的不断深入,"以人为本"的教育理念已被公安院校的教育工作者所认同。在教育教学过程中,尊重学员的个性发展已成为贯彻教育新理念的童要内容,而以警务化管理为办学特色的公安院校如何贯彻新理念,如何使公安院校的管理特色与新教育理念和谐统一,已经摆上了公安院校发展的议事日程。     

从文化沉默到文化融合——美国华裔作家小说主题探

论文集中考察了刘裔昌《父亲和光荣后代》和在七十年代出版并引起轰动的汤亭亭的《女勇士》作品中的华裔文学主题的不同表现 :刘裔昌渲染了美国文化的优越以及华裔极力想得到主流社会承认的基调 ,而汤亭亭则更多强调已经成为美国社会一员的华裔美国人的身份和特征。这一主题的演变揭示出美国华裔文学主题深受当时的政治意识形态和文化氛围的影响 ,它依然受制于白人主流文化 ,依然难以做到完全客观地反映现实     

当代中国行政管理模式转型：由“无限型”走向“两合型”

行政管理模式是政府为管理社会而形成的社会互动机制,按照社会资源配置主体的不同,可分为"无限型"、"两合型"和"有限型"三种。十一届三中全会前,我国政府选取的是"无限型"行政管理模式,其在发展过程中表现出了"事务式"管理理念、"行政命令"管理方式和"统一领导,分级管理"管理途径等特点。随着我国行政环境的日新月异,这种相对封闭、僵化的管理系统日益落后于时代的要求。十一届三中全会后,我国开始建设动态性的"两合型"行政管理模式,在其调适过程中,"服务式"管理理念逐渐树立、"法律式和经济式为主,行政式为辅"管理方式逐渐形成,"统一领导,因地制宜"管理途径逐渐理顺。"两合型"行政管理模式的这种调适为我国向"有限型"行政管理模式的转变创造了良好的条件。     

欧盟认同与欧盟制度建设:一个互构进程

超国家制度的建设在欧洲一体化进程中是最引人注目的方面。然而随着一体化的深入拓展,欧洲认同的建构问题也变得重要起来。两者逐渐形成了一种相辅相成、相互促进的关系。欧盟的制度结构对欧盟成员的认同具有建构作用,但是这并非一种单向的关系,由于自身的国内政治条件成员国及其民众对此产生的回应同样影响了欧盟的制度建设过程。     

Practices and challenges of converting former fighters into civil servants: the case of Eritrea

This study critically discusses the practices and challenges of converting the former Eritrean fighters into civil servants and their management afterwards. The study finds that, although both categories of the Eritrean civil servants (ex and non‐ex‐fighters) have been working together since independence, ex‐fighter civil servants were given special privileges in a number of human resource management (HRM) practices, such as recruitment and selection, placement, promotion, training and compensation. That is, the political involvement in the management of the ex‐fighter civil servants was considerable, which in turn has led to a certain degree of politicisation in the civil service. The Eritrean experience draws a number of lessons with regard to process, treatment within the workplace and different perceptions on the part of the two categories of civil servant. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

《中国-东盟全面经济合作框架协议》初探——以世界贸易组织法为起点

本文从分析中国—东盟自由贸易区与WTO的法律关系以及《中国—东盟全面经济合作框架协议》与WTO协议的衔接等方面入手,围绕如何在严格遵守并有效利用WTO法律体系中有关区域经济一体化的法律规则的同时,充分实现中国—东盟自由贸易区的建成将给我国经济发展带来的促进作用进行探讨。     

Gender Gap and Turnout in the 2003 Federal Elections

We examine the gender gap in turnout in Switzerland by analysing the 2003 federal elections. Despite being a standard component in electoral studies, the gender variable is, in most cases, only used as a control variable and its effects and interaction are too often under‐analysed. We focus on individual‐level factors by looking at three types of explanations for the gender gap: (1) resources, (2) political motivations and attitudes, and (3) social capital and integration. Our analysis, based on binomial logistic regression models, shows that compositional and conditional effects play an important role in explaining the persistent gender gap in Swiss electoral turnout.