The European parliament and environmental legislation: The case of chemicals

The paper studies the impact of the EP on legislation on chemical pollutants introduced under the Cooperation procedure. A series of formal and informal analyses have predicted from significant impact of the EP, to limited impact (only in the second round) to no impact at all. Through the analysis of Parliamentary debates as well as Commission and Parliamentary committee documents, we are able to assess the significance of different amendments, as well as the degree to which they were introduced in the final decision of the Council. Our analysis indicates first that less than 30% of EP amendments are insignificant, while 15% are important or very important; second, that the probability of acceptance of an amendment is the same regardless of its significance. Further analysis indicates two sources of bias of aggregate EP statistics: several amendments are complementary (deal with the same issue in different places of the legal document), and a series of amendments that are rejected as inadmissible (because they violate the legal basis of the document or the germainess requirement) are included in subsequent pieces of legislation. We calculate the effect of these biases in our sample, and find that official statistics under estimate Parliamentary influence by more than 6 percentage points (49% instead of 56% in our sample). Finally, we compare a series of observed strategic behaviors of different actors (rapporteurs, committees, floor, Commission) to different expectations generated by the literature.     

A non-profit accountability framework

Abstract: A non-profit accountability framework is developed from the broader academic literature, both within non-profit studies and beyond. The framework includes a comprehensive set of stakeholders that non-profits need to be accountable to, as well as resources to be accountable for. These stakeholders and resources are then contrasted on a matrix. Sommaire : Un cadre d'imputabilité pour le secteur à but non lucratif est élaboréà partir de la documentation. Le cadre inclut un ensemble exhaustif de parties prenantes auxquelles le secteur à but non lucratif doit rendre des comptes, ainsi que des ressources pour lesquelles il est imputable. Ces parties prenantes et les ressources sont alors mises en contraste sur un tableau.     

Minority Political Inclusion in Mikheil Saakashvili's Georgia

Georgia's Rose Revolution promised sweeping economic and political reforms, designed in part to enhance the livelihoods of ethnic and religious minority populations. The Rose events, however, occurred concomitantly with a surge in ethnic unrest. This article examines this paradox, arguing that the three major policy goals of the Saakashvili regime: the devolution of power to minorities, anti-corruption reform and state capacity building, have resulted in contradictory policy outcomes that have disproportionately hurt ethnic and religious minority enclaves.     

Responding to my interlocutors: a subject in the making...

In this response to Ronnie Lippens’ and Erik Claes’ critiques of a paper entitled ‘The Lore of Criminal accusation,’ Pavlich notes the ways in which his work might be compared to, yet differentiated from, abolitionist approaches to crime. Working through Lippens’ comments, he notes a possible way to understand the analysis and politics of crime (through accusation). Pavlich challenges Claes’ optimistic hypostatization of ‘criminal law’, idiosyncratic understandings of deconstruction and refocuses attention on the centrality of accusation to creating criminal subjects.     

Improving Human Rights Protection Through Development in Scientific Way Address at the Opening Ceremony of the Third Beijing Forum on Human Rights

Distinguished guests, experts and scholars, ladies and gentlemen:In the golden October when people are enjoying clean and fresh air, the China Society for Human Rights Studies unveiled its Third Beijing Forum on Human Rights.