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International Comparative Research: Social Structures and Public Institutions in Eastern and Western Europe is a seven-chapter book prepared for the Second International Seminar on Cross-National Comparative Research. Chapters 1 and 2 describe developments in comparative research on social structure and comparisons of social mobility in different socio-economic systems. Subsequent chapters explore structural changes and mobility in a capitalist and a socialist society; comparative research on public institutions; a comparative perspective on social problems and the law; and comparison of publi

__Abstract__ The private ordering and public regulation of private international law situations has never been an easy task, and it is one to which legislatures generally have not paid a lot of attention. However, our 'open societies' do no longer allow for this lack of interest. This is evident from ongoing debates on a range of private international law matters that have attracted attention beyond the originally somewhat secluded private international law scholarship and which regularly receive media attention. The usual conflicts of interests underlying these types of legal relationships and disputes arising from them gain complexity as a result of the transnational dimension and raise pressing questions as to which (domestic) authority ought to address these in a fragmented world with different applicable laws. The articles included in this issue, dedicated to the role of private international law in contemporary society, dig up the many open debates concerning the challenges of private international law as a governance tool.

Op 22 en 23 april 2010 werd in Utrecht in het gebouw van de Universiteit voor Humanistiek het eerste internationale congres gehouden dat ooit door KWALON is georganiseerd. Initiator en hoofdorganisator Jeanine Evers had hiervoor een samenwerkingsverband ontwikkeld met onze Vlaamse zusterorganisatie KwalitatiefSterk, het Duitse Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Qualitative Social Research (Freie Universität Berlin) en het Britse CAQDAS networking project (University of Surrey). De conferentie werd bovendien ondersteund door de Universiteit van Humanistiek en DANS (KNAW).

It has been shown in the work of Ted Gurr and others that ethnic discrimination can lead to ethno-political rebellion, and that rebellion often leads to interstate conflict. The authors seek to discover whether rebellion is the only meaningful link between ethnic discrimination and international violence. Many scholars have argued that a domestic environment of inequality and violence results in a greater likelihood of state use of violence internationally. This argument is most fully developed within feminist literature; however, research in the area of ethno-political conflict has also highlighted the negative impact of domestic discrimination on state behavior at the international level. The analysis builds upon the literature linking domestic gender inequality and state aggression to other inequalities created and/or sustained by the state. Using the Minorities at Risk (MAR) and Militarized Interstate Disputes (MID) datasets, the authors test whether states characterized by higher levels of discrimination against ethnic minorities are more likely to exhibit higher levels of hostility or to use force first when involved in international disputes. Group-level data in MAR are used to create a set of state-level variables measuring the extent of formal and informal discrimination against minority groups. The authors then test whether states with higher levels of discrimination against minority groups are more likely to rely on force when involved in an international dispute, controlling for other possible causes of state use of force. Ultimately, the authors confirm their hypotheses that states characterized by domestic inequality with regard to ethnic minorities are more likely to exhibit higher levels of hostility and to use force first when involved in an interstate conflict.

The present study revisits the position accorded to Latin American states in the conventional account of the expansion of international society. Drawing on English School theory and legal history, it develops a critique of the 'standard of civilisation', contending that the boundaries of international society were much more malleable and diffuse than the conventional narrative suggests. The argument is illustrated with reference to the historical experience of Latin American states: despite the profound impact that European colonisation had on the region, the marginalisation of Latin American states within international society was commonly framed in civilisational terms. Rather than taking their 'western' identity and thus membership for granted, the paper demonstrates the role that civilisational rhetoric played in the making of Latin America's place in the heterarchical international order of the 'long 19th century'. The article concludes by discussing some implications for theorising the evolution of international society.

This article argues that a World Environment Organization (WEO) does not promise to enhance international environmental governance. First, we claim that the establishment of an international organization alone in a policy field currently populated by regimes cannot be expected to significantly improve environmental governance because there is no qualitative difference between these two forms of governance institutions. Second, we submit that significant improvement of international environmental governance through institutional re-arrangement must rely on a modification of decision-making procedures &/or a change of institutional boundaries. Third, we develop three principal models of a possible WEO. A WEO formally providing an umbrella for existing regimes without modifying issue-areas & decision-making procedures would be largely irrelevant. A WEO integrating decision-making processes of existing regimes so as to form comprehensive "world environment round" of intergovernmental bargaining would be largely dysfunctional & prone to a host of negative side-effects. A 'supranational' WEO including large-scale use of majority decision-making & far-reaching enforcement mechanisms across a range of environmental issues might considerably enhance international environmental governance, but it appears to be grossly utopian. In conclusion, a WEO cannot be at the same time realistic, significant & beneficial for international environmental governance. Available political resources should be invested in advancing existing & emerging sectoral environmental regimes rather than in establishing a WEO. 67 References. Adapted from the source document.

602International organizations — Immunity — Jurisdictional immunity — Scope and extent — Principles on which immunity of organizations based — Comparison with State immunity — Whether immunity of organizations extends to acts iure gestionis — Contract of employment — Interpreter — Whether employment of interpreter sufficiently closely connected with decision-making process within organization to be covered by immunity — International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies — Paris Agreement establishing the Centre, 1962 — Reservation by Italy — European Convention on State Immunity, 1972 — Statement of rules of customary international lawTreaties — Reservations — Validity and effect of reservation — Reservation included in annex to agreement — Whether accepted by other parties — The law of Italy

For decades, medieval scholarship has been dominated by the paradigm that women who wielded power after c. 1100 were exceptions to the "rule" of female exclusion from governance and the public sphere. This collection makes a powerful case for a new paradigm. Building on the premise that elite women in positions of authority were expected, accepted, and routine, these essays traverse the cities and kingdoms of France, England, Germany, Portugal, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in order to illuminate women's roles in medieval power structures. Without losing sight of the predominance of patriarchy and misogyny, contributors lay the groundwork for the acceptance of female public authority as normal in medieval society, fostering a new framework for understanding medieval elite women and power