Free trade, Gangnam Style: The Korea-Australia free trade agreement

On the 5th December 2013, Australia and Korea announced that they had finalised a new free trade agreement. Is it a fair trade fairytale? Or is it a dirty deal done dirt cheap? It is hard to tell, because the respective governments have not yet published the text of the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA). There has been much debate in the Australian Parliament over the transparency of the trade agreement; the scope of market access provided under the deal; and the impact of the investment chapter, with an investor-state dispute settlement clause. KAFTA foreshadows the approach of the new Conservative Government in Australia to other trade deals – such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

A Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties on the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA)

Australia and South Korea have signed a new free trade agreement - the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA). Is it a fair trade fairytale? Or is it a dirty deal done dirt cheap? Or somewhere in between? It is hard to tell, given the initial secrecy of the negotiations, and the complexity of the texts of the agreement There has been much debate in Parliament over the transparency of the trade agreement; the scope of market access provided under the deal; the impact of the investment chapter, with its investor-state dispute settlement clause; the intellectual property chapter; the environment chapter; its impact upon public health; and the labor rights chapter. KAFTA provides an indication of the approach of the new Conservative Government in Australia to other trade deals – such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

An agreement to negotiate a contract in good faith: No legal content and too uncertain for enforcement

The decision of Baldwin v Icon Energy Ltd [2015] QSC 12 is generally instructive upon the issue of the minimum required to enforce an agreement to negotiate .The language of these agreements is always couched in terms which include the expressions “good faith” and “reasonable endeavours” as descriptive of the yardstick of behaviour of each party in the intended negotiation to follow such an agreement. However, the mere statement of these intended characteristics of negotiation may not be sufficient to ensure that the agreement to negotiate is enforceable.

Agreement between physiotherapists rating scapular posture in multiple planes in patients with neck pain: Reliability study

Objective Evaluation of scapular posture is an integral component of the clinical assessment of painful neck disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate agreement between therapist judgements of scapula posture in multiple biomechanical planes in individuals with neck pain. Design Inter-therapist reliability study. Setting Research laboratory. Participants Fifteen participants with chronic neck pain. Main outcome measures Four physiotherapists recorded ratings of scapular orientation (relative to the thorax) in five different scapula postural planes (plane of scapula, sagittal plane, transverse plane, horizontal plane, and vertical plane) under four test conditions (at rest, and during three isometric shoulder conditions) in all participants. Inter-therapist reliability was expressed using both generalized and paired kappa coefficient. Results Following adjustment for expected agreement and the high prevalence of neutral ratings (81%), on average both the generalised kappa (0.37) as well as Cohen's Kappa for the two therapist pairs (0.45 and 0.42) demonstrated only slight to moderate inter-therapist reliability. Conclusions The findings suggest that ratings of scapular posture in individuals with neck pain by visual inspection has only slight to moderate reliability and should only be used in conjunction with other clinical tests when judging scapula function in these patients.

Submission on NSW Attorney-General's Discussion Paper on Amendment of Limitation of Actions Act 1969 to remove time limit for civil claims for child abuse

The New South Wales Attorney-General and Justice Policy Division released a Discussion Paper about reform of the Limitation of Actions Act 1969. The key question was whether and how to amend the statute to better provide access to justice for civil claimants in child abuse cases. This submission draws on published literature and multidisciplinary research to support the Discussion Paper's Option A, namely, to abolish the time limit for civil claims for injuries in criminal child abuse cases, and for this to be made retrospective.

Agreement Patterns in English : Diachronic Corpus Studies on Common-Number Pronouns

This study reports a diachronic corpus investigation of common-number pronouns used to convey unknown or otherwise unspecified reference. The study charts agreement patterns in these pronouns in various diachronic and synchronic corpora. The objective is to provide base-line data on variant frequencies and distributions in the history of English, as there are no previous systematic corpus-based observations on this topic. This study seeks to answer the questions of how pronoun use is linked with the overall typological development in English and how their diachronic evolution is embedded in the linguistic and social structures in which they are used. The theoretical framework draws on corpus linguistics and historical sociolinguistics, grammaticalisation, diachronic typology, and multivariate analysis of modelling sociolinguistic variation. The method employs quantitative corpus analyses from two main electronic corpora, one from Modern English and the other from Present-day English. The Modern English material is the Corpus of Early English Correspondence, and the time frame covered is 1500-1800. The written component of the British National Corpus is used in the Present-day English investigations. In addition, the study draws supplementary data from other electronic corpora. The material is used to compare the frequencies and distributions of common-number pronouns between these two time periods. The study limits the common-number uses to two subsystems, one anaphoric to grammatically singular antecedents and one cataphoric, in which the pronoun is followed by a relative clause. Various statistical tools are used to process the data, ranging from cross-tabulations to multivariate VARBRUL analyses in which the effects of sociolinguistic and systemic parameters are assessed to model their impact on the dependent variable. This study shows how one pronoun type has extended its uses in both subsystems, an increase linked with grammaticalisation and the changes in other pronouns in English through the centuries. The variationist sociolinguistic analysis charts how grammaticalisation in the subsystems is embedded in the linguistic and social structures in which the pronouns are used. The study suggests a scale of two statistical generalisations of various sociolinguistic factors which contribute to grammaticalisation and its embedding at various stages of the process.

Low-density koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations in the mulgalands of south-west Queensland. IV. Abundance and conservation status

Urban encroachment on dense, coastal koala populations has ensured that their management has received increasing government and public attention. The recently developed National Koala Conservation Strategy calls for maintenance of viable populations in the wild. Yet the success of this, and other, conservation initiatives is hampered by lack of reliable and generally accepted national and regional population estimates. In this paper we address this problem in a potentially large, but poorly studied, regional population in the State that is likely to have the largest wild populations. We draw on findings from previous reports in this series and apply the faecal standing-crop method (FSCM) to derive a regional estimate of more than 59 000 individuals. Validation trials in riverine communities showed that estimates of animal density obtained from the FSCM and direct observation were in close agreement. Bootstrapping and Monte Carlo simulations were used to obtain variance estimates for our population estimates in different vegetation associations across the region. The most favoured habitat was riverine vegetation, which covered only 0.9% of the region but supported 45% of the koalas. We also estimated that between 1969 and 1995 -30% of the native vegetation associations that are considered as potential koala habitat were cleared, leading to a decline of perhaps 10% in koala numbers. Management of this large regional population has significant implications for the national conservation of the species: the continued viability of this population is critically dependent on the retention and management of riverine and residual vegetation communities, and future vegetation-management guidelines should be cognisant of the potential impacts of clearing even small areas of critical habitat. We also highlight eight management implications.

Kokoomus, Kekkonen ja NKP:n luottamus : Kansallisen Kokoomuksen toiminta hallitusaseman saavuttamiseksi 1969-1981

Tutkielmani käsittelee Kokoomuksen suhdetta presidentti Urho Kekkoseen ja Neuvostoliiton Kommunistiseen puolueeseen NKP:hen. Tutkielmassa selvitetään, mitä kokoomuslaiset poliitikot tekivät näiden suhteiden kehittämiseksi ja puolueensa hallitusaseman saavuttamiseksi vuosina 1969-1981. Suomi solmi toisen maailmansodan jälkeen yya-sopimuksen Neuvostoliiton kanssa ja sitoutui noudattamaan ystävällismielistä politiikkaa Neuvostoliittoa kohtaan. Presidentti J. K. Paasikiven kaudella (1946-56) aloitettu ystävyyspolitiikka oli kehittynyt varsin pitkälle 1960-luvun loppuun mennessä. Vuonna 1956 presidentiksi valitun Urho Kekkosen johdolla hyvistä neuvostosuhteista muodostui Suomessa huipputason politiikan teon edellytys. Kekkonen vaati ehdotonta kuuliaisuutta Paasikivi-Kekkosen ulkopoliittiselle linjalle, niin puolueilta kuin yksittäisiltä poliitikoiltakin. Tämän linjan noudattaminen merkitsi Neuvostoliiton arvostelusta pidättäytymistä ja sitä kautta luottamusta Kekkosen ja NKP:n piirissä. Suomettumisen kaudeksi kutsuttuna aikana 1960-70-luvuilla Kokoomuksen asema oli erityisen vaikea, sillä tietyt puolueen poliitikot jatkoivat Kekkosen ja NL:n arvostelua. Muut keskeiset puolueet olivat päässeet Kekkosen ja Neuvostoliiton suosioon, mutta Kokoomusta ei näiden taholta hyväksytty hallituspuolueeksi vuoden 1966 jälkeen. Suurista puolueista SDP lunasti ulkopoliittisen luottamuksen Kekkoselta ja NKP:ltä 1966, eikä Kokoomusta enää välttämättä tarvittu enemmistöhallituksiin Keskustapuolueen pariksi. Kokoomuksen nuorempi polvi ymmärsi, että vaalimenestyksestä riippumatta hallitusasemaa ei enää saavuteta ilman Kekkosen ja NKP:n luottamusta. Vanhempi polvi puolestaan vastusti Urho Kekkosta ja hänen johdollaan kehittynyttä poliittista kulttuuria. Kokoomuksessa alkoi vuonna 1969 taistelu suhtautumisesta Kekkosen presidenttiyteen ja toiminta puolueen neuvostosuhteiden parantamiseksi. Tutkielma perustuu Porvarillisen Työn Arkiston lähdemateriaaliin, aiheesta julkaistuun kirjallisuuteen, Urho Kekkosen päiväkirjoihin ja arkistomateriaaliin sekä henkilöhaastatteluihin.

Ambassador von Staden and Secretary Califano signing the U.S.-German Social Security Agreement; Washington, D.C.

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Erlebnisse 1940-1944 1940-1944

Exile in Haarlem (Holland); deportation to Westerbork (1943) and Bergen-Belsen (1944) concentration camps; in June 1944 liberation from Bergen-Belsen through special agreement; train-ride to Palestine (summer 1944)

The Book of Job 1969

Manuscript: "The Book of Job". Short analysis of or an introduction to a publication on the Book of Job, concerned with the meaning of the ordeals of Job.

Manuel F. Lisan papers 1902-1969

Contains a typescript of memoirs (some sections in several drafts) covering the period until 1907 and describing Lisan's youth in Russia, his journey to America, his early years in Philadelphia, and his travels throughout Pennsylvania. The memoirs also relate in some detail Lisan's Zionist activities in Russia and America and his reaction to world Jewish events. Includes also correspondence covering the years 1902-1969 dealing with Lisan's Zionist activities, as well as announcements (1909-1910) of the Maccabean Zionist Society in Philadelphia and receipts and a Land Certificate from the American Zion Commonwealth and a share certificate from the Jewish Colonial Trust.

Philip Slomovitz South End collection 1969-1974

Contains 1969 and 1971-73 issues of The South End, Wayne State University student paper, as well as correspondence, public statements, petitions and a tape-recording relating to controversies generated by the printing of alleged anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic articles in the newspaper. The correspondence consists for the most part of an exchange of letters between university officials, Jewish community leaders and Leonard N. Simons, a Detroit advertising executive, during the 1969 controversy, and correspondence with Philip Slomovitz, editor of the Detroit Jewish news, in 1972-73. The tape recording is of a February 2, 1969 interview with John Watson, editor of the South end.