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Full-Text Articles in Law
Endangered Element Of Icsid Arbitral Practice: Investment Treaty Arbitration, Foreign Direct Investment And The Promise Of Economic Development In Host States., Felix O. Okpe
Felix O. Okpe
The omission to define the term ‘investment’ in the ICSID Convention is one of the most critical decisions that have led to the inconsistent jurisprudence and the resulting debate associated with the propriety of the ICSID Convention and investment treaty arbitration. The legislative history and the circumstances leading to the birth of the ICSID Convention strongly suggest that its main objective is the protection and promotion of economic development in the host State. Most of the propositions aimed at giving a meaning to the term ‘investment’ in ICSID arbitral practice have focused more on whether the scope of the meaning …
Pitfalls Of Measuring The Rull Of Law, Tom Ginsburg
Pitfalls Of Measuring The Rull Of Law, Tom Ginsburg
Tom Ginsburg
The recent demand for new measures of the rule of law confronts several meth- odological challenges. This article calls for careful attention to fundamental social science ideas of conceptualization and measurement in approaching the rule of law. Efforts to measure complex social phenomena such as the rule of law are chal- lenging, and thus require that researchers and policy makers pay attention to the cautionary rules of social science in their efforts. Violating these basic rules risks producing measures that are not reliable or valid, and could be a bad basis for policymaking. This paper demonstrates some of the pitfalls …
Citizen As Founder: Public Participation In Constitutional Approval, Tom Ginsburg, Justin Blount, Zachary Elkins
Citizen As Founder: Public Participation In Constitutional Approval, Tom Ginsburg, Justin Blount, Zachary Elkins
Tom Ginsburg
Public involvement in constitution making is increasingly considered to be essential for the legitimacy and effectiveness of the process. It is also becoming more widespread, spurred on by constitutional advisors and the international community. Yet we have remarkably little empirical evidence of the impact of participation on outcomes. This essay examines hypotheses on the effect of one aspect of public participation in the constitution-making process -ratification- and surveys available evidence. We find some limited support for the optimistic view about the impact of ratification on legitimacy, conflict, and constitutional endurance.
The Scaffolding For Legal Infrastructure: Developing Sustainable Approaches, Keith A. Rosten
The Scaffolding For Legal Infrastructure: Developing Sustainable Approaches, Keith A. Rosten
Keith A Rosten
This article presents approaches to guide implementation of legal development initiatives in transition countries. Law and development is an emerging area of the law in which there has been a paucity of literature, particularly from practitioners. This article probes some of the most important areas where legal development projects falter and presents possible solutions that will significantly increase the possibility of sustainable reform.
Unintended Consequences Of Legal Westernization In Niger: Harming Contemporary Slaves By Reconceptualizing Property, Thomas A. Kelley
Unintended Consequences Of Legal Westernization In Niger: Harming Contemporary Slaves By Reconceptualizing Property, Thomas A. Kelley
Thomas A Kelley III
There are slaves living today in the West African Republic of Niger and their plight is being exacerbated by that country’s aggressive program of legal westernization. Under the guidance of the United States and other Western countries, Niger recently passed a surfeit of new laws, including some that introduce and enforce the notion of private property ownership. The theory – widely accepted by donor countries and international development experts – is that uniform, easily enforceable rights in private property will spur investment and help breathe life into Niger’s moribund economy. This paper does not dispute the validity of that legal …
Forgetting Lochner In The Journey From Plan To Market: The Framing Effect Of The Market Rhetoric In Market-Oriented Reforms, Joel M. Ngugi
Forgetting Lochner In The Journey From Plan To Market: The Framing Effect Of The Market Rhetoric In Market-Oriented Reforms, Joel M. Ngugi
Joel M Ngugi
Since the 1980s the developing world has been undergoing a transition styled by the World Bank as a journey from “Plan” to “Market.” This article argues, first, that rhetorically, this transition parallels a transition described by Legal Anthropologist, Henry Sumner Maine more than a century ago, as a progressive movement from “Status” to “Contract.” Second, the article demonstrates that this transition has been accompanied by a Lochnerian vision of management of the relationship between the state and the market. This vision obscures settled “lessons” about the role of and interaction between the state and the market in the service of …
Making The Other Path Efficient. Economic Analysis And Tort Law In Less Developed Countries, Mauro Bussani, Ugo Mattei
Making The Other Path Efficient. Economic Analysis And Tort Law In Less Developed Countries, Mauro Bussani, Ugo Mattei
Mauro Bussani
The aim of this paper is to advance our understanding of whether and to what extent Law&Economics has a future in addressing, both from a positive and from a normative point of view, legal systems which are outside the Western legal tradition. The analysis proceeds in the following way: Part One focuses on general issues of Comparative Law&Economics. We try to explain from an economic perspective what characteristics make Western law homogeneous in order to have a clear picture of which legal systems we are considering. Part Two discusses some of the assumptions of Law&Economics which may limit the possibility …
Tort Law And Development: Insights Into The Case Of Ethiopia And Eritrea, Mauro Bussani
Tort Law And Development: Insights Into The Case Of Ethiopia And Eritrea, Mauro Bussani
Mauro Bussani
The primary purpose of the article is to enrich the understanding of tort laws in Ethiopia and Eritrea and of how these laws deal with environmental issues. Its secondary goal is to clarify the affinities, often hidden, between the issues raised by tort law in developing countries at present times, and the same issues as they emerged in the Western tradition in the past.