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The international law applicable to maritime boundary delimitation is very imprecise and, consequently, decisions of international tribunals are of the utmost importance. The recent decision of a Chamber of the International Court of Justice in the Gulf of Maine Case, between Canada and the United States, makes a significant contribution to the development and clarification of the applicable law. The Chamber's judgment, which is considered as one rendered by the Court itself, clarifies the difference between principles and rules of international law, on the one hand, and equitable criteria and practical methods, on the other. Principles of law are limited to a few basic norms, such as the obligation to seek an agreement and, if one cannot be reached, to have recourse to third party procedure with a view to arriving at an equitable delimitation by taking all relevant circumstances into account. Equitable criteria, such as the geographical configuration of the area, and practical methods, such as that of equidistance, are numerous and vary with each concrete situation.

Most western nations have large public housing projects for the poor. Since the end of the fifties in France, providing minimally decent housing has been seen as a means of combating poverty.This article seeks to understand why the deterioration of community life, fierce competitive social relations, ghettoization and violence have plagued these projects.

Without meaning to discourage admirable intentions, the author seeks to focus attention on some social and ideological consequences of an all-out culturalist approach. The thoughts presented here are the result of more than ten years work and involvment with groups of immigrants which have come to France from Guadeloupe and Martinique.The author shows how a culturalist approach carries the seeds of intolerance, exclusion and even racism. Three major areas are discussed :The concepts used to understand the situation of immigrant children in general;Current perspectives on the situation of children of West-Indian immigrants; andThe concepts of "New West-Indians", "New-French citizens" and "French Blacks".In essence, the article attempts to come to terms with the following question: "To what extent is the destiny of immigrant children different from the examples provided by either their home country or the new country?"The author concludes that a culture becomes more tolerant when it can express itself freely because it has more self-confidence. This allows immigrant children to receive a double culture and makes it possible for them to work out their own synthesis.

Summer 1981: A few months after the victory of the Left in the French elections, trouble broke out in some of the housing districts in low income suburbs of Lyon. The Socialists discovered the real dangers of violence in these areas. Their first reaction was repressive and met with widespread public approval but this initial response was followed up with an attempt to develop a policy to prevent a recurrence of the troubles of 1981. The authors describe the various approaches adopted by the authorities: moving the most troublesome délinquants out of the area, providing vacations for the most disadvantaged youths, encouraging community activities, etc... The main constraints on government action are discussed.On the whole, the operation was a success and the summer of 1982 was not as "hot" as in 1981. A working relationship between government agencies and community groups was rapidly established. The only significant criticism of the project came from social workers whose traditional forms of intervention were called into question. The authors examine this point in some detail.

Distance Education (DE) holds particular promise for Africa, where higher education systems must cope with multiple constraints. However, there are many obstacles to the development of DE, including inadequate computer equipment and lack of professional skills. Against this background, this article presents the results of a longitudinal study on DE programs offered to students in Africa. Using quantitative analyses of questionnaires and qualitative analyses of interviews, the contributions of DE to the professional development of Africans are examined in the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of the dynamics at play when students enroll in a DE program.

Keywords: distance education, Africa, higher education, professional development, enrollment, formation à distance, Afrique, enseignement supérieur, développement professionnel, recrutement

This paper deals with the African city and its mode of production, principally the periods before and after the "balkanisation". It examines various urbanistic practices such as that of urban network, regional organisation as related to agricultural resources, and intensive urbanisation. The observation is that after independence all these practices transposed whether consciously or not on negro-African soil have become outdated since they conflict with the local context. A brief conclusion allows us to pose a number of questions on these post-colonial urbanistic practices. In view of avoiding future errors of conception, one would suggest a new urbanistic practice for the construction of an authentic negro-African city that one may call Afrikacity, since the discrepancy between the proposed model and the present structures exists yet today.

This paper is based on the professional experiences of Angolan women traders known as the « moambeiras ». After the end of the Angolan civil war in 2002, allowing for the opening of international relations with partners such as Brazil and China, the feminization of this commercial practice intensified. The business travels of these women also shake up traditional gender roles as well as the sharing of tasks and powers within families. By investigating these emancipatory processes, the author examines if this commercial activity allows the women to become conscious of the power relations that marginalize them and develops the capacity to transform them. At of time when globalization is accelerating, the author endeavors to give an intimate, feminist vision of mobility through the journey of one singular woman and a cartographic material.

Keywords: Angola, Brésil, entrepreneuriat féminin, mondialisation, mobilités spatiales

Through the ethnographic study of the strain of undocumented women in precarious domestic service in France, the author aims to report on the lawless area that the migration status builds by promoting invisibility and maximum exploitation. The subordination of women workers is here built, in addition to specialized research, as a norm by migration policies – that do not allow, through work in the domestic service, legal residence rights. In this context, the effects of subordination are empirically manifested within and beyond of work. The author proposes to show how legislation influences the relationship to collective mobilizations and the choices of undocumented women and their resistance as a result of migration generation.

Keywords: Femmes sans-papiers, service domestique, non droit, france, intersectionnalité, génération migratoire, résistances minoritaires