Zimbabwe's troubles

This paper is situated within the global growing interest in the security of the Persian Gulf. Following the call for a pre-emptive air strike by the United States and Israel against Iran to crush or damage extensively its nuclear facilities, the debate on whether or not such an attack is justified and feasible, and what alternative strategy will yield the best result, had become of great concern among scholars around the world. This paper positions itself as an antagonist to the pre-emptive air strike option. It argues that the consequences of a pre-emptive air strike and its failure margin considering the location of the targeted facilities and the political situation in Iran have been seriously underestimated. It recommends that instead of a pre-emptive air strike, the Iranian nuclear programme crisis can be solved in a peaceful and more logical way, through technical isolation.     

The New Face of Terrorism in Turkey: Actor Unknown Political Murders

Abstract:  In this study, we have analyzed the temporal and spatial trends in actor unknown political murders in Turkey. A total of 1852 cases, defined as actor unknown political murders, occurred in Turkey between 1975 and 2006, with the peak years being 1980 and 1994. Three different time frames could be defined: 1975–1993, 1994–1999, and 2000–2006. During the first period, cases were common all over Turkey, but during the second and third periods, they were more frequent in metropolitan areas and in the southeast. Incidents occurring during the first period could be attributed to the struggle between right- and left-wing supporters, while most murders occurring during the second and third periods seem to have been related to Kurdish separatism. Although the most crucial factor in preventing actor unknown political murders is a politically stable atmosphere, forensics can also play an important role. Turkey needs to improve its forensic services to bring them in line with international standards, namely the Minnesota Protocol.     

Post-Hegemonic Climate Politics?

The article argues that the effects of a new US president on global climate politics will be rather less than might be expected. This is partly because the rhetorical differences between Bush, his predecessor Clinton and President Obama mask great continuities in US climate change politics since the early 1990s. It is also because, unlike in other issue areas, the EU has moved into a position of clear international leadership, which is likely to provoke diplomatic conflict, both for standard reasons of realpolitik but more precisely because of the different growth strategies pursued by each side and the different implications of those strategies for climate policy. Finally, the emergence of a dense pattern of transnational climate governance will increasingly constrain the options for either side in pursuing new climate change agreements after 2012.     

TRIPS体系下侵犯商业秘密罪的若干问题研究

我国刑法规定的侵犯商业秘密罪，与TRIPS协议关于未披露信息的保护规定既具有一致性，同时也存在较大差异。本文从侵犯商业秘密罪的犯罪对象、客体、主观方面以及侵犯商业秘密罪的刑事程序等方面，对我国法律关于侵犯商业秘密罪的规定与TRIPS协议的要求进行比较研究，提出了进一步完善我国侵犯商业秘密罪相关立法的建议     

《京都议定书》框架下促进我国企业履行环境责任的思考

<京都议定书>是各成员国为应对全球变暖达成温室气体减排承诺的环境协议,我国作为发展中国家在<京都议定书>谈判的第三阶段将面临减排的压力,温室气体减排主要取决于相关行业的发展和企业环境责任的承担情况.企业的环境责任作为企业承担社会责任的组成部分,在理论上刚刚兴起.培育企业环境责任意识,完善企业环境责任理论,探索企业环境责任承担相应机制以实现企业的经济效益增长与社会环境效益的双赢.     

Restricting the import of ‘emission credits’ in the EU: a power struggle between states and institutions

This article examines the development of a cap on the use of so-called ‘project credits’ in the EU emissions trading scheme. It investigates how the issue of such a limit was addressed in the negotiations of the Linking Directive, and how it has been dealt with in the later implementation of this directive. The article applies two explanatory approaches: one based on intergovernmentalist theory, assuming that the cap reflected the preferences of the EU Member States; and one based on the multi-level governance model, assuming that the cap expressed the preferences of EU institutions rather than Member States. What is found is a two-stage development: during the negotiations of the Linking Directive, Member States managed to secure a no-cap solution allowing extensive use of the project credits. In the later implementation phase, however, when the emissions trading scheme was up and running and a certain legitimacy for the system had been established, the Commission managed to ‘regain control’ by bringing back a cap. Thus, the project credit cap—and by that, the very nature of the EU emissions trading scheme—has been the subject of a continuing power struggle within the EU—and different theoretical perspectives explain different stages of this process.     

Converging Markets

The crucible in this scenario for the international climate regime is the emergence of an effective and liquid international carbon market with participation of private entities. In order to make the carbon market effective a bilateral negotiation track will develop, operating in parallel with the multilateral track under the UNFCCC. The purpose of the bilateral track is to integrate the various emissions trading schemes involving private actors. This bilateral track feeds into the UNFCCC negotiations, which still represents the main arena for the international climate negotiations. Through the bilateral, bottom-up negotiations, a multistage system develops, with differentiated rights and duties, complemented by a package of coordinated support mechanisms. The advantages of such a bottom-up approach prove to be, inter alia, fewer negotiating parties, new negotiation arenas, and a new set of selective incentives. The result is a continuously evolving agreement with the potential to gradually broaden participation and deepen the reduction commitments of the international climate regime. Moreover, the bilateral agreements for linking schemes with private actors also represent a fallback in the event of a collapse in the multilateral negotiations.The article has been written by funding from the Central Research Institute for the Electric Power Industry in Tokyo and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It also represents an output of research financed by the Research Council of Norway, project no. 144768/520. The authors thank all three institutions for the funding, as well as the many participants at the workshops where the ideas in the paper have been presented. Their criticism and suggestions have been very stimulating, indeed.     

Challenges and Outcomes at the Ninth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

From 1 to 12 December 2003, the Ninth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention took place in Milan, Italy. This conference continued the laborious effort of developing an international climate regime by preparing for the Kyoto Protocol’s entry into force. Some two dozen decisions were adopted on a wide range of options for responding to climate change. This paper assesses the progress achieved at the conference on a number of issues. Among these were operational details for implementing forestry projects under the Convention’s Clean Development Mechanism, and guidelines for reporting on greenhouse gas emissions and removals from agriculture, forestry and land-use change. Parties also decided on rules with respect to two funds, the Special Climate Change Fund and the Least Developed Country Fund. With respect to developing countries, Parties continued discussions on rules for building response capacity in light of the expected adverse effects of climate change and transferring environmentally sound technology. They also discussed how to incorporate scientific advice from the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change into the negotiations. Although Russia did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol prior to the conference, Milan demonstrated momentum and interest among Parties to support the climate regime. Nevertheless, it is doubtful whether the detailed discussions were able to contribute to preparing for the long term. To this end, this paper concludes that more discussion and leadership is required to bridge the North/South gap if a post-2012 climate regime is to stand.     

Are internet robots adequately regulated?

The robots.txt protocol allows website owners to specify whether and if so, what bots may access their sites. On the one hand, websites owners may have good reason to fend off bots. The bots may consume too much capacity, they may harvest data that are not suitable for presentation elsewhere on the web, or the owner may have reasons for disallowing bots that lie in the relation with user of the bot. On the other hand, search engines, aggregators and other users of bots may provide social beneficial services based on the data collected by bots, i.e. data that are freely available to anybody visiting the site manually. How should the law regulate disputes that arise in this context? Two legal regimes (trespass to chattels and unauthorised access) have been examined. Based on the characteristics of the disputes at hand, a number of desirable characteristics for an ideal form of regulation are identified. When testing the two regimes they are found to be lacking. A structure for a form of regulation is presented that allows the law to develop in a way that does more justice to the disputes at hand.     

国外低碳壁垒及我国应对的法律思考

20世纪末21世纪初,低碳壁垒逐渐登上历史舞台。低碳壁垒是以碳足迹、碳减排等方式对贸易产品设限而形成的新型隐性技术壁垒,包含碳关税、碳标签、碳补贴、碳标准、生态设计要求等限制或禁止贸易的法律、政策和措施。低碳壁垒可以通过以下两个方式构筑:一是通过国内低碳立法制约他国高碳产品的进口,二是在国际气候谈判中力争制定对自己有利的低碳贸易规则以保护本国市场免受冲击。本文分析了现行国际、国内与之相关的法律制度及其不足,并从产业政策、国内外立法以及行政执法和司法等方面提出了若干建议。