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The Handbook of Historical Linguistics provides a detailed account of the numerous issues, methods, and results that characterize current work in historical linguistics, the area of linguistics most directly concerned with language change as well as past language states.Contains an extensive introduction that places the study of historical linguistics in its proper context within linguistics and the historical sciences in general Covers the methodology of historical linguistics and presents sophisticated overviews of the principles governing phonological, morphological

AbstractThis paper examines the importance of metaphor and media to the ideas of citizenship, nation, and place. In particular, the authors explore the relationship between citizenship and the double metaphor of the "nation-state". If this double metaphor were to lose its hold on the collective imagination, what metaphor could take its place and be represented through modern media of communication? The authors use the example of deterritorialization, discussing first the emergence of the phenomenon particularly given the role of contemporary media of communication, and noting how it bears upon community, place and citizenship to suggest that such an erosion is taking place. They suggest that the "global market" metaphor is gaining ascendancy, and is represented in simulacrum through contemporary information technologies. The third part of this paper conducts a thought experiment implementing a deterritorialized, global market for citizenship, asking to what degree such a market already characterizes contemporary citizenship and assessing what is attractive and unattractive about it. The paper concludes with a caution against either ignoring or embracing this emerging normative construction.

AbstractThis paper shows the role of the courts in the advancement of gay and lesbian rights to be restricted to intervening when three conditions are present: after legislation has been felt by minority groups to be deficient; where stating principles rather than implementing them is involved, and when legislative modification is difficult to achieve because amendment of a rigid constitution is out of question, or in parts of the country where political conservatism has a similar effect. Decisions are grounded on equality, while other values put forward by gays and lesbians such as dignity, recognition, respect of identity and difference and social concerns will be endorsed only by dissenting judges, unless the majority is sure that their mention will have no practical consequence. However, this modest victory was not achieved at the cost of representing gays' and lesbians' interests or values as common with those of the dominant heterosexual majority. On the contrary it seems that the affirmation of the "right to difference," centered on diversity, and the openness of this constructed identity might have led to a chain reaction starting with the evolution of public opinion as a consequence of lobbying and education by the gay/lesbian community, proceeding to create a new balance of power, more favourable to the gay/lesbian minority, and finally reaching more respect from courts and legislatures alike.

AbstractThis study of the meaning given to aboriginal rights from within both judicial and parliamentary sources in Québec reveals, contrary to expectations, a general pattern according to which a more liberal attitude toward rights was taken by the political class than by the judiciary, except perhaps for nuances on criminal law matters. But on the whole, both groups were more insistent, and had a more open position, on legal and political autonomy, although confined within the boundaries of legal monism, than on economic rights linked with aboriginal title. Both also emphasized collective over individual rights. Beyond partisan diversity and rhetoric, there was a consensus on some basic issues, a core of specific elements common to all—or most—Quebec legislators and judges on the aboriginal question.

(...) Pt. I: Background to China and the World Trade Organization. Ostry, Sylvia: The WTO. Post Seattle and Chinese accession. Gertler, Jeffrey L.: Negotiating China's protocol of accession. Barfield, Claude ; Groombridge, Mark: Avoiding deadlock. Pt. II: China's global economic integration. Economic reform. Broadman, Harry G.: A litmus test for China's accession to the WTO. Reform of its state-owned enterprises. Janda, Richard ; Jing Men: China's great leap of faith. Telecommunications and financial services commitments. Langlois, John D. (jr.): Pressures on China from the Asian financial crisis. Pt. III: Transparency and the rule of law. Legal reform in China. Ostry, Sylvia: Article X and the concept of transparency in the GATT/WTO. Potter, Pitman B.: The evolution of law in contemporary China. Challenges for WTO implementation. Biddulph, Sarah: China's accession to the WTO. Legal system transparency and administrative reform. Janisch, Hudson N.: Administrative process and the rule of law. Pt. IV: Provisional membership and transition mechnisms. Alexandroff, Alan S.: A transitional review mechanism. Has an effective multilateral mechanism been created? Alexandroff, Alan S. ; Gomez, Rafael: Conclusion: where do we go from here?