Reconciling Trade and Culture: A Global Law Perspective

This article provides an overview of the most essential issues in the trade and culture discourse from a global law perspective. It looks into the intensified disconnect between trade and culture and exposes its flaws and the considerable drawbacks that it brings with it. It is argued that these drawbacks become especially pronounced in the digital media environment, which has strongly affected both the conditions of trade with cultural products and services and cultural diversity in local and global contexts. In this modified setting, there could have been a number of feasible “trade and culture” solutions—i.e., regulatory designs that while enhancing trade liberalization are also conducive to cultural policy. Yet, the realization of any of these options becomes chimerical as the line between trade and culture matters is drawn in a clear and resolute manner.     

Investment Treaty Law and the Fear for Sovereignty: Transnational Challenges and Solutions

This article addresses the vagueness, and the interpretative challenges associated with, international investment agreements (IIAs) and develops a new normative framework for interpreting these treaties. It focuses on the historical embedding of investment protection as a means of facilitating economic development as well as upon its synthetic public law nature. The analysis shows that a teleological approach to interpretation imposes boundaries on the meaning of substantive IIA provisions. The article then elaborates how the transnational dimension of IIAs provides a benchmark, which is the level of protection offered to economic actors against interference by the state in countries with the highest rule of law standards. The article then shows how the resulting challenges of comparative public law could be addressed through the methodology of re‐ and pre‐statement of transnational uniform ‘principles’: sophisticated and detailed rules striking the proper balance between private economic interests and the public regulatory interest, so as to provide more legal certainty for both investors and host states.     

Sovereignty, Migration and the Rule of Law in Global Times

This article argues that in the present era of globalisation, control over the movement of people has become the last bastion of sovereignty. This is important both to theoretical accounts of globalisation and to policy decisions by governments. Nation states threatened with loss of control in other realms are implementing a variety of 'crackdown' measures in questions of immigration. Issues of refugee law, illegal migration and skilled migration each challenge sovereignty in specific ways. While international human rights standards have made few inroads in questions of migration, recent decisions in England and Australia suggest that the rule of law may be emerging as a counter to traditional executive free reign in matters of migration law.     

Performance of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) in China: Achievements and Challenges as Seen by the Chinese

This paper discusses the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and its achievements and challenges in China, the country obtaining most GEF support. This paper relies on Chinese perceptions, and less on views from the implementing agencies (IAs), the World Bank, UNDP and UNEP. Most attention is given to climate change and biodiversity. The paper asks what has been achieved; how effective has the GEF been? The study concludes that GEF funding has been important for China’s environmental problems. GEF and its IAs have contributed to raised awareness and technology development and have boosted institutional capacity through participation in project activities and training. The main emphasis has been placed on climate change projects and less on biodiversity. Much has been achieved by the GEF in China, but challenges exist. At the international level, the interests and roles of the GEF system, its IAs and recipient countries are not always compatible. GEF projects may suffer as a consequence. Another challenge relates to the seeming difference in effectiveness between World Bank projects and projects of the other IAs. Domestic challenges concern turf battles, problems related to information sharing, and different priorities among actors. The various government institutions’ reluctance to co-operate impacts significantly on the performance of GEF projects in China. The IAs should insist on smoother collaboration, and force the institutions to work together. Moreover, severe problems are apparent regarding financing as well as application procedures. Improvements are under way regarding the GEF application procedures. This will have a limited impact unless the Chinese side simplifies and improves procedures.     

Reforming Global Sport: Hybridity and the Challenges of Pursuing Transparency

In light of recent controversies in global sport, this article surveys the challenges of pursuing transparency in this particular domain of governance. Although corruption in sport is attracting more scholarly attention, there remains little sociolegal research that reflects critically on corporate governance in sport and its implications. This article outlines current calls for greater transparency in global sport and considers how capitalistic underpinnings and distinct hybrid arrangements complicate the task of transparency. It concludes by reflecting on how insights from studies of regulatory capitalism can inform alternative approaches to transparency and accountability in global sport.     

全球结社革命的主权理论反思

发端自20世纪后半期的＂结社革命＂见证了公民社会的全球复兴,拓展乃至重构了国家与社会之间的关系与制度空间。然而,现有的结社革命理论并没有能够认真对待公民社会组织与主权国家之间的关系。一方面,从主权的视角来看,结社革命固然是个人权利成长的历史表征,但它同样是一个主权观念不断被重塑的产物;另一方面,对公民社会组织与主权国家之间关系的考察表明,如何处理二者之间的关系,则需要我们进一步从关系性视角反思主权的正当性,重解主权,乃至为公民社会组织的兴起提供合法性依据。     

Environmental Services and Competition: A Global Perspective

Competition theory has been poorly applied in infrastructure sectors characterized by joined-up physical networks, such as water, sanitation and electricity. Crude tendering mechanisms have been used to promote competition, resulting in unstable contracts. Meanwhile, competition issues are hardly recognized, or are even suppressed in the non-networked (i.e. not yet connected) parts of these sectors. The difference between the networked and non-networked sectors within a given service is arguably as important as that between the different services, such as water and electricity.
Competition has been seen as being fostered by liberalizing trade and this has raised hopes and fears among protagonists and opponents, respectively. In this context, the impact of the World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) on environmental services has been slight and the main contribution to be made by competition policy could prove to be at the micro-level. In that regard, it may be more helpful to refer to de-monopolization rather than competition.     

欧盟宪法草案给后国家时代国家、宪法及主权概念带来的挑战

自欧盟宪法草案出台以来,关于欧盟制宪成功与否的猜测与怀疑始终不断。这些猜测和怀疑聚焦在国家、宪法及主权三个问题上。欧盟宪法草案给传统的制宪理论提出了挑战,在后国家时代,传统的制宪前提的解释似乎显得苍白无力,新的时代需要新的国家、宪法及主权观念。一、欧盟的性质与国家概念的新挑战传统的国家概念有两种解释,一是“阶级统治的工具,是统治阶级对被统治阶级实行专政的暴力组织,主要由军队、警察、法庭、监狱等组成。国家是阶级矛盾不可调和的产物和表现,它随着阶级而产生,也将随着阶级的消灭而自行消亡”;二是“指一个国家的整个…     

Global Sustainable Development Governance: Institutional Challenges from a Theoretical Perspective

This paper submits that efforts to achieve sustainable development at global level call for, inter alia, institutional reform. It argues that there is no optimal institutional design, and that different schools of thought have different perspectives of the future. It briefly presents the history of institutional evolution in the area of sustainable development up to the latest developments in the context of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development. This history sets the context for the rest of the discussions. It then presents a taxonomy of the various options suggested in the literature for improving the institutional structure of the United Nations in order to achieve sustainable development. This paper critically examines the feasibility of these options from the perspective of the different schools of thought in international relations theory. It argues that from the point of view of idealistic supranationalists, a hierarchic supranational environment and/or development organisation should be established to integrate and coordinate activities in the UN in order to promote sustainable development governance. It argues that from a realist/neo-realist and neo-liberal institutionalist approach, coordination, whether hierarchical or horizontal, is doomed to failure. From a historical materialist approach all efforts at institutional design are likely to lead to asymmetrical results reflecting global power relations. This paper concludes with a speculative argument that institutional design is not a question of the best architectural option, but calls for multiple pathways including strengthening of individual organisations, promoting the progressive development of the law of sustainable development, developing a high level advisory body to advise the Secretary General, promoting the concept of the decentralised network organisation and possibly finding ways to cluster regimes. The effectiveness of these multiple efforts are dependent on the support of civil society. In order for sustainable development to take the key concerns of developing countries into account, it is necessary that institutions are able to represent the variety of views of their members and that countries develop good policies domestically.