'Democratic Transition, Judicial Accountability and Judicialisation of Politics in Africa: The Nigerian Experience'

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the growing incidence of judicialisation of politics in Nigeria’s democratisation experience against the backdrop of questionable judicial accountability. Design/methodology/approach – The article draws on legal and political theory as well as comparative law perspectives. Findings – The judiciary faces a daunting task in deepening democracy and (re) instituting the rule of law. The formidable challenges derive in part from structural problems within the judiciary, deficient accountability credentials and the complexities of a troubled transition. Practical implications – Effective judicial mediation of political transition requires a transformed and accountable judiciary. Originality/value – The article calls attention to the need for judicial accountability as a cardinal and integral part of political transitions. Keywords Democracy, Politics, Law, Nigeria, Africa Paper type Viewpoint

The rebirth of dependence– offering an alternative understanding of the financial crisis

Purpose – This article aims to contribute to the re-evaluation of the global market system using a Marxist inspired theory of development, dependency.

Design/methodology/approach – This article draws on dependency theory as an alternative means of understanding global relationships. Building on existing literature, it modifies dependency to encapsulate technological developments and trends in the global market.

Findings – Re-evaluating the global market and the relationships that underpin it, through an alternative theory, highlights the fragility of markets and associated relationships. Increasingly, nation states are becoming irrelevant. This presents a problem as the main actors in the global market today are “above” inter-state relations, yet the organs that regulate their behaviour still are grounded in inter-state rhetoric. The relationship between development and underdevelopment remains.

Research limitations/implications – The financial crisis has propagated a wealth of interest in the relationships between states, between multi-national corporations (MNCs) and between MNCs and state. Using this broad theory of modified dependency, it can be applied to a range of different relationships. In the wake of financial crisis, there is the opportunity to raise awareness of these ingrained issues and initiate discussions at national, regional and international levels to alleviate some of the conditions of dependence.

Practical implications – Regardless of the work of national governments and NGOs to instigate development in lesser-developed regions through policy and regulations, unless there is a conscientious commitment from MNCs operating in that region to contribute to development, the result will be the development of underdevelopment and the underdevelopment of development. CSR can help alleviate the conditions of the dependence on capital generated by MNCs, but this is not a solution to an ingrained problem, capitalism.

Originality/value – This article introduces a modified theory of dependency for the first time. It applies the theory to the financial crisis and to the continent of Africa. It considers the role that CSR can play in alleviating the conditions of dependence.

The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard. Linking Sustainability Management to Business Strategy.

The Balanced Scorecard of Kaplan and Norton is a management tool that supports the successful implementation of corporate strategies. It has been discussed and considered widely in both practice and research. By linking operational and non-financial corporate activities with causal chains to the firm's long-term strategy, the Balanced Scorecard supports the alignment and management of all corporate activities according to their strategic relevance. The Balanced Scorecard makes it possible to take into account non-monetary strategic success factors that significantly impact the economic success of a business. The Balanced Scorecard is thus a promising starting-point to also incorporate environmental and social aspects into the main management system of a firm. Sustainability management with the Balanced Scorecard helps to overcome the shortcomings of conventional approaches to environmental and social management systems by integrating the three pillars of sustainability into a single and overarching strategic management tool. After a brief discussion of the different possible forms of a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard the article takes a closer look at the process and steps of formulating a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard for a business unit. Before doing so, the basic conventional approach of the Balanced Scorecard and its suitability for sustainability management will be outlined in brief.

'Ontological insecurity' and 'terror management' Linking two free-floating anxieties

In this article, we seek to clarify and develop the concept of ontological insecurity by linking it to the better developed, empirical literature on 'terror management theory' in social psychology. We argue that the understanding of both ontological insecurity and terror management can be improved through this overdue integration. In particular, merging these literatures can have important explanatory power when it comes to understanding punitive attitudes. The considerable body of empirical evidence that has been gathered to validate the proposition behind terror management theory can be understood as providing indirect support for the concept of ontological insecurity on an individual level. On the other hand, the macrosociological research on ontological insecurity provides the largely decontextualized, laboratory-based literature on terror management with a well-developed understanding of why 'terror management' has become increasingly important in late modern society.

Propensity to Apply for Judicial Office under the new Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments System::A qualitative study for the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission October

The study of representation and participation in the judiciary is hardly novel. There have been substantial studies in a number of countries – often these have preceded the setting up of judicial appointment commissions – which have looked at the continuing problem of female representation in judicial posts. Prior to the setting up of the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission a study carried out by Dermot Feenan for the Commissioner for Judicial Appointments for Northern Ireland also looked into this topic and produced a large number of recommendations. What differs from the Feenan project, in this project, has been the number of individuals consulted in interviews and focus groups. This has allowed us to provide a detailed qualitative attitudinal perspective to enhance the questionnaire study undertaken as Stage 1 in this research project. Further, we have carried out this study after many of the recommendations made in previous research have been implemented.
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Our interviews and focus groups covered a broad range of individuals – solicitors outwith and within Belfast (private and public service), barristers in private practice and public service and also barristers no longer in practice. We also sought responses from student lawyers. In total there were 71 respondents, with a typical interview/focus group length of 60 minutes. The group included candidates who had little interest in applying for judicial office, those who might consider this in future, and candidates who had applied for one or more judicial posts and who may or may not consider reapplication. We did not seek the views of successful candidates for judicial posts under the new NIJAC process.
The timing of this project, with interviews and focus groups held between December 2007 and March 2008, offers an early perspective on the whether the creation of a NI Judicial Appointments Commission has affected, and if so, in what way, the decision to apply for a judicial post. Generally, we found that there was a significant impact upon attitudes to judicial application which had arisen from the creation of NIJAC and that this was more positive than negative.

The effect of relationship management on project performance in construction

Few studies to date have paid attention to relationship management when addressing performance problems. To bridge the knowledge gap, a questionnaire survey is conducted to analyze the impact of relationship management on project performance in construction. The analysis reveals that the deterioration of working relationships may increase the likelihood of poor performance. Poor performance can be effectively reduced by improving some aspects of working relationships. Collaborative working contributes to performance improvement, in which long-term collaboration is more effective than short-term collaboration. In addition to the questionnaire survey, a series of expert interviews provide a deeper insight into effective relationship management.