Update of the UNCITRAL arbitration rules revision

The UNCITRAL Rules Revision process began in September 2006 - the first revision in 30 years. The revision process has been a complicated and difficult one. It is a process that cannot be rushed as one might reasonably expect the new edition of the UNCITRAL Rules needs to serve another 30 years. This article provides an insight into the conduct of the 50th session of Working Group II, the Working Group within UNCITRAL that has been charged with preparing draft rules for the Commission to consider and approve. It was a very interesting session in which a number of significant and controversial issues were considered. Our report focuses on three specific issues - the treatment of set-off; witnesses; and interim measures.

Women as consumers of a male domain : Australian Rules Football and its female fans

Looked at from a global perspective, sports are mostly male preserves. Those played by women seldom attract a large spectatorship and the numerous at-ground viewers of men’s play mostly are men. An exception is Australian Rules Football (AFL), a male sport that since the 19th century has drawn a considerable female following, with women accounting for about half of the ‘live’ crowds. From single-person and focus group interviews conducted with female AFL fans, we examine how women voice their support for a sport characterised by hyper-masculinity in players’ on-field and off-field behaviours, in the organisation and control of the sport, and in the ‘natural’ authority credited to men’s voices in commentary and interpretation of it. Given their marginalisation in AFL and in sports generally, what do women fans gain from their avid support of AFL and how does this influence the construction of their identities as women? We examine these issues from a perspective supporting the idea of multiple, fragmented identities.

Carrier's liability under the Hague, Hague-Visby and Hamburg Rules

Provides a critical analysis of the carrier's liability under the Hague, Hague-Visby and Hamburg Rules. Focusing on Australian and English jurisprudence, the work also demonstrates that, quite contrary to prevailing opinions, the Hamburg Rules do not materially change (still less increase) the carrier's existing liability.

Professionalism and accounting rules

Through its emphasis on compliance with processing rules, the accounting profession remains beset by an inferior notion of 'quality' in financial reporting. The capacity of financial reports to provide a reliable guide for financial choice and action is instead shown to be dependent on establishing correspondence with up-to-date commercial phenomena.

Incorporating both positive and negative association rules into the analysis of outbound tourism in Hong Kong

This article presents a novel approach to data mining that incorporates both positive and negative association rules into the analysis of outbound travelers. Using datasets collected from three large-scale domestic tourism surveys on Hong Kong residents' outbound pleasure travel, different sets of targeted rules were generated to provide promising information that will allow practitioners and policy makers to better understand the important relationship between condition attributes and target attributes. This article will be of interest to readers who want to understand methods for integrating the latest data mining techniques into tourism research. It will also be of use to marketing managers in destinations to better formulate strategies for receiving outbound travelers from Hong Kong, and possibly elsewhere.

What decision rules might pink-footed geese use to depart on migration? An individual-based model

Decisions taken during migration can have a large effect on the fitness of birds. Migration must be accurately timed with food availability to allow efficient fueling but is also constrained by the optimal arrival date at the breeding site. The decision of when to leave a site can be driven by energetics (sufficient body stores to fuel flight), time-related cues (internal clock under photoperiodic control), or external cues (temperature, food resources). An individual based model (IBM) that allows a mechanistic description of a range of departure decision rules was applied to the spring migration of pink-footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) from wintering grounds in Denmark to breeding grounds on Svalbard via 2 Norwegian staging sites. By comparing predicted with observed departure dates, we tested 7 decision rules. The most accurate predictions were obtained from a decision rule based on a combination of cues including the amount of body stores, date, and plant phenology. Decision rules changed over the course of migration with the external cue decreasing in importance and the time-related cue increasing in importance for sites closer to breeding grounds. These results are in accordance with descriptions of goose migration, following the “green-wave”: Geese track the onset of plant growth as it moves northward in spring, with an uncoupling toward the end of the migration if time is running out. We demonstrate the potential of IBMs to study the possible mechanisms underlying stopover ecology in migratory birds and to serve as tools to predict consequences of environmental change.

Assessing body condition and energy budget components by scoring abdominal profiles in free-ranging pink-footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus

An abdominal profile index (API) was developed for pink-footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus as a measure of body condition. On basis of carcass analysis of 56 adult geese with known API prior to collection, we found significant linear relationships between API against body mass, abdominal fat and total energy content. Hence, changes in API reflect net energy intake rates. As an example of the applicability of the calibration, we compared APIs of individually marked geese before and after long migration episodes and estimated the cost of flight at 8.9 kJ/km. In addition we estimated gain rates at three major staging sites along the spring flyway indicating an increase in fueling rates with latitude. Calibration of APIs and energy contents offers new opportunities for field studies of waterfowl energetics.

Sacred rules, secular revelations : the conceptions of rights in pre-modern Europe

This paper is an attempt to reflect on the methodological approaches that I bring to ‘reading law’ in my current project on understandings of individual rights in the legal and theological texts of the twelfth- and early thirteenth-century Middle Ages, entitled ‘Sacred Rules, Secular Revelations: The Conceptions of Rights in Pre-Modern Europe’

Finding footy : female fan socialization and Australian rules football

The question of how, irrespective of gender, a person becomes a sports fan has been absent in sociological studies of sports supporters. Distinct from other studies of sport spectatorship that focus on the practices of already existing (and overwhelmingly male) fans, our research is the first to consider how women become supporters, and in doing so, it begins to redress the significant under-representation of women in sports fan research. From interviews with female supporters of the Australian Football League (AFL), this article identifies and critically assesses the modes by which women come to support sport. We propose four categories to explain the different ways women accomplish fandom, focusing on the importance of strong social ties and doxic actions in this process. The events, experiences and social relations that inform women's first encounters with AFL offers a template for the wider consideration of women as social agents in the sporting landscape.