bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Threats of Force
Authors: Sadurska Romana
Published: April 2006

International agreements apparently treat an unauthorized threat of force and the actual use of force as equally grave, yet distinct, wrongs. If, however, formal legal appraisals of specific situations are taken as indicators of existing practice, it seems that the threat of force has no separate significance, as it were, beyond the use of force: either it precedes actual violence and therefore is eclipsed in legal appraisals by the latter, or it is not followed by the use of force and thus ceases to demand prompt legal consideration. Such an attitude toward the question of threat implicitly acknowledges that threats of force are a ubiquitous element of international relations and that they may not be detrimental, indeed may even be beneficial, to the preservation of international order. On the other hand, the attitude of apparent tolerance of threats of force ignores that they produce consequences whether or not they are followed by resort to force and for this reason need to be scrutinized more closely and their lawfulness evaluated. This situation reflects a dissonance between the absolutist aspiration of the international principle prohibiting the threat of force and the complex, often ambiguous and rather pragmatic code applied in international practice.
Status of Treaties in Domestic Legal Systems: A Policy Analysis
Authors: Jackson John H.
Published: April 2006

The degree to which an international treaty is “directly applied” or “self-executing” in a national (municipal) legal system, i.e., to what extent the treaty norms are treated directly as norms of domestic law (“statutelike law”) without a further “act of transformation,” has been debated in an extensive literature for more than a century. This subject is now receiving increased recognition as part of a broader trend acknowledging that understanding an international legal system necessitates understanding the relationship of national legal and political systems to that international system. In connection with treaties, the basic concepts of “monism” and “dualism” have long been used to explain some of the relationships of treaty law to domestic law.
Land, Island and Maritime Frontier Dispute (El Salvador/Honduras), Application to Intervene
Authors: Ratner Steven R.
Published: April 2006

In this case before a Chamber of the International Court of Justice, El Salvador and Honduras, by a Special Agreement dated May 24, 1986, requested that the Chamber delimit the land frontier and determine the legal status of certain islands and waters in the general area of the Gulf of Fonseca. The gulf, located on the Pacific coast of Central America, is bordered by El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Nicaragua filed an application for permission to intervene in the case on November 17, 1989, pursuant to Article 62 of the Statute of the Court, which permits a state to request intervention if the state considers “that it has an interest of a legal nature which may be affected by the decision in the case.”
The Forty-third Session of the International Law Commission
Authors: McCaffrey Stephen C.
Published: April 2006

The forty-third session of the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC) was held in Geneva from April 29 to July 19, 1991, and was chaired by Ambassador Abdul Koroma of Sierra Leone. During the session, the last of the ILC’s current five-year term of office, the Commission adopted full sets of draft articles on three of the subjects on its agenda. It completed the second reading, or final adoption, of the draft on jurisdictional immunities of states and their property, and approved on first reading its articles on the law of the non-navigational uses of international watercourses, and the Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind. In its report to the General Assembly, the Commission recommended that the Assembly convene a diplomatic conference charged with concluding a convention on the basis of the draft articles on jurisdictional immunities. The drafts on watercourses and crimes were sent to governments for their comments, which the Commission requested they submit by January 1, 1993. The ILC will then give each of those drafts a second reading, taking into account the observations received from states. In addition to the progress made on these topics, the Commission considered reports on the three remaining subjects on its agenda: international liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts not prohibited by international law, relations between states and international organizations (second part of the topic) and state responsibility.
International Law in the Public Forum: The New York Times and the Libyan Chemical Weapons Plant
Authors: D’Amato Anthony
Published: April 2006

Nations typically act first and worry about legalities afterwards. International lawyers thus find themselves relegated, for the most part, to the passive role of sorting out rationalizations of past events. Once in a while, however, when a democratic government is contemplating an action that is legally questionable, international lawyers may have a chance to play a more active role. The government at that time might decide to introduce the issue of the legality of its contemplated action into the public forum, either in the hope that open debate may help pave the way for public acceptance of whatever action the government ultimately chooses to take or, more charitably, in a genuine search for the public will on the matter. The primary forums are the daily media aimed at an informed readership—in the United States, one thinks of the editorial pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post. In contrast, a quarterly journal such as the American Journal of International Law in nearly all cases is not published on a timely enough basis to influence specific planned policy initiatives.
Soviet Initiatives: U.S. Responses—New Opportunities for Reviving the United Nations System
Authors: Franck Thomas M.
Published: April 2006

This issue of our Journal highlights “new thinking” by two leading Soviet legal scholars. That, however, is only part of a larger transformation of the climate in which international law and institutions operate. Nowhere has this transformation been more remarkable than at the United Nations.
Doe v. Immigration and Naturalization Service
Authors: Fox Gregory H.
Published: April 2006

The plaintiff, a Chinese citizen who entered the United States under a nonimmigrant student visa, appealed from a decision by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to deny his request for asylum. Plaintiff claimed that he had a “well-founded fear of persecution,” the prerequisite to attaining “refugee” status under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (the Act) and implementing regulations promulgated by the INS. He also claimed that the immigration judge had erred by refusing to obtain a second advisory opinion from the Department of State’s Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs (BHRHA). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (per Nelson, J.) held that (1) the immigration judge had abused his discretion by not requesting a second advisory opinion from the BHRHA; and (2) the judge had incorrectly applied an objective standard in evaluating plaintiffs asylum request, when credible evidence demonstrated that plaintiff had a subjectively valid fear of persecution if deported to China. The court remanded the case to the immigration judge with instructions to obtain a second opinion from the BHRHA and to consider plaintiffs asylum request on the assumption that he qualified as a “refugee.”
Checks and Balances in Foreign Relations
Authors: Richardson Elliot L.
Published: April 2006

One of the most frequently overstated concepts in American constitutional theory is the “separation” of powers. The Framers of the Constitution began with the proposition that concentration of power was to be avoided. They understood, on the other hand, that if governmental powers and responsibilities were actually set apart, each branch would exercise its powers in isolation from the other coordinate branches, to the detriment of cooperation and accommodation among them. Governance would be at best inefficient and at worst impossible.
Rethinking War Powers: By Law or by “Thaumaturgic Invocation”?
Authors: Franck Thomas M.
Published: April 2006

In matters of foreign relations and national security, Presidents believe they know best, because they, alone, possess the information, advice and range of means to meet an imminent threat. It follows that when the judiciary or the Congress seeks to second-guess the exercise of what Chief Executives now are pleased to call the “foreign relations and national security power,” they are regarded as gratuitous intermeddlers. This is nowhere more tenaciously asserted by Presidents than in matters pertaining to the deployment of U.S. armed forces for combat abroad.
War Powers: The Operational Code of Competence
Authors: Reisman W. Michael
Published: April 2006

Wholly apart from the questions of whether and under what circumstances major coercion is permissible under international law and whether minor coercion, including threats, is lawful, there is a broad and deep national consensus that the United States should continuously develop a military capacity sufficient for a range of contingencies and maintain it in a state of readiness. The consensus has been far less certain with regard to who will decide, and how, to initiate and use this capacity, at varying intensities. The original terms of the Constitution have been invoked by partisans of opposing views, but debate in those terms has proved inconclusive. Behind the legal bickering, a complex, but unstated, operational code has developed, allocating competence to initiate, direct and terminate different types of coercion among the branches. Parts of the operational code are clear and relatively stable over time. Other parts are less certain and can be projected only with qualifications, reservations or contingencies.
The Role of States and Cities in Foreign Relations
Authors: Bilder Richard B.
Published: April 2006

A major purpose of the Constitution was to place control of foreign relations firmly in the hands of the national Government. In 1788 James Madison wrote in The Federalist: “If we are to be one nation in any respect, it clearly ought to be in respect to other nations.” Yet a recent article, 200 years later, reports approvingly that “more than 1000 U.S. state and local governments of all political stripes are participating in foreign affairs, and their numbers are expanding.” Criticizing this development, another recent article comments: “The national interest demands that local interference in foreign and defense policy be curtailed before the federal government finds itself hamstrung by hundreds of would-be secretaries of state touting their own parochial agendas. … Foreign policy must be made in Washington and not in the citizens’ backyards.” My intent here is briefly to describe the current situation, and to indicate some of the legal and policy factors relevant to assessing the propriety of state and local government involvement in foreign affairs.
The Forty-First Session of the International Law Commission
Authors: McCaffrey Stephen C.
Published: April 2006

The International Law Commission of the United Nations held its 41st session from May 2 to July 21, 1989, under the Chairmanship of Professor Bernhard Graefrath. The most noteworthy achievement of the session was the completion of work on the status of the diplomatic courier and the diplomatic bag not accompanied by diplomatic courier. The Commission referred this draft to the General Assembly with the recommendation that the Assembly convoke a diplomatic conference for the purpose of concluding a convention on the basis of the articles. Also at the 41st session, the Commission adopted three articles of the Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind and discussed reports on state responsibility, international liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts not prohibited by international law, jurisdictional immunities of states and their property, and the law of the non-navigational uses of international watercourses. A report on relations between states and international organizations was presented to the Commission but was not discussed for lack of time. Finally, the Commission once again devoted a number of meetings to reviewing its procedures and methods of work.
U.S. Law Enforcement Abroad: The Constitution and International Law, Continued
Authors: Lowenfeld Andreas F.
Published: April 2006

In the October 1989 issue of this Journal, I wrote a brief essay concerning the U.S. Constitution and law enforcement abroad. I called attention to the case of Fawaz Yunis, a Lebanese national who was arrested on the high seas by U.S. officers and brought to the United States for trial on charges of aircraft hijacking and hostage taking. Within the space constraints of the Journal’s issue commemorating two centuries of the Constitution, I was able to discuss only one of the questions illustrated by the Yunis case—the question of jurisdiction over crimes committed by aliens abroad. My conclusion, in brief, was that a general reliance on passive personality as the basis for jurisdiction—i.e., the U.S. nationality of victims of the offense—was of doubtful validity under the Constitution, but that jurisdiction based on legislation enacted in implementation of international conventions widely adhered to probably was constitutional. The Yunis case raises two other issues that I believe are of continuing interest: (1) to what extent do the constitutional and statutory restraints on U.S. law enforcement officers apply abroad? and (2) does the so-called Ker-Frisbie rule, according to which a court in the United States may try a person brought before it for a crime over which it has jurisdiction—regardless of how the accused came to be before the court—remain valid and persuasive in the last decade of the 20th century? I want to explore these questions here, bearing in mind that the two questions are related to each other, as well as to the question of jurisdiction to prescribe discussed in the earlier article. Before embarking on the analysis, I want to set forth again in somewhat greater length the saga of Fawaz Yunis, as well as that of two other persons recently seized abroad by authority of the United States for trial in the United States.
The Validity of United States Intervention in Panama under International Law
Authors: Nanda Ved P.
Published: April 2006

Only a few hours after ordering the U.S. military forces to Panama on December 20, 1989, President Bush explained that General Manuel Noriega had declared “a state of war with the United States and publicly threatened the lives of Americans in Panama.” This, he said, had been followed by the murder of an unarmed American serviceman by Noriega’s forces and beatings and harassment of others. He added that, as General Noriega’s “reckless threats and attacks upon Americans in Panama” had created an “imminent danger to the 35,000 American citizens in Panama,” he as President was obligated “to safeguard the lives of American citizens.”
Self-Executing Treaties
Authors: Paust Jordan J.
Published: April 2006

The distinction found in certain cases between “self-executing” and “non-self-executing” treaties is a judicially invented notion that is patently inconsistent with express language in the Constitution affirming that “all Treaties … shall be the supreme Law of the Land.” Indeed, such a distinction may involve the most glaring of attempts to deviate from the specific text of the Constitution. For some 40 years after the formation of the Constitution, President George Washington’s recognition in 1796 that “every Treaty [properly ratified]… thenceforward becomes the law of the land” was widely shared. Yet today not all treaties are thought to be capable of operating as supreme federal law of their own effect.
Bandes v. Harlow & Jones, Inc.
Authors: Calabrese Michael R.
Published: April 2006

The former majority shareholders of Industria Nacional de Clavos y Alambres de Puas, S.A. (INCA), a large Nicaraguan steel company, sought to recover from Harlow & Jones, Inc. (H & J), a U.S. steel company, the purchase price of a shipment of undelivered steel billets. Following the Sandinista revolution, the Nicaraguan Government had “intervened” in INCA and it, too, demanded the funds that H & J interpleaded into the court. The district court rejected the claim of the Sandinista Government and allocated the funds to the benefit of all parties who held shares in the company prior to the intervention. On cross-appeals by the claimants, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (per Kaufman, J.) affirmed in part and reversed in part, and held: the act of state doctrine does not bar judicial resolution of the dispute over the funds; the actions of the Sandinista Government amounted to a taking without compensation that will not be enforced by the U.S. courts; and the district court’s allocation of pro rata shares for all of the preintervention stockholders, including minority interests, was equitable.
Prospects for United States Ratification of Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions
Authors: Aldrich George H.
Published: April 2006

Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, concluded in Geneva in 1977, is the most important treaty codifying and developing international humanitarian law since the adoption of the four Conventions themselves; and it is the first such treaty since 1907 to deal with methods and means of warfare and the protection of the civilian population from the effects of warfare. As such, its contributions to the law were long overdue and, on the whole, are both positive from the humanitarian point of view and practicable from the military point of view. Moreover, it offers the prospect of improved compliance with international humanitarian law, which would greatly benefit the victims of war and would bring the law in action closer to the law in the books. Yet, in January 1987, the President of the United States informed the Senate that he would not submit the Protocol to the Senate for its advice and consent to ratification, calling it “fundamentally and irreconcilably flawed.” It is apparent that President Reagan’s decision resulted from misguided advice that exaggerated certain flaws in the Protocol, ignored the statements of understanding that would have remedied them, and misconstrued a humanitarian and antiterrorist instrument as one that could give aid and comfort to “terrorists.”
The Constitution and Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter
Authors: Glennon Michael J.
Published: April 2006

Does Security Council Resolution 678, read in conjunction with the United Nations Charter, confer authority on the President under United States domestic law to introduce the United States Armed Forces into hostilities? The operative part of the resolution provides that the Security Council:

1.

Demands that Iraq comply fully with resolution 660(1990) and all subsequent relevant resolutions, and decides, while maintaining all its decisions, to allow Iraq one final opportunity, as a pause of goodwill, to do so;

2.

Authorizes Member States co-operating with the Government of Kuwait, unless Iraq on or before 15 January 1991 fully implements, as set forth in paragraph 1 above, the foregoing resolutions, to use all necessary means to uphold and implement resolution 660 (1990) and all subsequent relevant resolutions and to restore international peace and security in the area;

3.

Requests all States to provide appropriate support for the actions undertaken in pursuance of paragraph 2 of the present resolution;

4.

Requests the States concerned to keep the Security Council regularly informed on the progress of actions undertaken pursuant to paragraphs 2 and 3 of the present resolution;

5.

Decides to remain seized of the matter.
Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
Authors: Nash Marian
Published: April 2006

A congressional inquiry to the Department of State concerned the practice of signing documents such as the Trilateral Statement concluded at Moscow on January 14, 1994, by President William J. Clinton, Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin, and Ukraine President Leonid M. Kravchuk and the status of such documents under both United States and international law and practice.
Awarding Interest in International Arbitration
Authors: Gotanda John Y.
Published: April 2006

The popularity of arbitration as a mechanism for settling disputes between transnational contracting parties has led to standardization in many areas of arbitration law and procedure. One important aspect of the arbitral process, however, the practice of awarding compensatory interest, has been left behind in the march toward uniformity. To date, arbitral tribunals have failed to adopt a rational and uniform approach for evaluating interest claims. Consequently, resolving interest claims is often an expensive and time-consuming process, fraught with uncertainty, which typically results in inconsistent arbitral awards. This result is particularly problematic in the international arbitral arena: such claims often involve millions of dollars, and because a lengthy period may elapse between the origin of the dispute and the final award, whether an arbitrator awards interest may be as significant, from a monetary standpoint, as the principal claim itself.
Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
Authors: Nash Marian
Published: April 2006

On January 15, 1993, President George Bush transmitted to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification the Treaty Between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the START II Treaty), signed at Moscow on January 3, 1993. In his letter of transmittal, President Bush discussed the importance of the Treaty, in major part as follows:

The START II Treaty is a milestone in the continuing effort by the United States and the Russian Federation to address the threat posed by strategic offensive nuclear weapons, especially multiple-warhead ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles]. It builds upon and relies on the Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the START Treaty) signed at Moscow on July 31, 1991. At the same time, the START II Treaty goes even further than the START Treaty.
The Gulf Crisis and African-American Interests Under International Law
Authors: Richardson Henry J.
Published: April 2006

It has now been two years since the end of the United Nations Security Council’s military enforcement action against Iraq, popularly known as “Operation Desert Storm.” The glow of military success suffused the American atmosphere, and its aftermath is clearly shaping international expectations about the United Nations, its legal authority, human rights, and more general issues of power, wealth and loyalties of peoples. Also shaping expectations is the end of the Cold War, which left the United States as the sole “superpower.” How well the international community and the American polity are adjusting to the absence of the Soviet Union as a major state and convenient enemy remains open to question. International law is thus challenged to regulate an international community suddenly transformed in many ways.
The United Nations Compensation Commission—A New Structure to Enforce State Responsibility
Authors: Crook John R.
Published: April 2006

In little over a year, the United Nations has created a new and innovative mechanism to collect, assess and ultimately provide compensation for hundreds of thousands—or even millions—of claims against Iraq for direct losses stemming from the invasion and occupation of Kuwait.

The UN Compensation Commission, an element of the United Nations response to Iraq’s August 1990 invasion of Kuwait, began operations in Geneva in July 1991. In seven formal sessions between July 1991 and September 1992, the Commission’s Governing Council adopted by consensus an innovative structure for collecting and verifying millions of potential claims. A small, but experienced, professional staff was recruited; it is headed by a distinguished Peruvian diplomat and includes legal experts with long experience at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague. The staff is at work in the Villa La Pelouse on the UN grounds in Geneva.
International Sports Law: A Replay of Characteristics and Trends
Authors: Nafziger James A. R.
Published: April 2006

The much-neglected field of international sports law is changing significantly. From a patchwork of hard and soft law cultivated by the Olympic Movement, a more structured pattern of international administration and dispute resolution is emerging. Trends include the exercise by transnational sports organizations of greater and more uniform authority over athletes and athletic activity; improved mechanisms for resolving disputes and appealing decisions within those organizations; and a modest inclination toward arbitration and adjudication of disputes. Also, attention has shifted within the arena of international sports from political issues to social, economic and organizational issues and toward applying principles of procedural and substantive fairness to resolving disputes. These trends in administration and dispute resolution are interrelated. As the organizations that directly regulate sports activity become more intrusive, they generate expectations and entitlements that require more stable and equitable rules and procedures of enforcement.
International Criminalization of Internal Atrocities
Authors: Meron Theodor
Published: April 2006

For half a century, the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials and national prosecutions of World War II cases remained the major instances of criminal prosecution of offenders against fundamental norms of international humanitarian law. The heinous activities of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia and the use of poison gas by Iraq against its Kurdish population are among the many atrocities left unpunished by either international or national courts. Some treaties were adopted that provide for national prosecution of offenses of international concern and, in many cases, for universal jurisdiction; but, with a few exceptions, these treaties were not observed. Notwithstanding the absence of significant prosecutions, an international consensus on the legitimacy of the Nuremberg Principles, the applicability of universal jurisdiction to international crimes, and the need to punish those responsible for egregious violations of international humanitarian law slowly solidified. The International Law Commission, veterans of the Nuremberg and Tokyo proceedings, individuals such as Rafael Lemkin (who advocated the adoption of the Genocide Convention) and a handful of academics (most notably M. Cherif Bassiouni), among others, helped keep alive the heritage of Nuremberg and the promise of future prosecutions of serious violators of international humanitarian law.
Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
Authors: (Leich) Marian Nash
Published: April 2006

On March 29,1995, the following officials of the executive branch of the U.S. Government appeared before the Human Rights Committee at the United Nations to discuss U.S. implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (which had entered into force for the United States on September 8, 1992): John Shattuck, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and Conrad K. Harper, the Department’s Legal Adviser; Assistant Attorneys General Deval L. Patrick, Civil Rights Division, and Jo Ann Harris, Criminal Division; and Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Ada Deer. The same officials, together with other members of the U.S. delegation, appeared again on March 31, 1995, to reply to questions raised by the Committee.
The GATT/WTO Committee on Trade and the Environment—Toward Environmental Reform
Authors: Schultz Jennifer
Published: April 2006

The Uruguay Round of trade negotiations took until December 1993 to be completed. Its conclusion has been heralded as a significant step on the part of countries belonging to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). However, further cooperation by these countries is still required, as is the need to go further. The globalization of the world’s economies is paralleled by the increasingly global nature of environmental problems. This is true in terms of the effects of these problems (e.g., climate change and ozone depletion), and also because dealing with these problems will require international cooperation. In view of the significant role it will play in the world economy, this global response will, in part, include reforming the rules of the international trading system.
Preferential exclusion of hybrids in mixed pollinations between oilseed rape (Brassica napus) and weedy B. campestris (Brassicaceae)
Authors: Hauser Thure P. , Jørgensen Rikke B. , Østergård Hanne
Published: April 2006

In most experimental hybridizations between oilseed rape (Brassica napus) and weedy B. campestris, either intra‐ or interspecific pollen has been applied to individual flowers. Under field conditions, however, stigmas will often receive a mixture of the two types of pollen, thereby allowing for competition between male gametophytes and/or seeds within pods. To test whether competition influences the success of hybridization, pollen from the two species was mixed in different proportions and applied to stigmas of both species. The resulting seeds were scored for paternity by isozyme and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis. Using data on the proportion of fully developed seeds and the proportion of these seeds that were hybrids, a statistical model was constructed to estimate the fitness of conspecific and heterospecific pollen and the survival of conspecific and heterospecific zygotes to seeds. B. campestris pollen in B. napus styles had a significantly lower fitness than the conspecific pollen, whereas no difference between pollen types was found in B. campestris styles. Hybrid zygotes survived to significantly lower proportions than conspecific zygotes in both species, with the lowest survival of hybrid zygotes in B. napus pods. This is in contrast to the higher survival of hybrid seeds in B. napus than in B. campestris pods when pollinations are made with pure pollen. Altogether, the likelihood of a foreign pollen grain producing a seed was much lower on B. napus than on B. campestris. In addition, pods on B. napus developed to a lower extent the more heterospecific pollen was in the mix, whereas this had no effect on B. campestris.
Competition and the compensatory regulation of fruit and seed set in the perennial herb Epilobium dodonaei (Onagraceae)
Authors: Stöcklet Jürg
Published: April 2006

I studied the effects of competition and soil fertilization on variation of seed yield components of the outcrossing perennial Epilobium dodonaei Vill. using a randomized complete block design. Fertilization as a main effect was not significant. Competition, however, reduced the number of flower buds per shoot (‐29%), the number of ovules per fruit (–12%), and the number of ripe fruits per shoot (–51%). In addition, competition caused an increase in abortion of flower buds. Consequently the fruit/flower bud ratio decreased from 0.71 to 0.47. Average seed mass was not reduced significantly by competition. Some of the negative effects of competition on fruit production were mitigated by fertilization. However, competition considerably reduced the proportion of late‐aborted seeds, which resulted in an increase of the seed/ovule ratio from 0.31 to 0.49 (+58%). As a consequence of this compensation, the reduction in the number of seeds per shoot due to competition was not significant. At the level of the genet, competition had a strong effect on seed yield due to decreases in the number of shoots produced. I discuss patterns of regulation at consecutive levels of reproduction. Shoots of plants suffering from competition initially invested less in reproductive structures than the control and showed a higher abortion rate of less costly structures early in reproductive development, but also had a lower abortion rate later in their development. The observed compensatory pattern in yield components illustrates the fine‐tuning regulation capacity at different levels of reproductive development in plants.
The matK gene: sequence variation and application in plant systematics
Authors: Hilu Khidir W. , Liang gping
Published: April 2006

Although the matK gene has been used in addressing systematic questions in four families, its potential application to plant systematics above the family level has not been investigated. This paper examines the rates, patterns, and types of nucleotide substitutions in the gene and addresses its utility in constructing phylogenies above the family level. Eleven complete sequences from the GenBank representing seed plants and liverworts and nine partial sequences generated for genera representing the monocot families Poaceae, Joinvilleaceae, Cyperaceae, and Smilacaceae were analyzed. The study underscored the high rate of substitution in the gene and the presence of mutationally conserved sectors. The use of different sectors of the gene and the cumulative inclusion of informative sites showed that the 3’ region was most useful in resolving phylogeny, and that the topology and robustness of the tree reached a plateau after the inclusion of 100 informative sites from that region for the taxa used. The impact of using partial sequencing on sample size is addressed. The presence of a relatively conserved 3’ region and the less conserved 5’ region provides two sets of characters that can be used at different taxonomic levels from the tribal to the division levels.
Molecular systematics and a revised taxonomy of the onocleoid ferns (Dryopteridaceae: Onocleeae)
Authors: Gastony Gerald J. , Ungerer Mark C.
Published: April 2006

Nucleotide sequences of the chloroplast‐encoded rbcL gene were determined for all five species of the onocleoid ferns (Dryopteridaceae tribe Onocleeae), including both varieties of Onoclea sensibilis, and for outgroup member Blechnum glandulosum. Together with GenBank sequences of three additional onocleoid accessions and four additional taxa representing the outgroup Blechnaceae, these were analyzed cladistically under the optimality criteria of maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood. Maximum parsimony yielded a single most‐parsimonious tree with the three accessions of Onoclea sensibilis var. sensibilis left as an unresolved trichotomy. Maximum likelihood yielded a single set of three optimal trees whose only topological variation was in the trivial positioning of the three accessions of Onoclea sensibilis var. sensibilis relative to each other. Thus tree topologies of the onocleoid ingroup under maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood were completely congruent. Matteuccia orientalis and M. intermedia formed the basalmost ingroup clade strongly separated from the remaining taxa and sister to them. Onoclea sensibilis is strongly separated from its sister clade of Matteuccia struthiopteris plus Onocleopsis hintonii, and the two varieties of Onoclea sensibilis are well differentiated from each other. Matteuccia struthiopteris and Onocleopsis hintonii form the least strongly supported clade. Levels of sequence divergence among onocleoid taxa are compared with values from other taxa, and morphological and chromosomal data used in previous, noncladistic studies of the onocleoids are reevaluated in light of this rbcL phylogeny. Matteuccia orientalis and M. intermedia should be recognized in their own genus Pentarhizidium, and the previously recognized varieties of Onoclea sensibilis are supported at least at varietal rank and possibly at the rank of species. Molecular and morphological data bearing on the circumscriptions of Matteuccia and Onocleopsis are equivocal but perhaps most concordant with their continued recognition as monotypic genera.
Effects of endophytic fungi on the phenotypic plasticity of Lolium perenne (Poaceae)
Authors: Cheplick Gregory P.
Published: April 2006

The effects of high vs. low levels of endophytic fungi on the phenotypic plasticity of cloned genotypes were examined in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). The objectives were to determine whether endophytic fungi influence plastic responses of host genotypes to variable soil nutrients and whether or not endophyte infection and host genotype interact to determine the extent of this plasticity. Twelve infected genotypes were cloned into ramets: half the ramets were treated with the systemic fungicide Benomyl to reduce or eliminate the endophyte, while the other half were untreated. Ramets of each genotype were subjected to high, medium, or low levels of nutrients in the greenhouse for 11 wk. Tiller number, leaf area, and leaf mass were determined after 11 and 25 wk. The fungicide significantly reduced the level of endophyte infection. Responses to nutrient conditions in relation to fungicide treatment were genotype specific: for some genotypes, high levels of endophytic fungi appeared to reduce plasticity, while for other genotypes the endophyte had no effect. The potential for microscopic symbionts to affect phenotypic plasticity in genetically variable populations has not often been recognized. However, the clandestine effects of symbionts on the plasticity of host genotypes could impact microevolutionary processes occurring within plant populations that occupy heterogeneous environments.
Antheridiogen production and response in Polypodiaceae species
Authors: Chiou Wen‐Liang , Farrar Donald R.
Published: April 2006

Antheridiogen chemicals secreted by living fern gametophytes have been shown to influence production of male gametangia and thus mating systems in a large number of terrestrial fern species. Antheridiogens have not previously been thought to be prevalent in the Polypodiaceae, a large family composed mostly of tropical epiphytes. This study presents bioassay methods more sensitive than previously used to detect antheridiogen and demonstrates that antheridiogens are also operative in the Polypodiaceae and in epiphytic species. Seven species in six genera (Campyloneurum angustifolium, C. phyllitidis, Lepisorus thunbergianus, Microgramma heterophylla, Phlebodium aureum, Phymatosorus scolopendria, and Polypodium pellucidum) were tested for the presence of an antheridiogen system. All species tested except P. aureum were induced to produce antheridia precociously by their own antheridiogen and by that of Pteridium aquilinum (APt). Phlebodium aureum responded to APt and promoted antheridium formation in Onoclea sensibilis but did not respond to its own antheridiogen. Spores of all species except P. aureum were induced to germinate in darkness by antheridiogen of the same species and by APt and to form antheridia in the dark, further enhancing the possibility of intergametophytic mating.
Substrate water potential constraints on germination of the strangler fig Ficus aurea (Moraceae)
Authors: Swagel Eric N. , Bernhard A. Van H. , Ellmore George S.
Published: April 2006

Palms are the most common support hosts for strangler fig (Ficus aurea) in the tropical dry forest. At Hummingbird Cay Tropical Field Station in the Bahamas, viable F. aurea seeds scattered on open soil germinate within 6 d in the laboratory at 27°C in light or darkness. To test the hypothesis that water relations between seed and substrate can restrict the site of F. aurea establishment, fig seeds were imbibed in mannitol solutions with water potential (ψ) from 0 MPa to –2.0 MPa. At ψ > –1.0 MPa, germination ranges from 70 to 90%. Below –1.0 MPa, germination drops under 4%. Seedling growth rate slows linearly with decreasing ψ, due to reduced cell enlargement in the radicle. Sensitivity of F. aurea seeds to ψ stress is similar to that of mesophytic crops with “threshold” ψ of –1.2 to –1.5 MPa, below which germination and/or seedling growth stops. F. aurea shows no evidence of xerophytic adaptation in germination physiology. In the field, ψ of humus in palm leaf bases does not drop below –1.0 to –1.1 MPa, while humus in terrestrial sites reaches ψ < –2.0 MPa. Seedling establishment of strangler fig in the dry forest depends on sustained moisture (ψ ≥ –1.2 MPa). In a climate marked by 4–7 mo dry seasons, the moisture requirement for F. aurea germination and seedling growth is met by humus in palm leaf bases, not by terrestrial sites. In dry forests, this restricts F. aurea establishment to the crown of palm trees.
Structural analysis of female and Hermaphroditic Flowers of a Gynodioecious Tree, Ocotea Tenera (Lauraceae)
Authors: Gibson J. Phil , Diggle Pamela K.
Published: April 2006

The evolution of gynodioecy from hermaphroditism involves modifications of floral structure such that male or female fitness is enhanced in hermaphrodites and females, respectively. We present an analysis of structural specialization of flowers of Ocotea tenera, in order to evaluate gender system evolution in this tropical tree species. Significant morphological and anatomical variation was found between high fruiting and low or nonfruiting trees. Female flowers were significantly smaller than hermaphroditic flowers, produced no viable pollen, and made relatively greater allocation to structures that increase female fitness. Hermaphroditic flowers were significantly larger than female flowers, produced copious quantities of pollen, and made relatively greater allocation to male structures. Analyses indicated that changes in allometries between whole‐flower growth and growth of reproductive structures may have occurred, which enhance function of the flower and plant as a male or female. Efficiency of nutrient allocation for reproduction is argued to be a factor driving gender system evolution in Ocotea tenera.
Embryology of the theaceae—anther and Ovule Development of Camellia, Franklinia, and Schima
Authors: Tsou Chih‐Hua
Published: April 2006

The anther and ovule development of Camellia, Franklinia, and Schima (Theaceae, Camellioideae) were observed. The three genera share the following embryological traits: anther wall formation of basic type, tapetum of glandular type, walls of endothecial cells with secondary thickening, and production of pseudopollen grains in connective, which are dispersed into pollen sacs at anthesis, ovule bitegmic‐tenuinucellate, micropyle formed by inner integument alone, hypostase present, and both integuments generally five‐to‐seven cell layered. One autapomorphy of the Camellioideae found in the present study is the production of pseudopollen. The three genera surveyed differ with respect to the number of middle layers in the anther, the presence or absence of stomata on connective epidermis, morphology of pseudopollen, type of embryo sac formation, form of ovule, ovular vasculature, and the proliferation of ovular epidermis, etc. Among the three genera, Franklinia and Schima are presumed to be closer embryologically, and Schima possesses more numerous specialized features.
Genetic variation of morphological characters within a single isolate of the endomycorrhizal fungus Glomus clarum (Glomaceae)
Authors: Bentivenga Stephen P. , Bever James D. , Morton Joseph B.
Published: April 2006

The nature of variation in morphological characters in spores of arbuscular endomycorrhizal fungi (Order Glomales, Class Zygomycetes) has received little attention, despite the importance of these characters in modern taxonomy of the order. We tested the hypothesis that genetic variation exists in spore size and color (presumably important taxonomic characters) within a single isolate of the glomalean fungus Glomus clarum. Phenotypic variation in size and color of spores was determined from a pot culture population (designated P). A 10% selection pressure was imposed on replicate pot cultures of the first progeny culture generation (G1) by selecting the smallest, largest, yellowest, and whitest spores from the P generation and inoculating Sorghum bicolor plants. The experiment was repeated for another generation (G2), but with a 5% selection pressure. In both the G1 and G2 generations, significant differences in spore size and color were observed among the various treatments, indicating substantial genetic variation in these characters. Despite efforts to keep the physical environment constant across generations, we observed variation in the overall means of spore size and color among the generations (regardless of treatment), indicating a strong nongenetic influence on character expression. This study provides empirical evidence that will help delimit species boundaries among isolates of Glomus clarum and similar morphospecies. It also demonstrates a promising method to help elucidate the nature of character diversity in obligately asexual fungi.
Reproductive allocation and resource compensation in male‐sterile and hermaphroditic plants of Plantago lanceolata (Plantaginaceae)
Authors: Poot Pieter
Published: April 2006

Gynodioecy is a breeding system in which hermaphrodites coexist with male steriles. Theoretical models predict that without any compensation in female fitness male steriles will disappear from a population due to their reproductive disadvantage. In the present study I investigated whether male‐sterile (MS), partially male‐sterile (IN), and hermaphroditic (H) plants of Plantago lanceolata differed in reproductive growth and allocation. Offspring of three interpopulation crosses segregating all three sex morphs were grown under nitrogen‐limited conditions in a growth chamber. Independent of the genetic background MS plants attained a higher vegetative and reproductive dry mass and a higher reproductive output than H plants, whereas IN plants had intermediate values. When corrected for the mass of the pollen, the dry mass differences between the sex morphs were much reduced but still present. However, when whole‐plant allocation was expressed on the basis of nitrogen, the differences between the sex morphs disappeared. Thus the sex morphs took up similar amounts of nitrogen but distributed them differently. The MS and IN plants used the nitrogen saved by not producing pollen for additional vegetative as well as reproductive growth. The data presented in this study suggest that resource compensation is one of the main mechanisms responsible for the maintenance of MS and IN plants in gynodioecious P. lanceolata.
Japanese maple (Acer palmatum var. Matsumurae, Aceraceae) recruitment patterns: seeds, seedlings, and saplings in relation to conspecific adult neighbors
Authors: Wada Naoya , Ribbens Eric
Published: April 2006

We analyzed the spatial patterns among seeds, seedlings, saplings, and conspecific adult trees of the cool‐temperate tree species Acer palmatum var. Matsumurae in a conifer–hardwood mixed forest in northern Japan, using two models that consider the influence of each adult within the neighborhood of the offspring. The results showed that recruitment patterns of each stage could be characterized and that significant shifts occur between successive stages. Sound seeds were more widely dispersed than unsound seeds; the mean dispersal distance (MDD) was 41.5 m for sound seeds, but only 12.6 m for unsound seeds. Most seedlings were located near conspecific adult trees, with a MDD of 14.3 m. Saplings, however, were more dispersed away from conspecific adult trees, with an MDD of more than 35 m. Light and gap distributions did not strongly affect the spatial distribution of the offspring; most saplings were located under nonconspecific canopies. These results suggest that the recruitment pattern of Japanese maple offspring is strongly affected by conspecific adult neighbors, rather than by light and gap distributions, with close proximity to conspecific adult trees reducing the growth and survival of seedlings during the transition to saplings.