Comfort letters- a fresh look?

The topic of “comfort letters” is an ongoing debate in Australia. There are arguments for and against enforceability of comfort letters, yet little has been said about how the “law” can be reformed. In support of enforceability, this article provides a comparative perspective on the American and Australian models and suggests that certain principles from the former could be adopted in Australia to eliminate the inconsistency in the treatment of comfort letter cases. The article also analyses Gate Gourmet and Lasalle Bank, two recent cases from Australia and the United States, respectively.

Trade, openness and domestic conflict: an empirical investigation for latin America

This paper explores whether there is an empirical relationship between trade, openness and domestic conflict for Latin America based on the analytical framework of Garfinkel, Skaperdas and Syropoulos (2004). Using ordinal regressions and Markov switching models for seventeen countries, we identify the factors responsible for the initiation and sustenance of domestic conflict. Our overall results suggest that: (i) increased trade openness reduces domestic conflict intensities but (ii) over dependence on agricultural exports, along with poor socio-political performance, lead to sustenance of low intensity conflicts. We also analyze conflict duration using proportional hazard models and find that over-reliance on agricultural exports plays the main role in conflict sustenance after controlling for socio-political factors.

Place of latin in the church

On the evening of Wednesday 13th September 2006, Solemn Vespers began in the historic 13th century chapel of Merton College Oxford, in much the same way as it would have done at the very first sung Vespers in this beautiful space, designed for the classical Roman liturgy already very well established in its language and forms when this chapel was first built 400 years before the English Reformation. For the next four days, the Roman liturgy, through Lauds, Solemn High Mass, Vespers and Compline, were celebrated in a place that – apart from one Novus Ordo Mass in English – had not seen the glories of this Liturgy celebrated in Latin since the mid 1500s. For those of us present at the 11th International Colloquium of the International Centre for Liturgical Studies (CIEL) dedicated to “The Genius of the Roman Liturgy: Historical Diversity and Spiritual Reach”, this was not just an incredibly moving experience, though it was certainly this, but an affirmation of the timelessness and spiritual heritage of the Latin liturgy.

Letters to a young Catholic, by George Weigel

With the Twentieth World Youth Day in Cologne on 16-21 August, this year, scheduled to be the first overseas visit of Pope Benedict XVI, it is timely to consider the latest book from George Weigel, (perhaps best known for his Witness to Hope: The Biography of John Paul II) in which he composes 14 letters specifically aimed at young Catholics, who, like many of their older counterparts, may well be wondering what it means to be a Catholic today.

Crusader churches in the Latin East : expressions of medieval theology

The Latin invaders of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 12th-14th Centuries were on a mission to retrieve and protect the Christian Holy Land from Muslim occupation. They encountered a consistent, Eastern approach to the architectural expression of the Christian faith which the physical remains of their churches show they adopted. Previously, I have shown how it can be deduced from the archaeological remains of churches from the 4th-6th C that early church architecture was influenced by the theological ideas of the period. This paper argues that the Eastern approach to church architecture as adopted by the Crusaders was compatible with the medieval European theological context and can be seen as a legitimate expression of medieval theology.

Realizing the dream of R.A. Kartini : her sisters' letters from colonial Java

1. List of Illustrations -- 2. Notes on Text -- 3. Introduction -- 4. ONE Letters from Rockmini -- 5. TWO Letters from Kardinah -- 6. THREE Letters from Kardinah --7. FOUR Letters from Soematri -- 8. Appendix Documents Relating to the Establishment of the Wismo Pranowo School