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The attacks on the United States of America in September 2001 have spurred a rapid implementation of new Anti-Terrorism legislation around the world. In an effort to, ostensibly, safeguard against the repetition of similar events on their own territories, many democracies have taken far-reaching legislative steps that might threaten the ideal of liberty on which their societies have traditionally been built. This article examines the laws introduced in Britain, France and Germany to establish the extent to which civil liberties in eight different categories have been curtailed. It concludes that, despite the otherwise similar characteristics of the countries studied, the legal provisions differ significantly in scope and depth, a fact that might be explained by: the different levels of threat perception; Britain's history of anti-terror legislation; and the respective power balances between judiciaries and legislatures.

This article addresses the difficulties that the phases of economic evaluations give rise to in theory and practice. It provides a brief outline of the meaning of economism — as a term and a concept — and then explores the issues that are related to the measurement and monetary valuation of the items to be included in economic evaluations, otherwise known as the valuation problem. The article also deals with the commensurability problem and the intrinsic value problem. Finally, some of alternatives and recommendations that can help avoid the pitfalls of economism are discussed.

English The United Kingdom has pioneered privatisation and deregulation into previously monopolistic industries. This article evaluates the results of the government’s policy with regard to market design, regulation and ownership of one of the last sectors affected: the British railways. Reviewing the first five years of the privatised regime from 1994/95 to 1999/2000 this article shows that out of nine objectives forwarded by policy makers at the outset of the programme only one has actually been achieved. While four objectives have been partially met, another four have not been accomplished at all – a track record which can be improved, it is argued, once the ownership of the rail infrastructure has been transferred back into the hands of the public.

The UK Government places ever-greater weight on performance assessment of local public bodies through comprehensive performance assessments (CPA). However, the CPA assessment framework has been criticised for its disregard of local factors that are beyond the control of local authorities but that affect their performance. In this article, the assessment framework is described and three different studies are appraised that have investigated the link between deprivation, as one of these external constraints, and CPA performance. Suggestions are developed as to how the analysis can be improved, by extending the choice of dependent variables and explanatory variables so as to be able to use panel data as the investigative method.