Search

Begin New Search Political Geography Paris

11. The Beneficiaries of TRIPs: Some Questions of Rights, Ressortissants and International Locus Standi

Author:
Christopher Wadlow
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The rights and remedies of private parties under the three principal global treaties for the protection of intellectual property are restricted to persons having the status of ressortissants under the relevant treaty, and by the general law of diplomatic protection. Two largely neglected issues arise in relation to ressortissants, which the treaties do not expressly resolve. The first concerns whether the obligations which state A assumes towards the nationals of state B can be enforced by states other than B. The second is whether the obligations assumed by a state under one of these treaties extend to that state's own nationals. It is suggested that the Bananas III and Havana Club decisions have effectively resulted in unlimited locus standi for WTO members to complain of breaches of TRIPs, including the incorporated provisions of the Paris and Berne conventions. The answer to the second question is more tentative, but it is suggested that there may be greater opportunities for arguing that the provisions of TRIPs are binding on states in relation to their own nationals, including incorporated Paris and Berne Articles, than there were under either of those earlier treaties on their own.
Topic:
International Law
Political Geography:
Europe and Paris

12. A Box of Ideas

Author:
Rosalie Hughes
Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
CANKUZO PROVINCE, Burundi —Last November, Sedar Zamukulu Watula and 30 other Congolese refugees waited, perched on a circle of wobbly wooden benches in Kavumu Refugee Camp in western Burundi. Watula, 27, sweat in the heat, unusual for the rainy season. He was used to waiting —for food, for soap, for peace in his hometown of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). But this time the wait was different. He'd come to hear a mzungu (white person) talk about a new project that was about to arrive in the camp- the Ideas Box.
Political Geography:
Paris

13. Just Communicating

Author:
David A. Andelman
Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
PARIS—In March 1975, in what would turn out to be the final month of the war in Cambodia, I thought it might be a nice touch to place a call to my bride of six months and wish her a happy birthday. My interpreter/fixer/photographer, Dith Pranh, advised me to book the call a week or so in advance, which I did at the PTT (Post Telegraph)—the only locale where an international call had even a prayer of going through. At the appointed time, I appeared there and, after a wait of only several hours, the operator announced that my party was on the line in New York, and I could pick up "the apparatus" in Cabin #1. I lifted the phone and there, 7,000 miles away, was a very faint voice of Susan making its way through a cloud of electronic noise, crackles, and pops. We shouted at each other for a minute or so, before we finally gave up on any meaningful communication.
Political Geography:
New York, Paris, and Cambodia

14. Trends in international arms transfers, 2013

Author:
Siemon T. Wezeman and Pieter D. Wezeman
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Abstract:
The volume of international transfers of major weapons in 2009–13 was 14 per cent higher than in 2004–2008 (see figure 1). The five biggest exporters in 2009–13 were the United States, Russia, Germany, China and France and the five biggest importers were India, China, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, War, and Military Strategy
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Russia, United States, China, India, Paris, France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia

15. Global Libra

Author:
David A. Andelman
Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
PARIS—As a New Year's gift to those who elected him, France's new president, François Hollande, mired in a seemingly intractable economic malaise and about to embark on a war in an old colonial territory of Francophone Africa, made an announcement, which the French daily Le Monde carried as an urgent bulletin. He would put an end to the practice of every ex-president becoming a David A. Andelman Global Libra member of the Conseil Constitutionnel, the final judicial appeal of French citizens. Beginning with himself, though not extending to his hated predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, no exiting president would have the inalienable right to a seat on France's highest court. It was a campaign promise, one of 60 that Hollande made, as French presidents are wont to make in the heat of battle but rarely expected to remember, let alone keep.
Political Geography:
Canada, Paris, and France

16. Not only "Containerspotting" - NATO's Redeployment from Landlocked Afghanistan

Author:
Heidi Reisinger
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
On 31 December 2014, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, the largest military mission of NATO, will be history. In line with the political decision taken at NATO's Lisbon Summit in 2010, ISAF troops will be leaving. With them will go all their equipment: a range of items, from weapon systems and armored vehicles to chairs, kitchens and fitness centers used by more than 100,000 troops and approximately the same amount of civilian personnel. This is a gigantic project. If one thought getting into Afghanistan was difficult, getting out is a lot harder. It represents the biggest multi-national military logistical challenge in modern history. Millions of tons of material have to be de-militarized, dismantled, handed over, sold, scrapped, recycled, donated to the Afghans and/or third nations, or transferred home. More than 125,000 containers and 80,000 military vehicles have to be disposed of or brought back home to NATO nations and NATO partner countries. If the containers and the vehicles were placed one after the other, end to end, they would form a line as long as the distance from Berlin to Paris.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, NATO, and International Security
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Europe, Paris, Asia, and Berlin

17. Andrea Carcano. L'occupazione dell'Iraq nel diritto internazionale

Author:
Mirko Sossai
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The renewed interest in the law of belligerent occupation probably reached its peak in 2009, when various monographs were published by distinguished authors as well as by younger scholars. The book under review originated from a doctoral thesis defended by Andrea Carcano at the University of Milan. His investigation focuses on the 2003 occupation of Iraq as the ideal test-case to verify whether the existing legal regime is adequate to address the challenges posed by present-day scenarios, including Afghanistan, Congo, and the Arab–Israeli conflict. The book is divided into three parts. The first one comprises two chapters, which present respectively the legal framework of belligerent occupation and the other applicable norms of international law. Chapter I takes a historical perspective on the legal concept of occupation, which the author considers functional to the subsequent analysis for two main reasons: to investigate the underlying values guiding the development of the law of belligerent occupation; and to compare current theories regarding the role of the law in such a situation with similar arguments upheld in the past (at 13). Carcano identifies three epochs, which modelled different concepts of occupation. The first one is valid until the Modern Age and is influenced by the Roman law tradition: occupation is considered as 'conquest and exploitation of the territory'. The modern notion of occupation, defined as 'administration and effective control', emerged during the 18th century, at the time of the consolidation of sovereign states in Europe. Whereas Vattel had already in theory identified the differentiation between sovereignty and private ownership, it was August Heffter, a century later, who first recognized the legal implications of the distinction between occupatio bellica and debellatio (at 24). Finally, the last model is that of the occupation as 'transformation': Carcano identifies it as 'a military action aimed at the radical …
Topic:
Development and International Law
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Europe, Israel, Paris, and Arabia

18. Worldwide Cost of Living 2011 Which city is the most expensive to live in? Which city is the cheapest?

Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
Tokyo holds the dubious honour of once again being the world's most expensive city. Until 2006, Tokyo had been at the top of the global cost-of-living ranking for 14 uninterrupted years before low inflation, weak consumer confidence and a declining Japanese yen reduced the cost of living. Between 2006 and 2009 Oslo and then Paris were the costliest cities in the survey, with Tokyo pushed down to fifth place in the ranking.
Topic:
Economics, Human Welfare, and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Paris, Tokyo, and Oslo

19. The new politics of protection? Côte d'Ivoire, Libya and the responsibility to protect

Author:
Alex J Bellamy and Paul D Williams
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The international responses to recent crises in Côte d'Ivoire and Libya reveal a great deal about the UN Security Council's approach to human protection. The Council has long authorized peacekeepers to use 'all necessary means' to protect civilians, in contexts including Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burundi and Côte d'Ivoire. But Resolution 1973 (17 March 2011) on the situation in Libya marked the first time the Council had authorized the use of force for human protection purposes against the wishes of a functioning state. The closest it had come to crossing this line previously was in Resolutions 794 (1992) and 929 (1994). In Resolution 794, the Council authorized the Unified Task Force to enter Somalia to ease the humanitarian crisis there, but this was in the absence of a central government rather than against one—a point made at the time by several Council members. In Resolution 929 (1994), the Security Council authorized the French-led Operation Turquoise to protect victims and targets of the genocide then under way in Rwanda; this mission enjoyed the consent of the interim government in Rwanda as well as its armed forces. In passing Resolution 1973, the Council showed that it will not be inhibited as a matter of principle from authorizing enforcement for protection purposes by the absence of host state consent. Although its response in Libya broke new ground, it grew out of attitudes and processes evident well before this particular crisis. Most notably, the Council had already accepted—in Resolutions 1674 (2006) and 1894 (2009)—that it had a responsibility to protect civilians from grave crimes, and this was evident in a shift in the terms of its debates from questions about whether to act to protect civilians to questions about how to engage.
Topic:
Security, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Paris, Libya, United Nations, Balkans, Netherlands, Rwanda, Alabama, Ninewa, and Lower Dir

20. Measuring the Quality of Aid: QuODA Second Edition

Author:
Nancy Birdsall, Homi Kharas, and Rita Perakis
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
As demonstrated by the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and Accra Agenda for Action, the development community has reached a broad consensus on what constitutes good practice for the delivery of development assistance. But since these high-level agreements were made, there has been almost no independent quantitative analysis of whether donors are meeting the standards they have set for themselves.
Topic:
Development, Humanitarian Aid, Poverty, Treaties and Agreements, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Paris