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In following dialectic reasoning, avenues of analysis are proposed to assess the insolvable contradiction that puts the vectors of globalized expansion at odds with the requisites of the Rule of Law. The issue of their reciprocal compatibility cannot be eluded because the two phenomena are based upon hegemonic premises, which allow them to lay claim to the preeminence of distinct fields. Thus, during the 1990s, the tangible progression of the Rule of Law as a means of expression for constitutional democracy beyond the limited circle of occidental countries contributed to the latent universalization of the principle, but also of the development of a rhetoric that transformed it into a myth that forms the basis of contemporary political debates. The ideas (constitutionalism, political democracy, the « juridical handling » of fundamental freedoms) that nurture discussions on the Rule of Law point the political and institutional practices of sovereign states in a specific direction. Conversely, globalization is associated with the emergence of « borderless laws » and the creation of new machinery for imposing regulations that would reduce state sovereignty in various areas currently under their exclusive jurisdiction. Since the integrity of national legal systems is solidly based upon the prevalence of constitutional standards, the effectiveness of the Rule of Law and constitutionalism may become shaky owing to the multiplication of legal systems in potential competition with one another. Globalization offers fertile ground for devising various scenarios wherein states no longer have precedence over the dynamics for creating standards or setting reference points. If this analysis highlights the exacerbation of many contradictions, it correspondingly underscores the complementarity arising from the limits of the State being outpaced by the classical sources of international law. Between the globalization of the Rule of Law and its correlative integration into the multiform realities of globalization, current transformations demonstrate the need for reformulating the Rule of Law.

Traditionally, the Canadian Dairy Industry has in the agrofood industry been one of the most flourishing areas of activity in Canada. Since the 1970s, its prosperity has been guaranteed by a system for managing milk supplies. This system was the result of an in-depth change that the Canadian Dairy Industry undertook in the 1950s, then finished in the 1970s, in order to adapt to the post-war environment. Its purpose was to control milk production to ensure Canadian self-sufficiency for dairy products while avoiding overproduction. This system was successfully kept in place by Canada despite the coming into force of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) in 1948 since the agricultural and agrofood trades enjoyed a special status because they were kept separate from discussions on the liberalization of worldwide exchanges. Since the closing of the last multilateral negotiations in 1994, agricultural and agrofood trades have finally become subject to international regulations under the World Trade Organization through the Agreement on Agriculture. The protectionism required for maintaining a system for managing milk supplies is now doomed to disappear. Hence, the Canadian Dairy Industry is at a crossroads. International regulations and repeated attacks on the Canadian Dairy Industry by WHO members are forcing the Canadian dairy products market to open up. The decision handed down last October 13, 1999 by the WHO appeals tribunal requires Canada to redesign its supply procedures for milk destined for the export market. This situation therefore provides the Canadian Dairy Industry with an opportunity to redefine its position as regards the milk supply system and to make a new commitment as of now to a true process of adapting to the new rules in international trade. By anticipating the effects of international regulations and adapting dairy policies to these rules, the Canadian Dairy Industry will ensure its prosperity in a market favouring free trade. The outcome of current negotiations between producers and processors as regards the ways and means for implementing the WHO decision will be of critical importance for the Canadian Dairy Industry.

Isolated and poorly controlled until the end of the XIXe century, Northern Thaïland has gradually been integrated in the Thai national space following the reforms enacted during the reign of Chulalongkorn and the creation of a modem transport network. The abolition of slavery, the replacement of kind by cash for the payment of land rent have been determinant in the evolution of the Siamese social formation and have permitted the penetration of merchant capitalism in the countryside of the North. This penetration only became important after 1950 with the development of cash crops and the increasing town-country differentiation. Petty commodity production carried out by the small land bound peasantry is characteristic of most of the Northern region. But transnational financial capital is being invested in agro-industries which attempt to increasingly control the small production units. These transformations in the relations of production and of productive forces in a social formation whose dominant mode of production from « Asiatic » is becoming capitalist, have had consequences on the organization of space. To a spatial System in rings, inherited from social formations dominated by the asiatic mode of production, is substituted a spatial differentiation which is a function of the lesser or greater penetration of the capitalist mode of production. A concrete analysis of social relations in their linkages with inherited or actual social structures at the regional level is a prerequisite to any criticism of land planning.

Keywords: Formation sociale, mode de production capitaliste, mode de production asiatique, relation ville-campagne, aménagement du territoire, organisation de l'espace, Nord de la Thaïlande, Northern Thailand, social formation, capitalist mode of production, asian mode of production, town-country relations, land planning, spatial organization

After the death of president Franjo Tudjman in 1999, and the victory of the political opposition in Croatia and in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in 2000, these two countries began long - overdue overture toward Western Europe. In spite of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Croatia and the FRY, and the willingness of two newly elected presidents to begin the détente between Croatia and Serbia, full normalization, the author contends, will not occur anytime soon. The scars of the serbo-croatian war (1991-1995) are still too visible in Croatia to contemplate rapid reconciliation between the two states. In addition, several obstacles remain (a dispute over the peninsula of Prevlaka, and potential disputes over the policy toward Bosnia and Herzegovina), which could slow down initial enthusiasm of political elites trying to overcome Milosevic's legacy.