A law for need or a law for greed?: Restoring the lost law in the international law of foreign investment

The 1990s brought about a change in the international law of foreign investment due to the primacy achieved by the tenets of neo-liberalism. They drove concerns about the environment and poverty away from the concerns of the law and gave priority to the interests of multinational corporations by enhancing their ability for movement of assets and the absolute protection of these assets through treaty rules. The regime created by this law was operated through secure systems of dispute settlement through arbitration which also enabled the stabilization of these rules. In the process, private power of a section within the hegemonic state was able to subvert international law through the use of low order sources of the law and secure a system of investment promotion and protection. The restoration of the more universal themes of environmental protection and poverty alleviation is necessary. This paper outlines the developments that accentuated the sectional interests of multinational capital and explores the means by which a change that reflects the global interests could be effected.

“金砖五国”服务贸易竞争力比较分析

本文在综合既有关于国际服务贸易的理论及实证研究成果的基础上,以贸易竞争优势指数(TC指数)和出口比较绩效指数(CEP指数)为分析工具针对1997~2011年"金砖五国"各个服务贸易部门国际竞争力进行了纵向比较分析;再分别对按照生产要素密集度划分的劳动、资本及技术密集型服务的TC指数和CEP指数进行加权综合得到五个国家的综合国际竞争力指数并进行横向比较研究。通过对巴西、俄罗斯、印度、中国和南非贸易数据的分析及比较研究,总结这五个新兴市场国家服务贸易的发展现状、竞争优势及发展趋势。     

Rereading the Public: Isolationism and Internationalism Revisited

This is the first installment in what we hope will be a recurring series of Forums in ISP. In each segment we intend to provide an outlet for peer-reviewed dialogue and debate on important topics in the field and to allow our readers to discuss material previously printed in the pages of ISP. Below are two comments on "Challenging U.S. Policymakers' Image of an Isolationist Public" by Steven Kull and Clay Ramsay published in ISP 1:1. Both comments raise a number of important issues pertaining to the relationship of public opinion and foreign policy, and also address more general questions of domestic impact on foreign policy outputs and several significant methodological questions about approaches to polling. The Forum begins first with comments by Richard Clark and Kenneth Dautrich, is followed by comments from Shoon Murray, and concludes with a response from Kull and Ramsay.     

Hacia una aproximación crítica entre el derecho constitucional y el derecho internacional

The state has traditionally been studied from an internal prism, a study which has been carried out by political or Constitutional law; or it has been studied from an external focus, in its relations with other states and supranational organizations; matter that was awarded to International Law. These categories are obsolete. New times coming from the effects of globalization force us to bring epistemological and axiological approaches from both disciplines. This is the reason, purpose and need for this paper, which is formulated from positions close to the criticism. The happiness of human being is the aim of policy and law, both state and international. So, it is necessary adopting different social tools to interpret critically the juridical reality.     

Can justice be achieved for slave descendents in Mauritius?

This article discusses challenges to achieving justice for slave descendents in Mauritius 177 years after the abolition of slavery. It reflects on the 2009 institution of a Truth and Justice Commission (TJC) in Mauritius to investigate the legacies of slavery and indentured labour. It is argued that time, the ethnic and cultural complexity of Mauritius as well as the TJC itself makes it difficult for Mauritians to achieve restorative justice for slave descendents. Reviewing transitional and restorative justice, the article argues that the Mauritius case study is potentially useful to reflections on the issue of social justice for ancient atrocities and for reflections on the challenges of reparations in complex and democratic societies. It concludes that the greater participation of civil society is required in decisions regarding reparations and that such decisions need to be grounded in contemporary and democratic approaches to achieving justice and the protection of human rights.     

“The ladder of the law has no top and no bottom”: How therapeutic jurisprudence can give life to international human rights

In the past two decades, therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) has become one of the most important theoretical approaches to the law. But, there has, as of yet, been puzzlingly little written about the relationship between TJ and international human rights law. To be sure, there has been some preliminary and exploratory work on the relationship between TJ and international law in general, but virtually nothing on its relationship to international human rights law in a mental disability law context. This paper seeks to focus on this lack of consideration, to speculate as to why that might be, and to offer some suggestions as to how to infuse some new vitality and vigor into this important area of law and social policy.     

Between a rock and a hard place – An international law perspective of the difficult position of globally active Internet intermediaries

With its ability to create a global legal risk exposure, combined with contradicting rights and duties, and limited enforcement possibilities, the Internet has created a unique environment where persons and corporations legitimately can question whether they should comply with all the laws that apply to them. Focussing on the role of globally active Internet intermediaries, this article attempts to tackle this issue by discussing the potential for, and potential features of, an international law doctrine of selective legal compliance.     

瑞典国际民事诉讼制度初探

除了参加的有关国际公约和欧盟理事会有关规则以外 ,瑞典法院通常类推适用《司法程序法典》中有关法院特定管辖区的条款来解决国际民事诉讼的管辖权问题。域外送达依 1970年的《送达法》和《海牙送达公约》进行。《司法程序法典》对国际民事诉讼的起诉、答辩、反诉、临时保护措施、审理和判决以及上诉等问题作了规定。外国判决的执行依《判决执行法》、欧盟理事会的有关规则和《卢迦诺公约》及其参加的有关海牙公约的规定进行     

论跨国自然资源及环境破坏的国家责任和国际赔偿责任确定

近年来 ,跨国界环境污染和自然资源破坏事件逐增 ,形成对全球和相邻相向国家及地区的严重危害。不同类型的跨国界自然资源环境 ,需要由国际法的基本原则和国家责任及国际赔偿责任确定 ,也需要与国际环境保护中各类国际公约、宣言和全球可持续发展战略的原则相一致。本文论述了由跨国自然资源及环境破坏构成的过失责任、资源环境保护的国家责任和国际法原则的确定 ;跨国自然资源环境构成国家责任的归咎是与国际赔偿责任及国际公约的规定一致的 ;跨国自然资源环境构成国家责任确定标准 ;解决跨国自然资源环境破坏的国家责任若干建议     

我国工业应对国际竞争挑战的对策

研究表明 ,加入WTO对工业的近期影响相对较小 ,而中长期影响将明显增大 ,冲击最大的时期将发生在 2 0 0 5— 2 0 1 0年期间。因此 ,促进我国工业增强国际竞争力 ,既要从近期的应对措施着手 ,更要将重点放在中长期发展战略及政策的调整上。