Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis article examines the issue of when a State can be considered not to exercise jurisdiction under Article 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights in parts of its own territory. The starting point is that the notion of jurisdiction in the Convention is primarily territorial, and that a State is presumed to exercise jurisdiction throughout the entire territory. The presumption can be rebutted in exceptional circumstances. The author argues that this can happen only if the State is prevented from exercising authority and control in parts of the territory, and that the lack of authority and control must be caused by the influence of another State. Even if the State is considered to be in this position, the State retains a "reduced jurisdiction", and is under a positive obligation to take measures to protect the human rights of the population. The article examines the issue with particular reference to the Assanidze and Ilaşcu cases from the European Court of Human Rights, and illustrates the issue by reviewing briefly the current situation in four regions in the Caucasus.

At the heart of all serious thought about consumer financial products is the difficulty of understanding the mental processes by which consumers evaluate, compare, and use those products. Usury proposals from scholars and policy makers depend on explicit or implicit assumptions about how interest-rate caps will affect the mix of products available in the marketplace and the choices that consumers make among them. Legislators and lobbyists that decry a torrent of consumer bankruptcy filings rely explicitly on the claim that consumers abuse credit products. Proposals to outlaw products like payday loans assume that those who use the products are so cognitively impaired that they would be better off with fewer options.

In this essay a largely forgotten human rights issue involving the fate of the Greek-in-origin population that inhabited the Turkish islands of Imbros and Tenedos is examined. Exempted from the Greek-Turkish population-exchange agreements concluded following the end of World War I, the Greek population of the two islands was granted specific civic, cultural, and religious rights by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. The treaty remains valid to this day. Turkey deliberately violated the rights of this population because of its ethnicity, religion, and language. The author analyzes the methods used by Turkey to ethnically cleanse the two islands and the options available to the former residents of these islands as well as to the governments of Greece and Turkey to resolve the documented violations of the Treaty of Lausanne and of the European Convention on Human Rights.

This article deals with the Convention on the protection and promotion of diversity of cultural expressions of UNESCO as a pioneering document of International Law that expressly recognizes the specific nature of cultural goods and services as bearers of values. In this regard, it underscores its importance as one of the founding texts of International Law of culture. Similarly, it outlines Mexico's role in the process of preparation of the Convention, and the importance of the latter for Mexico. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractIn October 2005, UNESCO's General Conference adopted the Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions. The intense debates around the Convention, the defeat of the US position, and the compromises reached illustrate the shifting nature of global politics and the importance of the 'culture question' in global governance, but also confirm a hierarchy in the mandates of intergovernmental organisations. In this article we describe the making of this particular international convention, what we define as the 'liberal' versus the 'culturalist' positions among UNESCO's member-state delegations, and the relevance of world polity and world-systems theories with respect to the international order. The article draws on our observations, a close reading of relevant UNESCO documents, and interviews with UNESCO officials and delegates.