The Relational Dynamics of World Bank Survey Missions

This article demonstrates that World Bank internal learning has led to significant changes in how the organization interacts with government officials through survey missions. Reviewing evidence of institutional learning and associated changes in practice and focusing on the relational modes being manifest in technical assistance, the article identifies three main phases of World Bank survey missions: general survey missions (1940s–1960s), country assistance strategies (1990s–2000s), and country partnership frameworks (2010s). Overall, World Bank reviews have repeatedly highlighted the importance of non-hierarchical interactions between Bank staff and country officials. In recent years, practice has begun to catch up with these operational insights.     

中美复合战略稳定关系:建构依据、基本框架与发展趋势

中美战略稳定关系已经超越经典战略稳定性，向着复合战略稳定关系的方向演化。建构中美复合战略稳定关系是稳定两国关系的客观需要。彼此战略竞争加剧给中美之间非均势核威慑基础上的战略稳定性带来负面影响。在美国提高核力量于国家安全战略中的地位、将核武器重新作为霸权工具的背景下，中美战略稳定性面临挑战。特朗普政府对中国挑起贸易争端，经贸关系在中美关系中的“稳定器”和“压舱石”作用减弱，建构中美复合战略稳定关系的必要性凸显。中美之间经济深度相互依存，在维护国际体系稳定方面具有共同利益，这为建构中美复合战略稳定关系奠定了坚实的基础。中美复合战略稳定关系框架包括建立在非均势核威慑基础上的战略稳定性、双方经济的深度相互依存、战略互信、双方对话交流与合作机制等四根支柱，其中以非均势核威慑基础上的战略稳定性为核心支柱。虽然中美战略互信存在短板，但随着中国战略核力量的进步、中美经济相互依存的继续维持和双方对话交流与合作机制的成熟和完善，中美复合战略稳定关系将不断巩固。     

RR v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: Empowering Tribunals to Enforce the Human Rights Act 1998

In RR v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions – follow-on litigation from the high-profile bedroom tax cases – the Supreme Court handed down a judgment which has significant implications for social security law, the interpretation of the Human Rights Act, the tribunals system, the judicial control of delegated legislation, and access to justice. Central, however, was the issue of the enforceability of human rights. We argue that the Supreme Court was not only justified in its interpretation of the Human Rights Act but that it has made the protections of the Act more easily enforceable.     

Cultivating Evidence-Based Pathways for Cannabis Product Development: Implications for Consumer Protection†

Disparities between federal and state cannabis regulation, coupled with protracted federal enforcement, have facilitated the proliferation of a multi–billion dollar cannabis industry that generally evades compliance with federal consumer protection laws. The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) established regulatory pathways for the lawful development of products such as food, drugs, and dietary supplements. The FDCA uses a science-based approach to protect consumers from harmful products, but early inconsistencies between state and federal cannabis regulation prevented and/or discouraged the cannabis industry from complying with FDCA requirements. Cannabis products are promoted as safe and attributed with providing effective therapeutic treatment for numerous medical conditions, yet the claims often lack the rigorous evidence-based support typically expected by regulators and the medical community. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced its expectation that cannabidiol (CBD) products comply with the FDCA and follow a science-based approach to product development. The FDA is addressing violations involving unsubstantiated CBD health claims and is working to clarify the future regulatory pathway for CBD products. Meanwhile, the state-approved cannabis market continues to operate, selling numerous products that have circumvented the FDCA consumer protections. This article examines the need for strengthening consumer protections in the cannabis market. We use evidence-based medicine as a model to address the importance of science-based product development and to contextualize a science-based comparison of regulatory pathways for cannabis drugs, food, and dietary supplements.     

Between the ‘Bank Screw’ and ‘Affording Assistance’. Rules,Standards, and the Bank Charter Act of 1844

This article explores a dilemma at the centre of the monetary order: how to counter inflation eroding the value of money and simultaneously allow bank-created credit to meet the needs of an expanding economy. Building on recent scholarship on the history of money, the article analyses the Bank Charter Act of 1844 and the financial crisis of 1847 to reveal a response to this dilemma which continues to shape the modern context. That response relies on ex ante restrictive measures in a bid to limit the discretion of the monetary authorities and cultivate financially prudent behaviour. Yet the history of the mid-nineteenth century exposes the challenges faced by those who enforce such rules, challenges which tie the mid-nineteenth century to the post 2008 reforms in both the US and the Eurozone, and reveal the ongoing force of the dilemma: that simultaneous desire for both expansive credit and sound money.     

Laws of encryption: An emerging legal framework

This article examines the emerging legal framework of encryption. It reviews the different categories of law that make up this legal framework, namely: export control laws, substantive cybercrime laws, criminal procedure laws, human rights laws, and cybersecurity laws. These laws are analysed according to which of the three regulatory subjects or targets they specifically address: the technology of encryption, the parties to encryption, or encrypted data and communications. For each category of law, illustrative examples of international and national laws are discussed. This article argues that understanding the legal framework of encryption is essential to determining how this technology is currently regulated and how these regulations can be improved. It concludes that the legal framework is the key to discerning the present state and future direction of encryption laws and policies.     

Electronic personhood for artificial intelligence in the workplace

There are several legal and ethical problems associated with the far-reaching integration of man with Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the framework of algorithmic management. One of these problems is the question of the legal subjectivity of the parties to a contractual obligation within the framework of crowdworking, which includes the service provider, the Internet platform with AI, and the applicant's client. Crowdworking is an excellent example of a laboratory of interdependence and collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence as part of the algorithmic management process. Referring to the example of crowdworking platforms, we should ask whether, in the face of the rapid development of AI and algorithmic management, AI can be an employer equipped with electronic personhood? What characteristics does a work environment in which AI and algorithmic governance mechanisms play a dominant role? What kind of ethical implications are associated with the practical application of the concept of electronic subjectivity of AI in employment relations? This paper analyses the legal and ethical implications of electronic AI subjectivity in the work environment. The legal construction of electronic personhood is examined. The legal entity that uses AI, which manages the work process through algorithmic subordination, bears the risks resulting from such use (economic, personal, technical, and social) and full material responsibility (individual liability regime with the application of the presumption of guilt rule) in case of damage to an employee. Liability provisions can be complemented by a mandatory insurance scheme for AI users and a compensation fund that can offer support when none of the insurance policies covers the risk. A compensation fund can be paid for by the manufacturer, owner, user, or trainer of the AI and can compensate all those who suffer damage as a result of its operations. This is the direction proposed by the European Parliament, which has progressively called for robots to be given an electronic personality. The personalistic concept of work excludes the possibility of AI becoming a legal entity. Alongside legal arguments, ethical questions are of fundamental importance. The final part of the article presents the ethical implications of AI as an employer endowed with a legal entity (electronic personhood).     

The European Arrest Warrant in a context of distrust: Is the Court taking rights seriously?

During a time of distrust towards some Member States, the position of fundamental rights when executing a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) has been strengthened. The article considers whether the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is now ‘taking rights seriously’ as regards the EAW. To this end, it employs a theoretical and contextual approach that supports a comprehensive analysis of case-law. First, the article borrows from a theory of rights as trumps and observes that rights are no longer treated as norms with no special force that are in the way of cooperation interests. Second, the article offers a contextual exegesis of this trajectory, by mapping drivers of distrust and evaluating their impact on the position of rights. Through contextualisation, it is argued that distrust, although limited by its circumstances, has offered a compelling opportunity for the ECJ to take rights seriously, paving the way forward for future case-law.     

Transitional Politics of Memory: Political Strategies of Managing the Past in Post-communist Romania

Abstract

The article develops a typology of political strategies of coming to terms with the past as a theoretical frame of reference against which it assesses the transitional politics of memory pursued in Romanian post-communist society. It argues that after an initial ‘elusive’ strategy based on a politics of amnesia gave way to a confrontationist stance promoting a politics of anamnesis, the communist past was both politically criminalised and symbolically demonised. The article concludes by arguing that the failure of the ‘mastering the past’ paradigm epitomised by the 2006 Tism?neanu Report needs to give way to a ‘normalising’ paradigm of remembering Romanian communism.