Suchergebnisse

The last ten years have been the warmest on record. During 2007, Arctic sea ice dropped to the lowest levels since measurements began in 1979. Valuable natural resources in the Arctic, including gas and oil, are becoming more accessible to exploitation. The Northwest Passage--a highly desirable shipping route connecting Europe and Asia--is increasingly navigable during the summers. These changes have highlighted new and unresolved legal issues as the nations bordering the Arctic vie for control of these new waters and the resources that lie beneath them. In February 2009, the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law invited some of the most prominent thinkers in their respective fields to explore the multitude of legal and political issues created by the melting of the Arctic. The participants analyzed how to reconcile the rights and interests of competing nations and how the fragile Arctic environment and indigenous populations will be affected by the melting ice and increased activity in the region. This issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law reflects work by symposium participants in light of their preparation for and contribution to the symposium. We hope this issue provides our readers with a glimpse of our wonderful Arctic Symposium.

Three contributions to a symposium on Dictatorship over Needs, by Ferenc Feher, Agnes Heller, & Gyorgy Markus (London: Blackwell, 1983 [see listings in IRPS No. 33]). In The Theory of Bureaucratic Collectivism and the Dictatorship over Needs, Antonio Carlo welcomes the resumption of debate over the nature of Soviet society & the rejection of ill-founded theories that do not recognize the historical particularity of the USSR. However, the theory of bureaucratic collectivism, rejected by this book, deserves more acceptance than it is given there. Characteristic of this system is high wastage & enormous costs of production. The role of managers in this system is also not adequately examined. Finally, the nature of the political crises of Eastern European societies is not adequately accounted for. In What Is "Real Socialism" a Reaction To? Mihaly Vajda offers additions to the views presented by this book. The dictatorship over needs is characterized by an unrealizable negative utopia, not as an existing reality. Soviet society, which can be viewed as partially realizing this pattern, cannot be understood as a socialist reaction to capitalism, even a false reaction. The Soviet system must be regarded instead as a solution to the problems of Russian history, & especially the necessity of modernization. In Dictatorship over Needs, Gianfranco Poggi notes the influence of Georg Lukacs on the authors of this book, & stresses the value of their comprehensive picture of Soviet-type societies. However, the authors' recognition of the dominance of politics over economics is not reflected in careful examination of politics; they do not clearly define & characterize "dictatorship over needs"; & they do not present a convincing account of the Party apparatus as a corporate entity. W. H. Stoddard