Showing papers on "Settlement (litigation) published in 2000"

Bargaining and War

Abstract: mains possible after war starts. n his well-known book, The Causes of War (1988), Geoffrey Blainey claimed that to understand why wars started one had to understand why they stopped. There is good reason to take this claim seriously. Nearly all wars end not because the participants are incapable of further fighting but because they agree to stop, and even capitulation is often the result of concessions made by the victor (Kecskemeti 1958). Thus to explain why wars occur one must explain why states must fight before reaching an agreement. The problem of explaining the occurrence of war is therefore ambiguous: one might merely want to explain why two states could not reach agreement without fighting, or explain why their fighting lasted long enough and was severe enough to be identified as a war, or explain why some historical war occurred. And if fighting is expected to lead to agreement then fighting must be considered as part of the bargaining process and not an alternative to it. However, this is not the way most of the literature on war approaches the problem. War is instead normally assumed to be entirely the result of choices made before it begins. If it is represented as anything more than a final outcome it is usually depicted as a costly lottery, and a negotiated settlement, if considered at all, is normally represented as an alternative to war rather than something war is expected to lead to.1 The only attempt to follow Blainey's suggestion is an article by Wittman (1979) on war termination. Wittman modeled a war as a costly military contest between two states which will be won ultimately by one or the other of them. If it is to be ended instead by a negotiated settlement then both states must prefer the terms of the settlement to the expected value of continuing the war. One implication of this fact, Wittman claimed, is that changes in the relative military power of the two states will have no effect on whether they will be able to reach a negotiated settlement, since making one state more pessimistic about continuing the war will only make the other more optimistic and therefore cannot diminish the

Conflict without Misperceptions or Incomplete Information How the Future Matters

Abstract: Conflict and war are typically viewed as the outcome of misperceptions, incomplete information, or even irrationality The authors show that it can be otherwise Despite the short-run incentives to settle disputes peacefully, there can be long-term, compounding rewards to going to war when doing better relative to one's opponent today implies doing better tomorrow Peaceful settlement involves not only sharing the pie available today but also foregoing the possibility, brought about by war, of gaining a permanent advantage over one's opponent into the future The authors show how war emerges as an equilibrium outcome in a model that takes these considerations into account War is more likely to occur, the more important is the future

Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law: Early Settlement in GATT/WTO Disputes

Abstract: This Essay proceeds in four steps. Part I summarizes the quantitative evidence on the pattern of escalation and outcomes of more than 600 GATT/WTO disputes from 1948 through 1999. Part II elaborates on our theory of settlement bargaining within the context of an institution lacking enforcement power and shows how the hypotheses are consistent with the evidence introduced earlier. Part III discusses the theory’s expectations regarding the effect of the 1989 and 1995 dispute settlement reforms and likewise compares those predictions with the evidence. Part IV highlights the implications of our perspective for proposed future reforms dealing with transparency and developing country participation BARGAINING IN THE SHADOW OF THE LAW: EARLY SETTLEMENT IN GATT/WTO DISPUTES Marc L. Busch* & Eric Reinhardt**

The settlement of the Americas : a new prehistory

Abstract: Since 1977, archaeologist Tom Dillehay has been unearthing conclusive evidence of human habitation in the Americas at least 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, settling a bitter debate and demolishing the standard scientific account of the settlement of the Americas. The question of how people first came to the Americas is now thrown wide open: the best guess is that they arrived from a variety of places, at many different times and by many different routes. Dillehay describes who the earliest settlers are likely to have been, where they may have landed, how they dispersed across two continents, what their technology and folkways may have been like, and how they interacted with the famous Clovis culture once thought to represent the earliest settlers.

Bureau Men, Settlement Women: Constructing Public Administration in the Progressive Era

Abstract: During the first two decades of the twentieth century in cities across America, both men and women struggled for urban reform but in distinctively different ways. Adhering to gender roles of the time, men working for independent research bureaus sought to apply scientific and business practices to corrupt city governments, while women in the settlement house movement labored to improve the lives of the urban poor by testing new services and then getting governments to adopt them. Although the two intertwined at first, the contributions of these "settlement women" to the development of the administrative state have been largely lost as the new field of public administration evolved from the research bureaus and diverged from social work. Camilla Stivers now shows how public administration came to be dominated not just by science and business but also by masculinity, calling into question much that is taken for granted about the profession and creating an alternative vision of public service. "Bureau Men, Settlement Women" offers a rare look at the early intellectual history of public administration and is the only book to examine the subject from a gender perspective. It recovers the forgotten contributions of women-their engagement in public life, concern about the proper aims of government, and commitment to citizenship and community-to show that they were ultimately more successful than their male counterparts in enlarging the work and moral scope of government. Stivers's study helps explain public administration's long-standing "identity crisis" by showing why the separation of male and female roles restricted public administration to an unnecessary instrumentalism. It also provides the most detailed examination in half a century of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research and its role in the development of twentieth-century public administration. By reconsidering the origins of the field and calling for a new sense of purpose in public service, Stivers suggests that public administrators need not rigidly emulate business practices but should instead strive to improve the ways in which they deal with people. Her well-researched critique will help students and professionals better understand their calling and challenge them to reconsider how they think about, educate for, and perform government service.

Refugee Camps or Cities? The Socio-economic Dynamics of the Dadaab and Kakuma Camps in Northern Kenya

Abstract: Many refugee camps last longer than basic transient settlements. Their size, their population density, their layout, their concentration of infrastructures, their socio-occupational profile and the trading activities they have developed give them urban features. Yet their durability depends on other factors, including the relationship between refugees and the indigenous population, and the ecological environment, i.e. access to local resources. This article argues that a political backing is crucial since the host country can facilitate or forbid refugee settlements. In any case, a complete withdrawal or a sudden contraction of humanitarian aid would not automatically mean the closure of camps: whether because self-sustainability would allow virtual cities to emerge as market towns, or because refugees would refuse to come back home and would become clandestine migrants.

Democracy, Consultation, and the Paneling of Disputes under GATT

Abstract: Studies of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) stress the role of formal panels in adjudicating trade conflicts. Yet most cases are settled beforehand in informal consultations. This article tests two sets of hypotheses about the decision to escalate GATT cases, one concerning the significance of the right to a panel, the other concerning the effects of political regime type. Results show that the right to a panel did not inspire more early settlement, more escalation, or more resolution through concessions at the panel stage; however, highly democratic dyads are more likely to achieve concession, but only at the consultation stage. This suggests that a strategy of tying hands, rather than adherence to legal (and other) norms of conflict resolution, is likely to shed light on the way democracies use formal third-party adjudication at GATT. States have long sought to have their conflicts adjudicated by institutions. Nowhere is this more evident than in international trade, and nowhere more puzzling than in the case of dispute settlement under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Often dismissed as a quasi-judicial system held together by countless loopholes, GATT dispute settlement has nonetheless enjoyed marked success. Indeed, against all expectations, this institution has not only resolved an impressive number and variety of trade conflicts, but has helped anchor an increasingly rules-based global economy. In the search for clues to this puzzle, scholars have been quick to look at the formal side of dispute settlement, focusing on the role played by GATT panels in particular. Although few would disagree that these ad hoc tribunals are important, the fact is that most cases are never brought before a panel. Instead, the majority of cases are either withdrawn or resolved in consultations, an informal and required first stage in the GATT dispute settlement process. The decision to panel a case is thus an escalation that needs to be explained, one that raises questions about the design and efficacy of dispute settlement institutions more generally. This article takes up these questions

Regional Approaches to Mesopotamian Archaeology: The Contribution of Archaeological Surveys

Abstract: This work synthesizes and critically evaluates the results of field surveys conducted over the last 20 years in southern (lower) and northern (upper) Mesopotamia, with emphasis placed on the increasing contribution of off-site and intensive surveys to regional analysis. During the Ubaid period the density of settlement was probably higher in the rain-fed north than the irrigated south, and even during the phase of 3rd millennium B.C. urbanization, settlement densities in the north were probably equivalent to or even exceeded those in the south. Although trends in settlement were often synchronous between north and south, there was also a marked spatial variability in settlement, with declines in one area being compensated by rises elsewhere. Particularly clear was the existence of a major structural transformation from nucleated centers during the Bronze Age towards dispersed patterns of rural settlement and more extensive lower towns in the Iron Age.

Refugee Settlement in Britain: The impact of policy on participation

Abstract: The settlement of refugees and asylum-seekers in countries of asylum depends on a range of factors that include the policies of the country of asylum as well as the experiences to and attitudes of individuals to exile. This article examines the direction of social policy towards refugees and asylum-seekers in Britain and the impact of policy on participation. Drawing on a sample of 180 refugees and asylum-seekers from the Somali, Tamil and Congolese communities in the London Borough of Newham, this article shows the importance of immigration status, and the associated citizenship rights, on the social and economic settlement of refugees and asylum-seekers. Labour market participation is known to be a key factor affecting the settlement of refugees. Labour market activity is explored along with the impact of policy on participation. The article concludes that the direction of government policy, which continues to erode access to social and economic institutions, has an adverse affect on the settlement of r...

The Economic Impacts of the Tobacco Settlement

Abstract: Recent litigation against major tobacco companies culminated in a Master Settlement Agreement' (MSA) under which the participating companies agreed to compensate most states for Medicaid expenses. We outline the terms of the settlement and analyze whether it was a move toward economic efficiency using data from Massachusetts. Medicaid spending will fall, but only a modest amount ($0.1 billion). The efficiency issue turns mainly on the treatment of health benefits from reduced smoking induced by the settlement. We conclude that the settlement was a move towards economic efficiency.

Class action dilemmas : pursuing public goals for private gain

Abstract: Class action law suits abound, but what is their purpose, and who benefits? This independent look at class action practices discusses the history of such cases, the driving forces behind them, and the justice or protection that their settlement provides. A comprehensive picture of class action suits in the 1990s comes to life in 10 case studies that seek to make readers question whether the plaintiff attorneys, the defendants, the consumers or the public were fairly served.

Family Lawyers: The Divorce Work of Solicitors

Abstract: 1. The Policy Context 2. The Data Collection 3. Family Solicitors: the Workforce and the Work 4. Observing a Dual Profession 5. Solicitor and Client: Support and Negotiation 6. The "Other Sid": Achieving Settlement 7. Outcomes: Are Solicitors Cost-Effective? 8. Process Issues: Duration and Cost 9. Conclusions: Family Law Practice - A Business or a Profession?

Settlement systems in the evolution

Abstract: L'article reprend les principes enonces pour une theorie evolutive des villes dans un article de l'Espace Geographique.

Regulating Access to International Large-Value Payment Systems

Abstract: This paper studies access regulation to international large-value payment systems when banking supervision is national task. We focus on the choice between net settlement or imposing real time gross settlement. As a novel feature, the communication between the supervisors is endogenized. It is shown that the national supervisors' preferences regarding the settlement method are not perfectly aligned. As a result, systemic risk is excessive under public regulation. Still, leaving access regulation to the private banks can only be optimal if they have superior information about the risk of their foreign counterparty in the settlement system.

Self-generated Neighbourhoods: the role of urban form in the consolidation of informal settlements

Abstract: Rapid urbanisation in Santiago de Chile has led to a large number of informal settlements on the periphery of the city which from an initial common origin, now exhibit very different degrees of social and physical consolidation. Of particular interest to planners and architects is whether locational or spatial factors play a role in determining the long term development of a settlement. This paper presents the findings of a joint research project between University College London and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile on peripheral settlements formalised through a Neighbourhood Upgrading Programme in Santiago. A sample of 17 settlements was examined through a set of objective instruments for measuring housing, neighbourhood and community consolidation; detailed surveys of pedestrian and vehicular patterns of movement and land use patterns; and computer configurational models of the urban form. Key findings are that spatial and locational factors, especially the layout of the settlement and its relation to its urban context, have played a major role in the pathway of development of the settlements and the different degrees to which they have become consolidated. The critical spatial factor is the degree to which the settlement is able to develop ‘edge oriented commercial activity’ through its outward facing edges, and through this to participate in wider local economy. The prime determinant of the development of this type of economic activity is the extent to which the streets on the settlement, especially the edges, are strategically integrated within the surrounding area and therefore carry significant levels of vehicular movement. Where this edge-oriented economic activity is strong there are further benefits to housing consolidation, community development and crime levels.

Settlement, Transnational Communities and Citizenship

Abstract: The settlement of immigrants has given rise to transnational communities based on economic interests, cultural exchanges, social relations, and political affiliations. There are increased interactions between individuals and groups settled in different countries within a global space; the cultural and political specificities of host and home countries are combined with multilevel and multinational activities, creating an institutionalisation of multiple belonging.

Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia:A Legal Appraisal

Abstract: Preface. Introduction. 1. History of the Conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 2. Self-Determination. 3. Autonomy: Theory and Practice. 4. `Minority' Rights in Autonomies. 5. Nagorno-Karabakh. 6. Abkhazia. 7. South Ossetia. 8. Recommendations for a Constitutional Settlement in Azerbaijan and Georgia. 9. Reflections on Recommendations. 10. The Post-Dayton Environment. 11. The Post-Soviet Environment. 12. `Peace in the Caucasus'. 13. Transfrontier Cooperation in the Caucasus. Conclusion. Update. Bibliography. Maps.

System and method for alternative dispute resolution

Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method for alternative dispute resolution involving multiple offers and flexible setting of settlement parameters. Individuals determine whether settlement offers overlap with one another without deciding the settlement terms. Terms may be monetary, non-monetary, or time-limited. Participants access the system on a web site. Participants submit a series of confidential settlement demands beginning with non-monetary demands. Unique identifying devices match respective settlement demands against one another. When a participant signs on to the web site, a “click-wrap” agreement binds him to the terms of any settlement reached. Participants pay a fee for each round of negotiations. Where settlement figures overlap, an algorithm resident on the server of the present invention chooses the midpoint between the figures. Participants may restrict the analysis to knowing whether their demands overlap. If a settlement is reached, email messages are sent to the parties.

The Archaeology of Drylands: Living at the Margin

Abstract: Many dryland regions contain archaeological remains which suggest that there must have been intensive phases of settlement in what now seem to be dry and degraded environments. This book discusses successes and failures of past land use and settlement in drylands, and contributes to wider debates about desertification and the sustainability of dryland settlement.

Of hunters, goats and earth-shrines: settlement histories and the politics of oral tradition in northern ghana

Abstract: The present paper deals with the settlement history of a West African agricultural society, that of the Dagara in present-day northwestern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso. In it, I shall be particularly interested in the appropriation of space, which is ritually legitimized through the acquisition of earth-shrines, and in the conflict-ridden relationships between the in-migrating Dagara and the Sisala, who were already settled in their new habitat. My primary concern, however, is not to examine the Dagara's expansion strategies or the history of interethnic conflicts as such, but their working out in disputed oral traditions. Using the example of the controversial settlement history of Nandom (see map 1), I wish to show how Africans, both today and in the colonial past, have used oral traditions in order to conduct politics. I shall discuss the methodological implications that this mutual constitution of oral traditions and political interests has for the reconstruction of settlement history and examine the possibilities of a thorough criticism of sources to detect core elements of the historical settlement process and appropriation of space as well as the presentday confrontations with history.Oral traditions have played an important role in research into African history and societies. This is because in many places it was European missionaries and colonial masters who first introduced literacy and writing, and because we have only a few written sources—sometimes none at all—for the period up to the end of the nineteenth century.

Paleoindian Occupation of the High Country:The Case of Middle Park, Colorado

Abstract: Middle Park is one of the high intermountain basins of the Rocky Mountains that has been occupied continually for over 11,000 years. Our studies of the Paleo indian occupations suggest that many of...

Hazor and the chronology of northern Israel : A reply to Israel Finkelstein

Abstract: This article deals with Israel Finkelstein's proposal to adopt a low chronology for the Iron Age in Israel and is, in particular, a response to his most recent article on that issue. His factual po...