Contesting land grabs,negotiating statehood: the politics of international accountability mechanisms and land disputes in rural Cambodia

Abstract

In Cambodia, rural citizens embroiled in protracted land grabbing cases with the state and private companies are turning increasingly to international accountability mechanisms for resolution. This article applies the interlinked concepts of hybrid governance and legal pluralism to understand the prospects and limitations of ‘forum-shopping’ through appeals to international mechanisms for rural communities affected by land grabs. Drawing on interviews and using process tracing, it examines the outcomes of a mediation case filed with the International Finance Corporation’s Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) involving indigenous groups and a Vietnamese rubber company in north-east Cambodia. It argues that while international accountability mechanisms yield platforms for dispossessed groups to assert claims, they also reify choices between entitlements and attainability without circumventing the problems associated with justice delivery under Cambodia’s authoritarian regime. Overall, this study highlights the interaction, competition and collaboration between distinct forms of regulatory authority exercised by national and transnational actors involved in land grabbing cases in Cambodia, demonstrating their role in ‘negotiating statehood’ by governing local claims to land.     

REFORMS TO THE FEDERALLY ADMINISTERED AREA OF PAKISTAN (FATA) – AN UNRESOLVED PROBLEM

In March 2017, Pakistan formally took the decision to begin a process of incorporating the Federally Administered Tribal Territories into the framework of regular Pakistani law. This article offers an overview of the historical system of governance of the Tribal territories, along with a discussion of the development of the recent reforms and their prospects for success.     

Diversity,Trust, and Social Learning in Collaborative Governance

Scholarship on collaborative governance identifies several structural and procedural factors that consistently influence governance outcomes. A promising next step for collaborative governance research is to explore how these factors interact. Focusing on two dimensions of social learning—relational and cognitive—as outcomes of collaboration, this article examines potential interacting effects of participant diversity and trust. The empirical setting entails 10 collaborative partnerships in the United States that provide advice on marine aquaculture policy. The findings indicate that diversity in beliefs among participants is positively related to relational learning, whereas diversity in participants' affiliations is negatively related to relational learning, and high trust bolsters the positive effects of belief diversity on both relational and cognitive learning. In addition, high trust dampens the negative effects of affiliation diversity on relational learning. A more nuanced understanding of diversity in collaborative governance has practical implications for the design and facilitation of diverse stakeholder groups.     

Evaluation of some oxygen, sulfur, and selenium substituted ninhydrin analogues, nitrophenylninhydrin and benzo[f]furoninhydrin

Six ninhydrin analogues containing oxygen, sulfur, and selenium substituents at the C-5 position, 5-(4-nitrophenyl)ninhydrin, and benzo[f]furoninhydrin were evaluated as fingerprint development reagents. The analogues all showed good fingerprint color development but were not superior to ninhydrin in this respect. The benzo[f]furoninhydrin complex was strongly luminescent at room temperature following zinc complexation, while the remaining analogues required cooling to -196 degrees C to produce optimum luminescence. The benzo[f]furo, nitrophenyl, and methyl selenide analogues showed the best potential as fingerprint reagents with the benzo[f]furo analogue comparing favorably with DFO.     

Participation rationales,regulatory enforcement,and compliance motivations in a voluntary program context

This article extends the study of regulatory compliance motivations from “traditional” regulatory settings to a government-sponsored voluntary one. We argue that the rationale(s) which motivate participants to engage a voluntary program likely shape which motivations drive them toward (or away from) program compliance. Our study examines the possible influence of program participation rationales alongside that of regulatory agents' enforcement styles and strategies. Leveraging a national survey of certified United States Department of Agriculture organic producers, we find that the more a producer pursues organic certification to increase profits, the more likely they are to report deterrent fears as an important compliance motivation. In contrast, the more a producer becomes certified to support the organic movement, the more heavily they weigh a personal sense of duty to comply. We discuss the implications of these, and other, study findings for compliance motivations theory and voluntary program integrity.     

India and the US as enduring global partners: An assessment

This paper examines the nature of India and the US relations. The relations between two the states have improved in the post?/11 era. The willingness of the US to provide India political support at the regional and global level is one aspect that resulted in changing the nature of that relationship. Second, growing defense ties both in conventional and nonconventional sectors fundamentally galvanized the nature of that relationship. This paper further analyzes the geopolitical compulsion of both states to counter various state and non‐state actors' threats such as China's increasing maritime presence in the Indian Ocean region and terrorism. Moreover, this discussion argues about the political, strategic, commercial aspects of the strategic partnership till date. Much part of this paper analyzes what is the nature of this relationship and how it developed?     

Privatization in Argentina: The implications for corruption

The article analyzes the privatization program carried out under the Carlos Menem administration in Argentina between 1989 and 1995. It shows how, on many occasions, the divestiture of government-owned assets was often carried out within a very weak legal framework which, in turn, opened windows of opportunities for corrupt behavior and collusive practices involving high ranking government officials and private corporations. Based on their findings, the authors stress the crucial role that transparency plays for effective results to take place after government selloffs. Indeed, the Argentine case shows that there is a strong correlation between the legal and regulatory problems that often arise in the aftermath of state divestitures and privatizations that have been carried out hastily and under a cloud of corruption allegations.     

Age, sex and body mass index in relation to calvarial diploe thickness and craniometric data on MRI

It might be critical to determine sex, body mass and age of the individual from skull in forensic medicine and anthropology. Our purpose in this study was to evaluate whether a relationship existed between the diploeic bone thickness measured from glabella, bregma, lambda, opisthocranion, and euryon regions and sex, age and body mass index of the individual. Glabella-opisthocranion, vertex-basion, euryon-euryon, basion-opisthion length were also determined for the same purpose. The anthropological landmarks were determined on sagittal and axial T1-weighted sequences and measurements were obtained on a workstation by two radiologists. A total of 107 subjects (F/M:59/48; mean age: 45.05+/-15.28, age range: 21-81) were included in the study. The mean body mass index was 25.51+/-4.44 [17.50-41]. There was a statistically significant linear correlation between age and diploe thickness from glabella, bregma, lambda, opisthocranion, right and left euryon. There was sexual dimorphism in all craniometric data including the distance between glabella-opisthocranion, vertex-basion, euryon-euryon, basion-opisthion, and calvarial volume. There was a statistically significant linear correlation between body mass index and basion-opisthion length. The diploe thicknesses from certain points of the calvarium are statistically related to each other. A standard cerebral MRI examination would be sufficient to obtain anthropological landmarks and craniometric data. According to this study, it might be possible to identify age, sex and body mass index of the individual from diploeic thickness and craniometric data.