Alpine Common Property Institutions under Change: Conditions for Successful and Unsuccessful Collective Action by Alpine Farmers in the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland

The protection and sustainable management of alpine summer pastures has been stated as a goal in Swiss national law since 1996, and direct payments from the state for summer pasturing have been tied to sustainability criteria since 2000. This reflects the increasing value of the alpine cultural landscape as a public good. However, provision of this public good remains in the hands of local farmers and their local common pool resource (CPR) institutions for managing alpine pastures. These institutions are increasingly struggling to maintain their institutional arrangements, particularly regarding the work needed to maintain the pastures. This paper examines two cases of local CPR institutions for managing alpine pastures in the Swiss Canton of Grisons that manifest different institutional developments in light of changing conditions. The differences in how these institutions reacted to change and the impacts this has had on the provision of the CPR are explained by focusing on relative prices, bargaining power, and ideology as drivers of institutional change that are often neglected within common property research. Key words: summer pasture management, institutional change, bargaining power, ideology

Rechtsmittel gegen Entscheide des juge d'appui bei der internationalen Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit der Schweiz

The author examines whether and by which means the decisions handed down by the State judge giving his support to the arbitral proceeding (juge d'appui) may be appealed. Every relevant Article in the PILA (Private International Law Act) is addressed and analyzed in this regard (Art. 179(2) and (3), Art. 180(3), Art. 183(2), Art. 184(3) and Art. 185) by reference to the present legal doctrine and case law. Concerning the stages of appeal, the view is held that by direct or analogous application of Art. 356(2) CPC (Civil Procedure Code) the juge d'appui has jurisdiction as the sole instance of the Canton to render decisions in support of the arbitral tribunal. On the federal level however, the parties shall have the right to appeal against these decisions by filing a civil law appeal before the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, with the exception of most decisions given by juge d'appui within the meaning of Art. 180(3) PILA. As to this federal appeal, it is established that the case law of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court under the FTA (Act on the Federal Tribunal) indicates the Court's inclination to qualify both negative and positive decisions issued by the juge d'appui as final decisions in terms of Art. 90 FTA. In reference to the upcoming revision of the PILA's 12th Chapter the author concludes that the legislator might implement some clarifications in the current legal framework. It seems particularly advisable to ensure that all relevant Articles in the PILA regarding decisions of the juge d'appui explicitly reference to Art. 356(2) CPC. Moreover, the author is of the opinion that it would also be expedient to specify the

Les experiences de retour des sans-papiers rentrés en Equateur: Ressources et defies, mesures proposes pour un retour viable

Notre compréhension de la migration du retour est encore très limitée. Ce sujet n’a que peu retenu l’attention des spécialistes de la migration et il existe peu d’études qui donnent une vision différenciée sur les divers types de « retourné-e-s », leurs motivations à retourner dans leurs pays, les défis qu’ils/elles affrontent et les ressources dont ils/elles disposent pour parvenir à se réinsérer dans les pays d’origine. Il existe en particulier un manque important d’études qui examinent en détail la situation spécifique du retour des migrant-e-s sans-papiers et l’impact de l’aide de programmes gouvernementaux pour leur réinsertion socio-économique. Cette lacune est particulièrement marquée dans le cas de la Suisse. Confronté à la situation d’absence d’évaluations des programmes d’appui au retour des sans-papiers, et dans le but d’y apporter des améliorations possibles à son propre programme, le Service de la Population du canton de Vaud a chargé Yvonne Riaño de mener une recherche sur la situation de retour des sans-papiers retournés en Équateur entre 2008-2010 avec l’appui du programme. La recherche présentée ici se base sur un travail de terrain réalisé en Équateur en 2010. Nous avons rencontré 25 familles (70% du total des familles rentrées avec l’aide du Canton de Vaud) habitant dans diverses régions du pays et avons recueilli leurs expériences de retour. La méthodologie choisie pour la récolte des données est qualitative et combine entretiens narratifs et semi-directifs. La recherche examine les raisons d'émigration et du retour des personnes interviewées ainsi que la situation actuelle de leurs projets de réinsertion, leurs ressources disponibles et le défis auxquels elles font face pour la réalisation de leurs projets. Six principes clés sont proposés pour repenser l’aide au retour de façon à pouvoir garantir un retour viable.

Die Sakralisierung des Alpenraums: Kulturelle Interpretationsmuster der rätischen Kapuzinermission (17. und 18. Jh.)

The Capuchins of the Rhaetic Missions had to deal with local forms of catholic piety, which for them were almost as exotic as the religious practices of non-Christian communities in Asia or America. Therefore they regarded it as their task to propagate the true faith among the “schismatic” Catholics from the Grisons. For this purpose, the Capuchins developed a particular pattern of interpretation: They created a sacred territory in which the divine grace can be experienced by the faithful. Hence the missionaries built new churches and chapels, decorated the old ones in baroque style and brought numerous of holy relics from Italy. Thus, they enforced the sacralisation of the alpine space. Recent developments in cultural studies and social sciences make it possible to capture such processes of spacing more precisely. In the course of the “spatial turn”, space is no longer conceived as a physical entity but now is regarded as a human construct. The paper discusses possibilities and limitations of “space” as an analytical category for the study of mission within Catholicism. The sociological concept of space developed by Martina Löw (2001) is used as starting point. This allows the simultaneous consideration of social interactions and cultural contexts in construction of “sacred space”.

Eine tragfähige Datenbrücke – Phänologische Beobachtungen im Amtsblatt des Kantons Schaffhausen 1876–1950

The international standardisation of national meteorological networks in the late nineteenth century excluded biotic and abiotic observations from the objects to be henceforth published in the yearbooks. Skilled amateurs being in charge of three meteorological stations in Canton Schaffhausen (Switzerland) and their successors managed to continuously publish phenological observations gathered in the station environment alongside with meteorological data in the official gazette of this Canton from 1876 to 1950, i.e. up to the onset of phenological network observations in Switzerland. At least ten observations are available for 51 plant and animal phenological phases. Long series were assembled (N → = 30) for 14 plant phenological observations, among them for the first flowering of snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), of hazel (Corylus avellana), of horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), of winter rye (Secale cereale) and of grape vine (Vitis vinifera) as well as the beginning of hay, winter rye and grape harvesting. Only the bare data were published without any metadata. The quality of 10 long series (N →=60) was checked by investigating the biographical and biological background of key observers and submitting their evidence to graphical (meteorological plausibility check of outliers) and statistical verification. The long term observers, mostly schoolteachers and high school professors, had a good knowledge of botany and the quality of their observations – disregarding obvious printing errors – is surprisingly good. A number of long series (seven) was completed with applicable data from the Swiss Phenological Network up to 2011. Besides anthropogenic shifts (beginning of hay and grape harvest) there is a contrast between a global warming-related earlier flowering of snowdrop and hazel and a later occurrence of grape vine flowering.