Formal and informal pharmaceutical economies in Third World countries: Synergetic, symbiotic or parasitical?

Informal economy functions without any formal social control for lack of a supervisory authority. Within a regulated locality the same activities would have an illegal character, but in that deviating situation those informal activities can thrive because the authorities do not intervene. Globalization of our western mixed market economy implies that also the aspect of government control takes on a global character. The fact that formal economies settle in places where an informal market is the rule leads to a combined action which, eventually, creates new market relations. In the present contribution we study the effects of a meeting between a formal and an informal market on the basis of a concrete case. An analysis of the market of medical products in Third World countries gives an idea of the new relations that arise when an informal market of natural medicines is confronted with a formal market of western medicines. We study both the situation in which there are no regulations and the situation in which the formal market is supported by economic regulations. This text illustrates how those situations can give rise to new opportunities for one group and to exploitation for another.     

The Making of a Market Economy in China: Transformation of Government Regulation of Market Development

Abstract:  The making of a market economy in China occurred when the domestic legal system was largely underdeveloped. It is the administrative bureaucratic system that has played a leading role in the making of a market economy in China. In recent years, the Chinese Government has strived to establish a market economy based on the rule of law and has undertaken legal measures to rationalise government regulation of market economy development. However, the administrative bureaucratic system headed by the central government remains a strong party leading the market economy construction in China. This article argues that the administrative bureaucratic system and market economy development have evolved into a social institution. To transform the regulation of market economy development towards the rule of law is a social institutional change and is a slow and incremental process, as it is imbedded in the various formal and informal constraints in Chinese society.     

Costs and benefits of informal economy: shuttle trade and crime at Cherkizovsky market

According to IMF and OSCE reports, informal economic transactions in Russia and other states of the former Communist Bloc have cushioned the shocks of economic and political transition of the 1990s by quickly satisfying the consumer demand and providing unofficial jobs to the population faced with transition recession. As these analyses extensively emphasise the advantages of informal entrepreneurship and its positive contribution to stimulating economic growth, this article explores the phenomenon of shuttle trade – a system/form of informal trade outside state control that does not comply with state regulations – as an issue of concern for criminologists. This article investigates the convergence of shuttle trade and criminal activities and the relationship of shuttle trade to the formal regulatory environment. It offers insights into selected criminal activities at Cherkizovsky market in Moscow before its shutdown in 2009 and an evaluation of the policymaking decisions the shutdown triggered.     

我国当前民间借贷的特点、问题及其法律对策

我国当前民间借贷市场已经进入高级阶段,资金供需两旺,并具有迅速走红网络经济的发展趋势。然而,民间借贷相关立法滞后,市场监管缺位,司法主导突出,整个市场呈现出产生发展的内生化、投资主体的多元化、交易形式的电子化、法律规则的零散化、法律地位的尴尬化以及裁判结果依赖指导性解释等特征。民间借贷组织的主体地位问题、民间借贷合同的效力认定问题、民间借贷利率的法律管制问题、网络借贷平台的风险控制问题以及民间借贷交易的信息监测问题等日益突出,加强监管立法和监管机构主动执法,依法规范民间借贷行为,严厉打击高利贷,已成为金融生态建设中民间借贷法律规制的必然选择。     

经济法再分配功能之法哲学证成

法哲学中分配旨在实现形式正义,构成法律正义的理念。现代社会回应型法的出现使指向实质正义的再分配得以确立,当这种以变革的国家哲学为支撑的回应型法律规范逐渐增多并自成系统时,标志着对应于政府经济调节职能的理念中的经济法生成。它通过维护市场的形式平等以促进经济的效率与发展为工具性价值目标,要求政府积极作为确保应得权利的创造与之结合,旨在实现整体实质公平。     

非正式规则与法治:“中国难题”的挑战

主流观点认为,中国法治建设的最大动力和最大希望都来自对经济发展的追求,但是“中国难题”对此提出了挑战,其对非正式规则在中国经济发展中的正面意义的肯定,切断了法治发展的“社会基础论”的逻辑链条.非正式规则的流行及国家层面上的附和不仅弱化了自下而上推动法治变革的意愿,也同样阻碍了法治在“顶层设计”的突破.非正式规则虽然在一定时期内能够承担推动经济发展的功能,但是却可能造成多种法治缺陷,甚至可能使正式制度长期受到压抑,无法突破僵局.     

强化诚信意识 确保我国市场经济健康发展

现代市场经济是建立在遵守承诺的契约基础上的经济,诚信是现代市场经济的基石。我国的诚信缺失给我国的市场经济发展带来了严重的后果,因此,必须在全社会强化诚信意识,使我国的市场经济朝着健康、有序的方向发展。     

The Difference a Job Makes: Licit and Illicit Work Experiences and Aspirations at a Transitional Housing Facility for Women Leaving the Sex Industry

This investigation establishes a baseline understanding of how women exiting the sex industry understand the economic options available to them by reviewing their work experiences in the legal economy, histories of sex industry involvement, and their aspirations for legal work upon entering a yearlong residential program offered at a transitional housing facility. Specifically, it explores how prior work experience, type of sex industry involvement, and demographic characteristics such as race and age intersect with women’s legal work aspirations upon leaving the sex industry. Analysis indicates that women’s occupational choices are limited by prior experiences within the formal and informal economies and that women of color and poor women of all ethno-racial backgrounds are particularly likely to face disadvantages in both economic sectors. Findings accordingly indicate that rehabilitative settings must consider whether the career pathways they create lead to economic self-sufficiency and reduce the likelihood that women will return to life situations they express a desire to leave.     

经济法程序的“二元结构”及其非均衡性

在经济法的产生与发展过程中,程序性规范的地位不断提升,现代经济法具有强烈的程序依赖性。经济法程序规范主要由调制程序与对策程序、诉讼程序与非诉程序、正式程序与非正式程序等一系列"二元结构"组成。各种"二元结构"内部的非均衡性异常明显,各类程序在经济法上的地位、功能有别。通过对经济法程序的结构分析,可以对各类程序作出适当定位,实现程序之间的有机组合,发挥程序的整体效能。     

Morality, social norms and the rule of law as transaction cost-saving devices: the case of ancient Athens

The importance of the institutional framework for economic development is widely accepted today and it is duly stressed in the economic literature. The protection of property rights, the enforcement of contracts and an efficient legal system are the pillars of the contemporary rule of law. However, formal institutions cannot function without being internalized by the citizens and without the strong backing of social norms. Morality and social norms are the major elements of the informal institutional structure, the social capital, which is also critical for social welfare and economic development. In this paper we will discuss both the formal and the informal institutional framework of Ancient Athens, which was a free market society with economic problems similar to contemporary market societies. Athenians developed a highly sophisticated legal framework for the protection of private property, the enforcement of contracts and the efficient resolution of disputes. Such an institutional framework functioned effectively, cultivating trust and protecting the security of transactions. This entire system however was based on social norms such as reciprocity, the value of reputation and widely accepted business ethics. Conformity to social norms as well as moral behavior was fostered by social sanction mechanisms (such as stigma) and moral education. The Athenian example is a further proof of the importance of morality and social norms as transaction cost-saving devices even in quite sophisticated legal systems. Their absence or decline leads inevitably to the need for more regulation and litigation and to a growing preference for clear-cut rules instead of discretionary standards. Athenian law was pioneering in the development of rules and institutional mechanisms suitable for the reduction of transaction costs, many of them surviving in the most complex contemporary legal systems.     

Global financial governance and the informal: limits to the regulation of money

The list of predicate crimes for the Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has evolved and grown over its twenty-five year existence. The evolution of this list reflects shifting concerns among the central actors in the organisation, as well as representing a response to any ‘displacement’ activity undertaken by those seeking to avoid these forms of governance. When the scope for cooperation and compliance with the FATF Forty Recommendations was extended beyond the organisation’s membership this governance regime encountered business sectors and financial practices not readily amenable to its objectives. This paper considers the causes and consequences for the situation, as developing economy states attempt to comply with the global governance expectations of the FATF when a significant portion of the domestic economy operates ‘informally’. A frame of reference is provided, with a definition for the informal economy and the concept of displacement as used in research on criminal activity. The focus here is with the nature of the cash economy operating beyond the scope of financial surveillance with implications for the comprehensive effectiveness of the global financial governance regime. The context of informal financial practice and its separation from the regulatory structures of the state leads to a conclusion that global financial governance is limited in practice to the domain of the formal economy.     

市场信用秩序建设探究

市场经济作为以经济利益为中心的行为场,是我国向市场经济体制成功转型,实现经济与社会协调发展的关键。我国目前经济领域中的信用缺失,存在制度性和系统性的双重原因。要建立我国市场经济领域的良好信用秩序,德法兼治是最佳的路径选择。     

Hidden Enterprise and Property Rights Reform in Socialist Hungary*

The particular historical trajectories of economic reform in East European socialist systems were important causal factors in their transformation, and often account for the different paths now open to each. Taking the case of Hungary, this article argues that socialist reforms, even when justifiably assessed as ineffective attempts at improved efficiency, interacted with an expanding second economy to alter in a gradual but profound manner the state-imposed relationship between the political and economic realms. This process of incremental social and ideological change “politicized” the economy and partially “privatized” the public sector, albeit often in informal ways. The turning-point was a 1982 reform of property-rights which legalized much of the second economy and opened up newly-legitimate channels for its cooperation with the state sector. By formalizing the previously informal relationship of mutual dependence between the state and the second economy, these statutes engendered new economic and political contradictions and possibilities in the system, as the enfranchisement of previously-excluded groups led to further concessions on the part of the state. The legalization of the second economy, the public campaign to legitimize the private sector, and the creation of new private partnership forms constituted a significant difference between the legacy of Hungarian socialism and other East European varieties.     

加快完善社会主义市场经济体制的理论认知与现实路径

我国经济体制由计划经济向市场经济转变是历史的选择。社会主义市场经济具有坚持公有制为主体、多种所有制经济共同发展和按劳分配为主体、多种分配方式并存,把社会主义制度和市场经济有机结合起来,不断解放和发展社会生产力的显著优势,是中国共产党和中国人民的伟大创造。新时期,应紧紧围绕"政府和市场"关系这一核心问题,按照"市场机制有效、微观主体有活力、宏观调控有度"的要求,多措并举,加快完善社会主义市场经济体制。     

A Tale of Two Chinese Courts: Economic Development and Contract Enforcement

The way in which formal contract enforcement becomes effective is a critically important but understudied question for law and development studies. Primarily drawing on field investigations, this article compares the enforcement performance of two basic‐level courts in China, one in a more‐developed and the other in a less‐developed region. The level of economic development is found to be crucial in contributing to the courts' performance. Unlike the court users in the less developed area, those in the more developed area become more market‐oriented as the local economy diversifies, paving the way for more rigorous judgment enforcement; a developed local economy also allows the court to strengthen institutional building and staff professionalism. The comparison of the two Chinese courts provides empirical evidence with which to evaluate the relationship between formal contract enforcement and economic development.     

公共产品法律调整模式分析

公共产品经济是一个与私人产品经济不同的领域,有其独特的性质、供给机制与消费特征,市场机制不能正常发挥作用,需要国家经济权力在此进行强有力的干预,由此产生的各类经济关系需要法律的有效调整。公共产品法律调整在调整对象、价值取向、调整原则及调整方式上的特点使其在法律调整模式选择上超越民商法、行政法等而与经济法形成价值基准与方法论的对接,对公共产品进行经济法审视对经济转型时期的中国具有重要的理论与现实意义。     

The Origins of the ‘Nonmarket Economy’: Ideas,Pluralism & Power in EC Anti‐dumping Law about China

‘Market’ and ‘market economy’ exercise a powerful, even magnetic grip on our collective imagination. But what do we mean by ‘market economy’? Does it make sense to speak of a ‘nonmarket economy’, and if so, what does it mean? How are the ideas of ‘market economy’ and ‘nonmarket economy’ related? Focusing on EC anti‐dumping law, this article seeks to answer these questions. It argues that the legal concept of ‘nonmarket economy’ in EC anti‐dumping law has been socially constructed, by means of relations among a plurality of institutional and normative sites, as part of a changing configuration of legal ideas in specific historical circumstances, and in contexts of political, economic, social, and symbolic power. This argument is articulated in three parts. First, the concept of ‘nonmarket economy’ in EC anti‐dumping law, though drawing on earlier elements, had its main roots in the early Cold War. Second, starting in the 1960s, the GATT multilateral negotiating rounds began to define more specific international rules of the game, but a variety of more localised processes played essential roles as forces of change. Of special importance were, first, the tension between legislative rules and administrative discretion in the United States, and, second, the Europeanisation of foreign trade law in the course of European integration. Third, the EC law concept of ‘nonmarket economy’ was born in the late 1970s. The main reasons were changes in the international anti‐dumping law repertoire, specific ideas in Europe about comparative economic systems, and the perceived emergence of new economic threats, including exports from China.     

试论政府干预及其法律规制

作为市场经济制度的两种基本经济调节力量,自由市场与政府干预二者关系问题一直是经济学界和经济法学界争论的焦点。市场缺陷导致市场失灵,使政府干预有其合理性;政府干预并非完美无缺,也有其局限性。鉴于我国社会主义市场经济体制下的政府干预不能很好地适应市场经济发展的需要,以法为市场经济提供制度保障,保护市场免受任意的政府行为的干涉,需要规制政府干预,有效匡正政府失灵。经济法作为“干预政府之法”理所当然应做出相应的法律规制。     

经济转轨 政府定位与“新的法律秩序”

新中国成立初期,我国提出了优先发展重工业的“赶超战略”,相应地形成了高度集中的计划经济体制。由于计划经济缺乏市场经济那种优越的信息机制和强大的动力机制,使得经济系统效率低下,整个社会缺乏活力,于是在20世纪70年代末80年代初,我国发起了市场取向的改革。从计划经济体制向市场经济体制转轨的过程,其实也是政府职能转变的过程。政府能否实现从过去的无限、低效政府向有限、高效政府转变是改革能不能取得成功,“好的市场经济”能不能最终确立的关键。为此,政府要科学设计改革方案,增强自身改革的动力;尤为重要的是要积极推进“新的法律秩序”的形成。     

现代经济的社会性与经济法——关于经济法产生原因与性质的思考

计划经济也好 ,市场经济也好 ,都是一种社会化经济 ,都是建立在高度专业化分工基础之上的为他人而生产的经济。高度的专业化分工 ,产生了一系列的社会问题。经济法之所以有存在的必要 ,就是因为通过经济法 ,可以解决经济领域因社会化而产生的各种社会问题 ,或使之得到一定程度的控制和缓和。因此 ,无论是计划经济时代的经济法 ,还是市场经济时代的经济法 ,都是真正意义上的经济法。经济法存在的基础不在于市场失灵和政府失灵 ,而在于现代经济的社会化以及由于这种社会化而产生的经济社会的依赖性