Academic literature on the topic 'Constitution de transition'

AbstractWhen an authoritarian state starts democratic transition reforms, the constitution can facilitate such reforms. However, a little-studied role of the constitution during democratic transition is that it can back indigenous peoples’ demands. Constitutional reform during democratic transition enables indigenous peoples to challenge the state's ‘internal colonialism’. The democratic institutions and democratic rights established and guaranteed by the constitution open possibilities for indigenous peoples to push for constitutional reforms that promote ‘internal decolonization’. This means that indigenous peoples are empowered and that their interests are protected. For indigenous peoples, a ‘double transition’ can thus take place: from authoritarianism to democracy, and from internal colonialism to internal decolonization. A case study of the constitutional reforms in Taiwan confirms that the constitution can guarantee indigenous peoples’ participation in constitutional reform. But in Taiwan, this involvement has not led to meaningful incorporation of indigenous peoples in the constitution, and it has not fully promoted double transition. The case study highlights serious problems for indigenous peoples to realize strong constitutional reforms. This article provides a foundation for additional research on constitutional change and indigenous peoples. This is critical to advance constitutional theory and to ascertain whether and how constitutions can give indigenous peoples a voice.

In this article the author analyses formation of the country's constitutional legislation system. In the 20th century Spain experienced three different periods: the years of the Second Republic in 1931-1939, the Franco's dictatorship of 1939-1975 and the period of transition to democracy or, as it is called ‘constitutional transit' of 1975-1980, when the basic laws and regulations of democratic Spain were adopted. Each of these periods corresponded with fundamentally different lawmaking processes, based on different legal judicial norms that were strongly influenced by the peculiarities of the political situation in the country. This article examines the background of the creation of Spanish constitutions in a particular historical period, the domestic and international situation and its influence on the peculiarities of lawmaking process. The author studies the history of the constitutional documents' adoption, considers and examines their structure and content in a highly detailed way. The author scrutinizes not only the logic, but also the sequence and reasons for the adoption of all Spanish constitutional and legal acts, as well as their meaning and influence on the legal system of the state. The Fundamental Laws of Frankish Spain, as well as the Spanish Constitution of 1978, the Political Reform Act, the rulings of the Spanish Constitutional Court and other acts, the peculiarities of the transition process to democracy and the legal break with the Frankish epoch and its system of lawmaking are studied in the article. It is worth noting that, at a time when the exist opinions that the Spanish Constitution is outdated and needs reforming, the conclusion about its fundamental role for the peaceful transition to a new Spain at the end of the 20th century and its legal relevance is the issue of utmost importance.

Three different monarchical systems emerge from the Constitution. From constitutional monarchy based on the English model, through monarchy with some features of a republic, to a monarchy with the principle of unity of state power. The acts show that the Polish king was situated between a monarch dominated by the legislature and a sovereign monarch. He was not a figurehead. The introduction into the constitution of the principles of the sovereignty of the nation and the tripartite division of power meant that the organs of the state, and the king was one of them, performed only such activities as were allowed by the constitution. This is what the May and French Constitutions of 1791 stated. The Constitutional Charter of 1814 returned to the principle of unity of power. The monarch exercised not only the powers enumerated in the Charter, but also those not reserved to other bodies. The provisions of the Charter proved attractive to monarchies seeking a transition from enlightened absolutism to a constitutional parliamentary monarchy.

The research have focused on the ramifications of the" 25 January revolution" on the Egyptian constitution and how the masses in which participated in the revolution aimed a rapid democratic transition through the writing of a new constitution in order to be inevitable document leading to their salvation from authoritarianism and false constitutions that had become outmoded. Although the Egyptian constitutional experience, From the wording perspective, have many positive aspects; but the process of drafting is requiring consensus about constitution, basically agree on the basic philosophy in which the Constitution is based on, or the purpose of drafting the Constitution itself, at the same time, the goal is absent from the Egyptian experience. Also, the political factions that carried the banner of change after the" 25 January revolution" was not able to answer the following question: What is the purpose of drafting a new constitution to replacing "the 1971 Constitution"?. This situations led to the intensification of division and conflict among factions, in addition, excluded the most important political faction.

AbstractThis article examines the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines’ provisions on social and economic rights and welfare. It considers how the 1987 Constitution fits within the post-liberal paradigm of ‘transformative’ constitutional texts that emerged during democratic transitions in the 1980s and 1990s. It then analyses how the Supreme Court of the Philippines responded to the constitutional call for egalitarian socio-economic reform in the first fifteen years after the People Power revolution. The article highlights how the 1987 Constitution envisions far-reaching, progressive socio-economic change, and incorporates both social and economic rights as well as open-ended policy goals in this regard. The article argues that this hybrid approach to distributive justice creates a distinctive set of interpretive challenges for the judiciary. It then argues that the Philippine Supreme Court’s approach to these provisions in the years following the transition to democracy was perfunctory and somewhat inchoate. The court affirmed its jurisdiction over these provisions, but did not develop meaningful standards or principles in relation to them. The article points out that transformative constitutional texts place difficult demands on the judiciary in relation to social and economic rights. They prompt the judiciary into unfamiliar domains. At the same time, institutional legitimacy – including legitimacy on questions of distributive justice – requires judges to sustain the sense of a cogent boundary between constitutional law and politics. The article argues that these challenges were heightened in the Philippines by the textual ambiguity of the 1987 Constitution as well as the relative dearth of jurisprudential resources at the time. It concludes by considering the implications of the Philippines experience for the design of transformative constitutions.

Abstract The overture of the paper provides a brief survey of the philosophical positions (from Aristotle to the contemporary debate) focusing the conjecture of the legal and constitutional continuum as a problematic presupposition of theories of constituent power. The positions of the authors that we can call as continuist authors (up to Kelsen and the neo-normativism, including Soviet jurists and theorists of the constitutional cycles) constitutes the dominant part of the theoretical evolution. We discuss it (respectfully) even if we openly criticize it, with a peculiar debate involving that other position called as discontinuist (whose authors are especially Marxists philosophers, anti-fascist intellectuals like Piero Gobetti, and their references in philosophy such as Leibniz and Vico). In the first movement of the paper, we reconstruct the equivoque at the basis of the conjecture of the continuum. It corresponds to a «three-time» scheme of constitutional dynamics: (revolutionary) rupture – transition – constitution. This structure makes useless (conceptually unusable, and perhaps sources of logical contradictions) both rupture and transition. The second and final movement underlines the theoretical demand to consider the transition and the constitution as coextensive domains. Transition is, in other words, already Constitution, and the constitution is always a transition. To the latter ones, we introduce and add another phenomenon characterizing the historical phase of the transition, namely the Resistance. The fact of resistance escapes the constitutionalisation, and imposes upon the latter a necessary character of transition.

The delicate process of constitution-making during transition covers a range of issues, but usually features questions on how to address past human rights violations, change repressive laws, recognise basic rights and reform state institutions. Hence, the constitution-making process can have significant implications on the transitional justice mechanisms that are adopted and how they are implemented. In the case of Ghana, the 1992 Constitution came into force after decades of political instability. On 28 April 1992, a draft constitution for Ghana’s fourth republic was approved in a referendum. As part of the transitional provisions in the 1992 Constitution, amnesty provisions were enshrined to protect members of all previous military regimes from prosecution. However, the 1992 Constitution did not contain express provisions for initiation of other transitional justice mechanisms. In a bid to reflect on the rarely examined relationship between transitional justice mechanisms and constitutionalism, this paper shall examine Ghana’s amnesty laws, truth commission and reparative measures in relation to the constitution-making process and constitutional norms. The paper opines that as separate processes towards a common end, proper synchronisation of Ghana’s transitional justice processes and constitution-making could have shaped the country’s transitional justice mechanisms in the right direction towards achieving their perceived goals.

The Constitutional Court of South Africa has played a unique role in the country’s constitutional transition. This paper starts by detailing the historical and political context of the Interim Constitution which created the Constitutional Court and the constitutional principles. The article describes the approach of the Court in the First Certification Judgment (1996), analysing the impact of the Constitutional Court’s decision on the drafting of the final Constitution and the public more generally, before briefly outlining the role that the Court continues to play in protecting constitutional democracy as a ‘Guardian of the Solemn Pact’.

This article discusses political developments in Czechoslovakia and the two successor states from November 1989 to the end of 1992. Three main topics are explored: the failure to write a new constitution for Czechoslovakia, the breakup of the country, and the making of new constitutions in the Czech and Slovak Republics. The author argues against the view that the breakup of the Czechoslovak federation was analogous to the breakup of the Yugoslav or Soviet federations. Instead he suggests the inherent instability of any two-member federation as the structural cause, and economic conflicts as the triggering cause, of the breakup.

Abstract This article focuses on the co-constitution of the home and age(ing) in the retirement transition, that is, how the experiences of home change in the transition from work to retirement, and how the experiences of retiring change with transformations of the home. The article first outlines current literature on transitions in later life and the home. Subsequently, it presents data from the project ‘Doing Retiring’ along three lines of inquiry: meanings, practices and negotiations of and within the home, and how they change across the retirement transition. Finally, it discusses implications of understanding the transition from work to retirement and the home as not merely related, but co-constitutive. It concludes by suggesting a ‘doing’ approach to life course transitions which focuses on socio-material practices and thus offers a prominent place in transition research to spatiality, materiality and processuality.

Les transitions constitutionnelles sont des processus de remplacement d'une Constitution par une autre. Elles sont de plus en plus régulièrement structurées par un ensemble de textes. Ces corpus de transition forment ce qu'il est possible de présenter comme un droit constitutionnel pour la construc-tion constitutionnelle. Produits d'un choix des acteurs politiques, ils traduisent une réappropriation des outils et concepts constitutionnels classiques en fonction des enjeux et impératifs du moment. Le droit semble en ce sens employé en tant qu'instrument de normalisation d'une période anormale. Il en résulte un ensemble de contradictions rendant particulièrement complexe l'appréhension de ces textes, qu'il s'agisse de leur nature ou de leur fonction. Plusieurs concepts ont déjà été présentés par la doctrine afin de mettre en lumière certaines de leurs spécificités. Dans la continuité de ces ré-flexions, la présente étude propose de recourir au concept de droit méta-constitutionnel pour définir et analyser ce droit paradoxal.La préposition grecque « méta » signifie la succession, le changement, la transformation. Elle souligne l'implication des textes concernés dans l'édification du futur système constitutionnel, et permet en ce sens de considérer les fonctions de norme et de méta-norme constitutionnelle ainsi que les finalités méta-juridiques des corpus de transition. Ces textes sont en effet pensés pour orchestrer le présent, mais construisent également le futur système constitutionnel. Cette double temporalité, associée à l'instabilité politique et juridique du moment, commande une réadaptation des schèmes scientifiques classiques, en fonction des ambitions concrètes de ce droit exceptionnel.La présente thèse propose de soutenir ce point à travers une étude de droit constitutionnel com-paré se concentrant sur un type d'actes composant les corpus de transition : les Constitutions de tran-sition. Seize Constitutions de transition ont été identifiées entre 1989 et 2019. Elles sont définies comme les textes cumulant des dispositions déconstituante(s), constituante(s) et constitutive(s). Cette catégorie représente la quintessence du paradoxe d'un droit constitutionnel pour la construction constitutionnelle. La qualification de leur nature et de leur fonction s'avère en effet complexe, parta-gée entre la réalité d'une Constitution et les conséquences de la transition. Un raisonnement en termes de droit méta-constitutionnel permettrait cependant d'appréhender pleinement ces instru-ments. Véritables méta-Constitutions, les Constitutions de transition forment un objet atypique, mais au combien novateur pour la science du droit
Constitution-making process are processes whereby one constitution is replaced by another. They are regularly structured by a collection of texts. These transitional corpus form what can be described as constitutional law for constitutional construction. As a product of political actors choices, they reflect a reappropriation of classic constitutional tools and concepts in line with the issues and imperatives of the moment. In this sense, the law seems to be used as an instrument to normalise an abnormal period. The result is a series of contradictions that make it particularly com-plex to understand these texts, whether in terms of their nature or their function. A number of con-cepts have already been presented by legal writers in order to highlight some of their specific fea-tures. Following on from these reflections, this study proposes to use the concept of meta-constitutional law to define and analyse this paradoxical law

This thesis attempts to determine what local and national issues between 1937 and 1986 influenced the Tohono O'odham decision to revise their constitution. The Tohono O'odham Nation is still in a transitional phase of constitutional revision. Thesis suggests a number of factors that hinder the smooth transition of the revisions into the 1986 revised constitution. Such factors include the fact that there seems to be an unequal distribution of power among the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches allowing too much power to reside in the Legislative branch of the government, and continues to instill political weight in the Legislative council even after the pre 1986 tribal council. Two recommendations are offered for future consideration of the revisions in the present constitution. They are, (1) to create a more representative constitutional review committee that includes tribal elders, and (2) an equal distribution of power in the three branch form of government.

Cette thèse est consacrée pour analyser le droit de transition dans le cas de la Tunisie en évoquant la légitimité de la révolution et la légalité de la transition en Tunisie. Le contexte de la transition été expliqué pour mieux comprendre dans quelles circonstances elle s'est opérée et quelle incidence ce contexte va avoir sur l'ensemble du processus de transition. Il s’agira de mettre en avant, d'abord, l'originalité du processus de la transition constitutionnelle en Tunisie ensuite une étude de la nouvelle constitution. De même la recherche explique comment ont été conciliés les souhaits progressistes et le respect de l'identité tunisienne à travers la préservation d'un certain nombre de valeurs et principes de tendance conservatrice. Enfin, l'objet de la thèse se prolonge pour analyser de manière concrète, le passage de la transition constitutionnelle à la transition démocratique, à travers la mise en place plus ou moins effective des nouvelles institutions. Mais, il été nécessaire de montrer que si le processus de transition constitutionnelle semble achevé, sa mise en œuvre pratique rencontre un certain nombre de difficultés qu'il conviendrait de résoudre pour que la phase de transition démocratique puisse véritablement s'achever
This thesis is devoted to analyze the right of transition in the case of Tunisia by mentioning the legitimacy of the revolution and the legality of the transition in Tunisia. The context of the transition was explained to better understand the circumstances in which it occurred and how that context will affect the entire transition process. It will be a question of putting forward, first, the originality of the process of the constitutional transition in Tunisia then a study of the new Constitution. In the same way the research explains how the progressive wishes and the respect of the Tunisian identity were reconciled through the preservation of a certain number of values and principles of conservative tendency. Finally, the object of the thesis is prolonged to analyze of concretely, the transition from the constitutional transition to the democratic transition, through the more or less effective implementation of new institutions. However, it has been necessary to show that, while the process of constitutional transition seems to have been completed, its practical implementation encounters a number of difficulties that should be resolved in order for the democratic transition phase to truly end

La dynamique des crises politiques au Burkina Faso a été empreinte de mobilisations multisectorielles ayant entraîné une désectorisation conjoncturelle de l'espace social avec pour corollaire une mobilité des enjeux des confrontations et des transactions collusives d’opposition et de gouvernement. Ces mobilisations se sont faites autour d’enjeux relatifs notamment : à la conquête du pouvoir d’État, au contrôle de l’appareil d’État ; à l’amélioration des conditions de vie des travailleurs ; à la propriété foncière ; à l’intangibilité des règles constitutionnelles relatives à l’exercice du pouvoir d’État ; à l’alternance au sommet de l’État ; à la participation de certains acteurs à la compétition politique ; à la prise de mesures d’atténuation de la cherté de la vie ; à la quête de la vérité et de la justice.Au final, les mobilisations multisectorielles ont été à l’origine de changements politiques qui, selon la conjoncture, ont été soit pacifiques, soit violents.Quelles que soient leurs caractéristiques, les différentes crises politiques ont contraint les protagonistes, mais aussi des tierces personnes à ces crises, à y trouver des solutions par le recours à diverses stratégies.Ces stratégies de sortie de crises politiques se sont jouées autour d’enjeux liés à : la conservation du pouvoir politique, la préservation de la paix sociale, le redressement économique et financier de l’État, le rétablissement de l’ordre public, la quête de la vérité et de la justice, l’obtention du pardon et de la réconciliation nationale.Elles ont donné lieu à une diversité d’initiatives avec pour corollaire une variété des moyens, coercitifs et pacifiques, utilisés pour sortir des situations de crise. En outre, les initiatives de sortie de crises politiques ont débouché sur des dynamiques de transitions constitutionnelles et de justice transitionnelle. Si elles ont constitué des processus distincts, elles n’en ont pas moins eu des finalités communes : la garantie des droits et la reconstruction de l’État de droit. Ces finalités communes peuvent coïncider de sorte que la dynamique de justice transitionnelle intègre le texte constitutionnel consacrant ainsi sa constitutionnalisation. Finalement, ces dynamiques transitionnelles ont constitué des fenêtres d’opportunités pour procéder à des réformes constitutionnelles et de politiques publiques
The dynamics of the political crises in Burkina Faso have been marked by multisectoral mobilizations having led to a cyclical desectorization of the social space, with the consequence of a mobility of the stakes of confrontations and collusive opposition and government transactions.These mobilizations were made around relative issues including: the conquest of state power, the control of the state apparatus; to the improvement of the living conditions of the workers; land ownership; the inviolability of constitutional rules relating to the exercise of State power; alternation at the top of the state; the participation of certain actors in the political competition; taking measures to mitigate the high cost of living and the quest for truth and justice.In the end, the multisectoral mobilizations have been at the origin of political changes which, according to the conjuncture, were either peaceful or violent.The different political strategies have forced the protagonists, but also third parties to these crises, to find solutions by the use of various strategies.These strategies out of political crises were played around issues related to: the preservation of political power, the preservation of social peace, the economic and financial recovery of the state, the restoration of public order, the quest truth and justice, obtaining forgiveness and national reconciliation.They have given rise to a variety of initiatives, resulting in a variety of means, coercive and peaceful, used to emerge from crisis situations. In addition, the initiatives to end political crises have resulted in constitutional transitions and transitional justice. Although they constituted distinct processes, they nevertheless had common goals: the guarantee of rights and the reconstruction of the rule of law. These common goals can coincide so that the dynamics of transitional justice integrate the constitutional text thus consecrating its constitutionalisation. Finally, these transitional dynamics constituted windows of opportunity to carry out constitutional and public policy reforms

The ZODIAC (Zinc and Other Developments in Alloy Coatings) line is targeted mainly at the automotive sector. The continuous hot dip galvanising line is currently using a single pot practice for the production of both galvannealed (GA) and galvanised (GI) coatings. During the GA campaign, as iron dissolves from the strip, the presence of an increasing quantity of iron in the molten bath results eventually in the precipitation of bottom dross particles. These particles may become trapped within the coating and cause pimple defects during the forming operation. The accumulation of bottom dross particles in the galvanising bath affects the operating efficiency of the production line. To bring these bottom dross particles to the bath surface, the bath aluminium level is increased. This allows the transformation of bottom dross into top dross particles and the production of GI coatings. Top dross particles rise to the bath surface where they are removed, by the operators, in the skimmings. Three major trials have been conducted on the ZODIAC line to investigate the chemical and physical constitution of the galvanising spelter during the GA to GI transition. The results reveal interesting information on the constitution of the galvanising spelter during the transition, particularly with respect to bath chemistry (total and effective Al as well as total and soluble Fe levels), dross characterisation of the bath (types and sizes of particles), skimmings characterisation (Al and Fe levels) and coating characterisation (Al and Fe levels). Numerical regression analyses have allowed the determination of the way in which operating and metallurgical parameters affect the compositions of the coating during production runs. The results of mass balance calculations reveal the distributions of the Al and Zn, resulting from the bath additions, during the transition. Investigations have been conducted to try to determine the influence of the way in which the Al alloying additions is made (e.g. by jumbo or brightener bars additions, location of additions) on dross formation and dross transformation behaviour.

L’objet de cette thèse est de replacer la Constitution de la Fédération de Russie, adoptée par référendum le 12 décembre 1993, dans ses différents contextes de production. En effet, ce texte juridique est à la fois le produit d’une Histoire courte et d’une Histoire longue, d’un conflit intra-élite et d’une somme de représentations héritées des périodes précédentes et reconstruites à la fin des années 80 et au début des années 90. Ainsi, il ne semblait pas suffisamment pertinent de limiter notre étude au processus rédactionnel proprement dit, entamé à l’été 1990. Nous avons pris le parti de tenter de reconstituer ce que pouvait être l’« épistémè », les représentations politico-juridiques, des acteurs ayant joué un rôle décisif dans la discussion de la Constitution. Ce parti nécessitait de retracer les occurrences les plus significatives de l’Histoire du droit et des institutions en Russie tsariste et en Union Soviétique. Cette démarche fait l’objet de la première partie de la Thèse, « La Péréstroïka comme réceptacle, révolution et modèle ». Il ressort de l’analyse que malgré la présence de traditions intellectuelles libérales et d’institutions proto-parlementaires, la tradition dominante, et acceptée comme telle par les rédacteurs de la Constitution russe, est largement antijuridique et autoritaire. C’est dans ce contexte que les acteurs de la Ière République russe ont cherché à puiser dans les modèles étrangers (américain et français en particulier) et les modèles théoriques du Droit constitutionnel (régime parlementaire et régime présidentiel) pour créer le nouvel agencement institutionnel. La seconde partie de la thèse, « Le processus de rédaction de la Constitution de 1993 », porte sur l’Histoire courte, c’est-à-dire sur les années 1990-1993 qui ont vu s’affronter deux camps, tant sur le plan politique que constitutionnel. Le camp du Congrès des députés du peuple emmené par son Président Rouslan Khasboulatov défendait un projet permettant d’assurer la domination du Parlement, alors que le camp du Président de la Fédération, emmené par Boris Eltsine, cherchait à imposer un projet assurant à la présidence une position dominante. De part et d’autre, les modèles empiriques et théoriques du Droit constitutionnel furent instrumentalisés et largement trahis. Entre ces deux camps, la Commission constitutionnelle crée au sein du Congrès des députés du peuple cherchait, à travers ses différents projets, à trouver un agencement équilibré nourri des expériences étrangères et de la science du Droit constitutionnel. Le camp de la présidence réussit finalement à faire prévaloir ses vues, dans le cadre d’une Conférence constitutionnelle organisée en juin 1993, mais surtout par sa victoire politique sur le camp du Congrès suite à la crise d’octobre 1993. Le texte adopté par référendum le 12 décembre 1993, très favorable à la Présidence, peut être considéré comme l’héritier de ce conflit, mais également en partie comme l’héritier des traditions politiques russes et soviétiques
The aim of this dissertation is to analyse the Constitution of the Russian Federation passed by referendum on 12 December 1993, in its various contexts of production. Indeed, this legal text is both the result of a short history and of a long history, of an intra-elite conflict and of an amount of representations, inherited from the past and rebuilt at the end of the 80’s and at the beginning of the 90’s. We chose to attempt to reconstruct what has been the « épistémè », the legal and political representations of the key actors of the constitutional discussions. This choice made it necessary to recount the most significant facts and conceptions of the legal and institutional history of Tsarist Russia and Soviet Union. This approach is found in the first part of this dissertation, « Perestroika as a recipient, a revolution and a model ». It appears that despite the existence of liberal traditions and proto-parliamentary institutions, the dominant tradition, granted as such by the drafters of the Russian Constitution, is basically anti-juridical and authoritarian. It is in this context that the actors of the first Russian Republic tried to use foreign patterns (mostly American and French) and the theoretical patterns of Constitutional law (parliamentary regime and presidential regime) in order to create the new institutional design. The second part of the dissertation, « The redaction process of the Constitution of 1993 », deals with short history, that is years the 1990-1993 during which two sides challenged each other, both on a political and on constitutional grounds. The side of the Congress of People’s Deputies led by its President, Ruslan Khasbulatov, promoted a project of Parliament domination, while the side of the President of the Federation promoted a project of President domination. On both sides, empirical and theoretical patterns of constitutional law were exploited and their true meanings betrayed. Between these two sides, the Constitutional Commission created by the Congress of People’s Deputies, through its several drafts, tried to find a balanced design on the basis of foreign patterns and of the science of constitutional law. Finally, on the side of the President there was success in making its conceptions prevail, within a Constitutional Conference organized in June 1993, but mainly through its political victory of October 1993. The text passed on 12 December 1993, very much in favor of the Presidency, can be considered as the heir of this conflict, but as well partly as the heir of Russian and Soviet political traditions

This thesis describes theoretical investigations into the dynamics of superfluid films and the effects of disorder on the roughening transition of crystal surfaces. The dynamic theory of superfluid helium films, due to Ambegaokar et al., is refined to improve the precision of the predictions made. A detailed comparison is made between the predictions of the modified theory and the results from experiments on helium films and on superconducting systems. It is found that, despite the modifications in the theory, agreement with experiments on helium films remains only qualitative. Consideration is then given to the effects on the roughening transition of disorder arising from screw dislocations. A crystal surface which is threaded by screw dislocation pairs may be in one of three different states depending on the temperature of the system and the way in which screw pairs are distributed. At high temperatures the interface is rough: it is not pinned to the lattice. At low temperatures the state of the interface depends on how the screw dislocations are distributed: when distributed as closely spaced pairs they lead to a faceted state with a single ground state energy; when distributed randomly they lead to a state of the interface which, though pinned to the underlying crystal lattice, has a degenerate ground state. It is then shown that the dynamic sine-Gordon formulation of the roughening transition can be used, via a Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation, to model the dynamic behaviour of superfluid systems. This method provides a re-normalization group framework within which the a.c. linear response can be studied. The ways in which the approach could be extended to study the effects of disorder and atomic layering are also discussed.

This thesis examines in detail the three major Vietnamese constitutional reforms of 1992, 2001, and 2013. In doing so, it examines the core purposes of constitutional changes related to the political legitimacy of the Party-State and investigates the factors that support or hinder the transition of the Vietnamese socialist constitution to liberal democratic constitutionalism. It does so by looking at Vietnamese history, culture, the circumstances of the emergence of each constitutional reform in the larger context of the crisis of the political legitimacy of the Party-State, the changes in the Vietnamese Communist Party’s policies, the procedure of drafting each constitution, and the aims and the substance of these changes. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion on constitutional transition in socialist regimes in two important ways. First, is represents the first comprehensive examination of all the major Vietnamese constitutional reforms. Second, it draws on not only international academic scholarship but importantly original Vietnamese sources, ranging from secondary literature of Vietnamese scholars, to original Party and State documents, particularly National Assembly deputies’ speeches, and Vietnamese media and blogs. The finding of the thesis is that there were three major factors that had a significant influence in the Vietnamese constitutional reforms of 1992, 2001 and 2013, namely, the Vietnamese Communist Party; state agencies and officials; and political and legal culture, such as village culture, Confucianism, colonialism, and socialism. The Party, state agencies and officials were the main factors that hindered these constitutional reforms, mainly because the Party-State introduced these reforms as a part of the ongoing negotiation with the people to retain the Party hegemony.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Govt & Int Relations
Griffith Business School
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Diamonds from the Sao Luiz alluvial deposit, Brazil, have been found to occlude syngenetic inclusions whose associations are evidence for formation in the mantle transition zone and lower mantle (Wilding, 1990; Harte and Harris, 1994). These diamonds represent the most extensive sample of deep mantle available to date, and have been subjected to detailed study. Five principal associations are identified. One association involves orange garnet inclusions (with diopside and pyrrhotite) which contain a significant pyroxene component in solid-solution (majorite component) indicating formation in the transition zone (Akaogi and Akimoto, 1977). Trends of major element composition against Si content are most consistent with formation within the deepest regions of the transition zone where equilibrium with perovskite structured CaSiO3 (CaSi-Pvk) is envisaged (Irifune and Ringwood, 1987). The remaining associations all involve MgO - FeO (fPer) and are also believed to have been in equilibrium with CaSiO3 composition inclusions. The association of fPer and (Mg, Fe)Si03 (LM I) is understood to have formed at pressures of >24 GPa (Yagi et al., 1978), within the lower mantle, where (Mg, Fe)SiO3 adopts a perovskite structure (MgSi-Pvk) at pressures above the breakdown of (Mg, Fe)2SiO4 ringwoodite. Indeed, all the broadly pyroxene composition phases recovered in association with fPer are envisaged to have formed with perovskite structures. The LM I association also includes grains of broadly pyrope-almandine composition with high Fe3+ content (Fe3+/EFe=-0.7) and very low Ca (<0.15 wt% CaO) and depleted rare earth element (REE) concentrations consistent with equilibrium with REE-phyllic CaSi-Pvk. This new mineral is shown to adopt a tetragonal I :F -2d structure and is referred to provisionally as 'TAPP' (tetragonal almandine-pyrope phase). Given the propensity for MgSi-Pvk to adopt the entirety of the likely lower mantle A12O3 budget within its structure at depths over 820 km (e. g. Kesson et al., 1995), and the stability of an A1203-involving association at depths of 720-820km (Irifune et al., 1996), TAPP is believed to form in aluminous bulk compositions in the depth region, 670-720km. A deeper association of fPer, aluminous and Fe 3'-rich MgSi-Pvk and A1203 (ruby) from Sao Luiz diamonds forms a third (LM H) association. The remaining two associations have characteristics indicative of formation in the deepest regions of the transition zone. An association (LM III) of low Ca-garnet with a small majoritic component, a previously unrecorded C2/c structured Al-Ca-Na-Few-rich magnesium silicate (with 11,5 and 6 wt% A1203, CaO and Na2O respectively) and fPer is reported. Trace element compositions of this garnet are found to be transitional between majoritic garnet (Harte, 1992) and TAPP. The final association, found in a single diamond involves a (Mg, Fe)2SiO4 composition inclusion, fPer and TAPP (UM/LM association), and is suggestive of formation within the range 460-720km depending on bulk composition (Jeanloz and Thompson, 1983). Also identified from Sao Luiz is the first recorded sapphire inclusion in diamond. Change in cell parameters on release of two fPer inclusions (one from Guinea, West Africa) have been measured and interpreted on the basis of expected mantle geotherms and physical properties of compressibility and expansivity. Depths of formation of -300km are inferred which, on correction due to the fractured and plastically deformed nature of the diamond hosts, extend to within the lower mantle. The very low Fe 3+ content of fPer and the large Fe 3+ content of aluminous MgSi-Pvk inclusions additionally support formation at high pressure (McCammon et al., 1995 and McCammon, 1997). Furthermore, the presence of significant quantities of magnesioferrite as inclusions in many fPer inclusions is consistent with the high Fe3+ content of associated phases and indicates relatively oxidised conditions of formation. Partitioning of Fe, Ni and Mg between fPer and MgSi-Pvk is indicative of high temperature (>2000K) within the lower mantle which suggests a steep thermal gradient at 670km and hence a thermal boundary layer between the upper and lower mantle. This observation, in addition to indications from associations of a compositional distinction between upper mantle and lower mantle, supports separate regimes of mantle convection. The diamonds themselves show cathodoluminescencep atterns indicative of a complex interplay of growth and resorption. Transition zone stones show a range in nitrogen content from <15 to 311ppm, and are highly aggregated indicating a long, high temperature history. Lower mantle stones are even more deficient in nitrogen (mostly Type II diamond), and show a very tight clustering of 513C composition around -5%o. Given ranges of up to 9%o within single stones, precipitation under fluctuating conditions within a homogeneous reservoir is concluded. Values for 815N of -6 and -5.2%o have been obtained for an upper / lower mantle boundary sourced stone. Thermoelastic modelling is applied to a variety of deep mantle phases and it is concluded that, with a thermal boundary between upper and lower mantle, there exists a narrow depth region just below 670km where many phases, (particularly diamond) are gravitationally stabilised. Diamond moving within the circulatory system of the lower mantle will, therefore, tend to pond in this region. Exhumation from the deep mantle is believed to have been relatively swift due to the lack of: reequilibration of composite grains; complete exsolution of majoritic garnet; and recombination of magnesioferrite with Per. A regime of transportation by upwelling mantle plume is envisaged. The dominance within thin cratonic areas amongst world-wide locations of deep mantle diamonds is also discussed. This observation is interpreted in terms of thin cratonic areas being suitably reduced to stabilise diamond at shallow depths, unlike in oceanic settings where diamond bums to form C02- Additionally, the crust in thin cratonic regions is not suitable for formation of lithospheric diamond and so the deep population of stones is not outnumbered by shallow sourced diamonds.

AbstractInternational comparison of welfare states offers a way for understanding how welfare states have contributed to the constitution of life course transitions and the different ways in which they are being shaped. The chapter introduces the concept of “transition regimes”, a comparative model developed with regard to school-to-work-transitions. The aim is to question if and to what extent this model can contribute to the objectives of reflexive transition research that extends the research of how individual transitions progress to how they are constantly re-constituted. In detail, this implies relating the analysis of comprehensive constellations with the discursive, institutional and individual practices involved in doing transitions. The chapter starts with an overview of international studies of school-to-work-transitions. This is followed by a review of comparative welfare research and the introduction of the concept of transition regimes, which is then related to the concept of doing transitions. The conclusion explores the contribution of comparative analysis of transition regimes for reflexive transition research.

This chapter examines why Yemen’s constitutional transition during the period 2011–15 failed. In 2011 a popular uprising forced Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign. Neighboring Arab countries soon got involved in steering the constitutional process, which included a National Dialogue to address the design of a new constitution. The dialogue recommended a new federal regime, but failed to resolve the critical issue of the number and boundaries of states. The document presented in January 2015 by the Constitutional Drafting Committee tasked to draft a new constitution was deeply flawed and became the trigger for civil war. The chapter first considers the context leading up to the National Dialogue before discussing the outcomes of the constitutional process and three lessons that can be drawn from it: the role and design of sub-national governance arrangements; political legitimacy and process in a constitutional transition; and a more integrated approach to transitions.

Nearly 17 years after the US invasion, Iraq ranks first in the list of the most corrupt and least stable countries in the world. The state of instability and rampant corruption in Iraqi society since 2003 made some critics blame the constitution itself as the main obstacle to the country's democratic transition. For them, the hasty method of drafting the constitution, the absence of Iraqi constitutional expertise, and the lateral representation of Sunni Arabs are among the factors that have contributed to the precarious situation in Iraq over the past years. Likewise, critics argue that the ambiguity and ambiguity in some constitutional articles hindered its application. Amid these readings, the October revolution erupted on October 1, 2019 in Baghdad and the rest of the southern governorates of Iraq in protest against the deteriorating economic conditions of the country, unemployment, and the spread of administrative corruption. The demands of the demonstrators reached to change the constitution and amend the electoral law. Thus, the question posed in this paper is to what extent can the constitution really be an obstacle to the democratization process in Iraq? This paper discusses that the nature of Iraqi society as a deeply divided society, the absence of the previous democratic experience among the citizens, the weakness of the political culture of cooperation and tolerance among the political elites, and external interference are among the main obstacles to the democratic transformation in the country. Finally, the conclusion of the study is that despite all the criticisms and criticisms about the democratic experience in Iraq, the process of democratic transformation is slow in itself, and therefore it can be said that the process is still ongoing and has not failed yet.

"The period of approving the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq for the year 2005 was surrounded by a state of political turmoil that usually accompanies any transitional phase that carries many political variables through the transition from a phase of dictatorial rule to a new phase bearing the features of democracy. In its approval, the lack of clarity in the political vision and the weakness of the constitutional legal culture of its authors, as well as the way in which it was approved by a popular referendum, which is voted on by yes or no, and does not allow an opportunity to discuss its articles and articles and diagnose its shortcomings. One of the shortcomings in our constitution is that it does not refer to regulating the resignation of the Prime Minister. This position has a political nature, and an administrative nature, and its occupant has the right to decide not to continue with this position and be satisfied with working in this field for any reason, and this must be in accordance with the context Organized legal, which is known as resignation., and this is what we dealt with in this research. For the purpose of researching this topic, we asked a research question that is... How can we address the legislative shortcomings that surrounded the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq for the year 2005 and related to regulating the resignation of the Prime Minister? From this research question, we derived several secondary research questions... 1- What is the limitation of legislative shortcomings? 2- What are the reasons for the legislative deficiencies in the Iraqi constitution? 3- Does the Prime Minister have the right to resign during his tenure? 4- To whom is the resignation submitted? 5- Who is the party that decides whether or not to accept the resignation? 6- What are the procedures that follow the acceptance of the resignation? By discussing these questions, we will try to reach the possibility of developing a legislative text that deals with a complete organization of the resignation of the Prime Minister, especially since the idea of ​​amending the constitution and to this day is still valid and possible, because many political, social and economic conditions in the country have changed from the time of entry into force of this constitution, which makes the idea of ​​the amendment obligatory and necessary"

After gaining its independence, Bulgaria was ruled first by the Kingdom, and after the Second World War, by Communism. After 1990, it switched to democracy and capitalist economy. In these periods, how the cooperatives were implemented in Bulgaria was examined and the success situation was analyzed. In the planned economy of communism, agriculture passed to cooperatives completely under state control. Ownership of land and means of production is limited by the constitution. After 1990, there has been a radical restructuring in the agricultural sector. Collective farms were disbanded and property rights in the lands were returned to their beneficiaries according to the new constitution. As a method, the comparative practices of Bulgarian economy and cooperatives in the transition periods were examined. The evolution of the agricultural policy in the Kingdom into cooperatives, the example of the understanding of cooperatives in the Soviet Union during the communist era, and the compatibility of the Western states with the free market economy in the transition to democracy were analyzed. In this context, articles and books written in Turkish, English and Bulgarian were examined and the literature on the subject was searched. Cooperatives, which aimed to develop peasants and agriculture during the Kingdom period, became state-led during the socialism period, and unfortunately lost their fighting power after 1990, especially after the 1996/1997 crisis. Today, the main challenge for Bulgaria as an EU member is to reassess the role cooperatives can play in economic and social development through self-organization, self-help and solidarity among people.

Notre contribution vise à problématiser les pratiques sémiotiques lorsque l’activité configuratrice, paradigme d’une visée perceptive ou d’une énonciation, doit céder la place à une saisie et à une valorisation des transitions. Ces dernières semblent échapper à la fois à une organisation paratactique d’éléments catégorisés à l’avance (effets de coordination, juxtaposition, accumulation, etc.) et à une structuration hypotactique à même d’imposer un ordre intégrateur. Entre ces deux logiques syntaxiques s’introduirait une solution dans laquelle la signification n’a pas la structuration méréologique typique des langages « digitaux » (caractérisés par des unités discrètes), mais possède plutôt une sorte de diataxe, laquelle exemplifierait des écarts sans avoir recours à des proportionnalités ou à des enchâssements préalables. Au contraire d’une prise analytique soutenue par les organisations syntaxiques traditionnelles et la « rection » qu’elles assurent, la diataxe semble promouvoir une synthèse « enharmonique » qui se maintient entre constitution et aspersion, favorisant ainsi la prise en compte de la transition en tant que telle ; une transition entre des valeurs qui ne semblent pas devoir rivaliser pour se partager les valences en jeu. En effet, la transition n’est plus conçue comme une phase d’absence de forme, prélude d’une comparaison qui sera tôt ou tard possible entre un principe organisationnel en amont et un principe en aval ; la transition exemplifie une coalescence formelle qui s’impose aux formes qu’elle héberge et fluidifie, sans se réduire à la notion de continuum. L’article aborde la transition selon trois stratégies différentes : l’observation de la transition, la tentative de la médier, la transition directement incarnée. La dernière stratégie nous amènera à introduire brièvement une étude de cas concernant un tableau anonyme. Il s’agit sans doute de l’œuvre d’un peintre qui a travaillé en reflétant sa propre condition de « transitaire » dans l’évolution incertaine (entre mythe et dénonciation sociale) d’un sujet assez délicat tel quel le suicide.

Cette contribution a pour objectif d’explorer les stratégies discursives et narratives opérant dans les paraboles, considérées comme des dispositifs de transition « d'un croire à l’autre ». L'intérêt de la parabole dans la problématique des transitions sociales réside dans la particularité du modèle de communication qui est lui sous-jacent, dont l’objet n’est pas le passage d’une quantité d’information mais la transformation du faire des sujets de la communication. La parabole opère, ainsi, en tant que schéma interprétatif d'expériences et en tant que schéma productif de nouvelles actions. Afin d’explorer cette dimension où la pragmatique et la sémantique se croisent, mon analyse sera conduite en analysant, avec la méthodologie de la sémiotique structurale et générative, un corpus constitué d’un film de Pier Paolo Pasolini (Uccellacci e Uccellini) et les pratiques de protestation de Danilo Dolci, l'intellectuel italien qui demandait l'application de la nouvelle constitution démocratique après la deuxième guerre mondiale.

Anton Chekhov is generally acknowledged as a writer who symbolizes a transition period, marks the end of the Classical Russian literature of the 19th century and establishes the basics of the poetics of the 20th century. Scholars are traditionally focused on Chekhov’s innovations but not on the connections with the previous tradition. This contribution makes an attempt to reassess the aspect of Chekhov’s poetics which could be called historical “form’s thinking” (in Alexander Mikhailov’s terminology). I mean the features of tradition which result from historical dynamics of culture and are beyond individual principles of artistic consciousness. In the culture prior to the New Age, topos was a form which included both principles and ways of thinking. In this research I analyze lyrical digressions in the Russian fiction of the 19th century which correlate with topoi on the basis of their constitution. The strategy of lyrical digressions rests on the movement between two poles of the being: historical and eternal, individual and universal, etc. Before Chekhov, this movement was strictly hierarchical. In Chekhov’s lyrical digressions one can easily notice a shift of semantic coordinates when the concrete and the situational becomes valuable. However, the poles themselves (individual and universal) and the movement between them remain invariable. It is possible to claim that Chekhov’s poetics although discovers the boundaries of semantic dynamics of the lyrical digressions (as a constant form) is not aware of any other principle of thinking. This fact distinguishes Chekhov from his younger contemporaries and makes him the writer of the classical 19th century. Refs 20.

Fine-grained soils with free gas bubbles can be frequently encountered in the seabed or lakebed. Gassy soils can become overconsolidated due to sediment movement or submarine landslides. The presence of free gas bubbles in fine-grained soils can cause large-scale submarine landslides and offshore foundation failures. The gas bubbles can have either beneficial or detrimental effect on the soil strength and stiffness, depending on the stress state and gas volume fraction. A constitutive model accounting for the effect of overconsolidation on dilatancy is presented. The soil is considered as a composite with saturated soil matrix and cavities. The gas cavities are assumed to have a detrimental effect on the plastic modulus and shear strength. Bubble flooding makes the saturated soil matrix partially drained under a globally undrained condition, which has a beneficial effect on the soil stiffness and undrained shear strength. A series of undrained triaxial compression tests have been carried out on gassy Malaysian Kaolin and the data has been used to validate the model. The model can be used for assessing the slope stability and bearing capacity of foundations in gassy clay.

Over recent decades Islamic traditions have emerged in new forms in different parts of the Muslim world, interacting differently with secular and neo-liberal patterns of thought and action. In Turkey Fethullah Gülen’s community has been a powerful player in the national debate about the place of Islam in individual and collective life. Through emphasis on the im- portance of ‘secular education’ and a commitment to the defence of both democratic princi- ples and international human rights, Gülen has diffused a new and appealing version of how a ‘good Muslim’ should act in contemporary society. In particular he has defended the role of Islam in the formation of individuals as ethically-responsible moral subjects, a project that overlaps significantly with the ‘secular’ one of forming responsible citizens. Concomitantly, he has shifted the Sufi emphasis on self-discipline/self-denial towards an active, socially- oriented service of others – a form of religious effort that implies a strongly ‘secular’ faith in the human ability to make this world better. This paper looks at the lives of some members of the community to show how this pattern of conduct has affected them. They say that teaching and learning ‘secular’ scientific subjects, combined with total dedication to the project of the movement, constitute, for them, ways to accomplish Islamic deeds and come closer to God. This leads to a consideration of how such a rethinking of Islamic activism has influenced po- litical and sociological transition in Turkey, and a discussion of the potential contribution of the movement towards the development of a more human society in contemporary Europe. From the 1920s onwards, in the context offered by the decline and collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Islamic thinkers, associations and social movements have proliferated their efforts in order to suggest ways to live a good “Muslim life” under newly emerging conditions. Prior to this period, different generations of Muslim Reformers had already argued the compat- ibility of Islam with reason and “modernity”, claiming for the need to renew Islamic tradition recurring to ijtihad. Yet until the end of the XIX century, traditional educational systems, public forms of Islam and models of government had not been dismissed. Only with the dismantlement of the Empire and the constitution of national governments in its different regions, Islamic intellectuals had to face the problem of arranging new patterns of action for Muslim people. With the establishment of multiple nation-states in the so-called Middle East, Islamic intel- lectuals had to cope with secular conceptions about the subject and its place and space for action in society. They had to come to terms with the definitive affirmation of secularism and the consequent process of reconfiguration of local sensibilities, forms of social organisation, and modes of action. As a consequence of these processes, Islamic thinkers started to place emphasis over believers’ individual choice and responsibility both in maintaining an Islamic conduct daily and in realising the values of Islamic society. While under the Ottoman rule to be part of the Islamic ummah was considered an implicit consequence of being a subject of the empire. Not many scientific works have looked at contemporary forms of Islam from this perspective. Usually Islamic instances are considered the outcome of an enduring and unchanging tradition, which try to reproduce itself in opposition to outer-imposed secular practices. Rarely present-day forms of Islamic reasoning and practice have been considered as the result of a process of adjustment to new styles of governance under the modern state. Instead, I argue that new Islamic patterns of action depend on a history of practical and conceptual revision they undertake under different and locally specific versions of secularism. From this perspective I will deal with the specific case of Fethullah Gülen, the head of one of the most famous and influent “renewalist” Islamic movements of contemporary Turkey. From the 1980s this Islamic leader has been able to weave a powerful network of invisible social ties from which he gets both economic and cultural capital. Yet what interests me most in this paper, is that with his open-minded and moderate arguments, Gülen has inspired many people in Turkey to live Islam in a new way. Recurring to ijtihad and drawing from secular epistemology specific ideas about moral agency, he has proposed to a wide public a very at- tractive path for being “good Muslims” in their daily conduct. After an introductive explanation of the movement’s project and of the ideas on which it is based, my aim will be to focus on such a pattern of action. Particular attention will be dedi- cated to Gülen’s conception of a “good Muslim” as a morally-guided agent, because such a conception reveals underneath secular ideas on both responsibility and moral agency. These considerations will constitute the basis from which we can look at the transformation of Islam – and more generally of “the religion” – in the contemporary world. Then a part will be dedicated to defining the specificity of Gülen’s proposal, which will be compared with that of other Islamic revivalist movements in other contexts. Some common point between them will merge from this comparison. Both indeed use the concept of respon- sibility in order to push subjects to actively engage in reviving Islam. Yet, on the other hand, I will show how Gülen’s followers distinguish themselves by the fact their commitment pos- sesses a socially-oriented and reformist character. Finally I will consider the proximity of Gülen’s conceptualisation of moral agency with that the modern state has organised around the idea of “civic virtues”. I argue Gülen’s recall for taking responsibility of social moral decline is a way of charging his followers with a similar burden the modern state has charged its citizens. Thus I suggest the Islamic leader’s pro- posal can be seen as the tentative of supporting the modernity project by defining a new and specific space to Islam and religion into it. This proposal opens the possibility of new and interesting forms of interconnection between secular ideas of modernity and the so-called “Islamic” ones. At the same time I think it sheds a new light over contemporary “renewalist” movements, which can be considered a concrete proposal about how to realise, in a different background, modern forms of governance by reconsidering their moral basis.

Abstract Soft power is an important instrument of foreign policy and a tool in safeguarding national interests. Under various regimes after the advent of democracy in 1950, Nepal has experienced a turbulent effect of international influence on technology, governance capability, policy transfer, labor migration and climatic affairs. In these contexts, traditional diplomatic effort based on persuasive bargaining requires an interest based practice which is complicated for the countries like Nepal where military power and economy are considered to be public goods rather than strategic base for the expansion of domestic policy making the other countries follow. Nepal creates an exemplary image in coping with the internal and external threats even during the major political transitions in 1950, 1990 and 2006. In all these power sharing mechanisms, the immunity that galvanized internal forces with minimum experience of indirect influence from the neighbouring countries shows that soft power values in Nepal became the major component for managing internal tensions and mitigating external interests. At one hand, the sources of soft power rests on ancient value system and on the other, Nepal celebrates new political system confronting the values earlier regime survived on. Political crisis before 2015 and the natural disaster after it plunged Nepal into a serious threat. During the time of crisis it is need and the value that functions compared to the interest. This paper posits a central question that how soft power became a variant during the war to peace transition from 2006 to the period of implementation of constitution stipulated in 2015 with the result of a stable government. The first part of the paper explores the dimensions of soft power in Nepal- both perceived and practiced- after Jana Aandolan II. The effectiveness of soft power in maintaining the geostrategic importance through a constant coupling of soft power diplomacy adopted and endorsed in Nepal by the external powers and Nepal’s own soft power standpoint will be analyzed in the second part of the paper. The last section of the paper analyzes the challenges for effective implementation of soft power diplomacy in meeting the national interest. Key words: Soft power, geo-strategic importance, national interest

This rapid review looks at various constitutional courts established in transitional, fragile and conflict-affected contexts—the approaches adopted, sequencing in their establishment, and experiences with political support. There are few comprehensive accounts in the literature, however, of constitutional courts and their role in judicial review in the contexts of transition and/or as key actors in ‘building democracy’ (Daly, 2017a; Sapiano, 2017). Further, scholars have tended to focus on a relatively small number of case studies from the immediate post-Cold War era, such as South Africa and Colombia (Daly, 2017a). Discussion on the sequencing and steps adopted in establishing a constitutional court in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS), or on incentives that have swayed political elites to support these courts, is even more limited. Nonetheless, drawing on various academic and NGO literature, including on countries that transitioned from authoritarianism, this report offers some discussion on sequencing in relation to the constitution-making process and the establishment of the courts; and general reasoning for why constitutional courts may be supported by political actors.

The governance of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Nepal was heavily centralized in the past as the country was operating under a unitary government system. The 2015 Constitution has opened the avenue to operate the TVET sector in a federalized setting with the sharing of TVET functions along with power and authority by three tiers of government. However, the sharing of power and authority between the federal and subnational governments has not been easy as highlighted by the Constitution. This paper attempts to analyse the challenges that are hindering the smooth transition of centrally held power and authority towards the subnational governments. It argues that although there is a general support and optimism for the federal transition, many challenges remain for the implementation. The existing political economy of the TVET sector limits the realisation of the Constitution’s goals of transformation for the TVET sector in a federal setting.

In a process that spanned over three years, Georgia adopted some important changes to its constitution that is meant to complete the country’s transition from a “semi-presidential to a parliamentary system of governance” (Civil.ge, 17 Dec. 2018). In the last 2020 parliamentary elections, Georgia’s current (revised) electoral mixed system was already the most proportional the country had seen in three decades (Bogishvili, 2020). 120 Members of Parliament (MPs) were elected proportionally by a party list (previously the number was 77) and the remaining 30 were single mandate (majoritarian) MPs elected by the ‘first-past-the-post’ rule (previous number was 73) (Bogishvili, 2020; OSCE, 2021, p.6). However, in the next parliamentary elections, due to take place in 2024, Georgia is meant to move to a fully proportional system (Civil.ge, 17 Dec. 2018). This rapid review explores some of the questions surrounding proportional representation in Georgia. In particular, what do these constitutional changes mean for Georgia? What might be some of the implications of Georgia’s move to proportional representation in 2024 and how might this affect governance? The report examines some of the main aspects of these constitutional changes during 2017-20 and puts them in context. It outlines some of the main discussions in Georgia concerning opportunities and challenges often associated with proportional representation and highlights some of the main points that emerge from these discussions on the future dynamics of governance in Georgia. Material summarised in this report is based on a mixture of (online) newspaper articles, government and other reports, and policy, and practitioner-based literature.

Eminent Domain is the power of the government or quasi-government entities to take private or public property interests through condemnation. Eminent Domain has been a significant issue since 1879 when, in the case of Boom Company v. Patterson, the Supreme Court first acknowledged that the power of eminent domain may be delegated by state legislatures to agencies and non-governmental entities. Thus, the era of legal takings began. Though an important legal dispute then, more recently eminent domain has blossomed into an enduring contentious social and political problem throughout the United States. The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution states, “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Thus, in the wake of the now infamous decision in Kelo v. City of New London, where the Court upheld the taking of private property for purely economic benefit as a “public use,” the requirement of “just compensation” stands as the primary defender of constitutionally protected liberty under the federal constitution. In response to Kelo, many state legislatures passed a variety of eminent domain reforms specifically tailoring what qualifies as a public use and how just compensation should be calculated. Texas landowners recognize that the state’s population is growing at a rapid pace. There is an increasing need for more land and resources such as energy and transportation. But, private property rights are equally important, especially in Texas, and must be protected as well. Eminent domain and the condemnation process is not a willing buyer and willing seller transition; it is a legally forced sale. Therefore, it is necessary to consider further improvements to the laws that govern the use of eminent domain so Texas landowners can have more assurance that this process is fair and respectful of their private property rights when they are forced to relinquish their land. This report compiles statutes and information from the other forty-nine states to illustrate how they address key eminent domain issues. Further, this report endeavors to provide a neutral third voice in Texas to strike a more appropriate balance between individual’s property rights and the need for increased economic development. This report breaks down eminent domain into seven major topics that, in addition to Texas, seemed to be similar in many of the other states. These categories are: (1) Awarding of Attorneys’ Fee; (2) Compensation and Valuation; (3) Procedure Prior to Suit; (4) Condemnation Procedure; (5) What Cannot be Condemned; (6) Public Use & Authority to Condemn; and (7) Abandonment. In analyzing these seven categories, this report does not seek to advance a particular interest but only to provide information on how Texas law differs from other states. This report lays out trends seen across other states that are either similar or dissimilar to Texas, and additionally, discusses interesting and unique laws employed by other states that may be of interest to Texas policy makers. Our research found three dominant categories which tend to be major issues across the country: (1) the awarding of attorneys’ fees; (2) the valuation and measurement of just compensation; and (3) procedure prior to suit.

This helpdesk report synthesises evidence on the drivers and opportunities for promoting gender equality in the Eastern Neighbourhood region. Although equality between women and men is enshrined in the constitutions and legal systems of all Eastern Neighbourhood countries, and all countries have ratified most of the important international conventions in this area without reservations; women are still subject to social discrimination. Discriminatory laws, social norms, and practices rooted in patriarchal systems inherited from the Soviet era have negative consequences and act as drags upon gender equality. Former Soviet states making the transition from a command economy to a market-driven system need to make changes in governance and accountability systems to allow for women to have agency and to benefit from any nominal status of gender equality. This report considers areas where there are outstanding opportunities to improve women’s situation in Eastern Neighbourhood countries.

The coordination and regulation of growth and development in multicellular organisms is dependent, in part, on the controlled short and long-distance transport of signaling molecule: In plants, symplastic communication is provided by trans-wall co-axial membranous tunnels termed plasmodesmata (Pd). Plant viruses spread cell-to-cell by altering Pd. This movement scenario necessitates a targeting mechanism that delivers the virus to a Pd and a transport mechanism to move the virion or viral nucleic acid through the Pd channel. The identity of host proteins with which MP interacts, the mechanism of the targeting of the MP to the Pd and biochemical information on how Pd are alter are questions which have been dealt with during this BARD project. The research objectives of the two labs were to continue their biochemical, cellular and molecular studies of Pd composition and function by employing infectious modified clones of TMV in which MP is fused with GFP. We examined Pd composition, and studied the intra- and intercellular targeting mechanism of MP during the infection cycle. Most of the goals we set for ourselves were met. The Israeli PI and collaborators (Oparka et al., 1999) demonstrated that Pd permeability is under developmental control, that Pd in sink tissues indiscriminately traffic proteins of sizes of up to 50 kDa and that during the sink to source transition there is a substantial decrease in Pd permeability. It was shown that companion cells in source phloem tissue export proteins which traffic in phloem and which unload in sink tissue and move cell to cell. The TAU group employing MP:GFP as a fluorescence probe for optimized the procedure for Pd isolation. At least two proteins kinases found to be associated with Pd isolated from source leaves of N. benthamiana, one being a calcium dependent protein kinase. A number of proteins were microsequenced and identified. Polyclonal antibodies were generated against proteins in a purified Pd fraction. A T-7 phage display library was created and used to "biopan" for Pd genes using these antibodies. Selected isolates are being sequenced. The TAU group also examined whether the subcellular targeting of MP:GFP was dependent on processes that occurred only in the presence of the virus or whether targeting was a property indigenous to MP. Mutant non-functional movement proteins were also employed to study partial reactions. Subcellular targeting and movement were shown to be properties indigenous to MP and that these processes do not require other viral elements. The data also suggest post-translational modification of MP is required before the MP can move cell to cell. The USA group monitored the development of the infection and local movement of TMV in N. benthamiana, using viral constructs expressing GFP either fused to the MP of TMV or expressing GFP as a free protein. The fusion protein and/or the free GFP were expressed from either the movement protein subgenomic promoter or from the subgenomic promoter of the coat protein. Observations supported the hypothesis that expression from the cp sgp is regulated differently than expression from the mp sgp (Szecsi et al., 1999). Using immunocytochemistry and electron microscopy, it was determined that paired wall-appressed bodies behind the leading edge of the fluorescent ring induced by TMV-(mp)-MP:GFP contain MP:GFP and the viral replicase. These data suggest that viral spread may be a consequence of the replication process. Observation point out that expression of proteins from the mp sgp is temporary regulated, and degradation of the proteins occurs rapidly or more slowly, depending on protein stability. It is suggested that the MP contains an external degradation signal that contributes to rapid degradation of the protein even if expressed from the constitutive cp sgp. Experiments conducted to determine whether the degradation of GFP and MP:GFP was regulated at the protein or RNA level, indicated that regulation was at the protein level. RNA accumulation in infected protoplast was not always in correlation with protein accumulation, indicating that other mechanisms together with RNA production determine the final intensity and stability of the fluorescent proteins.

Cette étude porte sur une des innovations contemporaines liées à l’économie de la publication scientifique : les accords dits transformants, un objet relativement circonscrit au sein des relations entre consortiums de bibliothèques et éditeurs scientifiques, et temporellement situé entre 2015 et 2020. Ce type d’accords a pour objectif affiché d’organiser la transition du modèle traditionnel de l’abonnement à des revues (souvent proposées par regroupements thématiques ou collections) vers celui de l’accès ouvert en opérant une réaffectation des budgets qui y sont consacrés. Notre travail d’analyse sociologique constitue une première étude systématique de cet objet, fondée sur la recension de 197 accords. Le corpus ainsi constitué inclut des accords caractérisés par la coprésence d’une composante d’abonnement et d’une composante de publication en accès ouvert, même minimale (« jetons » de publication offerts, réduction sur les APC...). En conséquence, ont été exclus de l’analyse les accords portant uniquement sur du financement centralisé de publication en accès ouvert, que ce soit avec des éditeurs ne proposant que des revues avec paiement par l’auteur (PLOS, Frontiers, MDPI...) ou des éditeurs dont une partie du catalogue est constitué de revues en accès ouvert. L’accord le plus ancien de notre corpus a été signé en 2010, les plus récents en 2020 – les accords ne commençant qu’en 2021, même annoncés au cours de l’étude, n’ont pas été retenus. Plusieurs résultats se dégagent de notre analyse. Tout d’abord, on note une grande diversité des acteurs impliqués avec 22 pays et 39 éditeurs, même si certains consortiums (Pays-Bas, Suède, Autriche, Allemagne) et éditeurs (CUP, Elsevier, RSC, Springer) en ont signé beaucoup plus que d’autres. Ensuite, la durée des accords, comprise entre une et six années, révèle une distribution très inégalitaire, avec plus de la moitié des accords (103) signés pour 3 ans, ainsi qu’une faible proportion pour 4 ans ou plus (22 accords). Enfin, en dépit d’appels répétés à la transparence, moins de la moitié des accords (96) ont un texte accessible au moment de cette étude, sans qu’on puisse observer une tendance récente à une plus grande disponibilité. L’analyse montre également des degrés d’ouverture très variables, allant d’une simple information sur le répertoire ESAC en passant par la mise à disposition d’un format annotable jusqu’à l’attribution d’un DOI et d’une licence de réutilisation (CC-BY), en incluant le détail des sommes monétaires. Parmi les 96 accords disponibles, dont 47 signés en 2020, 62 ont fait l’objet d’une analyse en profondeur. C’est à notre connaissance la première analyse à cette échelle, sur un type de matériel non seulement inédit, mais qui était auparavant soumis à des clauses de confidentialité. Fondée sur une lecture minutieuse, l’étude décrit de manière fine leurs propriétés, depuis la matérialité du document jusqu’aux formules financières, en passant par leur morphologie et l’ensemble des droits et devoirs des parties. Les contenus des accords sont donc analysés comme une collection dont nous cherchons à déterminer les points communs et les variations, à travers des codages explicites sur certaines de leurs caractéristiques. L’étude pointe également des incertitudes, et notamment leur caractère « transitionnel », qui demeure fortement discuté. D’un point de vue morphologique, les accords montrent une grande diversité en matière de taille (de 7 à 488 pages) et de structure. Néanmoins, par définition, ils articulent tous deux objets essentiels : d’une part, les conditions de réalisation d’une lecture d’articles de revues, sous forme d’abonnement, mêlant des préoccupations d’accès et de sécurité ; d’autre part, les modalités de publication en accès ouvert, articulant la gestion d’un nouveau type de workflow à toute une série d’options possibles. Parmi ces options, mentionnons notamment le périmètre des revues considérées (hybrides et/ou accès ouvert), les licences disponibles, le degré d’obligation de cette publication, les auteurs éligibles ou le volume d’articles publiables. L’un des résultats les plus importants de cette analyse approfondie est la mise au jour d’un découplage presque complet, au sein même des accords, entre l’objet abonnement et l’objet publication. Bien entendu, l’abonnement est systématiquement configuré dans un monde fermé, soumis à paiement qui déclenche des séries d’identification des circulations légitimes tant du contenu informationnel que des usagers. Il insiste notamment sur les interdictions de réutilisation ou même de copie des articles scientifiques. À l’opposé, la publication en accès ouvert est attachée à un monde régi par l’accès gratuit au contenu, ce qui induit des préoccupations de gestion du workflow et des modalités d’accessibilité. De plus, les différents éléments constitutifs de ces objets contractuels ne sont pas couplés : d’un côté, les lecteurs sont constitués de l’ensemble des membres des institutions abonnées, de l’autre, seuls les auteurs correspondants (« corresponding authors ») sont concernés ; les listes de revues accessibles à la lecture et celles réservées à la publication en accès ouvert sont le plus souvent distinctes ; les workflows ont des objectifs et des organisations matérielles totalement différentes, etc. L’articulation entre les deux objets contractuels relève uniquement d’une formule de distribution financière qui, outre des combinaisons particulières entre l’un et l’autre, permet d’attribuer des étiquettes distinctes aux accords (offset agreement, publish & read, read & publish, read & free articles, read & discount). Au-delà de cette distribution, l’étude des arrangements financiers montre une gamme de dispositions allant d’une prévisibilité budgétaire totale, donc identique aux accords d’abonnement antérieurs, à une incertitude sur le volume de publication ou sur le montant définitif des sommes échangées. Les modalités concrètes de calcul des montants associés à la publication en accès ouvert sont relativement variées. S’il existe effectivement des formules récurrentes (volume d’articles multiplié par un prix individuel, reprise de la moyenne des sommes totales d’APC des années précédentes...), le calcul des sommes en jeu est toujours le résultat d’une négociation singulière entre un consortium et un éditeur scientifique, et aboutit parfois à des formules originales et complexes. À ce titre, l’espace des possibles en matière de formules financières n’est jamais totalement clos. Par ailleurs, la volonté des consortiums d’opérer une « transformation » de leurs accords vers la publication à coût constant renvoie à des définitions diversifiées du « coût » (inclusion ou non des dépenses d’APC préexistantes) et de la constance (admission ou pas d’une « inflation » à 2 ou 3%). De plus, nous n’avons observé aucune disposition contractuelle permettant d’anticiper les sommes en jeu au-delà de l’horizon temporel de l’accord courant. La grande diversité des accords provient d’une part des conditions initiales des relations entre consortiums et éditeurs scientifiques – les sommes dépensées en abonnement étant le point de départ des nouveaux accords –, d’autre part des objectifs de chaque partie. Même si cette étude excluait volontairement les négociations, les accords portent des traces de ces objectifs. Ainsi, de nombreux accords sont de nature explicitement expérimentale, quand certains visent un contrôle budgétaire strict, ou d’autres ambitionnent, dans la période plus récente, la publication du plus grand nombre possible d’articles en accès ouvert. C’est dans ce dernier cas qu’on touche à l’ambiguïté des attentes générales sur les accords transformants. En effet, pour les consortiums, la dimension « transformante » consiste essentiellement à transférer les sommes traditionnellement allouées à l’abonnement vers la publication en accès ouvert. Mais l’objectif n’est jamais de transformer le modèle économique des revues, c'est-à-dire de faire basculer des revues sous abonnement ou hybrides en revues entièrement en accès ouvert. D’ailleurs, aucune clause ne vise une telle fin – à l’exception du modèle d’accord proposé par l’éditeur ACM. Du côté des éditeurs, et notamment de Springer, le caractère cumulatif des accords nationaux passés vise à projeter un monde de la publication où l’accès ouvert devient de fait quantitativement très dominant, sans pour autant modifier de manière pérenne le modèle économique de leurs revues. Notre étude montre que les accords transformants actuels ne permettent pas d’assurer de manière durable une transition de l’économie de la publication vers l’accès ouvert, dans la mesure où ils n’offrent pas de garantie sur le contrôle des dépenses ni sur la pérennité de l’ouverture des contenus. L’avenir des relations entre consortium et éditeur demeure largement indéterminé.Cette étude porte sur une des innovations contemporaines liées à l’économie de la publication scientifique : les accords dits transformants, un objet relativement circonscrit au sein des relations entre consortiums de bibliothèques et éditeurs scientifiques, et temporellement situé entre 2015 et 2020. Ce type d’accords a pour objectif affiché d’organiser la transition du modèle traditionnel de l’abonnement à des revues (souvent proposées par regroupements thématiques ou collections) vers celui de l’accès ouvert en opérant une réaffectation des budgets qui y sont consacrés. Notre travail d’analyse sociologique constitue une première étude systématique de cet objet, fondée sur la recension de 197 accords. Le corpus ainsi constitué inclut des accords caractérisés par la coprésence d’une composante d’abonnement et d’une composante de publication en accès ouvert, même minimale (« jetons » de publication offerts, réduction sur les APC...). En conséquence, ont été exclus de l’analyse les accords portant uniquement sur du financement centralisé de publication en accès ouvert, que ce soit avec des éditeurs ne proposant que des revues avec paiement par l’auteur (PLOS, Frontiers, MDPI...) ou des éditeurs dont une partie du catalogue est constitué de revues en accès ouvert. L’accord le plus ancien de notre corpus a été signé en 2010, les plus récents en 2020 – les accords ne commençant qu’en 2021, même annoncés au cours de l’étude, n’ont pas été retenus. Plusieurs résultats se dégagent de notre analyse. Tout d’abord, on note une grande diversité des acteurs impliqués avec 22 pays et 39 éditeurs, même si certains consortiums (Pays-Bas, Suède, Autriche, Allemagne) et éditeurs (CUP, Elsevier, RSC, Springer) en ont signé beaucoup plus que d’autres. Ensuite, la durée des accords, comprise entre une et six années, révèle une distribution très inégalitaire, avec plus de la moitié des accords (103) signés pour 3 ans, ainsi qu’une faible proportion pour 4 ans ou plus (22 accords). Enfin, en dépit d’appels répétés à la transparence, moins de la moitié des accords (96) ont un texte accessible au moment de cette étude, sans qu’on puisse observer une tendance récente à une plus grande disponibilité. L’analyse montre également des degrés d’ouverture très variables, allant d’une simple information sur le répertoire ESAC en passant par la mise à disposition d’un format annotable jusqu’à l’attribution d’un DOI et d’une licence de réutilisation (CC-BY), en incluant le détail des sommes monétaires. Parmi les 96 accords disponibles, dont 47 signés en 2020, 62 ont fait l’objet d’une analyse en profondeur. C’est à notre connaissance la première analyse à cette échelle, sur un type de matériel non seulement inédit, mais qui était auparavant soumis à des clauses de confidentialité. Fondée sur une lecture minutieuse, l’étude décrit de manière fine leurs propriétés, depuis la matérialité du document jusqu’aux formules financières, en passant par leur morphologie et l’ensemble des droits et devoirs des parties. Les contenus des accords sont donc analysés comme une collection dont nous cherchons à déterminer les points communs et les variations, à travers des codages explicites sur certaines de leurs caractéristiques. L’étude pointe également des incertitudes, et notamment leur caractère « transitionnel », qui demeure fortement discuté. D’un point de vue morphologique, les accords montrent une grande diversité en matière de taille (de 7 à 488 pages) et de structure. Néanmoins, par définition, ils articulent tous deux objets essentiels : d’une part, les conditions de réalisation d’une lecture d’articles de revues, sous forme d’abonnement, mêlant des préoccupations d’accès et de sécurité ; d’autre part, les modalités de publication en accès ouvert, articulant la gestion d’un nouveau type de workflow à toute une série d’options possibles. Parmi ces options, mentionnons notamment le périmètre des revues considérées (hybrides et/ou accès ouvert), les licences disponibles, le degré d’obligation de cette publication, les auteurs éligibles ou le volume d’articles publiables. L’un des résultats les plus importants de cette analyse approfondie est la mise au jour d’un découplage presque complet, au sein même des accords, entre l’objet abonnement et l’objet publication. Bien entendu, l’abonnement est systématiquement configuré dans un monde fermé, soumis à paiement qui déclenche des séries d’identification des circulations légitimes tant du contenu informationnel que des usagers. Il insiste notamment sur les interdictions de réutilisation ou même de copie des articles scientifiques. À l’opposé, la publication en accès ouvert est attachée à un monde régi par l’accès gratuit au contenu, ce qui induit des préoccupations de gestion du workflow et des modalités d’accessibilité. De plus, les différents éléments constitutifs de ces objets contractuels ne sont pas couplés : d’un côté, les lecteurs sont constitués de l’ensemble des membres des institutions abonnées, de l’autre, seuls les auteurs correspondants (« corresponding authors ») sont concernés ; les listes de revues accessibles à la lecture et celles réservées à la publication en accès ouvert sont le plus souvent distinctes ; les workflows ont des objectifs et des organisations matérielles totalement différentes, etc. L’articulation entre les deux objets contractuels relève uniquement d’une formule de distribution financière qui, outre des combinaisons particulières entre l’un et l’autre, permet d’attribuer des étiquettes distinctes aux accords (offset agreement, publish & read, read & publish, read & free articles, read & discount). Au-delà de cette distribution, l’étude des arrangements financiers montre une gamme de dispositions allant d’une prévisibilité budgétaire totale, donc identique aux accords d’abonnement antérieurs, à une incertitude sur le volume de publication ou sur le montant définitif des sommes échangées. Les modalités concrètes de calcul des montants associés à la publication en accès ouvert sont relativement variées. S’il existe effectivement des formules récurrentes (volume d’articles multiplié par un prix individuel, reprise de la moyenne des sommes totales d’APC des années précédentes...), le calcul des sommes en jeu est toujours le résultat d’une négociation singulière entre un consortium et un éditeur scientifique, et aboutit parfois à des formules originales et complexes. À ce titre, l’espace des possibles en matière de formules financières n’est jamais totalement clos. Par ailleurs, la volonté des consortiums d’opérer une « transformation » de leurs accords vers la publication à coût constant renvoie à des définitions diversifiées du « coût » (inclusion ou non des dépenses d’APC préexistantes) et de la constance (admission ou pas d’une « inflation » à 2 ou 3%). De plus, nous n’avons observé aucune disposition contractuelle permettant d’anticiper les sommes en jeu au-delà de l’horizon temporel de l’accord courant. La grande diversité des accords provient d’une part des conditions initiales des relations entre consortiums et éditeurs scientifiques – les sommes dépensées en abonnement étant le point de départ des nouveaux accords –, d’autre part des objectifs de chaque partie. Même si cette étude excluait volontairement les négociations, les accords portent des traces de ces objectifs. Ainsi, de nombreux accords sont de nature explicitement expérimentale, quand certains visent un contrôle budgétaire strict, ou d’autres ambitionnent, dans la période plus récente, la publication du plus grand nombre possible d’articles en accès ouvert. C’est dans ce dernier cas qu’on touche à l’ambiguïté des attentes générales sur les accords transformants. En effet, pour les consortiums, la dimension « transformante » consiste essentiellement à transférer les sommes traditionnellement allouées à l’abonnement vers la publication en accès ouvert. Mais l’objectif n’est jamais de transformer le modèle économique des revues, c'est-à-dire de faire basculer des revues sous abonnement ou hybrides en revues entièrement en accès ouvert. D’ailleurs, aucune clause ne vise une telle fin – à l’exception du modèle d’accord proposé par l’éditeur ACM. Du côté des éditeurs, et notamment de Springer, le caractère cumulatif des accords nationaux passés vise à projeter un monde de la publication où l’accès ouvert devient de fait quantitativement très dominant, sans pour autant modifier de manière pérenne le modèle économique de leurs revues. Notre étude montre que les accords transformants actuels ne permettent pas d’assurer de manière durable une transition de l’économie de la publication vers l’accès ouvert, dans la mesure où ils n’offrent pas de garantie sur le contrôle des dépenses ni sur la pérennité de l’ouverture des contenus. L’avenir des relations entre consortium et éditeur demeure largement indéterminé.

Banco de la República’s main objective is to preserve the purchasing power of the currency in coordination with the general economic policy that is intended to stabilize output and employment at long-term sustainable levels. Properly meeting the goal assigned to the Bank by the 1991 Constitution critically depends on preserving financial stability. This is understood to be a general condition in which the financial system assesses and manages the financial risks in a way that facilitates the economy’s performance and efficient allocation of resources while, at the same time, it is able to, on its own, absorb, dissipate, and mitigate the shocks that may arise as a result of adverse events. This Financial Stability Report meets the goal of giving Banco de la República’s diagnosis of the financial system’s and its debtors’ recent performance as well as of the main risks and vulnerabilities that could affect the stability of the Colombian economy. In this way, participants in financial markets and the public are being informed, and public debate on trends and risks affecting the system is being encouraged. The results presented here also serve the monetary authority as a basis for making decisions that will enhance financial stability in the general context of its objectives. In recent months, several positive aspects of the financial system have preserved a remarkable degree of continuity and stability: the liquidity and capital adequacy of financial institutions have remained well above the regulatory minimums at both the individual and consolidated levels, the coverage of past-due loans by loan-loss provisions remains high, and the financial markets for public and private debt and stocks have continued to function normally. At the same time, a surge in all the types of loan portfolios, a sharp downturn in the non-performing loan portfolio, and a rise in the profitability of credit institutions can be seen for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. In line with the general recovery of the economy, the main vulnerability to the stability of the Colombian financial system identified in the previous edition—uncertainty about changes in the non-performing loans portfolio—has receded and remains on a downward trend. In this edition, the main source of vulnerability identified for financial stability in the short term is the system’s exposure to sudden changes in international financial conditions; the results presented in this Report indicate that the system is sufficiently resilient to such scenarios. In compliance with its constitutional objectives and in coordination with the financial system’s security network, Banco de la República will continue to closely monitor the outlook for financial stability at this juncture and will make the decisions necessary to ensure the proper functioning of the economy, facilitate the flow of sufficient credit and liquidity resources, and further the smooth functioning of the payment system. Leonardo Villar Gomez Governor Box 1 -Decomposition of the Net Interest Margin in Colombia and Chile Wilmar Cabrera Daniela Rodríguez-Novoa Box 2 - Spatial Analysis of New Home Prices in Bogota, Medellín, and Cali Using a Geostatistical Approach María Fernanda Meneses Camilo Eduardo Sánchez Box 3 - Interest Rate Model for the SYSMO Stress Test Exercise Wilmar Cabrera Diego Cuesta Santiago Gamba Camilo Gómez Box 4 - The Transition from LIBOR and other International Benchmark Rates Daniela X. Gualtero Briceño Javier E. Pirateque Niño