Property rights and efforts to curb state appropriation of private properties for public purposes have always held high status on the political agenda of the US and many other nations that feature a corporate capitalist economic system. In addition to this, over the last several decades conservative libertarian and neo-liberal groups have put constitutional demands for greater property protection on the agendas of courts in several countries. Studying property rights mobilization in both domestic and comparative contexts, the contributors to this volume bring a range of social science perspectives to address three primary issues: the contours and characteristics of property rights mobilizations; the degree to which property rights movements have influenced development of law in demonstrable ways; and the broader cultural, social and economic implications of modern-era property rights litigation and legal mobilizations. This will be a key text for anyone working within or interested in property rights.

Property rights and efforts to curb state appropriation of private properties for public purposes have always held high status on the political agenda of the US and many other nations that feature a corporate capitalist economic system. In addition to this, over the last several decades conservative libertarian and neo-liberal groups have put constitutional demands for greater property protection on the agendas of courts in several countries. Studying property rights mobilization in both domestic and comparative contexts, the contributors to this volume bring a range of social science perspectives to address three primary issues: the contours and characteristics of property rights mobilizations; the degree to which property rights movements have influenced development of law in demonstrable ways; and the broader cultural, social and economic implications of modern-era property rights litigation and legal mobilizations. This will be a key text for anyone working within or interested in property rights.

Sustainable management is a problem for countries that depend on natural resources. Forests contain much of the world's biodiversity and offer significant renewable resources with a potentially small ecological and carbon footprint. Yet as global demand for forest products increases, conserving biodiversity has become more urgent and challenging.--Forestry and Biodiversity makes the case for adaptive management--a structural approach to learning by doing--to sustain biodiversity in managed forests. It draws on the theory and principles of conservation biology and forest ecology and illustrates them, and the challenges they pose, through a practical, real-world study of a 1.1 million hectare commercial operation i a coastal temporate rainforest.--"This book is an essential read and reference for all forest stakeholders who are committed to integrated management of forests for sustained economic, environmental, and cultural values. So much written about this subject is theoretical, but this book shares major lessons from a large-scale real-world effort to implement such management and to assess its effectiveness."--Jerry Franklin, University of Washington--Fred L. Bunnell is professor emeritus of forestry and conservation biology at the University of British Columbia. Glen B. Dunsworth is a forest ecology and conservation biology consultant.

In looking at the remarkable proliferation of democracies since 1974, this volume offers important insight into the challenges and opportunities that democracy faces in the twenty-first century. Distinguished contributors detail difficulties that democracies face from within and how they deal with them. Among the contemporary threats to democracy emanating from internal sources are tensions arising over technology and its uses; ethnic, religious, and racial distinctions; and disparate access to resources, education, and employment. A democratically elected government can behave more or less democratically, even when controlling access to information, using legal authority to aid or intimidate, and applying resources to shape the conditions for the next election. With elections recently disputed in the United States, Mexico, Lebanon, and the Ukraine, debates about the future of democracy are inescapably debates about what kind of democracy is desired.

Contributors are W. Lance Bennett, Bruce Bimber, Jon Fraenkel, Brian J. Gaines, Bernard Grofman, Wayne V. McIntosh, Peter F. Nardulli, Mark Q. Sawyer, Stephen Simon, Paul M. Sniderman, and Jack Snyder.