European health regulations and Brazil nuts: Implications for biodiversity conservation and sustainable rural livelihoods in the Amazon

Abstract

The Brazil nut industry comports with the principal objectives of European policy on development co‐operation (poverty reduction linked with environmental protection) and forest conservation (maintaining forest cover). However, European Regulation 1525–98 EC, which decreases acceptable levels of aflatoxins in Brazil nuts to 4 parts per billion, may cause a crash in the Brazil nut trade. Thus, European policies on food quality, development co‐operation and forest conservation are likely to operate a cross‐purposes. Brazil nut producer countries have questioned the legal basis of the Regulation in terms of scientific justification for the stricter limits on aflatoxin content and lack of conformity with international standards set by Codex Alimentarius. The EC has countered by invoking the precautionary principle. This article documents the debate in the context of the World Trade Organisation's Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement and discusses the implications for the relationship between agendas of trade, environment and sustainable development.     

The GATT‐WTO system: Environmental friend or Foe?

Abstract

The GATT‐WTO system has been attacked for being at best indifferent to the environment and at worst hostile to it. However, rather than being an environmental foe, the GATT‐WTO system is environmentally‐friendly in many respects. Several World Trade Organization agreements — the Agreement on Agriculture, the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures and the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures — not only permit but encourage WTO member‐countries to implement national programs and laws to protect the environment free from WTO interference. Multilateral initiatives through organizations such as the WTO, as opposed to unilateral bullying, are the surest way of securing robust legal protections for the environment.     

Multilateral CBMs on the Korean Peninsula: Making a virtue out of necessity

Abstract

As its economy has become near to collapse, North Korea has tried to avoid direct contacts with South Korea because of the ‘absorption phobia’. Instead, the North has made continuous efforts to improve its relations only with the United States, seeking a guarantee for its survival. Given this circumstance, this paper argues that useful multilateral approaches such as KEDO and Four‐Party Talks will contribute to improving inter‐Korean relations. Thus, it would be sensible to explore every possible way (even through multilateral mechanisms) until both Koreas make a breakthrough for the deadlocked inter‐Korean CBMs. But the multilateral CBMs constitute a transitional and complementary role as South and North Korea should be primarily responsible for addressing major problems such as reunification. Among the multilateral approaches, the Four‐Party Talks will be a most useful mechanism which will enable the two Koreas to resume dialogue for the peace and reunification on the Korean Peninsula. In this peace process, more positive roles of major powers are also requested.     

SPLM–NCP asymmetrical power relations jeopardise the implementation of the CPA and the future of the Sudan

ABSTRACT

The political instability that has characterised Sudanese politics since independence is attributable to political exclusion, economic neglect and marginalisation. Discrimination based on religion, language and culture has constituted the main contradictions between the masses of the Sudanese people (periphery) and the politically dominant Arabised Nubians (centre) in all the different politico-ideological hues experienced by the nation. Attempts to resolve this contradiction have left the structural imbalances inherited from the colonial administration of the Sudan intact. This explains the resurgence of war, particularly in Southern Sudan. The recent peace agreements between the National Congress Party (NCP), namely the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A); the Darfur Peace Agreement with the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) (Minawi); the Cairo Agreement with the National Democratic Alliance and the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement with the Eastern Sudan Front, have left the NCP still in firm control of the oppressive state machinery. The CPA power-sharing protocol awarded the NCP a majority which institutionalises a power asymmetry that the NCP utilises to obstruct implementation of the CPA and delay the process of democratic transformation.

This article analyses the asymmetry in the NCP–SPLM partnership and power relationship. It assumes that the tragic death of Dr. John Garang de Mabior is a major cause of the political weakness demonstrated by the SPLM since 2005. This power imbalance jeopardises the CPA implementation and the future of the Sudan as a state.     

论竞业限制协议泛化适用的法律规制 ——以不可避免披露原则的引入为中心

竞业限制协议的泛化适用不利于劳动者权益保护和科技创新发展，而当前我国竞业限制协议泛化 适用问题非常严重，亟须予以规制。“负有保密义务的人员”的理解与适用偏差、竞业限制的保护客体界定不清、 司法审查偏重形式是竞业限制协议泛化适用的重要原因。不可避免披露原则作为一种法定利益衡量机制可以有效 平衡商业秘密保护与离职员工自由择业，根据我国现实司法情况及具体法律制度对其进行适当限制，并以一种合 理的适用途径引入我国，可以很好地解决竞业限制协议泛化适用问题。     

自由贸易协议谈判中的劳工标准问题--以美国和柬埔寨纺织品服装贸易协议为例

从20世纪90年代中期起至今,国际劳工标准已成为以美国为首的发达国家和发展中国家贸易争端中最新的争论焦点,不仅分歧重大,而且难以取得共识.但在美国的积极推动下劳工标准的问题在地区性的自由贸易协议谈判中和一些双边自由贸易协议谈判中取得了重大进展.为提高柬埔寨的劳工标准而使用贸易压力是美国一贯主张在贸易领域遵守国际承认的核心劳工标准的一个典型案例.<美国-柬埔寨纺织品服装贸易协议>可称之为柬埔寨模式政府主导、国际组织介入--普惠制之外的奖惩手段.     

What the Trial Judge Needs to Know about the Convention of 23 November 2007 on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance

Since the 1950s, there have been several international multi‐lateral treaties for recognition and enforcement of child and spousal support orders. They operated, primarily, in civil law countries where “creditor‐based jurisdiction” allowed establishment of an order in the country of habitual residence of the child or the custodial parent. The United States, requiring “minimum contacts” with the debtor to establish personal jurisdiction, could not be a party to such agreements. For nearly fifty years the U.S., and a few states, sought to fill the need for international reciprocity by negotiating individual country‐to‐country or state‐to‐country arrangements. With ratification of the 2007 Family Maintenance Convention, the United States was finally able to join in a multi‐lateral treaty. The treaty took effect in the United States on January 1, 2017, establishing procedures for international recognition, enforcement and modification of family support orders with 35 other countries already party to the Convention (including the entire European Union). The grand bargain struck during the negotiations between 2003 and 2007 was that the U.S. would honor a foreign order if, under the facts presented, there were sufficient minimum contacts with the debtor that would have supported personal jurisdiction if the order had been entered in any state in the U.S. If unable to recognize a foreign order, the U.S. agreed to take steps to issue a new one. The treaty establishes administrative procedures that, in many respects, are nearly identical to interstate enforcement of domestic support orders in this country. But there are also aspects of the treaty that are entirely new and warrant explanation for family and juvenile court judges. This article focuses on several unique provisions of the treaty that judges and attorneys need to understand.     

Participation in Laboratory Research Result in Emotional Distress with One’s Partner: Comparing Violent and Nonviolent Couples

The present study compared impact of participating in laboratory research assessments on couples experiencing partner violence and nonviolent couples. Across two studies, 192 couples participated in a variety of potentially distressing laboratory procedures, including discussing relationship problems, viewing videotapes of their discussions, and completing questionnaires about personal and relationship problems. At the end of each laboratory session, participants rated their emotions about their partners as a result of having participated in the study procedures. Couples, recruited from the community, were placed into one of three groups: experiencing violence (V), nonviolent but maritally distressed (NVD), and nonviolent and nondistressed (NVND). Overall, study participants did not report high levels of negative feelings toward their spouses at the end of lab sessions. Few differences between V and NVD spouses were statistically significant, suggesting that violent spouses are not at greater risk than NVD spouses for negative feelings following study participation, although the finding of greater fear among V partners in one study deserves future attention. Relative to V and NVD couples, happy couples reported more positive and fewer negative feelings; NVD wives were the most likely to report negative emotions, in sessions involving a marital problem discussion. These findings can be used in discussions with Institutional Review Boards about the potential risks of laboratory procedures for violent couples recruited from the community.

TRIPS协定之下的中国药品专利保护立法

我国现行的药品专利保护制度规定过于严格,没有充分利用TRIPS协定的弹性条款。经过《多哈宣言》和《关于实施TRIPS协定与公共健康多哈宣言第六段的决议》以及争端解决机制的解释和检验,TRIPS协定原本模糊的保障措施在可操作性上获得了提高。我国的相关立法应当适时进行相应地调整,以充分利用TRIPS协定保障措施所给予的空间,实现对我国专利药品的全面保护,提高药品的可及性,促进民族制药行业的发展。     

中国FTA战略对双边贸易依存度的影响研究

随着经济全球化不断地深入发展,区域经济一体化也正在加速发展,双边FTA不断在国家之间签署,以自由贸易区为主要形式的区域贸易安排不断出现。该文选取2002年-2017年中国和FTA协议国双边的贸易数据,运用PSM-DID模型分析中国签订FTA对双边贸易依存度的影响如何。研究结果发现:第一,签订FTA对中国和协议国双方的贸易依存度具有提升作用;第二,中国与不同发展程度、不同区域类型的国家签订FTA对双边贸易依存度的影响不同,与发达国家签订FTA对双边贸易依存度的提升作用比发展中国家作用明显,与周边国家签订FTA对双边贸易依存度的影响也更大。