Memories: A Photo Feature

The following is a small selection of the photographs I took during my 12 months with UNPROFOR. In the Spring of 1993, WO Stebbings and myself were the first Terrain Analysis Team sent to UNPROFOR Headquarters, Zagreb, Croatia. We were actually the first Terrain Analysis Team in the Former Yugoslavia. We were the geographic experts for the mission and worked out of Zagreb. The nature of the job allowed us unlimited access to the complete UNPROFOR Theatre of Operations, which included: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, parts of Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc.: A Test of Might

National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil USA pits two co-equal federal statutes head-to-head. The Federal Arbitration Act mandates that all arbitration clauses be enforced. The National Labor Relations Act grants employees the right to act collectively to bring claims against employers. The Supreme Court must decide whether arbitration clauses in employment contracts, which require employees to arbitrate work-related disputes on an individual basis, contravene the interests of the NLRA. This commentary argues that the Supreme Court should recognize how these arbitration clauses undermine and subvert the protections of the NLRA by disallowing employees to act collectively. By invoking the saving clause in the FAA, which provides an escape hatch to mandatory enforcement, the Court may maintain the equal force of both statutes. In doing so, the Court may protect the interests of employees who would otherwise have no recourse to seek justice for themselves on a collective basis in the workplace

Diminished Responsibility: Jury verdicts and ‘uncontradicted’ psychiatric evidence

Case note on R v Brennan [2014] EWCA Crim 238

Images of Rurality: Commodification and Place Promotion

It is argued that rural areas and landscapes can increasingly be regarded as places of consumption rather than production. This is reflected in the emphasis which appears to be placed on attracting visitors to rural localities. While some rural locations are long-standing tourist attractions, others are increasingly endeavouring to promote themselves through the ‘marketing’ of local uniqueness. An emphasis on local heritage frequently underpins these attempts and landscapes, local individuals or families, events, traditions, building styles are amongst the ‘resources’ put into the service of place promotion. The use of local heritage as a mechanism to promote rural places opens up a series of issues including those of authenticity, romanticisation, sanitisation, contestation and dissonance. These place promotional trends are reflected in the importance attaching to tourism in rural development strategies pursued at a local level. In this way development funding and the various local strategies devised by local partnerships appear to increasingly emphasise the importance of attracting visitors. This apparent commodification of the countryside appears to be motivated by a number of concerns. While the desire to generate revenue is clearly one of these, social and cultural factors may also play a role. In turn, these place promotional initiatives affect both visitors’ and local residents’ perceptions of place. This paper explores aspects of the historic and contemporary promotion of rural places

The Success of the Light Armoured Vehicle

In order to understand the purchase of military vehicles, one must understand the vehicle and where it falls in the evolution of vehicle procurement. This article, written in response to an earlier article in response to an earlier article in Canadian Military History by Frank Maas, examines the chronology and motivations behind the Canadian acquisition of wheeled armoured fighting vehicles

CH-147D Chinook Nose Art in Afghanistan

Nose art is an important component of any combat aircraft’s markings. Nose art not only helps to boost crew morale, esprit de corps and instill pride in the service, but it also adds a distinct character to the aircraft. Although the subject of current nose art has changed since the classic “pin up” girls of the 1940s, today’s artowrk is just as interesting and worthy of study. With the help of imagery taken in Afghanistan and first–hand study of the artwork, this article catalogues and explores the meaning of the artwork now used

Integration and Participation in Rural Development: the Case of Ireland

Rural development initiatives in recent years, in Ireland and elsewhere in western Europe, have placed great emphasis on ideas of integration, participation and empowerment. As a consequence, at both national and European Union levels, there have been a range of territorially-based programmes which, to a greater or lesser extent, espouse the idea of a more locally attuned ‘bottom-up’ approach to rural development. This approach is seen as a more appropriate mechanism than traditional 'top-down' strategies. While current strategies might be seen as offering new possibilities for those living in rural areas, this paper presents some evidence from on-going research in Ireland suggesting that there are a number of issues which need to be teased out. Two key themes are highlighted. Firstly, there are a number of what can be seen as ‘technical’ considerations centring on the mechanics of co-ordination and integration. Secondly, there are issues pertaining to power relationships at both national and local levels which need to be explored

The impact of EU expansion on the Preliminary Rulings Procedure

In CILFIT (case 283/81), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) endorsed the use of the acte clair doctrine – the notion that national courts of “last resort” may decide to refrain from seeking a preliminary ruling under Article 234 (3) EC. The Court also stipulated a list of factors – the CILFIT criteria – that should be satisfied before the doctrine may be properly invoked. One criterion is that the national court “must be convinced that the matter is equally obvious to the courts of the other Member States” (emphasis added). In 1982, there were nine “other” Member States; in 2008, there are 26. Another criterion requires courts to bear in mind that Community legislation is “drafted in several languages”. There were seven official languages in 1982; there are now 22 (23 if Irish is included). The CILFIT criteria were difficult to satisfy in 1982; they have become increasingly more difficult as EU membership has expanded; they are, it is submitted, practically impossible to satisfy in any meaningful sense in 2008. The CILFIT criteria should therefore be re-written. As EU membership has expanded (and looks set for further expansion in the not too distant future), various reform proposals concerning the preliminary rulings procedure have been formulated, the central idea being to change the “judicial architecture” to allow the ECJ to cope with its ever increasing workload. The most notable of these is (by default, given that it is the only one that has actually been implemented): the insertion of the present Article 225 (3) EC by the Treaty of Amsterdam, conferring limited jurisdiction for dealing with preliminary rulings on the Court of First Instance (CFI). More specifically, the CFI is authorised to deal with preliminary rulings in as yet unspecified ‘specific areas’. The time has come to bring Article 225 (3) EC into effect, with the free movement of goods being selected as the first ‘specific area’