When the Party Comes to Town: Experiential Learning During a Presidential Nominating Convention

Winthrop University used its location in the Charlotte metropolitan area to develop a course that combined academic content with an experiential component during the Democratic National Convention. This article provides recommendations for planning logistics developing such a course for faculty who may wish to replicate this effort in future presidential election cycles.     

Back to the Future? Warnings from History for a Future UK Constitutional Convention

Amid the fallout from the Scottish independence referendum, a UK constitutional convention has been proposed as a mechanism to take stock not only of the referendum, but also of the past fifteen years of devolution. However, despite longstanding conceptions of British constitutional development, a constitutional convention would not herald a brave new world for the UK's constitution. As the article highlights, in the past hundred years there have been two attempts to treat the territorial constitution in the round: the Speaker's Conference on Devolution, 1919–1920 and the Royal Commission on the Constitution, 1969–1973. This article examines both of these forums, arguing that they provide clear warnings for a future UK constitutional convention, in particular the threat of internal division that any such forum risks facing. A danger that this article highlights is heightened by the associated difficulty of reaching agreement across the UK's ‘state of unions’.     

经济全球化与我国法制建设

经济全球化必然会对我国法制建设产生重大影响 ,其中包括对法制建设发展战略、立法和司法协助的影响等。为此 ,我们必须采取更新观念、勇于创新 ;转变政府职能、实现政企分开 ;正确处理好多种关系等对策 ,予以应对。     

Avoiding Another ‘Squatter in Downing Street’ Controversy: The Need to Improve the Caretaker Conventions before the 2015 General Election

In the UK the rules governing caretaker situations have historically been underspecified. The UK's constitutional traditions, such as prime ministerial discretion to time elections and its two‐party system, have in the past limited the frequency and duration of caretaker periods. However, the recently lengthened election timetable, new constraints on the executive introduced by the Fixed‐term Parliaments Act (2011), and a decline in the dominance of the two largest parties are raising the risk that the UK will experience caretaker periods more often and for longer stretches of time. In this paper, we offer an analysis of the UK's current caretaker provisions and conclude that the existing conventions are insufficiently detailed and can render such periods problematic and controversy‐prone. Important lessons, we suggest, can be learned from reforms in other Westminster systems, and from the caretaker rules of other countries.     

A journalism quarterly potpourri

Abstract

How do the news media help construct election mandates? By interpreting an election victory broadly, the news media can facilitate the implementation of a newly elected government's program. Conversely, the media can constrain a newly elected government by interpreting the election as influenced by factors other than ideology, primarily retrospective evaluations of the outgoing government's performance. Studies of how the media interpret election results have offered only speculation on why the media choose certain narratives while discarding plausible alternatives. Through a systematic examination of six Canadian elections, this article identifies key variables that explain the media's choices. I found that the media tended to confer a mandate when the victorious party focused on its policy intentions during the campaign and when the party was conservative; they tended to confer a “personal mandate” when newly elected leaders were facing their first election. In general, the news media quickly settled on one narrative, did not support this decision using quantitative data such as exit polls, and tended to depoliticize the public sphere by framing most results as devoid of ideological content.     

A Review of: “Media and Conflict: Framing Issues,Making Policy,Shaping Opinions,edited by Eytan Gilboa”

Using survey data from statewide political party convention delegates in four states, I investigate whether and how gender stereotypes influence nomination choice. I examine whether gaining candidate information from different sources differentially influences gender stereotypes and the likelihood of supporting both a female and a male nominee. I argue that information sources outside a candidate's control—delegates' discussions with other delegates—versus sources candidates can control (e.g., campaign contacts and personal contact with the candidate) work against female candidates' nomination. Specifically, when delegates learn about candidates via the most controlled sources, they will be more likely to view the candidates as possessing both masculine and feminine traits and issue competencies. As a result, they should be more likely to support the candidate. In contrast, information from sources outside candidate control functions differently for male and female candidates: These sources confirm delegates' stereotype expectations, negatively affecting perceptions of a female candidate's masculine strengths, which then negatively relate to supporting her nomination. The results generally support these ideas: Delegates receiving information from the most controlled sources form balanced views of the female candidate, but the positive effects of information from these sources on nomination choice are not mediated by stereotypes. In contrast, delegates gaining information from other delegates confirm their stereotypes of the candidate and are then less likely to support her. More broadly, gender stereotypes, particularly those regarding female candidates' masculine traits and feminine issue competencies relative to the candidate's male opponent, directly and positively relate to delegates' likelihood of supporting her.     

Constitutional Conventions and the Prince of Wales

The Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) held in Evans v Information Commissioner that certain correspondence between Prince Charles and government officials must be disclosed under freedom of information legislation. Much of the judgment was devoted to a discussion of the constitutional conventions applicable to Prince Charles, and the case provides a useful example of how conventions and laws can interact. In this note, I argue that the Upper Tribunal misunderstood how conventions are distinguished from one another, and misapplied the test for the identification of conventions.     

Indonesian labour law development and reform： The years of ratifying fundamental human rights defined within the ILO core conventions

Indonesia has a long experience in developing and reforming its labour law in order to response and accommodate fundamental human rights defined within International Labour Organization （ILO） core conventions. It was in particular for enhancing substance of workers＇ prosperity in industrial relationships in the country. For the purpose of changing paradigm in industrial relationships namely the corporatist model or regulatory model into the contractual model and replacing the single union system with multi-union system in term of labor institution and worker association （particularly based on the ILO Convention No. 87 and No. 98）, the government of Indonesia fairly enacted the Act No. 21 of 2000 regarding Trade Unions and the Act No. 13 of 2003 regarding Labor.     

追溯与寻明:国际法视角下的碳排放权单位研究

自以《京都议定书》为基础的市场化机制建立以来,经过近20年的发展,全球碳金融市场呈现蓬勃发展的态势,交易量大幅提升,成交金额不断攀升,市场化机制在夯实中不断完善和发展。同时,争端与纠纷日益增加,国际多边环境公约调整下的碳排放权机制部分地在WTO体制下进行规制,成为众多学者的憧憬。碳排放权单位体现的既不是GATT框架下的"产品",也不是GATS框架下的"服务",而是在经济上反映出特殊的金融衍生产品的属性。然而,碳排放权单位交易商提供服务的行为契合GATS金融服务要求,因此交易商可依据GATS享受跨国服务领域中的最惠国待遇,并可将与WTO规则相关的争端诉诸WTO争端解决机制,实现环境争端解决的规范化、法制化。