Crafting Courts in New Democracies: The Politics of Subnational Judicial Reform in Brazil and Mexico

Why does the strength of local courts vary in new democracies? Highlighting empirical and theoretical puzzles generated by the state-level variation in court strength within Latin Americas two largest democracies, Brazil and Mexico, this study offers a historical institutional explanation of judicial change. Notably, in contrast to much \u27new institutionalist\u27 work — which examines the effects of formal instititutional arrangements — judicial institutions here are the dependent variable. The theoretical framework builds on existing explanations regarding the effects of electoral competition and ideology, specifying underlying causal logics and mechanisms. The framework also highlights the role of actors internal to institutions (judges), and the importance of social movement theory for understanding interactions between ideological judges and sympathetic actors outside the institution, leading to judicial mobilization or behavior \u27beyond the bench. The empirical analysis draws on the analytic leverage of a subnational level of analysis and integrates quantitative and qualitative methods, yielding conclusions that would be impossible using either method in isolation. First, time-series cross-section analyses of judicial spending (as a proxy for court strength) examine broad relationships across Brazil\u27s 26 states from 1985 to 2006 and Mexico\u27s 31 states from 1993-2007. Quantitative tools for case selection identify \u27nested\u27, model-testing cases, around which I build small-N research designs consisting of three states in each country. The in-depth, qualitative analysis draws on 115 personal, semi-structured interviews with judges and other legal elites, archival evidence, and direct observation to trace the process of judicial change. Overall, electoral competition operates as a pre-condition for reform, but its effect is indeterminate once a minimum threshold of competition is crossed. Ideology has the most consistent and meaningful effect on reform. Actors and their intentions matter. However, the expression of these intentions is contingent upon the nature of opportunity structures, including mobilization strategies and alliances, as well as overlapping historical processes. In short, I find that strong reforms are most likely where progressive judges coincide with sympathetic, left-of-center politicians. The results emphasize the role of ideas and the conditional expression of these ideas, that is, the contingency of intentionality

Networked Justice: Judges, Ideational Contagion, and Reform Movements in Mexico

How do legal institutions change in new democracies? More specifically, what are the origins of justice reforms in Mexico? Existing research establishes the important role of ideas in shaping both the design of courts and the opinions of judges who inhabit them. In short, ideas shape jurisprudence and institutions. However, while we know ideas matter, there is little empirical evidence regarding the content or distribution of these ideas, and even less evidence regarding the manner in which ideas diffuse among judges, institutions, and geographic locations. Why do some judges hold these ideas while others do not? Addressing these empirical and theoretical gaps, this paper offers a first, preliminary look at an ongoing pilot survey of judges in Mexico. The survey contributes original, ego-centric network data, including (a) the structure and composition of personal networks among judges, and (b) the attitudes of judges regarding institutional design and jurisprudence, permitting analysis of the causal relationship between the two. Further, the survey aims to generate whole, socio-centric data on smaller networks of judges, e.g., judges on a state supreme court. While the current sample size (N=5) is too small yet to draw any conclusions regarding network influence on judges\u27 attitudes, the data available at the time of writing offers an initial view of the content and distribution of judges\u27 ideas regarding prominent legal issues in Mexico, as well as data on network structure and composition

Power, Composition, and Decision Making: The Behavioral Consequences of Institutional Reform on Brazil's Supremo Tribunal Federal

How does a court's policy-making authority shape the nature of judicial behavior? We argue that judicial systems that limit policy-making authority also discourage the politicization of courts, encouraging judges to think narrowly about the interests of litigating parties. In contrast, granting a court high policy-making authority—affecting potentially thousands of cases and other branches of government—naturally encourages judges to consider broader ideological principles. Typically, unraveling cause and effect would be difficult, as judicial behavior and institutions are usually stable and endogenous. But an especially stark sequence of political and institutional changes in Brazil affords analytic leverage to explore these questions. A series of judicial reforms greatly expanded the Brazilian Supreme Court's authority, and our analysis of judicial decisions shows the emergence of a political cleavage on the court after these reforms. (JEL C140, K39, K49

Testing robustness of CPUE standardization and inclusion of environmental variables with simulated longline catch datasets

Environmental variability changes the distribution, migratory patterns, and susceptibility to various fishing gears for highly migratory marine fish. These changes become especially problematic when they affect the indices of abundance (such as those based on catch-per-unit-effort: CPUE) used to assess the status of fish stocks. The use of simulated CPUE data sets with known values of underlying population trends has been recommended by ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) to test the robustness of CPUE standardization methods. A longline CPUE data simulator was developed to meet this objective and simulate fisheries data from a population with distinct habitat preferences. The simulation was used to test several statistical hypotheses regarding best practices for index standardization aimed at accurate estimation of population trends. Effort data from the US pelagic longline fleet was paired with a volume-weighted habitat suitability model for blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) to derive a simulated time series of blue marlin catch and effort from 1986 to 2015 with four different underlying population trends. The simulated CPUE data were provided to stock assessment scientists to determine if the underlying population abundance trend could accurately be detected with different methods of CPUE standardization that did or did not incorporate environmental data. While the analysts’ approach to the data and the modeling structure differed, the underlying population trends were captured, some more successfully than others. In general, the inclusion of environmental and habitat variables aided the standardization process. However, differences in approaches highlight the importance of how explanatory variables are categorized and the criteria for including those variables. A set of lessons learned from this study was developed as recommendations for best practices for CPUE standardization.FCT IF/00253/2014info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Investigation of the Proteolytic Functions of an Expanded Cercarial Elastase Gene Family in Schistosoma mansoni

Schistosome parasites are a major cause of disease in the developing world. The larval stage of the parasite transitions between an intermediate snail host and a definitive human host in a dramatic fashion, burrowing out of the snail and subsequently penetrating human skin. This process is facilitated by secreted proteases. In Schistosoma mansoni, cercarial elastase is the predominant secreted protease and essential for host skin invasion. Genomic analysis reveals a greatly expanded cercarial elastase gene family in S. mansoni. Despite sequence divergence, SmCE isoforms show similar expression profiles throughout the S. mansoni life cycle and have largely similar substrate specificities, suggesting that the majority of protease isoforms are functionally redundant and therefore their expansion is an example of gene dosage. However, activity-based profiling also indicates that a subset of SmCE isoforms are activated prior to the parasite's exit from its intermediate snail host, suggesting that the protease may also have a role in this process

Neurofibromin Deficient Myeloid Cells are Critical Mediators of Aneurysm Formation In Vivo

Background Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) is a genetic disorder resulting from mutations in the NF1 tumor suppressor gene. Neurofibromin, the protein product of NF1, functions as a negative regulator of Ras activity in circulating hematopoietic and vascular wall cells, which are critical for maintaining vessel wall homeostasis. NF1 patients have evidence of chronic inflammation resulting in development of premature cardiovascular disease, including arterial aneurysms, which may manifest as sudden death. However, the molecular pathogenesis of NF1 aneurysm formation is unknown. Method and Results Utilizing an angiotensin II-induced aneurysm model, we demonstrate that heterozygous inactivation of Nf1 (Nf1+/−) enhanced aneurysm formation with myeloid cell infiltration and increased oxidative stress in the vessel wall. Using lineage-restricted transgenic mice, we show loss of a single Nf1 allele in myeloid cells is sufficient to recapitulate the Nf1+/− aneurysm phenotype in vivo. Finally, oral administration of simvastatin or the antioxidant apocynin, reduced aneurysm formation in Nf1+/− mice. Conclusion These data provide genetic and pharmacologic evidence that Nf1+/− myeloid cells are the cellular triggers for aneurysm formation in a novel model of NF1 vasculopathy and provide a potential therapeutic target

Climate challenges, vulnerabilities, and food security

This paper identifies rare climate challenges in the long-term history of seven areas, three in the subpolar North Atlantic Islands and four in the arid-to-semiarid deserts of the US Southwest. For each case, the vulnerability to food shortage before the climate challenge is quantified based on eight variables encompassing both environmental and social domains. These data are used to evaluate the relationship between the “weight” of vulnerability before a climate challenge and the nature of social change and food security following a challenge. The outcome of this work is directly applicable to debates about disaster management policy

Educating and training a workforce for nutrition in a post-2015 world.

Nearly all countries in the world today are burdened with malnutrition, manifesting as undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and/or overweight and obesity. Despite some progress, efforts to alleviate malnutrition are hampered by a shortage in number, skills, and geographic coverage, of a workforce for nutrition. Here, we report the findings of the Castel Gandolfo workshop, a convening of experts from diverse fields in March 2014 to consider how to develop the capacity of a global cadre of nutrition professionals for the post-2015 development era. Workshop participants identified several requirements for developing a workforce for nutrition, including an ability to work as part of a multisectoral team; communication, advocacy, and leadership skills to engage decision makers; and a set of technical skills to address future challenges for nutrition. Other opportunities were highlighted that could immediately contribute to capacity development, including the creation of a consortium to link global North and South universities, online training modules for middle managers, and practical, hands-on experiences for frontline nutrition workers. Institutional and organizational support is needed to enable workshop recommendations on education and training to be effectively implemented and sustained. The findings from the Castel Gandolfo workshop can contribute to the delivery of successful nutrition-relevant actions in the face of mounting external pressures and informing and attaining the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals