Düngemittelrecht, Atomrecht und Bodenschutzrecht – lückenlose Anwendungsbereiche?

Das deutsche Bodenschutzrecht ist angesichts seines geringen Anwendungsbereiches sowie seiner sehr lückenhaften und zudem vollzugsunfreundlichen Konkretisierung in Grenzwerten h?ufig wenig effektiv. Diese These verfolgt der vorliegende Beitrag anhand eines besonders wesentlichen, in der politischen, juristischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Debatte bisher kaum beachteten gesundheits- und umweltrelevanten Faktors: der düngungsbedingten Belastung von B?den durch Uraneintr?ge. Dies verhilft zugleich zu einer n?heren Bestimmung der konkurrierenden Anwendungsbereiche verschiedener Umweltgesetze.     

Race and the City: Neighborhood Context and the Development of Generalized Trust

Previous research has indicated that socio-economic and racial characteristics of an individual's environment influence not only group consciousness and solidarity, but also affect his or her views toward minority or majority groups. Missing from this research is a consideration of how context, social interaction, and interracial experiences combine to shape more general psychological orientations such as generalized trust. In this study we address this gap in the literature by conducting a neighborhood-level analysis that examines how race, racial attitudes, social interactions, and residential patterns affect generalized trust. Our findings suggest not only that the neighborhood context plays an important role in shaping civic orientations, but that the diversity of interaction settings is a key condition for the development of generalized trust.     

Jahresregister 2007

Zusammenfassung Seit einem Jahr liegen die thematische Strategie für den Bodenschutz und der Entwurf der Bodenrahmenrichtlinie vor, mit denen die Europ?ische Kommission das europ?ische Umweltrecht komplettieren und einen nachhaltigen Umgang mit den Bodenressourcen erreichen will. Jahrzehnte vorher hatten schon die Welt-Boden-Charta und die Europ?ische Bodencharta eine nachhaltige Bodennutzung gefordert, um der anhaltenden Bodendegradation Einhalt zu gebieten. Vor 15 Jahren hatte die Weltgemeinschaft die Rio-Deklaration über Umwelt und Entwicklung und einen Aktionsplan für diese Deklaration, mit denen nachhaltige Entwicklung, nachhaltige Ressourcennutzung und nachhaltiger Bodenschutz umgesetzt werden sollen, vereinbart. Der Beitrag stellt die Strategie, die Rahmenrichtlinie und den Diskurs zwischen den am Entscheidungsprozess beteiligten Organen und Interessenvertretungen von Landwirtschaft und Industrie, der noch im Gange ist, dar. Auch werden einige Schlüsselthemen der Weiterentwicklung des Bodenschutzes, l?sungsbedürftige theoretische Fragen, die im Hintergrund der Auseinandersetzungen stehen, skizziert.     

The donor-conceived child's "Right to Personal Identity": the public debate on donor anonymity in the United Kingdom

On 1 April 2005, with the implementation of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (Disclosure of Donor Information) Regulations 2004, United Kingdom law was changed to allow children born through gamete donation to access details identifying the donor. Drawing on trends in adoption law, the decision to abolish donor anonymity was strongly influenced by a discourse that asserted the ‘child's right to personal identity’. Through examination of the donor anonymity debate in the public realm, while adopting a social constructionist approach, this article discusses how donor anonymity has been defined as a social problem that requires a regulative response. It focuses on the child's ‘right to personal identity’ claims, and discusses the genetic essentialism behind these claims. By basing its assumptions on an adoption analogy, United Kingdom law ascribes a social meaning to the genetic relatedness between gamete donors and the offspring.     

The New Racial Calculus: Electoral Institutions and Black Representation in Local Legislatures

In this study we revisit the question of black representation on city councils and school boards using a novel substantive and methodological approach and longitudinal data for a sample of over 300 boards and councils. Conceptualizing black representation as a two-stage process, we fit Mullahy's hurdle Poisson models to explain whether and to what extent blacks achieve representation in local legislatures. We find that while the size of the black population and electoral arrangements matter more than ever, especially for overcoming the representational hurdle, the extent to which the black population is concentrated is also strongly associated with black council representation. Further, whereas black resources and opportunities to build "rainbow" coalitions with Latinos or liberal whites are marginally if at all related to black legislative representation, we find that legislative size is an underappreciated mechanism by which to increase representation, particularly in at-large systems, and is perhaps the best predictor of moving towards additional representation.     

Substantive Symbols: The Attitudinal Dimension of Black Political Incorporation in Local Government

Traditional studies of minority incorporation focus on the redistribution of public resources that purportedly follows black gains in representation. The present study departs from this approach by focusing on the attitudinal effects of black leadership. Two research questions guide this study: To what extent do blacks' assessments of neighborhood services and conditions stem from black representation in local executive and legislative offices? Are these attitudinal effects rooted in policy and service delivery outcomes? Employing survey data from 3,000 blacks embedded in 52 cities and 53 school districts, this study reveals that blacks report higher levels of satisfaction with their neighborhood conditions, police services, and public schools when represented by blacks in city hall and on school boards and that these evaluations are most positive when improvements in local services are conspicuous. Overall, these findings extend conventional conceptualizations of substantive benefits and challenge more pessimistic accounts regarding the effects of black representation in local politics.     

Defying the traditional theses: Intergovernmental relations on immigrant integration in Belgium

ABSTRACT

This article considers the features of intergovernmental relations (IGR) on immigrant integration in Belgium and critically examines the dynamics that shape them. The characteristics of IGR on immigrant integration in Belgium are shown to vary over time and differ across regions and sub-policy areas (immigrant reception policies and anti-discrimination). The comparative case study indicates that the primary traditional theses of the international comparative IGR literature, namely classical institutionalism and party politics, do not provide insights into the nature and mechanisms of IGR on immigrant integration in Belgium. Less established variables like European integration and sub-state claims for distinctiveness constitute key explanatory variables. While European integration explains the increase of IGR over time, notwithstanding the appearance of party incongruence, sub-state claims for distinctiveness enlighten the more conflictual nature of IGR with Flanders, even in cases of more party congruence than for Francophone authorities.