Search Results

This chapter examines the extent to which different settlement systems affect the nature of systemic risks and the potential vulnerability of the financial system to such problems. It considers whether externalities can be reduced if individual institutions fully internalize the costs of their actions specifically by creating private submanagement systems as low-cost alternatives. The proposed standards for payments and risk control features, including the length of time during which participants are exposed to credit and liquidity risks, are addressed. The role of public intervention through prudent regulation in the payments system is discussed. The chapter concludes by discussing the establishment of minimum regulatory standards — whether in terms of interest charges, collateralization requirements, or loss-sharing agreements — and the associated tradeoffs between their costs and their ability to reduce risk.

This chapter explains why investor-state arbitration is often wrongfully likened to international commercial arbitration among private parties. Investor-state arbitrations involve not only private business interests but also public policies of the host state and citizen rights. Arbitral awards on investor-state disputes risk lacking credibility and democratic acceptability if they overrule, in non-transparent proceedings, democratically legitimate government decisions on grounds of investor-state contracts. Similar to the introduction of appellate review in the GATT/WTO dispute settlement system, the transparency, legitimacy, and legal coherence of investor-state arbitration could be enhanced by introduction of an appellate instance.

Chapter 4 discusses the basic organization and operation of the WTO, emphasizing the consensual nature of the rules it enforces and the activities it undertakes as part of its mandate. Essentially, the chapter highlights the way the WTO is structured and outlines its most important activities. It begins with some history and a summary of trade relations up to the founding of the WTO in 1995. The chapter also examines the important role of the WTO dispute settlement system and prospects for its reform. It also turns to the problem of extending WTO into nontrade areas, in light of the fundamental value proposition of the WTO to its members.

Payment and settlement systems are institutional arrangements that facilitate the transfer of assets in satisfaction of financial obligations. These systems can be divided into three categories. The first category consists of wholesale payment systems facilitating the flow of funds between financial intermediaries. The second category comprises retail payment systems facilitating the flow of funds between businesses and households. The third category consists of securities settlement systems facilitating securities trading and custody. These systems are highly interdependent. At the same time, the institutional arrangements and regulatory regimes governing these systems are often very different. These differences reflect important differences in terms of the potential risks posed by these systems. For retail payment systems, the most important issues revolve around the balance between efficiency, security, and competition. For wholesale payment and securities settlement systems, the most important issues relate to operational, credit, and liquidity risks and, thus, potential threats to financial stability.

This chapter provides a cautionary comment to Charles's interpretations on lower Illinois Valley. Pacheco points out that the objective environmental constraints found in the lower Illinois Valley were significantly different from those under which most regional Hopewellian manifestations developed across much of the Eastern Woodland. He emphasizes the north-south linearity and almost “too neat” low floodplain to higher upland/prairie sequential development of the topography that characterizes the lower Illinois Valley. Pacheco's contribution is an important addition to the question of how we can enhance our understanding of the actual nature of the settlement system: Did the domestic and ceremonial settlement practices contrast as sedentary and transient, or were they both essentially transient, the result of a highly mobile logistical regime? The definitive answer is not given in this chapter, but it does highlight the importance of more adequately resolving this question.

This chapter discusses how the authority of the Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) rapidly became extensive. It nonetheless remains fragile given geopolitical shifts that have helped catalyze the rise of neo-nationalist trade politics in the United States. The establishment of extensive AB authority represented a legalization leap in which international dispute settlement moved from limited narrow authority under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to significantly more expansive authority. However, the WTO is an interstate dispute settlement system, so private parties have no direct access to the AB. The AB thus confronts state pressure and at times shapes its decisions to facilitate WTO Member compliance with them. The AB’s authority appears threatened by the US refusal to approve the launching of the selection process to replace retiring AB members. The United States is reacting, in particular, to AB rulings against US import relief practices.

This chapter provides a brief analysis of the enforcement tools foreseen in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. It focuses in particular on some of the peculiarities which differentiate them from the EU legal system. As the analysis shows, the relevance of reciprocity and post-litigation negotiations between States influences the legal nature of the WTO dispute settlement system, which today remains to a large extent a mixed or hybrid system. This contrasts one of the mantras diffused in the legal scholarship immediately after the entry into force of the Uruguay Round Agreements. It also represents a vehicle for the potential fragmentation of the multilateral legal framework governing international trade, which contributes to undermining the idea of uniformity of the obligations arising under the WTO Agreements for all Members.

This chapter synthesizes data about Kentucky’s Early-Middle Woodland domestic landscape using a multiscalar approach. Regarding microsettlement, most domestic structures are small, lightly built, short-term, single-use, circular and curvilinear open ramadas and cabanas with few internal features. Large, heavily constructed, and rebuilt enclosed structures are less common. Regarding intrasite patterning, more intensely occupied, open habitations exhibit multi-purpose activity areas, numerous features, and domestic structures, while less intensely occupied sites lack activity areas and have few tono features and structures. Rockshelter and cave sites show a similar dichotomy, though domestic structures are uncommon at the latter. Regarding intersite patterning, the widespread distribution of domestic sites suggests generalized utilization of the landscape, though there is temporal variation in preferred ecological zones and landforms. Domestic and ritual spaces were physically separate in most drainages. Logistical mobility associated with a collector subsistence strategy best characterizes Early-Middle Woodland settlement across Kentucky.

This chapter summarizes the preceding analyses by looking at the relationship between hunter-gatherer settlement systems and technology. Situated on a ridge slope overlooking the large inland basin of Harney Flats, the site is topographically well positioned to serve as a residential base providing a vantage point to observe animals in the basin, provide access to water, and obtain nearby suitable toolstone. Indeed, the site assemblage has been influenced by the readily available quantities of knappable chert. Manufacturing different tool types is seen as a principal activity at the site, and inferences are made with regard to the overall roles of these tools within the settlement system. With respect to technological organization, distinctions are made between expedient tools (manufactured for short-term use on-site) and curated tools (manufactured for long-term use elsewhere in the settlement system). Other items such as hammerstones, cores, and abraders were likely stored at the site awaiting reuse.

Operationally efficient markets are those in which transactions are executed in a timely manner at minimal costs. If the costs are prohibitive, domestic and foreign investors will be deterred from participating, the markets will be shallower and less vibrant, and capital formation will be adversely impacted. Growth in emerging markets with severe operational inefficiencies may be stunted, even if the capacity of the markets appears to be sufficiently large. This chapter focuses on both explicit and implicit costs of trading. Explicit costs are directly calculable and include commissions paid to brokers, fees paid to exchanges, bid-ask spreads, and taxes. Implicit costs are more difficult to pin down, and reflect any salient market features that prevent traders from executing their trades at the prices they want when they want to do so. This category includes market impact costs, various proxy variables for market illiquidity, and even the existence of restrictions on certain kinds of trades.

This chapter starts by explaining the purpose of the book, which was put together to honour Mitsuo Matsushita, who served as the founding member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body from 1995 to 2000. The chapter then gives a brief historical overview of his career and achievements. One of Matsushita’s achievements, it states, was to analyse the operation of the WTO’s dispute settlement system. His analysis concluded that the system has been relatively successful in resolving disputes, especially considering that the parties involved are sovereign states and that the WTO has only limited enforcement powers. One important consequence of that success, Matsushita argued, is that WTO Members have been bringing more cases involving more complex issues to the system for resolution. This has put the system under strain. Currently, the WTO faces the challenge of finding new, accountable, and appropriate structures, which are able to cope with globalization.

In this chapter we explore the role of the Hollywood site in the development of a unique version of Mississippian political culture that emerged along the middle Savannah River Valley. We argue this variant of Mississippian was inspired by the coming together of material culture, belief traditions, and people from the Central Mississippi valley and the middle Savannah valley. Those divergent traditions and practices were entangled through a set of mortuary rituals emplaced within Hollywood’s Mound B. What resulted was a new settlement system, emphasis on monumentality, and ceremonialism that was a unique historical creation.