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1. Rethinking the Top of the World: The Arctic Council

Author:
Munk School of Global Affairs
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
Increasingly, issues of Arctic security are the focus of public attention and debate. Whether it is media attention to Russian bombers, the recent announcement of moving forward on the Mackenzie Pipeline, or the increasing body of scholarly work suggesting that we are in the midst of a new cold war, the Arctic is receiving unprecedented attention from political leaders, policy makers, media and academics. Amidst this new prominence, there is a growing need to understand the preferences and priorities of the citizens whose countries include Arctic regions and from Arctic inhabitants themselves.
Topic:
Cold War, Oil, Military Strategy, and Geopolitics
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, Canada, and North America

2. Legitimacy in Global Environmental Governance

Author:
Steven Bernstein
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Law and International Relations
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
Writing in 1999, Daniel Bodansky predicted that the question of legitimacy would 'emerge from the shadows and become a central issue in international environmental law.' Specifically, Bodansky worried that as authority over environmental policy moved increasingly from domestic to international settings, perceptions that decision-making processes are 'insufficiently democratic' would increase. Such concerns were already simmering in other arenas of global governance. Jürgen Habermas, for example, used similar language nearly ten years earlier in anticipating a legitimacy problem in Europe, commenting that, 'the democratic processes constituted at the level of the nation-state lag hopelessly behind the economic integration taking place at a supranational level.' Both authors, in different ways, worried that the reconfiguration of political authority might not keep pace or adapt appropriately to globalizing pressures. Few topics could be more appropriate for the inaugural issue of a journal devoted to the intersection of International Relations (IR) and International Law (IL).
Political Geography:
Europe

3. Marriage and Civil Partnership for Same-Sex Couples: The International Imperative

Author:
Kenneth McK. Norrie
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Law and International Relations
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
Within the single month of November 2004, Saskatchewan became the latest Canadian province to accept same-sex marriage, South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal held the limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples to be unconstitutional, the United Kingdom became the latest European country to introduce civil partnerships as an institution for same-sex couples analogous to marriage, and the government of New Zealand presented a Bill to the New Zealand Parliament to do the same thing in that country. In the 15 years since Denmark became the first country in the world to introduce such an institution most jurisdictions in Western Europe and in Canada, and a handful of states in the United States of America, have followed Denmark's innovation and some have opened up the institution of marriage itself to same-sex couples. The peculiarly North American debate whether civil partnership is a second-rate alternative to marriage as a means of achieving gay and lesbian equality has not been engaged with elsewhere in the world, and it will not be engaged with here. This article intends, rather, to explore the remarkable phenomenon that such a debate is today one of practical reality rather than hypothetical aspiration.
Political Geography:
United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, South Africa, Denmark, and New Zealand