A Vigilant Parliament: Building Competence for Effective Parliamentary Oversight. The authors conclude it is high time that MPs pick up the challenge and push the envelope by insisting on real autonomy to review defence and foreign policy. The study examines post-Cold-War parliamentary deliberations on Canada's involvement in the Gulf War, Yugoslavia, the Zaire mission, and the Kosovo crisis and war to illustrate Parliament's weak oversight capabilities. By Douglas L. Bland and Roy Rempel.

By Institute for Research on Public Policy, Canada.

Governance Policy Resource.

Environmental Federalism in the European Union and the United States. In both the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) responsibility for the making of environmental policy is divided between federal and EU institutions on one hand, and local institutions on the other. The former is comprised of the EU and the American federal government while the latter consist of state and local governments in the US, and member states and sub-national authorities in Europe. This paper explores the dynamics of federal environmental policy making in both the United States and the European Union. At what level of government are new standards initiated? Under what circumstances do state regulations become diffused to other states and/or become adopted by the central authority? Under what circumstances can or do states maintain regulations more stringent than those of other states? By David Vogel, Michael Toffel and Diahanna Post.

By GLOBUS Institute for Globalization and Sustainable Development, Netherlands.

Governance Policy Resource.