Commission's Deliberations Research Articles

Pornography, Politics, and the Press: The U.S. Attorney General's Commission on Pornography

A close examination of the Commission's deliberations and Report shows selective use of evidence, without much light shed from more recent thinking and scholarship and with surprisingly little attention from the media.

UNCITRAL adopts Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration: (A brief account of the final text)

THE important project described in the first article of this journal1 has recently been successfully completed: The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law adopted on 21 June 1985 the ‘UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration’.2 Representatives and observers of 61 States and 18 international organisations participated in the extensive deliberations on the draft text which the Working Group on International Contract Practices had prepared during five sessions. This draft text proved to be not only a good basis for the Commission's deliberations but also, by and large, an acceptable model set of provisions for improving and harmonising national laws in respect of the specific field of international commercial arbitration. Of course, on a number of important issues, which had been controversial in the Working Group, it was difficult to reach consensus in the Commission. However, in most of these issues the Commission came to the same conclusion as the Working Group, often accompanied by a clarification which should alleviate certain concerns or by a common understanding which should prove useful in the interpretation and application of the Law. It is beyond the scope of this short account to reflect fully the discussions and decisions on all the provisions; for. this, the reader is referred to the proceedings of the session3 and to the final text itself. What will be given here is a brief update of the earlier ‘basic article’ by reporting new decisions and substantive modifications. For ease of reference – fortunately facilitated by the survival of the old article numbers (except articles 3,17 and 18) – the changes in the final text will be reported here under the sub-headings used in the basic article under the heading ‘III. Subject areas and main provisions of the Model Law’ (to no one's surprise, nothing needs …

U.S. policy and strategy in the international whaling commission: Sinking or swimming?

Abstract The official U.S. statement on the 32nd meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC termed the outcome a “modest success.”; However, from the point of view of conservationists—i.e., governments and private groups seeking greater protection for the world's endangered whales—the results of the 1980 IWC session can be described at best as satisfactory. The disappointing U.S. performance at this and other recent Commission proceedings strongly suggests the need for a reassessment of American cetacean policy and the way in which we pursue this policy in the IWC. The discussion will begin with a review of U.S. objectives in the IWC in relation to national and international law governing cetaceans. The focus will then turn to the role played by the United States in the Commission's deliberations on selected issues in 1980. The conclusion will set forth recommendations for improvements in American policy and strategy in the IWC.

Mental hospital planning in Denmark.

By 1975 Denmark should have 9 new mental hospitals, each, with one exception, closely linked to a general hospital. This is the most striking of the proposals contained in the Report∗ of a Commission set up by the Danish Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1952. This Commission was to “report on trends of development of the State Mental Hospital Service in respect of organization and buildings, with special reference to the necessary adaptation of the hospitals to present-day needs and forms of treatment. The Commission's deliberations, which should principally be concerned with the modernizing and extension of the hospitals together with their position in relation to the general hospital service, should also include the possible extension of treatment to categories of patients with mental disorders other than true insanity. The Commission's work should be so arranged that its report can constitute the immediate foundation for the practical organization of future reform work.” This Report contains much of general interest and much which might merit wider application.

Report of the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations

T HE Commission on Intergovernmental Relations issued its Report to the President for transmittal to the Congress in June I955.1 Report with its supporting I5 study documents focused on a variety of issues concerning federal-state relations, ranging from the formulation and conduct of federal regulatory activities to provision of public services for individuals. Report, moreover, describes the divergent interests tax, budget, and program, as well as federal, state, and local which need reconciliation. Some days before the statutory termination of the Commission the Report was released without fanfare in the hope that its importance would grow when students of political science, political economy, and the law could review and assess the Commission's recommendations and the findings of the supporting publications. As the Chairman stated in transmitting the Report: No inquiry of this kind could possibly provide universally satisfactory answers to all of the difficult questions that are under discussion at any particular moment. We are hopeful that this Report will be regarded as the beginning rather than the end of a contemporary study of the subject of intergovernmental relations, and that it will stimulate all levels of government to examine their respective responsibilities in a properly balanced federal system. 2 Commission's Report is in two parts; Part I presents a general discussion of the federal system, the role of the states, and nationalstate relationships in regulatory activities, taxation, and grant programs. Part II deals with joint national, state, and local responsibilities for separate programs. supporting documents provide background for the Commission's deliberations.3 In the pages which follow, the Commission's Report is discussed in the context of the basic po itions underlying specific recommendations. Primary emphasis on division of functional responsibilities. All but four of the Report's I 7 chapters deal with federal grants-in-aid and aided public functions, indicative that the Commission sought by this emphasis to fulfill its statutory charge within its literal meaning: The Commission shall study and investigate all the present activities in which Federal aid is extended to State and local governments, the interrelationships of the financing of this aid and the sources of the financing of governmental programs. Commission shall determine and report whether there is justification for Federal aid in the various fields in which Federal aid is extended; whether there are other fields in which aid should be extended; . . . and all other matters incident to such Federal aid, including the ability of the Federal Government and the States to finance activities of this nature. 4 In terms of the legislative history of the bill and the broad declaration of purposes, various major problems were considered appropriate areas of study.5 Throughout the hearings on the pending legislation, differences of view on the relative importance of different aspects of federal-state relations were brought out.6 At

Caribbean Commission

From May 6 to 10, 1952, the fourteenth meeting of the Caribbean Commission was held in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. Prominent in the commission's deliberations were preparations for the fifth session of the West Indian Conference, scheduled to open in Jamaica in November. The provisional agenda of this conference session, which was to concentrate attention on the subject of industrialization, included the historical background of and agricultural bases for industrialization, the role of governments in promoting industrialization, and vocational training and other measures to increase productivity of labor. The commission was to consider two proposed conferences, one on trade promotion and the other on the timber trade. A report on the status of technical assistance projects also was on the commission's agenda.