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Pro-Israeli politicians in Washington have long supported the relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Nevertheless, contrary to the widespread belief, not all American Jews offer unconditional support to U.S. decisions taken in order to promote Israel's national interests. In this article, interviews were conducted with representatives from various Jewish diaspora groups in United States shortly before and after the official declaration of the U.S. Embassy move in December 2017. This article documents that opinions of American Jews diverge significantly regarding Trump's Jerusalem Embassy decision. This article argues that this divergence stems from Israel's actions and policies toward the Palestinians since the late 1970s and political and religious divisions within the American Jewish community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does ongoing animosity between South Korea and Japan over the disputed Dokdo Islands and other issues that originated from historical disputes generate rally effects in Korean domestic politics? This article argues that the Dokdo Islands dispute—and related disputed issues rooted in the colonial experience of Korea under Japan's rule historically—strongly influence Korean presidents’ abilities to effectively mobilize domestic support for not only the issues, but particularly the public opinion of presidents. Using data on Korean presidents’ approval ratings between 1993 and 2016, this article shows that Korea's bilateral disputes with Japan tend to promote Korean presidential popularity. The findings suggest that external crises with Japan related to historical disputes have positive political effects on leadership ratings in Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles within the issue on topics including Turkey's initiative following the declaration of Jerusalem as capital of Israel, the Gulf States's actions to protect Palestinian rights, and the U.S. foreign policy on Arab-Israeli conflict.

While international law has typically waxed and waned in feminist favours, contemporary feminist engagements reveal a strongly critical, reflective thrust about the costs of engaging international law and the quality of ostensible gains. To inform this reflection, this article draws on feminist scholarship in international law - and a specific feminist campaign for the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security in Northern Ireland - to distil three distinct feminist understandings of international law that underpin both theory and advocacy. International law is understood, first, as a system of rules to which states are bound; second, as an avenue for the articulation of shared feminist values; and, third, as a political tool to advance feminist demands. The study finds that feminist doctrinalists, and those working within the institutions of international law, share concerns about the resolution's legal deficiencies and the broader place of the Security Council within international law-making. These concerns, however, are largely remote for local feminist activists, who recognize in the resolution important political resources to support their mobilization, their alliances with others and, ultimately, it is hoped, their engagement with state actors. The article concludes that critical reflection on feminist strategy in international law is usefully informed by more deliberate consideration of its legal, political and normative dimensions as well as by an awareness that these dimensions will be differently weighted by differently situated feminist actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the application of international law in dealing with missing persons or forcibly disappeared persons. It references some provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, including coverage to prevent forced disappearances in contexts of armed conflict and the involvement of states in international armed conflicts (IACs). The use of the customary international humanitarian law (CIHL) in dealing with cases of missing persons is also discussed.

Does international recognition of statehood affect support for territorial compromise among groups engaged in struggles for self-determination? We show that, contrary to skepticism about the impact of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), international recognition of statehood by the UNGA shapes mass attitudes toward territorial compromise. The impact of international recognition, however, is two-pronged. International recognition simultaneously increases support for partition as a strategy of conflict resolution and decreases support for compromise on the territorial terms of partition. We also suggest a logic to explain these impacts of international recognition based on the intuition that international recognition should improve the bargaining position of the newly recognized group. We demonstrate that international recognition has an impact on mass attitudes of groups in conflict using a combination of a panel survey and survey experiment assessing the impact of the 2012 UNGA recognition of Palestine. This study is the first to show that international recognition can shape mass attitudes toward conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's three small off-shore island territories - Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean and Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Group in the Indian Ocean - can be seen as monuments to 19th century British-style colonization, though their early paths to development took very different courses. Their transition to the status of external territories of the Australian Commonwealth in the 20th century - early in the case of Norfolk and later in the cases of Christmas and Cocos - put them on a common path in which serious tensions emerged between local populations which sought autonomous governance and the Commonwealth government which wanted to impose governmental systems similar to those applying to mainstream Australians. This article explores the issues involved, and seeks to relate the governmental history of the three island territories to the exploration of island jurisdictions developed in island studies research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to its notorious legal differentiation of communities into civilized, barbarous and savage, there is no systematic treatment of individuals in James Lorimer's The Institutes of the Law of Nations (1883). This article pieces together Lorimer's account of the legal status of individuals in international law and suggests why this account should be of contemporary interest. It identifies three figures of the individual in the Institutes and uses them - Lorimer's 'private citizens of the world' in particular - to dislodge the textbook stories of the individual as an emerging subject of international law. Employed as a lens, private citizens of the world can focus us on the extent to which a variety of otherwise unrelated theories, critiques, proposals and developments restore or refract such attributes, and on the exclusion of certain features and impacts of the individual from today's public international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) and Ukraine have cooperated on asylum policy for many years with the aim of introducing EU and international standards in Ukraine. Reforms, however, were developing slowly and have accelerated only after 2010. This timing represents a puzzle because the reforms advanced most significantly in a situation when Ukraine’s orientation toward the EU became more reluctant again while it increased toward the Russian Federation. The latter in turn became increasingly hostile toward EU activities in Ukraine and eager to pull Ukraine toward the Eurasian Customs Union as an alternative integration project. The timing of reforms can be explained by paying more attention to domestic forces. On the one hand, these forces operate with some degree of independence from the country’s geo-strategic orientation, responding to sector-specific costs and benefits, and in particular, sector-specific conditionality. On the other hand, the more autocratic rule under former President Yanukovych ended a period of unproductive political muddle and facilitated the adoption of EU rules. Russian influence did not play a role in this particular policy sector, which was thus de-coupled from the broader macro-level developments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The seas of South East Asia present a succinct backdrop against which several current disputes are being played out. At stake are the maritime boundaries of China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. In seeking to delimit such international maritime boundaries, vital questions are being asked concerning sovereignty over islands, reefs and islets, and the value that can be ascribed to these following the determination of sovereignty. This paper seeks to examine one such dispute, between South Korea and Japan, concerning contested sovereignty over two traditionally uninhabited islets that lie in the sea between the two countries, namely the islets of Dokdo (Korean name)/Takeshima (Japanese), also known as Liancourt Rocks (English terminology). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the relations between Turkey and Russia and their implications for the problem encountered in Cyprus. Topics discussed include the struggle of Turkey in redefining its its foreign policy measures, the conduct of High Level Cooperation Council (HLCC), the gas pipeline project, and the test of Turkey-Russia ties with the Russian annexation of Crimea.

Nino Cassese’s fundamental contribution to the early stages of the fight against the crime of enforced disappearance is charted in this brief homage. Commencing with Cassese’s strong stance in the face of intimidation by the Ambassador of Argentina, we move to his continued resolve to place credible reports on disappearances in Argentina onto the agenda of the international community, in particular, the United Nations (UN) Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. Cassese’s struggle against this heinous crime culminated in the adoption by the UN General Assembly of a resolution on disappearances and the establishment of the first human rights special procedures mandate — the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances — which continues to operate to this day. The Mapping of Cassese’s role as the driving force behind this evolution brings to light his underlying convictions in law and life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines the Grand Chamber judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Janowiec and Others v. Russia, which constitutes a case of enforced disappearance. The judgment is placed in the context of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and, regarding jurisdiction ratione temporis, of other international bodies. A critique of the Grand Chamber’s argumentation under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to life) finds that the Court’s restrictive approach to its temporal jurisdiction, in adherence to the principles first set out in the Šilih v. Slovenia judgment, was neither legally necessary nor practically advisable in Janowiec and Others. These arguments are followed by an excursus on the Court’s approach to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The jurisprudence of human rights bodies has long played a role in ensuring accountability for enforced disappearance: the European Court of Human Rights, for example, has dealt with a large number of applications concerning disappearances perpetrated in the jurisdiction of the Council of Europe member states. This article concerns one of the main challenges facing the European Court in the context of such cases, namely the behaviour of these same states during and after the proceedings before the Court. By building ‘walls of silence’ between themselves and Strasbourg and by actively undermining the proceedings, states impair the process of fact-finding and the implementation of the European Court’s judgments. The present analysis will discuss these difficulties and examine the Court’s attempts to counter them by applying, inter alia, the ‘circumstantial evidence’ test, unilateral declarations and the pilot judgment procedure. We will conclude that, while the European Court of Human Rights has made some headway in correcting for the effect of state behaviour, it cannot fully compensate for the failure of state cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Disappeared persons are placed in a legal limbo where, due to the concealment of their fate and whereabouts, it is unknown whether they are dead or alive. The regulation of their legal status while their fate is unknown is necessary to settle matters related to social welfare, inheritance, family law and property rights. In the absence of ad hoc legislation to address these social and legal consequences, in most countries provisions on presumption of death have been used. In addition, compensation has often been made conditional on obtaining a declaration of death. Not only does this fail to accurately address the circumstances of enforced disappearance, but it also imposes an additional emotional burden on relatives, which may amount to ill-treatment. In some cases, the presumption of death has been used to hamper investigations and to grant impunity to those responsible for the crime. While enforced disappearance is a continuous crime and is not subject to statutes of limitations until it comes to an end, if fictitiously re-qualified as homicide, statutory limitations can be applied to criminal proceedings and other unwarranted consequences may be triggered. To correctly address the features of this heinous practice and the psychological implications for relatives, some states developed ‘declarations of absence due to enforced disappearance’ as a tool to tackle these shortcomings. International practice concerning the limitations related to the use of the presumption and declaration of death is developing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Enforced disappearance is an international crime and gross human rights violation that strikes at the very identity of individuals, the fabric of families, and the structure and institutions of societies. The fall-out of enforced disappearance is deep and long-lasting both for the individuals directly affected and for the societies in which it takes place. A number of states that have seen large numbers of enforced disappearances have responded to calls for justice by setting up financial compensation or relief schemes for victims: providing only financial compensation without other forms of reparation, truth and accountability. However, experience shows that, while money is important to help rebuild victims’ lives, it does not adequately address the effects that the enforced disappearance has had, and it does not satisfy victims’ overriding concerns. In a number of contexts, the provision of compensation has been seen by some as designed precisely to evade responsibilities to investigate and prosecute such crimes. International law requires that states and individuals responsible for enforced disappearances provide redress to victims — both those disappeared and their family members. Both international human rights law and, more recently, international criminal law, reflect the reality that financial compensation alone will not remedy enforced disappearance. Instead, a comprehensive and holistic approach is needed — a process requiring interlinked components: truth, holistic reparation and criminal accountability and other measures to ensure non-repetition. While the primary forum for delivery of reparations to victims is at the domestic level, the mechanisms of international human rights law and international criminal law can reinforce each other and provide important impetus to states and individuals to meet their obligations to victims, as well as an alternative forum of redress. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses various reports within the journal on topics including the international legal aspects of enforced disappearances, international criminal law, and the European Court of Human Rights.

This paper essentially focuses on the Cyprus issue as a matter in Turkish - Russian relations both in Cold War and Post-Cold War periods. I will try to analyze Russian policy towards Cyprus issue from 1945 until today and Turkish perspective on Russia connected to the issue. Did this issue effected Turkish-Russian relations or were infl uenced by their relations? So, what kind of context can we fi nd between Turkish-Russian relations and Cyprus issue? Besides, have the Russian approach to Cyprus issue been differentiated in the process? If so, what are the reasons and factors behind it? I attempt to answer these questions as they can be enlightening for the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the development of the international body Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) in relation to the notion of international legal personality. Topics include the history of theories on the state as a legal person, the proposal of a High Court of International Justice, and the international conventions Convention Relative to the Creation of an International Prize Court in 1907 and the Geneva Convention Relating to Upper Silesia in 1922.

The outbreak of the First World War brought about an important change in the status of Cyprus which was officially annexed by Great Britain. In the years that followed, successive Greek governments preferred not to pose openly the prospect of the island's cession to Greece. Athens understood that, given London's strategic interest in Cyprus, a favourable solution of the issue was inevitably related with the satisfaction of British strategic interests in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region. In other words, the prospect of the creation of British military bases on Cyprus in the event that London actually consented to the island's union with Greece was not rejected on the part of Athens; on the contrary, it was seen as a necessary sacrifice in order to serve the final goal of Enosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jerusalem's status has remained indeterminate since the approval of the UN General Assembly Resolution 181 in November 1947. Following the 1948 war, the US acknowledged de facto Israeli and Jordanian control in their respective sectors of Jerusalem, but refused to recognize Western Jerusalem as Israel's capital. After Israel captured the Old City during the 1967 Six Day War, the question of the city's status became a focus of US and British concern. The two states formulated a variety of proposals regarding the future of the city and the holy places. In the end, however, they realized that no agreed formula could be found, and therefore they refrained from taking a clear stand on the issue and did not offer the UN and the belligerents a comprehensive plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although very much an international novice, Canada secured election to the League Council in September 1927. It did not, on the whole, have a notable impact on its proceedings. Its people, too, were little moved by its presence at Geneva. And while its Prime minister enjoyed his one visit to the League, his scepticism about it remained undimmed. Nonetheless, its three-year Council term had a number of important consequences. It engineered what was on the face of it a significant amendment to League procedures regarding minorities. The experience and horizons of its Department of External affairs were widened. It became accepted that a Dominion—or India—should always sit on the Council. Its status—and that of the other Dominions—as states equal with Britain was underlined. And by demonstrating that it was not in Britain's pocket, Canada's political standing was greatly enhanced. Internationally, it had arrived. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since 1996, the European Commission's "origin foods" program has awarded protective labels to typical regional products. This ostensibly serves the purpose of maintaining traditional artifacts and local practices against the homogenizing effects of the globalized economy. Because the program emphasizes the link of an artifact to a group's history and territory, conflicts over market shares often refer to truth claims that engage authenticity and cultural identity. Two products from the Republic of Cyprus serve as cases-in-point. Loukoumi, a candy also known as Cyprus delight, was the first product to be awarded an European Union quality label in Cyprus, while the application for halloumi, a cheese traditionally made from goats and sheep milk was hotly contested and is still pending. Research shows that in Cyprus, the European Union program is deployed to the advantage of large-scale industrial producers and facilitates the homogenization of regional diversity in favor of an ethnicized national heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyprus has been divided for far longer than it has been united. There have been many attempts to reconcile conflicting parties but without remarkable success. The two communities – Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots – see the solution to the “Cyprus problem” in opposite terms. Although recent public opinion surveys have concluded that the most preferred option for the Turkish Cypriots would be “independence of the TRNC” and “reunification of the country”, for the Greek Cypriots, there is much less information about the legitimacy of these competing regimes and their respective claims. This paper seeks to fill this gap by identifying different legitimacy sources and their effect on the course of conflict settlement. Somewhat paradoxically it appears that those most strongly identifying themselves with the Republic of Cyprus, and approving the regime legitimacy of the Greek Cypriot government, are actually forstatus quoand not for the reunification of the country which makes the return to the partnership state mission impossible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The European Commission is an important actor in and of itself, with a distinct role in conflict transformation. There is much academic work on the EU’s role in the Cyprus conflict, and more broadly, on the EU as an actor in conflict prevention and resolution. There is much less work examining the specific role of the European Commission through an exploration of the discourse it constructs, produces and sustains. It is the intention of this article to add to the literature in this area through a critical analysis of the European Commission’s role in the Cyprus conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Oslo Accords failed to end Israeli-Palestinian violence and led to a final settlement of the conflict. This article examines Israeli attitudes toward conflict resolution and argues that the peace process, despite its setbacks, has increased Israeli support for certain concessions. While support for the “Oslo Process” may have declined, Jewish Israeli acceptance of the creation of a Palestinian state has risen dramatically. Israelis remain committed to continuing the peace process, they just remain highly skeptical that the process will succeed. The article examines the sources of this skepticism. Both lack of trust in Arab aspirations and religiosity are the primary determinants of Israeli unwillingness to make concessions for peace. Trust is tied to present conditions rather than past conditions of conflict. Thus, if trust could be rebuilt, Israeli Jews would be considerably better poised to make political and territorial concessions for peace than they were at the start of the “Oslo Process.” Although the relative fertility rates of Orthodox Jews, compared to secular Jews, might undermine long-term support for peace, this might be counterbalanced by the growing dovishness of young secular Russians socialized in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper seeks to investigate the European Union (EU) impact on the Turkish–Cypriot (TC) political parties via (a) the TC prospects for EU integration as part of a united Cyprus and (b) the recently commenced Brussels–northern Nicosia interaction. In doing so, the paper engages with the discussion on “Europeanization” and argues that the EU integration has affected TC party competition and its outcome. This process of “Europeanization” is importantly mediated by three specificities of the TC community as a case of contested state: (a) the centrality of the Cyprus problem in the public debate, (b) the limited diplomatic recognition of the self-proclaimed TC administration and (c) the TC international isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Excerpts of news articles related to Israeli settlement of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights are presented, including "Settlement Thrives as Diplomacy Stalls" and "Don't Shoot, We're Settlers," both by Geoffrey Aronson, and "'Judaizing' Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem, With Backing From Americans," by Jeff Halper.

The article presents a policy brief on the history of the sanctification of Jerusalem as a solution for political dispute. It reports on several policies including the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 242, Oslo Agreement, and British Mandate, and mentions that Faisal Husseini of Palestinian Authority (PA) and David Wasserstein of Vanderbilt University proposed the Rome model for Jerusalem. Legislations to separate religious sites from political influence are also discussed.

A discrete phenomenon has been emerging within the practice of refugee law whereby individuals who engage in acts of resistance waged against oppression in their countries of nationality have either been granted asylum or have had their actions recognized as forms of political opinion making them eligible for asylum. Through an examination of the decisions of administrative adjudicators and appellate judges in various jurisdictions, this article argues that three significant observations emerge from such case law. First, the decisions demonstrate the capacity of individuals to challenge injustices and oppression through an interpretation of applicable legal and ethical principles followed by their enforcement. These decisions also illustrate the capacity of individuals to act as transformative human agents within the international legal system, even if incapable of being recognized as full legal persons under international law. Second, the decisions represent an important legitimization of and support for such acts of resistance, even if implicit. Third, granting asylum to individuals who have engaged in resistance also challenges a deeply ingrained tendency to view refugees as idealized and/or hapless victims who have been attacked for some immutable characteristic, rather than those who take albeit provocative but justified actions and who as a consequence face victimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten days after announcing its candidature, and amidst some surprise, Canada was elected to a non-permanent seat on the Council of the League of Nations. This article will show how and why this came about. In so doing, it will demonstrate that Canada's election was an important episode from several perspectives. First, it was a milestone in Canada's gradual international coming of age, confirming that it was entitled to all the rights and responsibilities of League membership. Second, it was a significant step in the development of the Commonwealth into an association of equals. And, third, it contributed to the gelling of the emerging group system in elections to the League Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the history of the European Court of Human Rights from the time of its creation in 1950, and the impact of the granting in 1990 of the right of individuals to bring cases before the court. The drafting and adoption by the Council of Europe of the European Convention on Human Rights, with the Court as its enforcement body, is discussed, as is the Court's history up to 1990, when Protocol 9 was adopted, specifically granting the right of petition to individuals in addition to groups and nongovernmental organizations. Also discussed is the overall position of individuals as subject in international law.

The purpose of this paper is to argue states are not organizations, but rather the objective legal persons of international law. The ontological similarities and differences between states and organizations are examined, but, by drawing upon literature in political geography and international law, ultimately shows that states cannot be organizations based in large part on the fact that states can survive the destruction of their organizational structures. Bottazzi and Ferrario's DOLCE-based ontology of organizations is of specific interest because it provides “The State of Italy” as an example of an organization that fits their ontological structure. This claim is evaluated and challenged. It is argued that while a state's government may be an organization, the state must be an entity independent from its government or broader socio-political and economic structure. It is argued that when a certain set of conditions is satisfied, a new non-physical legal person is brought into being that is independent of any existing entity. Finally, placement of the state as a legal person within the DOLCE ontology is considered, especially with the inclusion of Bottazzi and Ferrario's ontology of organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Berlin has become a ‘world media city’. Our thesis is that a key reason for this development can be found in its dynamic subculture. In the 1990s the club and music scene thrived, in particular in the deindustrializing inner-city areas, thereby paving the way for large media and music corporations to move to Berlin. The rise of the Berlin techno and electronic music scene, and recently also of hip-hop, to a successful cultural district, is therefore closely connected to the urban transformation since the fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as to the increasing importance of the ‘creative class’ in the local economy. The article examines the connections between the specific local urban environment of the city and the development and rise of its creative and subcultural milieus. The relation between subculture and the music industry, however, cannot simply be described as a commodification of underground and its use as a brand name. Rather, it highlights the fact that flexible integration of the creative districts of subcultural music production is becoming one of the new organizational models of the industry. Résumé Depuis peu, Berlin est devenue une «ville mondiale des médias». Cette évolution est due en grande partie au dynamisme de sa sous-culture. Dans les années 1990, les clubs et la scène musicale ont prospéré, en particulier dans les quartiers déshérités du centre en voie de désindustrialisation, ouvrant ainsi les portes à l’installation à Berlin de grosses compagnies du secteur des médias et de la musique. L’essor de la scène musicale techno et électronique, et récemment aussi du hip-hop, en un quartier culturel florissant est donc étroitement liéà la transformation urbaine depuis la chute du Mur, ainsi qu’à la place grandissante de la «classe créative» dans l’économie locale. L’article examine les rapports entre le contexte urbain local spécifique, d’une part, et l’évolution et l’ascension de ses milieux créatifs et sous-culturels, d’autre part. Toutefois, on ne peut ramener la relation entre sous-culture et industrie musicale à une marchandisation de l’«underground» et à son utilisation comme un nom de marque. En revanche, elle met en avant le fait que l’intégration progressive des secteurs créatifs de la production musicale sous-culturelle devient l’un des nouveaux modèles organisationnels de cette industrie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cyprus issue has been studied mainly with respect to state-centered assumptions that concentrate on the power struggle in the Eastern Mediterranean. Perspectives integrating aspects of social theory beyond high politics have only recently been a focus of study in the case of Cyprus. This study emphasizes the necessity of developing a new methodological framework and employing new conceptual tools with the help of the theoretical advances in comparative sociopolitical analysis. In this context, studying the Cyprus problem within a framework defined by Europeanization with respect to the changes in national and international conditions in different periods allows a comparative analysis of the transformations in the positions of traditional and social and economic actors towards solving the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Cyprus economy, under economic embargo since 1983, has been struggling to eradicate the income difference with South Cyprus with extremely limited resources. This paper examines the North Cyprus economy with a particular emphasis on its response to economic embargoes. It also examines how important economic embargoes would be (or have been) to the North Cyprus economy. For this purpose, total economic growth is decomposed with respect to different components of demand. The results show that despite the presence of embargoes, external demand and the availability of import flows are detrimental factors for economic growth. Domestic final demand is an equally important source of growth in the North Cyprus economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the European Union Framework Decision on the standing of victims in criminal proceedings. It has been considered as a hard-law instrument which concerns the victims of crime at the international level. It states that the Framework Decision approaches matters forcefully and speedily. It consists of a combination of binding norms and the short period of adaptation of national law. It tackles the impact of the Framework Decision after its adoption. It reveals that the tight deadlines have been unrealistic and none of the provisions of the framework have been complied by the member states. Meanwhile, an overview of the background and context of the Framework Decision is offered.

2007 was a good year for discussing New Zealand's independence, On 26 September 2007 New Zealand marked the centennial of the first Dominion Day in 1907, which was hailed at the time as New Zealand's 'Fourth of July'. On 25 November 2007 New Zealand reached the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Statute of Westminster. There are, however, other dates to celebrate. The Statute of Westminster received assent on 11 December 1931 and, in the words of two Australian scholars, 'independence given is not somehow inferior to independence taken'. New Zealand was separately represented for the first time at two international conferences in 1912 and by signing the League of Nations Covenant in 1919 became recognised as a separate actor in international affairs. In spite of this achievement of political and diplomatic independence many were reluctant to accept full sovereignty. The famous 'status formula' of 1926, by which New Zealand accepted equality of status and free association with Britain and the other Dominions, was regarded as a 'poisonous document' by the Prime Minister of the day. After taking an independent line in the League of Nations and making a separate decision to go to war in 1939, New Zealand Prime Minister Peter Fraser could say that Dominion status was 'independence with something added'. But he dropped the title 'Dominion' in 1945; the country joined the United Nations as 'New Zealand'. The Head of State was cited as 'Queen of New Zealand' in 1953. In 1986 Parliament authorised its own existence and repealed the Statute of Westminster as part of New Zealand law. In place of a revolutionary moment and national declaration, what occurred was a peaceful, gradual process of constitutional evolution, rather subtle and satisfying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a personal tribute to Sonny Ramphal, whom the author met in 1980 when Commonwealth Secretary-General Ramphal presented a report "North-South: A Programme for Survival." Topics include the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, negotiations between the developed and developing countries to improve international economic cooperation, three characteristics of International Secretariats, the 40th anniversary of the United Nations, Ramphal's charisma and communicative power, and his membership on various commissions.

The article offers the author's views on the position of the U.S. during the fifth meeting of the Special Commission to Review the Operation of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction sponsored by the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law in 2006 in Netherlands. He states that his country failed to apply its foreign policy during the convention and avoided multi-lateral discussion and participation, which resulted in blocking any efforts to enhance the enforcement of the Hague Convention. He cites that significant collaboration and cooperation among members of the convention is necessary to maintain the treaty.

The article presents an examination into the published opinions of the League of Nations' Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) in "Jurisdiction of the Courts of Danzig," particularly regarding the implications of individual rights conferred by international treaties. The history and context of Danzig, Poland is provided, addressing the municipal-state level dynamics of its legal system and their impact on the opinions of the PCIJ.

The present article analyses the wrongful act of an international organization, on the basis of the draft articles of the International Law Commission. On the one hand, it considers the application of the rules of responsibility of the States to the international organizations. On the other, it reflects the difficult distinction between the responsibility of the international organization and that of its State members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La desaparición forzada de personas es uno de los fenómenos más extendidos a nivel mundial y que plantea particulares desafíos para diferentes áreas del Derecho internacional contemporáneo. El autor analiza su criminalización internacional, ya sea como crímenes de lesa humanidad o crímenes de guerra, así como la configuración de sus ámbitos material, personal --sujetos perpetradores-- y temporal. Por otro lado, se examinan las obligaciones de sanción, no amnistía y reparación a las víctimas; obligaciones que tienen los Estados frente a este crimen que constituye una violación seria del núcleo duro de derechos humanos y del Derecho internacional humanitario. El análisis de los tratados y jurisprudencia internacional pertinentes son las fuentes principales de esta investigación. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]