The infrastructure of Justice: Institutional Determinants of High Court Decision-Making in Argentina and Venezuela

From introduction: "During the last two decades, social scientists have begun to examine the links between law and legał systems, and the broader political and economic changes that are transforming developing democracies. In comparative politics and public law debates on democracy, legał issues raised by national and transnational human rights movements, and the rule of law, have become prominent concems. With the spread of neoliberal economic reform and with new pressures from the world economy, property rights, commercial law, and the predictability of legał systems have become dominant themes in the work of legał scholars and students of political economy. One primary goal of these evolving research agendas is to assess whether legał institutions are proving to be a catalyst, or an obstacle, to deepening democracy and economic innovation."(...

Establishing relations between Poland and Saudi Arabia: count Raczyński’s visit to King Abdulaziz in 1930 and Prince Faisal's visit to Warsaw in 1932

"Official contacts between Poland and rulers of the Arabian Peninsula were established in the 1920’s. This development was connected with the political situation in the two locations. The First World War had brought back independence to Poland, along with several other states in Europę, and eventful transformations also in Arabia. The fali of the Ottoman Empire, which included the territories of the Arabian Peninsula, resulted in a number of local sheikdoms gaining independence. In particular, in the center of the Peninsula, in Nejd, power was established and strengthened by Abdulaziz Ibn Abd ar-Rahman (called Ibn Sa’ud by Europeans). In the west, the Kingdom of Hijaz was set up in 1916 by sheriff Hussein Ibn Ali."(...

Poland and Current Transatlantic Relations

"Exactly 40 years ago, President John F. Kennedy - while visiting Frankfurt - suggested that ties between the United States and Europę were so close and so essential that both sides should consider not only economic cooperation, but possibly even a political union between these two pillars of the West. He said that “we - Americans - do not regard a strong and united Europę as a rival but as a partner.” He even proposed that a declaration of interdependence be made between what he described as “the new union emerging in Europę and the old American union”."(...

Non-indigenous citizens and “stateless” residents in the Gulf monarchies. The Kuwaiti bidun

"Since the discovery of oil, the political entities of the Persian Gulf have transformed themselves from desert sheikhdoms into modern states. The process was accompanied by rapid population growth. During the last 50 years, the population of the current Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, grew from 4 million in 1950 to 33.4 million in 2004, thus recording one of the highest rates of population growth in the world."(...

Democratizing the Arab states. The case of monarchies of the Gulf, 1991-2004

"The Arab Humań Development Reports 2002 and 2003, prepared by a group of leading Arab intellectuals under the auspices of the UNDP and the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development brought a very pessimistic view of the Arab world.1 The combined gross domestic product of the 22 Arab countries was lesser than Spain’s. Labor productivity in these countries dropped between 1960 and 1990, while it soared elsewhere in the world. Even Africa outperformed the Arab world in rates of economic growth. An exploding population cannot be supported by scarce resources and every other citizen is ready to emigrate. At the same time, the wealthiest 85,000 Saudis have overseas assets of $700 billions."(...

Zachód i islam. Postawy ludzi dwóch światów

"Lata 2005 i 2006 przyniosły poważny wzrost napięć między światem islamu a Zachodem. Przez kraje muzułmańskie przelała się fala protestów przeciwko opublikowaniu w europejskich gazetach karykatur Muhammada; we Francji, Hiszpanii i Niemczech doszło do rozruchów o podłożu rasowym. Nowe napięcia wywiecie arabskim wywołały kolejne doniesienia o zachowaniu żołnierzy amerykańskich w więzieniu Abu Ghraib w Iraku; nasilił się konflikt Zachodu z Iranem dotyczący programu nuklearnego tego kraju; kontynuowane były ataki samobójcze arabskich terrorystów na Izrael. Coraz więcej ludzi zadawało sobie pytanie, czy kontrowersyjna teza Samuela Huntingtona o zbliżającym się konflikcie cywilizacji Zachodu i islamu nie jest jednak prawdziwa. Odpowiedź na to pytanie nie jest łatwa i wiąże się w dużym stopniu z subiektywnym postrzeganiem wydarzeń na świecie."(...