Inside Lobbying on the Regulation of New Plant Breeding Techniques in the European Union: Determinants of Venue Choices

In July 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union decided that new plant breeding techniques (NPBTs) fall within the scope of the restrictive provisions on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Previously, various actors had lobbied in order to influence the European Union’s (EU’s) regulatory decision on NPBTs. This study examines the venue choices taken by Cibus, a biotech company that promoted NPBT deregulation. It shows that the firm bypassed the EU level and that it lobbied competent authorities (CAs) in certain member states to gain support for the deregulation of NPBTs. Cibus chose the CAs because their institutional “closedness” reduced the risk of the debate over the deregulation of NPBTs becoming public. However, the CA’s specific competences and their influence on EU decision making were of likewise importance. The firm lobbied CAs based in Finland, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Two factors appear to have influenced Cibus’ choices for these countries: high‐level political support for agribiotech and the high relevance of biotech sectors. In contrast, public support for GMOs turned out to have hardly any influence, and virtually no association could be observed for the agricultural application of biotechnology in the past nor for the weakness of domestic anti‐GMO lobby groups. Finally, the in‐depth study on Germany affirms that “closedness” was important for Cibus’ choices and reveals that technical information served as a venue‐internal factor that influenced the firm’s choices.     

日本内缘婚制度研究

日本内缘婚又被称为事实婚姻,产生于19世纪后期日本民法典颁布之后,并随着日本社会的发展而处于不断的演变之中。从内缘保护的法的形成、内缘关系成立的要件及内缘婚的法律效果三个方面来看,中日两国的事实婚姻制度既具有相同之处,也有不同的地方。     

法律解释的去理论化与立场转换——认知心理学的启示

学界提出的各种法律解释理论不仅仅在规范层面上无法自圆其说,同时也无法对法院的解释实践作出准确的描述。尽管针对美国联邦最高法院的经验研究表明法院的法律解释实践趋向于新文本主义和法律实用主义,但这些经验研究却没有证明法官遵循了这些解释理论。在对法律解释去理论化之后,如何看待实践中存在的"微观不一致与宏观一致"需要一种立场转换,即关注作为解释主体的法官的认知过程。     

试论事实婚姻的认定及处理

本文认为事实婚姻在一定时期内是禁而难绝的社会现象,在力求杜绝事实婚姻发生的原则下,有条件地承认事实婚姻关系是符合实际的。     

Language and education laws in multi-ethnic de facto states: the cases of Abkhazia and Transnistria

Even after the conflicts of the early 1990s that brought them to their de facto independence, both Abkhazia and Transnistria remained strongly multi-ethnic. In both territories, no single ethnic group is an absolute majority and Russian is the language that is mostly spoken on the streets of Sukhumi and Tiraspol. Legislators of both entities felt the need to deal with multi-ethnicity and multilingualism, including in their constitutions, in laws related to education, or more directly with specific language laws (1992 law “On languages” in Transnistria; 2007 law “On the state language in Abkhazia”). The protection of linguistic rights that is formally part of the legislation of both territories finds limitations in practice. The language of education has proved to be particularly contentious, in particular for Moldovan/Romanian language schools in Transnistria and Georgian language schools in Abkhazia. Why are language laws in Abkhazia and Transnistria so different, in spite of the fact that they are both post-Soviet, multi-ethnic territories that became de facto independent in the early 1990s? The different approaches found in Abkhazia and Transnistria represent remarkable examples of language legislation as a tool for nation-building in ethnically heterogeneous territories.     

Interrogating the security–development nexus in Brazil’s domestic and foreign pacification engagements

This article approaches the Brazilian military involvement in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti and the pacification programme undertaken in Rio de Janeiro favelas under the name of ‘Pacifying Police Units’ (Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora) in order to understand the forms through which a specific security–development nexus is mobilised in those security practices, as well as the policies and priorities which are legitimated by such mobilisations. It is argued that these engagements are marked by a conception of such nexus in which the first element, security, is constructed as the production of public order; and the second one, development, is constantly postponed as a goal, in spite of official discourses which construct it as a priority in Brazilian internal and external engagements. The analysis of these practices may shed light on some of the possible mobilisations of security and development in future Brazilian engagements at home and abroad, especially in the context of the proliferation of UN stabilisation missions.     

Bridging the divide between parent states and secessionist entities: a new perspective for conflict management?

This paper departs from the contested nature of the border that separates each side in secessionist conflict – the parent state considers this as an internal administrative line; the de facto state, conversely, sees this as an international border. The argument made builds upon the theoretical aspects of the bordering practices in the current literature, and then examines three cross-border cases – Mainland China-Taiwan, Cyprus-Northern Cyprus and Moldova-Transnistria, to demonstrate different patterns of cross-border interactions and their achieved outcomes. It questions why border-crossing practices have either brought about normalization in degrees, or with a questionable value? This paper makes the conclusion that although border-crossing practices have normalized relations between adversaries, they have also simultaneously brought along self-perpetuating separation as most of the divisions still persist today. Redefining borders and facilitating cross-border interactions has only had a limited contribution to conflict management.     

Determinants and Evaluation of Local Energy‐Efficiency Initiatives from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

This article examines variation in local‐level energy‐efficiency grants and corresponding initiatives from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) in the United States. The analysis is based upon a hurdle model of counts of energy‐efficiency grants received by 348 local governments that received these grants from 2009 to 2013, as well as 348 matched local governments that did not receive such funds. City‐level characteristics including amount of federal financial support, per capita income, signaling of preferences for sustainability policies, manufacturing, and political influences are shown to be empirically important determinants of variation in local energy‐efficiency initiatives. The evidence suggests that all else held equal, the $21.8 billion in ARRA funds expended with the intent of increasing local energy‐efficiency programs and policies successfully led to this end.