Images of regulation: Travel agent legislation and the deregulation debate

During the last two years travel agents have changed from being relatively unregulated (outside New South Wales) to regulated in terms of licensing and compensation fund membership requirements. Why has this happened during a period when political debate has centred on deregulation? It is a premise of this paper that arguments in favour of deregulation rest on an image of the State as a prison for private entre‐preneurship; and arguments in favour of regulation rest on an image of the State as a protector of the consumer and public interest Both images are superficial and belie the nature of State‐capital‐consumer relationships and ideologies. Underlying each are rationalist assumptions which suggest that the State and industry are static, ahistorical objects; that governments have unambiguous intentions; and that regulation and deregulation are always successful. Each of these assumptions is questioned. By focusing on a history of travel agency regulations, this paper endeavours to uncover that which these images obscure in the deregulation debate.     

Strengthening gender justice in the Asia-Pacific through the Rome Statute

Many conflicts in the Asia-Pacific region have included sexual violence crimes targeted primarily against women. However, in comparison to other regions, Asia-Pacific states have been reluctant to embrace international law innovations to end impunity for such crimes into the future, as evidenced by their unwillingness to become signatories to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Of the 39 countries constituting the Asia-Pacific region, only 17—less than half—have joined the Rome Statute. This article initially surveys some of the reasons for non-ratification of the Statute. It further examines the role of civil society and the potential normative impact of the Statute to enhance national sexual violence legislation and prosecutions. Finally, it identifies some practical steps that the Australian government could take to encourage regional states to ratify, implement and enforce the Rome Statute in order to further protect all victims of international crimes and bolster the broader Women, Peace and Security framework.     

The NATO-Warsaw Pact competition in the 1970s and 1980s: a revolution in military affairs in the making or the end of a strategic age?

The NATO-Warsaw Pact military competition at the heart of the Cold War was also the incubator of a ‘Revolution in Military Affairs’ (RMA) in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, which predates the better-known American concept of RMA of the 1990s.