The global governance of water,energy, and food nexus: allocation and access for competing demands

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Globally, 3 billion people are without access to modern fuels or technologies for cooking/heating, 900 million people lack...     

Access and allocation in global biodiversity governance: a review

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Access and allocation is one of the five analytical themes of the science plan of the Earth System Governance (ESG) project....     

Lessons learnt in global biodiversity governance

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - INEA has featured many articles covering the dilemmas, puzzles, and tensions related to global biodiversity governance; this...     

Rent-seeking and economic governance in the structural nexus of corruption in China

This article examines the sources of widespread rent-seeking practices and their relations to corruption in China. It argues that rent-creation and seeking are difficult to eliminate because they have become institutionalized as the constitutive parts of economic governance. Using case studies drawn from a number of industrial sectors, this study shows that the creation and allocation of economic rents has become a major policy instrument used by various levels of governments to manoeuvre industrial plans and development priorities. At the same time, the discretionary power exercised by state agents in implementing development priorities has created mounting opportunities for exchanging rents with bribes. The result is a structural nexus between economic governance, rent-seeking and corruption that defy administrative measures aiming at achieving a clean government in China. This study is part of a research project on the Politics of Rent-seeking and Economic Privileges in China. The project is funded by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and supported by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

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Hybrid governance mechanisms as political instruments: the case of sustainability partnerships

Hybrid governance mechanisms have become one of the most preferred models of governance. Their influence and use have increased slowly but consistently since the end of the Cold War. This article investigates their political dimension, by way of studying United Nations’ partnerships for sustainable development, registered with the commission on sustainable development (CSD). Around 350 sustainability partnerships that promise to solve environmental problems and achieve the MDGs are registered with the CSD. Since their endorsement at the 2002 Johannesburg Summit, various studies assessed their value for environmental governance often finding them ineffective or counter-productive. This article exposes a new set of influences that partnerships have on the practice and discourses of global environmental governance, by following the politics of their emergence, that of partnership building and registration, and their actualization: During their negotiation, various contestations emerged and influenced the resulting partnerships regime; this is studied through in-depth interviews. Secondly, this regime leaves many geographical and participatory lacunas with political effects, which are studied through a large-N database. Finally, the unintended consequences of partnership projects on their issue areas and the discursive changes they cause in environmental governance reveal an otherwise concealed political dimension: The introduction of controversial technologies into the UN platforms.     

The emergence of biobanks in the legal landscape: towards a new model of governance

Biobanks are increasingly seen as new tools for medical research. Their main purpose is to collect, store, and distribute human body materials. These activities are regulated by legal instruments which are heterogeneous in source (national and international), and in form (binding and non-binding). We analyse these to underline the need for a new model of governance for modern biobanks. The protection initially ensured by respect for fundamental rights will need to focus on more interactions with society in order to ensure biobanks' sustainability. International regulation is more oriented on ethical principles and traces the limits of the uses of genetics, while European regulation is more concerned with the protection of fundamental rights and the elaboration of standards for biobanks' quality assurance. But is this protection adequate and sufficient? Do we need to move from the biomedical research analogy to new forms of legal protection, and governance systems which involve citizens?     

The new economics of the university: a knowledge governance approach

University is becoming a cornerstone of the new emerging mode of governance of the generation and dissemination of knowledge as it reveals remarkable institutional advantages both in providing a solution to the knowledge trade-off and in reducing agency costs. The typical academic labor relationship emerges as an appropriate institutional device to handle the principal-agent problems when creative talents are required. The unique quasi-hierarchical setup of the academic system creates a supply of certified skills that are ready to operate on a professional basis. Such academic consultants can be paid on an ex-post per job basis matching only their variable costs. This supply leads to the creation of a specific market for research services where the demand is provided by the knowledge outsourcing of corporations. For this system to work effectively the non-exclusivity of intellectual property rights on the results of the research performed under contract is necessary. Non-exclusivity in academic employment relations should parallel non-exclusivity in knowledge ownership.

Institutional interplay in global environmental governance: lessons learned and future research

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Over the past decades, the growing proliferation of international institutions governing the global environment has impelled...     

Tackling consumer vulnerability in energy and banking: towards a new approach

This article examines the new approach to vulnerability developed by Ofgem and the Financial Conduct Authority to see whether it has been implemented at company level and had an impact on the ombudsman. It sets out the context within which this approach has been developed and then looks at its implementation through two case studies. The main lesson from these case studies is that establishing a broad concept of vulnerability, as has been argued for in the academic literature, is just a first step. Operationalising the concept presents major challenges especially in the context of systems dealing with large numbers of consumers.     

Court fees and access to justice: towards a policy-oriented approach in Malawi

In this article, the author examines the rise in court fees which has been decided in Malawi. The author argues that this increase is excessive and contravenes the constitutional right of access to justice, as poor litigants cannot afford the fees and thereby cannot access the justice system. In his analysis, the author suggests that the decision-makers in Malawi should adopt a policy-oriented approach in reviewing court fees in order to protect citizens’ rights and achieve equality.     

Making sense of the global health crisis: policy narratives, conflict, and global health governance

Health has become a policy issue of global concern. Worried that the unstructured, polycentric, and pluralist nature of global health governance is undermining the ability to serve emergent global public health interests, some commentators are calling for a more systematic institutional response to the "global health crisis." Yet global health is a complex and uncertain policy issue. This article uses narrative analysis to explore how actors deal with these complexities and how uncertainties affect global health governance. By comparing three narratives in terms of their basic assumptions, the way they define problems as well as the solutions they propose, the analysis shows how the unstructured pluralism of global health policy making creates a wide scope of policy conflict over the global health crisis. This wide scope of conflict enables effective policy-oriented learning about global health issues. The article also shows how exclusionary patterns of cooperation and competition are emerging in health policy making at the global level. These patterns threaten effective learning by risking both polarization of the policy debate and unanticipated consequences of health policy. Avoiding these pitfalls, the analysis suggests, means creating global health governance regimes that promote openness and responsiveness in deliberation about the global health crisis.     

Special issue: Exploring global and transnational governance of climate change adaptation

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics -     

Managing fragmentation in global environmental governance: the REDD+ Partnership as bridge organization

This article analyzes the increasing institutional and organizational complexity and fragmentation surrounding the international financing mechanism REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries and related forest activities), now being negotiated within the UNFCCC. We focus, in particular, on critically assessing the prospects of managing such fragmentation. We do so by analyzing whether and how (what we conceptualize here as) a “bridge organization”—the voluntary, multi-stakeholder REDD+ Partnership bringing together state and non-state actors from global to local scales—has aided in managing fragmentation in this realm, through exercising four enabling functions (enhancing transparency, participation, knowledge sharing, and coordination). Our analysis shows that the REDD+ Partnership has partially succeeded in furthering such procedural aims, but that this has not resulted in a “scaling up of REDD+ action and finance,” its overarching substantive aim. In contrast to dominant views of a bridge organization’s modus operandi, we conclude, based on our analysis, that its value lies not in overcoming persisting geopolitical conflicts around climate mitigation and providing a “depoliticized” context within which to manage fragmentation. Instead, its success lies in permitting dialogue and exchange even in the face of persisting political conflicts over its raison d’être and functions. In making these arguments, the article extends recent debates on the prospects to manage fragmentation in global environmental governance and provides a critical assessment of the role therein for bridge organizations.     

Finance-growth-poverty nexus: a re-assessment of the trickle-down hypothesis in China

Poverty has remained one of the prominent challenges of humanity. Different solutions have been suggested to curb poverty. Economic growth and financial development are two such crucial tools for overcoming poverty, as frequently pointed out by economists. These tools work through the so-called trickle-down hypothesis, which contends that a well-functioning financial system would enhance poverty reduction by promoting economic growth. One country that appears to have manifested this hypothesis is China. However, the empirical test of the trickle-down hypothesis for China is scant. In addition, most of the existing studies have failed to account for regime-shift in parameters or structural breaks. This paper attempts to fill this void by testing the trickle-down hypothesis for China during the period 1985–2014. We utilized two standard proxies for financial development, namely: the domestic credit to private sector by banks as percentage of GDP, and money and quasi money as percentage of GDP; annual percentage change in real GDP per capita to proxy economic growth; and a standard proxy for poverty reduction namely: the household final consumption expenditure per capita growth. By accounting for structural breaks in our empirical specifications, we found overwhelming support for the trickle-down hypothesis at the national level. That is, we found financial development to cause economic growth, which in turn causes poverty reduction in China at the national level. This has important policy implications.     

The global economic system and access and allocation in earth system governance

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Ensuring sustainability of earth systems is intrinsically dependent on the incorporation of equity and fairness in the regimes...     

Exploring the agency of global environmental consultancy firms in earth system governance

In contemporary global environmental governance, private companies are both recipients of as well as contributors to the development and spread of environmental practices, norms, standards, and legislation. One sector that seems to be of particular significance is the environmental consultancy industry. It assists public and private actors in developing environmental solutions and ensuring implementation and compliance by providing particular knowledge, management, and assessment skills. However, little attention has been paid to the environmental authority and agency of companies active in this field. This exploratory study on global environmental consultancy firms is guided by the basic research questions on agency in earth system governance: What is agency? How do actors acquire authority and become agents? How can we evaluate the effects these agents generate?     

20 Years of global climate change governance research: taking stock and moving forward

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Research on global climate change governance is no longer primarily concerned with the international legal regime, state...     

Crime prevention strategies by the United Nations: A global perspective

Most of the studies on crime show that no society is immune from crime and organized crime. Large or small, complex or simple, developed or underdeveloped, every society faces the task of controlling crime and organized crime. Furthermore, recent events reveal that the so‐called ‘'domestic crime'’ has become more globalized, or internationalized. Unless dramatic changes take place, collectively, e.g., by the United Nations, no single nation can expect to control or regulate illegal activities. In particular, crime prevention and criminal justice has been a long standing agenda item of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council; the two principal legislative bodies governing the United Nations program of work in the criminal justice field. The Council is, after the Assembly itself, the major legislative and policy‐making organ of the United Nations. The field of criminal justice is an important component of social and economic affair, the Economic and Social Council determines policy and initiates activities. Within the United Nations system, the most direct responsibility for international efforts toward crime prevention and control is borne by the recently created Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (which has replaced the expert subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council, namely, the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control) and the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch. The establishment of the Commission, by the Economic and Social Council in February 1992, ushered in a new era in United Nations involvement in crime prevention and criminal justice. The commitment of the Member States to the prevention of crime and the promotion of justice through strengthened international cooperation has been clearly spelled out in numerous General Assembly and Economic and Social Council resolutions. Those resolutions are indicative of the Member States’ heightened awareness and concern that crime, in its internationalized form, has to be tackled by a multilateral approach including international cooperative measures, and that interdependent efforts are urgently required. The Commission provides a means by which Governments can be directly involved in the determination and supervision of the program of work of the United Nations in crime prevention and can clearly manifest their political will. Its establishment was the result of a long process of review of the functioning and program of work of the United Nations in crime prevention and criminal justice, and was seen as an indispensable condition of a structural reorganization of United Nations activities in this field. For further information on CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, and THE UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, see UN Newsletter, Numbers 22/23, July, l993. Further information on Operational Activities of the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch since the First Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in April 1992 (on Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe Western Europe and North America and Global aspects, see the same documents, pp. 22–26 for more detail.