Excursions Through Emptiness: Interwar Travel Writing on Northern Australia

During the interwar years, Australians grew increasingly anxious about their sparsely populated north. They had moral qualms about leaving land idle; they felt uneasy about international criticism of their lacklustre efforts in the tropics; they feared a stronger, more resolute nation might rob them of their under-utilised heritage. While anxieties intensified, there was an efflorescence of travel writing on northern Australia, as cars and aeroplanes made this part of the continent a little more accessible. Like other travel writers, those on northern Australia in the interwar years did not confine their narratives to what they did and what they saw. They commented on the burning questions of the day: on what the future of the north might hold and whether Australia’s northern lands could sustain a prolific white population. This article explores a range of representations of northern Australia in the travel literature published between the two world wars, with particular attention to the varied assessments of Australia’s tropical environments and the racial misgivings that disconcerted attempts to envisage an all-white north.     

Northern Ireland's Abortion Law: The Morality of Silence and the Censure of Agency

This article explores the context within which abortion law and discourse in Northern Ireland must be situated and understood, relying in part on post-modern insights into the wider and long-term implications of feminists engaging law and by examining the strategies employed in Northern Ireland around the issue of abortion. In 2001,the Family Planning Association (Northern Ireland) took legal action to force the devolved government to defend at a procedural level the unequal and uncertain form of common law abortion regulation for Northern Ireland. The authors examine the strategy of this review as well as the response of the High Court, suggesting that while it may begin to challenge the legitimacy of abortion law, feminists and pro-choice advocates must prepare for challenges beyond that, the greatest being the cultural challenge. The courts, legislators and other public and political institutions(including the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition) consistently explain the law's lack of provision for women with reference to the `pro-life' majority views of Northern Irish people. The authors question the legitimacy of this claim in a cultural climate of intimidation against the expression of alternative views. Women will continue to be marginalised and devalued in this debate if the silencing of the pro-choice community and bodies responsible for protecting human rights is not redressed. A case is therefore made for a reconceptualisation of the abortion debate from the perspective of women's agency, which, alongside litigation and other strategies, is necessary to overcome the cultural censure that currently prevents meaningful dialogue. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

民族民间文化的分类及普查原则

甘肃省的民族民间文化遗产丰富且民族性、地域性突出。本文根据民间文化的多样性和国际上通用的分类法,结合我国对民间文化习惯的表达方式和甘肃省的特点,将省内的民间文化遗产划分为四大类别,并从中加以细分。同时,就民间文化遗产的普查原则提出自己的看法。     

Devolution in England—Is the Genie out of the Lamp?

This article explores the extent to which devolution within England can address the general malaise that is often described as ‘the English Question’. It considers how far the devolution genie might be considered out of the lamp. It takes as its basis three broad arguments for devolution—an economic case, a case concerning public service reform and a democratic argument for the decentralisation of power—and for each of these three it explores the theoretical underpinnings for the argument, how things are currently playing out in the current political context and what we might expect to see in the future. The article concludes with some suggestions as to how debates about the English Question might play out in the years ahead.     

The Dalriada Document: Towards a Multinational Compromise that Respects Democratic Diversity in the United Kingdom

Northern Ireland and Scotland could and should stay within the European Union while remaining inside the United Kingdom. This proposal need not prevent, and may facilitate, England and Wales in leaving the EU, and it is in accordance with the respective preferences of the peoples of the two Unions who voted in the advisory referendum held on 23 June 2016. Prime Minister May and her Cabinet should address carefully the question of whether to trigger Article 50, or instead to give notice that only parts of the UK—England and Wales—will be leaving the EU. The price of enforcing the entirety of the UK's exit from the EU may be lasting damage to the two Unions that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.     

Change beneath the surface: the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election

Preceded by a string of institutional crises and sustained political wrangling, the Northern Ireland Assembly election held in May 2016 cemented the grip of the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin over the province’s power-sharing institutions, while certifying the impasse of their intra-bloc rivals. Eighteen years after the Good Friday Agreement, the electoral campaign continued to feature emotionally charged ethnic appeals. Nonetheless, socioeconomic issues were at the fore of the political debate, contributing to the limited yet significant advance of non-sectarian actors. Beneath the surface of a mainly unaltered Assembly makeup and unchanged ethno-political geography, the vote resulted in a decline in support for the traditional governing parties, particularly in the nationalist camp. In the aftermath of the vote, the formation of an officially recognized Opposition has opened uncharted political waters.     

辽宁省产业结构与经济增长实证分析

从对辽宁省的产业结构状况及细分的行业结构状况进行实证分析发现:辽宁省的第三产业相对于第一和第二产业而言已经过大,它的增加值对国内生产总值的产出弹性较小,制约了其他产业对国内生产总值的贡献;在细分行业中,辽宁省的整体经济中能最有效地拉动经济增长的是第一产业和第二产业中的建筑业,其次是第三产业中的批发零售餐饮业。     

甘肃省法学研究十年述评(1991-2000)

本课题对 1 991 -2 0 0 0年甘肃省法学研究的状况进行了回顾性述评 ,从西部开发法治保障问题 ;法理学、法史学 ;民商法学、经济法学 ;程序法学司法制度 ;宪法学、行政法学 ;刑法学、国际法学、环境与资源保护法学、公安学基础理论等六个方面 ,对各学科的研究队伍、研究成果等进行了全面梳理与评析。     

Extra-parliamentary behaviour in Northern Ireland: MLAs and constituency service

Little is known about the attitudes and behaviour of Northern Ireland’s subnational legislators (Members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs) beyond their activities at Parliament Buildings, Stormont. This article provides the first analysis of MLAs’ extra-parliamentary behaviour through a mixed-methods study of their constituency service. The study finds that MLAs attach considerable importance to constituency service, devoting more time to its provision than to parliamentary duties. Noticeable variation exists between and within parties in terms of constituency service effort, although unionist MLAs tend to have a stronger constituency focus than non-unionist MLAs. Variation in constituency service effort at the individual level has more to do with MLAs’ role orientations than electoral incentives. In terms of their home style, MLAs exhibit local behaviour that is more characteristic of their contemporaries in the Republic of Ireland than their counterparts in the rest of the United Kingdom.