Protection and conservation--TRIPs and CBD: a way forward

Legal context: There is a complex relationship and interplay between TRIPsand CBD, two multilateral agreements adopted to attain inherentlydistinctive objectives. Key points: The CBD/TRIPs issue has been discussed in the WTO since 1996in the Committee on Trade and Environment, and has been on theagenda of the TRIPs Council since 1999. At the WTO Doha MinisterialMeeting in 2001, a Trade Minister made reference to the issuein paragraphs 12 and 19, instructing the Council for TRIPs tolook into the relations between TRIPs and CBD. The discussionin the TRIPs Council has gone into considerable detail witha number of ideas and various proposals have been mooted todeal with the same. Practical significance: This paper attempts to discuss and analyse the areas of possibleconflict and reasons for such conflicts. It also seeks to gainan insight into the thought-process of the various stakeholders,then discusses alternative courses of action, and attempts tochart the way forward.     

儒家的性情论与企业的情感管理

“以人为本”是21世纪现代企业管理的核心理念。“无情曾是真管理”应当逐步让位于情感管理。情感管理是一种立足于人性、人情而实施的一种新管理艺术。在我国,要搞好企业的情感管理必须借鉴和挖掘儒家关于情感中道等丰富的思想资源。儒家的以中道为特色的情感论对企业的情感管理中自我控制情绪、以情用人富于启迪意义。     

Spiralling or Stabilising? The Compensation Culture and Our Propensity to Claim Damages for Personal Injury

The propensity of accident victims in England and Wales to claim compensation through the tort system has generally increased since the 1970s. Contrary to popular belief, however, it has remained relatively stable since 2000, if not since 1997/1998. The upward trend in claims abated, therefore, when no-win no-fee advertising achieved prominence. Whether this long-term increase in our propensity to claim supports the notion that a compensation culture has developed is largely a matter of interpretation. Our understanding of recent trends in our propensity to claim has clearly, however, been distorted through the media. This distorted legal consciousness may not only have affected our views of the tort system but may also have influenced our readiness to use it and thereby contributed to the stabilisation of accident claims in recent years.     

International environmental agreements between developing countries only: learning from the Brazil–Uruguay case over the suspicion of acid rain

This article is about the process of negotiation and implementation of a bilateral environmental agreement between two developing countries. It analyzes the case of the Act of Jaguarão between Brazil and Uruguay on assessing the risk of transboundary air pollution by the President Medici (UTPM) coal-powered thermo-electrical facility in the Candiota region of southern Brazil. The article adds to the scarce literature on international environmental conflict resolution and negotiations between developing countries, especially in Latin America. First, it explains that even with the asymmetry of power between Brazil and Uruguay, negotiation was possible due to a series of factors, such as the interest of Brazilian environmental agencies in improving the monitoring of emissions from UTPM and the international scrutiny of Brazil prior to the upcoming Rio-92 Earth Summit. Both states obtained mutual gains from the agreement by developing ‘joint fact finding’ research and monitoring. Second, different from most of the mainstream literature, the research reveals that weaknesses in institutional agreements, such as a lack of sanctions or deadlines, were not an implementation impediment. In fact, the very weaknesses of the agreement actually enabled authorities in both countries to cooperate in the development of an acid rain monitoring program in the Candiota region, and as a result, to improve air monitoring capacities in both countries. Third, this research shows that the implementation process (1991–2003) produced different results and impacts: it helped to develop technical capacities of environmental agencies in both countries, increased the political power of Brazilian environmental agencies to control UTPM, and pushed for behavioral changes to enable UTPM to respond to the demands of both governments.     

多边投资框架的发展趋势——兼论中国对策

外国直接投资领域的国际规则目前正经历着从传统的双边规范向多边规范转变的过程。各国、各区域性和全球性国际组织都对此进程给予了极大关注,并纷纷采取各自的行动,但是制定多边国际投资规则的趋势不可逆转。本文通过对在WTO体制内建立多边投资框架趋势的考察,探讨了入世后的中国在WTO新一轮多边投资谈判及外资立法中应采取的策略。     

论20世纪时代主题的变化及其重大意义

邓小平提出的“和平与发展是当代世界主题”的新论断 ,科学地揭示了 2 0世纪时代主题的变化。这一新论断将改变世界社会主义运动中急于求成、用革命的手段战胜资本主义、把社会主义寄托于战争或暴力革命等传统观念 ,树立社会主义取代资本主义将是一个长期、曲折的渐进过程和在两种制度共处、竞争的条件下坚持和发展社会主义的新观念。这一新论断也为我国在新时期工作重心的转移、对外政策的调整提供了理论依据     

A Weberian approach to citizenship in a divided community

In the British Isles, traditional accounts surrounding the concept of citizenship usually develop along liberal or neo-liberal pathways. That is to say the study of citizenship in these Isles derives from the work of the late T.H. Marshall. While the importance of his work deserves its time-honoured acknowledgement in the literature, various writers such as Giddens, Heater, and Turner have taken issue with his argument that citizenship rights were handed down or that they ‘re-evolved’ over the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, their main differences with Marshall are not along theoretical lines but rather the applicability, or otherwise, of his model to other societies. Roger Brubaker points out that the nation state is the final arbiter of who is, or is not, a citizen which in the modern world is an act of social closure. This paper will discuss the efficacy of a sociological approach, based on social closure theory, as a means of understanding the struggle that has accompanied the granting of citizenship rights. Northern Ireland will be used as a case study to assess the effectiveness of social closure theory as a sociological explanation for the expansion of citizenship rights in a divided community.     

The US,Japan, and trade liberalization: from bilateralism to regional multilateralism to regionalism+

Abstract

Amid growing alarm over the rising atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, increasing attention is being given to ‘geo-engineering’ technologies that could counteract some of the impacts of global warming by either reducing absorption of solar energy (solar radiation management (SRM)) or removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Geo-engineering has the potential to dramatically alter the dynamics of global climate change negotiations because it might cool the climate without constraining fossil fuel use. Some scholars have expressed concern that certain states may be tempted to act unilaterally. This paper assesses the approach that China is likely to adopt towards governance of SRM and the implications this holds for broader international climate negotiations. We survey Chinese public discourse, examine the policy factors that will influence China's position, and assess the likelihood of certain future scenarios. While Chinese climate scientists are keenly aware of the potential benefits of geo-engineering as well as its risks, we find that no significant constituency is currently promoting unilateral implementation of SRM. China will probably play a broadly cooperative role in negotiations toward a multilaterally governed geo-engineering programme but will seek to promote a distinctive developing world perspective that reflects concerns over sovereignty, Western imperialism and maintenance of a strict interpretation of the norm of common but differentiated responsibility.     

Correspondence

The paper argues for the possibility of reworking the concept of ideology in such a way as to depend neither on a problematic of truth and error, nor on a division of the world into two parts one of which is more real than the other, nor on an expressive relation of subjects to meaning. The political force of the concept can be retained if ideology is thought as a provisional state of discourse (a function of its appropriation and use) rather than as a content or an inherent structure. Any discursive system produces a particular configuration of subject-positions which are the conditions of entry of individuals into discourse; but these acquire political significance only through the (historically variable) codification of discourse in terms of a play of relations of power, and the positions available can be refused or undermined. Some implications of this argument for models of the social and for discourse theory are discussed     

Freedom,Peace and Politics: Crick and Northern Ireland

Intimately throughout the 1970s, and in a more detached way for the rest of his life, Bernard Crick thought seriously about the politics of Northern Ireland. Though he produced no systematic study of the Northern Ireland Question, and though at first glance Northern Ireland appeared to be unpropitious territory for the author of In Defence of Politics, his reflections illuminated a deep concern with the relationship between politics, freedom and peace. This article argues that Crick's writing on the subject constitutes a sustained appeal for a ‘realism of pragmatic potential’ in contrast to that despairing ‘realism of impossible certainty’ which, he felt, frustrated hopes for political progress.