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This process-sociological study compares developments since the 1880s, when in Dutch and American good societies, courtship activities were under strict parental control. It outlines the emancipation of younger people from parental dominance, via the dating system in the USA, in the Netherlands through verkering (an informalised ‘engagement'similar to ‘going steady'), and through the diffusion of parental policies of staying ‘in the scene'. From 1945 to 1965, as ‘going steady'increased in the USA, the two national trajectories converged. However, after the sexual revolution the traditional taboo on sex before marriage remained dominant in the USA, but it reduced dramatically in the Netherlands as Dutch parents increasingly allowed teenagers to have sex, even at home. Drawing from sexology research and his study of manners books, Wouters describes the two trajectories in the regulation of premarital sexuality and explains how they are connected to national differences in the regulation of social competition, the balances of power between classes, genders and generations, and levels of social integration.

Keywords: processus sociologique, sexualité avant le mariage, comparaison entre les États-Unis (le rendez-vous) et les Pays-Bas (sortir ensemble) depuis les années 1880, sexualisation, processus informel, process sociology, premarital sexuality, comparing the USA (dating) and the Netherlands (engagements) since the 1880s, sexualization, informalization, proceso sociológico, sexualidad antes del matrimonio, comparación entre Estados Unidos (la cita) y los Países Bajos (salir juntos) desde los años 1880, sexualización, proceso informal

The Plan Nord was unveiled in May 2011 and was widely discussed until the fall 2012 legislative elections, when the government that proposed the plan was defeated. This study examines the power relations that shaped this massive natural resources development project in northern Quebec during this period. Inspired by a specific method for analyzing the power of influence, it describes and examines the role played by each of the main actors – big business, the state and local communities – and the relationships between them. The study is based on a review of three main types of documentary sources : corporate information available on the Internet, official documents of the Government of Quebec, and the national and regional press. It identified a convergence between the interests of big business and the government, and a lack of cohesion within and among local communities. Further, students from the Quebec student strike were found to figure, expectedly, among the opponents of Plan Nord. The tensions brought to the fore through the debates around Plan Nord were indicative of broader tensions that characterize the power relations in Quebec and that are rooted in the increasing dominance of neoliberalism.

Keywords: amérindiens, autochtone, développement économique, influence, inuit, mythe du Nord, Nord, Plan Nord, rapports de pouvoir, sociologie politique, Aboriginals, Amerindians, economic development, influence, Inuit, myth of the North, North, Plan Nord, political sociology, power relations

Beginning in the 1950s, hundreds of cities in Canada and the United States experimented with closing major downtown shopping streets to automobile traffic and opening them up to pedestrians. The few scholars who have studied these pedestrian malls have emphasized their failure as an economic revitalization initiative: hopes that creating new public spaces would lure suburban shoppers downtown were frustrated, and few are still in operation today. This article takes a different approach, using a rich archive of sources on Toronto's Yonge Street pedestrian mall (1971–4) to analyze its life as a public space. This is a revealing angle from which to understand the North American downtown in a period of automobility, urban renewal, and municipal reform. Over four summers, a range of historical actors invested the mall concept with their hopes and fears for the urban future and appropriated its spaces through everyday practices. As a result, the Yonge Street pedestrian mall acquired multiple identities: a site of sociability and displays of civic pride; a protest against pollution; a marketplace; a gathering place for youth; a spectacle of downtown life. This article explores the representations and street life that created these images of the mall, arguing that the experiment is best understood as a contested and disorderly public space. It also places the different historical actors and ideas that met on Yonge Street in the larger context of the postwar North American city.

The federal jurisdiction over criminal law was traditionally confined, in matters of environmental protection, to the prohibition of activities deleterious to human health. The author attempts to demonstrate that the liberal interpretation given to this head of power authorizes one to conclude that emissions of dangerous substances that do not affect human health, but are capable of deteriorating the environment, constitute a public wrong justifying a federal intervention based on section 91(27) of the Constitution. This section also authorizes more than simple prohibition. It enables the regulation, by the Federal Parliament, of emissions of dangerous substances generated by the industrial and commercial activities of undertakings that are within provincial jurisdiction.

The "Grouillant" family has been tagged as "criminally dangerous" by the social service agencies involved with this family over the last ten years. All attempts at remedial action have met with little success as is evidenced by the eight inch thick file of letters, case reports and studies on this family.The authentic documents in this file reveal the raw reality of social control exercised by the social service network. On the balance, one can not help feeling that more of a case can be made for the Grouillant family than for social work practice.More than anything else, what becomes apparent is that social work practice has become a para-judicial system which functions on the basis of confidential documents and meetings behind closed doors. The principal accused—the Grouillant family—are totally excluded from the process.To the extent that the social control inherent in this type of social work is constantly present in the daily life of this family, it is essential to reveal these documents as they were really written in order to see the naked truth. This is the object of the first part of the article while the second part introduces us to the daily life of the Grouillant family.

Established to resolve disputes arising from the application and interpretation of the texts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the ECOWAS Court of Justice (ECOWASCJ) is entitled since 2005 to hear cases of human rights violations, which are contrary to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. Thus, when facing a case of slavery between the Republic of Niger and Ms. Hadijatou Mani Koraou, it ruled in favor of the latter, based exclusively on the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which had however expressed reservations about the widespread conception of slavery. Moreover, the jurisprudence and the doctrine of fundamental rights of the individual seem to clash with the said conception. This article gives an overview of the ECOWASCJ and the definition of slavery in various fields of international law. Despite the undoubted merits of the Hadijatou judgment, it suggests that by not considering the jurisprudence and the doctrine of fundamental human rights, the ECOWASCJ adopted a truncated view of slavery and that, therefore, its contribution to the understanding of the definition of slavery in international law must be put into perspective. Finally, the article suggests some ways of improving the overall quality of the work of the ECOWASCJ regarding the protection of fundamental human rights.

This article depicts the transition, in Quebec, between 1763 and 1968, from a communitarian model of police, where this public function is performed from within by the members of the community, to a liberal model of police, where the responsibility to preserve public order is assumed by government controlled exogenous structures. This transition occurs in two successive movements, each of them following the same goal, namely, to persuade that the public force of coercion is used exclusively in the pursuit of the common good. During the first movement, in the first half of the 19th century, the police function is dissociated from the economic power. During the second movement, in the course of the 20th century, the police function is formerly separated from the political power, owing to the emergence of the concept of expertise in maintaining public order.

In the Greater Montreal area, the gentrification of the Plateau Mont-Royal/Centre-Sud and South-West districts and the City of Verdun has been accompanied by an increase in fires, many of a criminal nature. The governmental and municipal programs which favor urban revival in certain districts of Montreal and insurance companies must take into account this phenomenon which is related to gentrification.