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An analysis of decision-making processes related to conflict termination at both the inter- & intranational levels. It is suggested that the overall process of ending a conflict consists of four interconnected subprocesses: decision, communication, negotiation, & implementation. The nature of these processes is investigated, with reference to expected utility models. It is suggested that two factors influence the decision-making process of whether to continue a conflict or to compromise: the changing external circumstances, which present changing opportunities for gains & costs; & the decisionmaker's changing judgments about the expected utility of available outcomes. It is argued that the dynamic process introduced here may serve as an alternative to the classical static approach. 5 Figures, 34 References. I. Shagrir

AbstractWorking with people living with dementia in residential facilities for older adults can be challenging, and this is exacerbated when staff have a limited understanding of dementia. However, the relationship between knowledge of dementia and strain in caring for people with dementia among residential facility staff is unclear. This cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between dementia knowledge and strain in caring for people with dementia. A questionnaire containing the Dementia Knowledge Assessment and Strain in Dementia Care Scales was administered in 2017 and 2019 to 141 staff in three southern Australian residential facilities for older adults. Bivariate and hierarchical regression analysis examined inter-scale relationships and the power of dementia strain to explain knowledge variance. It was found that staff had substantial gaps in dementia knowledge (mean score 32/50) and low strain in dementia care (mean score 4/16). A positive relationship was found between higher dementia knowledge and greater strain in dementia care (rs = 0.319, p < .001), particularly with feeling that residents are not receiving appropriate care from colleagues (Factor 1 Frustrated Empathy; rs = 0.392, p < .001). Frustrated Empathy explained a significant amount of variance in dementia knowledge beyond demographic variables. The findings suggest that more comprehensive dementia knowledge is associated with higher strain in care of people with dementia, particularly in the context of perceived lapses in the quality of care provided by colleagues. Arguably, organisational-wide dementia education to address identified gaps should be supported by facilitating staff enaction of their knowledge to improve care.

Transferring the legitimacy or illegitimacy debate away from national discourse to the supranational agenda of the European Union (EU) requires a theoretical re-invention of legitimacy so that it meets the normative standards of the ever-enlarging European polity. After providing a taxonomy of legitimacy, this article reviews scholarly attempts to devise conceptual tools that smooth its transition from the familiar state level to the uncharted supranational level. Inter-governmentalism, federalism and multilevel governance are the theoretical postulates revisited. Evading the temptation to apply state-loaded legitimation criteria to a 'polity in formation', this study opts for a multilevel model. The latter is helpful in framing the multilayered legitimacy dilemmas stemming from the expansion of the EU into new territorial units, further functional tasks and additional loci of authority. Adapted from the source document.

Today's legal system of China has faced many significant changes. One of the often mentioned challenges concerns the appropriate management and handling of an abundance of new and complex disputes. Due to the popularity of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in Western countries, it began to draw people's attention when designing a Chinese dispute resolution policy. With this fact being known and considering China's domestic political climates and the Chinese practice of using non-confrontational means to solve disputes, one circle of scholars suggested that court mediation (fayuantiaojie, 法院调解) should be enhanced. In June 2009, this suggestion was adopted by the Supreme People's Court. Concerning the challenges of courts handling disputes in recent years, the SPC has placed a priority on practice of court mediation. However, China's situation differs from the West, and the existing scholarship lacks empirical research on court-connected ADR. This is especially true in southwest China. Thus, it is quite necessary for legal scholars to assess and examine the operation of court mediation in today's southwest China in order to answer whether it is a feasible institutional arrangement in the southwest context. This will not only enhance our understanding of the nature and rationale of court-connected ADR at the intellectual level but will also perfect its performance in the future. The purpose of this research is to contribute an empirical study on court mediation and attempts to paint a more complicated and nuanced picture of ADR in southwest China's context rather than simply copying Western legal narratives to explain China's legal reality. More specifically, through empirically examining the process of court mediation and the implementation of the relevant policies in practice, this dissertation intends to 1) investigate how court mediation is carried out in southwest China's grassroots courts in order to answer whether it is a feasible institutional arrangement in the southwest context as well as what the problems are in practice, if any,2) provide suggestions for clarifying and redesigning China's mediation law in the future and introduce a regionalism-based paradigm to China's legal studies and dispute resolution policy design as an alternative. Based on empirical studies in the grassroots courts of Yunnan, this dissertation argues that although court mediation now is driven by "politically correct pragmatism", it is feasible in southwest grassroots China due to the social context and the social embedment of the locals. However, the current "Mediation First" policy is still problematic because it may over-simplify Chinese complexity in the dispute resolution domain and has gone far away from the spirit of ADR by pursuing political goals as its priority and overemphasizing mediation's role. The way to solve the problem is not to simply or ideologically restrict or limit court mediation; alternatively, it is necessary to establish more straightforward and uncompromising rules to exclude ill-suited cases from being mediated in order to improve its performance. Now is also the time to re-examine China's nationalized, generalized paradigm concerning both China's legal constructions and scholarship, and attempt to open up a new regionalism-based paradigm when analyzing China's legal issues. ; published_or_final_version ; Law ; Doctoral ; Doctor of Philosophy

This article examines representations of the League of Nations as a creature of early twentieth century modernity. In particular it focuses on the propagation of the doctrine of rationalization in that forum from mid-1920s until early 1930s. Rationalization came to signify not only the scientific organization and control of social development, but also world interpenetration in technical, industrial, cultural and political spheres. Conjuring images of a globe crisscrossed by streams of electric energy, League functionaries and devotees spoke of a bright new dawn. Industrial flow would meld the 'minds of men'. Discussions of globalization today have a similar repertoire of arguments and many of the same linguistic items as of rationalization. In the inter-war period rationalization was held out as the destiny of the world's people, promising both harmonious integration and cultural profusion. Its rapid evaporation from intellectual and public discourse in the face of the crises of the 1930s serves as a warning to those who would weave fantastic tales of globalized tomorrows.

At the zenith of British power at the beginning of the twentieth century there was a widespread recognition that Britain's position in the emerging global industrial inter-state system was increasingly precarious and that widespread adjustments would be needed. One solution, the 'imperial federalism' of Seeley and Mackinder, proposed the political integration of the scattered British settler colonies into a 'Greater Britain'. Alternatively, Wells predicted that Britain would become integated into an Anglo-American 'greater synthesis', and that Europe would be unified on 'Swiss confederal' rather than German authoritarian lines. These proposals and prophesies were based upon interpretations of the changing material context composed of technology interacting with geography, and were seriously flawed. Extensive debates on these schemes indicate that the range of grand strategic choice was broader than that conceptualized by contemporary realism. The failure of British national integration due to geographic factors and the endurance of the Anglo-American special relationship casts the roles of the nation-state and the Western liberal order in a new perspective.