Key Developments At The World Bank Inspection Panel (2013-2024),
2024
American University Washington College of Law
Key Developments At The World Bank Inspection Panel (2013-2024), Dilek Barlas
Perspectives
Through the lens of important cases, this essay reflects on major developments that occurred at the Panel during the tenure of the author as the Executive Secretary of the World Bank Inspection Panel and shows how the Panel has evolved to improve accessibility, has influenced overall development policies, and has become a catalyst for institutional change. The essay observes that the Panel’s success has largely been due to its structural and operational independence, reporting as it does directly to the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors. However, there are challenges facing the Panel on certain issues, including most importantly its independence, …
Thirty Years Of Accountability In International Development: Insights From The General Counsel Of The World Bank Group,
2024
American University Washington College of Law
Thirty Years Of Accountability In International Development: Insights From The General Counsel Of The World Bank Group, Christopher H. Stephens
Perspectives
The creation of the World Bank’s Inspection Panel in 1993 was a groundbreaking moment in international development. The first accountability mechanism of its kind, it established a precedent for accountability in development that has been followed by multiple development banks and international financial institutions over the last decades. Today, the credibility of international financial institutions rests significantly on the mechanisms that they put in place to check their own behavior and the avenues they offer for affected communities and individuals to raise questions of harm related to the projects financed by these institutions. This essay is a reflection on the …
Are The Mdbs Accountable? Reflecting On The Independent Accountability Mechanisms Of The Multilateral Development Banks,
2024
American University Washington College of Law
Are The Mdbs Accountable? Reflecting On The Independent Accountability Mechanisms Of The Multilateral Development Banks, Susan Park
Perspectives
The International Accountability Mechanisms of the Multilateral Development Banks provide important insights into how to hold intergovernmental organizations to account for their environmental and social impacts. This perspective identifies how the IAMs hold the Banks to account according to the six standard questions of accountability: who is accountable, to whom, for what are they accountable, and what are the standards, processes, and sanctions employed to demonstrate that the MDBs are accountable. This highlights what the IAMs can and cannot hold the MDBs to account for, and how this might shape further international grievance mechanisms for people seeking to defend their …
The River Of Accountability Mechanisms: Then And Now,
2024
American University Washington College of Law
The River Of Accountability Mechanisms: Then And Now, Suresh Nanwani
Perspectives
In 1993, the river of international accountability mechanisms (IAMs) commenced from its source – the World Bank Inspection Panel (The Panel). In its journey the river was fed by the tributaries of similar accountability mechanisms from other development institutions, including four regional development banks – the Inter-American Development Bank in 1994, the Asian Development Bank in 1995, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 2003, and the African Development Bank in 2006. It also welcomed other entities – bilateral institutions like Japan Bank for International Cooperation (2003) and Proparco (2018), United Nations Development Program (2014) and other organizations like …
Unacceptable Means: The Inspection Panel Actions On World Bank Forcible Resettlement,
2024
American University Washington College of Law
Unacceptable Means: The Inspection Panel Actions On World Bank Forcible Resettlement, Lori Udall
Perspectives
This essay reviews the World Bank’s Inspection Panel’s work on cases involving involuntary resettlement. Since its Inception, the Panel has received 89 requests involving resettlement (over half of all cases) and has investigated 32. It traces Panel cases, lessons learned, and advisory reports on resettlement and livelihood restoration. Despite the growing evidence through the years of resettlement failures, the World Bank continues to violate its own safeguard policies and repeat the same omissions and mistakes in projects. The essay concludes with recommendations for empowering the Inspection Panel and for the Bank to move towards bottom-up community development that better addresses …
Divined Comity: Assessing The Vitamin C Antitrust Litigation And Updating The Second Circuit’S Prescriptive Comity Framework,
2023
Fordham University School of Law
Divined Comity: Assessing The Vitamin C Antitrust Litigation And Updating The Second Circuit’S Prescriptive Comity Framework, William Weingarten
Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law
In re Vitamin C Antitrust Litigation, recently decided by the Second Circuit, sets a grave precedent for American plaintiffs seeking redress for antitrust injuries wrought by foreign defendants. The case involved a group of Chinese manufacturers and exporters of vitamin C, who conspired to fix prices and restrict output in the export market, injuring American consumers in import commerce. The foreign manufacturers conceded that they had colluded in fixing prices and restricting output, in flagrant violation of U.S. antitrust law. And yet, with the assistance of the Chinese government—intervening as amicus curiae—the defendants were successfully able to argue, on appeal …
The Sword, The Shield, And The Jab: How Nato Can Bypass The Un And World Health Organization To Help Control And Prevent Future Pandemics,
2023
Brooklyn Law School
The Sword, The Shield, And The Jab: How Nato Can Bypass The Un And World Health Organization To Help Control And Prevent Future Pandemics, Aaron Earlywine
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
An autopsy of the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic reveals many preexisting conditions that only exacerbated the crisis. Chief among them are the failures and obfuscations of the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO is sick with corruption, incompetence, or at very least riddled with dysfunction. This is not the first time the WHO has proven itself unable to meet the demands of global health initiatives, let alone global health crises. Not only is this dysfunctional organization proving itself to be a money-consuming abscess, but hostile powers, namely China, have used it to covertly wield influence and shield themselves …
Enough Excuses On Drug Importation: A New Transnational Paradigm For Fda Regulation And Lower Us Drug Prices,
2023
Brooklyn Law School
Enough Excuses On Drug Importation: A New Transnational Paradigm For Fda Regulation And Lower Us Drug Prices, Gabriel Levitt
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which enforces drug safety laws, asserts that under most circumstances the importation of prescription drugs is illegal. Yet because of high drug prices in the United States, over the past couple of decades, tens of millions of Americans have imported prescription drugs for personal use. For many, this was their only way to afford them. A unique array of federal laws, regulations, and policies, including the de facto decriminalization of the practice of personal drug importation, have in effect permitted personal drug importation. The same exceptions, however, are not available for commercial drug …
The Role And Relevance Of Investment Treaties In Promoting Renewable Energy Investments,
2023
Columbia Law School, Columbia Center on Sustainable Development
The Role And Relevance Of Investment Treaties In Promoting Renewable Energy Investments, Ladan Mehranvar, Lisa E. Sachs
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Co-authors Ladan Mehranvar and Lisa Sachs discuss the effect of investment treaties as catalysts for critical investments in the energy transition, with a particular focus on the Spanish renewable energy cases. The book chapter, "The Role and Relevance of Investment Treaties in Promoting Renewable Energy Investments," is featured in Investment Arbitration and Climate Change, published by Kluwer Law International B.V.
China’S Changing Perspective On The Wto: From Aspiration, Assimilation To Alienation,
2023
Singapore Management University
China’S Changing Perspective On The Wto: From Aspiration, Assimilation To Alienation, Henry S. Gao
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Since its accession to the WTO twenty years ago, China’s image has shifted from a good student aspiring to assimilate itself into the multilateral trading system to one that is increasingly alienated from key WTO principles. How has China’s perspective on WTO been evolving? What are the reasons behind China’s changing perspective? This chapter addresses these questions from the Chinese perspective with a comprehensive analysis of the key moments in China’s first two decades in the WTO, followed by practical suggestions on how to engage China more constructively in the WTO and beyond.
How Trade Liberalization And Labor Development Could Coincide In The Philippines,
2023
De La Salle University, Manila
How Trade Liberalization And Labor Development Could Coincide In The Philippines, Aeneas Dr Hernandez, Brendan Emmanuel A. Miranda, Martin William P. Regulano, Andrae Jamal Tecson, Martin William P. Regulano, Ma. Ella Oplas, Tereso S. Tullao Jr, Winfred M. Villamil
Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)
As the world adapts to the rapid pace of globalization in the 21st century, countries ease trade restrictions by gradually removing tariffs and non-tariff barriers to incentivize the free flow of goods across nations. This prevalence of trade liberalization policies propelled policymakers and economists to investigate the relationship between trade reforms and economic outcomes including wage inequality around the world. They found that trade liberalization, on average, has had a positive impact on economic growth, but prior studies that examine the effects of trade liberalization on wage inequality in developing countries have found mixed results. Recently, Murakami (2021) examined the …
Competition Among Purposes: The Chinese Experience In The Governance Of Climate Change And Energy Transition,
2023
Singapore Management University
Competition Among Purposes: The Chinese Experience In The Governance Of Climate Change And Energy Transition, Henry S. Gao, Weihuan Zhou
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Energy governance at the international level is fraught with difficulties due to the 'competition among purposes' between different bodies of international law. In this paper, we extend this thesis to argue that the same tension may be found in domestic energy governance. Drawing from China's experience in the governance of climate change and energy transition, we analyse how the misalignment of incentives between different actors and the incomplete market reform led to a drastic shift in policy in 2021. We also compare the different approaches in China's energy governance and trade governance and draw some general lessons on how developing …
The Wto Dsu 2.0: How Can We Go Back To The Future?,
2023
University of Nottingham School of Law
The Wto Dsu 2.0: How Can We Go Back To The Future?, Aris Georgopoulos, Petros C. Mavroidis
Faculty Scholarship
In this chapter, Aris Georgopoulos and Petros Mavroidis examine the contribution of the WTO dispute settlement body to the resolution of trade disputes. This chapter documents the problems and challenges faced by the WTO’s dispute settlement body and reveals their debilitating impact on its work. This chapter then puts forward concrete proposals for the establishment of a new WTO Court and explains why such a course of action has a realistic chance of breaking the current impasse and creating an effective dispute settlement body for trade disputes.
Fairness And Fair Use In Generative Ai,
2023
American University Washington College of Law
Fairness And Fair Use In Generative Ai, Matthew Sag
Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series
No abstract provided.
Copyright, Data Mining And Developing Models For South African Natural Language Processing,
2023
American University Washington College of Law
Copyright, Data Mining And Developing Models For South African Natural Language Processing, Chijioke Okorie
Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series
This paper sets out the issues of copyright ownership and risk of copyright infringement liability raised by data science research use of data held by public bodies (in particular, public service broadcasters) in South Africa. Considering both the fair dealing exception in South Africa’s Copyright Act of 1978 and the proposed fair use provision in its Copyright Amendment Bill B13F-2017, the paper discusses these issues elaborating on the reasons why data science researchers in public research institutions should not require a copyright licence or be considered to be infringing copyright when they use copyright-protected materials held by public bodies for …
The Conclusions Of Sccr 44,
2023
American University Washington College of Law
The Conclusions Of Sccr 44, Sean Flynn
Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series
Last week, the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Standing Committee on Copyright and related Rights (SCCR) held its 44th meeting where substantial progress was made in protecting public interest issues within the two major standing items of the agenda -- on the Broadcast Treaty and on Limitations and Exceptions. This document summarizes the decisions made at the meeting as recorded in the Chair’s Summary.
Excerpts Of Sccr 44 Delegate Statements,
2023
American University Washington College of Law
Excerpts Of Sccr 44 Delegate Statements, Sean Flynn, Andres Izquierdo
Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series
The World Intellectual Property Organization’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) held its 44th meeting November 6-8, 2023. This post includes excerpts from the public statements made by country or regional delegations during the meeting.
The Constitutional Court Of Colombia Imposes Limits On The Use Of Internet Jammers During Social Protests,
2023
American University Washington College of Law
The Constitutional Court Of Colombia Imposes Limits On The Use Of Internet Jammers During Social Protests, Carolina Botero, Lina Paola Velásquez
Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series
The Constitutional Court of Colombia has issued an important ruling regarding the use of the Internet as the main tool to guarantee the fundamental rights to freedom of speech and access to information during social protests. This ruling marks an important precedent in the matter because it imposed new obligations on the State and the government to guarantee the "maximum level of information". Likewise, the Court ordered the regulation of the use of signal jammers during social protests. This article will analyze the ruling and its effects in Colombia.
A New Dawn For The Common Law: A Proposal For A New Court System For The Asean Trade In Goods Agreement,
2023
William & Mary Law School
A New Dawn For The Common Law: A Proposal For A New Court System For The Asean Trade In Goods Agreement, Nicholas R. Gucciardo
William & Mary Business Law Review
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) formed the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) to facilitate trade liberalization between the bloc’s members. The ASEAN Member States have continued to implement the agreement according to the dispute settlement mechanism set out in the ASEAN Protocol on Enhanced Dispute Settlement Mechanism (Protocol). However, this Note will argue that the current dispute settlement mechanism (DSM) is inadequate because the panel system does not always provide a final forum for disputes between Member States. A new mechanism is necessary to better adhere to the principles of the ASEAN Charter, strengthen Southeast Asia as …
Combatting A Crisis Of Global Food Protectionism Sparked By The War In Ukraine,
2023
Ohio State University, Michael E. Moritz College of Law
Combatting A Crisis Of Global Food Protectionism Sparked By The War In Ukraine, Daniel C.K. Chow, Ian M. Sheldon
Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
The world is currently gripped in a food crisis of historic proportions that is threatening tens of millions of people in the poorest countries of the world with famine and starvation. Sparked by the war in Ukraine, this crisis is being made worse by nations imposing export restrictions on food in a misguided attempt to curb soaring domestic food prices. Export restrictions are "beggar-thy-neighbor" policies that prevent increases in domestic food prices but at the expense of raising world prices, exacerbating the crisis. Although nations have turned to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for help in removing these export restrictions, …
