The acceptance,relevance and dominance of lobbying the EU Commission — a first‐time survey of the EU Commission's civil servants

Among public affairs techniques lobbying is by far the most mystifying one — at least in Europe. Lobbying comes from the Latin word ‘labium’ and means ‘entrance hall’ or ‘lounge’. Therein the essential meaning can be seen: today political decisions are not made in plenary assemblies but primarily in the pre‐political phase of balancing the various interests. Lobbying is to be understood as the ‘diverse intensive activities of social groups, chambers and companies in the political and bureaucratic vestibule’ (Beyme 1980). Modern lobbying on the EU level is an intermediary policy for the support of political decision making — even if some critics refuse to believe it. Lobbying at EU level has become a politically realistic dimension. Even if the mass media still take a very sceptical and negative view of lobbying in Brussels, based on the existing European taboo on influencing politics, an in‐depth analysis reveals various lobbies at work in EU institutions. Lobbying today is an essential part of all EU decision areas. This paper describes the functional theory approach of lobbying known as ‘cooperation as confrontation through communication’. For the first time, recipients of lobbying in the EU Commission are demonstrating their acceptance of lobbying efforts. The paper is based on the doctoral thesis ‘The acceptance, relevance and dominance of lobbying the EU Commission’ by Peter Koeppl, University of Vienna (unpublished). Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

论联合国大陆架界限委员会在外大陆架划界中的作用——兼谈中国及周边国家的外大陆架申请

《海洋法公约》关于外大陆架申请期限的规定,导致大批国家近期向联合国大陆架界限委员会提出了申请。大陆架界限委员会的主要职能是在审议沿海国提交的划界案的基础上,就有关划定外大陆架外部界限的事项向沿海国提出建议。大陆架划界委员会所做出的建议既非一个司法式的判决,又非一个纯粹的参考意见。沿海国基于委员会的建议而划定的外大陆架外部界限具有"确定性和拘束力"。在当前的情势下,中国在掌握充分的科学技术数据编写好我们自己的外大陆架划界申请案的同时,还应注意妥善处理与日本、菲律宾、越南等周边一些国家之间的相关争端,以更好地维护我国的主权和国家利益。     

发展低碳经济改善城市小气候

随着我国经济发展和城市化进程的加快,城市小气候问题日益突出,并且成为制约城市健康发展的重要障碍,通过分析城市小气候变化的影响因素,结合国内外针对气候变化所做出的努力得出：建设低碳城市,发展低碳经济才是我国实现城市的可持续发展的必经之路,最后根据我国现阶段特点提出了从建设绿色建筑、提倡绿色出行、制定合理规划政策和加强国内外合作等方向发展建设低碳城市,以应对城市小气候变化。     

Science and Technology and the President's Crime Commission

The U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice added a Task Force on Science and Technology as somewhat of an afterthought because there had then been very little interaction between science and technology and the criminal justice system (CJS). The task force focused on the CJS as a whole and interactions among its parts, with an important emphasis on analysis of the operating systems and on the important potential role of information systems as the technology advanced. The potential applications of contemporary information and electronic technologies is considerable, especially for assessing risk and needs of identified offenders and for providing relevant information wherever needed. There is urgent need for scientific evaluation of many of the positive and negative aspects of the operation of the CJS and of the potential for new technologies.     

A historical and dignity‐centred perspective on Haiti's struggle for justice

Abstract

In 1804 Haitian and African revolutionaries defeated their French former masters to achieve the only successful slave revolt in history. In C. L. R. James's (1963, 391) standard account of this event, it is described as the moment West Indians first became aware of themselves as a people. Slavery was abolished and Haiti was transformed to a legal sanctuary for all Africa ‐ descended people seeking freedom; a great justice milestone. However, the country's subsequent 200‐year history has been dominated by the struggle for justice; crippled by a dysfunctional judicial system with ‘justice’ bought and sold to the highest bidder. What justice? Better yet, whose perspective of justice? This article attempts to explicate a Haitian conception of justice by looking at the historical underpinnings of justice theories in Haiti, the ‘inside‐the‐court formal system and the outside‐the‐court form of community justice’ (Moore 1992, 15). It argues that for any system of justice to work it must be based on a Haitian perspective of justice grounded in Haiti's history and its dignity‐centred approach to justice.     

A framework for the comparative analysis of church–state relations in Europe

This article analyses how the policies specified in EU directives are transposed by EU member states. In contrast to existing transposition studies it develops a policy-specific approach to explain how directives are transposed by national actors. In this approach the outcome of transposition depends on the institutional arena in which decision-making takes place and the interests of the domestic actors involved. These institutional arenas can vary from parliament to national ministries and agencies. Domestic actors are taken as policy-specific veto players. Their preferences may lead to two different responses to the requirements of a directive. First, they can transpose a directive literally, keeping deviations to a minimum. Second, domestic actors can adopt a non-literal interpretation of the directive, leading to more substantial deviations within the boundaries allowed by the European Commission. These responses are illustrated by two cases of transposition of EU directives, the tobacco products directive and the animal trade directive. The case analysis shows that the policy-specific approach proposed in this article helps in understanding transposition. It clarifies how the ambitions formulated in Brussels are transformed by national administrations into policies.     

Participatory planning as a deliberative democratic process: a response to Hodgson's critique

This paper is a response to Hodgson's recent critique of our model of participatory planning through negotiated co-ordination. His critique focused on four issues: the coherence of our distinction between market exchange and market forces; our understanding of tacit knowledge; the scope for innovation in our model; and the alleged problems of information overload and cognitive limitations. In this response we argue that Hodgson misinterprets our model as being based on the aggregation of individual preferences, whereas it is in fact a model of participatory planning through a process of deliberative democracy.     

Border battle line

ABSTRACT

The demarcation of a North–South boundary in the Sudan opens up the possibility of the creation of a new international border in Africa, following the outcome of the Southern Sudanese and Abyei Area referenda in 2011. The line of the proposed boundary runs through the grazing areas of numerous pastoralist peoples, and it is these peoples who will be most directly affected if the new border becomes the frontline between two states. In fact, pastoralists were mobilised to fight on either side of the boundary during both of Sudan's civil wars. This article looks at select areas of the North–South borderlands, particularly areas of shared rights, to analyse the potential impact of the new boundary. It looks at how overlapping rights claims were managed in the past, and goes on to analyse various peace-making efforts between border pastoralist peoples from the Condominium period until today. The article looks at the way the border issue has been dealt with in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, including the Abyei arbitration process, as an indicator of whether this border region will become the focus of continued conflict, whatever the 2011 referendum result.     

The Quality of Life in English Local Authority Areas

Abstract

Since the enactment of New Labour's sustainable development agenda in 1999, English local authorities have been placed at the helm of a variety of devolved localism initiatives designed to foster sustainable communities that contribute to a high quality of life for existing and future generations. This paper considers the scale of the challenge that confronts local authorities in terms of attaining these outcomes, by drawing attention to their current quality of life situation. The baseline conditions in question are measured by reference to the Audit Commission's local quality of life indicators dataset, which it compiled in 2005 from a range of existing local government performance indicators. The dataset is subjected to k-means clustering and principal components analysis to assess how far English local authorities measure up to Labour's sustainable communities ideal and to highlight the type and degree of quality of life disparity that exists between them. The results from the analysis are used to evaluate the feasibility of Labour's devolved localism approach to sustainable community formation and to provide important insights to local policy makers responsible for fostering sustainable communities. The implications of the findings for future research are also considered.     

Stuck in transition: electoral processes in Zambia 1991–2001

Zambia has held three multiparty elections since its restoration of democracy in 1991. This peaceful transition raised expectations of a smooth process towards democratic consolidation. But similar to experiences in other African countries and Eastern Europe, the Zambian democratic process has remained stuck in a ‘transitional zone’ between actual democracy and authoritarian systems. This article argues that Zambian elections fall short of the expectations of a democratic process due to the institutional uncertainty surrounding elections and the weakness of the Zambian Electoral Commission in particular. The continued uncertainty – of the rules and regulations guiding elections and electoral administration – has maintained the same party in power through three consecutive elections, despite an alarming economic record.