ASEAN and Northeast Asian energy security: Cooperation or competition?

For several decades, Northeast Asia has invested heavily in ASEAN’s fossil fuel industries. This investment has been fundamental in ASEAN’s industrial and regional development and has also been a main source of foreign exchange. In recent years, however, while energy demand in Japan and Korea has been slowing down, it has begun to increase rapidly in ASEAN at a time when some of its own oil and gas fields are beginning to decline. The sharp rise in ASEAN's demand for energy is partly the result of massive FDI from Northeast Asia in manufacturing enterprises. This investment is enabling ASEAN to become less dependent on the export of fossil fuels for foreign exchange. Indonesia has already announced it is reducing its energy exports to Japan because it wants to use the fuel domestically. Without doubt, the other ASEAN energy exporting countries will also soon be reconsidering their energy export contracts with Northeast Asia.     

论跨界案件共同管理及其实践

跨界案件共同管理的兴起是国内案件管理的司法改革运动在国际社会的反映,也是国际民商事司法与行政合作的高峰。这种做法目前虽未普遍化,但在跨界破产的管理、临时措施的协调、集体事故的处理和儿童的跨界保护等诸多领域已发挥出积极作用,且有进一步扩大化的趋势。当然,这种模式的和谐发展尚受到国家司法主权、国际条约协调和司法能动主义等方面的限制。     

The political economy of regional integration in East Asia

A widely held consensus view claims that East Asia has been shifting recently from a market-led to an institution-based form of regional economic integration, primarily as a result of the 1997–1998 financial crisis. Next to post-crisis financial cooperation schemes under the ASEAN+3, the surge of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) involving East Asian countries is thought by some to further substantiate this claim. The objective of the paper is to question the validity of this claim. By examining the current state of play of economic cooperation, in the financial and monetary areas as well as in the trade sphere, the paper highlights the limitations of the formal regional integration movement in East Asia to date, as well as the vastly different dynamics underlying the financial and trade developments. It also explores the changing nature of intra-regional trade and investment linkages and concludes that this new form of interdependence may be instrumental in changing the trade-offs of formal regional economic schemes.     

民主党派在共产党领导的多党合作中的主动性

民主党派可以在它所担负的政治责任领域内发挥主动性,在参政与议政方面,在监督的反馈机制与监督实效性方面,在团结、帮助非公有制经济人士和保护、促进非公有制经济发展方面等都可以发挥参政党的主动性。民主党派建立政党主动性的基本措施一是建立各自的政党理论,二是创新各自政党实践,三是推进多党合作法制化。     

Reforming International Environmental Governance: An Institutionalist Critique of the Proposal for a World Environment Organisation

This article argues that a World Environment Organisation (WEO) does not promise to enhance international environmental governance. First, we claim that the establishment of an international organisation alone in a policy field currently populated by regimes cannot be expected to significantly improve environmental governance because there is no qualitative difference between these two forms of governance institutions. Second, we submit that significant improvement of international environmental governance through institutional re-arrangement must rely on a modification of decision-making procedures and/or a change of institutional boundaries. Third, we develop three principal models of a possible WEO. A WEO formally providing an umbrella for existing regimes without modifying issue-areas and decision-making procedures would be largely irrelevant. A WEO integrating decision-making processes of existing regimes so as to form comprehensive world environment rounds of intergovernmental bargaining would be largely dysfunctional and prone to a host of negative side-effects. A supranational WEO including large-scale use of majority decision-making and far-reaching enforcement mechanisms across a range of environmental issues might considerably enhance international environmental governance, but it appears to be grossly utopian. In conclusion, a WEO cannot be at the same time realistic, significant and beneficial for international environmental governance. Available political resources should be invested in advancing existing and emerging sectoral environmental regimes rather than in establishing a WEO.     

Multi-sector cooperation in preventing crime: the case of a South African Neighbourhood Watch as an effective crime prevention model

Abstract

This case study describes the experience of effective and sustainable multi-sector co-operation in the prevention of crime between the Roodekrans Neighbourhood Watch (RNW) in Roodepoort, South Africa, the South African Police Service, private security businesses and the local business sector. This case study is illustrated in the context of empowering communities to take ownership of community safety by facilitating a multi-sector approach. Many studies have highlighted the role of the police in driving crime prevention, however, this paper focuses on the role and contribution of communities themselves as an effective vehicle of crime prevention drawing on multi-sector co-operation. Knowledge regarding best practices in this field of crime prevention remains a work in progress, therefore this paper aims to contribute to the general framework for the growth of successful multi-sector community-based crime prevention initiatives.     

Terrorism and Democracy: Perpetrators and Victims

Most observers believe that the 'democratic rules of the game' provide a peaceful means for resolving political conflicts. This may be true but not all groups or even single individuals in democratic societies need play by these rules. This analysis uses two data sets: one that classifies most countries of the world based on how they were ruled in the mid-1980s, and the other on the frequency with which their nationals either perpetrated or were victimized by terrorists attacks, to investigate the relationship between terrorism and democracy. The findings suggest that stable democracy and terrorism go together. An analysis of the data reveal that terrorist attacks occur most often in the world's most stable democracies, and that, further, both the perpetrators and victims of those attacks are citizens of the same democracies.     

论海洋环境保护——“对一切义务”的视角

对一切义务是指对整个国际社会的义务。对海洋环境的保护符合人类基本道德价值和国际社会共同利益,是一项对一切义务。各国应加强合作,履行海洋环境保护这一对一切义务,实现海洋环境的可持续发展。不履行这一对一切义务,应承担国家责任。     

论国际侦查合作的基本范畴

学界普遍将国际刑事司法合作划分为引渡、刑事司法协助、刑事诉讼移管、刑事判决的承认和执行四大块，这是基于合作形式的习惯分类方法，与现代刑事司法合作的起源与发展和国际上刑事司法合作条约的缔结方式密切相关，但并不是建立在严格的理论基础之上。因此，明确提出国际侦查合作的概念，突出这一现象的诉讼法本质属性，在刑事诉讼进程的整体框架视角下选取国际侦查合作的基本范畴进行系统考察，旨在为这一交叉领域的理论基础构建以及制度设计提供新的思路。