Law Commons^™

Equality Offshore, Martin W. Sybblis

Faculty Articles

Global governance architecture, crafted by wealthy nations, has perpetuated the subordination of developing jurisdictions. The Article offers a novel and surprising analysis of governance tools used by wealthy countries and inter-governmental organizations to constrain offshore financial centers (OFCs) by focusing on the tools’ disparate impacts on tax havens whose populations comprise predominantly Black and Brown people. With tax haven issues garnering increasing attention, this Article provides a pathbreaking conceptual framework for examining the international tax, crime, and business discourse on OFCs. It also illuminates how the actions of powerful international actors, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development …

Developing Countries And International Economic Law: The Case Of Burma, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

Roughly a quarter of a century ago, developing countries, in large numbers, signed on to the 1994 revision of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade3 ("GKTT 1994") and to membership in its umbrella institution, the World Trade Organization ("WTO"). Notwithstanding their erstwhile reluctance to do business with and compete against developed countries that in many instances had been colonial oppressors, they took on substantial obligations under the WTO agreements. Developing countries did so, in part, because they feared being left behind economically in a world where free trade prospered.

Formulary Apportionment And International Tax Rules, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Zachee Pouga Tinhaga

Book Chapters

Any proposal to adopt unitary taxation (UT) of multinationals has to contend with whether such taxation is compatible with existing international tax rules, and, in particular, with the bilateral tax treaty network. Indeed, some researchers have argued that the separate accounting (SA) method and the arm’s length standard (ALS), introduced in the early twentieth century, are so embodied in the treaties that they form part of customary international law, and are binding even in the absence of a treaty. We disagree, because the unitary approach is just as widely embodied in most of the current international tax treaties, and, where …

Model Law On Lighting For Developing Countries, Lakshman Guruswamy, Audrey M. Huang, Mahir Haque, Ugyen Tshering

Publications

No abstract provided.

Leveraging Mining Demand For Internet And Telecommunications Infrastructure For Broad Economic Development: Models, Opportunities And Challenges, Perrine Toledano, Clara Roorda

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The initial phase of the Leveraging Mining-Related Infrastructure Investments for Development project consisted of a worldwide survey of regulatory, commercial and operating case studies of shared use of mining-related infrastructure. This Policy Paper delivers the findings for internet and telecommunications.

Transfer Pricing: Un Practical Manual – China, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Andrew Shact

Faculty Scholarship

Any contemporary Chinese transfer pricing assessment needs to consider the United Nation (UN) Practical Manual on Transfer Pricing for Developing Countries released in May 2013. In particular, Chapter 10 discusses Country Practices and presents China’s most up to date transfer pricing policy statement.

China is not an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member nor has it formally adopted the OECD’s Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations. Chapter 10 makes it very clear that China is charting a different transfer pricing course in at least nine important areas. China believes that: 1. significant comparability adjustments are …

A National Mineral Policy As An International Investment Law Stratagem: The Case Of Tajikistan's Gold Reserves, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The International Sugar Trade And Sustainable Development: Curtailing The Sugar Rush, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Mobile Money In Developing Countries: Financial Inclusion And Financial Integrity Conference Special Issue, Jane K. Winn, Louis De Koker

Articles

This special issue of the Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts contains papers contributed to a conference held at the University of Washington School of Law on April 20, 2012. The conference, entitled Mobile Money in Developing Countries: Financial Inclusion and Financial Integrity, was organized by the University of Washington School of Law with the support of the Linden Rhoads Dean’s Innovation Fund, Deakin University School of Law, Australia, and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

The conference provided an early opportunity to analyze the impact of the newly-released revised 2012 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) …

Drafting Model Laws On Indoor Pollution For Developing And Developed Nations Workshop, July 12-13, 2012, Boulder, Colorado: Introduction, Lakshman Guruswamy

Publications

No abstract provided.

Development And Dissemination Of Clean Cookstoves: A Model Law For Developing Countries, Lakshman Guruswamy

Publications

No abstract provided.

Slides: Draft Power In Developing Country Agriculture--South Asia, Arjun Makhijani

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER)

13 slides

Slides: Impacts Of Energy Deficits In Cooking, Illumination, Water, Sanitation, And Motive Power, Paul S. Chinowsky

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Dr. Paul Chinowsky, Director, Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities; Professor, University of Colorado

25 slides

Agenda: Drafting Model Laws On Indoor Pollution For Developing And Developed Nations, University Of Colorado Boulder. Center For Energy & Environmental Security, Colorado Natural Resources, Energy And Environmental Law Review

Drafting Model Laws on Indoor Pollution for Developing and Developed Nations (July 12-13)

On July 12 and 13, 2012, experts convened at Colorado Law to demonstrate the extent to which a model law could help address the global problem of indoor air pollution from inefficient cook stoves. The air pollution that results from inefficiently burning biomass as fuel for cooking has serious health and climatic consequences. The workshop produced two sets of Model Laws and commentaries to help nations solve the problem, and the commentaries were published in the Colorado Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law Review.

Drafting Model Laws On Indoor Pollution For Developing And Developed Nations Workshop, July 12-13, 2012, Boulder, Colorado: Introduction, Lakshman Guruswamy

Drafting Model Laws on Indoor Pollution for Developing and Developed Nations (July 12-13)

11 pages.

"This Essay introduces the framework for deliberation and legislative drafting undertaken at the workshop: Drafting Model Laws on Indoor Pollution for Developing and Developed Nations on July 12-13, 2012, in Boulder, Colorado. There are a number of fundamental premises upon which the workshop was based, and this Essay refers to the most salient among them."-- Excerpted from 24 Colo. Nat. Resources, Energy & Envtl. L. Rev. 319 (2013).

Development And Dissemination Of Clean Cookstoves: A Model Law For Developing Countries, Lakshman Guruswamy Ed.

Drafting Model Laws on Indoor Pollution for Developing and Developed Nations (July 12-13)

24 pages.

"This model law was developed at a legislative drafting workshop on July 12-13, 2012, entitled Drafting Model Laws on Indoor Pollution for Developing and Developed Nations, which was sponsored by the Center for Energy & Environmental Security and the Colorado Natural Resources, Energy & Environmental Law Review at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder, Colorado." Excerpted from 24 Colo. Nat. Resources, Energy & Envtl. L. Rev. 331 (2013).

Carving Out Policy Autonomy For Developing Countries In The World Trade Organization: The Experience Of Brazil And Mexico, Alvaro Santos

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Although liberal trade and development scholars disagree about the merits of the World Trade Organization (WTO), they both assume that WTO legal obligations restrict states’ regulatory autonomy. This article argues for relaxing this shared assumption by showing that, despite the restrictions imposed by international economic law obligations, states retain considerable flexibility to carve out policy autonomy. The article makes three distinct contributions. First, it analyzes how active WTO members can, through litigation and lawyering, influence rule interpretation to advance their interests. Second, the article redefines the concept of “legal capacity” in the WTO context and introduces the term “developmental legal …

The Ifc's New Africa, Latin America, And Caribbean Fund: Its Worrisome Start, And How To Fix It, Christiana Ochoa, Patrick J. Keenan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In April 2010 the International Finance Corporation announced the creation of the African, Latin American, and Caribbean fund, a new co-investment vehicle funded largely with commitments from sovereign wealth and pension funds. The fund's objective was to draw on the IFC and the World Bank's strengths in emerging markets to identify and support enterprises that might not otherwise have come to the attention of large investors and thereby help strengthen the private sector and alleviate poverty in some of the world's poorest countries. Unfortunately the fund has, so far, proven a disappointment. It has invested only in large corporations that …

Climate Changes And The Poorest Nations: Further Reflections On Global Inequality, Ruth Gordon

The Climate of Environmental Justice: Taking Stock (March 16-17)

Presenter: Ruth Gordon, Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law

3 pages.

Meeting Basic Survival Needs Of The World's Least Healthy People: Toward A Framework Convention On Global Health, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Lectures and Appearances

This article searches for solutions to the most perplexing problems in global health - problems so important that they affect the fate of millions of people, with economic, political, and security ramifications for the world's population. There are a variety of solutions scholars propose to improve global health and close the yawning health gap between rich and poor: global health is in the national interests of the major State powers; States owe an ethical duty to act; or international legal norms require effective action. However, arguments based on national interest, ethics, or international law have logical weaknesses. The coincidence of …

Expanding And Sustaining Clinical Legal Education In Developing Countries: What We Can Learn From South Africa, Peggy Maisel

Faculty Scholarship

Scholars have devoted considerable attention and resources to creating and expanding legal aid clinics, law school clinics, and university-based law clinics in order to make the law school experience more educational and relevant for law students in developing countries by introducing more skills training into the curriculum. Those who support the expansion of clinical legal education in South Africa and elsewhere have sought to achieve specific objectives related to improving legal education for students and providing assistance to economically disadvantaged groups.

Legal education is enhanced when it reflects the realities of the citizens within a country, such as South Africa …

Banking Law Reform And Users-Consumers In Developing Economies: Creating An Accessible And Equitable Consumer Base From The 'Excluded', Joseph J. Norton

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Drawing on over two decades of relevant experience, the author sets forth the primary proposition that the equitable and accessible provision of banking services has never been a core component of modern banking sector legal reform in developing countries. Over the course of the article, the author evaluates the past fifteen years of banking law reform for developing countries and considers recent World Bank efforts to address financial access and equity issues. The article also includes a discussion of the rise of microfinancing and private banking industry initiatives in South Africa. The author concludes with reflections on the importance of …

Business, Steven R. Ratner

Book Chapters

This chapter seeks to expose some of the divergences between doctrine and reality, and to suggest ways of understanding the field that take proper account of business. It does so first by examining the roles and goals of business entities with respect to international environmental law. It then examines how international law has accommodated the place of business in environmental policy with respect to two key issues: (1) corporations as the target of legal obligations; and (2) corporations as participants in the process of international environmental law, particularly with respect to law-making and implementation. I conclude with some thoughts regarding …

The World Bank's Uses Of The "Rule Of Law" Promise In Economic Development, Alvaro Santos

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this chapter, the author seeks to disaggregate the World Bank and provide insight on the impact that particular groups have in dominant development strategies. By analyzing the internal dynamics among groups at the Bank, his aim is to illuminate the rise and fall of ideas about development and their resistance to both empirical evidence and academic critique. These internal dynamics include institutional inertia and constraints, groups’ struggle and competition over resources and prestige, and the relationship between groups at the Bank and the governments of borrowing countries.

The argument presented is that the conceptions of the rule of law …

Bridging The North/South Divide: International Redistribution And Tax Competition, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The most important social problem facing humanity at the beginning of the 21st century is the yawning divide in standards of living between the rich nations of the global North and the poor nations of the global South. The following table gives some indicia of the current gap in living standards. It shows that the majority of the population in most developing countries lives on less than two dollars a day; that in some developing countries, over a quarter of children aged 10-14 are employed in the work force; that mortality for children under five in developing countries can be …

Legal Movements In Intellectual Property: Trips, Unilateral Action, Bilateral Agreements, And Hiv/Aids, Margo A. Bagley

Faculty Articles

This Article begins with an overview of the relationship between the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the "TRIPS Agreement") and the HIV/AIDS pandemic which created the need for the Doha Declaration. It then discusses two trade-related movements, unilateral action and TRIPS-plus bilateral agreements, that call into question the long-term effectiveness of the TRIPS Agreement process, generally, and the benefits of the Doha Declaration, in particular, in addressing multiple facets of the access to essential medicines problem. This Article concludes that a consideration of these issues should be included in the development of any further TRIPS-related solutions to …

Climate Change: The Next Dimension, Lakshman Guruswamy

Publications

No abstract provided.

Copyright And International Trips Compliance (Symposium: Fifth Annual Conference On International Intellectual Property Law And Policy), Shira Perlmutter, Jerome H. Reichman, Whitmore Gray

Other Publications

MS. PERLMUTTER: We have heard today about copyright in two different regions of the world, in Central and Eastern Europe' and in China. In recent years there has been an increasing convergence in the substance of national laws in different regions of the world. One of the major factors has been the TRIPs Agreement? I will focus on the current efforts toward implementing the TRIPs Agreement, and this will be a procedure-oriented talk.

Investment Disputes And Jurisdiction Of The International Center For Settlement Of Investment Disputes (Icsid), Vakhid Yakubjanovitch Saparov

LLM Theses and Essays

This thesis will analyze one of the ways in which disputes arising from developed countries' investment activities in the developing countries are decided. The issues of investment and disputes are of great importance to the developed countries as well as to developing countries. The scope of the issues gives rise to a multitude of questions of national and international law in an interdependent world economy. International investment attracts the close attention of international law because it brings the movement of people and financial resources from one country to another and such movement gives rise to a potential risk for conflict …

Developing Countries And Multilateral Trade Agreements: Law And The Promise Of Development, Chantal Thomas

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.