中韩贸易20年:回顾与展望

中韩建交20年来,两国贸易经历了1992～2001年的快速启动阶段和2002～2012年的高速发展阶段,前一个阶段体现了两个长期隔绝的经济高速增长的邻国在建交之后基于双方直接市场需求而产生的贸易创造效应,后一阶段体现了中国入世后逐步发展为"世界加工厂"基于外部市场需求所产生的贸易创造和贸易转移效应。人们对中韩长期贸易逆差的传统认识存在一定误区,东亚服务外部市场的生产型增长模式才是逆差产生的根源,看待逆差应摒弃重商主义贸易观,更为关注国民福利和公平贸易。中韩FTA将是推动中韩贸易发展的新动力,它的建设虽面临策略选择、农产品贸易和非经济因素的影响,但定会成功。     

论中国国际商事仲裁的法律适用问题

我国在认定国际商事仲裁协议的效力时 ,应适用或参照《纽约公约》的规定 ,可仲裁的争议事项范围尚有待扩大。我国一些仲裁机构的仲裁规则也已有限地赋予了当事人对仲裁程序法律适用的选择权 ,“非内国仲裁”理论的某些合理内容 ,我们可以考虑借鉴吸收。我国关于国际商事仲裁实体法的适用 ,以有限制的意思自治原则和最密切联系原则为主 ,但不得违背我国强行法的规定。基于我国国际商事仲裁法律适用的现状 ,仲裁法的修改目标之一应该是使我国至少成为对外商有一定吸引力的一个新兴的国际商事仲裁中心 ,使仲裁程序更加简捷 ,以便利当事人     

服务贸易总协定的主要法律制度分析

服务贸易总协定(GeneralAgreementinTrades,简称GATs)是历史上第一个关于服务贸易的全球性具有法律约束力的多边协议,是国际服务贸易逐步实现自由化的里程碑,它对于消除和降低贸易壁垒,消除服务贸易的垄断,推动国际服务贸易的发展具有十分重要的意义。然而它也只是一个谨慎的阶段性的妥协产物,仍有许多需要明确和完善之处。     

From clichés to slogans: towards a Deleuze–Guattarian critique of ideology

When thinking about ideology as a form of practice, Deleuze and Guattari show how ideology can circulate through the social as cliché, where clichés are themselves ideological tools that function to order the world or ideologically pattern social action and social relations. Against clichés Deleuze and Guattari insist on the power and political significance of what they call slogans, where slogans or the practice of sloganizing can imply a critique of the forms of ideology we encounter in everyday life. Put differently, a Deleuze–Guattarian critique of ideology implies a clearing-away of the clichés that ideologically play through the canvas of our social–political world.     

Balancing domestic regulation and trade liberalisation under the GATS: universal access issues in South Africa's telecoms sector

The service sector increasingly has become the cornerstone of a great number of economies in both the developed and developing world. The main barrier to trade in services is the imposition of domestic regulations which are aimed at ensuring the affordability, availability and efficiency of services. Such domestic regulations are important for services and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) consequently recognises the right of countries to regulate in order to achieve these goals. The GATS, however, also seeks to discipline such regulations to ensure that they do not hinder trade in services. This article seeks to assess these seemingly competing interests in the context of South Africa's history and its burgeoning telecommunications sector.     

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the questions of identity,territory and political destiny of the indigenous Nuba of the Sudan

ABSTRACT

The Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 was successful in ending the longest war in contemporary Africa. However, its implementation has been below the expectations of several communities, particularly in the war-torn regions of the Nuba Mountains, the Southern Blue Nile and the Abyei Area, widely referred to as ‘contested’, ‘marginalised’, ‘transitional’ areas or ‘border territories’. While many interwoven causes were behind the eruption of the protracted civil wars in the Sudan (Elnur 2009; Johnson 2006; Khalid 1987), the political question of sub-national identities and their intrinsic link with specific territories (Murphy 1991; William and Smith 1993) is hypothesised here as a prime factor in extending the civil war into these three areas. Taking the Nuba and their claimed territory of the Nuba Mountains as an example, this article will, first, trace the political striving of the Nuba people and their shift from peaceful political movement to armed struggle; second, it will examine their political status during the peace negotiation process; and third, it will analyse their political responses to the outcome of the CPA and its impact on their future political choices in view of the April 2010 election results, and the projected right to self-determination for the people of Southern Sudan, to be exercised through the referenda in 2011.     

Participation of African member states in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) multilateral trading system

Abstract

The core purpose and goals of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are to enhance growth by allowing each country to trade freely according to its comparative advantage. The other stated main objectives of the WTO are: raising standards of living; providing full employment; reduction of tariffs and non‐tariff barriers; and the elimination of discriminatory treatment. According to the current orthodox economic view, trade openness is essential for growth: countries that liberalise their imports and orientate production towards exports are assumed to have faster growth than those that do not, and the faster the rate of opening, the greater will the prospect be for development. The emphasis on trade liberalisation and export orientation in the past ten years following the adoption of the Uruguay Round has led to phenomenal growth in world merchandise trade, which has grown consistently faster than output. The orthodox view approach is today expanded and modified with the view that liberalisation measures are not sufficient by themselves and should be accompanied by other factors such as sound macroeconomic policies, good governance and a modern infrastructure. Africa's dependence on primary commodities as a source of export earnings has meant that it is vulnerable to weather conditions, market vagaries, and price volatility, arising mainly from supply shock and the secular decline in real commodity prices. The attendant terms of trade losses have exacted heavy costs in terms of incomes, indebtedness, investment, poverty and development. Therefore, the basic approach that liberalisation has a direct link to economic growth and should be undertaken as fast as possible is being questioned and has been challenged by empirical studies in recent years. The relevant studies have shown that there is a lack of relationship between the degree of trade liberalisation and the rate of growth. The emerging paradigm accepts that there are possible costs, as well as potential benefits of trade liberalisation to a particular developing country, depending on the conditions in that country, and the type of liberalisation undertaken. The other impediments and weaknesses identified as affecting effective, efficient and economical participation of African members in the WTO include rapid liberalisation as potential source of fiscal instability; general absence of peace, security and democracy; globalisation and lack of competitive ability; supply‐side constraints; high export concentration ratio; problems of implementation; exclusion and/or marginalisation from knowledge‐based economy; and lack of capacity. The Doha Development Round was initiated to attend to, and address, these problems, and it is still too early to predict the outcome. African countries need to look for African solutions to their socio‐economic and political problems, adopting transdisciplinary approaches in the context of the African Renaissance paradigm.     

The need to improve the living conditions of women in Nuba Mountains,Southern Kordofan

ABSTRACT

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) not only ended Africa's longest civil war, it aimed to transform Sudanese society. A critical element of this transformation is uplifting the status of women. This article surveys the conditions faced by women in two villages in Nuba Mountains/Southern Kordofan, principally their ability to access land for farming, credit facilities and barriers to education and health services, and whether the implementation of the CPA has resulted in any concrete changes.     

Institutional reform and political party engagement: Challenges to democratic transformation in post-CPA Sudan

ABSTRACT

This article looks at the role of institutions and political parties as main agents of the democratisation process in the Sudan, following the signing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). A review of the historic weaknesses of intermittent democratic rule in the Sudan, since its independence in 1956 and through to the signing of the CPA, is offered. Those elements of the CPA critical to institutional reform and democratisation are identified and their implementation assessed, including the results of the CPA-mandated elections held in April 2010. The four principal political parties and their capacities to contribute to democratic transformation are analysed.     

《中日韩投资协定》的构建

签署双边投资协定是国家间相互保护投资的主要法律途径。但是近年来,越来越多的经济一体化协定尤其是自由贸易协定在对贸易自由化问题进行规范的同时,也对投资等问题加以规定,形成了自由贸易协定投资规则与双边投资协定并存的局面。为了加速中日韩经济一体化进程,三国决定先行签署《中日韩投资协定》,作为未来中日韩自由贸易协定的组成部分。在这种背景下,对《中日韩投资协定》构建的基本原则、具体条款的设计、与双边投资协定的关系进行深入探讨,可以对正在进行的中日韩三边投资协定谈判提供可行性建议。