Legal aid services in Spain within the migration industry debate. Public policy,business or social compromise?

ABSTRACT

The objective of this article is to examine the unexplored role of public defenders who provide legal aid services to immigrants within the debate on the migration control and rescue industries. Although these services are provided by bar associations, public organizations that group private professionals, they are paid for with government funds due to regulations guaranteeing the right to legal defence. The main argument and conclusion of this article is that although lawyers working in these services receive public compensation for the legal aid they provide, they generally become public defenders due to personal beliefs, such as a commitment to protecting the rights of foreigners.     

Law, Finance, and Politics: The Case of India

The liberalization of India's economy since 1991 has brought with it considerable development of its financial markets and supporting legal institutions. An influential body of economic scholarship asserts that a country's "legal origin"—as a civilian or common law jurisdiction—plays an important part in determining the development of its investor protection regulations, and consequently its financial development. An alternative theory claims that the determinants of investor protection are political, rather than legal. We use the case of India to test these theories. We find little support for the idea that India's legal heritage as a common law country has been influential in speeding the path of regulatory reforms and financial development. Rather, we suggest there are complementarities between (1) India's relative success in services and software; (2) the relative strength of its financial markets for outside equity, as opposed to outside debt; and (3) the relative success of stock market regulation, as opposed to reforms of creditor rights. We conclude that political economy explanations have more traction in explaining the case of India than do theories based on "legal origins."     

Some Reflections on the Relationship between Citizenship, Access to Justice, and the Reform of Legal Aid

The reflexive, reciprocally constitutive relationship between law and society makes a substantive right of access to justice pivotal to the content of citizenship. It is therefore arguable that the establishment of legal aid, however limited in practice, was fundamental to the expanded citizenship which the post-war settlement sought to achieve. However this social form of citizenship has been attenuated by the reconfiguration of the state and the neo-liberal reconstruction of the public sector. Yet at the same time, the concepts of citizenship and social exclusion have become key discursive mechanisms in this reconstruction, including in the New Labour reform of the legal aid sector. This paper considers the various meanings attributed to the concepts of citizenship, social exclusion, and access to justice through the optic of the history of policy changes in legal aid. The impact of globalization and economic restructuring on social citizenship is explored, both in terms of the experience of recipients of public goods like legal services, and the professionals who supply them. The commensurability of the New Labour Community Legal Service (CLS) model with other models of justice is discussed. The conclusion briefly returns to the theme of law's 'citizen-constitutive' role and considers the potential of the CLS for combating social exclusion.     

Services of General Interest in EC Law: Matching Values to Regulatory Technique in the Public and Privatised Sectors

All the European Union Member States have long traditions of state activity in providing key services (such as the utilities, health and education) to their citizens and underpinning both such direct provision and provision of services by non‐state actors with certain administrative or legal guarantees. In European Community doctrines they are referred to as ‘services of general interest’ within which is a narrower class of ‘services of general economic interest’. The diverse national public service traditions have been challenged both by the requirements of the single market and by other pressures such as fiscal crisis and broader public sector reform. This article examines the means by which services to which special principles should be applied can be identified and focuses on the range of sometimes contradictory values denoted by the term ‘services of general interest’, examining the range of regime types (based on hierarchical, competition‐based and community forms) by which those values might be pursued. The concluding section suggests that the matching of values to techniques should not be made according to the importance of the values to be pursued, but rather by reference to which techniques are likely to be effective given the configuration of interests and capacities and existing culture within the target domain.     

公益法律援助的职业理性——对话丹宁勋爵对法律援助的诟病

法律援助作为制度福利的一种,对其有着多种不同声音的评价。丹宁勋爵对法律援助的批评具有代表性。只有将具体的法律援助行为纳入公益法律进程中去才能对回应各种批评意见。文章从社会保障思潮的演变、法律职业主义理论与律师职业伦理的张力三个方面理性分析了公益法律援助的价值、根源与运作模式。     

The economics of notaries

In civil law legal systems, notaries fulfill two crucial roles, acting as both law enforcers and court officers, and as facilitators and enforcers of private transactions. In these countries, notaries achieve economies of scope by simultaneously providing private and public services and substituting both parties' lawyers. This arrangement is subject, however, to serious conflicts of interest that could prejudice the provision of public services that have attributes of externalities, as well as the notary's independence from all parties to the transaction. This paper shows how this notary system may be efficient in this context. Focusing on Spanish notaries, it analyzes the legal and economic nature of the services, the incentives that control their provision, and the cost in terms of competitive restraints that could be generated by the organizational patterns making up such incentives. Supporting empirical evidence is also provided.     

Third Way Regulation? Community Legal Service Partnerships

This article examines recent changes in the civil legal aid scheme in England and Wales (now called the Community Legal Service) and the creation of Community Legal Service Partnerships in particular. The article explores three main interests: it illustrates how third way thinking has been applied to the reform of the legal aid scheme under the Access to Justice Act 1999; it explores how partnership fits within theories of public regulation; and it illustrates how professionalism is being re-shaped by a combination of new public management, contractualism and partnership. It points to important limitations in new public law theories of extended accountability and democratised governance as manifested in partnerships.     

The Swedish Legal Services Policy Remix: The Shift from Public Legal Aid to Private Legal Expense Insurance

A number of governments in the 1960s and 1970s pursued the goal of equal access to legal services by establishing publicly funded legal aid schemes. Some societies also promoted Legal Expense Insurance (LEI) to fill some of the gaps in legal aid. The recent trend to small government means many societies are keen to experiment further with legal services policy. This article examines one such experiment in Sweden where reforms included major cuts to public legal aid and requiring most people to rely on private LEI. But how well does this policy mix promote equal access to legal services? And are there lessons for other societies? In this article I describe and assess the policy remix. I argue that the reforms are a bold policy experiment but that they had mixed and some undesirable consequences, and that there are few lessons for other societies.     

Economics of the 96/92 Directive with Reference to Italian Electricity Market Liberalisation Process

This paper contains an economic review of the law regulating the liberalisation process now under way in the Italian electricity sector. The legal framework is presented focusing first on Community rules, in particular Directive 96/92, which provides for common rules for the internal electricity market, and then on the recent Italian implementation decree no. 79 of 1999. The part concerning the law is then connected with a part where the issue of liberalisation of the electricity sector is tackled in economic terms, with special focus on transition from the public monopoly that has characterised the Italian experience for some time, and also on the new interpretation of the traditional theory of natural monopoly. On the base of the legal framework and the economic theories, the features of each components of the electricity sector is finally analysed in terms of competitiveness: in particular, the future market configuration is considered for generation, for transmission, for distribution, and, for the whole market.     

Researching and Theorizing the Processes of Professional Identity Formation

This paper is concerned with professional identity formation, at both the individual and organizational levels, and the dialectic between individual processes and the social trajectory of organizational reproduction. The research project on which the paper is based was stimulated by the growing concern of United Kingdom legal education institutions and professional bodies with how new entrants to an increasingly diverse profession negotiate the changing demands of a complex stratified and segmented labour market. The paper will give a brief outline of the first stage of a longitudinal study of two cohorts of part-time and full-time students on the Legal Practice Course at a new university in England, (some of whom are now in training with firms) and representatives of the local legal employment market. A report of the research results to date will be set in the context of an exploration of some key theoretical perspectives which inform the field of the profession and of identity development, such as theories of symbolic, linguistic, and cultural capital.     

二元结构下“农民工”劳动权之一元法律保护:从身份到契约

本文试图分析我国二元经济结构下农民工劳动权利现状,说明二元经济结构不必然导致二元劳动力市场,也不必然导致农民工处于低端的第二劳动力市场。并通过分析现行理论、制度的弊端,指出对农民工劳动权进行二元法律保护是一个错误的继续。现行法律设置、法律执行和政府角色错位才是导致农民工劳动权受损的原因。因而,必须澄清劳动关系理论,实现对农民工"从身份到契约"的一元法律保护。     

Financing Services of General Interest in the EU: How do Public Procurement and State Aids Interact to Demarcate between Market Forces and Protection?

Abstract:  The present article reveals the interplay between public procurement and state financing of public services within the regulatory régime of state aids. The symbiotic flexibility embedded in the regime of regulating the award of public contracts which permits the introduction of public policy considerations in dispersing public services is established. This finding removes the often-misunderstood justification of public procurement as an economic exercise, and places its regulation in the centre of an ordo-liberal interpretation of the European integration process. The significance of public procurement for the financing of services of general interest is verified through an asymmetric geometry analysis. The article concludes that the public procurement framework will be relied upon for two main purposes: first to insert competitiveness within the public sector and market forces in the provision of services of general interest and secondly, to be used by the European judiciary and the European Commission as a system to verify conceptual links, create compatibility safeguards and authenticate established principles applicable in state aid regulation.     

反垄断私人诉讼制度的必要性分析

反垄断私人诉讼制度是反垄断法的一种有效的实施机制。其以公法私人执行、权利监督制约、权利救济等理论为基石,旨在维护良好的竞争秩序、保护私人主体的合法权益。在经济飞速发展、市场行情变幻莫测的当今社会,反垄断私人诉讼制度的建立显得愈发必要和可行。其必要性可以从民主法治建设、公共资源节约、权利监督制约、便于获得赔偿等方面得以表现;其可行性主要体现在法理和法规两方面。     

Embedding Economic Relationships through Social Learning? The Limits of Patient and Public Involvement in Healthcare Governance in England

The strategy for NHS modernization in England is privileging individual choice over collective voice in the governance of healthcare. This paper explores the tension between economic and democratic strands in the current reform agenda, drawing on sociological conceptions of embeddedness and on theories of reflexive governance. Building on a Polanyian account of the disembedding effects of the increasing commercialization of health services, we consider the prospects for re-embedding economic relationships in this field. An analysis is provided of the limits of the present legal and regulatory framework of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in establishing the democratic and pragmatist conditions of social learning necessary for effective embedding. We show how the attainment of reflexive governance in the public interest is dependent on such conditions, and on the capacities of patients and the public to contribute to debate and deliberation in decision making, including on fundamental policy questions such as how services are provided and by whom.     

论完善经济立法

我国经历30年改革开放的发展后,应当对现有的经济法律制度进行必要的调整和完善。完善经济立法应当以促进市场交易为价值取向,普遍遵循便利市场机制发挥的原则,充分立足于现有的经济基础,进一步厘清公法与私法的界限,有效限制公法对市场主体过多的干预,从而赋予市场主体更多的权利和自由。     

Civil Legal Aid and Domestic Violence: a Review of the Literature and Promising Directions

This note summarizes extant research on civil legal aid, which includes provision of legal services for indigent and low-income individuals, and its applications for DV and IPV victims, and concludes with suggestions for improving service delivery and research in the field. Results of searches of online databases for peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed articles, reports, analyses, and evaluations of civil legal aid in the United States were analyzed and critically assessed. Civil legal aid is a promising but underfunded and underexplored avenue for responding to and reducing domestic violence (DV), intimate partner violence (IPV), and their devastating effects. Providing civil counsel in divorce, custody, and protective order proceedings can significantly improve outcomes for DV and IPV victims and their children as well as serve as a cost-effective strategy for reducing violence and generating positive social returns.     

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple

More than 20 years after the establishment of legal aid services in Ghana, many accused persons still go through trials without being represented by a lawyer. Behind the backdrop of international standards on the provision of legal aid, and the constitutional history of legal aid in Ghana, this article looks at challenges facing lawyers in the provision of legal aid services in Ghana. The article is an addition to the global debate on the provision of better legal aid services for the indigent in society.     

论现代公共法律服务多元化规范体系建构

公共法律服务体系建设现代化的核心问题是满足人民群众追求美好生活日益增长的法律服务需求,为实现共同富裕发展目标提供全方位的法治保障。现代公共法律服务体系建设的地方立法例中,均集中体现出对公共法律服务基本概念和调整范围的反思与分歧,为此亟待厘清公共法律服务应然规范构造理论,这是未来形成公共法律服务全国统一立法的法学理论基础。公共法律服务专门立法在整个公共法律服务规范体系中具有纲领性地位,公共法律服务体系建设改革实践不仅具备基本服务与非基本服务二元结构架构特征,而且越来越多地呈现出多元和多维架构的本质特征。现有二元规范构造理论已经不能全面解释和解构现有的公共法律服务体系建设实践发展的全样本和多维度、多元化样态,只有建构多元化的现代公共法律服务规范体系才能根本解决现有公共法律服务地方立法例实践及理论研究中出现的关于基本概念、规范类型、规范属性、调整方式、权利属性等诸多基本争议,从而确定公共法律服务的权利义务主体、事项范围、模式与程序、标准与评价指标、监督管理等主要体系建构的基本规范要素,进而归纳整合公共法律服务立法规范构造的本质特征,为将来形成区域协同一体化立法或全国统一立法提供立法规范要素的基本构造理论支撑。     

Public Services and the Internal Market: Building Blocks or Persistent Irritant?

Critics such as Fritz Scharpf maintain that in the EU, negative integration (abolishing national rules) by definition wins out over positive integration (adopting new EU rules). This claim is examined here regarding public services—both utilities and welfare services. In EU law, the (partly overlapping) relevant categories are as follows: (1) services of general interest (SGI) and (2) services of general economic interest (SGEI). The latter are provided by undertakings. SGI that are not also SGEI are subject only to non‐discrimination requirements: this covers most welfare services. SGEI must comply with the EU competition and state aid rules, which promotes liberalisation. However, a proportional exception is allowed in so far as necessary for SGEI to carry out their public tasks. Moreover, alongside liberalisation, EU regimes for public services have emerged that benefit citizens/consumers. In sum, public services can now arguably be seen as building blocks of the internal market.     

Large‐scale Map or the A‐Z? The Place of Self‐help Services in Legal Aid

Australian legal aid agencies are increasing their reliance on self-help legal services as part of their service delivery mix. Self-help legal services seek to harness the productive capacity of consumers,enabling wider distribution of legal aid services. The move to self-help services as an alternative to traditional legal service delivery appears to have gained momentum in advance of any sound understandings of what legal consumers, and legal aid consumers in particular, are capable of. In addition to the cost benefits of providing self-help services rather than traditional legal services, these services have been promoted on the basis of their capacity to empower users to address their own legal matters. Examples of the misuse by government agencies of notions of empowerment emphasize the importance of ensuring the usefulness of self-help legal services.