EXPLORING THE LESSONS OF THE KIMBERLEY PROCESS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION

There has been a great deal of academic discourse about policy and governance choices embedded in the UNFCCC-based regimes for Climate Change action, and they point to the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of such regimes, which is often attributed to the fact that they hinge on the political authority of State actors and lack meaningful enforcement mechanisms. Against this backdrop, this paper argues that an alternative regime may be needed; and that for an effective regulatory framework for Climate Change action to emerge there needs to be a regulatory imperativeness similar to that upon which the Kimberley Process was created, where Non-State Actors play a leadership role. It also argues that in addition to regulatory imperativeness, the making and enforcement of the Kimberley Process provides helpful lessons towards crafting a more effective Climate Change remedial regime.

Estimating and evaluating personalized treatment recommendations from randomized trials with ptr

One of the targets of personalized medicine is to provide treatment recommendations using patient characteristics. We present the command ptr, which both predicts a personalized treatment recommendation algorithm and evaluates its effectiveness versus an alternative regime, using randomized trial data. The command allows for multiple (continuous or categorical) biomarkers and a binary or continuous outcome. Confidence intervals for the evaluation parameter are provided using bootstrap resampling.

A NEW AGENT BOWEL CLEANSING BEFORE ENDOSCOPY - «COLOKIT»

AIM: to evaluate the efficacy, safety and drug tolerance of «Colokit» for bowel cleansing before colonoscopy.PATIENTS AND METHODS: an open prospective non-randomised study of the quality of bowel cleansing was carried out in 30 patients (17 females, aged 26-72 years), who underwent diagnostic colonoscopy after using «Сolokit» (Mayoly Spindler, France) using two different regimes (recommended and alternative).RESULTS: the quality of the bowel cleansing was significantly better in patients after «Colokit» use in recommended regime vs alternative regime. No difference in subjective assessment of patients’ comfort during bowel preparation was found in both regimes. CONCLUSION: the «Colokit» agent provides good preparation and patients’ comfort and can be recommended for the bowel cleansing before colonoscopy.

Critiques of the Expectation Measure, and Alternative Damage Regimes

Chapter 22 considers critiques of the expectation measure of damages and alternative damages regime that have been proposed. Most or all of these critiques argue that a given alternative damages regime would significantly further a worthwhile goal. The validity of the arguments that these alternative regimes would significantly further a worthwhile goal that is not promoted by expectation damages is questionable. In some cases the alternative regime would add only a miniscule incentive to the incentives contracting actors already have. In other cases the desired goal is already incentivized by expectation damages, and in all or almost all cases the alternative regime would be unadministrable.

The Mandate System as a Messianic Alternative in the Ultra-Religious Jurisprudence of Rabbi Dr Isaac Breuer

Dr Rabbi Isaac Breuer, a German jurist and Jewish rabbi, represented the ultra-orthodox community in Palestine before the international committees which considered the future of the Palestine Mandate. In his work, Breuer criticised the concept of sovereignty and introduced an alternative regime for global governance of developing peoples. His unique position, as analysed in this article, can contribute to contemporary debates surrounding the role of sovereigns as trustees of humanity, sovereignty and international law and ways of promoting global peace and human welfare.By introducing Breuer's thought, this article seeks to contribute additional sources – both Jewish and universal – to these ongoing debates. Letting these neglected voices in international legal history enrich the debate can convince us, once again, of the importance of the periphery and of peripheral voices for the development, vitality and relevance of international law.Breuer's model replaces the notions of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘rights’ with those of internalised obligations and subservience to law and justice. Limiting any national aspirations to total sovereignty, he implored the United Nations to refrain from elevating the Jewish national home to statehood. Opposing the Zionist position, he insisted that the Mandatory power and international institutions would enable two nations to develop side by side, in what he termed ‘the state of peace’, under international trusteeship.We carefully draw on Breuer's insights to reflect on present debates on trusteeship, sovereignty and the management of areas devastated by conflict.

Exchange rate regimes and external financial stability

Financial stability within the framework of the global financial crisis has become a common topic for researchers and practitioners. In order to analyse the impact of exchange rate regimes on financial stability we use both the de jure and de facto exchange rate classifications. We apply the model to a 1999-2010 annual data sample for 135 countries and territories, grouped by the level of economic development. Our second focus is the investigation of the effects of the exchange rate regimes in three economic integration areas (member countries of the European Union 27, the Southern Common Market, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) on financial stability. Our results generally support the central banks? concerns that the flexibility of exchange rate regimes should be reduced in order to sustain financial stability; however, the findings are not robust when using alternative regime classifications.

Rescuing Democracy in the Age of the Internet

Throughout almost the entire history of democracy—from pre-Socratic Greece up to the second half of the twentieth century—its champions faced little difficulty in identifying its enemies. Critics of democracy consistently lined up to attack it on ideological and philosophical grounds. The litany of complaints was familiar: Democracy is an ignorant, unreliable, unstable form of rule; putting power in the hands of the people entrusts decision-making to those who are incapable of making the right decisions, either because of their natural incapacity or because social arrangements have denuded them of their ability to know what they are doing; democratic politicians pander to the masses, and the masses reward them for it; democracies choose short-term gratification over long-term solutions and eventually pay the price. These charges were invariably accompanied by the promise of something better, the assumption being that almost any alternative regime would be an improvement on the inadequacies of democracy.