Rising from the Ashes: A Governance Perspective on Emerging Systemic Risks
Unpredictable events -like an infrastructure failure such as a blackout (e.g. the 1999 southern Brazil blackout or the northeast blackout of 2003 that occurred in the US and Canada), a large-scale financial crisis with deep consequences on the real economy (e.g. the Icelandic and the Greek crises), a non-conventional terrorist attack (committed with chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear weapons), the risk related to the exploitation of new technologies (typically nanotechnologies), or a geophysical event (as the 2010 volcanic ash crisis or the 2011 Japan earthquake) - may suddenly cause large-scale losses. The knock-on effect of these events grows beyond the direct social and economic impact on a specific geographic area, affecting simultaneously different regions and imposing immediate regulatory answers.
Financial Compensation for Victims of Catastrophes. A Comparative Legal Approach
From the contents: Introduction.- Country Reports: Austria (D. Hinghofer-Szalkay, B. A. Koch) Belgium (I. C. Durant) France (M. Cannarsa, F. Lafay, O. Moreteau) Germany (U. Magnus) Italy (A. Monti, F. A. Chiaves) The Netherlands (M. Faure, T. Hartlief) Sweden (S. Nyquist, E. Persson) United Kingdom (M. Huber, T. Amodu) United States (R. L. Rabin, S. A. Bratis).- Compulsory Catastrophe Extension of First Party Property Insurance from a Competition Policy Perspective (R. Van den Bergh).- Comparative and Policy Conclusions (M. Faure).- Annex: Questionnaire.- Index.- Publications.
Arab Uprisings and the Outstanding Return to Democracy: Tunisia as a Model
In the wake of the Middle Eastern crises, the Tunisian case in focus has been doted as a unique phenomenon being that it was the Genesis of the revolution that ultimately spread across the Middle East like wild fire, but has eventually heralded a new dawn as democracy has incidentally returned to the Empire. This literature therefore looks closely at the extent to which the ‘DignityRevolution’ has been instrumental in the Middle East uprisings, which have brought an end to dynastic autocracies. The literature zeros in on the Tunisian uprising which has attracted global concerns, sympathy and has sparked interests in the international arena. The literature finds that the people hold colossal prospect in the uprising and its resultant effect, as it paved the way for the revolutionist to generate, gather and disseminate information on the condition of the entire region to the international community. The people in this context were of utmost importance and played a very crucial role in the creation of awareness, mobilization of protesters and utmost determining the direction of the uprising and also ensuring a speedy return to democratic rule. The paper submits that the role of the people in ensuring that the ruins of the uprising is not left littering around and democracy restored is highly commendable and should be a model for all other Arab countries involved in the revolution.