Suchergebnisse

Banks in emerging markets are increasingly providing non-financial services to their SME clients, typically consisting of information sharing, training and consultancy. This study, published by IFC in partnership with the Austrian Government, is the first to explore reasons behind this trend, finding that banks' key motivations include attracting and retaining customers, and strengthening portfolio quality. The report consists of an overview followed by case studies of three banks, namely Türk Ekonomi Bankasý (TEB), Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), and ICICI Bank. It is estimated that there are 365 to 445 million formal and informal micro, small, and medium enterprises, with a subset of 25 to 35 million formal SMEs, in the developing world. Of these, 70 percent do not use external financing from financial institutions, although they are in need of it. Approximately 85 percent suffer from credit constraints.

An important supra-regional relationship has developed between the European Community and ASEAN. ASEAN's main objective of developing its relations with the Community has clearly been based on a long-term concern for the balance of power in South East Asia. The kind of relationship which has developed may also be one that can be repeated between either the Community or ASEAN and other regional groupings, or between other regional groupings themselves. (International Political Science Asssociation)

Au cours de ces dernières années, le droit international privé belge a fortement évolué.0Initialement majoritairement d?origine jurisprudentielle, il se présente, depuis l?entrée en vigueur de la loi du 16 juillet 2004, comme un ensemble de règles écrites (Code DIP).00Notre droit national a aussi subi l?empreinte du droit primaire européen, avec ses grandes libertés comme la liberté de circulation. C?est également l?action des droits fondamentaux issus de la Convention européenne des droits de l?homme et la Charte de l?Union européenne.00Enfin, à l?occasion de l?adoption du programme de Stockholm, les institutions européennes ont décidé de mettre en place des règlements qui s?appliquent d?office dans notre pays et qui ont pour objectif de garantir aux citoyens la possibilité de faire valoir leurs droits partout en Europe.0Ils établissent également des nouvelles règles spéciales en droit international privé dans des matières diverses de droit économique mais également dans le droit de la famille, règlements qui se chevauchent parfois. Le moment paraissait dès lors approprié de démontrer comment ces différents textes s?articulent entre eux et comment ces diverses influences (par exemple le principe d?égalité entre l?homme et la femme) les imprègnent par comparaison aux règles du Code DIP. Ce travail, combien utile pour la pratique, a rarement été mené de manière globale.0

After years of relentless effort and five weeks of intense and difficult negotiations, the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was adopted and opened for signature in Rome on 17 July 1998. This historic event represents a major step forward in the battle against impunity and towards better respect for international humanitarian law. For too long it has been possible to commit atrocities with total impunity, a situation which has given perpetrators carte blanche to continue such practices. The system of repression established by international law clearly has its shortcomings, and the time has come to adopt new rules and set up new institutions to ensure the effective prosecution of international crimes. A criminal court, whether at the national or international level, does not put a stop to crime, but it may serve as a deterrent and, consequently, may help reduce the number of victims. The results achieved in Rome should thus be welcomed, in the hope that the new Court will be able to discharge its mandate to the full.

Building on earlier research, the present article integrates linguistics and pragmatics into the study of interpretation of treaties in international law. This approach aims to make the reasoning of interpreting agents and their appeals to interpretive canons more explicit and transparent. This is consequently demonstrated with a number of practical examples in which the process of legal interpretation and its accommodation of the mentioned norms of interpretation can be adequately described and modelled. At the same time, it is shown that legal language possesses certain particularities, but nevertheless ultimately follows the basic pragmatic rules of communication. Nonetheless, linguistics and pragmatics can only provide an ultimately descriptive account of interpretation, so that evaluative judgements on the normative questions of how to respect the norms of international law still need to be made and – from a normative perspective – the rules of international law are not replaced or abrogated.

The settlement of interstate disputes through recourse to courts and tribunals has grown gradually over the years, not only through the creation of new mechanisms to that effect, but also by using existing courts and tribunals. How these different international dispute settlement mechanisms operate in theory and practice is the subject of this comparative analysis by academic and practicing lawyers. The book takes stock of the procedure applicable in various interstate dispute settlement bodies, including international and regional courts and tribunals, and arbitration. This comparative view is essential to a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the various procedural rules and regulations and the practical operation of international litigation. This book is aimed not only at scholars, but also at the courts and tribunals themselves, assisting them in revising their procedures, and at States and organisations developing future international legal mechanisms.

Topics include the association of political power with statehood, the Western Saharan struggle for independence. boundary marking and violence by nationalist movements, racism in France in response to immigration since mid-1940s, and communities of Russians in former Soviet Union countries and of Haitians in the US; 9 articles.

In this paper I address the question of how Chinese scholars participate in scientific knowledge production by appropriating Western IR theories, primarily by examining interactions between North American theories that claim universality and China-specific IR efforts. Drawing on post-Mao era publications and books, I discuss how increasingly independent Chinese IR scholars are portraying their country's rising status in international politics and identifying China's national interests, while still emphasizing socialist concepts such as anti-hegemonism. The result is a form of Chinese IR scholarship that combines Western IR language with a worldview that emphasizes a modern China within the context of traditional socialist foreign policy norms. I will argue that Chinese scholarly discussions about IR theory building reflect efforts to present 'their rising China' (as individually perceived) in the study, research, and development of IR theory in response to the appearance of modern IR methods that require new definitions and new roles for old socialist forms. In this context, identity concerns are more important than the actual theories being established or appropriated. (J Contemp China/GIGA)

International administrative tribunals have gained in popularity during the past several years. These tribunals have been established as the need arose to adjudicate disputes between international organizations and their staff members. Since the disputes are internal in nature, the tribunals filled the lacunae between local or national jurisdiction on the one hand, and a global international forum on the other.

Growing attention is given in IR theory and diplomatic circles to the ambivalent role of religion in world politics. However, there is a need for more analytical clarity, identifying at least four different domains: religions and inter-state relations; religions and internationalism; religions and trans-nationalism; and religions and globalism. The most promising approach is the one that concentrates on the transnational projection of religions, connecting it to the way religions address global issues to influence international actors. Adapted from the source document.