Elephant importation from range countries: ethical and practical considerations for accredited zoos

Zoo elephant populations are in serious demographic peril. Advances in elephant management and care are expected to lead to improved reproductive success. The existing cohort of reproductively viable adult females is aging, however, and effective changes may not come fast enough to sustain the population over time. If so, importation of captive, semi‐domesticated, and wild elephants from range countries may be necessary for zoo programs to survive. Yet, due to the high profile elephants now have with animal rights activists, there may be increasing legal and political barriers to elephant importation. This makes it especially important that zoos become more proactive in addressing remaining weaknesses in elephant management and care and building the case for elephants in zoos. This article summarizes the key considerations for AZA‐accredited zoos that are contemplating future importations. These include ethical, legal, practical, public relations, and other considerations. The authors strongly recommend that zoos position themselves for possible future importations immediately instead of waiting until the last minute. It is equally critical that zoos recognize their existing vulnerabilities and attempt to address them proactively; only then, can they take control of their own fate and reduce the potential for later regret. Zoo Biol 25:219–233, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Declarations and Statements with Respect to the 1982 UNCLOS: Potential Legal Disputes between the United States and China after U.S. Accession to the Convention

This article discusses the implications of U.S. accession to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) for the future development of Sino-American relations in the areas of ocean law and politics. The declarations and understandings contained in the Senate Resolution of Advice and Consent to U.S. Accession to the UNCLOS are examined in detail in the context of previous maritime conflicts between the United States and China.     

中医临床路径化的法律风险及对策

通过分析中医临床路径的法律性质、潜在法律风险,认为中医临床路径由国家中医药管理局发布,但其法律地位低于部门规章,不足以成为技术规范,是一种技术性指导文件。实际工作中,中医临床路径存在背离保障健康目标、误导调解判决、影响医疗却不能为其提供法律保护等潜在风险。为规避中医临床路径潜在的法律风险,可以从“守”“攻”“和”3个方面探索对策。     

Jural relations of middle‐class marriage and women as legal subjects in the imaginary of ‘new India’

In India's capital New Delhi, four Family Courts were set up between 2009 and 2012, and 12 mediation institutions known as Crime Against Women Cells (CAW cells) were established during the same period. The Indian state has also endorsed gender‐equalising family legislation, mutual‐consent divorce and introduced new language of and for mediation. Together with India's projection of a rising global economy, these recent legal changes have engendered perceptions of a dramatic upturn in formal divorce and of women as liberal legal subjects. In the anthropology of Asia, marital practices have crucially informed our comprehension of modernisation, family formations and moral panics. This article explores the impact of new forms of legal availability on marriage, family and kinship among the metropolitan middle classes. It ethnographically engages with important structural shifts reflected in the intimate lives of Hindu couples, but also foregrounds a cautious narrative of newly imagined jural relations.     

Fear and Intimacy: Citizenship in a Recife Slum,Brazil

In Brazil, citizenship rights and the institutionalisation of citizen participation have advanced significantly under the democratic regime. However, many of the urban poor are still alienated from the state and its legal system. This article argues that, to understand the citizenship of these ‘half-citizens’, it is necessary to take account of an unofficial realm of practices. I show how residents of a slum in Recife interpret and deal with the state project of registered citizenship, which finds its material expression in the compulsory carrying of identity cards. Carrying these cards is surrounded by fear of violent police control. However, obtaining identity cards through informal procedures is associated with a longing for personalised relationships with the police and other state representatives. The relationship of these residents with their identity cards is thus both fearful and affectionate, which allows us to understand their citizenship as a confluence of fear and intimacy.     

Conservation of arboreal herbivores: The Australian scene

Abstract A common global issue in biological conservation, that of land use allocation and subsequent management practice, is also at the core of the problem of conserving arboreal herbivores in Australia. The problem is caused by a number of biological and cultural factors. Many populations of Australia's terrestrial vertebrate fauna species of forest and woodland environments, including notably the arboreal herbivores, are concentrated in habitats on soils relatively rich in nutrients. Such habitats are limited due to (i) Australia's general aridity and its naturally poor endowment of soils of reasonable quality, and (ii) the extent to which habitats on the better soils have been cleared to service Australia's social and economic development. Land clearing has focused on these better soils because of cultural traditions in agriculture, and society's recognition of the importance of ‘good’ soils to a nation's development. As a result, Australia has legislation and numerous government policies and programmes that aim to identify and make maximum use of the productive potential of Australia's land. For example, the Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1861 was enacted expressly to transfer land from public to private or leasehold tenure and to develop those lands best suited for agriculture and pastoralism. As a result, from 1861 to the end of the nineteenth century, large areas were extensively cleared and potentially commercial forests were destroyed. The remaining uncleared land in private tenure today carries a major part of the woodland and forest resource on the better soils. Woodland and forest associations on these soils are generally poorly represented in reserves. Furthermore, the Australian constitution, and laws concerning the rights of the private landholder and the use of forest resources on leasehold land, indirectly or implicitly encourage or otherwise act to minimize the constraints on continued land clearing. From the above facts and because human populations are expected to increase, the prognosis for Australia's woodland and forest fauna, including the arboreal herbivores, is one of ongoing loss of important habitats. This paper suggests the following measures for ameliorating this loss: identify strategically important habitats, and encourage private philanthropic purchase or government purchase of timber rights, or subsidize the management of these habitats; examine possible trade-offs in public expenditures on forest administration and management in return for public purchase of privately held forests; establish educational programmes that encourage a conservation ethic and a better community understanding of the realities and the extent of the difficulties to be addressed.     

Supporting families involved in court cases about life‐sustaining treatment: Working as academics,advocates and activists

This article explores the links between our roles as academics, advocates, and activists, focusing on our research on treatment decisions for patients in vegetative and minimally conscious states. We describe how our work evolved from personal experience through traditional social science research to public engagement activities and then to advocacy and activism. We reflect on the challenges we faced in navigating the relationship between our research, advocacy, and activism, and the implications of these challenges for our research ethics and methodology—giving practical examples of how we worked with research participants, wrote up case studies and developed interventions into legal debates. We also address the implications of the impact agenda—imposed by the British Research Excellence Framework— for our actions as scholar‐activists. Finally, we ask how practicing at the borders of academia, advocacy, and activism can inform research—helping to contextualize, sensitize, and engage theory with practice, leading to a more robust analysis of data and its implications, and helping to ensure a dialogue between research, theory, lived experience, front‐line practice, law, and public policy.