Determination of antioxidants in polymeric materials.
A review of methods proposed for the analysis of antioxidants in polymeric materials, cast in the form of a step-by-step examination of the problems involved in any scheme of analysis, with a critical appraisal of the published procedures designed to overcome them.
Thin-layer chromatography in the heavy organic industries.
The technique of thin-layer chromatography, as practised in the organic industrial laboratory, is described and its applications to the analysis of petroleum hydrocarbons, fuels, lubricants, polymers, plastics and their additives, non-ionic surfactants and explosives are reviewed. The role of thin-layer chromatography in the conservation of the environment is also considered.
Labour Law in a Globalising World
At the opening of the 21st century it is clear that increasing globalisation will remain one of the most important long term influences on the evolution of the international economy and international political structures. The controversial nature of globalisation is self-evident from the increasing intensity of antiglobalisation demonstrations at meetings of international bodies such as the World Trade Organisation. While the actual nature of globalisation, the direction in which it will take the world and the costs and benefits that will result are still contestable, it is clear that the main, and certainly the most effective, drivers are economic. Nations are primarily concerned to set in place structures that promote the free movement of capital including the freedom of multinational companies to locate and relocate around the world, and to promote free trade in goods and services. While non-economic values such as environmental protection and social and labour rights are not excluded from the debates setting these structures in place, they are largely marginal to it. One symbol of this marginalisation is that the ILO, unlike the World Bank, IMF and OECD, does not enjoy observer status at the WTO in spite of the rhetoric of concern for such rights from member states of the Organisation. As McCrudden and Davies explain,1 this exclusion is the result of a major and continuing division between developed and developing countries within the WTO that in the 1990s prevented agreement on any tangible measures in the Marrakesh agreements and that has continued to block subsequent progress. The stark divisions between these groups became even more apparent at the Singapore Ministerial meeting in 1996 when an invitation to the head of the ILO to speak was withdrawn. The only tangible result was a weak statement to the effect that members agreed that labour standards should be upheld but that this should be done through the ILO and not the WTO. The suspicion of developing countries that any link between trade and labour standards will lead to increased protectionism is almost certainly justified. Experience within the WTO to date provides little reason for developing countries to have any great faith in the undertakings of the developed world. Developing countries have seen the promises of movement toward freer trade that might benefit them fade into the distance while at the same time the undertakings they entered into are increasingly used to their disadvantage.2