Fuel to the Fire: Natural Disasters and the Duration of Civil Conflict

Do natural disasters prolong civil conflict? Or are disasters more likely to encourage peace as hostilities diminish when confronting shared hardship or as shifts in the balance of power between insurgents and the state hasten cessation? To address these questions, this study performs an event history analysis of disasters’ impact on the duration of 224 armed intrastate conflicts occurring in 86 states between 1946 and 2005. I contend that natural disasters increase conflict duration by decreasing the state’s capacity to suppress insurgency, while reinforcing insurgent groups’ ability to evade capture and avoid defeat. First, disasters’ economic impact coupled with state financial outlays for disaster relief and reconstruction, reduce resources available for counterinsurgency and nation building in conflict zones. Second, the military’s role in administering humanitarian assistance can reduce the availability of troops and military hardware for counterinsurgency, prompt temporary ceasefires with insurgents, or both. Third, natural disasters can cause infrastructural damages that disproportionately hinder the state’s capacity to execute counterinsurgency missions, thereby making insurgent forces more difficult to capture and overcome. The combination of these dynamics should encourage longer conflicts in states with higher incidence of disaster. Empirical evidence strongly supports this contention, indicating that states with greater disaster vulnerability fight longer wars.     

Gender dimensions of decision-making on production assets and challenges facing women

This article investigates gender dimensions of decision-making on access to, and control over, productive assets for agricultural development in selected communities in Ghana. The men were more educated, resourced, and economically empowered than the women. This resulted in differential access to, and control over, resources by gender and a low level of female participation in decision-making. The study identified a land access gap by gender and crop acreage gap of up to 80% for women as compared to men. Challenges limiting women in agricultural production and processing include inadequate land access, inadequate capital, inefficient processing technologies, and unattractive markets.     

Moving from nos/otros to nosotros: a transcendent approach to sustainable development

Traditional top-down approaches to community development reinforce nos/otros binaries within provider/recipient relationships; transcendent approaches, on the other hand, create space for nosotros collaborative development. This article describes an instance of the nos/otros binary, in which a foreign volunteer in a rural community in Ecuador assumed the role of practitioner and limited community members’ roles to recipients or beneficiaries of her development projects. Inspired by findings from this experience, the article presents a case study highlighting an alternative, transcendent, nosotros approach in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where community members work together to imagine, implement, and sustain projects.     

Social normativity,housing, and urbanisation in an Indian city

A significant part of urbanisation in India is happening through unregulated or partly regulated trajectories that are either informal or semi-formal in nature, and regulatory authorities have come to terms with them on a piecemeal basis over a period of time. This article contends that what is considered unplanned by regulatory agencies is actually planned by people and facilitated by the normativity surrounding both formal and informal institutions of urbanisation in society. The study looks at the processes through which such a housing settlement comes into being and negotiates legitimacy, authorisation, as well as basic civic services.     

自然法与西方法律文明史

自然法从古希腊伊始,至今一直是法律思想领域的一柱栋梁,它历经西方社会各大学派的吹捧或是抨击,从兴盛到没落再到复苏,不得不说它是西方法律文明史上不可或缺的重要学说。它奠定了西方法律人权、民主、分权等观念的基础,它的超然、实然、应然的内容层次也为现代法律制度的构建提供了一定的价值标准。对它在西方法律文明史上的地位研究,有着重要的理论价值和实践意义。     

A Distant Hand Fell from His Shoulder

This essay is concerned to trace a materialist current within the work of Peter Goodrich, with the aim of evaluating it in the light of the work of Deleuze and Guattari. The are two reasons for this: firstly, it serves to encourage the development of Deleuzean perspectives within critical legal studies, and secondly, it presents the potential of a re-invigoration of a branch of criticism based not only upon the problems raised by issues of meaning and representation, but one which is also sensitive to the conditions of the relations of production of both meaning and desire. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

论唐诗抒情艺术范式的三大品性

为了扬弃传统的模糊语言而选取确切的范畴概念——“范式”来把握、论述、界定唐诗的抒情艺术 ,本文从艺术情感的真挚、升华和含蓄三方面 ,论述了唐诗抒情艺术范式的主要品性。由此对唐诗抒情现象进行了美学分析 ,进而对唐诗抒情艺术的创作、接受、批评和理论进行特定视角的专题研究 ,试图建构起唐诗情感理论的体系框架     

自然资源物权法律关系理论探析

论及自然资源物权,从法律关系的角度入手进行研究可以更加清晰的认识自然资源物权的特点。自然资源所有权的主体只能是国家和集体,国家行使自然资源所有权的主要方式是出让自然资源利用权,集体行使自然资源所有权的主要方式是发包自然资源利用权,集体行使自然资源所有权应以集体成员利益为本。应赋予自然资源用益物权更加独立的地位,需要处理好自然资源用益物权人与所有权人之间的权利义务关系。自然资源担保物权的客体是可以转让的自然资源用益物权,自然资源担保物权的主要形式是权利抵押。     

Garden of Eden? The impact of resettlement on squatters' ‘agri-hoods’ in Fiji

Since the mid 1990s, squatter settlements in Fiji have been expanding at a phenomenal rate, largely due to the non-renewal of agricultural land leases and inadequate urban governance. In response to squatter growth, the government of Fiji has implemented a squatter-resettlement scheme. This scheme threatens the livelihoods of squatters engaged in urban agriculture, or ‘farming squatters’. In this article, interviews with key informants and squatter residents will reveal contrasting attitudes and approaches to the issue of ‘farming squatters’. The article suggests a more participatory process to address the needs of ‘farming squatters’.     

析GATS下有关自然人流动的具体承诺的改进

WTO各成员方针对自然人流动做出具体承诺,这些具体承诺规定了实质内容,构成GATS下自然人流动法律制度的核心。其中存在的一些不足之处成为阻碍自然人流动在GATS框架下顺利进行的主要原因,应相应地予以改进:增加承诺部门,扩大部门承诺;扩宽准入的自然人类型,切实保障发展中国家的更多参与;减少限制性条件,增加现有条件的确定性;采用GATS签证制度,订立具体承诺范本。