Understanding success and failure of anti-corruption initiatives

This paper focuses on the success and failure of anti-corruption initiatives; focusing mainly on those in developing countries. Through a review of extant evidence, it finds a very mixed picture within which there is widespread failure; albeit sometimes only partial failure. As a result, anti-corruption as a field can struggle to gain attention and resources among competing development initiatives. In reviewing that field we find that, while some progress has been made ?C for example in integrating risk assessments into programs and in learning from political economy analysis ?C there is little actual focus on the ??missing middle??: the interventions themselves and how they can be made to work better. In analyzing those interventions, we argue that projects mostly fail because of over-large ??design-reality gaps??; that is, too great a mismatch between the expectations built into their design as compared to on-the-ground realities in the context of their implementation. Successful initiatives find ways to minimize or close these gaps. Effective design and implementation processes enable gap closure and improve the likelihood of success.     

Controlling market power in the digital economy: The EU and Asian approaches

Since the turn of the millennium, digitalisation has not only radically changed economies across the world but also allowed for the rise and proliferation of digital platforms. While clearly adaptable, a perception has emerged that existing competition laws are inadequate to accommodate tech giants’ unique market positions and market power, feeding calls to not rely solely on these. The European Union (EU) has replied by adopting the Digital Markets Act (DMA), allowing for the designation of digital gatekeepers based on turnover and user numbers. In contrast, Asian countries like Korea and Japan have opted to rely on the notion of ‘superior bargaining power’ to check market power in the digital realm. While serving the same objective, the Asian approach differs by replacing the need to identify dominance as a precondition for enforcement actions. In contrast, the DMA will be applicable on an ex-ante basis but allow for concurrent policing under traditional competition law ex-post. This paper explores the matter of market power in the digital sphere and the different paths chosen to control it in Europe and Asia, focusing on the example of Korea with respect to the latter. Through a comparative study, we conclude that they are perhaps less different than initially perceived, diverging mostly in their form rather than their content or reach. However, the DMA also serves to suppress the proliferation of national legislation thwarting the European Single Market and debasing competition law. The latter could be a consequence of pressing competition laws to accommodate the special particularities of the digital economy.     

《联合国反腐败公约》预防机制透视及其启示

《联合国反腐败公约》提出,治理腐败犯罪必须建立一套科学的、可行的、综合的社会预防机制。这一机制的提出,对于健全和完善我国反腐败机制,特别是对反商业贿赂犯罪机制的建立和完善具有一定的借鉴价值。     

Reviewing international anti-corruption cooperation arrangements in China – based on the implementation review mechanism of UNCAC

Crime, Law and Social Change - The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) is the first legally binding global anti-corruption instrument, and its own review mechanism provides a...     

Drilling down to the detail: A case study into anti-corruption project records and record-keeping

This article complements one written in2001 for Crime, Law and Social Changethat underlined the importance of recordsand record-keeping in developing countriesin combating corruption and promotingparticipation. This article addresses thesame theme as the basis on which twodevelopments intended to promote moreefficient and effective anti-corruptionfunding could be assessed. These concern:the value of donors coordinating andcooperating over donor funding (byinstitution and country) and theidentification of particular expertise ofspecific donors to diversify the range ofcomplementary strengths (the comparativeadvantage approach). To do that, effectiveevaluation of past projects is necessary –and is in itself dependant on the quality,accessibility and usability of the recordsheld. The article uses the case-study ofcorruption prevention projects fundedbetween 1995–1999 by the EuropeanUnion to consider the importance of records andrecord-keeping to the evaluation processand thus to any assessment and developmentof coordinated funding and the comparativeadvantage approach.     

Emergency powers,anti-corruption,and policy failures during the COVID-19 pandemic in Puerto Rico

This paper explores how the use of emergency powers by the US and Puerto Rican governments exacerbated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and manufactured the conditions for furthering the multilayered economic, legal, political, and humanitarian crisis affecting Puerto Rico since 2006. The paper discusses three cases. First, it examines how the multiple declarations of the state of emergency, and its constant renewals, produced contradictory public health policies. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the Puerto Rican government has issued over 90 executive orders aimed at addressing the emergency, producing an unclear, contradictory, and unequal emergency management policy. Second, the paper focuses on the impact of the passing of Law 35 on April 5, 2020, which imposed severe penalties on those who disobeyed executive orders. As a result, hundreds of Puerto Ricans were arrested, fined, and incarcerated for violating the issued order. Third, the paper studies how, citing the presence of corruption, the Puerto Rican government implemented anti-corruption and anti-fraud policies that made it more difficult for those most in need of it—mainly poor and racialized individuals, as well as immigrants and working women—to access Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Thus, the paper argues that emergency policies designed to address the pandemic, punitive governance, and anti-corruption and anti-fraud policies undermined Puerto Rico's capacity to handle the pandemic, exacerbated its impact, and created an unequal recovery scenario.     

The People and Populism

“What is and what is defined as populism?” In response to this question the best political theories and philosophies have put forward many different answers, that are taken into account in this article. The article affirms the constitutive ambiguity of the concept of “populism” and its ability to unify very different issues. After analyzing some of the implications that populism entails in practice (in particular the political use of fear and the emphasis on the role of the citizens' anxieties because of migratory flows, the spiral of fear and insecurity triggered by terrorism, the role of religions as symbolic repertoires), the article stresses the link between populism and the end of the logic of the principle of representation, specific of the liberal and democratic theories. The emphasis on the role of the “people” in opposition to the political elites is also a feature of populism, analyzed by the author in this article. In conclusion, the author focuses on the legal field: some of the contemporary constitutional theories, in particular the so‐called “popular constitutionalism”, are discussed. These theories, while polemicizing with those authors who overestimate the role of the Supreme Court, reassess the function of the average citizen in the life of constitutional culture, with the intent of favouring greater political participation and strengthening democratic life.     

以人为本与法律发展——中国法学会法理学研究会2007年年会综述

2007年4月6日至8日,中国法学会法理学研究会年会在武汉大学法学院隆重举行。来自全国各高等院校、研究机构、司法实务部门及相关政府部门的近三百位专家、学者出席了大会。与会代表围绕“以人     

Internet mediated crimes and theoretical approaches

Purpose: in the literature, the term ‘Internet crime’ has been coined to indicate the scenario in which a victim of homicide or other crimes is met through a chat room, and lured to death at the hands of the murderer. Various criticisms have been made of this new concept, on the grounds that the outcome is no different from that of other crimes committed without the use of Web resources, and so the method used has no particular influence. Indeed, it has been claimed that informatic crime just reflects a technological change in the nature of crime rather than a new form of criminal behavior attributable to the use of the Internet for criminal purposes. Method: our reflections were prompted by our experience as expert forensic psychiatry witnesses in three cases in which the aggressors had confessed to having had an exclusively virtual relationship with the victims, in which they spent a lot of time daily in a chat room. Conclusion: this scenario offers points for reflection on the nature of Web-mediated victim–aggressor interactions, to assess the effects on the planning and commission of the crime. Discussion. it’s our opinion that there really is such a thing as Internet-correlated crime, because in this case the quality and quantity of the Internet interactions progressively altered the men’s perception of the real relationship between themself and their victims.     

Evolutionary and radical approaches to economic reform

At the end of 1989, most economists agreed that the optimal approach to socialist economic reform involved immediate destruction of old institutions and rapid conversion to capitalist arrangements. This approach is called the radical one. The evolutionary approach has always offered an alternative program of reform. The paper discusses the recent breakdown in the radical consensus and provides a general overview of the evolutionary approach. Two conceptually distinct sets of evolutionary theories are examined-evolutionary economics and conservative political philosophy. Drawing upon these existing theories, the paper builds the rudiments of a single philosophy of evolutionary reform. The evolutionary and radical schemes are then compared. Their different implications for the speed of reform, the use of the old institutions, the magnitude of single elements of reform, and the use of theory are highlighted.     

关注民生 努力实践法律援助为民办实事

从2007年开始，湖北省委、省政府连续三年把法律援助列入为民办实事项目，这一连续性的工作举措为全国首创，取得了良好的法律效果和社会效果。三年来，全省法律援助机构共为55．8万多人提供了各种形式的法律援助，办理各类法律援助诉讼案件近5万件，平均每年递增36％，其中，2009年的办案数量比实事项目实施前的2006年增长了142％；办理其他法律援助事项43．86万件，为群众避免或挽回经济损失4．9亿多元，其中，为农民工追偿被拖欠工资和工伤事故赔偿2．9亿元。     

主权在民:源流与反思

主权在民原则系宪法之首要原则。主权在民原则经历了由国家主权、政治主权、议会主权到人民主权的发展过程。主权在民原则既是近代宪法的逻辑起点,又指导着宪法具体制度的建立。主权在民原则在历史上发挥了巨大的作用,但也应当厘清、识别和深刻反思主权在民在宪政成长过程中的作用与局限。     

“以人为本”与公安工作

“以人为本”思想有古老的渊源，并对人类历史产生了重要的影响。它在现代的提出，与人类历史进入现代史紧密相联。作为一种思想观念，它为现代历史提供思想基础和导向，作为一种制度，它为现代历史的展开提供方式和途径。当代中国的“以人为本”思想作为指导思想的核心内容，既体现了我们对历史发展趋势的理论自觉，也确立了我国明确建设“和谐社会”的目标，由此规定了公安工作的具体方位，它因此给公安工作提供的关键性的思路和方略在于，着重从制度性建设的维度来推动公安工作的现实展开。     

人民调解与群众工作初论

前言2011年1月1日,《人民调解法》正式实施,标志着人民调解工作从此步入法制化、规范化的发展轨道。笔者认为：发展是第一要务,稳定是第一责任,人民调解是第一防线。人民调解工作是群众工作的重要组成部分,是正确处理新时期人民内部矛盾的重要方法，