Examining the influence of the European Convention on Human Rights in Northern Ireland courts

This article examines the influence of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) on the legal culture of litigants and judges in Northern Ireland. The results show that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of judicial review cases based upon the ECHR in the years immediately following implementation of the treaty through the Human Rights Act. However, while there has been an increase in the number of ECHR claims by litigants, judges in Northern Ireland have thus far been reluctant to issue declarations of incompatibility pursuant to the Human Rights Act. Furthermore, a multivariate analysis of the likelihood of Northern Irish judges to rule against the government shows that, controlling for other factors, judges are not more willing to rule against the government when the ECHR is invoked. Overall, it appears that the early influence of the ECHR on Northern Irish law has been greatest in the willingness of litigants to bring judicial review cases based upon the treaty—a development that may portend larger changes in UK jurisprudence in the future.     

A robustness framework for monitoring real options under uncertainty

This paper presents a problem structuring methodology to assess real option decisions in the face of unpredictability. Based on principles of robustness analysis and scenario planning, we demonstrate how decision-aiding can facilitate participation in projects setting and achieve effective decision making through the use of real options reasoning. We argue that robustness heuristics developed in earlier studies can be practical proxies for real options performance, hence indicators of efficient flexible planning. The developed framework also highlights how to integrate real options solutions in firms’ strategic plans and operating actions. The use of the methodology in a location decision application is provided for illustration.     

Relational Aggression in Peer and Dating Relationships: Links to Psychological and Behavioral Adjustment

We examined the contribution of relational aggression in adolescents' peer and dating relationships to their psychological and behavioral adjustment. In the Fall and again four months later, 1279 (646 female) grade 9 students reported on relational aggression perpetration and victimization in their romantic and peer relationships, depression/anxiety symptoms (psychological adjustment) and delinquency (behavioral adjustment). Using hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for Time 1 adjustment/behavior, peer relational aggression perpetration predicted depression/anxiety. Dating relational victimization also predicted depression/anxiety, but only for girls. Furthermore, girls who were perpetrators of relational aggression in both peer and dating contexts were most likely to show increases in delinquent behavior. We conclude that dating and peer relationships are not redundant, but make independent and additive contributions to adolescent adjustment. Girls, in particular, may be at greatest risk for poor outcomes when they have relationally aggressive relationships. Results also highlight the need for greater awareness of the complexity and significance of adolescent dating relationships.     

Who by Accident? The Social Morphology of Car Accidents

Prior studies in the sociology of accidents have shown that different social groups have different rates of accident involvement. This study extends those studies by implementing Bourdieu's relational perspective of social space to systematically explore the homology between drivers’ social characteristics and their involvement in specific types of motor vehicle accident. Using a large database that merges official Israeli road‐accident records with socioeconomic data from two censuses, this research maps the social order of road accidents through multiple correspondence analysis. Extending prior studies, the results show that different social groups indeed tend to be involved in motor vehicle accidents of different types and severity. For example, we find that drivers from low socioeconomic backgrounds are overinvolved in severe accidents with fatal outcomes. The new findings reported here shed light on the social regularity of road accidents and expose new facets in the social organization of death.     

Through Civil War, Food Crisis and Drought: Trends in Fertility and Nuptiality in Post-Soviet Tajikistan

This article has two objectives. First, it aims to complement and extend existing research on post-socialist demographic change, which has thus far tended to focus on Central and Eastern Europe. It does this by describing the nature of post-Soviet trends in nuptiality and fertility in Tajikistan, the republic with the highest rate of population growth during the Soviet period. It finds evidence for a decrease in period fertility after independence: initially, through a decline at higher orders; then, through a significant decrease in the rate of first births, associated with a dramatic decrease in the rate of first union formation since the mid-1990s. Second, it aims to contribute to the demography of conflict and of food crisis. Most clearly, it finds strong evidence for a decrease in nuptiality and fertility associated with the 1995 food crisis.     

Labour Migration in the Global Division of Labour: Migrant workers in Mauritius1

Workers who temporarily leave their country to perform semi‐ and unskilled work under contract in another country are a distinct category of labour migrants in the global division of labour (GDL). The small island of Mauritius is a relatively new destination for contractual international labour migrants. The Mauritian state is intimately involved in the labour migration system, playing a mediating role in positioning the island within the GDL and trying to optimise the routing of global production chains through Mauritius. The migrants originate mainly in China and India and are overwhelmingly concentrated in the island’s clothing and textile factories where they now comprise one‐fifth of the export processing zone workforce. The migrant space occupied by expatriate workers in Mauritius is tightly circumscribed, with little social interaction between them and Mauritian society. A chronicle of their collective protest between 2002 and 2005 highlights grievances that arise from the conditions they face as migrants. Pointing largely to the failure of industrial relations institutions, and having stirred xenophobic sentiments, these protests represent a catalyst for reform. While the numerical incidence and scale of labour migration to small islands may be small, their significance for GDL analysis and for the politics of migration demands attention.