Agrarian structure,foreign investment in land,and land prices in Brazil

The recent global rush for farmland in Latin America has produced a dramatic increase in the level of foreign investment in land in Brazil. The current trend accentuates the ongoing process of foreignization of agriculture associated with the production of grains, sugar, ethanol and other commodities, increasing land prices. In response, the Brazilian government reestablished a legal mechanism for ‘controlling’ land-based foreign investment which has proven neither efficient nor effective in solving land concentration. This paper examines this issue by analyzing the causes of the increase in investment as well as the consequences of this process with respect to land prices, critically situating land-based investments and the government's policy response in a broader discussion of the demands of agrarian social movements.     

Kostentragung im öffentlichen Recht de lege lata et ferenda

Der Grundsatz des § 74 Abs 1 AVG, wonach jeder Beteiligte die ihm im Verwaltungsverfahren erwachsenden Kosten selbst zu bestreiten hat, führt in modernen verwaltungsbeh?rdlichen Verfahren nicht selten zu unbilligen Ergebnissen. Desgleichen haften den Regelungen über den Ersatz von Kosten verfassungsgerichtlicher und verwaltungsgerichtlicher Verfahren Defizite an. Ausgehend von diesem Befund untersucht der Beitrag die Leistungsf?higkeit der geltenden Kostentragungsregelungen, zeigt Spannungsverh?ltnisse zu verfassungsrechtlichen und unionsrechtlichen Vorgaben und Reformbedarf auf und mündet schlie?lich in den Vorschlag einer Neukonzeption des Kostentragungssystems im ?ffentlichen Recht.     

Old master paintings,export veto and price formation: an empirical study

In this paper, we focus on the institutional setting where Old Masters’Paintings (OMP) markets transactions are carried. We develop a preliminary attempt to embody legal provisions in econometric, hedonic pricing models. We consider a particular regulation applicable only in Italy, the “export veto” for art objects that are particularly relevant for the national cultural patrimony. We proxy such legal provision in order to include it in the statistical analysis and to check whether it affects the OMP price differentials between pre-auction estimated price and post-auction hammer price. Preliminary results show that the price differential is affected by the legal variable, therefore suggesting that the country’s institutional framework plays an important role in price dynamics.     

Distributed Generation of Electricity: The Role of Academic Research and Advice in California’s “Clean DG” Policy Network

Deregulation and the combined threats of energy crises and global warming concern nations around the world, yet these issues continue to be addressed more directly by domestic regulatory systems than by international institutions. The present analyses of the integration of distributed sources of power generation (DG) into California’s electric utility system suggests that domestic environmental dilemmas with international repercussions provide an obvious entrée for global environmental policy specialists into the practice of environmental policy-making and law. Here I review current scholarship on policy networks that illuminates the contributions that technical and policy experts can make to such networks surrounding environmental issues. I then introduce the key members of California’s “clean DG” policy network that emphasizes the role of academic experts in this influential political system, and discuss how my own research has impacted the development of the state’s DG policy. I conclude that scholars are well positioned to observe and engage domestic and international environmental policy networks, and thereby also to influence environmental politics and law.