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This edited book is the first to reflect on childhood obesity as a
global legal challenge. It calls for a thorough commitment to human
rights in the face of an ascendant global agri-food industry. The
book makes an original contribution to the discussion on obesity as
it considers both international economic law and human rights law
perspectives on the issue whilst also examining the relationship
between these two bodies of international law. After highlighting
the importance of a human rights-based approach to obesity
prevention, this book discusses the relevance of international
economic law to the promotion of healthier food environments. It
then examines the potential of international human rights law for
more effective regulation of the food industry, arguing for better
coordination between UN actors and more systematic reliance on
human rights tools, including: the best interests of the child
principle, human rights due diligence processes, and the imposition
of extraterritorial obligations. The concluding chapter reflects on
recurring themes and the added value of a WHO Framework Convention
on Obesity Prevention. This book will be of interest to public
health scholars, particularly those working on obesity and
non-communicable diseases, and those with a broader interest in
children's rights, human rights, international trade, investment,
consumer or food law and policy. It will also be relevant to policy
actors working to improve nutrition and public health globally.
Being the public voice of over 180 member organisations across
nearly 90 countries, La Via Campesina, the global peasant movement,
has planted itself firmly on the international scene. This book
explores the internationalisation of the movement, with a specific
focus on the engagement of peasants in the processes of the
Committee on World Food Security (CFS). Since the reform of the CFS
in 2009, civil society actors engage in the policy processes of
this UN Committee from a self-designed and autonomous global Civil
Society Mechanism. The author sheds light on the strategies,
tensions, debates, and reconfigurations arising from rural actors
moving between every day struggles in the fields and those of the
UN arena. Whereas most theories in the dominant literature on
social movements expect them to either disappear or
institutionalise in a predetermined pattern, the book presents
empirical evidence that La Via Campesina is building a much more
sophisticated model. The direct participation of representatives of
peasant organisations in the CFS is highlighted as a pioneering
example of building a more complex, inclusive and democratic
foundation for global policy-making. Foreword by Olivier De
Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
(2008-2014).
ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND license. The
perpetuation of poverty across generations damages lives. It
weakens social cohesion and the economy and undermines
environmental sustainability. This book examines why poverty is
carried on from one generation to the next and what needs to be
done to eradicate it. This book draws on a wide variety of sources
and academic disciplines (social sciences, economics, law,
community development, neuroscience and developmental psychology)
along with the lived experience of people in poverty. Challenging
the myths and prejudices about poverty that hinder progress, it
calls for a comprehensive approach based on ensuring real equality
of opportunity for all. It stresses the need to intervene early to
combat child poverty and break the vicious cycles that perpetuate
poverty and disadvantage.
Recent years have seen a globalization of property rights as the
Western conception of property over land has extended across the
world. As formerly community-owned land and natural resources are
privatized and titling schemes proliferate, Property Rights from
Below questions the trend toward treating land as a commodity and
explores alternatives to the Western model. As we enter an era of
resource scarcity and as competition for land and associated
natural resources increases, purchasing power cannot become the
sole criterion for land allocation; and the law of supply and
demand in increasingly financialized markets cannot become the sole
metric through which the value of land is determined. Using a range
of examples from around the world, Property Rights from Below
demonstrates that alternatives to this model often emerge from
social innovations supported by local communities and that there is
an urgent need for a broader political imagination when it comes to
land governance. This innovative cross-disciplinary perspective on
the pressing problems surrounding global property rights will be of
interest to academics, students and professionals with an interest
in property law, development economics and land governance.
This book explores how the State can play a role as an enabler of
citizens-led social innovations, to accelerate the shift to
sustainable and socially just lifestyles. To meet the twin
challenges of environmental degradation and the rise of
inequalities, societal transformation is urgent. Most theories of
social change focus either on the role of the State, on the magic
of the market, or on the power of technological innovation. This
book explores instead how local communities, given the freedom to
experiment, can design solutions that can have a transformative
impact. Change cannot rely only on central ordering by government,
nor on corporations suddenly acting as responsible citizens.
Societal transformation, at the speed and scope required, also
should be based on the reconstitution of social capital, and on new
forms of democracy emerging from collective action at the local
level. The State matters of course, for the provision of both
public services and of social protection, and to discipline the
market, but it should also act as an enabler of citizen-led
experimentation, and it should set up an institutional apparatus to
ensure that collective learning spreads across jurisdictions.
Corporations themselves can ensure that society taps the full
potential of citizens-led social innovations: they can put their
know-how, their access to finance, and their control of logistical
chains in the service of such innovations, rather than focusing on
shaping consumers' tastes or even adapting to consumers' shifting
expectations. With this aim in mind, this book provides empirical
evidence of how social innovations, typically developed within
"niches", initially at a relatively small scale, can have
society-wide impacts. It also examines the nature of the activism
deployed by social innovators, and the emergence of a
"do-it-yourself" form of democracy. This book will appeal to all
those interested in driving societal change and social innovation
to ensure a sustainable and socially just future for all.
This volume offers a selection of those major contributions which
have shaped debate in the field of economic, social and cultural
rights. The broad range of discussion includes: the nature of
economic, social and cultural rights and the ability of courts to
protect them; the effectiveness of non-judicial protective
mechanisms at both the universal and the domestic level; ways of
measuring whether states do enough to 'progressively realize' these
rights; the impact of trade and investment liberalization, and of
economic globalization generally, on the fulfilment of such rights;
and the role of economic, social and cultural rights in
development. Professor De Schutter's original introduction provides
an insight into the background to the debate and maps the
alternative views which coexist in this highly contentious area.
This book presents original research that examines the growth of
international investment agreements as a means to attract foreign
direct investment (FDI) and considers how this affects the ability
of capital-importing countries to pursue their development goals.
The hope of countries signing such treaties is that foreign capital
will accelerate transfers of technologies, create employment, and
benefit the local economy through various types of linkages. But do
international investment agreements in fact succeed in attracting
foreign direct investment? And if so, are the sovereignty costs
involved worth paying? In particular, are these costs such that
they risk undermining the very purpose of attracting investors,
which is to promote human development in the host country? This
book uses both economic and legal analysis to answer these
questions that have become central to discussions on the impact of
economic globalization on human rights and human development. It
explains the dangers of developing countries being tempted to
'signal' their willingness to attract investors by providing
far-reaching protections to investors' rights that would annul, or
at least seriously diminish, the benefits they have a right to
expect from the arrival of FDI. It examines a variety of tools that
could be used, by capital-exporting countries and by
capital-importing countries alike, to ensure that FDI works for
development, and that international investment agreements
contribute to that end. This uniquely interdisciplinary study,
located at the intersection of development economics, international
investment law, and international human rights is written in an
accessible language, and should attract the attention of anyone who
cares about the role of private investment in supporting the
efforts of poor countries to climb up the development ladder.
This book presents original research that examines the growth of
international investment agreements as a means to attract foreign
direct investment (FDI) and considers how this affects the ability
of capital-importing countries to pursue their development goals.
The hope of countries signing such treaties is that foreign capital
will accelerate transfers of technologies, create employment, and
benefit the local economy through various types of linkages. But do
international investment agreements in fact succeed in attracting
foreign direct investment? And if so, are the sovereignty costs
involved worth paying? In particular, are these costs such that
they risk undermining the very purpose of attracting investors,
which is to promote human development in the host country? This
book uses both economic and legal analysis to answer these
questions that have become central to discussions on the impact of
economic globalization on human rights and human development. It
explains the dangers of developing countries being tempted to
'signal' their willingness to attract investors by providing
far-reaching protections to investors' rights that would annul, or
at least seriously diminish, the benefits they have a right to
expect from the arrival of FDI. It examines a variety of tools that
could be used, by capital-exporting countries and by
capital-importing countries alike, to ensure that FDI works for
development, and that international investment agreements
contribute to that end. This uniquely interdisciplinary study,
located at the intersection of development economics, international
investment law, and international human rights is written in an
accessible language, and should attract the attention of anyone who
cares about the role of private investment in supporting the
efforts of poor countries to climb up the development ladder.
This Handbook provides the first comprehensive review and synthesis
of knowledge and new thinking on how food and food systems can be
thought, interpreted and practiced around the old/new paradigms of
commons and commoning. The overall aim is to investigate the
multiple constraints that occur within and sustain the dominant
food and nutrition regime and to explore how it can change when
different elements of the current food systems are explored and
re-imagined from a commons perspective. The book sparks the debate
on food as a commons between and within disciplines, with
particular attention to spaces of resistance (food sovereignty,
de-growth, open knowledge, transition town, occupations, bottom-up
social innovations) and organizational scales (local food, national
policies, South-South collaborations, international governance and
multi-national agreements). Overall, it shows the consequences of a
shift to the alternative paradigm of food as a commons in terms of
food, the planet and living beings. Chapter 1 of this book is
freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license.
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781351665520_oachapter1.pdf
Chapter 24 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open
Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No
Derivatives 3.0 license.
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781351665520_oachapter24.pdf
Recent years have seen a globalization of property rights as the
Western conception of property over land has extended across the
world. As formerly community-owned land and natural resources are
privatized and titling schemes proliferate, Property Rights from
Below questions the trend toward treating land as a commodity and
explores alternatives to the Western model. As we enter an era of
resource scarcity and as competition for land and associated
natural resources increases, purchasing power cannot become the
sole criterion for land allocation; and the law of supply and
demand in increasingly financialized markets cannot become the sole
metric through which the value of land is determined. Using a range
of examples from around the world, Property Rights from Below
demonstrates that alternatives to this model often emerge from
social innovations supported by local communities and that there is
an urgent need for a broader political imagination when it comes to
land governance. This innovative cross-disciplinary perspective on
the pressing problems surrounding global property rights will be of
interest to academics, students and professionals with an interest
in property law, development economics and land governance.
Being the public voice of over 180 member organisations across
nearly 90 countries, La Via Campesina, the global peasant movement,
has planted itself firmly on the international scene. This book
explores the internationalisation of the movement, with a specific
focus on the engagement of peasants in the processes of the
Committee on World Food Security (CFS). Since the reform of the CFS
in 2009, civil society actors engage in the policy processes of
this UN Committee from a self-designed and autonomous global Civil
Society Mechanism. The author sheds light on the strategies,
tensions, debates, and reconfigurations arising from rural actors
moving between every day struggles in the fields and those of the
UN arena. Whereas most theories in the dominant literature on
social movements expect them to either disappear or
institutionalise in a predetermined pattern, the book presents
empirical evidence that La Via Campesina is building a much more
sophisticated model. The direct participation of representatives of
peasant organisations in the CFS is highlighted as a pioneering
example of building a more complex, inclusive and democratic
foundation for global policy-making. Foreword by Olivier De
Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
(2008-2014).
This Handbook provides the first comprehensive review and synthesis
of knowledge and new thinking on how food and food systems can be
thought, interpreted and practiced around the old/new paradigms of
commons and commoning. The overall aim is to investigate the
multiple constraints that occur within and sustain the dominant
food and nutrition regime and to explore how it can change when
different elements of the current food systems are explored and
re-imagined from a commons perspective. The book sparks the debate
on food as a commons between and within disciplines, with
particular attention to spaces of resistance (food sovereignty,
de-growth, open knowledge, transition town, occupations, bottom-up
social innovations) and organizational scales (local food, national
policies, South-South collaborations, international governance and
multi-national agreements). Overall, it shows the consequences of a
shift to the alternative paradigm of food as a commons in terms of
food, the planet and living beings. Chapter 1 of this book is
freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license.
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781351665520_oachapter1.pdf
Chapter 24 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open
Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No
Derivatives 3.0 license.
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781351665520_oachapter24.pdf
In the Bretton Woods era, trade liberalization, the improvement of
labour rights and working conditions, and the strengthening of
environmental policies, were seen as mutually supportive. But is
this always true? Can we continue to pretend to protect the rights
of workers and to improve environmental protection, particularly
through climate change mitigation strategies, within an agenda
focused on trade liberalization? Is it credible to pursue trade
policies that aim to expand the volumes of trade, without linking
such policies to labour and environmental standards, seen as
'non-trade' concerns? This book asks these questions, offering a
detailed analysis of whether linkage is desirable and legally
acceptable under the disciplines of the World Trade Organization
(WTO). It concludes that trade can work for sustainable
development, but only if we see it as a means for social and
environmental progress, including climate change mitigation, and if
we avoid fetichizing it as an end to be pursued for its own sake.
This casebook, the result of the collaborative efforts of a panel
of experts from various EU Member States, is the latest in the Ius
Commune Casebook series developed at the Universities of Maastricht
and Leuven. The book provides a comprehensive and skilfully
designed resource for students, practitioners, researchers, public
officials, NGOs, consumer organisations and the judiciary. In
common with earlier books in the series, this casebook presents
cases and other materials (legislative materials, international and
European materials, excerpts from books or articles). As
non-discrimination law is a comparatively new subject, the chapters
search for and develop the concepts of discrimination law on the
basis of a wide variety of young and often still emerging case law
and legislation. The result is a comprehensive textbook with
materials from a wide variety of EU Member States. The book is
entirely in English (i.e. materials are translated where not
available in English). At the end of each chapter a comparative
overview ties the material together, with emphasis, where
appropriate, on existing or emerging general principles in the
legal systems within Europe. The book illustrates the distinct
relationship between international, European and national
legislation in the field of non-discrimination law. It covers the
grounds of discrimination addressed in the Racial Equality and
Employment Equality Directives, as well as non-discrimination law
relating to gender. In so doing, it covers the law of a large
number of EU Member States, alongside some international
comparisons. The Ius Commune Casebook on Non-Discrimination Law -
provides practitioners with ready access to primary and secondary
legal material needed to assist them in crafting test case
strategies. - provides the judiciary with the tools needed to
respond sensitively to such cases. - provides material for teaching
non-discrimination law to law and other students. - provides a
basis for ongoing research on non-discrimination law. - provides an
up-to-date overview of the implementation of the Directives and of
the state of the law. This Casebook is the result of a project
which has been supported by a grant from the European Commission's
Anti-Discrimination Programme. See the detailed website for this
book: www.casebooks.eu/nonDiscrimination/.
Essential resources do more than satisfy people's needs. They
ensure a dignified existence. Since the competition for essential
resources, particularly fresh water and arable land, is increasing
and standard legal institutions, such as property rights and
national border controls, are strangling access to resources for
some while delivering prosperity to others, many are searching for
ways to ensure their fair distribution. This book argues that the
division of essential resources ought to be governed by a
combination of Voice and Reflexivity. Voice is the ability of
social groups to choose the rules by which they are governed.
Reflexivity is the opportunity to question one's own preferences in
light of competing claims and to accommodate them in a collective
learning process. Having investigated the allocation of essential
resources in places as varied as Cambodia, China, India, Kenya,
Laos, Morocco, Nepal, the arid American West, and peri-urban areas
in West Africa, the contributors to this volume largely concur with
the viability of this policy and normative framework. Drawing on
their expertise in law, environmental studies, anthropology,
history, political science, and economics, they weigh the potential
of Voice and Reflexivity against such alternatives as pricing
mechanisms, property rights, common resource management, political
might, or brute force.
In the Bretton Woods era, trade liberalization, the improvement of
labour rights and working conditions, and the strengthening of
environmental policies, were seen as mutually supportive. But is
this always true? Can we continue to pretend to protect the rights
of workers and to improve environmental protection, particularly
through climate change mitigation strategies, within an agenda
focused on trade liberalization? Is it credible to pursue trade
policies that aim to expand the volumes of trade, without linking
such policies to labour and environmental standards, seen as
'non-trade' concerns? This book asks these questions, offering a
detailed analysis of whether linkage is desirable and legally
acceptable under the disciplines of the World Trade Organization
(WTO). It concludes that trade can work for sustainable
development, but only if we see it as a means for social and
environmental progress, including climate change mitigation, and if
we avoid fetichizing it as an end to be pursued for its own sake.
The leading textbook on international human rights law is now
better than ever. The content has been fully updated and now
provides more detailed coverage of substantive human rights, along
with new sections on the war on terror and on the progressive
realization of economic and social rights, making this the most
comprehensive book in the field. It has a new, more
student-friendly text design and has retained the features which
made the first edition so engaging and accessible, including the
concise and critical style, and questions and case studies within
each chapter, as well as suggestions for further reading. Written
by De Schutter, whose extensive experience working in the field and
teaching the subject in both the US and EU gives him a unique
perspective and valuable insight into the requirements of lecturers
and students. This is an essential tool for all students of
international human rights law.
The challenge of global hunger is now high on the agenda of
governments and international policy-makers. The contributors in
this study address that challenge by looking at the obstacles which
stand in the way of implementing a right to food in the era of
globalization. The right to food, the book argues, can only be
realized if governance improves at the domestic level and if the
international environment enables governments to adopt appropriate
policies. The book's essays demonstrate how improved accountability
at the national level and reform of the international economic
environment - in the areas of trade, food aid, and investment - go
hand-in-hand in the move towards full realization of the right to
food, while reforms at domestic level are key in effectively
tackling hunger, including reforms that improve accountability of
government officials. The current regimes of trade, investment, and
food aid, as well as the development of biofuels production - all
of which contribute to define the international context in which
States implement such reforms - should be reshaped if these
national efforts are to be successful. The title - Accounting for
Hunger - emphasizes the point that accountability both at domestic
and international level must be improved if sustainable progress is
to be achieved in combating global hunger. The implication is that
the extraterritorial human rights obligations of States - beyond
their national territories in their food aid, investment, or trade
policies - as well as the strengthening of global governance of
food security - as is currently being attempted with the reform of
the Committee on World Food Security in Rome - have a key role to
fulfill. Domestic reforms will not achieve sustainable results
unless the international environment is more enabling of the
efforts of governments acting individually. (Series: Studies in
International Law - Vol. 36)
Reflexive governance offers a theoretical framework for
understanding modern patterns of governance in the European Union
(EU) institutions and elsewhere. It offers a learning-based
approach to governance, but one which can better respond to
concerns about the democratic deficit and to the fulfillment of the
public interest than the currently dominant neo-institutionalist
approaches. The book is composed of one general introduction and
eight chapters. Chapter one introduces the concept of reflexive
governance and describes the overall framework. The following
chapters of the book then summarise the implications of reflexive
governance in major areas of domestic, EU and global policy-making.
They address in turn: Services of General Interest, Corporate
Governance, Institutional Frames for Markets, Regulatory
Governance, Fundamental Social Rights, Healthcare Services, Global
Public Services and Common Goods. While the themes are diverse, the
chapters are unified by their attempt to get to the heart of which
concepts of governance are dominant in each field, and what their
successes and failures have been: reflexive governance then emerges
as one possible response to the failures of other governance models
currently being relied upon by policy-makers.
This volume offers a systematic overview of the different tools
through which the human rights accountability of transnational
corporations may be improved. It first examines the responsibility
of States in controlling transnational corporations, emphasizing
both the limits imposed by the protection of the rights of
investors under investment treaties and the potential of the US
Alien Tort Claims Act and other similar extra-territorial
legislations. It then turns to self-regulation by transnational
corporations, through the use of codes of conduct or international
framework agreements. It then discusses recent attempts at the
global level to improve the human rights accountability of
corporations by the direct imposition on corporations of
obligations under international law. Finally, it considers the use
of public procurement policies or of conditionalities in the
lending policies of multilateral lending institutions in order to
incentivize TNCs to behave ethically. Altogether, the book offers a
rigorous legal analysis of these different developments and
critically appraises their potential.
Coherent laws enforced by a central authority are part of the
reason why human rights protection works at the national level in
Europe. But when it comes to the EU these dimensions are lacking.
The present system for protecting fundamental rights emerged on an
ad hoc basis, with measures being improvised to respond to
particular problems. In the next couple of years, however, this
situation is likely to change very significantly. The proposed
European Constitution incorporates the EU Charter of Fundamental
Rights, and a specialized EU Fundamental Rights Agency is likely to
be established. As a result, the situation of the EU will more
closely resemble that of its Member States. Fundamental rights will
occupy a central role, and coherent and systematic arrangements
will be in place to protect rights, using both judicial and
non-judicial means. The Fundamental Rights Agency, in particular,
has immense potential to ensure effective monitoring of fundamental
rights in the EU, and to ensure a unified strategy for their
promotion in EU law and policy. This volume is the first to
critically examine the proposals put forward by the European
Commission in October 2004 on the creation of the EU Fundamental
Rights Agency. Leading scholars in the field of European and
international human rights law analyse the potential significance
of this innovative Agency, and seek to locate it in relation to
various other human rights mechanisms, both in the EU's
constitutional structure and within Member States. They review the
tasks which the Agency could be called upon to perform, and make
proposals as to how it can function most effectively. The
relationship of EU law to the international law of human rights
emerging from both the United Nations and the Council of Europe is
examined. The authors also address the challenge of ensuring
improved coherence between EU law and the other human rights
obligations undertaken by the Member States. Taken together, these
contributions address urgent questions facing the EU at a time when
the central unifying function of fundamental rights has been
recognized but the way forward remains largely uncharted.
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