Settlement Decisions Research Articles

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MEDIATION IN THE RESOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE DISPUTES

The purpose of this paper is to find out mediation in the settlement of disputes or international trade disputes by Business Actors, and the role of the ITPC in the event of a dispute between the parties involved in international trade transactions. This research used a normative juridical approach. The research results state that settlement of international trade disputes, in its implementation, business people prefer the mediation route, because of the benefits or advantages that business people get when using the mediation route. Among other things, the parties requested or appointed by the parties are neutral parties, procedures are fast, informal, time and cost efficient, confidentiality is maintained, prioritizes maintaining a sustainable working relationship in business as well as settlement decisions determined and agreed upon by the parties to create peace.

Informed dispersal based on prospecting impacts the rate and shape of range expansions

Rapid progress is being made in understanding how dispersal strategies influence the spread of species whose ranges are expanding. However, potentially vital dispersal behaviours have so far been neglected. Social species have been demonstrated to use their own breeding performance (personal information) and the breeding performance of their conspecifics (public information) to inform both their emigration and settlement decisions. Here, to provide insight into how these behaviours may impact range expansion dynamics, we extend a recently‐developed individual‐based model that incorporates the use of personal and public information in emigration decisions and a prospecting phase informing settlement decisions. We find that compared to non‐informed emigration, informed emigration results in slower range expansions, except when individuals prospect a high number of patches or when their perceptual range is high. Spread rate and also the extent of the front strongly depend upon the willingness of individuals to settle in an empty patch. Given the likely prevalence of prospecting and informed dispersal across a wide range of taxa, these results indicate an urgent need for further empirical and modelling studies to improve our understanding and predictive capability of how species exhibiting this informed dispersal strategy will respond to environmental changes.

Identity negotiation of Chinese international students in Canada: A study on cosmopolitan post-graduation settlement

This study focuses on analyzing the acculturation of Chinese international students in Canada, emphasizing students' post-graduation settlement in China, Canada, or in other countries. Chinese international students commonly experience a multilayered acculturative adjustment when they are challenged by a new culture. In this process, they develop an identity negotiation that impacts their settlement into a new country. This study mobilizes four notions of acculturation (e.g., assimilation, integration, marginalization, and separation), to evaluate Chinese international students’ identity negotiation after university. This research uses 17 semi-structured interviews to understand how participants' identities were negotiated through their acculturative adjustment. First, the findings highlight the importance of career factors and family values in participants' settlement decisions. Second, the balance between Chinese identity and Canadian identity has some impact on student’s migration plans.

Aspen: The European Commission’s First Decision on Excessive Pricing in the Pharmaceuticals Sector

Case AT.40394 Aspen, Commission Decision of 10 February 2021 On 10 February 2021, the Commission entered into a settlement decision with Aspen under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003. The Commission investigated 'excessive pricing' by the South Africa-headquartered Aspen in six off-patent cancer drugs in the European Economic Area (EEA). These drugs had been off-patent for well over 50 years, and there seemed no rational prima facie justification for their unfairly high prices. This case note offers a critical discussion on the Commission’s case and Aspen’s well-planned strategy to systematically and uniformly increase prices across the Member States.

THE ROLE OF THE ASEAN SUMMIT IN THE ASEAN ECONOMIC DISPUTE SETTLEMENT

Like the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Mechanism, the Association of South-East Asian Nations Enhanced Dispute Settlement Mechanism (ASEAN EDSM) recognizes trade countermeasures in the event of non-compliance with rulings made by the Panel and Appellate Body. However, the injured party sometimes has to deal with stumbling blocks in requesting an authorized trade countermeasure. The pitfall highlights the consequences if the dispute is unresolved. Meanwhile, ASEAN recognizes a procedure to allow the disputant parties to render unresolved disputes to the ASEAN Summit according to Article 26 of the ASEAN Charter. Moreover, if the non-implementation of the ASEAN dispute settlement decision affects the injured party, this party can submit the issue to the ASEAN Summit according to Article 27(2) of the ASEAN Charter. This research investigates whether the role of the ASEAN Summit can be a solution for the post-adjudication issue in the ASEAN EDSM. The research methods consist of a literature review and close reading of the Article 26 and 27 of the ASEAN Charter. The result shows that the intervention of the ASEAN Summit to the post-adjudication of ASEAN EDSM is likely to apply political solutions that would, in turn, make legal decisions subject to politically driven scrutiny. However, ASEAN commits that any economic disputes must be resolved to ensure economic stability in the ASEAN.

Social environment shapes female settlement decisions in a solitary carnivore.

How and where a female selects an area to settle and breed is of central importance in dispersal and population ecology as it governs range expansion and gene flow. Social structure and organization have been shown to influence settlement decisions, but its importance in the settlement of large, solitary mammals is largely unknown. We investigate how the identity of overlapping conspecifics on the landscape, acquired during the maternal care period, influences the selection of settlement home ranges in a non-territorial, solitary mammal using location data of 56 female brown bears (Ursus arctos). We used a resource selection function to determine whether females’ settlement behavior was influenced by the presence of their mother, related females, familiar females, and female population density. Hunting may remove mothers and result in socio-spatial changes before settlement. We compared overlap between settling females and their mother’s concurrent or most recent home ranges to examine the settling female’s response to the absence or presence of her mother on the landscape. We found that females selected settlement home ranges that overlapped their mother’s home range, familiar females, that is, those they had previously overlapped with, and areas with higher density than their natal ranges. However, they did not select areas overlapping related females. We also found that when mothers were removed from the landscape, female offspring selected settlement home ranges with greater overlap of their mother’s range, compared with mothers who were alive. Our results suggest that females are acquiring and using information about their social environment when making settlement decisions.

Prospecting and informed dispersal: Understanding and predicting their joint eco-evolutionary dynamics.

The ability of individuals to leave a current breeding area and select a future one is important, because such decisions can have multiple consequences for individual fitness, but also for metapopulation dynamics, structure, and long‐term persistence through non‐random dispersal patterns. In the wild, many colonial and territorial animal species display informed dispersal strategies, where individuals use information, such as conspecific breeding success gathered during prospecting, to decide whether and where to disperse. Understanding informed dispersal strategies is essential for relating individual behavior to subsequent movements and then determining how emigration and settlement decisions affect individual fitness and demography. Although numerous theoretical studies have explored the eco‐evolutionary dynamics of dispersal, very few have integrated prospecting and public information use in both emigration and settlement phases. Here, we develop an individual‐based model that fills this gap and use it to explore the eco‐evolutionary dynamics of informed dispersal. In a first experiment, in which only prospecting evolves, we demonstrate that selection always favors informed dispersal based on a low number of prospected patches relative to random dispersal or fully informed dispersal, except when individuals fail to discriminate better patches from worse ones. In a second experiment, which allows the concomitant evolution of both emigration probability and prospecting, we show the same prospecting strategy evolving. However, a plastic emigration strategy evolves, where individuals that breed successfully are always philopatric, while failed breeders are more likely to emigrate, especially when conspecific breeding success is low. Embedding information use and prospecting behavior in eco‐evolutionary models will provide new fundamental understanding of informed dispersal and its consequences for spatial population dynamics.

Urban labour market and de facto citizenship: Understanding migrant's settlement intention in China

AbstractThis study examines the changing role of traditional employment sector and the access to employment‐related citizenship rights in affecting migrant workers' settlement intentions in China. Traditionally, migrants who are informally employed were viewed as unsettled groups in Chinese cities. However, the expanded employment‐related citizenship rights provide more diverse channels for pursuing permanent urban settlement. We use data from China Migrants Dynamic Survey in 2013 to investigate migrant workers' permanent settlement intentions, taking into account their access to employment‐related citizenship rights, employment sector, hukou status, social‐economic attachments at the places of destination and origin, and regional variations. We found that self‐employed and informally employed migrants held a stronger intention to pursue permanent settlement if they were protected by the local urban insurance schemes, the so‐called “de facto” employment‐related citizenship. The study suggests that the dichotomy of employment sectors, formal versus informal, in understanding migrants' settlement decision has been weakened in China.

Place identity, hope and expectations of decent work in Italian youths moving to London

This study reconstructed London’ (UK) place identity in young Italian immigrants who have settled in this metropolitan city. The aim was to detect their representation of the hosting society and to investigate their migration experience. Interviews to 10 young Italian migrants (mean age: 27.7; SD: 4.084) were collected and analyzed through thematic analysis. The interviews showed that their individual and social identity had been influenced by the attitudes of the hosting context and its specific feature, highlighting the cultural richness of the town and its relational and work opportunities. Their hope for a decent job and the multicultural richness of the receiving town supported their settlement decision. However, their poor knowledge of the language and the little opportunity for effective acceptable decent work together with homesickness made this experience just a long-term temporary solution.

Penerapan Аsаs-Аsаs Umum Pemerintаhаn yаng Bаik dаlаm Penyelesаiаn Sengketа Tanah Hak Milik

This study aimed to describe the procedure for resolving land disputes, the application of the General Principles of Good Government (AUPB) in land dispute resolution, and the supporting and inhibiting factors for the application of AUPB in resolving land disputes. This study used a sociological juridical approach, with the type of empirical juridical research. The procedure for resolving land disputes was through two types of applications, namely letters of public complaints and implementation of court decisions. The application of AUPB in land dispute resolution started from the application, data collection and analysis, field assessment and inspection, case exposure, case settlement reports, settlement, and implementation of settlement decisions. Supporting factors for the implementation of AUPB were the Regulation of the Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency of the Republic of Indonesia Number 11 of 2016, Section for Handling Land Problems and Control, as well as facilities and infrastructure for mediation, case titles, and transportation. The obstacle of the AUPB implementation included the inkracht decision to issue replacement certificates that had not been explicitly regulated, resulting in land registration services being blocked by the system and uncooperative parties.

Immunocompetent birds choose larger breeding colonies.

Optimal size of social groups may vary between individuals, depending on their phenotypic traits, such as dominance status, age or personality. Larger social groups often enhance transmission rates of pathogens and should be avoided by individuals with poor immune defences. In contrast, more immunocompetent individuals are expected to take advantage of larger group sizes (e.g. better protection, information transfer) with smaller extra costs from pathogen or parasite pressure. Here, we hypothesized that immunocompetence may be a key determinant of group size choice and tested this hypothesis in a colonial waterbird, the common tern Sterna hirundo. We used a unique experimental framework, where formation of breeding colonies of different sizes was induced under uniform environmental conditions. For this purpose, different-size patches of attractive nesting substrate (artificial floating rafts) were provided at a single site with limited availability of natural nesting habitat. Colony size was identified as the only significant predictor of both innate (natural antibody-mediated complement activation) and adaptive (immunoglobulin concentrations) immunological traits in the common terns, as more immunocompetent birds settled in larger experimental colonies. In contrast, we found no significant associations between colony size and genetic diversity of key pathogen-recognition receptors, toll-like receptors (TLRs) and the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) or genome-wide heterozygosity. We conclude that settlement decisions may be flexible within individuals and, thus, are likely to be primarily determined by the current immunological status, rather than fixed immunogenetic traits. Our study sheds new light on the complex interface between immunity and sociality in animals.

Escaping from pollution: Air pollution and the settlement intentions of floating migrants in Chinese cities

AbstractUnderstanding the mechanisms underlying floating migrants’ settlement intentions is vital for guiding evidence-based policies for China’s urbanisation and regional economic development. While prior studies have identified various determinants of migrants’ settlement decisions, little attention has been paid to the effects of environmental pollution on these decisions. To fill this gap, this study utilises a unique data set combining individual-level data from a national survey and city-level data obtained from various sources to investigate the effects of air pollution on floating migrants’ settlement intentions in China. Using a novel instrumental variable, our regression results show significantly negative impacts of air pollution on both migrants’ permanent settlement intention and their expected length of settlement. Additionally, these impacts are stronger for the skilled migrants compared to the less skilled ones. These findings imply that environmental pollution should be seriously considered when promoting urbanisation in China and beyond.

Conspecific attraction for conservation and management of terrestrial breeding birds: Current knowledge and future research directions

Abstract Conspecific presence can indicate the location or quality of resources, and animals settling near conspecifics often gain fitness benefits. This can result in adaptive conspecific attraction during breeding habitat selection as demonstrated in numerous terrestrial, territorial birds. There is growing interest in using simulated conspecific social cues (e.g., decoys, broadcasted vocalizations) to manage bird distributions, yet it remains unclear when this approach is likely to succeed. We reviewed published studies to evaluate whether the strength of conspecific attraction in terrestrial birds is mediated by characteristics of species (life history traits), simulated cues (e.g., timing and duration), sites (e.g., quality), and how conspecific attraction was measured. We identified 31 experiments that simulated social cues and compared conspecific settlement between treatment and control sites. We then used phylogenetically controlled meta-regression to assess the impacts of 19 moderators on settlement. Nearly all species included in these experiments were migratory passerines, and social cues generally had a strong, positive influence on their settlement decisions, as the odds of site occupancy were 3.12× (95% CI: 0.81–11.69) greater in treatment sites relative to control sites. Within this group, conspecific attraction was evolutionarily conserved with ≥25.5% (95% CI: 5.1%–65.4%) of the variance in treatment effects explained by phylogenetic relatedness. However, we found no evidence that any covariates influenced the response to social cues, and we posit this stems from limited research specifically designed to identify the mechanisms mediating conspecific attraction. We therefore developed a research agenda that provides a framework for testing mechanistic hypotheses regarding how cue characteristics, species traits, and spatial contexts may mediate attraction to conspecifics. Evaluating these hypotheses will greatly advance the field by helping managers understand when, where, and why simulating social cues can be used to enhance populations of species that are of conservation concern.

Social information affects prospecting, but not settlement, by Black‐and‐white Warblers (Mniotilta varia)

Birds use social as well as environmental cues to inform their habitat selection decisions. By manipulating social cues with song playbacks, biologists can influence where individuals search for breeding territories, which could be useful for conservation. Yet before we can predict how birds will respond to playback treatments, we must first understand how they integrate social cues with information about habitat quality at different stages in the habitat selection process. In this experiment, we examined whether vegetation structure and/or social cues affected Black‐and‐white Warbler Mniotilta varia abundance at three study areas that differed in habitat quality. We monitored Black‐and‐white Warbler habitat use across the breeding season, from the early prospecting period until after settlement decisions were made. During seasons without playback treatments, Black‐and‐white Warbler abundance was positively associated with levels of understorey vegetation cover. We then played Black‐and‐white Warbler songs daily for 5–6 weeks at selected survey sites at all study areas. We found that the model‐predicted abundance of Black‐and‐white Warblers was nearly three times greater at playback sites than at control sites during the prospecting period. During seasons with playbacks, understorey vegetation cover was no longer associated with Black‐and‐white Warbler abundance, indicating that individuals prioritized social information when searching for breeding territories. However, during the post‐settlement period, neither playbacks nor levels of understorey vegetation cover were associated with increased abundance, suggesting that playback treatments did not influence final breeding territory choice. We also found no difference in abundance between playback and control sites at a study area that represented low‐quality habitat, which suggests that playbacks should not induce maladaptive site selection.

Experimental playback of natural gas compressor noise reduces incubation time and hatching success in two secondary cavity-nesting bird species

Abstract Natural gas compressor stations emit loud, low-frequency noise that travels hundreds of meters into undisturbed habitat. We used experimental playback of natural gas compressor noise to determine whether and how noise influenced settlement decisions and reproductive output as well as when in the nesting cycle birds were most affected by compressor noise. We established 80 nest boxes to attract Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) and Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) to locations where they had not previously nested and experimentally introduced shale gas compressor noise to half the boxes while the other 40 boxes served as controls. Our experimental design allowed us to control for the confounding effects of both physical changes to the environment associated with compressor stations as well as site tenacity or the tendency for birds to return to the specific locations where they had previously bred. We incorporated behavioral observations with video cameras placed within boxes to determine how changes in behavior might lead to any noted changes in fitness. Neither species demonstrated a preference for box type (quiet or noisy), and there was no difference in clutch size between box types. In both species, we observed a reduction in incubation time, hatching success, and fledging success (proportion of all eggs that fledged) between quiet and noisy boxes but no difference in provisioning rates. Nest success (probability of fledging at least one young; calculated from all nests that were initiated) was not affected by noise in either species suggesting that noise did not increase rates of either depredation or abandonment but instead negatively impacted fitness through reduced hatching and fledging success. Compressor noise caused behavioral changes that led to reduced reproductive success; for Eastern Bluebirds and Tree Swallows, gas infrastructure can create an equal-preference ecological trap where birds do not distinguish between lower and higher quality territories even when they incur fitness costs.

Win-stay/lose-switch, prospecting-based settlement strategy may not be adaptive under rapid environmental change

Understanding animal responses to environmental change is crucial for management of ecological traps. Between-year habitat selection was investigated in red‐necked grebes (Podiceps grisegena) breeding on semi-natural fish ponds, where differential stocking of fish created contrasting yet poorly predictable brood-stage food availabilities. Grebes lured to low-quality ponds were more likely to shift territories than birds nesting on high-quality ponds, and tended to move to ponds whose habitat quality had been high in the previous year, irrespective of the current quality of the new and old territories. The territory switchers typically visited their future breeding ponds during or immediately after the brood-rearing period. However, owing to rotation of fish stocks, the habitat quality of many ponds changed in the following year, and then switchers from low-quality ponds and stayers on previously high-quality ponds were ecologically trapped. Thus, although breeders were making an informed choice, their settlement decisions, based on the win–stay/lose–switch rule and prospecting a year in advance, were inappropriate in conditions of year-to-year habitat fluctuations. Effective adaptation to rapid environmental change may necessitate both learning to correctly evaluate uncertain environmental cues and abandonment of previously adaptive decision-making algorithms (here prioritizing past-year information and assuming temporal autocorrelation of habitat quality).

An ecological model of settlement expansion in northwestern Morocco

This study is an application of the ideal free distribution (IFD) model to understand settlement patterns during the Mauretanian and Roman periods in northwest Morocco. We use proxies for potential agricultural productivity and distance from a viable harbor for each of the locations of known settlement sites. There is a clear relationship between the distance from harbors and habitat suitability, with sites that were established earliest all on or close to a point of access to the ocean. This is consistent with a focus on maritime trade and a connection with the Mediterranean Sea. Agricultural potential is also an important factor influencing settlement, although to a lesser extent, with earlier, low-density settlement more focused on trade potential. Consistent with predictions of the IFD, there is an expansion through time to progressively lower ranked habitats, with persistent settlement at the highest ranked habitats, including at Lixus, which is generally considered to be the earliest city in northwest Africa. During the Roman period, there is a focus of interior settlement near Volubilis. Subsidiary sites likely benefit from their proximity to this important political site, despite their relatively low rank within the IFD, perhaps reflecting patterns consistent with an ideal despotic distribution. This study demonstrates how the IFD can be used in a simple context with limited available survey data to assess the important environmental variables influencing settlement decisions. It has broad implications for understanding the formation of urban centers prior to and during the Roman period.

Sport-specific factors affecting location decisions in business to business sport manufacturing companies: a qualitative study in the Alps

International business research has focused on location decision criteria a lot. In contrast to existing studies, this qualitative study examined business to business sport manufacturing companies. The focus was on sport-specific factors influencing the decision-making processes of sport manufacturing companies located in the German-speaking Alps. The results showed that sport-specific factors, such as corporate sport culture, the work ethic in terms of sport, and the location's destination image regarding sport, play key roles in the location decision-making process. Additionally, the spirit of sport is a fixed component of sport businesses' corporate culture. The findings contribute to the sport management literature by adding sport-specific factors influencing location decision-making in the sport industry and suggest a new framework for these factors. Managers and governments could utilise the findings to support their settlement decisions and as advice for benchmarking initiatives.

Improve the law on proof and evidence in the administrative-Current case and some recommendations

Proving activities in administrative cases aim at clarifying relevant details and events in the case. Although the activities of proving and tracing evidence for adjudication in the process of settling an administrative case have been specified in detail on the rights, obligations, order and procedures that the subjects must comply with. However, the reality shows that the law provisions related to proof activities and the search for evidence for the trial of an administrative case have encountered an array of difficulties. For example, the 2015 Law on Administrative Procedures does not fully stipulate the subject with the obligation of proving as the law only includes the litigants but omits the two subjects are the representative of the involved party, the defender of the lawful rights and interests of the involved party; the concept of proof or the object to be proved in administrative proceedings has not been specified. Although additional corrections were complemented in 2019 recognizing the right to sue with a complaint settlement decision in house audit activities, which allows the State Auditor General to evaluate documents and evidence provided by agencies or units on request of the Court, the supplements have not been specified as the right or obligation to provide evidence to the Court, which makes it difficult to apply the law in practice. Therefore, the article points out the inadequacy and offers solutions to improve this mechanism in the near future.

Evidence of postbreeding prospecting in a long-distance migrant.

Organisms assess biotic and abiotic cues at multiple sites when deciding where to settle. However, due to temporal constraints on this prospecting, the suitability of available habitat may be difficult for an individual to assess when cues are most reliable, or at the time they are making settlement decisions. For migratory birds, the postbreeding season may be the optimal time to prospect and inform settlement decisions for future breeding seasons.We investigated the fall movements of flammulated owls (Psiloscops flammeolus) within breeding habitat after fledglings had gained independence and before adults left for migration. From 2013 to 2016, we trapped owls within a breeding population wherein all nesting owls and their young have been banded since 1981. We used stable isotopes in combination with mark–recapture data to identify local individuals and differentiate potential prospecting behavior from other seasonal movements such as migration or staging.We commonly captured owls in the fall—predominantly hatch‐year owls—that were not known residents of the study area. Several of these nonresident owls were later found breeding within the study area. Stable isotope data suggested a local origin for virtually all owls captured during the fall.Our results suggest that hatch‐year flammulated owls, but also some after‐hatch‐year owls, use the period between the breeding season and fall migration to prospect for future breeding sites. The timing of this behavior is likely driven by seasonally variable costs associated with prospecting.Determining the timing of prospecting and the specific cues that are being assessed will be important in helping predict the extent to which climate change and/or altered disturbance regimes will modify the ecology, behavior, and demographics associated with prospecting.