European Company Law and Corporate Governance Conference Sponsored Paper: "Listed Companies' Engagement With Diversity."

 The European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) has been at the center of a long term effort to focus research on a variety of aspects of corporate governance among advanced economies. 

The conference series “European Company Law and Corporate Governance Conferences” was launched at a full-day public conference in The Hague on 18 October 2004 during the Dutch EU Presidency. In subsequent years, conferences have been held in several countries during their respective EU Presidency. Information about these conferences, if still available, can be found on various websites. The ECGI has collated documents into a single repository for the first time for the convenience of scholars, practitioners and policy-makers alike. (See EU Presidency conferences Repository)

The 12th Conference took place at the Convention Centre Dublin, on 16 and 17 May 2013, during the Irish Presidency of the EU. The Conference was organized around the publication of the European Commission's Action Plan on Company Law and Corporate Governance which outlines the initiatives the Commission has signaled it will likely take with the objective of modernizing and enhancing the current European structures of corporate governance and company law. (Communication From the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, The European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, Action Plan: European company law and corporate governance - a modern legal framework for more engaged shareholders and sustainable companies, Brussels, XXX, COM(2012) 740/2().

The ECGI organised two sessions on the first day on the theme of "short-termism," the impact of financial markets and the UK Kay Review.  It also included the presentation of a specially commissioned conference research paper, Deridre Ahern and Blanaid Clarke, Listed Companies' Engagement with Diversity: A Multi-Jurisdictional Study of Annual Report Disclosures, ECGI Working Paper 221/2013. This post presents information about the conference (with links) and some thoughts about that conference paper. 

On the Work of the UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and the Environment

John H. Knox, UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and the Environment and Henry C. Lauerman Professor of International Law has been advancing his mandate.  (See HERE)

 

 (John Knox)

 

Professor Knox recently provided a report of his activities in his role as U.N. Independent Expert, which I have re-posted here.

Elements of Law 3.0 Notes of Readings: I-C (What is Law? Law Articulated by Legislatures: Statutory Law)

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2013)

I have been posting about the development of a new course I have been developing for our first year law school students, "Elements of Law."  (Elements of Law 3.0: On the Relevance of a First Year Law Course Designed to Frame the Law School Curriculum).  The SYLLABUS can be accessed HERE.

With this post I continue to share with the class and interested "others" summary study notes for the course readings.  For this post we consider:  I. What is Law? C. Law Articulated by Legislatures: Statutory Law.   Comments and discussion most welcome.

The Table of Contents for all of the Lecture Notes may be accessed HERE: Elements of Law 3.0: Table of Contents for Lecture and Reading Notes for An Introduction to U.S. Legal Theory and Practice.

Elements of Law 3.0 Notes of Readings: I-B (What is Law? Law Articulated by Courts: The Common Law & Equity)

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2013)

I have been posting about the development of a new course I have been developing for our first year law school students, "Elements of Law."  (Elements of Law 3.0: On the Relevance of a First Year Law Course Designed to Frame the Law School Curriculum).  The SYLLABUS can be accessed HERE.

With this post I continue to share with the class and interested "others" summary study notes for the course readings.  For this post we consider:  I. What is Law? B. Law Articulated by Courts: The Common Law and Equity.   Comments and discussion most welcome.

The Table of Contents for all of the Lecture Notes may be accessed HERE: Elements of Law 3.0: Table of Contents for Lecture and Reading Notes for An Introduction to U.S. Legal Theory and Practice.

The Trial of Bo Xilai--Broadcast Live

 (David McKenzie. Steven Jiang and Jethro Mullen, Bo Xilai contests bribery charges at his trial in eastern China, CNN, Aug. 22, 2013)

Bo Xilai's trial is currently underway. Every minute detail of the court proceeding is broadcaster to the public via the official microblog of the Jinan court. The court proceedings are surprisingly "adversarial", with Bo's defense rather fiercely arguing against the prosecutor's allegations. This is quite unusual for political trails in China. "Hearings would last two days, Chinese state television CCTV said in a tweet, with a verdict "likely in early September". " (Bo Xilai denies China bribes as trial opens in Jinan, BBC News China, Aug. 22, 2013). 

One of the most interesting aspects of the case involves the way in which what should be quite separate and distinct proceedings--the extra-judicial disciplinary proceedings against Communist Party members (shuanggui)--has bled over into the criminal trial which is supposed to be conducted under the constraints of the Chinese Constitution. Prosecutors are generally not supposed to have access to shuanggui materials but in practice that wall of separation is breached, a practice that impedes movement toward the construction of a constitutional socialist rule of law system in China. (Backer, Larry Catá and Wang, Keren, State and Party in the Scientific Development of a Legitimate Rule of Law Constitutional System in China: The Example of Laojiao and Shuanggui (June 1, 2013). Conference: Rule of Law with Chinese Characteristics, Vol. 2013, p. 101, 2013; Penn State Law Research Paper No. 26-2013). 

Microblog of the Jinan court may be accessed HERE (in Chinese).

Elements of Law 3.0: Notes for Readings I-A (What is Law? Introduction: The cast of characters, institutions and forms); Reading Justinian's Institutes

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2013)

I have been posting about the development of a new course I have been developing for our first year law school students, "Elements of Law."  (Elements of Law 3.0: On the Relevance of a First Year Law Course Designed to Frame the Law School Curriculum).  The SYLLABUS can be accessed HERE.

Starting with this post I will be attempting to provide the class with study notes for the course readings: I. What is Law? A. Introduction: The cast of characters, institutions and forms.  The purpose is both to help students get a sense of the insights to be drawn from the readings and to bring the readings together in a way that connects them with the cor objectives of a class designed to bring the law curriculum together for first year students.  Most of these will be posted in summary form.  this first one is elaborated at greater length.  Comments and discussion most welcome.

The Table of Contents for all of the Lecture Notes may be accessed HERE: Elements of Law 3.0: Table of Contents for Lecture and Reading Notes for An Introduction to U.S. Legal Theory and Practice.

Notes of Papers Delivered at the 2013 Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy

The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy held its 23rd Annual Conference in Miami this past week. The conference theme this year was "Reforming Cuba?" Conference papers focused on internal economic and political reforms and their impact on the economy of Cuba and the region, and  also included general sessions on the Cuban economy and society.

This post summarizes the presentations of  the opening plenary session, entitled, "An Overview of Reforms," chaired by Joaquín Pujol, International Monetary Fund (Retired) and featuring the following speakers:

--Carmelo Mesa-Lago, University of Pittsburgh, “Overview of Cuba’s Reforms and Their Effects”
--Rolando H. Castañeda, “Cuba: Análisis de las Reformas Socioeconómicas Raulistas, 2007-2013. Principales Logros y Limitaciones. Imperativo de las Reformas Difíciles”
--René Gómez Manzano, Havana, Cuba based attorney (invited)
--Emilio Morales, The Havana Consulting Group

Mark Brennan: Inaugural Lecture of the UNESCO Chair in Rural Community, Leadership, and Youth Development at Penn State University

Penn State has been selected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to establish the UNESCO Chair in Rural Community, Leadership, and Youth Development to address the specific needs of rural youth and communities. Dr. Mark Brennan serves as Chair and leads the program. "The UNESCO Chair at Penn State aspires to be the leading source of high-impact research, educational programs, policy and partnerships that improve the lives of youth and communities worldwide." (Penn State UNESCO Chair, About). The Chair is based in the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences under the Office of International Programs and Center for Economic and Community Development in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education.

 

(Dr. Mark Brennan, UNESCO Chair)

Mark A. Brennan, the  UNESCO Chair in Rural Community, Leadership, and Youth Development focuses on issues of youth and community capacity building, equality and education, economic development, social justice, and sustainable development.On July 16, 2013, the UNESCO Chair presented his inaugural lecture, "Achieving Education for All, Realizing Engaged Communities, and Creating Global Citizens for Change Through the UNESCO Chairs Program." The speech is set out below and may be accessed in the original HERE.

Elements of Law 3.0: On the Relevance of a First Year Law Course Designed to Frame the Law School Curriculum

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2013)

In 2010, the faculty at Penn State Law approved the creation of a new concept course, to be named "Elements of Law". Its description was meant to be general, to provide faculty with some space to develop concepts and ideas for a course on "meta-principles" either of the applied or theoretical kind.

Elements of Law orients students to legal research and reasoning through caselaw, statutory interpretation, and legal history, processes, and institutions. The course covers topics across many substantive areas of law, and addresses legal methodology as it arises in the legal profession. Penn State Law, Course Descriptions.

I taught the course for the first time in the Fall 2010 term, following the initial syllabus I prepared. I discussed the initial efforts to structure the course at Larry Catá Backer, Developing a New Course--"Elements of Law"Law at the End of the Day, August 16, 2010. I taught it again in 2011 and provided a self analysis of the course at Larry Catá Backer, "Elements of Law" Course 2.0: A Framework Course for the U.S. Law Curriculum, Law at the End of the Day, July 23, 2011. It should come as no surprise that the reception of the course by students was mixed.  "This, in part, might reflect the common culture of law school course pedagogy, in which the utility of a course directed in the short term to the bar and in the middle term to the first job, is an important way that students weigh the value of a course (and therefore the amount of time that ought to be devoted to its mastery." (Backer, "Elements of Law" Course 2.0).

I am teaching "Elements of Law" again this coming semester.  I decided to revisit the syllabus to see if I could make better sense of the course for students--that is to make it more relevant to the experience and expectations of students while providing significant and coherent value added to the law school education experience. The course remains a work in progress. In a way, it is also a mirror of the great changes and the extent of the failures of consensus, that are now reflected in the contradictions of the U.S. domestic legal order as it strives to move from what it was to what it might become.

Set out below is the revised version of the introductory course materials and syllabus I plan to use this coming semester. Though the course is designed to be taught over a semester, it can also be taught in smaller segments. Comments and reactions welcome. The entire syllabus may be ACCESSED HERE.

In addition, I will be developing lecture notes to go along with the readings assigned for each class.  These follow.   The Table of Contents for all of the Lecture Notes may be accessed HERE: Elements of Law 3.0: Table of Contents for Lecture and Reading Notes for An Introduction to U.S. Legal Theory and Practice.

On the Human Rights Responsibilities of Universities

In the usual course of discussion about the application of human rights principles to the operations of business enterprises, universities are usually excluded from the conversation.  yet, as employers and significant actors in the marketplace, universities ought not be excluded from consideration as an economic actor of some significance to global markets for knowledge production, invention, the exploitation of technology. . . and the exploitation of the productive capacity of its labor force--faculty, graduate students, research assistants, and staff.   

 

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2013)

 

 

The issue of the human rights responsibilities of universities has become acute recently at universities like the Pennsylvania State University, in the context of the conditions of employment related to its health and wellness programs.  These programs have spotlighted an emerging issue in private governance centering on the embrace by economic actors on eugenics programs applied to their labor forces meant to significantly affect the lifestyle and personal choices of their employees as a condition of continues employment.  (e.g., The New Eugenics--The Private Sector, the University, and Corporate Health and Wellness Initiatives).

 

This post suggests the international human rights dimensions of university eugenics programs used instrumentally to affect deeply personal life style choices of employees for the benefit of the employer and with the objective of increasing the operating margins of the university.  It suggests that though legally permissible within the domestic legal orders of most states, these programs may tend to violate the social license of these institutions and may adversely impact the human rights of its employees under emerging principles of corporate social and human rights responsibilities.  

Paper Translation Posted: Towards a Robust Theory of the Chinese Constitutional State (创建发展一套健全的中国宪政理论 ----强世功有关中国宪政形式主义与合法性问题的论述)

Recently, Jiang Shigong (强世功) , one of the most innovative constitutional law scholars in China today and I have been engaging in a substantive dialogue on issues of Chinese constitutionalism.  As part of that engagement, I  posted a  paper to the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) that considers an aspect of Party-State constitutionalism: Towards a Robust Theory of the Chinese Constitutional State: Between Formalism and Legitimacy in Jiang Shigong's Constitutionalism.  (more at New Paper Posted -- Towards a Robust Theory of the Chinese Constitutional State: Between Formalism and Legitimacy in Jiang Shigong's Constitutionalism).

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2012)

My research assistant Keren Wang has recently finished a draft translation of that manuscript, which is set out below as 创建发展一套健全的中国宪政理论 ----强世功有关中国宪政形式主义与合法性问题的论述 .

Democracy 29/Ruminations 53: Labor and Democracy in the Shadow of Capital in Marxist and Free Market States

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2013)

There has been a strong convergence of Marxist and capitalist states within the context of economic globalization since the later decades of the 20th Century.  That convergence is not merely related to the reliance on markets with instrumental interventions in these markets in the characteristically distinct ways of capitalist and Marxist states.  More importantly, convergence centers around the critical problem posed by the concept of capital for both systems--and the secondary effects of the fundamental ordering premises of capital for both Marxist and capitalist states. That critical problem--the issue of labor and its consequences for the political ordering of society, remains at the heart of the contradictions of both systems.  This is not to suggest that capital is either bad or irrelevant--only that the premise, accepted by both capitalist and Marxist, of the central role of capital in ordering economic and political life, has strong ramifications for the concepts of democracy and the relationship of the state to its workers.  This post teases out in a very preliminary way, some of these consequences and conundrums.

Chinese Academics on the Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the Non-State Sector

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2013)

My research assistant and SJD candidate Shan Gao have been exploring the role of the Chinese Communist Party in the economic sphere after the Opening Up process began almost a generation ago. See, e.g., 

--On the Role of the Chinese Communist Party in Overseas Chinese Companies--A Preliminary Examination, Law at the End of the Day (July 7, 2013);   

--The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in Business Enterprises--Law, Politics and Policy in the Construction of a Global Political Economy With Chinese Characteristics, Law at the End of the Day (June 19, 2013); 

--Corporate Social Responsibility With Chinese Characteristics Part 3: Wang Maoling on CSR and the Communist Party Line in China--构建和谐社会必须强化企业的社会责任, Law at the End of the Day (March 29, 2013).

For this post, Shan Gao has produced a note on Chinese academic discussion of the Communist Party's presence in the non-state sector.  We hope to touch on material that are usually unavailable to Western readers and to bring Chinese work more firmly into global discourse.