Municipal Sphere Research Articles

GESTÃO DE RESÍDUOS SÓLIDOS URBANOS NA REGIÃO METROPOLITANA DE CURITIBA: POLÍTICA REGIONAL DE COMPOSTAGEM

A questão dos resíduos sólidos tem adquirido cada vez mais relevância nas discussões referentes ao planejamento urbano. E, na busca pela sustentabilidade ambiental as soluções contidas na esfera municipal perdem eficiência, visto que os sistemas ambientais sofrem degradações em extensões que extrapolam os limites do município. Neste sentido, destaca-se a figura do Consórcio Intermunicipal, integrando municípios vizinhos com problemas comuns, que reúnem esforços em busca de soluções. Acreditando neste pressuposto foi que em 2001, 17 municípios da Região Metropolitana de Curitiba (RMC) constituíram o Consórcio Intermunicipal Para Gestão de R.S.U.. Dentre as atividades do consórcio, está o Plano de Gerenciamento do Tratamento e Destinação de Resíduos Sólidos (PGRS), que propõe a substituição do atual Aterro Sanitário da Caximba por uma Planta de Tratamento, processando o lixo e aterrando apenas os rejeitos últimos. Porém, este novo sistema proposto não apresenta estratégias de implantação na prática. Neste sentido, este artigo propõe a elaboração de uma Política Regional de Compostagem, definindo diretrizes de planejamento territorial, de modo a viabilizar a prática da compostagem na RMC.

LAND PARCELING AND NEIGHBORHOOD IMPACTS IN BRAZIL (doi: 10.4090/juee.2009.v3n1.023031)

The proposal and implementation of parceling real estate into smaller lots in Brazil is done according to legal and technical formalities. However, these instruments have proved inefficient in reducing the resulting environmental impacts. The ambiguities of the federal, state and municipal laws and regulations have limited the effectiveness of the actions of urban administrators. Law 10257/2001 emerged as an alternative to overcome these difficulties, proposing the adoption of neighborhood impact studies as an instrument to evaluate new proposals of urban occupation for purposes of environmental licensing. Thus, the purpose of this law is to provide the foundations for municipal public authorities to establish criteria for the assessment, mitigation and compensation of impacts resulting from new occupations. However, the very vagueness of the generic nature of this federal law and its incorrect application in the municipal sphere has posed the greatest obstacles to the good use of this instrument of urban environmental management. These deficiencies are classified herein in the categories of philosophical, technical and operational problems. The problems of a philosophical nature lead to technical difficulties, which in turn trigger operational deficiencies. This article discusses these deficiencies and points out ways to reduce them.

Facts, Threats and Reds: Common Law Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law

In a concurring judgment in Thomas v Mowbray, a High Court of Australia case turning on the Constitutional validity of terrorism-related control orders, Callinan J offers a re-evaluation of the Court’s earlier decision in the Australian Communist Party case to curtail executive power. According to Callinan J, factual matters knowable (but not known) at the time of the earlier decision might have given rise to a different outcome. In a dissenting judgment by Kirby J in the same case the Court’s reasoning in the Australian Communist Party case is robustly defended. These contested issues connect with the theoretical dispute between ‘common law constitutionalism’ and ‘constitutional positivism’ analysed by Dyzenhaus in the context of states of emergency where the limits of executive action and the role of supporting facts become particularly salient. They press the question of the status of the rule of law in the international as well as in the municipal sphere.

Land parceling and neighborhood impacts in Brazil

The proposal and implementation of parceling real estate into smaller lots in Brazil is done according to legal and technical formalities. However, these instruments have proved inefficient in reducing the resulting environmental impacts. The ambiguities of the federal, state and municipal laws and regulations have limited the effectiveness of the actions of urban administrators. Law 10257/2001 emerged as an alternative to overcome these difficulties, proposing the adoption of neighborhood impact studies as an instrument to evaluate new proposals of urban occupation for purposes of environmental licensing. Thus, the purpose of this law is to provide the foundations for municipal public authorities to establish criteria for the assessment, mitigation and compensation of impacts resulting from new occupations. However, the very vagueness of the generic nature of this federal law and its incorrect application in the municipal sphere has posed the greatest obstacles to the good use of this instrument of urban environmental management. These deficiencies are classified herein in the categories of philosophical, technical and operational problems. The problems of a philosophical nature lead to technical difficulties, which in turn trigger operational deficiencies. This article discusses these deficiencies and points out ways to reduce them.

Municipal governance and environmental crises: threats and thoughts

Local government in South Africa (SA) has come a long way from the period when there were over 1200 racially segregated municipalities. From more than 800 municipalities after 1996, they have been merged to currently 284 municipalities which now cover every ‘millimetre’ of the country, and are focused on growing local economies and maintaining the provision of a lot more diverse and complex basic municipal services to all their citizens and especially to geographical areas and citizens that were previously neglected. This transformed local government environment has brought about many changes in the nature and extent of basic public services delivered at the grass- roots level of this developing country with its limited resources and unlimited needs – especially in the areas of potable water supply and sanitation services.This article will firstly highlight the changed environmental context of public service delivery in the local government sphere of the country before the transformation in relevant legislation will be reported on. Subsequently the nature and extent of current realities of local governance, dynamics and challenges regarding the diverse and complex public services by a typical Category B Local municipality will be identified in the real SA out there. The use of the Politics – Administration System Model by Easton for environmental management analysis will also be illustrated. Lastly, for easy classification of typical characteristics and challenging issues in the dynamic municipal government sphere of SA, the SWOT-analysis format will be used.

Changes in the design of the urban space of the Arabs of Haifa during the Israeli War of Independence

The Israeli War of Independence caused far-reaching changes in the cultural landscape of Palestine, which necessitate many geographical studies to complete our understanding of the history of the period. The boundaries of Israel were determined by this war, but the main effect was the alteration in the composition and aspect of the population. The major change resulted from the mass abandonment of the country by most of the Arab population (who fled or were deliberately forced out), and the entry of hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants, all in a short time-span. The changes in the cultural landscape thus affected the rural space, the transport and highway network, the open country, and the urban landscape at the close of the British Mandate period. A fascinating chapter in these processes of change was recorded by the towns inhabited by Jews and Arabs jointly, and the war entirely altered their form, their population composition, and their characteristic urban texture of mandatory times. The special nature of the big mixed cities in the Mandate period was evinced in the demographic composition of their population and its spatial distribution. Cities of this sort were Haifa, Jaffa and Jerusalem; Safed and Tiberias developed similarly, but on a smaller scale. Most of these cities were divided into two defined parts, one inhabited by a Jewish population, the other by an Arab population, together with a range of minority groups.' In Haifa, a city known specially for the sound relations between its Arab and Jewish citizens in the time of the Mandate, urban society usually operated as a single whole, mainly in the economic and municipal sphere. Separation between Arabs and Jews usually was evident at times of outbreaks of intercommunal violence, which in the conventional terminology of the time were called by the Jewish Yishuv (settlement) 'the riots'. At those times everyone became keenly aware of the existence of an urban borderline, creating a schematic divide between the two sides. This separation seemed still more marked owing to the topography of the urban spatial design. Prior

Aspects of the Administration of International Justice by Elihu Lauterpact

Aspects of the Administration of International Justice, by Elihu Lauterpact Published by Grotius Publications Limited, Cambridge, U.K. (1991, 166 pp., incl. Contents, Preface, Table of Cases, Table of Treaties and other International Instruments, and Index ). Hardback. Price UK £35, US $70. The objective of this book, which is not readily apparent from the title, is to analyse certain underlying aspects of the present international adjudicatory. system. The desire of the author, who is the Director of the Research Centre for International Law at Cambridge University and an experienced teacher and practitioner of international law, is to take the opportunity to make suggestions that may ‘improve and perfect the international legal system’ (p. xiii). The book, being based on a series of lectures, is of a generalised nature, and can be easily criticised for its lack of depth and completeness, but this reviewer at least found that its refreshingly straightforward style, uncluttered by repetitious examples, helped to further the understanding of a complex area. The author makes it clear from the outset that he has a realistic approach to the subject recognising that ‘litigation is not the only, or even the best way of settling disputes. It is an inescapable fact that issues that divide States are best settled by negotiation and agreement’ (p. 6). Indeed, the author is quite rightly of the opinion that so called non-judicial methods of settling disputes: negotiation, good offices, mediation, conciliation, not only merge into one another but also spill over into judicial settlement, a concept which includes arbitration as well as decisions by an established court such as the International Court of Justice. One can readily see non-legal factors playing a role in arbitration, particularly in the formulation of the compromis and in the choice of arbitrators (see Chapter V), but the author is going further by suggesting that the judicial function at the international level, whether by an arbitrator or by a World Court judge, involves a far greater degree of discretion than its equivalent in the municipal sphere (p. 146). This point is …

Socjopolityczne konteksty demonstrowania poglądów w przestrzeni miejskiej

The subject of analysis concerns forms and means of communicating political views by political groups with contrasting approaches, their visual representations. A lot is happening in the municipal sphere (and public in general), but only some of its elements are visible and only some confirm the divisions within the society, diverse interests of groups and classes, social inequality. The symbolism is highly interesting, although it has been discussed multiple times already. The use of available resources and the more or less noticeable artistry (or, on the contrary, triviality, kitsch) also draw attention. We can see people, draped monuments, posters and banners, effigies and representations of a non-figurative nature. It is all about raising interest, specifying identity, building alliances and a supporting auditorium. The aesthetics is to boost or disrupt, use its sociotechnical value. Writings on the walls have political content and various fonts, they appear in unexpected places. There are also differences in the visual reception of various audiences – participants of the events, municipal service forces, media representatives, engaged Internet users (engaged because they use the broadcast for agitation), even artists view the circumstances differently.

Концептуальні проблеми забезпечення контролю в сфері місцевого самоврядування: теорія та практика

У статті досліджуються конституційно-правові проблеми організації та функціонування місцевого самоврядування в контексті контрольної діяльності у муніципальній сфері. Висвітлюється питання щодо системи та форм контрольної діяльності суб’єктів місцевого самоврядування у вітчизняній і зарубіжній юридичній практиці. Така постановка питання обумовлюється тим, що питання щодо місця й ролі контролю у системі місцевого самоврядування, його правової природи, співвідношення та взаємодії з іншими формами муніципальної діяльності належать до найбільш дискусійних у сучасній конституційній теорії.

Socjopolityczne konteksty demonstrowania poglądów w przestrzeni miejskiej

The subject of analysis concerns forms and means of communicating political views by political groups with contrasting approaches, their visual representations. A lot is happening in the municipal sphere (and public in general), but only some of its elements are visible and only some confirm the divisions within the society, diverse interests of groups and classes, social inequality. The symbolism is highly interesting, although it has been discussed multiple times already. The use of available resources and the more or less noticeable artistry (or, on the contrary, triviality, kitsch) also draw attention. We can see people, draped monuments, posters and banners, effigies and representations of a non-figurative nature. It is all about raising interest, specifying identity, building alliances and a supporting auditorium. The aesthetics is to boost or disrupt, use its sociotechnical value. Writings on the walls have political content and various fonts, they appear in unexpected places. There are also differences in the visual reception of various audiences – participants of the events, municipal service forces, media representatives, engaged Internet users (engaged because they use the broadcast for agitation), even artists view the circumstances differently.

Horticulture of Western Area of Mikawa Highland and its Suburbanization

The Western Area of Mikawa-Highland, situated in the municipal sphere of 30-50km from Nagoya City, is a mountainous suburb area with the semi-highland cool climate. Nearby the Toyota automobile industrial center it has been extraordinally suffering from manpower exploitation by the enterprises. After several surveys, following points are verified and examined:1) According to each crops or equipments style, there are many sorts of horticulture. At the point of view of the business economy, they are classified into these categories: vegetables horticulture as a side work, vegetables and flowers horticulture in hot house as a complex business management and ciclamen horticulture in hot house as principal economic understanding.2) In accompanying the suburbnized degrees of the whole region, various horticultures were brought up: i) when they are in a stage that it needs the horticulture as a side work, ii) or when a larger scale of complex business is inevitable to cope with the flowing out of the manpower from that area, and iii) when an autonomic horticultural business is imperative to correspond with the enlargement of the whole agricultural economy.3) In raising of horticulturists, the object was turning from the whole class of agriculturists to the middle class, and after then, now it has been transiting to the upper class, as amelioration of the existing agricultural state is so pressing.4) This is an exemplified type of the horticultural area, where has some artificially reared and guided aspect, so that it shoud not be exclusively explained by the results of the spontanious aerial examination that, it is well befitting itself to the natural condition as well as to the social condition there.5) So much easily it is affected from the percussion of suburbanization. It is too often disposed to develop as side work horticulture owing to its region's commutation. The first stage is appearance of the horticultural side work by the graduates who attend office. The 2nd stage is that of the middle class agricul turists raised by their change of occupation, and the 3rd stage the variation of housewives' working power by means of microbus transportation system. Remarkable exploitation of farmers' working power is accelerating the horticultural class differentiation.6) Thus, the horticultural promotion at the mountain village was not to be initiated from its inner side motiviation, but has been pushed on by the powerful measures from public institutions, such as from the Agricultural Improvement Station, etc. Henceforth originally it has started with decisive conservative character in it. Yet it is too feeble to resist against the outside impact from the exploitation of farmer's working power.

International Law in the Municipal Sphere According to Australian Decisions

International Law in the Municipal Sphere According to Australian Decisions

Becker v. Préfet de la Moselle.

Treaties — Unratified and Unpublished Interpretative Agreement — Value for Municipal Courts — International Law and Municipal Law — Informal Treaties — Effect in Municipal Sphere — Interpretation of — By Subsequent Agreement — Nationality — Redintegration — Inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine — Treaty of Versailles.

The Permanence of Treaties

Starting, as we must start, from the proposition, that in the international sphere, treaties are at any rate no less binding than are contracts in the municipal sphere, may we nevertheless agree that treaties become obsolete, and, if yes, when and in what conditions? Has Article 19 of the Covenant of the League in any way diminished the respect due to treaty obligations? These are questions, which have a special importance at a time when the world has recently been resettled by treaty, and it is worth while to give a little time to their examination. Such an examination may at least serve to clear our ideas, to suggest what are the limits of the doctrine, and to emphasize the necessity, if those limits are to be defined, of a resort to an international court of justice.