7 research outputs found
The Law of Society: Governance Through Contract
This paper focuses on contract law as a central field in contemporary regulatory practice. In recent years, governance by contract has emerged as the central concept in the context of domestic privatization, domestic and transnational commercial relations and law-and-development projects. Meanwhile, as a result of the neo-formalist attack on contract law, governance of contract through contract adjudication, consumer protection law and judicial intervention into private law relations has come under severe pressure. Building on early historical critique of the formalist foundations of an allegedly private law of the market, the paper assesses the current justifications for contractual governance and posits that only an expanded legal realist perspective can adequately explain the complex nature of contractual agreements in contemporary practice. The paper argues for an understanding of contracts as complex societal arrangements that visibilize and negotiate conflicting rationalities and interests. Institutionally, contractual governance has been unfolding in a complex, historically grown and ideologically continually contested regulatory field. Governance through contract, then, denotes a wide field of conflicting concepts, ideas and symbols, that are themselves deeply entrenched in theories of society, market and the state. From this perspective, we are well advised to study contracts in their socio-economic, historical and cultural context. A careful reading of scholars such as Henry Sumner Maine, Morris Cohen, Robert Hale, Karl Llewellyn, Stewart Macaulay and Ian Macneil offers a deeper understanding of the institutional and normative dimensions of contractual governance. Their analysis is particularly helpful in assessing currently ongoing shifts away from a welfare state based regulation (governance) of contractual relations. Such shifts are occurring on two levels. First, they take place against the backdrop of a neo-liberal critique of government interference into allegedly private relations. Secondly, the increasingly influential return to formalism in contract law, which privileges a functionalist, purportedly technical and autonomous design and execution of contractual agreements over the view of regulated contracts, is linked to a particular concept of sovereignty. The ensuing revival of freedom of contract occurs in remarkable neglect of the experiences of welfare state adjudication of private law adjudication and a continuing contestation of the political in private relationships. The paper takes up the Legal Realists\u27 search for the \u27basis of contract\u27, but seeks to redirect the focus from the traditional perspective on state vs. market to a disembedded understanding of contractual governance as delineating multipolar and multirational regulatory regimes. Where Globalization has led to a fragmentation, disembeddedness and transnationalization of contexts and, thus, has been challenging traditional understanding of embeddedness, the task should no longer be to try applying a largely nation-state oriented Legal Realist perspective and critique to the sphere of contemporary contractual governance, but - rather - to translate its aims into a more reflexive set of instruments of legal critique. Even if Globalization has led to a dramatic denationalization of many regulatory fields and functions, it is still not clear, whether and how Globalization replaces, complements or aggravates transformations of societal governance, with and through contract
Transcriptomics of the Rice Blast Fungus Magnaporthe oryzae in Response to the Bacterial Antagonist Lysobacter enzymogenes Reveals Candidate Fungal Defense Response Genes
Genomic Designing of Pearl Millet:A Resilient Crop for Arid and Semi-arid Environments
Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.; Syn. Cenchrus americanus
(L.) Morrone] is the sixth most important cereal in the world. Today, pearl
millet is grown on more than 30 million ha mainly in West and Central Africa and
the Indian sub-continent as a staple food for more than 90 million people in agriculturally
marginal areas. It is rich in proteins and minerals and has numerous
health benefits such as being gluten-free and having slow-digesting starch. It is
grown as a forage crop in temperate areas. It is drought and heat tolerant, and a
climate-smart crop that can withstand unpredictable variability in climate. However,
research on pearl millet improvement is lagging behind other major cereals mainly
due to limited investment in terms of man and money power. So far breeding
achievements include the development of cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS),
maintenance counterparts (rf) system and nuclear fertility restoration genes (Rf) for
hybrid breeding, dwarfing genes for reduced height, improved input responsiveness,
photoperiod neutrality for short growing season, and resistance to important
diseases. Further improvement of pearl millet for genetic yield potential, stress
tolerance, and nutritional quality traits would enhance food and nutrition security
for people living in agriculturally dissolute environments. Application of molecular
technology in the pearl millet breeding program has a promise in enhancing the
selection efficiency while shortening the lengthy phenotypic selection process ultimately improving the rate of genetic gains. Linkage analysis and genome-wide
association studies based on different marker systems in detecting quantitative trait
loci (QTLs) for important agronomic traits are well demonstrated. Genetic
resources including wild relatives have been categorized into primary, secondary
and tertiary gene pools based on the level of genetic barriers and ease of gene
introgression into pearl millet. A draft on pearl millet whole genome sequence was
recently published with an estimated 38,579 genes annotated to establish
genomic-assisted breeding. Resequencing a large number of germplasm lines and
several population genomic studies provided a valuable insight into population
structure, genetic diversity and domestication history of the crop. Successful
improvement in combination with modern genomic/genetic resources, tools and
technologies and adoption of pearl millet will not only improve the resilience of
global food system through on-farm diversification but also dietary intake which
depends on diminishingly fewer crops