Law Commons^™

Patriotism For Profit And Persuasion: The Trademark, Free Speech, And Governance Problems With Protection Of Governmental Marks In The United States, Malla Pollack

Malla Pollack

“Governmental marks” are words or phrases which involve the identity of a social group that is partly defined in terms of its citizenship in a government-institution. The power to name a social group (especially one from which exit is difficult) confers enormous power over the group’s members. Legally classifying such words as trademarks commodifies them, increasing the namer’s power: both by giving the word monetary value and by providing the mark-holder with the legal right to prevent others from manipulating the word’s meaning.

Destination marketing employing governmental marks has become ubiquitous. The municipal governments of both New York City and …

Participatory Rural Appraisal, Ganesh Chandra

Ganesh Chandra

Participation, empowerment and inclusion have become the new development buzzword. There has been a range of interpretations of the meaning of participation in development. Participatory development starts from the premise that it is important to identify and build upon strengths already present in communities. Perhaps the most widespread appearance of participation in mainstream development has been seen in the form of participatory methodologies of research, intended to gather a wide range of information from local people at their livelihoods, needs, and strengths, at the same time as 'empowering' them through a process of collaborative analysis and learning. PRA is a …

Fisher Management Regimes And Fisheries Governance In Floodplain Wetland Of Assam, Ganesh Chandra

Ganesh Chandra

Assam is endowed with copious aquatic wealth in the form of beels, swamps, ponds and rivers. The floodplain wetlands (beels) extending over one lakh hectare, constitute the most important fishery resource of the state. The beels are considered as one of the most productive ecosystems owing to their characteristic interactions between land and water system. These wetlands are the common property resource and under different management regimes. Livelihood of fishers’ family from time immemorial is dependent upon fishing in floodplain wetlands. Fishers include the actual fishermen belonging to the Schedule castes and the Maimal community of the district of Cachar. …

Free And Fair Elections, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

This chapter argues that the freedom and the fairness of elections are threatened by old and new (and emerging) threats. In fact, the freedom and the fairness of elections are threatened not only by political violence, intimidation and electoral fraud which can be regarded as the ‘old’ or ‘traditional’ threats, but they are also threatened by the absence of plural sources of independent information, conflict of interests and , above all, corruption

Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr): Market-Based Remedies For International Human Rights Violations?, Eric A. Engle

Eric A. Engle

Corporate social responsibility proposes non-binding self governance mechanisms on corporations as a preventative remedy to human rights. This article sceptically analyzes the CSR movement and proposes ways to make non-binding governance more effective.