Treaty Signature

This chapter is a contribution to The Oxford Guide to Treaties (Duncan Hollis, ed., Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2012). Under international law, in order for a State to become a party to a treaty, it must express its consent to be bound by the treaty. Such consent can be expressed in a variety of ways, including through signature of the treaty by a proper representative of the State. Under modern treaty practice, however, States often express their consent to be bound by a separate act of ratification that is carried out after signature. When a treaty is subject to discretionary ratification after signature, the signature is referred to as a \u27simple signature,\u27 whereas a signature that indicates consent to be bound is referred to as a \u27definitive signature\u27. Part I of the chapter considers why States often prefer simple signature subject to ratification in lieu of other methods of joining a treaty. Part II discusses the international legal consequences of a simple signature. Part III reviews the process by which a State can terminate its signatory obligations. The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of the strategic issues raised by the ability of States to decide not to ratify a treaty after signature

The Making of a New Transnational Integration Discourse: The case of the Greek-Australian migrants in the 1940s

This paper will present a history of the formation and goals of the Confederation of Greek Organisations in Australia, the first national federation of Greek-Australian community organisations, established in October 1949. The purpose of the proposed organisation was to facilitate and co-ordinate political programs that extended beyond the narrow confines of the power struggles taking place between the Greek Orthodox Community organisations and the Greek Church authorities in Australia. In our paper we will draw upon the history of the Confederation’s formation to show how the transnational discourse of the confederating community organisations on the one hand distinguished them from the Greek Orthodox Community organisations which relied upon an insular nationalist discourse and on the other drew them towards the internationally emerging human rights discourse of the time. Against the background of the historical record we will also make some methodological observations in relation to current diaspora and transnationalism studies

Transnational marriages between Vietnamese women and asian men in Vietnamese online media

This paper examines the social construction of marriage migration in Vietnamese online media. We present a content analysis of 643 items published online between 2000 and 2010 on international marriages between Vietnamese women and foreign Asian men. Our analysis reveals that online media content speaks to four important shifts discussed in Vietnamese studies: (1) shifts in notions of gender, sexuality, and marriage; (2) emerging discourses around class-making; (3) emerging discourse on human trafficking; and (4) shifting roles of the media

A comparative analysis of EU funding and policy support structures : Report to Scotland Europa (Scottish Enterprise)

The study involved a comparative assessment of support structures for attracting EU funding in Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Emilia Romagna (Italy), and Nordrhein Westfalen (Germany). Against a backdrop of declining receipts for Scotland from EU Structural Funds, the question is whether Scotland could better exploit some of the other sources of EU funding, notably: the EU Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP); the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP); the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP); Trans-European Networks (TEN-T and TEN-E); and the Community Initiative, formerly known as Interreg, which in 2007-13 is part of the new Territorial Cooperation Objective

The Potential of Hellenic-Australian Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks

In Australia’s economic landscape, a key dimension of trade activity can be found in the important link between cultural diversity and international business. For example, new migrants are likely to have strong links to business communities back home. Moreover, there are no language barriers, nor any cultural adjustments to make. This provides the context for exploring the role of ethnic business communities in Australia in enhancing international business activity especially with member countries of the European Union (EU), which as a single entity remains Australia’s largest economic partner. However, despite the importance of the EU to Australia as an economic partner, English-speaking nations (e.g., Britain) dominate Australia’s exporter list. In this spirit, we examine some of the features of diaspora/expatriate communities within Australia and Greece and consider strategies that can help enhance the role of Greek-Australian diaspora entrepreneurial networks and expand Australia’s economic engagement with the enlarged EU

Corporate Social Accountability Standards in the Global Supply Chain: Resistance, Reconsideration and Resolution in China

This Article provides a view on corporate social accountability standards from a Chinese perspective, a slightly different angle from that of legal scholars in the United States. The legal literature in the United States typically only focuses on the importance and effectiveness of corporate social accountability standards to regulate the conduct of multinational companies in the era of globalization. However, the views of the outsourced companies in the developing countries on which the multinational companies impose the standards have seldom received attention. This Article tries to fill this void by examining the situation in China. As shown in this Article, effective implementation of corporate social accountability standards requires a refined approach that considers local circumstances in developing countries

Does terrorism affect the inflow of Foreign Direct Investments in developed countries in Europe? A study of France, Spain and the United Kingdom

In this study it is examined whether the amount of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) is affected by terrorism in three developed countries in Europe from a time series approach. The countries that are examined are France, Spain and the United Kingdom. The time period is 1975-2016 and the observations are annual. In previous literature there is evidence that terrorism should have an impact on FDI. FDI and terror are assumed to have a negative relation. The model that is used for this thesis is a VAR. Each model is specified into three different model specifications where the total-, national- and transnational amount of terrorist attacks is investigated. The VAR showed no significant result for terrorism affecting FDI

What does the Pussy Riot case tell us about women's human rights in Russia?

The winter of 2011 and spring of 2012 in Russia bore witness to a series of anti-regime protest actions against the fraudulent conduct of the Parliamentary and Presidential elections that resulted in the re-election of Putin as President for a third term. Within the context of opposition activity, one act of protest has arguably been the international headline grabber, namely, the ‘Punk Prayer’ performed by members of the feminist punk collective Pussy Riot in Christ the Saviour’s Cathedral in Moscow in February 2012. It is perhaps unsurprising that a group of young women clad in bright balaclavas and tights, proclaiming a radical feminist agenda and performing riotous punk in Russia’s main Orthodox Cathedral captivated international audiences. On the positive side, the case has renewed international attention on human rights in Russia. Yet, while their feminism is often mentioned in international coverage, it is rarely the subject of serious analysis and further consideration of how it can be viewed as particularly radical and oppositional in the context of contemporary Russian gender politics, where hostility to feminism and a regression of women’s human is evident (Johnson & Saarinen, 2012; Elder, 2013a). This is a worrying omission as any analysis of the reaction to Pussy Riot from the Russian authorities and general public shows that their punishment not only represents a silencing of opposition activists engaging in freedom of artistic expression, but that the reaction to and punishment of the members can be used as a lens through which to view the wider gender climate, where women engaging in political activism in public are seen as deviant and transgressive. This threatens not only women engaged in activism, but poses significant barriers to women’s realisation of their human rights in all aspects of life (Racioppi & O’Sullivan See, 2009).  Thus, discussions of Pussy Riot as human rights activists should not be gender blind and this article is intended to situate this case in the wider gender politics of contemporary Russia

Africa 2000: "Africa and the world economy: prospects for real economic growth"

Draft of paper, which was eventually published in the journal "Issue".Crystal ball gazing is hardly the province of social scientists. The best one can do, in attempting to assess the prospects for real economic growth by the year 2000, is to examine the contradictory trends and struggles shaping the political economy of Africa, and the world today, and suggest possible alternative outcomes. Even the probabilities are obscure

Notes on Implementing Sustainable Development

"Sustainable Development" refers to a set of issues relating to two general questions: (1) Are the presently prevailing technologies and lifestyles of economic development so destructive of the earth's natural resources and environment that the current pace of development cannot be maintained? (2) If so, what combinations of technology, life-style, and rate of growth are sustainable in the 'long-run,' and what mechanisms of cooperation and incentives can be devised to implement them? After providing some introductory background material for newcomers to the subject, and concluding that the answer to the first question is "yes." I sketch some challenges to economic theory implied by the second question. In particular, I argue that, for transnational issues like global warming, the 'standard' approaches of mechanism design theory are inadequate in the absence of a world government or equivalent institution for enforcing cooperative agreements. On the other hand, the typical large multiplicity of noncooperative equilibria of such global dynamic "games" creates a role for analysts to discover (invent?) equilibria that are superior to the status-quo equilibrium, if indeed the current situation can reasonably be interpreted as a (dynamic) equilibrium. I explore this idea in the context of an oversimplified model of the "Global Warming Game."Information Systems Working Papers Serie