Transitional justice and peacebuilding on the ground

Policy brief drawing on the research conducted as part of a grant from the US Institute of Peace (USIP 002-09F) on victim-centred approaches to justice and DDR processes

The Maximal C*-Algebra of Quotients as an Operator Bimodule

We establish a description of the maximal C*-algebra of quotients of a unital C*-algebra $A$ as a direct limit of spaces of completely bounded bimodule homomorphisms from certain operator submodules of the Haagerup tensor product $A\otimes_h A$ labelled by the essential closed right ideals of $A$ into $A$. In addition the invariance of the construction of the maximal C*-algebra of quotients under strong Morita equivalence is proved.Comment: 8 pages; submitte

Environmental Concerns in Water Pricing Policy:Â Â an Application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

Water management is subject to conflicting economic and environmental objectives, and policymakers require a clear overview of the different outcomes derived from different water management options. The aim of this paper is to assess the efficiency of several irrigation water pricing policies with a special focus on their environmental implications. Irrigation is chosen here as a crucial sector of water use in large parts of southern Europe, where pressure on the resource is expected to increase due to climate change. A novel methodological approach for performing an ex ante analysis of alternative water pricing policies is proposed here, where environmental and technical performance are simultaneously considered. This approach takes place in two steps: the first is a simulation of alternative water policies through a mathematical programming model, and the second is the analysis of results by using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. A case study is applied in Puglia (southern Italy), where irrigation is the primary factor of strategic relevance for policymakers regarding water management. Our results show that on the one hand alternative pricing policies perform similarly in terms of technical efficiency and environmental efficiency. On the other hand, inefficiency appears to depend mainly on technical rather than environmental concerns. According to the assigned weights, through the DEA technique, the highest improvement for inefficient options may be obtained by better labour use. We conclude that the proposed approach may be a comprehensive and versatile framework for water policy analysis, offering a tool for supporting the decision-making process.Irrigation, Policy assessment, Efficiency, Data Envelopment Analysis, Linear Programming

The Costs of Drought: the Exceptional 2007-2008 Case of Barcelona

The drought affecting Catalonia between 2007 and 2008 was the most severe of the last century and serves as a case study for the assessment of the economic costs of such an event. The main focus is the drought affecting the so-called Ter-Llobregat system which serves the Metropolitan area of Barcelona, where most of the population is concentrated (approximately 5.5 million people). The 2007-2008 drought is a good illustrative case study due to its extreme severity and the availability of economic information both on the impacts (damages) and the measures taken. Moreover, important communication campaigns were put into place and led to significant reduction of the demand and the set up of mechanisms for public participation for future water management. Direct costs of the affected sectors, indirect costs of the Catalan economy and non-market welfare losses due to the worsening of the environmental quality and restrictions on water supply to households due to scarcity conditions are reported here. The total losses are estimated at 1,661,000,000 Euros (for a one year period), almost 1% of Catalonian´s GDP. The results of this study point out the need for further research on the estimation of the costs of drought (especially at European level) that needs to be embedded into the assessment of the costs of adaptation to climate change.drought, direct costs, indirect costs, non-market welfare losses, Barcelona

Classifying Ecosystem Services for Economic Valuation: The case of forest water services

Since the release of the Millennium Ecosystem Approach (MEA), the number of studies valuing ecosystem services has grown. As a consequence of this growing literature, different interpretations exist on the classification of services as derived from MEA, and several studies have argued that this may not be the most appropriate framework when the aim of the analysis is economic valuation. The present paper contributes to this debate by reviewing and comparing these critical views in order firstly to clarify the existing confusion in the terminology and interpretations; and secondly to shed some light on a desirable classification and conceptualization of ecosystem services for valuation. To illustrate this, we present an examination of existing primary valuation studies of water related services provided by tropical forests, which we analyze under the MEA classification framework and compare it with an output-based classification, in which the service is defined in terms of its benefits (outputs) to humans. Our results support the idea that an output-based classification should provide more accurate values and could help avoid certain problems such as double accounting and potential underestimation of services values.ecosystem services, Millennium Ecosystems Approach, water services, tropical forests

La crisis de los refugiados y la guerra de Siria, octubre 2015

Se analiza la guerra civil en Siria y la crisis de refugiados que ha producido y afecta a la Union Europe

Tema 4 del programa de Martin Ortega - Prohibicion de la fuerza armada y mantenimiento de la paz

En este documento para el estudio de la materia, se ofrece una descripción del principio que prohibe la fuerza armada en el Derecho Internacional contemporáneo. Este principio comprende el ius ad bellum, el ius in bello o derecho humanitario bélico, el desarme, y el mantenimiento de la paz realizado por Naciones Unidas

Tema 6 Principios Economicos programa Derecho Internacional Publico programa Martin Ortega Carcelen

En este tema se introducen los principios del Derecho Internacional Publico contemporaneo que rigen las relaciones economicas globales: principio de soberania estatal sobre los recursos naturales, libre comercio y OMC, regulacion de la economia y G-20, y principio del desarrollo

Tema 7 programa Martin Ortega - Protección del medio ambiente y recursos energéticos

En este tema se analizan los mecanismos jurídicos internacionales para la protección del medio ambiente planetario, con especial referencia al Protocolo de Kioto, y se consideran los problemas que plantea en Derecho Internacional Público la explotación de recursos energéticos, en particular el petróleo