Search results

In the theory on the usefulness of criminal sanctions several reasons are advanced why environmental pollution should be criminalised. One of the arguments is that the severe sanctions offered by the criminal law are also used to protect classic interests such as property, health and honour. These were the values that were protected by the criminal law in most of the penal codes that were enacted in the last century. The argument can indeed be made that given the deteriorating state of the environment in many industrialised countries, a clean environment is nowadays at least as important as the other just‐mentioned values that were previously protected by the criminal law. Hence, if the criminal law is used to protect these classic individual values it should also be used to protect environmental interests. Indeed, most of these individual values (such as health and property) cannot even be enjoyed if the basic requirements concerning a clean environment have not been met.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the incentive effects of existing compensation mechanisms in case of the bankruptcy of a financial institution.

The paper uses insights of law and economics to predict the effects of compensation mechanisms on the incentives of depositors, financial institutions, financial regulators and government.

The paper shows that the current compensation system in The Netherlands will not provide sufficient incentives for all stakeholders to prevent the failure of a financial institution. Adjustments to this system are necessary to improve these incentives.

The paper examines for the first time the impact of different compensation mechanisms on the incentives of multiple stakeholders. It also shows how these mechanisms influence each other regarding their incentive generating capability. These findings offer important insights for policy makers.

Evaluates the effects of shipwrecks and peoples’ reactions following them, with regard to their feelings of preventability on someone’s part. In particular to the Erika in 1989, and the Prestige in 2002. The European Union (EU), which theretofore seemed to be neglecting maritime safety appears to have developed a maritime culture. The EU seems to have adopted the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) attitude regarding safety protocols, which must be a right and proper thing to do. Concludes that shipping has needed, and is now receiving, a proactive approach with regard to safety from the EU which should limit, as far as possible, disasters of both a human and ecological kind for the maritime world.

The rapid globalization of modern business and the multicultural nature of its workforce pose major challenges for leadership and human resource management in 1990s. One important area that is yet to be fully explored is the managing of conflict in a multicultural organization where values, orientations, preferences, and attitudes differ significantly among the members. This paper explores the implications of cultural differences for managerial intervention in conflicts between subordinates in organizations using Hofstede's four‐dimensional framework.

This paper offers a general survey of accounting literature in the French language area of the first half of the 20th century: After a general Introduction, referring mainly to renowned French authors of past centuries, it deals first with historical accounting research (Dupont, de Roover, Gomberg, Vlaemminck, etc). Then come publications in financial accounting theory and its application (Faure, Dumarchey, Delaporte, Penglaou, de Fages de Latour, etc.), followed by a section on cost accounting and managerial control (Julhiet, de Fage de Latour, Detoeuf, Satet, Bournisien, Brunei, Sauvegrai, etc.). Alarger Section is devoted to inflationary problems (Delavelle, Raffegeau and Lacout, Bayard, Léger, Faure, Thomas, Bisson, Dumarchey, Durand, Beaupère, Ratier, etc.). Another large section refers to charts of accounts and public supervision (Otlet, Faure, Blairon, Detoeuf, Caujolle, Fourastié, Gabriel, Chardonnet, Gamier, etc.). The paper closes with a concise general conclusion about this period of transition from a mainly traditional agricultural to an industrial society with its costing problems, its organizational control, and its greater service orientation.

In these times of globalisation, distances are getting smaller, enhancing the interactions between people of different cultural backgrounds. This is especially true in the area of tourism, a field that is shaped by manifold communication activities. The enormous increases in the numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Europe and other Western destinations require building up intercultural competencies to minimise conflicts and promote mutual understanding. It is therefore necessary to question one’s own cultural view, which is why the debate surrounding de-Westernisation is of crucial importance. The metaphor of the atmosphere – in Chinese qifen – offers a helpful access point to strengthen mutual understanding, because it creates a bridge between eastern and western thinking. Paul Watzlawick (1967) developed his well-known five axioms of communication, the second of which states that every communication has both content and a relational aspect, and the latter classifies the former. This chapter shows why the atmospheric dimension of communication should be established as the third axiom in order to understand communication holistically.

In this paper, some particularities of environmental insurance are addressed. First, the paper summarizes the general conditions of insurability. Then, it is explained why insuring environmental liability may be difficult. Specifically, the necessity of an adequate risk differentiation may be difficult to obtain in cases of environmental liability. Then, it is explained how, at the theoretical level, a move towards different insurance schemes (notably first party or direct insurance schemes) provides a solution to problems of insurance of environmental liability. Although the move towards first party or direct environmental insurance may seem attractive at a theoretical level, nevertheless a variety of practical questions may arise. The alternative utilized in practice is not first party insurance (whereby victims would take out insurance coverage), but a form of direct insurance, whereby environmental damage is insured directly, that is to say as soon as damage occurs and irrespective of liability. The paper then discusses a recent example of such a direct environmental insurance, as it was applied in the Netherlands. Although this system seems to have considerable benefits, the major disadvantage lies in the fact that apparently all insurers in the Netherlands moved to this new environmental damage insurance. This raises important questions as to the competitiveness of the particular market.

This article analyzes two of the determinants of the effectiveness of the mediation process, namely the impact of different mediators and mediation behavior on mediation outcomes in international relations. We review the literature and consider this relationship in terms of specific hypotheses concerning (1) the identity of a mediator, (2) previous interactions with the parties, (3) previous mediation attempts, and (4) the nature of mediation strategy. An original data set of 97 international disputes and 364 mediation attempts in the post‐1945 period is utilized to test our hypotheses. Multivariate analysis suggests the significance of high mediator rank, directive strategy, and close political alignment in achieving successful outcomes. We use these results to posit and test a series of causal models of mediation.