Race Decriminalization and Criminal Legal System Reform

There is emerging consensus that various components of the criminal legal system have gone too far in capturing and punishing masses of Black men, women, and children. This evolving recognition has helped propel important and pathbreaking criminal legal reforms in recent years, with significant bipartisan support. These reforms have targeted the criminal legal system itself. They strive to address the pain inflicted by the system. However, by concerning themselves solely with the criminal legal system, these reforms do not confront the reality that Black men, women, and children will continue to be devastatingly overrepresented in each stitch of the system. As a result, these reforms do not reach deeply enough. They do not address or confront the reality that simply being Black has been and will continue to be criminalized. This Article asserts that measures beyond these reforms—measures that reach the root of racial criminalization—are necessary for true criminal legal system transformation

CAP reform and world trade negotiations

In March 1999 the European Council in Berlin agreed on reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Dr Joseph McMahon of the Queen’s University of Belfast examines these reforms in relation to the European Community’s Agenda 2000 proposals and the next round of WTO negotiations and argues that they may not go far enough. Article by Dr Joseph A. McMahon published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Supervised Injection Facilities: Legal and Policy Reforms

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 70 000 deaths from drug overdoses occurred in 2017, including prescription and illicit opioids, representing a 6-fold increase since 1999. Innovative harm-reduction solutions are imperative. Supervised injection facilities (SIFs) create safe places for drug injection, including overdose prevention, counseling, and treatment referral services. Supervised injection facilities neither provide illicit drugs nor do their personnel inject users. Supervised injection facilities are effective in reducing drug-related mortality, morbidity, and needle-borne infections. Yet their lawfulness remains uncertain. The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently threatened criminal prosecution for SIF operators, medical personnel, and patrons

Japan's Paradoxical Response to the new 'Global Standard' in Corporate Governance

We suggest, on the basis of empirical research into the implementation of recent legal reforms, that Japan is not moving inexorably towards a 'global standard' in corporate governance, based on external monitoring and a market for corporate control. Japanese corporate governance is nevertheless changing: in part as an indirect response to legal initiatives, new structures and practices are emerging, aimed at providing greater flexibility in decision-making, while retaining the organisational core of the Japanese firm. The paradoxical effect of legal reforms aimed, in large part, at transplanting the global standard, may be to renew the distinctive Japanese model of the corporation.corporate governance, company law reform, Japan

THE POLITICS OF LEGAL REFORM

As a result of the emerging market crises of the last decade and a large body of academic research on the influence of investor protection in the development of capital markets and economic growth, there is a growing consensus that reforming the legal infrastructure supporting business should be an important component of reforms in many developing countries. But the consensus is unwieldy, as there are still many forces against reform and little agreement about what constitutes feasible legal reforms. This paper has two parts. In the first, we identify the forces for and against legal reform and review the role these forces play in episodes of reform. In the second, we seek to further our understanding of what constitutes good laws and regulatory mechanisms, and more importantly how to make them enforceable in different countries. If legal reform is to succeed, the commonly advocated principles of corporate governance in the international community must be brought down to the local political and judicial realities. Translating international corporate governance initiatives into clear and enforceable rights for creditors and shareholders that incorporate these constraints will be difficult but necessary. Bankruptcy law and corporate law reform need to be politically feasible and enforceable. Legal reforms should be complemented with carefully drafted judicial reforms, as well as market-based mechanisms that foster a culture of corporate governance.

The Impact of Trust on Reforms

In a constantly changing economic environment a country's ability to undertake institutional reforms is crucial to maintain economic growth and to promote the welfare of its citizens. A wide range of determinants for institutional reforms have been identified. However, the impact of trust on reforms has so far never been addressed. We provide theoretical arguments why trust should influence institutional changes and test the relationship empirically. We find a significant positive relation between trust and reforms with regard to government size, the legal system, and deregulation of private businesses and the labor market. The results in other policy fields are ambiguous. --Trust,Economic Freedom,Policy Reforms

Legal, Political and Practical Obstacles to the Enforcement of Labor Laws in Panama

The report describes past and present labor laws and reforms in Panama as they pertain to basic labor rights. Beluche offers a discussion on the legal, political, and practical obstacles that prevent compliance to labor laws

Democracy and reforms

The authors use a sample of 147 countries to investigate the link between democracy and reforms. Democracy may be conducive to reforms, because politicians have the incentive to embrace growth-enhancing reforms to win elections. By contrast, authoritarian regimes do not have to worry as much about public opinion and may undertake reforms that are painful in the short run but bring future prosperity. This paper tests these hypotheses, using data on micro-economic reforms from the World Bank's Doing Business database. These data do not suffer the endogeneity issues associated with other datasets on changes in economic institutions. The results provide robust support for the claim that democracy is good for growth-enhancing reforms.Parliamentary Government,Legal Products,Labor Policies,Public Sector Corruption&Anticorruption Measures,Emerging Markets

A Review of Renaud Colson’s and Stewart Field’s ‘The Transformation of Criminal Justice: Comparing France with England and Wales’

This material was first published by Sweet and Maxwell Limited in Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos 'A Review of Renaud Colson’s and Stewart Field’s ‘The Transformation of Criminal Justice: Comparing France with England and Wales', Criminal Law Review, 10, pp. 863-867 and is reproduced by agreement with the publishers.This book opens with forewords by two of the most exceptional contemporary legal minds in the English and French legal systems: Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the first president of the UK Supreme Court, and Robert Badinter, former president of the Conseil constitutionnel, eminent scholar and politician known for his tireless contributions on criminal justice and human rights issues. Lord Phillips finds that “this is an erudite comparative study of recent reforms to the English and French criminal justice systems”, which shows how “reforms have brought the two systems closer together”, thus being “of interest to those who have been brought up to consider the two systems as dissimilar as chalk and cheese” (p.7)