Making sense of the legal and judicial architectures of regional trade agreements worldwide

Regional trade agreements (RTAs) constitute one of the most important elements of the international economic order. Researchers have accordingly embarked on comparative analyses of their design. Yet one fundamental question remains unanswered: how have officials in different RTAs responded to the challenge of regulatory misalignments among the member states? In this article, I turn to 10 of the most established RTAs in the world and document three types of responses. Some RTAs rely on the principle of mutual recognition or references to existing international standards; the same agreements also rely on technical dispute resolution mechanisms. Other RTAs, by contrast, make use of extensive harmonization and permanent courts charged with interpreting law. Yet a third group exhibits a hybrid design. This heterogeneity in legislative and judicial design invites explanation. I show that there is a remarkable correspondence between the legal traditions of the member states (common vs. civil law) and the design of RTAs. This correspondence undermines the claims of world polity theorists about the nature of the international order, but is consistent with other strands of sociological institutionalism and certain elements of rationalist and neoliberal institutionalism. I conclude by reflecting on the implications of different RTA designs for the regulation of everyday life in the member states, the World Trade Organization as an international regulatory body, and national sovereignty and democracy.     

Judicial enforcement deputies: Causes and effects of Chinese judges enforcing environmental administrative decisions

This paper explores how and why Chinese courts became involved in regulating pollution by aiding administrative agencies in executing sanction decisions and collecting pollution levies. It also studies the effects of their regulatory involvement, both in terms of deterrence inferred from available information, as well as the compliance behavior of regulated actors defined as payment of regulatory penalties. It finds that judicial involvement in regulatory enforcement proved to be short‐lived and depended on a particular context at a particular period of time when a regulatory need coincided with administrative and financial judicial needs and particular judges. The paper also finds that court involvement enhanced deterrence in terms of certainty of punishment and to some extent the severity of punishment; however that deterrent effect was undermined by the close relationship between the courts and the regulated entities as fines and levies were almost always negotiated. In effect, deterrence increased the number of compliers paying levies without increasing the depth of compliance in terms of their full payment.     

Europe under occupation: the European diplomatic community of practice in the Jerusalem area

ABSTRACT

This article shows how the existence of a community of European practitioners in the Jerusalem area gives substance to the European stance on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The often-stated European Union (EU) support for a two-state solution could appear meaningless in the absence of peace negotiations. However, European diplomats (i.e. diplomats of EU member states and EU officials) in the East Jerusalem–Ramallah area are committed to specific practices of political resistance to Israeli occupation and recognition of Palestinian institutions. These practices have led not only to a specific political geography of diplomacy, but also to a community of practice, composed of European diplomats and based on their daily experience of resisting occupation and bestowing recognition. It is this group of officials who represent and actively “do” Europe’s position and under occupation.     

HOW JUDGES THINK ABOUT RACIAL DISPARITIES: SITUATIONAL DECISION‐MAKING IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM*

Researchers have theorized how judges’ decision‐making may result in the disproportionate presence of Blacks and Latinos in the criminal justice system. Yet, we have little evidence about how judges make sense of these disparities and what, if anything, they do to address them. By drawing on 59 interviews with state judges in a Northeastern state, we describe, and trace the implications of, judges’ understandings of racial disparities at arraignment, plea hearings, jury selection, and sentencing. Most judges in our sample attribute disparities, in part, to differential treatment by themselves and/or other criminal justice officials, whereas some judges attribute disparities only to the disparate impact of poverty and differences in offending rates. To address disparities, judges report employing two categories of strategies: noninterventionist and interventionist. Noninterventionist strategies concern only a judge's own differential treatment, whereas interventionist strategies concern other actors’ possible differential treatment, as well as the disparate impact of poverty and facially neutral laws. We reveal how the use of noninterventionist strategies by most judges unintentionally reproduces disparities. Through our examination of judges’ understandings of racial disparities throughout the court process, we enhance understandings of American racial inequality and theorize a situational approach to decision‐making in organizational contexts.     

法治建设进程中的地方性法规再清理研究——侧重于浙江省的考察

地方法治建设对地方性法规的内容、形式、结构和体系提出了新要求,需要对已有的地方性法规实行继中国因加入世界贸易组织而清理地方性法规后的再一次清理。选项机制的确定是地方性法规清理的关键,法律、行政法规和执法实践是地方性法规清理的主要依据。在清理启动过程中,要建立长效机制,做好有关机构的职责分工,定期清理并注重公众参与。     

地方服务型政府建设的财政困境及其排解

政府职能转变是决定公共财政活动的根本前提,公共财政是政府职能有效实施的物质基础,因此,从公共财政与政府职能的内在关联性出发来反思我国地方服务型政府建设的可能路径无疑是个有益的尝试。而分税制财政体制不完善、地方公共财政资源严重不足以及地方公共财政支出管理混乱这三大财政“瓶颈”成为制约我国地方服务型政府建设成功的重要因素。为此,必须着力构建公共服务型财政体制,以此来加快地方服务型政府建设进程。     

民族自治地方政府行政执法方式改革探析

严格依法行政,规范行政执法行为,是法治化的要求。民族自治地方政府行政执法方式的改革,对转变政府职能,提高政府的决策水平和管理水平,加强政府行政效能建设,实现政府职责的法定化具有实际意义,对民族自治地方公民权利的保障有着重要影响。     

地方事务划分的立法困惑及其理论解答——以台湾地区地方自治的理论与实践为基础

台湾地区推行地方自治,地方事务划分是实现地方自治的前提条件。为了切实保障地方自治,台湾地区所适用的“中华民国宪法”对地方事务作了列举规范,作为一般法律的“地方制度法”也对地方事务的划分作了列举规范。不同效力等级的法规范都对地方事务作了规定,于是产生监督方式区别问题,台湾当局与所属县市地方事务纵向划分问题及地方事务分类问题,现有的法规范并没有给予清楚的心答。在加强地方自治权限思潮的影响下,台湾理论界对之作了回答。     

社会转型期利益群体与中国地方政府善治

社会利益分化和利益结构重构成为社会转型时期最重要、最深刻的变化。越来越多的利益群体对地方政府决策和公共政策产生着重要的影响,并已经成为影响地方政府善治的一个不可回避的现实问题。本文分析了社会转型时期利益群体的重要特点、利益群体对地方政府善治的积极与消极的双重意义,并提出了解决问题的途径与措施。     

从“晋江模式”看地方文化在经济发展中的作用

本从化发生学的角度,分析“晋江模式”是如何在大传统与小传统的共同作用下形成的,以此透视化与经济发展模式之间的关系。“大传统”是指一系列改革开放政策所形成的制度环境,“小传统”是指在特殊历史条件下和地理环境中形成的晋江地方性化。由于存在晋江地方性化的“小传统”,才会在统一的“大传统”下,形成具有地方特色的晋江经济发展模式。