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"Roper, Steven D"
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The development of institutions of human rights : a comparative study
\"During the transition to democracy, states have used various mechanisms to address previous human rights abuses including domestic trials, truth and reconciliation commissions and internationalized tribunals. This volume analyzes the transitional justice choices made by four countries: Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), Sierra Leone and East Timor. For each country, there is a chapter which provides a historical overview concerning the causes of the conflict and two subsequent chapters which highlight a different method of transitional justice implemented. The volume highlights the opportunities and the constraints faced by states and the international community to provide accountability for human rights violations\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Applying Universal Jurisdiction to Civil Cases: Variations in State Approaches to Monetizing Human Rights Violations
The principle of universal jurisdiction allows a state to exercise jurisdiction over a category of cases when the state has no connection by territory, nationality, or other interest with the parties. While the concept of universal jurisdiction is not new, it has been almost exclusively applied to criminal matters. There has been relatively little focus on the application of universal jurisdiction in the civil sphere as a means for victims to seek judgments and compensation for serious violations of human rights. This article examines the theoretical distinction made by courts in the application of universal jurisdiction to civil cases and explores why the emerging norm of universal jurisdiction has been focused almost exclusively on criminal matters. The article surveys the status of universal civil jurisdiction in US and European courts, examines how jurisdiction is limited by courts, and assesses the arguments for and against a civil basis of universal jurisdiction.
Journal Article
Burden Sharing in the Funding of the UNHCR: Refugee Protection as an Impure Public Good
The authors apply the theory of collective action and alliance behavior first developed by Olson and Zeckhauser and later extended by Sandler in a series of studies to test whether the nature of refugee protection influences state motivations to provide contributions. The authors investigate whether refugee protection can be viewed as a pure public good with the concomitant problem of free riding leading to suboptimal outcomes or whether contributions provide states private benefits that transform the nature of the good. Using a Heckman selection model, they test for the determinants of state contributions to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and find that refugee protection offers several private benefits, indicating that it is best understood as an impure public good. They conclude, however, that even when states are able to secure these private benefits, it does not necessarily lead to the optimal provision of refugee protection.
Journal Article
Romania
The Romanian revolution was motivated by a desire for greater political and intellectual freedom and economic prosperity. It was the bloodiest of the eastern European transitions due to Ceausescu's cult of personality. However, many of the goals of the revolution are still unfulfilled. The lack of civil society, charges of political corruption, the failure to transform the economy, and concerns over the protection of ethnic minority rights are all factors in Romania's failure to become a fully integrated European country. Tracing the country's political history and examining Romania's postcommunist politics, economic transition and foreign policy, this book contemplates the prospects for this country as it enters the twenty first century.
eBook
Are All Semipresidential Regimes the Same? A Comparison of Premier-Presidential Regimes
This article examines two issues related to premier-presidential regimes and institutional development. First, it identifies and analyzes two dimensions of presidential power within premier-presidential regimes through data from premier-presidential regimes in ten countries. The data confirm that the distribution of executive power is generally similar among these countries but that there are differences in how premier-presidential regimes define legislative and nonlegislative presidential power. Second, it examines the relationship between regime type and government stability and finds a relationship between presidential power and cabinet instability among the premier-presidential regimes. The debate over institutional power is examined through a study of Moldova.
Journal Article
Recruitment and Retention at the Department-Level: What Measures Can Departments Implement to Positively Impact Student Enrollment?
The issue of declining undergraduate enrollments has received considerable national attention over the past decade. The pandemic has exacerbated these concerns as year-on-year enrollments in several states have been severely affected by the pandemic. While this period has been unique, these trends have been a feature of political science enrollments and degrees conferred for decades. The issue facing political science departments (and all academic departments) is whether there are measures that can be taken to ameliorate these national and disciplinary trends. This article catalogs various measures that a department could enact to impact enrollments and major count actively and positively. The list presented is neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive; rather, these measures can be used singularly or in tandem. The proposed measures are far-reaching, and some measures would take considerable effort on the part of a faculty and a department to implement; however, this effort should not stop departments from starting significant and meaningful conversations on enrollment.
Journal Article
The politicization of education: Identity formation in Moldova and Transnistria
This article examines how education, linguistic and citizenship policies have influenced the development of Moldovan identity and relations with the breakaway region of Transnistria. The article explores the influence of three specific education policies (Russian language instruction, an integrated history course and Romanian language school closures in Transnistria) on the debate concerning Moldovan identity and ultimately Moldovan statehood. The Romanian language school closures in Transnistria demonstrate that education is not only an important agent of identity formation, but also that such crude political tactics as school closures ultimately affect other education policies, reinforce negative stereotypes and make meaningful dialogue impossible. The larger issue than the school closures in Transnistria is whether devolution of authority on issues such as education policy is possible no matter how autonomy is granted.
Journal Article
From semi-presidentialism to parliamentarism: Regime change and presidential power in Moldova
This article examines Moldova's constitutional change in 2000 from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary regime and analyses what the Moldovan case tells us about the nature of executive power. One of the interesting issues that this case raises is whether our definition of regime really captures the locus of political power. While Moldova has evolved from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary regime, the president is more powerful under the current regime than previous presidents were in a semi-presidential regime. The consolidation of the president's party in the parliament explains the concentration of executive power more than constitutional prerogatives.
Journal Article
Providing justice and reconciliation: The criminal tribunals for Sierra Leone and Cambodia
The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) and the Extraordinary Chambers for Cambodia (ECC) represent a departure from the model established by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yygoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The SCSL and the ECC have often been referred to as \"mixed\" or \"hybrid\" tribunals in which there are significant domestic and international components. The tribunals include a combination of domestic and international judges, utilize domestic and international laws and are administered by a prosecutorial team composed of domestic and international lawyers. Many of these institutional changes have been brought about because of criticisms of the ICTY and the ICTR. The fundamental question of this article is whether these mixed tribunals are a more effective mechanism for providing justice and reconciliation than purely international solutions. This is an important question because both the international community and states are moving in the direction of mixed tribunals.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Journal Article
Gatekeeping versus Allocating in Foreign Assistance: Donor Motivations and Contributions to War Crimes Tribunals
We investigate why states provide a voluntary contribution to war crimes tribunals despite the fact that these tribunals are located in states that offer few economic and strategic advantages. We view tribunal financing as a form of foreign assistance and place the funding of tribunals within the broader foreign assistance literature to explain the motivations of donor states. We examine voluntary contributions to four tribunals, and our analysis shows that there are differences between the gatekeeper stage and the secondary decision to allocate assistance. However, donors generally make no distinction among tribunals for purposes of foreign assistance. As a consequence, purely voluntarily funded tribunals are at a disadvantage, since they are not seen by states as unique and requiring special consideration. Ultimately, the lack of funding calls into question the ability of these tribunals to provide justice to victims as well as serve as a mechanism for national reconciliation.
Journal Article