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81. EU law in the time of COVID-19

Author:
David Edward, Robert Lane, and Leandro Macano
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Policy Centre (EPC)
Abstract:
The COVID-19 emergency has caused unprecedented legal challenges to the EU institutions and the member states across a wide spectrum of areas. The measures put in place to coordinate the immediate cross-border response to the outbreak are unlikely to lead to contentious legal problems. However, the Council, and especially the Commission, being also able to react to measures taken by member states, companies or firms, could prove to be potentially more intrusive. This paper deals with the powers governing the EU’s public health response to the COVID-19 outbreak and analyses the legal implications of actions taken by member states, companies and firms to mitigate the economic fallout of the lockdown and restrictions put in place to stop the spread of the virus.
Topic:
Law, European Union, Crisis Management, Institutions, Public Health, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Europe

82. Doing business the right way: Pushing for green and social corporate governance

Author:
Sofia López Piqueres
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
European Policy Centre (EPC)
Abstract:
Reforms to corporate governance and EU company law could support the Union’s recovery efforts and promote a sustainable economy at the same time. This Policy Brief assesses two instruments in the EU corporate governance toolbox: the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD), which requires large companies to disclose information about how they are run and how their activities impact the environment and human rights, and the Shareholder Rights Directive II (SRDII), which aims to strengthen the position of shareholders and reduce short-termism and excessive risk-taking by companies. It also covers the principle of shareholder primacy – the idea that shareholder interests should take precedence over all else – and executive remuneration.
Topic:
Governance, Law, Reform, European Union, Business, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
Europe

83. The World Health Organization: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Transnational Law

Author:
Carla Piffer and Paulo Márcio Cruz
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Liberty and International Affairs
Institution:
Institute for Research and European Studies (IRES)
Abstract:
The reflections made in this writing, bring to discussion the importance of transnational law, in the face of the occurrence of the current pandemic. From this, considerations are made about the transnational law produced by the WHO against Covid-19. Also, an analysis is made of the central categories and their relationship with the prefix ‘trans-’ and transnational law. Subsequently, the WHO is discussed, its emergence and performance in the elaboration of a transnational legal framework to be considered when internalizing its guidelines by each Member State. In the context of final considerations, it is emphasized, in addition to the importance that should be attributed to transnational law that the work of the WHO, as a transnational actor, practices materialized acts such as transnational law, both in terms of guidance and in connection with public health matters. The methodology used was based on the inductive method, using the bibliographic research.
Topic:
World Health Organization, Law, Transnational Actors, Coronavirus, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Brazil and Global Focus

84. Curbing deception - A world survey of legal restrictions of so-called ‘conversion therapies’

Author:
Lucas Ramón Mendos
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
ILGA World (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association)
Abstract:
‘Conversion therapy’ is a term describing pseudo-scientific and harmful practices used to attempt altering a person’s gender expression, gender identity or sexual orientation. In 2020, ILGA World has released a ground-breaking report on the issue: Curbing Deception is an extensive global research into laws banning ‘conversion therapies’ both at the national and subnational level. The report explores the vast field of techniques used for the purpose of attempting to alter lesbians, gays and bisexuals’ sexual orientation, to prevent trans youth from transitioning or make trans people de-transition, or to force our gender expressions and roles to align with the social binary stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. It also analyses strategies beyond legal reform to restrict these harmful practices worldwide. Experimentation and abuse have long taken place under the legitimising cloak of medicine, psychology and science. As the report details, gruesome practices – including electroshock ‘therapies’, forced internments in ‘clinics’ and exorcisms – are still applied in numerous countries, pushing people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions to living self-loathing lives, up to the extreme consequences of committing suicide. Protection from similar ineffective and cruel treatment is as urgent as ever: our report also exposes how - thanks to the tireless advocacy of activists, survivors and grassroots organisations – States, health professionals and international human rights bodies across the world are speaking up against so-called ‘conversion therapies’.
Topic:
Human Rights, Law, Reform, Regulation, LGBT+, Protection, and Conversion Therapy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

85. Trans Legal Mapping Report: Recognition before the law (2019)

Author:
Zhan Chiam, Sandra Duffy, Matilda González Gil, and Lara Goodwin
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
ILGA World (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association)
Abstract:
The Trans Legal Mapping Report is a research project by ILGA World, detailing the impact of laws and policies on trans persons across the globe. Its latest edition, released in September 2020, covers the legal situation in 143 UN member States: it highlights provisions which set out how trans and gender-diverse people can change their sex/gender marker and names on official identity documents (legal gender recognition), but also collects information on laws criminalising trans identities, both explicitly and de facto – looking at the situation for our communities in every region of the world. All too often, processes for gender marker and name change include requirements that are blatant human rights violations: this report outlines them clearly, but also shows progressive examples from across the world. Compiling information both through desk-based research and the lived realities of trans activists across the world, the ILGA World Trans Legal Mapping Report is a fundamental tool that advocates can use to engage with their national governments and bring about change.
Topic:
Human Rights, Law, LGBT+, and Transgender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

86. State-Sponsored Homophobia (2020): Global Legislation Overview Update

Author:
Lucas Ramón Mendos, Kellyn Botha, Rafael Carrano Lelis, Enrique López de la Peña, Ilia Savelev, and Daron Tan
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
ILGA World (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association)
Abstract:
Every year, ILGA World publishes its State-Sponsored Homophobia report, a world survey of sexual orientation laws. Since its first edition, back in 2006, ILGA World’s State-Sponsored Homophobia has been a fundamental resource for those interested in accessing the core information on legislation affecting people on the basis of their sexual orientation. Not only human rights defenders, but also civil society organisations, governmental and United Nations agencies, allies and media worldwide value the publication as one of the main sources of information on the issue. The publication is accompanied by a series of maps and charts illustrating where criminalisation, protection and recognition laws exist.
Topic:
Human Rights, Law, LGBT+, and Homophobia
Political Geography:
Global Focus

87. International and Regional Laws and Instruments Related to Gender Equality and the Security and Justice Sector

Author:
Nenad Galic and Megan Bastick
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
This Annex is part of the DCAF, OSCE/ODIHR, UN Women Gender and Security Toolkit. It compiles regional and international laws and policies related to gender and the security and justice sectors and is meant to accompany Tools and Policy Briefs found in the Toolkit.
Topic:
Security, Gender Issues, International Cooperation, Regional Cooperation, Law, Justice, and Equality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

88. Tailor-made laws in the Western Balkans

Author:
Gjergji Vurmo
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:
This CEPS Policy Insight takes a lively rhetorical approach to showing how state capture in the Western Balkans has been ignored since the launch of the region’s EU accession process, despite the many examples highlighted by civil society and independent media. It argues that while the EU first acknowledged the clear signs of state capture in an official document in 2016, Western Balkan political elites had already built powerful networks of corrupt interests around them. Not only that, they had already reached the highest point of state capture – tailor-made laws.
Topic:
Corruption, Law, European Union, and State Capture
Political Geography:
Europe and Balkans

89. ‘Legal Identity for All’ and Statelessness Opportunity and Threat at the Junction of Public and Private International Law

Author:
Bronwen Manby
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
This article considers the impact of Target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals (‘SDGs’), ‘to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration’ on the objective of eradicating statelessness. This SDG Target has given a significant boost to initiatives for the strengthening of civil registration and identification systems, supported by the United Nations and World Bank. Yet its impact on the resolution of statelessness is not clear, because of the immense complexity of the definition of ‘legal identity’. Proposed definitions, adopted after the target was established, fail to take on board the challenges involved in cross-border recognition of civil status documents and the determination of nationality of a child for parents who hold no documents. The article concludes that SDG Target 16.9 is both an opportunity and a threat. If the objective of providing universal ‘legal identity’ is to have a positive impact for stateless persons there is a need for new engagement with the regulation of civil status in private international law, and new insistence in public international law on legal frameworks that facilitate recognition and registration of the different elements of a person’s identity, including nationality, even and especially where they are officially in doubt. Short cuts in this process risk long delays.
Topic:
International Law, Law, Identity, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

90. Nomads and the Struggle for a Legal Identity

Author:
Heather Alexander
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Over the past century, governments around the world have greatly expanded civil registration and the issuance of identity documents of all kinds. The process of identifying and registering individuals is sometimes called establishing their ‘legal identity’.1 Establishing a legal identity is crucial for people to access many rights.2It is also a basic prerequisite for establishing a nationality. A legal identity is also important for governments to surveil their populations. Yet, as more research is done on the legal identity of nomadic and mobile peoples,3 it is emerging that establishing a legal identity is not easy for them, nor is it a panacea that automatically helps them access their rights. Instead, it can lead to their assimilation.4 This comment summarises my recent research into the establishment of legal identity for nomadic and mobile peoples, uncovering important and disturbing new insights into this fraught process.
Topic:
Law, Identity, Nomad, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

91. Symposium Introduction Identifying a Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue between Statelessness and Slavery

Author:
Alice Eckstein
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Researchers working on slavery or statelessness will know there are overlaps in condition and population between stateless persons and those living in conditions of slavery, as well as common problems in carrying forth work focused on these communities. These overlaps are easy enough to identify, and the dangers presented by one status to fall into the other are similarly apparent. A stateless person is likely to experience restricted access to financial services, education, healthcare and legal services, as well as limitations on regular movement across borders. These restrictions create vulnerability to exploitative labour practices, including slavery. Those people who are living in slavery, or who have exited slavery, may have moved across borders or lost documentation as part of their exploitation. They risk their ‘citizen’ identity and the state’s protections, and may thus be exposed to the risk of becoming stateless. Listing similarities and common or overlapping risk factors aside, what knowledge and practices can be shared among scholars working on these two separate violations of human rights? Where and how can researchers identify similar challenges and resources, as well as collaborate on a common research agenda? This symposium brings together researchers and scholars working in various ways on responses to slavery to offer their perspectives on challenges and paths forward that may resonate with those engaged in understanding statelessness. These range from the challenge of effective measurement, to tracking legislation, to the activation of local communities and the lived experiences of survivors. Working as Programme Manager on Modern Slavery, I hoped in coordinating this symposium to identify areas where slavery researchers can consider their own work and present it here to the statelessness research community. I was fortunate in engaging contributors who have richly engaged with these questions.
Topic:
Health, Law, Slavery, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

92. Will India’s Proposed Data Protection Law Protect Privacy and Promote Growth?

Author:
Anirudh Burman
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
How should a legal framework for data protection balance the imperatives of protecting privacy and ensuring innovation and productivity growth? This paper examines the proposed data protection legislation in India from the perspective of whether it maintains this balance. In December 2019, the government introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, in parliament, which would create the first cross-sectoral legal framework for data protection in India.1 This paper argues that the bill does not correctly address privacy-related harms in the data economy in India. Instead, the bill proposes a preventive framework that oversupplies government intervention and strengthens the state. This could lead to a significant increase in compliance costs for businesses across the economy and to a troubling dilution of privacy vis-à-vis the state. The paper argues that while the protection of privacy is an important objective, privacy also serves as a means to protecting other ends, such as free speech and sexual autonomy. A framework for protecting personal data has to be designed on a more precise understanding of the role of privacy in society and of the harms that emanate from violations of individual privacy.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Law, Privacy, and Data
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

93. A Syrian Perspective on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon: What Lessons to Be Learnt?

Author:
Mansour Omari
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
Along with the Lebanese, many Syrians were also closely watching the verdict of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. This is due in part to suspicions that the Syrian regime may have been involved in Hariri’s assassination but also because of the growing interest of many Syrians in international options for justice for the grave violations committed in Syria since 2011. This paper examines the lessons that Syrians can learn from the STL’s experience in their goal to hold those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity accountable.
Topic:
Genocide, Law, Judiciary, Humanitarian Crisis, and Tribunal
Political Geography:
Middle East and Lebanon

94. The Political and Legal Landscape of the Alaska Phenomenon

Author:
Ye. Zinkov
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
East View Information Services
Abstract:
ThE PROBLEM of the acquisition and sale of Alaska, and to whom it belongs, excites the minds of researchers to this day. There are supposi- tions that once the first Russians had traversed Siberia, they settled in Alaska during the second half of the 16th century.1 The next period, in which Alaska gets mentioned by Russian people, dates to 1648, in connection with the names of the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev and his associate Fedot Popov, who circumvented the Asian continent, then passed from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean basin.2 Later on, an official expedition was organized; its commander, Vitus Bering, announced in 1728 his discovery that Asia and America did not have a land bridge between them.3 The first legal documentation of Alaska’s coastline took place on August 21, 1732, when the crew of the St. Gabriel, under the leadership of surveyor Mikhail Gvozdev and navigator Ivan Fyodorov (or K. Moshkov, according to other sources), recorded its contours without going ashore. From this date began the jurisdictional affiliation of Alaska with the Russian Empire. however, the territory for a long time contin- ued to be developed on the basis of civil law. The bureaucrats of the Russian Empire did not duly administer the land in Alaska. This situation contributed to the consolidation of legal relations within civil society on the territory along the lines of the Novgorod Republic.
Topic:
International Law, Law, Land, and Jurisdiction
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, North America, Alaska, and United States of America

95. The first and last word in debates: Plaintive plaintiffs

Author:
Elena D'Agostino and Daniel J. Seidmann
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP)
Abstract:
Is it better to have the first or the last word in two-round debates like common law trials? If litigants always share available witnesses then they never prefer to present first (to lead), and may prefer to follow; and they never prefer to choose the order after observing the available witnesses than to always follow. Litigants can prefer to lead if they have different available witnesses because the outcomes when some litigant leads coincide with the outcomes in an alternative game where that litigant follows, but commits to its reaction function before observing its available witnesses. Leading is therefore a commitment device.
Topic:
Law, Criminal Justice, and Legal Sector
Political Geography:
Global Focus

96. A New Type of Threat: Russia, China and Digital Authoritarianism in West Africa

Author:
Gabriel Delsol and Claire M. Metelits
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
For several decades, US security policy in West Africa focused on transnational terrorist organizations, domestic armed groups, and the general spread of instability. This article argues that an increase in digital authoritarianism in West Africa, facilitated by Russia and China, is an emerging threat and necessitates increased attention by the US security community.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Governance, Law, Authoritarianism, and Cybersecurity
Political Geography:
Africa, Russia, China, and West Africa

97. Domein Verklaring: Colonial Legal Legacies and Community Access to Land in Indonesia

Author:
Jeffrey Neilson
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
In 1870, the Dutch colonial government established the principle of domein verklaring (free state domain) in its East Indies colony when it enacted agrarian laws to promote private investment. The now-independent Indonesian nation is still trying to resolve the principle’s implications for community access to land, which threaten the long-term sustainability of livelihoods across the country. Further legal recognition of pre-existing customary rights over land is required to prevent exacerbating the marginalization of rural community interests.
Topic:
Agriculture, Civil Society, History, Law, Colonialism, and Land
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Asia, and Southeast Asia

98. High Expectations: Chile’s Path Toward a New Constitution

Author:
Miguel Ángel Martínez-Meucci
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
In Chile, the ongoing constituent process presents a great opportunity, but it also embodies great challenges. Chile’s future will depend on the capacity of the constituent body to reach broad consensus and produce a balanced text that is capable of innovating while preserving the best of what already exists.
Topic:
Civil Society, Governance, Law, and Constitution
Political Geography:
South America, Latin America, and Chile

99. How to Design a Co-benefit Framework Between Air Quality Improvement and Climate Policy: The Case of South Korea

Author:
Tae Yong Jung
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
The South Korea case study indicates the co-benefits of air quality and climate change policy, by designing relevant legal and institutional frameworks in a more comprehensive and holistic way.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Science and Technology, Law, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
Asia and South Korea

100. The Lungs of the Earth: Shifting a Metaphor from Superstition to Science

Author:
Aria Ritz Finkelstein and Porter Hoagland
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
Poor metaphors can muddy the nature of environmental policy problems, but good ones can help policymakers begin to understand how to solve them. Using language carefully is critical to crafting effective international agreements to encourage the sustainable conservation of the marine environment in areas beyond national jurisdictions.
Topic:
Environment, Science and Technology, Governance, Law, Multilateralism, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
Global Focus