Law Commons^™

Belt And Road Initiative: Legal Mechanism To Recover Stolen Assets, Veltrice Tan

Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy

Purpose: This paper aims to determine the types of legal mechanisms that authorities can use to recover stolen assets for and from China. Design/methodology/approach: Newspaper articles and books are examined as are relevant reports by various regulatory authorities and academic institutions. Findings: The effectiveness of legal mechanisms in the recovery of stolen assets may be affected by issues such as the difficulties in tracing illicit funds, the ambiguous nature of “value” as well as the rise in technology. Research limitations/implications: There are limited data available in relation to the prevalence of corrupt officials along the Belt and Road Initiative and …

Pathways For Recognition: Indigenous Land Rights In Panamá, Caruna Gillespie, William Ascher

CMC Senior Theses

Indigenous communities in Panamá face the same challenge that many Indigenous communities experience around the globe: a lack of recognition of their land rights. Over the last several decades, the Panamanian government has developed policies and ratified international agreements that recognize Indigenous rights. The comarcas that institutionalize these rights have had some success. However, despite a seemingly progressive framework for recognition, Indigenous communities across the country continuously have their rights violated by conservation projects and resource extraction efforts in the name of economic development. The Panamanian government crafts recognition policies using loopholes, exceptions, and ambiguous language that allow for them …

Giglio Feds: The Void Of Ethical Leadership Within Federal Law Enforcement, Christopher J. Boosey

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

No abstract provided.

Crossfire In The Crosshairs: Why Prosecutions Are Necessary In The Interests Of The Republic, Christopher J. Boosey

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

No abstract provided.

Federal Law Enforcement Reform: Depoliticization Into A Constitutional Framework To Restore Public Confidence, Christopher J. Boosey

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis proposes that there is a lack of public confidence in federal law enforcement agencies and that this is because these agencies have become political weapons, investigating individuals rather than crimes, in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Following multiple scandals, from the historical targeting of the Civil Rights movement to present attempts to designate parents critical of school administrators as domestic terrorists, wholesale reform of these agencies is urgent. Therefore, this thesis will address the issue of politicization, political corruption, and the lack of adherence to constitutional principles through the problem, significance, and solution method. This thesis will first …

Press Freedom Under Threat In Europe: A Case Study Analysis Of The Increasing Threat To Press Freedom In Greece, Italy, And Hungary, Maya O'Leary-Cyr

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research critically examines the legal systems of European countries and their relationship to press freedom. This research focuses on the vexatious legal threats used by government officials and corporations to silence journalists. These legal threats are known as SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation) and their use has increased exponentially in the last decade. Considering the scope of the problem, this research analyzes the issue through the lens of European countries Greece, Italy, and Hungary. Being members of the European Union, each of these countries have an obligation to uphold the democratic standards put forth by the EU as …

The Westminster Model And The Destabilizing Of Democracy In The Caribbean, Peter L. René

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem with the Westminster model is the model’s lack of governance, oversight and colonial mindset which has led to a crisis that includes severe government corruption, deepening poverty, upticks in crime, debt and decreasing trade opportunities. This makes life harder for the citizens and threatens to destabilize the democracies with no one nation situated to cope with these existential challenges. National independence for the region was designed to maintain the status quo of colonial times while providing the illusion of autonomy and individual sovereignty. The purpose of the study was to analyze the Westminster model enacted in the Caribbean …

Towards A Governance Model Of Ungovernable Prisons: How Recognition Of Inmate Organizations, Dialogue, And Mutual Respect Can Transform Violent Prisons In Latin America, José Luis Pérez Guadalupe, James Cavallaro, Lucia Nuñovero

Catholic University Law Review

Study of informal organizations in prisons in Latin America focuses on the exercise of control over daily life inside detention centers, including the extreme example of ‘self-government’ of and by those incarcerated. In Latin America, self-government occurs in the dangerous context of severe overcrowding, limited resources and poor services, aggravated by high levels of violence and illicit markets within prisons. The combination is highly volatile and poses grave dangers to the lives and wellbeing of detainees, authorities and often the larger society beyond prisons. This article considers one pioneering effort to overcome the unfettered control of prison by detainees: the …

“I Want Justice From People Who Did Bad Things To Children”: Experiences Of Justice For Sex Trafficking Survivors, John G. Morrissey, James Havey, Glenn M. Miles, Nhanh Channtha, Lim Vanntheary

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This research from the Butterfly Longitudinal Research Project focused on understanding the experiences and perceptions of justice and the justice system for 93 Cambodia participants (including 88 survivors of sex trafficking) as they navigated the legal system. Thirty-two of these survivors had experiences in court and provided details into their courtroom experiences, predominantly within Cambodia but also in the United States. The survivors’ experiences were diverse; however, the prevailing themes were: fear throughout their legal journeys; a low level of awareness and understanding of their legal experiences; and that NGO support was essential for these survivors to engage in the …

Jobs For Justice(S): Corruption In The Supreme Court Of India, Madhav S. Aney, Shubhankar Dam, Giovanni Ko

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate whether judicial decisions are affected by career concerns of judges by analyzing two questions: Do judges respond to incentives to pander by ruling in favor of the government in the hope of receiving jobs after retiring from the Supreme Court? Does the government reward judges who rule in its favor with prestigious jobs? We construct a data set of Supreme Court of India cases involving the government for 1999–2014. We find that incentives to pander have a causal effect on judicial decision-making, and they are jointly determined by the importance of the case and whether the judge retires …

Advancing Applied Research In Conservation Criminology Through The Evaluation Of Corruption Prevention, Enhancing Compliance, And Reducing Recidivism, Jessica S. Kahler, Joseph W. Rivera, Zachary T. Steele, Pilar Morales-Giner, Christian J. Rivera, Carol F. Ahossin, Ashpreet Kaur, Diane J. Episcopio-Sturgeon

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Concomitant with an increase in the global illegal wildlife trade has been a substantial increase in research within traditional conservation-based sciences and conservation and green criminology. While the integration of criminological theories and methods into the wildlife conservation context has advanced our understanding of and practical responses to illegal wildlife trade, there remain discrepancies between the number of empirical vs. conceptual studies and a disproportionate focus on a few select theories, geographical contexts, and taxonomic groups. We present three understudied or novel applications of criminology and criminal justice research within the fields of fisheries, forestry, and wildlife conservation. First, we …

Corruption In Togo's Land Registration And Its Impact On Real Estate Development, Gbati Kakaye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract:Researchers have asserted that following malaria and AIDS, land-related conflict, exacerbated by rampant real estate corruption, is the third-largest problem and leading cause of death in Togo. The current study provided a means of gaining better understanding of the impact of corruption on real estate development in Togo by addressing the following research questions: How is corruption manifested in Togo’s land registration process and how has corruption in land registration process impacted real estate development? Theoretically, the study was underpinned by the cultural and neo-institutional economics framework. Data were collected through individual interviews and a focus group discussion with 15 …

Corruption In The Public Sector In North Macedonia: What Can Be Done?, Teodora Gacoska

English Language Institute

The purpose of this project is to analyze the current situation of corruption in the public sector in North Macedonia and suggest possible solutions to prevent this kind of corruption.

The Effect Of Police Oversight On Crime And Allegations Of Misconduct: Evidence From Chicago, Bocar A. Ba, Roman G. Rivera

All Faculty Scholarship

Does policing the police increase crime? We avoid simultaneity effects of increased public oversight during a major scandal by identifying events in Chicago that only impacted officers’ self-imposed monitoring. We estimate crime’s response to self- and public-monitoring using regression discontinuity and generalized synthetic control methods. Self-monitoring, triggered by police union memos, significantly reduced serious complaints without impacting crime or effort. However, after a scandal, both civilian complaints and crime rates rise, suggesting that higher crime rates following heightened oversight results from de-policing and civilian behavior simultaneously changing. Our research suggests that proactive internal accountability improves police-community relations without increasing crime.

The Water Tanker Mafia, Yousuf Sajjad

MSJ Capstone Projects

This is a thesis about the Water Tanker Mafia in Karachi. The citizens of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi suffer from an acute lack of water for drinking and domestic use. To cover for this lack of water, there is a network of tankers, run illegally but also with a large degree of connivance with parts of the state in Karachi, that provides water to the citizens of this city. This paper seeks to explain this network, its history, organization and the infrastructure in Karachi that it supports or in many cases, supersedes. This paper places the Karachi water tanker mafia …

Jobs For Justice(S): Corruption In The Supreme Court Of India, Madhav S. Aney, Shubhankar Dam, Giovanni Ko

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate whether judicial decisions are affected by career concerns of judges byanalysing two questions: Do judges respond to pandering incentives by ruling in favourof the government in the hope of receiving jobs after retiring from the Court? Does thegovernment actually reward judges who ruled in its favour with prestigious jobs? To answerthese questions we construct a dataset of all Supreme Court of India cases involving thegovernment from 1999 till 2014, with an indicator for whether the decision was in its favouror not. We find that pandering incentives have a causal effect on judicial decision-making.The exposure of a judge to …

Enforcing The Fcpa: International Resonance And Domestic Strategy, Rachel Brewster

Faculty Scholarship

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), which bans corporations from offering bribes to foreign government officials, was enacted during the Watergate era’s crackdown on political corruption but remained only weakly enforced for its first two decades. American industry argued that the law created an uneven playing field in global commerce, which made robust enforcement politically unpopular. This Article documents how the executive branch strategically under- enforced the FCPA, while Congress and the President pushed for an international agreement that would bind other countries to rules similar to those of the United States. The Article establishes that U.S. officials ramped up …

Hydroelectric Dams: The Lao Government's Luxury Trap, M.K. Laurel

ENV 434 Environmental Justice

The research of the Lao government, its hydroelectric dams, and its responses to its project was done through an environmental justice lens. It is an interdisciplinary research that explores the political corruption, the role of media, and the environment in order to frame the Lao government and the reasoning behind their unjust activities.

Aarash, Aarash, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

As an anti-corruption journalist in Afghanistan, Aarash’s family’s life was threatened by warlords. His car was shot at, their guesthouse was bombed, and later when they were threatened at gunpoint, they tried to make a new life in India. But in India, they discovered difficulties in obtaining permanent visas so they had return to Kabul where they hid at a friend’s house for 20 days while obtaining documentation to flee to Turkey. Once in Turkey, they learned that Afghan registries had been closed since 2010. They determined that they needed to either apply for asylum in Turkey or leave for …

On The Comparative Study Of Corruption, Franklin E. Zimring, David T. Johnson

Franklin E. Zimring

No abstract provided.

Culpability And Modern Crime, Samuel W. Buell

Faculty Scholarship

Criminal law has developed to prohibit new forms of intrusion on the autonomy and mental processes of others. Examples include modern understandings of fraud, extortion, and bribery, which pivot on the concepts of deception, coercion, and improper influence. Sometimes core offenses develop to include similar concepts, such as when reforms in the law of sexual assault make consent almost exclusively material. Many of these projects are laudable. But progressive programs in substantive criminal law can raise difficult problems of culpability. Modern iterations of criminal offenses often draw lines using concepts involving relative mental states among persons whose conduct is embedded …

The Shadows Behind The Law: An Overview Of The Legal System In Ghana, Prince Opoku Agyemang

Prince Opoku Agyemang

The Role Of Parliament In Curbing Corruption, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

this note discussed the role that parliaments can play in the fight against corruption

Corruption Temptation, Guy-Uriel Charles

Faculty Scholarship

In response to Professor Lawrence Lessig’s Jorde Lecture, I suggest that corruption is not the proper conceptual vehicle for thinking about the problems that Professor Lessig wants us to think about. I argue that Professor Lessig’s real concern is that, for the vast majority of citizens, wealth presents a significant barrier to political participation in the funding of campaigns. Professor Lessig ought to discuss the wealth problem directly. I conclude with three reasons why the corruption temptation ought to be resisted.

The Underutilized Foreign Investor, Griffin Weaver

Griffin Weaver

For most states, if not all, the push for economic advancement is at the front of every administration’s agenda. This is especially true for developing countries in the Middle East whose standard of living and international power is largely tied to its economic condition. An important indicator, if not condition, of a state’s economic health is the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) received by the state. This inflow of money is essential for the growth and stability of a state’s economy. As one U.S. official once noted, the United States “need[s] a net inflow of capital of $3 billion …

A Statistical Analysis Of Public Sector Corruption And Economic Growth, Kaycea Campbell

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

This study reports on the results of a statistical analysis in which the relationship between the independent variable of corruption, as measured by the World Bank, and the dependent variable of economic growth, as measured by percentage of GDP growth per year, was examined. The purpose of this study is to apply empirical methods to the debate on corruption and growth, in which neoclassical theory predicts that corruption retards growth but in which other models, such as Lewis growth and the Kuznets Curve, suggest that corruption may actually speed up growth in underdeveloped countries. The main finding of the study …

The Dangers Of Diversity: Ethnic Fractionalization And The Rule Of Law, Michael Touchton

Michael Touchton

Research linking ethnic cleavages to economic underdevelopment is a hallmark of recent efforts to explain economic growth. Similarly, the rule of law as a credible commitment to property rights and contract enforcement is also identified with economic development. Rather than treating these factors as rival explanations for economic development around the world, I propose the rule of law as the causal mechanism through which ethnic fractionalization (EF) influences growth in many countries. I argue ethnic diversity negatively impacts the rule of law due to the prevalence of ethnically-based patronage networks in developing countries. Public officials, I argue, face greater incentives …

Corruption And Human Rights: Exploring The Relationships, Berihun Adugna Gebeye

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Corruption is a global phenomenon which every society faces though its degree of severity varies from country to country. Despite its long history, there is no single universally agreed upon definition of corruption. Moreover, its causes, forms and impacts are diverse and multi-faceted. Understanding corruption by itself is a complex undertaking. However, it is agreed that corruption is inimical to public administration, undermines democracy, degrades the moral fabrics of the society and violates human rights. The pain of corruption touches all the human family but it disproportionately affects the vulnerable sections of the society. It reinforces discrimination, exclusion and arbitrariness. …

Assessing Whether Oil Dependency In Venezuela Contributes To National Instability, Adam Kott

Journal of Strategic Security

The focus of this article is on what role, if any, oil has on Venezuela's instability. When trying to explain why a resource-rich country experiences slow or negative growth, experts often point to the resource curse. The following pages explore the traditional theory behind the resource curse as well as alternative perspectives to this theory such as ownership structure and the correlation between oil prices and democracy. This article also explores the various forms of instability within Venezuela and their causes. Finally, the article looks at President Hugo Chavez's political and economic policies as well as the stagnation of the …

Slides: Sources Of Electrical Energy For Those Who Are Remote And Poor, Frank Barnes

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

Presenter: Dr. Frank Barnes, Distinguished Professor, Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado

24 slides