The European Union and its member states are investing in ambitious programmes for 'better regulation' and targets of regulatory quality. This book, available in paperback for the first time, lifts the veil of excessively optimistic propositions covering the whole better regulation agenda. It provides an innovative conceptual framework to handle the political complexity of regulatory governance. It approaches better regulation as an emerging public policy, with its own political context, actors, problems, rules of interaction, instruments, activities and impacts. Focusing on the key tools of impact assessment, consultation, simplification, and access to legislation, the authors provide fresh empirical evidence on the progress made in the member states and in Brussels, drawing on an extensive research project and an original survey of directors of better regulation programmes in Europe. Radaelli and De Francesco show how indicators define, measure, and appraise better regulation policy, linking measures to policy processes in which the stakeholders learn by monitoring. Although better regulation is a top priority for competitiveness in Europe and the legitimacy of EU policy, the level of commitment and the development of tools vary considerably. The major challenge for better regulation is institutionalisation - this calls for clear choices in terms of what the EU wants from better regulation. Essential reading for academics (political scientists, lawyers, and public economists) and policy-makers in charge of regulatory reforms in governments and international organisations. -- .

Law in the United States, Second Edition, is a concise presentation of the salient elements of the American legal system designed mainly for jurists of civil law backgrounds. It focuses on features of American law likely to be least familiar to jurists from other legal traditions, such as American common law, the federal structure of the U.S. legal system, and the American constitutional tradition. The use of comparative law technique permits foreign jurists to appreciate the American legal system in comparison with legal systems with which they are already familiar. Chapters in the second edition also cover such topics as American civil justice, criminal law, jury trial, choice of laws and international jurisdiction, the American legal profession, and the influence of American law in the global legal order.

How was law made in England in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries? Through detailed studies of what the courts actually did, Peter King argues that parliament and the Westminster courts played a less important role in the process of law making than is usually assumed. Justice was often remade from the margins by magistrates, judges and others at the local level. His book also focuses on four specific themes - gender, youth, violent crime and the attack on customary rights. In doing so it highlights a variety of important changes - the relatively lenient treatment meted out to women by the late eighteenth century, the early development of the juvenile reformatory in England before 1825, i.e. before similar changes on the continent or in America, and the growing intolerance of the courts towards everyday violence. This study is invaluable reading to anyone interested in British political and legal history.

What will it take to restore American democracy and rescue it from this moment of crisis? Civic Power argues that the current threat to US democracy is rooted not just in the outcome of the 2016 election, but in deeper, systemic forms of inequality that concentrate economic and political power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many. Drawing on historical and social science research and case studies of contemporary democratic innovations across the country, Civic Power calls for a broader approach to democracy reform focused on meaningfully redistributing power to citizens. It advocates for both reviving grassroots civil society and novel approaches to governance, policymaking, civic technology, and institutional design - aimed at dismantling structural disparities to build a more inclusive, empowered, bottom-up democracy, where communities and people have greater voice, power, and agency.

The history of German lawyers in private practice from 1878 to 1933 helps answer questions about the inability of German liberalism to withstand National Socialism in 1933. Lawyers connect the procedural focus of legal thinking with procedural notions of individual liberties. In Germany they won free entry and self-government for their profession in 1878, thinking that these changes would lead to civic leadership and expanded liberty, but the forces that were unleashed revealed internal tensions and the limits of professional influence. Exaggerated expectations for the legal profession in public life exposed the limitations of procedural liberalism, with tragic consequences for Germany.

The intertwinement of EC law and national law may create unforeseeability in situations where EC law invades the national cases. This study contributes to the contemporary discussion, which wrestles with questions such as: What have been the visions and objectives for European integration in the last decades? How to describe European Union as a political entity and a legal system? What is the relationship between legal certainty, rule of law, various general principles and human rights?

Analysing the regulation of vessel-source pollution from the perspective of the political interests of key players in the ship transportation industry, this 2005 book by Alan Khee-Jin Tan offers a comprehensive and convincing account of how pollution of the marine environment by ships may be better regulated and reduced. In this timely study, he traces the history of regulation at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and investigates the political, economic and social forces influencing the IMO treaties. Also examined are the efforts of maritime states, ship-owners, cargo owners, oil companies and environmental groups to influence IMO laws and treaties. This is an important book, which uncovers the politics behind the law and offers solutions for overcoming the deficiencies in the regulatory system. It will be of great interest to professionals in the shipping industry as well as practitioners and students.

In European legal systems, a variety of approaches to trust and relationships of trust meet the universal professionalisation of asset management services. This book explores that interface in order to seek a better understanding of the legal regulation of the entrustment of wealth. Within the methodology of the Common Core of European Private Law, the book sets out cases on the establishment and termination of management relationships, obligations of loyalty and of professionalism, and the choice of law. More specialized cases address collective investment, collective secured lending, pension funds, and securitisation. Reports on these cases from fifteen jurisdictions of the European Union tackle fundamental problems of trust law and show which legal techniques are deployed to solve them across Europe. In addition to a much-needed comparative treatment of the subject, the book discusses the scholarly setting for the issues and gives guidance on the terminology in the evolving European scene.

The accelerating pace of international law developments in multiple fora present a challenge for studying, influencing, and predicting these changes. This volume assembles essays from notable jurists, academics, and practitioners from around the world who offer new insights regarding the jurisprudence of world trade law, the changing landscape of investment arbitration, and other vital topics in international adjudication. These essays are assembled in celebration of Justice Florentino Feliciano of The Philippines, who continues to be one of the most inspirational figures in the international law community. This collection will be of special interest to analysts of the World Trade Organization as the contributors include six current or former members of the WTO Appellate Body, as well as several leading trade law commentators. Among the key issues discussed are the WTO environmental cases, trade and human rights, and potential reforms of the WTO dispute system.

This 2005 book raises the profile of socio-political questions about the global technology and information market. It is a close study of communication flows, networks, nodes, biopolitics and the fragmentations of power. It brings to life the role played by personalities, corporate interactions, industry compromises and the regulatory incompetencies, affecting the technological world we all live in. US technology powers the internet and disseminates American culture on an unprecedented scale. Assessing this power requires an analysis of the diffuse ways that US practice, policy and law dominates, and a consideration of how influence is negotiated and resisted locally. This involves a discussion about how ideas about trade and innovation circulate; of the social power of engineers that establish conventions and protocols; of the reach of Leviathan corporations; and questions about global marketing and consumer tastes. For readers interested in intellectual property law, information technology, cultural studies, globalisation and mass communications.

The Resource Book, conceived as a practical guide to the TRIPS Agreement, provides detailed analysis of each of its provisions, aiming at a sound understanding of WTO Members' rights and obligations. The purpose is to clarify the implications of the Agreement especially highlighting the areas in which the treaty leaves leeway to Members for the pursuit of their own policy objectives, according to their respective levels of development. In doing so, the book does not produce tailor-made prescriptions but gives guidance on the implications of specific issues and on the options available. The book is not limited to the analysis of the TRIPS Agreement but to the consideration of related questions and developments at the national, regional, and international level.

This interdisciplinary book of essays addresses critical issues arising from the emergence of legal process and legal institutions in contemporary China. The introduction by the editors and the individual chapters attempt, for the first time, to bring to bear on the study of Chinese law the law-and-society scholarship that has enriched Western legal studies.

How did American schoolchildren, French philosophers, Russian Sinologists, Dutch merchants, and British lawyers imagine China and Chinese law? What happened when agents of presumably dominant Western empires had to endure the humiliations and anxieties of maintaining a profitable but precarious relationship with China? In Chinese Law in Imperial Eyes, Li Chen provides a richly textured analysis of these related issues and their intersection with law, culture, and politics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Using a wide array of sources, Chen's study focuses on the power dynamics of Sino-Western relations during the formative century before the First Opium War (1839-1842). He highlights the centrality of law to modern imperial ideology and politics and brings new insight to the origins of comparative Chinese law in the West, the First Opium War, and foreign extraterritoriality in China. The shifting balance of economic and political power formed and transformed knowledge of China and Chinese law in different contact zones. Chen argues that recovering the variegated and contradictory roles of Chinese law in Western "modernization" helps provincialize the subsequent Euro-Americentric discourse of global modernity. Chen draws attention to important yet underanalyzed sites in which imperial sovereignty, national identity, cultural tradition, or international law and order were defined and restructured. His valuable case studies show how constructed differences between societies were hardened into cultural or racial boundaries and then politicized to rationalize international conflicts and hierarchy.

Domesday Book contains the most comprehensive, varied and monumental legal material to survive from England before the rise of the Common Law. This book argues that it can--and should--be read as a legal text. Stripped of its statistical information, Domesday Book contains a remarkable amount of legal material, almost all of which stems directly from inquest, testimony, or from the sworn statements. This information, read in context, provides a picture of what the law looked like, the ways in which it was changing, and the means whereby the inquest was a central event in the formation of English law.

The relationship between law, politics and society in democratic Athens is a central but neglected aspect of ancient Greek history that is beginning to attract increasing interest. Nomos brings together ten essays by a group of British and American scholars who aim to explore ways in which Athenian legal texts can be read in their social and cultural context. The focus is on classical Athens, since that is where the evidence is fullest, but the range of sources examined is broad, including the whole spectrum of literary and epigraphical texts, with special reference to the corpus of Athenian forensic oratory. All passages from Greek are translated; technical and legal terms, modern as well as ancient, are explained in a comprehensive glossary. These essays are designed to be accessible to those interested in social history and legal anthropology, as well as to historians of the ancient world.

Since the dissolution of the former U.S.S.R., twelve countries are now confronted with the task of defining their attitudes and policies towards the central means for law-making in the international community: the treaty. This comparative commentary on the law of treaties includes full texts in an original, authoritative translation of relevant legislation. It also contains informed commentary on every article in the laws, and an extensive classified bibliography.

China has enjoyed considerable economic growth recently, in spite of a problematic legal system. Randall Peerenboom asserts that China is in transition from rule by law to a version of rule of law, although not a "liberal democratic" version. In addition to scholars and students, this book is of interest to business professionals, policy advisors, and governmental and non-governmental agencies.

China has enjoyed considerable economic growth recently, in spite of a problematic legal system. Randall Peerenboom asserts that China is in transition from rule by law to a version of rule of law, although not a "liberal democratic" version. In addition to scholars and students, this book is of interest to business professionals, policy advisors, and governmental and non-governmental agencies.

A comprehensive account of English legal thought in the age of Blackstone and Bentham for nearly a century, The Province of Legislation Determined advances an ambitious reinterpretation of eighteenth-century attitudes to social change and law reform. Professor Lieberman's bold synthesis rests on a wide survey of legal materials and on a detailed discussion of Blackstone's Commentaries, the jurisprudence of Lord Kames and the Scottish Enlightenment, the chief justiceship of Lord Mansfield, the penal theories of Eden and Romilly, and the legislative science of Jeremy Bentham. The study relates legal developments to the broader fabric of eighteenth-century social and political theory, and offers a novel assessment of the character of the common law tradition and of Bentham's contribution to the ideology of reform.

The book provides a comparative and comprehensive analysis of the current technical, commercial and economical development in digital media describing the impact of new business and distribution models, the current legal and regulatory framework, social practices and consumer expectations associated with the use, distribution, and control of digital media products. In particular the author analyze the anti-circumvention provisions for technological protection measures and digital rights management systems enacted in the United States and in Europe.

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"This timely book urges readers to look at the courthouse afrom a faith contexta].a [A]n exciting picture of the relationship between pluralistic faiths and law."
--"Choice"

aA truly remarkable collection of first rate essays by a variety of scholars, one more illuminating than the other.a
--Amitai Etzioni, author of "Security First: For A Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy"

aA tremendous addition to the literature bounded by the topics of ethics, religion, public policy, and law. . . . A remarkable contribution in its conception and execution.a
--Ellen S. Pryor, Dedman School of Law, Southern Methodist University

The relationship between religion and the law is a hot-button topic in America, with the courts, Congress, journalists, and others engaging in animated debates on what influence, if any, the former should have on the latter. Many of these discussions are dominated by the legal perspective, which views religion as a threat to the law; it is rare to hear how various religions in America view American law, even though most religions have distinct views on law.

In Faith and Law, legal scholars from sixteen different religious traditions contend that religious discourse has an important function in the making, practice, and adjudication of American law, not least because our laws rest upon a framework of religious values. The book includes faiths that have traditionally had an impact on American law, as well as new immigrant faiths that are likely to have a growing influence. Each contributor describes how his or her tradition views law and addresses one legal issue from that perspective. Topics includeabortion, gay rights, euthanasia, immigrant rights, and blasphemy and free speech.

As Europe moves towards economic and political unification, many wonder why legal unification occurs so slowly. R.C. Van Caenegem considers the historical reasons behind this diversity, stressing the adoption of the classical law of the Romans and the influence of the rise of the nation states. The impact of politics on legal development is another key factor. The book concludes with a consideration of the ongoing debate on the desirability of European legal unification.

As Europe moves towards economic and political unification, many wonder why legal unification occurs so slowly. R.C. Van Caenegem considers the historical reasons behind this diversity, stressing the adoption of the classical law of the Romans and the influence of the rise of the nation states. The impact of politics on legal development is another key factor. The book concludes with a consideration of the ongoing debate on the desirability of European legal unification.

This book explores the relationship between sex and belonging in law and popular culture, arguing that contemporary citizenship is sexed, privatized, and self-disciplined. Former sexual outlaws have challenged their exclusion and are being incorporated into citizenship. But as citizenship becomes more sexed, it also becomes privatized and self-disciplined. The author explores these contesting representations of sex and belonging in films, television, and legal decisions. She examines a broad range of subjects, from gay men and lesbians, pornographers and hip hop artists, to women selling vibrators, adulterers, and single mothers on welfare. She observes cultural representations ranging from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy to Dr. Phil, Sex in the City to Desperate Housewives. She reviews appellate court cases on sodomy and same-sex marriage, national welfare reform, and obscenity regulation. Finally, the author argues that these representations shape the terms of belonging and governance, producing good (and bad) sexual citizens, based on the degree to which they abide by the codes of privatized and self-disciplined sex.

This important new textbook compares civil and common law systems using the French legal system as its basis. Focusing on the four main branches of French Law: civil, criminal, administrative and constitutional law, the book examines the way that the judiciary, lawyers and academics operate within them.