Greening Industry Without Enforcement? An Assessment of the World Bank's Pollution Regulation Model for Developing Countries

The best comparative and overview source now available for knowledge about pollution regulation in developing countries is the 2000 World Bank policy research report called Greening Industry . The World Bank finds that there is a new model for pollution regulation in lower- and middle-level income countries that is an alternative to "traditional" command and control regulation. The new model stresses flexible norms and nonstate pressures on regulated enterprises coming from communities and markets. This article presents an investigation into this new model. It finds that the prevalence of weak law enforcement may undermine the new model's potential to control pollution in developing countries. It also contends that social and market pressures only occur under certain circumstances often not found in lower- and middle-level income countries. Therefore, the article concludes that developing countries require smart mixes of various regulatory instruments appropriate in the given state and nonstate regulatory capacities, instead of contrasting state and nonstate regulation.     

Consequences of Decentralization: Environmental Impact Assessment and Water Pollution Control in Indonesia

After having been one of the most centralized states in the world for more than thirty years, in 2001 Indonesia introduced a sweeping program of decentralization with important consequences for the management of the industrial sector. This article explores whether the decentralization process has led to substantial changes in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and enforcement of water pollution law. Its main findings are that the general division of authority in both fields has become less fragmented and that differences between districts have increased, but, in practice, not so much has changed as one would have expected. For EIA, "horizontal" disputes between sectoral agencies have been supplanted by "vertical" disputes between different levels of government. Monitoring and sanctioning of industrial water pollution have mainly continued within the scheme of the provincial program started under Soeharto's centralized regime, with still few initiatives at the district level. If any, such initiatives are usually driven by public complaints. On the other hand, there are indications that in the longer run the institutional changes may have more significant effects on EIA and enforcement practice. For EIA, these seem to be negative; for enforcement of water pollution regulation this depends much on the situation within a district or a province.     

清洁生产法的含义与本质辨析

清洁生产法是与狭义的、传统的污染控制法相对应的,是以确认并规范政府引导,促进甚至迫使工业企业实施清洁生产为基本目标的,以经济调节、环境信息公开、行政指导、行政合同以及行政强制等为内容的法律规范的总和,是广义污染控制法中重要的组成部分;其本质乃是基于生态规律、经济规律和社会规律的共同要求,为实现环境效益、经济效益与社会效益的和谐统一而确认和规范政府积极主动地、适当地干预经济领域,通过经济调控影响工业企业污染预防、清洁生产行为。     

论宏观调控行为的可诉性

国家宏观经济调控的正当性来源于两个方面:一是经济生活中的"市场失灵";二是宏观调控能够法治化。宏观调控法治化的最终标志,是司法可以也能够对宏观调控行为进行审理与裁判。认为宏观调控行为具有不可诉性的观点在理论上因有悖于法治的基本理念而不合时宜,在实践中则可能因应人治的需要而十分有害。虽然要实现宏观调控的可诉性在目前还存在许多障碍,但这并不能成为否认宏观调控可诉性的理由。通过对现行司法制度的改革,以建立"公益诉讼"为突破口,辅之以"法院之友"等手段,宏观调控的可诉性是可以实现的。     

Social License and Environmental Protection: Why Businesses Go Beyond Compliance

This article examines the concept of the corporate "social license," which governs the extent to which a corporation is constrained to meet societal expectations and avoid activities that societies (or influential elements within them) deem unacceptable, whether or not those expectations are embodied in law. It examines the social license empirically, as it relates to one social problem–environmental protection–and as it relates to one particular industry: pulp and paper manufacturing. It shows try the social license is important, the circumstances in which it may encourage companies to go "beyond compliance" with regulation, how its terms are monitored and enforced, and how it interacts with what we term the regulatory and economic licenses. Overall, this research demonstrates that corporate environmental behavior cannot be explained purely in terms of instrumental threats and moral obligations to comply with the law, and that the increasing incidence of "beyond compliance" corporate behavior can be better explained in terms of the interplay between social pressures and economic constraints.     

Why is regulation introduced in the health sector? A look at occupational licensure

Economic theories suggest that the introduction of regulation can be analyzed in terms of the magnitude and distribution of its economic impact. This article uses this approach to consider the introduction of licensure in the health sector for clinical laboratory personnel. At the micro level, there is no evidence of active consumer support for licensure and it seems to have been introduced mainly at the behest of members of the occupation and bureaucrats involved in the regulation of laboratories. Bureaucrats appear to have acted largely on their own initiative and are the single most important group involved in the introduction of licensure. The large role of the occupation supports a "producer protection" model of licensure over a "consumer protection" model. But the independent role of bureaucrats suggests that actors in the public sector are also a major interest group who need to be included in any model of regulation. Their motives are complex, but in the past one of the attractions of licensure seems to have been low direct administrative costs, despite large indirect costs to consumers. At the macro level, recent changes in social policy, which may reflect broad class interests, have shifted these indirect costs increasingly to the public sector through programs like Medicare. These changes in the distribution of costs may explain a growing concern by bureaucrats about the efficiency of licensure and a shift away from this type of regulation.     

Medical devices; exception from general requirements for informed consent. Final rule

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing a final regulation to confirm, with one change, the interim final rule (IFR) entitled "Medical Devices; Exception From General Requirements for Informed Consent." This final rule confirms the IFR's establishment of a new exception from the general requirements for informed consent to permit the use of investigational in vitro diagnostic devices to identify chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear agents without informed consent in certain circumstances. FDA has created this exception to help ensure that individuals who may have been exposed to a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear agent are able to benefit from the timely use of the most appropriate diagnostic devices, including those that are investigational. This final rule adds a requirement that the investigator submit the required documentation to FDA, in addition to submitting it to the reviewing Institutional Review Board (IRB).     

Theorizing waste in abortion and fetal ovarian tissue use.

This article explores the theoretical implications of the concept of waste as it specifically relates to arguments in favour of fetal ovarian tissue use as a source of donor eggs. The author begins by discussing medico-scientific constructions of women's reproductive bodies as wasteful. The article explores the works of Drucilla Cornell on bodily borders, Julia Kristeva on abjection, and Mary Douglas on pollution to develop a nuanced understanding of the relations between waste, women's reproductivity, and abortion in North American mainstream and medico-scientific cultures. This layered reading of waste and abortion deconstructs a significant assumption of arguments in favour of fetal ovarian tissue use as ethical--that such tissue is just "waste." The author suggests that theorizing waste this way may contribute to ethical analyses of uses of other reproductive materials (that is, embryos) that are supported, in part, by an assumption that those materials would otherwise be "wasted."     

论日本核污染的法律规制

从福岛核电站事故到日本政府排海方案,存在核污染风险的法律规制问题。排海方案实施行为违背多项国际环境保护义务。日本环境法规制在福岛事故前后发生变化,《放射性污染特措法》对日本国内核污染进行系统法律规制。国内法规制体系相对严格使得日本政府将核废水从国内排放转移到海洋排放。核污染风险法律预防需要突破剩余风险的限制,不能够按照达标排污即合规的常规预防思路,而应当采取特别预防,从风险的内涵定位、判断要素、禁令诉讼等多方面对其规制路径进行整体建构。     

Managing Regulatory Risks and Defining the Parameters of Blame: A Focus on the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority

Risk-based regulation is a new arrival in the lexicon of risk and regulation. Regulators in Australia, Canada, and the UK have begun developing systems and processes to assess the probability and impact of compliance failures by regulated firms, and to adjust their relationship with firms accordingly. This article explores the motivations for, and key elements of, the risk-based frameworks of one of those regulators, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). It broadens out from this case study to argue first, that risk-based regulation goes hand in hand with the technique of "meta" regulation, the regulation of the firm's own internal self regulation, and will both fuel and be fueled by any trend towards the latter. Second, it argues that risk-based frameworks are not risk-free: whilst they seek to manage risks they inevitably introduce their own. Third, risk-based regulatory frameworks have the potential both to expose and obscure key sociopolitical and socioeconomic choices as to the amount or types of regulatory failures that an agency will tolerate, and which in effect it is requiring society to tolerate. "Risk based frameworks" are attempt to define what are acceptable "failures" and what are not, and thus to define the parameters of blame.     

The Response of Business to Social Regulation in England and Wales: An Enforcement Perspective*

This paper considers business adaptation to legal regulation from an enforcement perspective. It is argued that regulatory agencies and business have a reflexive relationship in which there is a continual process of adaptation and readaptation by one party and then the other. This reflexivity and its implications are discussed with reference to socio-legal research into the regulation of occupational health and safety and environmental pollution in England and Wales.     

A Legal Conventionalist Approach to Pollution

There are no moral entitlements with respect to pollution prior to legal conventions that establish them, or so I will argue. While some moral entitlements precede legal conventions, pollution is part of a category of harms against interests that stands apart in this regard. More specifically, pollution is a problematic type of harm that creates liability only under certain conditions. Human interactions lead to harm and to the invasion of others’ space regularly, and therefore we need an account of undue harm as a basis of assigning legal protections (rights) and obligations (duties) to different agents, which creates standards for holding those agents responsible for harm. Absent such positive standards with respect to pollution at the domestic or international level, it does not make sense to hold agents responsible. This fact has two fundamental implications. First, contrary to what some defenders of environmental justice argue, we cannot hold people responsible for polluting without a system of legal rights in place that assigns entitlements, protections, and obligations, and second, contrary to what opponents of environmental regulation claim, the lack of moral entitlements to pollute creates room for quite extensive legal restrictions on people’s ability to pollute for the sake of the environment and human health. Indeed the scope of those restrictions is wide and open-ended.     

Toxic Atmospheres Air Pollution,Trade and the Politics of Regulation

Air is an essential ingredient for all living things and its properties influence the quality and longevity of life. When polluted, it is estimated that it causes the annual premature death of millions of people and the world-wide damage and destruction of wildlife and natural habitats. This article examines human-made air pollution within a framework of ‘eco-crime’ and Green Criminology. Using original data on air pollution infringements, it critically examines the shortcomings with existing mechanisms of air pollution control, regulation and enforcement in the UK. In doing so, it identifies how Criminology must continue to push new boundaries and engage with emerging harmful acts of both local and global concern.     

法律视角下我国水污染防治模式转变机制研究

面对我国水资源日渐突出的供需矛盾,2009年国家水利部提出了建设"最严格水资源管理制度"的理念,并于2011年上升到国家管理层面,形成了我国现行的以政府权威管制为主要内容的水污染防治模式。2017年《中华人民共和国水污染防治法》修订以来,我国重新调整了对水资源的监管方式,防治水污染的监管模式逐步向流域水环境统一管理、多元合作治理的模式转变。然而由于法律制度不够细化、缺乏相关配套措施等原因,合作治理模式仍有许多缺憾,需要进一步从法律层面进行规制。     

Airway obstruction by a ball.

A toddler died as the result of choking on a toy ball that occluded his upper airway. The size of this toy was within the federal safety standards for use by children under the age of three years. Though it has been recognized since 1987 that the minimum safe diameter set by the Federal Hazardous Substances Act may be too small, no change has been made to the regulation (1). In 1995 a comprehensive review of asphyxia related to the size of the foreign object found 4.44 cm diameter and 7.62 cm length a more comprehensive standard (1). Currently federal warning labels are required on some items that contain balls smaller than 4.44 cm to prevent use by children less than three years of age (2). The small parts fixture test in use by the federal government is available as a safety tool for parents to use at home. Unfortunately the "safe" diameter of 3.17 cm is too small to provide assurance that a toy is not a choking hazard.     

The Effectiveness of Insider Trading Regulation in Italy. Evidence from Stock-Price Run-Ups Around Announcements of Corporate Control Transactions

All developed countries and most emerging countries restrict insider trading in the belief that it may undermine investors' confidence and the integrity of financial markets.Such regulation, however, has proved to be relatively ineffective almost everywhere, as shown by the records on convictions in the last few decades and by the pervasiveness of insider trading signalled by stock-price run-ups around announcements of private information.Identifying illegal insider transactions may be difficult: the private information must be material, i.e. price-sensitive, and in some countries prosecutors have to prove the use of such information by corporate insiders. Moreover, the investigative powers of the enforcing Authority may be weak and the deterrence of criminal sanctions may be diminished by lengthy proceedings, especially when alternatives, such as administrative fines and civil actions, do not exist.To date, the Italian legal system has experienced great difficulty in detecting and punishing illegal insider trading. Since they were first enacted in 1991, the insider trading rules have led to two convictions and to a very low ratio of prosecutions to allegations of illegal trading. Moreover, leakage of private information appears to be widespread, given that news about firm-specific events seems to be incorporated in stock prices long before it is disclosed in public announcements.This paper examines the effectiveness of Italian insider trading legislation by focusing, among other things, on the stock-price run-up around announcements of corporate events. In particular, after a brief survey of earlier research on legal and illegal insider trading and on the most important weaknesses in the Italian legal framework, standard event-study methodology is used to analyse stock-price run-ups around 29 announcements of corporate control transactions in the period 1998–2000. Indicators of the leakage of non-public material information are then constructed, showing that securities prices follow similar patterns regardless of whether insider trading is likely to have occurred. This evidence raises questions as to the efficacy of Italian insider trading regulation and the paper concludes with some suggestions as to how it could be improved.     

《环境污染强制责任保险管理办法(草案)》除外责任之探讨

除外责任具体内容的设计应考虑公益和私益的平衡,确保其在及时、有效分散与移转风险,削减社会管理成本的同时兼顾承保人、投保人、受害人三方的私益.《环境污染强制责任保险管理办法(草案)》中将"不可抗拒的自然灾害""环境污染犯罪"的除外责任限定于"致使第三者遭受的损害"不妥,保险公司不应为生态环境损害承担保险责任;将"环境污染...     

宏观调控法若干基本范畴的法理分析

宏观调控是国家权力与市场运行规则契合的重要表现形式,是当代市场经济最突出的一个特点。宏观调控的法治化是历史发展的必然趋势;宏观调控法的基本范畴是宏观调控法治化的理论基础。本文选取了宏观调控法的内涵、本质特征、立法价值和立法基本原则几个基本范畴,在承继学界研究成果的同时,对一些基本的理论问题以及人们观念上的一些误解和偏差,进行了法理分析,提出了“宏观调控法治化”和“宏观调控法理论‘法治化’”的主张,并对其实现途径作了一些探讨。     

第三人过错不应作为环境污染民事责任的抗辩事由

本文分析了第三人过错是过错责任侵权案件的抗辩事由,全面梳理了第三人过错在我国环境立法中的地位演变,并就第三人过错是否为环境污染民事责任抗辩事由的理论争议进行了深入的述评。提出在以后修改《海洋环境保护法》及《水污染防治法》,甚至制定专门的环境侵权责任法时,除了明确规定在所有环境污染领域第三人过错都不是抗辩事由外,还需合理地设置第三人过错污染环境民事责任的追究机制和社会化救济机制。     

Medical devices; labeling for menstrual tampons; ranges of absorbency, change from "junior" to "light." Final rule

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing a final rule that amends its menstrual tampon labeling regulation to change the current term for tampons that absorb 6 grams (g) and under of fluid. A tampon with absorbency of 6 g or less is currently required to be labeled as "junior". FDA is changing the term "junior" to "light". The term "junior" implies that the tampon is only for younger or teenage women when, in fact, it may be appropriate for women of any age with light menstrual flow. FDA encourages women to use the lowest absorbency tampon appropriate for their flow to help minimize the risk of Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS). At present, FDA requires standardized terms to be used for the labeling of a menstrual tampon to indicate its particular absorbency. This rule enables women to compare the absorbency of one brand and style of tampons with the absorbency of other brands and styles. FDA is issuing this final rule under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the act) to ensure that labeling of menstrual tampons is not misleading.