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The Paper Tiger Gets Teeth: Developments In Chinese Environmental Law, Erin Ryan Mar 2014

The Paper Tiger Gets Teeth: Developments In Chinese Environmental Law, Erin Ryan

Erin Ryan

This very short essay reports on the 2014 amendments to China’s Environmental Protection Law, following a series of internationally reported air and water pollution crises leading to unprecedented public protests. The changes promise more meaningful oversight of industrial pollution and harsher penalties for violations, targeting not only polluters but officials who fail to enforce applicable regulations against them. The amendments also empower certain non-governmental organizations to bring environmental litigation on behalf of the public. Official news accounts openly acknowledge the government’s hope that increased public access to legal redress will reduce the growing trend of mass environmental protests. These are …


The Elaborate Paper Tiger: Environmental Enforcement And The Rule Of Law In China, Erin Ryan Dec 2013

The Elaborate Paper Tiger: Environmental Enforcement And The Rule Of Law In China, Erin Ryan

Erin Ryan

In recent decades, the eyes of the world have been trained on China’s remarkable feats of rapid economic development. Yet the enormous environmental toll associated with China’s growth has also drawn global attention, as Chinese air and water quality plummet to historic lows. Epic levels of environmental degradation have fueled a growing domestic consensus that China must do better at reconciling these competing goals. This article reviews the contemporary challenges facing the second wave of environmental governance in China (with an addendum addressing important environmental law amendments enacted as it went to press). In the first wave of environmental governance, …


Judicial Independence And The Rule Of Law: Lessons From Post-Menem Argentina, Christopher J. Walker Jan 2007

Judicial Independence And The Rule Of Law: Lessons From Post-Menem Argentina, Christopher J. Walker

Christopher J. Walker

Argentina, like much of Latin America, has historically been plagued by what some call delegative democracy or a democracy without any developed rule of law. However, the Kirchner Administration has brought a glimmer of hope to the twentieth-first-century Argentine democracy. President Néstor Kirchner was elected in 2003, after what was probably the most serious institutional, financial, and economic crisis in Argentina in recent times. When elected, Kirchner promised to address the perceived lack of independence of the Supreme Court and to restore the rule of law. This paper explains why Kirchner's efforts, without more, will not be enough to (re-)build …


Toward Democratic Consolidation? The Argentine Supreme Court, Judicial Independence, And The Rule Of Law, Christopher J. Walker Dec 2005

Toward Democratic Consolidation? The Argentine Supreme Court, Judicial Independence, And The Rule Of Law, Christopher J. Walker

Christopher J. Walker

Too little attention has been paid to the role of judiciary in strengthening democracy and the rule of law in Latin America, with even less attention on the Argentine judicial system. In this paper, the role of the courts in consolidation will be examined through the Argentine case study. Part I outlines the current state of the literature on democratization and the rule of law with respect to Latin America, while Part II reviews what has been written about the Latin American judiciary and its influence on the rule of law. Part III evaluates the development of the judiciary and …