Authoritarian Legality in Asia


Book Description

Provides an intra-Asia comparative perspective of authoritarian legality, with a focus on formation, development, transition and post-transition stages.




How to Rig an Election


Book Description

An engrossing analysis of the pseudo-democratic methods employed by despots around the world to retain control Contrary to what is commonly believed, authoritarian leaders who agree to hold elections are generally able to remain in power longer than autocrats who refuse to allow the populace to vote. In this engaging and provocative book, Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas expose the limitations of national elections as a means of promoting democratization, and reveal the six essential strategies that dictators use to undermine the electoral process in order to guarantee victory for themselves. Based on their firsthand experiences as election watchers and their hundreds of interviews with presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, election officials, and conspirators, Cheeseman and Klaas document instances of election rigging from Argentina to Zimbabwe, including notable examples from Brazil, India, Nigeria, Russia, and the United States—touching on the 2016 election. This eye-opening study offers a sobering overview of corrupted professional politics, while providing fertile intellectual ground for the development of new solutions for protecting democracy from authoritarian subversion.




How to Save a Constitutional Democracy


Book Description

Democracies are in danger. Around the world, a rising wave of populist leaders threatens to erode the core structures of democratic self-rule. In the United States, the tenure of Donald Trump has seemed decisive turning point for many. What kind of president intimidates jurors, calls the news media the “enemy of the American people,” and seeks foreign assistance investigating domestic political rivals? Whatever one thinks of President Trump, many think the Constitution will safeguard us from lasting damage. But is that assumption justified? How to Save a Constitutional Democracy mounts an urgent argument that we can no longer afford to be complacent. Drawing on a rich array of other countries’ experiences with democratic backsliding, Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Z. Huq show how constitutional rules can both hinder and hasten the decline of democratic institutions. The checks and balances of the federal government, a robust civil society and media, and individual rights—such as those enshrined in the First Amendment—often fail as bulwarks against democratic decline. The sobering reality for the United States, Ginsburg and Huq contend, is that the Constitution’s design makes democratic erosion more, not less, likely. Its structural rigidity has had unforeseen consequence—leaving the presidency weakly regulated and empowering the Supreme Court conjure up doctrines that ultimately facilitate rather than inhibit rights violations. Even the bright spots in the Constitution—the First Amendment, for example—may have perverse consequences in the hands of a deft communicator who can degrade the public sphere by wielding hateful language banned in many other democracies. We—and the rest of the world—can do better. The authors conclude by laying out practical steps for how laws and constitutional design can play a more positive role in managing the risk of democratic decline.




Cartels, Competition and Public Procurement


Book Description

ÔThis volume is long overdue. Integrated legal and economic analysis of competition law is crucial given the nature of the sector. However to carry this off successfully, one either needs intensive editorial work to bring different teams together; or one has to rely on the few who master both economic and legal analysis to a tee. Stefan WeishaarÕs analysis not only looks at a stubborn issue in competition law. He does so in three jurisdictions, in detailed yet clear fashion, with clear insight and ditto conclusions. Over and above its relevance to academic analysis, this book can go straight into competition authoritiesÕ decision making, and therefore also in compliance and remediation advice.Õ Ð Geert Van Calster, University of Leuven, Belgium Cartels, Competition and Public Procurement uses a law and economics approach to analyse whether competition and public procurement laws in Europe and Asia deal effectively with bid rigging conspiracies. Stefan Weishaar explores the ways in which economic theory can be used to mitigate the adverse effects of bid rigging cartels. The study sheds light on one of the vital issues for achieving cost-effective public procurement Ð which is itself a critical question in the context of the global financial crisis. The book comprehensively examines whether different laws deal effectively with bid rigging and the ways in which economic theory can be used to mitigate the adverse effects of such cartels. The employed industrial economics and auction theory highlights shortcomings of the law in all three jurisdictions Ð the European Union, China and Japan Ð and seeks to raise the awareness of policymakers as to when extra precautionary measures against bid rigging conspiracies should be taken. Students and researchers who have a keen interest in the relationship between law and economics, competition law and public procurement law will find this topical book invaluable. Practitioners can see how economic theory can be used to identify situations that lend themselves to bid rigging and policymakers will be informed about the shortcomings of existing legislation from a legal and economics perspective and will be inspired by approaches taken in different jurisdictions.




The Rule of Law in Monetary Affairs


Book Description

Addresses central monetary law and policy debates, especially the links between international investment law and trade regulation within the WTO.




Colombian Constitutional Law


Book Description

This book provides in English the case law of the Colombian Constitutional Court, which has become one of the most creative and important courts of the global south and the world since its creation in 1991. It offers concise and carefully chosen extracts of the Court's most important cases, along with notes and introductory materials to place them in historical and comparative context. The book covers the Court's landmark rights jurisprudence, including the decriminalization of drug possession, the legalization of same-sex marriage, the protection of social rights through broad structural orders such as the ones covering internally displaced persons and the right to health. It also covers the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples to cultural autonomy and to be consulted before economic projects are undertaken on their land, and the rights of victims of the country's long-running internal armed conflict to truth, justice, and reparations. Also provided are the Court's most noteworthy structural cases, particularly its successful attempt to limit the use of states of exception and its substitution of the constitution doctrine, which allows it to strike down amendments that replace rather than amending core principles of the existing constitutional order. The materials focus on the Court's contributions in a comparative perspective, showing how they are exemplary of a range of problems faced by courts around the world and particularly as an example of aggressive judicial review by the courts of the global south. At the same time, they demonstrate how many of the Court's key cases - such as the judicial review of the peace process with guerrilla groups or the striking down of an amendment to allow a popular president to seek a third term - are reactions to the historical features of the Colombian legal and social landscape.




The Rule of Law in Japan


Book Description

Practitioners who deal with Japanese law have put great store by earlier editions of this major work, which systematically compares United States (US) law and Japanese law across all the major fields of legal practice. This fourth revised edition updates the work with the continuing dramatic changes in Japan’s legal system, including changes in criminal trials, disclosures to defense counsel of evidence to be used by the prosecution, the increasing use of recordings of interrogation sessions, and the impact of the indigenous movement for judicial reform. All chapters have been updated. In the fourth revised edition, which follows the same comparative structure as formerly, author Carl Goodman ̄ an internationally known authority with extensive experience in international practice, university teaching in both Japan and the US, and US government service — takes expert stock of new developments, including the following: • the Cabinet’s Declaration reinterpreting the Renunciation of War Clause in the Constitution and legislation following such reinterpretation; • interpretation of new rules for international jurisdiction of Japanese courts, including the new law’s effect on mirror image lawsuits filed in Japan; • the Supreme Court’s rulings dealing with the presumption of paternity, the waiting period for remarriage after divorce, and inheritance rights of “out of wedlock children”; • international and domestic Japanese child custody; • unanticipated consequences of criminal trials before the new mixed lay/professional panels; • debate concerning the Emperor’s announcement of his desired abdication; and • an update of Japan’s experiment with new graduate legal faculties. Although the alteration of the legal landscape in Japan is highly visible, the author does not hesitate to raise questions as to how far-reaching the changes really are. In almost every branch of the new Japanese legal practice he uncovers ways in which laws and judicial rulings are closely qualified and are likely to present challenges in any given case. He reminds the reader in each chapter that “what you see may not be what you get”. For this reason, and for its comprehensive coverage, this new edition is sure to gain new adherents as the best-informed practical guide for non-Japanese lawyers with dealings in Japan.




Is Administrative Law Unlawful?


Book Description

“Hamburger argues persuasively that America has overlaid its constitutional system with a form of governance that is both alien and dangerous.” —Law and Politics Book Review While the federal government traditionally could constrain liberty only through acts of Congress and the courts, the executive branch has increasingly come to control Americans through its own administrative rules and adjudication, thus raising disturbing questions about the effect of this sort of state power on American government and society. With Is Administrative Law Unlawful?, Philip Hamburger answers this question in the affirmative, offering a revisionist account of administrative law. Rather than accepting it as a novel power necessitated by modern society, he locates its origins in the medieval and early modern English tradition of royal prerogative. Then he traces resistance to administrative law from the Middle Ages to the present. Medieval parliaments periodically tried to confine the Crown to governing through regular law, but the most effective response was the seventeenth-century development of English constitutional law, which concluded that the government could rule only through the law of the land and the courts, not through administrative edicts. Although the US Constitution pursued this conclusion even more vigorously, administrative power reemerged in the Progressive and New Deal Eras. Since then, Hamburger argues, administrative law has returned American government and society to precisely the sort of consolidated or absolute power that the US Constitution—and constitutions in general—were designed to prevent. With a clear yet many-layered argument that draws on history, law, and legal thought, Is Administrative Law Unlawful? reveals administrative law to be not a benign, natural outgrowth of contemporary government but a pernicious—and profoundly unlawful—return to dangerous pre-constitutional absolutism.




Is Inequality in America Irreversible?


Book Description

We are living in a time of extreme inequality: America’s three richest people now own as much wealth as the bottom half of the population. Although most accept that this is grotesque, many politicians accept it as irreversible. In this book, leading US researcher and activist Chuck Collins succinctly diagnoses the drivers of rampant inequality, arguing that such disparities have their roots in 40 years of the powerful rigging the system in their favor. He proposes a far-reaching policy agenda, analyzes the barriers to progress, and shows how transformative local campaigns can become a national movement for change. This book is a powerful analysis of how the plutocracy sold us a toxic lie, and what we can do to reverse inequality.




The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication


Book Description

"This is the best all-around media law text for undergraduate and graduate students alike. The clear, nonthreatening writing style of the authors, by itself, sets this book apart. And yet, it does so by not leaving out any important areas of inquiry. That’s why my colleagues and I continue to adopt this for all of our media law classes." —Jonathan Kotler, University of Southern California In The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication, authors Susan Dente Ross, Amy Reynolds, and Robert Trager present a lively, up-to-date, and comprehensive introduction to media law that brings the law to life for future professional communicators. The book is grounded in the traditions and rules of law but also contains fresh facts and relevant examples that keep readers engaged. Tightly focused breakout boxes highlight contemporary examples of the law in action or emphasize central points of law as well as intersections with international law and policy. The thoroughly updated Seventh Edition contains a wealth of new content that is as timely as possible—from the U.S. Supreme Court, federal and state courts, Congress, executive agencies, federal and state policymakers and advisory groups, and media organizations and allies. A refreshed look, feel, and flow of chapters provide readers an understanding of fast-expanding areas of the law and legal complexities.