Recognized tribes are increasingly prominent players in settler state governance, but in the wide-ranging debates about tribal self-governance, little has been said about tribal self-constitution. Who are the members of tribes, and how are they chosen? Tribes in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States are now obliged to adopt written constitutions as a condition of recognition, and to specify the criteria used to select members. Tribal Constitutionalism presents findings from a comparative study of nearly eight hundred current and historic tribal constitutions, most of which are not in the public domain.
Kirsty Gover examines the strategies adopted by tribes and states to deal with the new legal distinction between indigenous people (defined by settler governments) and tribal members (defined by tribal governments). She highlights the important fact that the two categories are imperfectly aligned. Many indigenous persons are not tribal members, and some tribal members are not legally indigenous. Should legal indigenous status be limited to persons enrolled in recognized tribes? What is to be done about the large and growing proportion of indigenous peoples who are not enrolled in a tribe, and do not live near their tribal territories? This book approaches these complex questions head-on.
Using tribal membership criteria as a starting point, this book provides a critical analysis of current political and sociolegal theories of tribalism and indigeneity, and draws on legal doctrine, policy, demographic data and tribal practice to provide a comparative evaluation of tribal membership governance in the western settler states.

The past decade has witnessed change in the ways judges for the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights are selected. The leitmotif has been securing greater professional quality of the judicial candidates, and, for this purpose, both European systems have put in place various advisory panels or selection committees that are called to evaluate the aptitude of the candidates put forward by the national governments. Are these institutional reforms successful in guaranteeing greater quality of the judicial candidates? Do they increase the legitimacy of the European courts? Has the creation of these advisory panels in any way altered the institutional balance, either horizontally within the international organisations, or vertically, between the respective organisation and its Member States? Above all, has the spree of 'judicial comitology' as currently practised a good way for selecting Europe's judges? These and a number of other questions are addressed in this topical volume in a comparative and interdisciplinary prospective. The book is structured into two elements: first, how the operation of the new selection mechanisms is captured and analyzed from different vantage points, and secondly, having mapped the ground, the book critically and comparatively engages with selected common themes, examining the new mechanisms with respect to values and principles such as democracy, judicial independence, transparency, representativeness, and legitimacy.

This book offers a novel study on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on insurance from an international and comparative perspective. It assesses how insurance has to adapt to a new landscape, the effects of which will last over time and cut across all areas of the field. To avoid physical contact, digitalisation has accelerated dramatically, affecting insurance in all its phases: risk selection, underwriting, pricing and claims settlement. However, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic go far beyond that. The extent to which a claim caused directly or indirectly by the virus is or is not covered by a given policy has been the subject of debate in many insurance branches. The most litigated cases worldwide are those that concern damages resulting from business interruption due to restrictions enforced by the authorities in virtually every country. This book analyses the rulings (for and against the insured) that have already been handed down by courts in various jurisdictions (for example in the US, Latin America, Spain and Germany), in order to provide guidance to the parties in future lawsuits and also to guide the courts' own responses. This analysis extends to the measures that governments have taken in relation to insurance during the pandemic, as well as the changes that insurers have introduced in their general conditions to exclude coverage for the pandemic. This response is unsatisfactory, as the big question is how pandemic-related risks can be covered if private insurers simply refuse to do so. Solutions based on risk sharing with public entities or the use of contractual modalities such as parametric insurance are among those outlined by the authors. The book was written by experts from academia and lawyers specialising in this field, and written for all those interested in the field of insurance: lawyers, judges, academics and legal professionals.

This book examines the problem of constitutional change in times of crisis. Divided into five main parts, it both explores and interrogates how public law manages change in periods of extraordinary pressure on the constitution. In Part I, "Emergency, Exception and Normalcy," the contributors discuss the practices and methods that could be used to help legitimize the use of emergency powers without compromising the constitutional principles that were created during a period of normalcy. In Part II, "Terrorism and Warfare," the contributors assess how constitutions are interpreted during times of war, focusing on the tension between individual rights and safety. Part III, "Public Health, Financial and Economic Crises," considers how constitutions change in response to crises that are neither political in the conventional sense nor violent, which also complicates how we evaluate constitutional resilience in times of stress. Part IV, "Constitutionalism for Divided Societies," then investigates the pressure on constitutions designed to govern diverse, multi-national populations, and how constitutional structures can facilitate stability and balance in these states. Part V, titled "Constitution-Making and Constitutional Change," highlights how constitutions are transformed or created anew during periods of tension. The book concludes with a rich contextual discussion of the pressing challenges facing constitutions in moments of extreme pressure. Chapter "Public Health Emergencies and Constitutionalism Before COVID-19: Between the National and the International" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

To what extent should the doctrine of the separation of powers evolve in light of recent shifts in constitutional design and practice? New constitutions often include newer forms of rights - such as socio-economic and environmental rights - and are written with an explicitly transformative purpose. The practice of the separation of powers has also changed, as the executive has tended to gain power and deliberative bodies like legislatures have often been thrown into a state of crisis. By engaging widespread comparative experiences from Malawi, to Colombia, Mexico to South Africa, Hungary to the United States of America, this examination of the doctrine of the separation of powers takes into account important recent changes in constitutional design and practice, including the wide-spread inclusion of socio-economic rights, the creation of independent bodies outside the traditional structure, the growth of executive power, and the crisis of legislative legitimacy. It also considers the extent to which this re-framing should be confined to the emerging democracies of the global south or whether it can be applied more widely across all constitutional systems. This comprehensive study will be of interest to academics conducting research in comparative constitutional law, students of comparative constitutional law, and constitutional and political theorists as well as constitutional judges and designers. Contributors include: D. Bilchitz, D. Bonilla, V. Jackson, R.E. Kapindu, D. Landau, F. Mohamed, J.M. Serna de la Garza, R. Uitz

The Development Agenda is the result of the recent campaign to ensure that the intellectual property treaty regime permits -- and, indeed, empowers -- developing countries to tailor their intellectual property laws as they deem necessary to promote development and serve the welfare of their citizens. The Agenda's adoption by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in September 2007 was an historic watershed for that UN agency, which has long viewed its mandate as the unabashed promotion of greater intellectual property rights throughout the world.
Written by some of the world's leading IP scholars, Neil W. Netanel has edited this compilation of articles in order to examine the Development Agenda and the broader issues it touches upon. Contributors include leading scholars from various disciplines, including economics, political science, and law, and from countries at various stages of development, including China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Nigeria, Egypt, and Israel, in addition to the US, Canada, and EU. They also include experts from NGO-think tanks, UNCTAD, and the two Brazilian diplomats who were the leading advocates of the Development Agenda's adoption.

The first work to examine data privacy laws across Asia, covering all 26 countries and separate jurisdictions, and with in-depth analysis of the 14 which have specialised data privacy laws. Professor Greenleaf demonstrates the increasing world-wide significance of data privacy and the international context of the development of national data privacy laws as well as assessing the laws, their powers and their enforcement against international standards. The book also contains a web link to an update to mid-2017.

This book proposes and outlines a comprehensive framework for judicial protection in transnational criminal proceedings that ensures the right to judicial review without hampering the effective functioning of international cooperation in criminal matters. It examines a broad range of potential approaches in the context of selected national criminal justice systems, and offers a comparative analysis of EU Member States and non-Member States alike. The book particularly focuses on the differences between cooperation within the EU on the one hand and cooperation with third states on the other, and on the consequences of this distinction for the scope of judicial review.

This collection of essays highlights the sometimes absurd outcomes which an unjustified overprotection of intellectual property (IP) may lead to. It collects and comments on a series of IP disputes which have taken the notion of IP protection to extremes. From individuals being sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars for sharing a playlist, to sports spectators being arrested for wearing the 'wrong' dresses, passing through granting patents for inventions obtained by misappropriating traditional knowledge, and trademark protection of merely descriptive signs, this book brings together a broad range of examples from across the IP spectrum where protection and enforcement have been used or threatened on unreasonable and/or untenable grounds. The aim of the book is to criticise these excesses precisely because they harm IP; and because they contribute to creating an environment where more and more people are led to 'hate' IP, and view it as a protectionist regime which discourages creativity in innovation and ends up safeguarding the owners of monopolistic rights which restrict trade, competition and people's freedom. This is not, therefore, a book against IP, it is instead a call for change and an attempt to 'save' IP through critiquing its excesses and preventing such a fascinating area of law from continuing to be an easy target for criticism. The book includes a foreword by Jason Mazzone, Albert E Jenner Jr Professor of Law at the University of Illinois, USA.

This book explores the current state of society in Europe in general and the regimes and societies of the Western Balkans in particular. The pandemic and near-universal lockdown have provided an ideal cut-off date for the collection of indices from reputable academic sources that cover the nature of these regimes, individual human freedoms, economic freedoms, the rule of law, human rights and media freedoms. The aggregated findings from the 20 individual indices provide comprehensive data to support original findings and the characterisation of societies in 45 European states. Admittedly, there are differences in the methodologies and samples among the indices consulted. Nonetheless, taken together they offer a solid basis for developing arguments concerning the diversity of regimes, governance and societies in Europe and drawing well-founded conclusions on the nature of society in various parts of Europe. Though the book's main focus is on the Western Balkans, the region is put in a pan-European context. The issues of migration, minorities, global geopolitics, the crisis of liberal democracy - they all play into developments that are specific to the Western Balkans. The book answers the question of whether the pandemic has allowed local regimes to strengthen their power and exert greater control over society, making it possible to formulate arguments regarding the future of Europe and its integrative processes. In closing, the book investigates Western Balkan regimes' reactions to the pandemic in the context of governance, society and state power, before addressing the question of whether the future of the Western Balkans lies in the "liberal club", or whether local hybrid regimes will become even more influential in the near future.

This book provides practical, business-orientated and accessible guidance on key employment and labour law aspects in national and international transfers of business in the European Union, its member states and selected important countries around the world. It contains a comprehensive overview of relevant topics such as safeguarding of employees' rights, impacts on employees' representatives and on collective agreements, company pension entitlements, insolvency, M&A transactions and cross-border transfers of business for each country covered. This overview is accompanied by summaries of leading case law and excerpts of important national regulations. Transfers of business play an important role in today's globalised business world. In particular, employment and labour impacts of transfers of businesses are often a driving legal and business factor in national and international restructurings and M&A transactions. The successful implementation of transfers of business requires to recognise and comply with the relevant legal frameworks of the countries involved. This publication is written by specialised employment lawyers from around the globe and addresses in-house counsels, human resources managers and legal advisors in charge of or accompanying national or international transactions.

This book, which updates and expands the third edition published by Springer in 2015, explains, compares and evaluates the social and legal functions of adoption within a range of selected jurisdictions and on an international basis. From the standpoint of the development of adoption in England & Wales, and the changes currently taking place there, it considers the process as it has evolved in other countries. It also identifies themes of commonality and difference in the experience of adoption in a common law context, comparing and contrasting this with the experience under civil law and in Islamic countries and with that of indigenous people. This book includes new chapters examining adoption in Russia, Korea and Romania. Further, it uses the international conventions and the associated ECtHR case law to benchmark developments in national law, policy and practice and to facilitate a cross-cultural comparative analysis.

This book provides a comparative analysis of the legal frameworks of six Latin American central banks to determine whether there is legal certainty regarding central bank autonomy. Based on this, it ascertains whether the way in which legal institutions are designed - specifically those that rule the autonomy of the central bank - provides reasons to believe that central banks can keep inflation at bay even if governments face fiscal problems or pursue contradictory objectives. The analysis covers three key areas: a constitutional analysis, a detailed study of the central bank statutes and a study of a number of underexplored threats to central bank autonomy. After defining and identifying different types of legal certainty and linking them to the credibility of government promises, the author goes on to examine the grounds that the law provides for confidence that central banks operate independently of political influence. The second part of the book focuses on a granular analysis of the legal design of the central banks' objectives and autonomy. Lastly, the third part features two case studies that represent little-known and unusual institutional threats to legal certainty relating to central bank autonomy, such as the interventions by the Constitutional Court of Colombia in the autonomy of the Colombian central bank, and the interventions of the Argentinean executive and legislative branches in the autonomy of Argentina's central bank through stabilization plans introduced via emergency laws and decrees.In sum, the book suggests that there are serious doubts about the ability of Latin American central banks to maintain price stability over time. Although central banks were granted a degree of autonomy, authorities in Latin American countries are able to affect central bank decisions. Most importantly, a lack of clarity, inconsistencies, or generous exceptions in the law provide ways for authorities to influence central banks even without bending or disregarding the rules.

East African Community Law provides a comprehensive and open-access text book on EAC law. Written by leading experts, including the president of the EACJ, national judges, academics and practitioners, it provides the most complete overview to date of this increasingly important field. Uniquely, the book also provides a systematic comparison with EU law. EU companion chapters provide concise overviews of EU law and its development, offering valuable inspiration for the application and further development of EAC law. The book has been written for all practitioners, judges, civil servants, academics and students faced with questions of EAC law. It discusses institutional, substantive and jurisdictional issues, including the nature of EAC law, free movement and competition law as well as the reception of EAC law in Partner States.

Among the many constitutional developments of the past century or so, one of the most significant has been the creation and proliferation of institutions that perform functions similar to those performed by courts, but which are considered to be, and in some ways are, different and distinct from courts as traditionally conceived. In much of the common law world, such institutions are called 'administrative tribunals.' Their main function is to adjudicate disputes between citizens and the State by reviewing decisions of government agencies - a function also performed by courts in 'judicial review' proceedings and appeals. Although tribunals in aggregate adjudicate many more such disputes than courts, tribunals and their role as dispensers of 'administrative justice' receive relatively little scholarly attention. This, the first wide-ranging, book-length treatment of the subject for many years, compares tribunals in three major jurisdictions: the US, the UK, and Australia. The book analyzes and offers an account of the concept of 'administrative adjudication, ' and traces its historical development from the earliest periods of the common law to the 21st century. There are chapters dealing with the design of tribunals and tribunal systems, what tribunals do, and how they interact with their users. The book ends with a discussion of the place of tribunals in the 'administrative justice system' and speculation about possible future developments. Administrative Tribunals and Adjudication fills a significant gap in the literature and will be of great value to public lawyers and others interested in government accountability

This significantly updated second edition of the Research Handbook on Patent Law and Theory provides comprehensive coverage of new research for patent protection in three major jurisdictions: the United States, Europe and Japan. Leading patent scholars and practitioners provide an innovative comparative analysis of fundamental issues such as patentability, examination procedure and the scope of patent protection, with current issues such as patent protection for industry standards, computer software and business methods. Updates to this second edition reflect on the dramatic changes that have taken place in the US Patent System since the first edition, including the American Invents Act that has introduced the first-inventor-to-file policy and post-issuance proceedings to challenge validity. Current topics such as the Unified Patent Court, patent litigation updates reform in the US, design patents and patent inventions in medical science are also addressed. Providing a strong scholarly foundation, as well as useful tips for practitioners to protect their intellectual assets in technologies effectively in the global market, this Research Handbook will be of great interest to legal scholars and students, as well as lawyers and patent attorneys. Contributors include: J.N. Adams, C. Appelt, R.C. Dreyfuss, H. Goddar, H.P. Goeetting, O. Granstrand, S. Hetmank, C.M. Ho, C.M. Holman, C. Karl, J.B. Krauss, A.L. Landers, S. Luginbuehl, T. Miyamoto, T. Muller-Stoy, X.T. Nguyen, S. Ono, C. Rademacher, G. Reilly, S. Schohe, D. Stauder, T. Takenaka, J. Thomas

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world?s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Mark Tushnet, a world-renowned scholar of constitutional law, has excelled in extending and revising his essential introduction to comparative constitutional law. Through an analysis of topics at the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship, this authoritative study investigates constitution making, forms of constitutional review, proportionality analysis and its alternatives, and the development of a new ?transparency? branch in constitutions around the world. Throughout, the book draws upon examples from a wide range of nations, demonstrating that the field of comparative constitutional law now truly encompasses the world. New to this revised and enlarged second edition: ? Updated and extended material to encompass the developments in practice and scholarship since the original edition?s publication back in 2014? With substantial additional attention, Tushnet analyses abusive constitutionalism, the idea of the constituent power, eternity clauses and unconstitutional amendments Recent developments in weak- and strong-form constitutional review are given fresh analysis, as well as an expanded consideration of third generation rights. Addressing the key issues of constitutional design and structure, this second edition will serve as an excellent up-to-date resource for students and scholars of comparative constitutional law.

This comprehensive research review discusses an array of distinguished papers from within the sphere of comparative labour law, covering the subject's most compelling and thought-provoking questions. Topics include the uses and limits of comparative labour law, the enforcement of labour rights and the methods of comparative labour law. Prefaced with an original introduction by the editor, this collection promises to be a useful research tool for scholars and practitioners, as well as a fascinating read for those interested in the field.

Caribbean Integration Law offers a comprehensive legal analysis of the current treaties and rules governing the two main regional organisations in the Caribbean, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Both organisations are operating under new treaties, the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and the Revised Treaty of Basseterre, respectively, which created the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, and the OECS Economic Union. The single market and economic union were built upon principles of free movement of goods, labour, and capital, and a common external tariff. This book reviews the foundations of Caribbean regional integration, the institutional frameworks of the two regional organisations, and fleshes out the scope and context of the legal systems created by the treaties. It also reviews the dispute settlement mechanisms under both treaties, including the increasingly active role of the Caribbean Court of Justice, which allows persons to enforce their treaty rights directly before the Court. The book offers selective comparisons to the current rules governing the European Union, and integrates crucial insights from the field of public international law, including the law of treaties and international institutional law.

What does the right to the continuous improvement of living conditions in Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights really mean and how can it contribute to social change? The book explores how this underdeveloped right can have valuable application in response to global problems of poverty, inequality and climate destruction, through an in-depth consideration of its meaning. The book seeks to interpret and give meaning to the right as a legal standard, giving it practical value for those whose living conditions are inadequate. It locates the right within broader philosophical and political debates, whilst also assessing the challenges to its realisation. It also explores how the right relates to human rights more generally and considers its application to issues of gender, care and the rights of Indigenous peoples. The contributors deeply probe the meaning of 'living conditions', suggesting that these encompass more than the basic rights to housing, water, food, and clothing. The chapters provide a range of doctrinal, historical and philosophical engagements through grounded analysis and imaginative interpretation. With a foreword by Sandra Liebenberg (former Member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), the book includes chapters from renowned and emerging scholars working across disciplines from around the world.

Tensions between China and Taiwan are not likely to abate in the foreseeable future. The question of Taiwan's sovereignty is the major point of friction, and the continuing impasse between China and Taiwan is worrisome. Zagoria presents perspectives from Washington, Beijing, and Taipei on cross-strait tensions, exploring ways to break the current standoff. Tensions between China and Taiwan are not likely to abate in the foreseeable future. The question of Taiwan's sovereignty is the major point of friction, and the continuing impasse between China and Taiwan is worrisome. Should critical political negotiations falter, relations are likely to take on stronger military overtones, and the PRC may well develop a sense of urgency about Taiwan drifting towards independence.

These, at least, are the broad conclusions drawn from the ongoing dialogues among top U.S., Chinese, and Taiwanese figures, sponsored by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. This Track II project provides a forum for top policy analysts from each country to discuss trilateral relations in a frank and constructive manner, and is an effort to explore means of peacefully resolving the current impasse. Among the more significant findings is that the more serious risks of conflict will probably occur in the distant future, hinging on whether economic integration can gradually lead to a reduction of political tensions, and that the United States should continue to oppose any declaration of independence by Taiwan and any use of force by China.

This edited collection introduces and defines the concept of "comparative restorative justice", putting it in the context of power relations and inequality. It aims to compare the implementation and theoretical development of restorative justice internationally for research, policy and practice. In Part I, this volume compares practices in relation to the implementing environment - be that cultural, political, or societal. Part II looks at obstacles and enablers in relation to the criminal justice system, and considers whether inquisitorial versus adversarial jurisdictions have impact on how restorative justice is regulated and implemented. Finally, Part III compares the reasons that drive governments, regional bodies, and practitioners to implement restorative justice, and whether these impetuses impact on ultimate delivery. Featuring fifteen original chapters from diverse authors and practitioners, this will serve as a key resource for those working in social justice or those seeking to understand and implement the tenets of restorative justice comparatively.

This book introduces "biolaw" as an integrated and distinct field in contemporary legal studies. Corresponding to the legal dimension of bioethics, the term "biolaw" is already in use in academic and research activities to denote legal issues emerging mostly from advanced technological applications. This book is a genuine attempt to rationalize the field of biolaw after almost four decades of continuous production of relevant legislation and judgments worldwide. This experience is a robust basis for defending a) a separate legal object, covering the total of legal norms that govern the management of life as a natural phenomenon in all its possible forms, and b) an "evolutionary" approach that opens the discussion on a future conciliation of legal regulation with the Theory of Evolution on the ground of biolaw.

This book examines the extent to which Brexit has impacted upon the operation of the British constitution, prompting in turn consideration of how some of the factors which contributed towards the outcome of the 2016 referendum, as well as the event of Brexit itself, might inform debates surrounding constitutional reform moving forward. The work seeks to make sense of the constitutional implications of Brexit and to revisit some of the key debates to have taken place in respect of particular constitutional reform proposals in order to assess the extent to which recent Brexit related developments inform the perspectives which are taken upon their merits and prospects. The book is divided into two parts. The first provides some context for the substantive treatment of the potential impact of Brexit on constitutional reform debates which is to be found in part two. Part two centres on various specific constitutional reform themes or issues, which are explored further within the context of Brexit. For each such issue, the main parameters of the debates which have taken place are sketched out before moving on to consider how it has informed, or may come to be informed, by the phenomenon of Brexit. By so doing, it looks to some future directions for constitutional reform which take account of the factors driving the discourses which gave rise to the referendum outcome and subsequent developments, as well as offering meaningful responses to these. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of constitutional law, constitutional politics, philosophy and history.

This book is the first interdisciplinary study of the rule of law in an environment of complementary culture. It argues that the rule of law should not be defined solely through the development of institutions, but also through the mobilization of existing culture towards support for law and its enforcement. Recognizing that the rule of law is most often misunderstood by many, the book describes the benefits of the rule of law and exposes its weaknesses and limitations. It summarizes the history and practice through case studies where culture has played an essential role in achieving a sustainable rule of law in practice. It incorporates the unique challenges to rule of law in regions like the Middle East, and addresses the nexus of law culture and institutions in the context of policing in the United States. Appropriate for researchers, professionals, and practitioners of law, policing, cultural criminology, and sociology, this book identifies practical and actionable elements of culture that can be mobilized, even in states that are only in the initial stages of developing the rule of law.