Implementation in International Business Self‐regulation: The Importance of Sequences and their Linkages

Self‐regulation by business is increasingly common internationally, but the effective implementation of international rules often continues to be seen as something that only states can carry out. We argue that more exclusively private forms of effective implementation can be constructed in self‐regulation. Drawing on research in private international law, public policy implementation and self‐regulation, we identify four distinct implementation sequences: monitoring, compliance, adjudication, and sanctioning. These sequences are sometimes constituted in response to deliberate integrated plans, but also come together in a decentralized manner. Many international business actors devise ways to carry out the sequences in order to implement rules that are important for them, reflecting a functional logic of implementation that is creative and pragmatic, and together constitute an important stage in the policy process of self‐regulation.     

The politics of Artificial Intelligence regulation and governance reform in the European Union

This paper explores political drivers and policy process of the reform of the framework for Artificial Intelligence regulation and governance in the European Union (EU). Since 2017, the EU has been developing an integrated policy to tighten control and to ensure consumer protection and fundamental rights. This policy reform is theoretically interesting, raising the question of which conceptual approaches better explain it, and it is also empirically relevant, addressing the link between risk regulation and digital market integration in Europe. This paper explores the policy reform mainly by using two case study methods—process tracing and congruence procedure—using a variety of primary and secondary sources. It evaluates the analytical leverage of three theoretical frameworks and a set of derived testable hypotheses concerning the co-evolution of global economic competition, institutional structure, and policy preferences of domestic actors in shaping incremental approach to AI regulation in the EU. It is argued that all three are key drivers shaping the reform and explain the various stages of the policymaking process, namely problem definition, agenda-setting, and decision-making, as well as the main features of the outcome.

     

Social Capital and Constraints on Legal Careers

This article focuses on the role of social capital in lawyers' careers by examining the career outcomes of Jewish lawyers. Although research on the legal profession has emphasized social capital as an inherently positive resource, this article conceptualizes social capital as multivalent, with the potential for both positive and negative effects. Drawing on five forms of social capital and examining four separate outcomes (type of practice setting, prestige of field of practice, satisfaction, and income), the analyses demonstrate that particular forms of social capital are indeed related to diverging outcomes. This study finds positive effects for the social capital that derives from reciprocity exchanges, but it also finds that the social capital built through dense social ties can lead to less successful professional settings. The conclusion explores the possibilities this raises for understanding the interplay between religion, capital, and legal careers.     

The effectiveness of service work: An analysis of recidivism

The Israeli “service work” law of 1987 enables a court to commute prison sentences of up to 6 months to service work in the community. This paper examines the correctional effectiveness of this new sanction by comparing the rate of recidivism (over a period of 14 months) among 407 offenders sentenced to service work to that of 950 comparable offenders sentenced to imprisonment. As the research design is quasi-experimental, an adjustment for confounders is carried out using the propensity score (PS) methodology. The estimation of the odds ratio of recidivism with respect to sanction comprises two steps: (a) the PS, which is the conditional probability of assignment to a particular sanction given a set of confounders, is estimated by a logistic model; and (b) the conditional probability of recidivism, given the PS and other covariates, is estimated by a second model. The findings indicate that before an adjustment for the systematic differences between the two sanctions was carried out, the odds for recidivism among prisoners were 2.4 times higher than the odds for service workers. After the adjustment, the odds ratio was reduced to 1.7. This estimate indicates that the service work sanction has a considerable correctional effect. The need to address additional criteria for the effectiveness of service work (e.g., net-widening) is emphasized.     

Lawyers on the move: the consequences of mobility for legal careers

While the legal profession was traditionally conceived of as geographically bounded, recent decades have witnessed a surge in the movement of lawyers across geographic boundaries. This mobility has transformed the paths through which legal careers are built and sustained. Relying on Bourdieu's concept of capital, this paper focuses on the effects of geographic mobility within the legal profession in order to explore how moving can alter the forms and value of capital—human, social, or symbolic—necessary for professional advancement. Drawing on two unique datasets, we find that geographic mobility can be a source for the emergence of new inequalities within the profession, so that lawyers moving from one jurisdiction to another do not receive full value for their credentials. We also find that geographic mobility can exacerbate existing inequalities in the profession, and finally, our analyses suggest that understanding the effects of capital assets equally requires attention to the functional form of capital within professional fields.     

Self-Regulation as Policy Process: The Multiple and Criss-Crossing Stages of Private Rule-Making

While there are many studies of self-regulation, they have not yet systematically analyzed the very process by which rules are developed and implemented. This article treats self-regulation as a process with sufficient autonomy and functional coherence to display identifiable stages, each of which deserves independent attention in turn. It draws from the literature on the stages of public policy processes and uses this as a template to identify and analyze the unique properties of private rule-making, while acknowledging the criticisms that have been made of excessive determinism and simplicity in some applications of the general idea of stages. The article shows that our understanding of self-regulation is significantly advanced by examining it as a process with stages but it emphasizes that the different stages of the self-regulatory policy process (agenda-setting, problem identification, decision, implementation and evaluation) are criss-crossed in numerous and interesting ways. It also shows that private rule-making often seeks to solve societal problems in domestic and international settings and is an important alternative to public regulation but self-regulation is rarely completely de-coupled from public authority. Instead, public authority is activated to solidify self-regulatory arrangements across the different stages of the policy process.     

Project SafeCare: Improving Health, Safety, and Parenting Skills in Families Reported for, and At-Risk for Child Maltreatment

Project SafeCare was a 4-year, in-home, research and intervention program that provided parent training to families of children at-risk for maltreatment, and families of children who were victims of maltreatment. Parents were trained in treating children's illnesses and maximizing their own health-care skills (Health), positive and effective parent–child interaction skills (Parenting), and maintaining low hazard homes (Safety). The effectiveness of these training components was evaluated as the change in the parents' scores on roleplay situations for child health problems, hazards present in the home, and the frequency and quality of parent–child interactions during activities of daily living. Statistically significant improvements were seen in child health care, home safety, and parent–child interactions.     

When Agreements Blur Disputes: Do Common Assumptions Regarding General Implications of Intimate Physical Partner Violence Mediate or Intensify the Controversy?

A common assumption is that gender can be studied through the differences between men and women living in intimate partner violent (IPV) relationships. Mainly, that general gender behavior can be studied through IPV. This approach is examined and an alternative possibility for a broad agreement is suggested. Accordingly, gender motives reflecting status enhancement for men and risk reduction for women can be dominant in daily conduct and implemented in intimate relationships. The suggestions made in this article can be seen as an alternative agreed starting point for the study of IPV free of a priori premises and conventions. Theoretical and practical implications are suggested which can mediate between the approaches regarding gender and IPV and perhaps clarify the controversy so that different psychological interventions may be applied.     

The Financial Rewards of Elite Status in the Legal Profession

This article focuses on the role of intergenerational status attainment for legal careers. By decomposing the earnings gap between elite and nonelite lawyers at two points in their careers, we find that inherited cultural capital produces an earnings advantage as soon as lawyers begin their careers and that this gap persists over time. We further find that the processes underlying this gap change as lawyers make their way through the profession. While in early careers, the elite advantage is due to stronger starting endowments, the advantage for junior lawyers results from a more complex process, which combines starting endowments, professional capital gained during the first years of practice, and the rate at which endowments are differentially rewarded in the profession. Elaborating on work that identifies the importance of maintaining and concentrating diverse forms of capital in the legal profession, we explain the process through which elite lawyers gain and retain their advantage over time.