Volume 14, Issue 1-3 -

The ratcheting up of international intellectual property erodes access to affordable medicines in developing countries. As a result, WTO began a process of multilateral re-regulation aiming to secure so-called “TRIPS flexibilities” (2001 Doha Declaration). However, an unworkable mechanism for importing generics under compulsory licence was designed within such process (2003 Decision). Reasonably, alternative policy options have to be considered.

This paper analyses the Proposal for a Directive on improving the gender balance on boards of directors of listed companies, approved by the European Commission on 14 November 2012. After briefly exposing the reasons of the Commission to foster gender balance and the background of the Proposal, the legal basis is examined, as well as the respect of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. Surprisingly, there is no reference to the freedom of establishment, which is the legal basis of the European Company Law. Then, the research focuses on the field of application, which is very limited, and afterwards the obligations imposed on listed companies through the Member States. They are not forced to select women as non-executive directors but only to use pre-established, clear, neutrally worded and unambiguous criterion. Despite the principle of proportionality, the Proposal sets also obligations regarding executive directors. Nonetheless, they are too abstract. After considering the obligations of disclosure and fostering gender balance, the research focus on the sanctions, whose realization is left to the Member States. Then I analyse the entry into force, the duration and the possibility of revision of the Directive. The paper ends with the conclusions and the bibliography.

The article examines the extent to which systems theory (otherwise known as autopoietic theory) is useful for deepening our understanding of corruption in Indonesia. Socio-legal scholarship has conventionally assumed a direct causal link between law and social behaviour, but system theory enables scholars to consider alternative forces that are actually at work in shaping social behaviour. The article argues that while systems theory is useful, particularly in mapping out the complex relationships between different social systems and epistemic communities, it may not be the best analytical tool to approach the topic of corruption in Indonesia.

In March 2013, the United Nations (UN) Security Council (UNSC) has authorized the deployment of a brigade-level combat unit in support of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), giving it explicit combat tasks. This has been unexpected, since it goes beyond the traditional concepts of peacekeeping and peace-enforcement and the defensive posture that have so far characterized the deployment of multinational forces under direct command of the United Nations in areas of crisis.

Stable and peaceful country by West African standards, Mali uneasily fits the paradigm of a “failed state.” While government and development agencies tend to interpret Mali’s stability as the outcome of successful institutional reform, foreign scholars and local intellectuals emphasize the power of enduring traditions and their adaptation to changing conditions in Malian society. Critically assessing both views, this paper addresses Mali’s peaceful condition from the perspective of Mande, the region south-west of the capital Bamako. It draws attention to the intensely mediated form of government resulting from the dynamic process of grouping and of building cooperative relations in everyday social life. Contributing to the anthropological tradition studying law, politics and the state in Africa, the paper links recent trends in the anthropology of the state to a reanalysis of the traditional chestnut of the anthropology of West Africa, a “segmentary style” of social organization.