The Clean Development Mechanism: A Bane or a Boon for Developing Countries?

We analyse the gains to developing countries from the participation in the CDM during the Kyoto period (until 2010) in the event an emissions trading (ET) regime exists in the post-Kyoto period (2010–20). We show that the developing countries will always be better-off participating in the CDM if the emissions quota they get in the post-Kyoto period is not linked to their baseline emissions. However if their quota equals (or is related to) their baseline emissions, CDM participation strategy may be a preferred alternative only if the CDM price is high enough to off-set the losses of the post-Kyoto period (during ET regime) due to participation in the CDM. We simulate the CDM and ET in the Kyoto and post-Kyoto period and show that with the reduction targets given in the Kyoto Protocol for Annex B countries, participation in the CDM is beneficial to non-Annex B (developing) countries, even if their emissions quota in the post-Kyoto period (during ET regime) is determined by their baseline emissions. Abatement supply price in the post-Kyoto period however turns out to be crucial factor in this case.     

多边贸易体制下的反规避规则与中国的反规避立法

随着国际贸易竞争的加剧,各种规避反倾销的行为层出不穷,反规避规则也因此逐渐出现在欧美等一些国家的反倾销法中。WTO框架下的多边贸易体制尚无统一的反规避规则,国际上对反规避的合法性与合理性也存在一定的争议。中国目前对反规避措施只有原则性的规定,但缺乏具体的、可操作性的规则,因此有进行反规避立法的必要,以完善反倾销法律制度。     

Difficulties in the criminal prosecution of insider trading—A clinical study of the Bekaert case

If the enforcement of insider trading prohibition is of crucial importance to ensure the integrity of financial markets, then the current criminal prosecution in Europe fails in reaching this goal. This article illustrates several difficulties in prohibiting and prosecuting insider trading by using a clinical study of the Belgian industrial company Bekaert, NV. It is shown that courts currently seem to lack knowledge of the functioning of financial markets to assess an insider trading case. Therefore their decisions give little guidance to future litigants. Using, a law and economics framework, this clinical study is clarifying in several aspects compared to a traditional legal analysis. The analysis focuses on two aspects of an insider trading case. First, the price-sensitive character of the information is examined. Second, the standard of proof is examined. JEL classification G14 · K22 · K42     

Norway and Emissions Trading: From Global Front-Runner to EU Follower

A striking convergence has taken place in the design of the Norwegian and EU greenhouse gas emissions trading systems from 1998 to 2004. This article argues that the Norwegian adaptation to the EU did not take place as a consequence of perceived legal obligations under the European Economic Area agreement. Nor did it take place due to Norwegian actors being persuaded about the merits of the EU design. The main explanation has to do with interests. The EU market and politics are of course generally very important for Norway. However, before the US pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, the Norwegian outlook in climate politics was global. The US pull-out accelerated the development and hence the attractiveness of the EU trading system and resulted in EU emissions trading as the most probable and possibly only international market for Norway to link up to. Hence, this analysis provides further support to the importance of being sensitive to the global context and institutional interaction when analyzing the relationship between the EU and its neighboring countries.     

Emissions Rights and their Transferability: Equity Concerns over Climate Change Mitigation

Existing literature on equity considerations for climate change mitigation has largely focused on fair burden-sharing at an inter-national level without adequate attention to equity concerns at the intra-national level. However, disparities between regions and income groups within nations pose perhaps more equity concerns over climate change mitigation than those between nations. While international equity can be agreed upon via political negotiation among nations, the poor in both developed and developing countries may not be guaranteed their fair allocation of emissions rights because the necessary institutional framework has yet to be established at both international and national levels. This paper distinguishes three parts of emissions rights and discusses their transferability in view of equity concerns. The author suggests that basic necessity emissions rights are not transferable and non-necessity emissions are fully marketable, while individual contributions to state are subject to collective decision-making or political manipulation at the international level. The exact share of each of the three parts is subject to further investigation, but unlimited free trading of emissions rights is likely to result in equity concerns at both inter- and intra-national levels. Further examination in quantitative terms would represent an interesting case study for a better understanding of the issue.     

What is an algorithm? Financial regulation in the era of high-frequency trading

Abstract

In response to the flash crashes and market manipulations blamed on high-frequency trading (HFT), algorithms have been brought inside the regulatory perimeter. This paper focuses on the most ambitious regulation directed at the practice: the algorithm-tagging rule in the German High-Frequency Trading Act. Fifteen interviews with stakeholders in the Act’s implementation serve to reconstruct how regulators defined an algorithm and help pose the question of to what extent regulatory definitions and data need accurately to represent financial practices to be useful. Although tentative in its findings, the research suggests that the algorithm-tagging rule may be providing valuable signals in the noise to trade surveillance officers and having virtuous effects on the cultures of trading firms. The conclusion argues that sociologists of finance should adopt a more balanced approach when evaluating regulatory technologies and heed MacKenzie’s 2005 call to open up their black boxes.     

One global deal from Paris 2015: Convergence and contestations on the future climate mitigation agenda

This article analyses the 2015 Paris Agreement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, with a focus on mitigation. The history of climate negotiations and the mitigation agenda shows the divide between developed and developing countries, with the latter insisting that the former, having caused the problem, need to do more to reduce carbon emissions to address climate change. However, as some emerging economies had continued to emit more carbon, there were calls to treat these as developed countries, requiring increased mitigation measures. The article examines the record of these emerging economies, and establishes that there was some convergence in Paris, a positive element that resulted in a single global climate treaty. However, the Paris negotiations also witnessed contestations, with the final agreement insufficient to keep global warming within advised limits, and in any case only partly legally binding, leaving its implementation success to good will.     

我国证券内幕交易行为之法律规制问题研究

证券内幕交易行为违反了民法上的平等原则和诚信原则,对正常的证券交易秩序造成了极大危害。应当从证券内幕交易行为的特点入手对其危害性进行分析,并在此基础上建立相应的法律制度,以加强对证券交易市场的监管,遏制证券内幕交易行为的发生。     

The problem of past emissions and intergenerational debts

The problem of past emissions – how to share fairly the costs of climate-changing emissions caused by polluters who are no longer in existence – presents an increasingly pressing challenge to scholars and policy-makers. Since standard contribution-based principles are inapplicable when it comes to past emissions, theorists have instead proposed various non-contribution-based historical principles. This paper develops such a principle – the Inherited Debt Principle – which seeks to account for the intuition that historical injustice matters to current duties in a way that does not appeal to the counterfactual benefits derived from that injustice. This principle, it is argued, offers a surprisingly plausible solution to the problem of past emissions.