Ruminations 68(6) (From Principle to Terror): Looking Back on 2016 in Epigrams and Aphorisms

(Pix © Flora Sapio 2016)

In many ways, the year that is ending has proven to be quite significant. Mostly, it served as a hard reminder that the carefully crafted project of legalization and judicialization of the economic, religious and cultural spheres that were meant to serve as the foundations of a global order to make global war effectively impossible has begun to fray. And with the fraying of the legalization-judicialization project, politics and power have again emerged as significant factors in the organization of law and governance systems. It has seen the destabilization of the Middle East and its consequential destabilization of Europe. It has seen the retreat of a great power, a perpetually brooding political Colossus trapped in its own doubts and pretensions, and the flexing of muscles of rising powers through territorial expansionism and bullying of weaker partners. It has seen the exercise of mass power in the United States and other places that surprised elites that had long grown confident of their ability to manage their people, whether under Marxist Leninist or democratic principles. It has seen the unmasking of the militarization of the internal security and police structures of even the most stable and democratic states, the abandonment of law in battle against drugs and the emergence of law as a technique of managing corruption. It has seen the development of governance beyond the state and the determination of states seeking to substitute itself for the market. It has seen states us law, norms, markets and culture to drive efforts to perfect "model" workers, individuals and citizens, which can then serve the state's perfection of its markets, its centrally planned decision making structures, or its structures of divine command on earth. The Jewish people continued to provide fodder for all sorts of activity and were used by left, right and themselves to their quite distinct ends, as other religious institutions sought to maintain or expand their institutional jurisdiction within legal, cultural, economic and social structures in and beyond states. The rise of global communities has now been challenged by states seeking to avoid the implications of normative communities that cannot be confined to and managed by the state.

2016 is rich with these events that expose the complex connections between law, politics, economics, religion and culture. These events will set the course for 2017, even as new actors seek to take manage people, events, states, enterprises and other institutions with substantial consequential effects of the mass. But most of all 2016 evidence both the great power and the fragility of mass participation in institutions in which they find themselves in a continuous loop of mutually dependent overlordship.

With no objective in particular, this post provides my summary of the slice of 2016 in which I was embedded through epigrams and aphorisms.

This is Part 6 (From Principle to Terror). Share your own!

Links to Epigrams and Aphorisms: Ruminations 68.

Ruminations 68(5)(Politics and Death and Death and Death): Looking Back on 2016 in Epigrams and Aphorisms

(Pix © Flora Sapio 2016)

In many ways, the year that is ending has proven to be quite significant. Mostly, it served as a hard reminder that the carefully crafted project of legalization and judicialization of the economic, religious and cultural spheres that were meant to serve as the foundations of a global order to make global war effectively impossible has begun to fray. And with the fraying of the legalization-judicialization project, politics and power have again emerged as significant factors in the organization of law and governance systems. It has seen the destabilization of the Middle East and its consequential destabilization of Europe. It has seen the retreat of a great power, a perpetually brooding political Colossus trapped in its own doubts and pretensions, and the flexing of muscles of rising powers through territorial expansionism and bullying of weaker partners. It has seen the exercise of mass power in the United States and other places that surprised elites that had long grown confident of their ability to manage their people, whether under Marxist Leninist or democratic principles. It has seen the unmasking of the militarization of the internal security and police structures of even the most stable and democratic states, the abandonment of law in battle against drugs and the emergence of law as a technique of managing corruption. It has seen the development of governance beyond the state and the determination of states seeking to substitute itself for the market. It has seen states us law, norms, markets and culture to drive efforts to perfect "model" workers, individuals and citizens, which can then serve the state's perfection of its markets, its centrally planned decision making structures, or its structures of divine command on earth. The Jewish people continued to provide fodder for all sorts of activity and were used by left, right and themselves to their quite distinct ends, as other religious institutions sought to maintain or expand their institutional jurisdiction within legal, cultural, economic and social structures in and beyond states. The rise of global communities has now been challenged by states seeking to avoid the implications of normative communities that cannot be confined to and managed by the state.

2016 is rich with these events that expose the complex connections between law, politics, economics, religion and culture. These events will set the course for 2017, even as new actors seek to take manage people, events, states, enterprises and other institutions with substantial consequential effects of the mass. But most of all 2016 evidence both the great power and the fragility of mass participation in institutions in which they find themselves in a continuous loop of mutually dependent overlordship.

With no objective in particular, this post provides my summary of the slice of 2016 in which I was embedded through epigrams and aphorisms.

This is Part 5 (politics and death). Share your own!

Links to Epigrams and Aphorisms: Ruminations 68.

Ruminations 68(4) (On the Election of Donald Trump): Looking Back on 2016 in Epigrams and Aphorisms

(Pix © Flora Sapio 2016)

In many ways, the year that is ending has proven to be quite significant. Mostly, it served as a hard reminder that the carefully crafted project of legalization and judicialization of the economic, religious and cultural spheres that were meant to serve as the foundations of a global order to make global war effectively impossible has begun to fray. And with the fraying of the legalization-judicialization project, politics and power have again emerged as significant factors in the organization of law and governance systems. It has seen the destabilization of the Middle East and its consequential destabilization of Europe. It has seen the retreat of a great power, a perpetually brooding political Colossus trapped in its own doubts and pretensions, and the flexing of muscles of rising powers through territorial expansionism and bullying of weaker partners. It has seen the exercise of mass power in the United States and other places that surprised elites that had long grown confident of their ability to manage their people, whether under Marxist Leninist or democratic principles. It has seen the unmasking of the militarization of the internal security and police structures of even the most stable and democratic states, the abandonment of law in battle against drugs and the emergence of law as a technique of managing corruption. It has seen the development of governance beyond the state and the determination of states seeking to substitute itself for the market. It has seen states us law, norms, markets and culture to drive efforts to perfect "model" workers, individuals and citizens, which can then serve the state's perfection of its markets, its centrally planned decision making structures, or its structures of divine command on earth. The Jewish people continued to provide fodder for all sorts of activity and were used by left, right and themselves to their quite distinct ends, as other religious institutions sought to maintain or expand their institutional jurisdiction within legal, cultural, economic and social structures in and beyond states. The rise of global communities has now been challenged by states seeking to avoid the implications of normative communities that cannot be confined to and managed by the state.

2016 is rich with these events that expose the complex connections between law, politics, economics, religion and culture. These events will set the course for 2017, even as new actors seek to take manage people, events, states, enterprises and other institutions with substantial consequential effects of the mass. But most of all 2016 evidence both the great power and the fragility of mass participation in institutions in which they find themselves in a continuous loop of mutually dependent overlordship.

With no objective in particular, this post provides my summary of the slice of 2016 in which I was embedded through epigrams and aphorisms.

This is Part 4 (On the election of Donald Trump). Share your own!

Links to Epigrams and Aphorisms: Ruminations 68.

Ruminations 68(3): Looking Back on 2016 in Epigrams and Aphorisms

(Pix © Flora Sapio 2016)

In many ways, the year that is ending has proven to be quite significant. Mostly, it served as a hard reminder that the carefully crafted project of legalization and judicialization of the economic, religious and cultural spheres that were meant to serve as the foundations of a global order to make global war effectively impossible has begun to fray. And with the fraying of the legalization-judicialization project, politics and power have again emerged as significant factors in the organization of law and governance systems. It has seen the destabilization of the Middle East and its consequential destabilization of Europe. It has seen the retreat of a great power, a perpetually brooding political Colossus trapped in its own doubts and pretensions, and the flexing of muscles of rising powers through territorial expansionism and bullying of weaker partners. It has seen the exercise of mass power in the United States and other places that surprised elites that had long grown confident of their ability to manage their people, whether under Marxist Leninist or democratic principles. It has seen the unmasking of the militarization of the internal security and police structures of even the most stable and democratic states, the abandonment of law in battle against drugs and the emergence of law as a technique of managing corruption. It has seen the development of governance beyond the state and the determination of states seeking to substitute itself for the market. It has seen states us law, norms, markets and culture to drive efforts to perfect "model" workers, individuals and citizens, which can then serve the state's perfection of its markets, its centrally planned decision making structures, or its structures of divine command on earth. The Jewish people continued to provide fodder for all sorts of activity and were used by left, right and themselves to their quite distinct ends, as other religious institutions sought to maintain or expand their institutional jurisdiction within legal, cultural, economic and social structures in and beyond states. The rise of global communities has now been challenged by states seeking to avoid the implications of normative communities that cannot be confined to and managed by the state.

2016 is rich with these events that expose the complex connections between law, politics, economics, religion and culture. These events will set the course for 2017, even as new actors seek to take manage people, events, states, enterprises and other institutions with substantial consequential effects of the mass. But most of all 2016 evidence both the great power and the fragility of mass participation in institutions in which they find themselves in a continuous loop of mutually dependent overlordship.

With no objective in particular, this post provides my summary of the slice of 2016 in which I was embedded through epigrams and aphorisms.

This is Part 3. Share your own!

Links to Epigrams and Aphorisms: Ruminations 68.

Ruminations 68(2): Looking Back on 2016 in Epigrams and Aphorisms

(Pix © Flora Sapio 2016)

In many ways, the year that is ending has proven to be quite significant. Mostly, it served as a hard reminder that the carefully crafted project of legalization and judicialization of the economic, religious and cultural spheres that were meant to serve as the foundations of a global order to make global war effectively impossible has begun to fray. And with the fraying of the legalization-judicialization project, politics and power have again emerged as significant factors in the organization of law and governance systems. It has seen the destabilization of the Middle East and its consequential destabilization of Europe. It has seen the retreat of a great power, a perpetually brooding political Colossus trapped in its own doubts and pretensions, and the flexing of muscles of rising powers through territorial expansionism and bullying of weaker partners. It has seen the exercise of mass power in the United States and other places that surprised elites that had long grown confident of their ability to manage their people, whether under Marxist Leninist or democratic principles. It has seen the unmasking of the militarization of the internal security and police structures of even the most stable and democratic states, the abandonment of law in battle against drugs and the emergence of law as a technique of managing corruption. It has seen the development of governance beyond the state and the determination of states seeking to substitute itself for the market. It has seen states us law, norms, markets and culture to drive efforts to perfect "model" workers, individuals and citizens, which can then serve the state's perfection of its markets, its centrally planned decision making structures, or its structures of divine command on earth. The Jewish people continued to provide fodder for all sorts of activity and were used by left, right and themselves to their quite distinct ends, as other religious institutions sought to maintain or expand their institutional jurisdiction within legal, cultural, economic and social structures in and beyond states. The rise of global communities has now been challenged by states seeking to avoid the implications of normative communities that cannot be confined to and managed by the state.

2016 is rich with these events that expose the complex connections between law, politics, economics, religion and culture. These events will set the course for 2017, even as new actors seek to take manage people, events, states, enterprises and other institutions with substantial consequential effects of the mass. But most of all 2016 evidence both the great power and the fragility of mass participation in institutions in which they find themselves in a continuous loop of mutually dependent overlordship.

With no objective in particular, this post provides my summary of the slice of 2016 in which I was embedded through epigrams and aphorisms.

This is Part 2. Share your own!

Links to full content of Epigrams and Aphorisms: Ruminations 68. 

Ruminations 68(1): Looking Back on 2016 in Epigrams and Aphorisms

 

(Pix © Flora Sapio 2016)

In many ways, the year that is ending has proven to be quite significant. Mostly, it served as a hard reminder that the carefully crafted project of legalization and judicialization of the economic, religious and cultural spheres that were meant to serve as the foundations of a global order to make global war effectively impossible has begun to fray. And with the fraying of the legalization-judicialization project, politics and power have again emerged as significant factors in the organization of law and governance systems.  It has seen the destabilization of the Middle East and its consequential destabilization of Europe.  It has seen the retreat of a great power, a perpetually brooding political Colossus trapped in its own doubts and pretensions, and the flexing of muscles of rising powers through territorial expansionism and bullying of weaker partners. It has seen the exercise of mass power in the United States and other places that surprised elites that had long grown confident of their ability to manage  their people, whether under Marxist Leninist or democratic principles.   It has seen the unmasking of the militarization of the internal security and police structures of even the most stable and democratic states, the abandonment of law in battle against drugs and the emergence of law as a technique of managing corruption.  It has seen the development of governance beyond the state and the determination of  states seeking to substitute itself for the market. It has seen states us law, norms, markets and culture to drive efforts to perfect "model" workers, individuals and citizens, which can then serve the state's perfection of its markets, its centrally planned decision making structures, or its structures of divine command on earth. The Jewish people continued to provide fodder for all sorts of activity and were used by left, right and themselves to their quite distinct ends, as other religious institutions sought to maintain or expand their institutional jurisdiction within legal, cultural, economic and social structures in and beyond states.  The rise of global communities has now been challenged by states seeking to avoid the implications of normative communities that cannot be confined to and managed by the state. 

2016 is rich with these events that expose the complex connections between law, politics, economics, religion and culture. These events will set the course for 2017, even as new actors seek to take manage people, events, states, enterprises and other institutions with substantial consequential effects of the mass. But most of all 2016 evidence both the great power and the fragility of mass participation in institutions in which they find themselves in a continuous loop of mutually dependent  overlordship.

With no objective in particular, this post and a number that follow provides my summary of the slice of 2016 in which I was embedded through epigrams and aphorisms.

This is Part 1. Share your own!

Ruminations 68 Epigrams and Aphorisms: 
68(1);
68(2);
68(3);
68(4);
68(5);
68(6). 

On the U.S. National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct--Business and Human Rights: Public Leadership and Private Governance

As the sun sets on eight years of an Obama administration,  the United States of America, long quite remote as an institutional body from the global projects for the management of business activities with human rights effects, has now produced a National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct (US-NAP).

National Action Plans (NAPs) are policy documents in which a State articulates priorities and actions that it will adopt to support the implementation of international, regional, or national obligations and commitments with regard to a given policy area or topic. Reliance on NAPs as a policy approach and governance tool is not limited to the area of business and human rights. On the contrary, calls for NAPs based on the UNGPs follow from their increasing use in a range of other policy areas. (Danish Institute for Human Rights and International Corporate Accountability Roundtable Toolkit for the Development, Implementation and Review of State Commitments to Business and Human Rights Frameworks (June 2014), pp.8, ¶ 2.1)

This US-NAP is meant to add to the emerging body of National Action Plans the production of which is being overseen under the guidance of the U.N. Working Group on Business and Human Rights as a means of elaborating state measures to advance the U.N. Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).

To help, the Working Group has produced "guidance" on the development of a national action plan. The Guidance was launched on 1 December 2014 at the Third Annual United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights, held in Geneva 1-3 December 2014. The Guidance was produced following an open, global, year-long consultative process that involved States, companies, civil society, NHRIs and academia. As part of the Working Group's roadmap to produce the Guidance, it published its 2014 report to the 69th session of the UN General Assembly on national action plans. It also consulted with governments on this topic via a 2014 State survey, and it launched an online consultation (Word | PDF) on substantive elements to be included in a national action plan. (UN Working Group, State National Action Plans)

In 2015, a Report of the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable and the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (Assessments of Existing National Action Plans  (NAPS) on Business and Human Rights) assessed then existing NAPs in light of the Toolkit for the Development, Implementation and Review of State Commitments to Business and Human Rights Frameworks (June 2014). The Assessments  Report noted that the most positive trend to date in NAP drafting was the statement of national commitment to the UNGPs; the greatest weaknesses were the unwillingness of states to explore regulatory options, the lack of robust tying of state action to remedial measures, and the focus on past action rather than focusing on future action points (Ibid., pp. 4-5).

It is loosely against these objectives and methodologies, especially the Toolkit's National Baseline Assessment (NBA)  (Toolkit ¶ 4.2 et seq. and Annex 4) that one ought to assess the US NAP.  That assessment follows. The U.S.-NAP exhibits all of the weaknesses and missed opportunities that has marked the NAP process for many developed states: it focuses on outward conduct and pays little attention to the human rights effects of economic activity within the United States; it is grounded in the prerogatives of executive command; it provides little assessment of the legal and remedial framework of the United States and its relationship to managing business conduct; and most regrettably, so focused on the present it fails to present a coherent vision, grounded in law and policy,  for moving forward. And yet there is a basis for moving forward revealed in the U.S.-NAP, one that might appeal to the incoming American administration--by focusing on disclosure, transparency and information sharing. The U.S.-NAP  is at its most powerful and potentially useful not as a direct manifestation of state power through law, but by embracing methods of regulatory governance that enhance the use of market levers to manage preferred behaviors.

Appeal from Community of Scholars at Cuba Counterpoints Rebuilding a Hacked Site

This from my friends at Cuba Counterpoints:

Dear Friends,

We need your help. We were hacked and have to rebuild the site from scratch. Funds will go to rebuilding, to our annual 2017 operation expenses, technical needs, and editorial/translation services.

Most importantly, your contribution will go to compensate authors, beginning with those on the island, so that we can stay relevant and fulfill our pledge to serve as a space for dialogue and the dissemination of knowledge.

Happy Holidays & Thank You for Your Continued Support!

I have been a contributor to this marvelous site (here and here).  It provides a great resource for Cuba scholarship and an excellent venue for hearing the voices of  Cuban scholars and intellectuals.  I hope you will consider supporting the efforts to rebuild.  More information follows.

Jorge Luis Romeu: "Castro's death creates opening for political, economic evolution in Cuba (Commentary)"

(Syracuse Post Standard (Dec. 2, 2016) AP Photo/Harold Valentine, File)

By now the death of Fidel Castro Ruz will have become to recede as yesterday's news, especially for a world already overwhelmed with greater current catastrophes and crises. Yet that event, long anticipated, ought not to be understood as a small node in time, the effects of which  will recede along with public interest. Though his physical body has ceased to function, Castro's life as symbol, as representation--of good, evil, incompetence, passion, ideology, ideas. leader, and the like--will remain powerful in two respects.  First, he will survive as the embodiment of a theory and of resistance to hegemons (whatever the reality of this resistance and however corrupted the actuality on the small Island Republic he   controlled) will continue to be developed.  Within this complex of ideas are nationalism, a distrust for markets and a suspicion of globalized trade, social and political communities. This will play well among developing states, and those states that find themselves the plantations of either "free markets" powers, or the emerging "markets Marxist" powers.  Second, he will survive as the nexus points for a cluster of control techniques and political styles that are also likely to be refined and used again. Within this complex of mechanics biopolitics will assume a greater effectiveness in managing governing units grounded in the needs of mass management, one in which the autonomous state and the autonomous individual merge. And, indeed, the move toward a political theory grounded in the perfectibility of the worker within a perfected state that marks post Castro theorizing in Cuba already points in that direction.  For my comments, see HERE. 

These are themes touched on by my colleague Jorge Luis Romeu, Ph.D., of Syracuse, who is a research professor with the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Syracuse University, and an Emeritus Faculty at SUNY Cortland. He is a former Fulbright Scholar. Romeu, a native of Cuba, came to the United States in 1980 during the Mariel Boatlift. In 1979 he was arrested, interrogated and "released guilty" with a suspended 12-year sentence, for having written and sent abroad several dozen stories about life in the UMAP military labor camps. Romeu wrote a guest column for The Syracuse Newspapers from 1988 to 2005.

His essay that appeared first  as "Castro's death creates opening for political, economic evolution in Cuba (Commentary)" in the Syracuse Post Standard (Dec. 2, 2016), follows.

No.170-2 王帅一 : 明清时代的“中人”与契约秩序（下）明清时代的“中人”与契约秩序（上） (Part 2 Wang Shuaiyi: "Human" and Contract Order in the Ming and Qing Dynasties)

This is another in the series of essays that were presented at the “来华外国人与近代中国法” 国际学术研讨会 "Foreigners and Modern Chinese Law" International Symposium Conference and then continued thereafter in the same spirit. 

No.170-2 王帅一 : 明清时代的“中人”与契约秩序（下）(Part 2 Wang Shuaiyi: "Human" and Contract Order in the Ming and Qing Dynasties)

This is the second part of a 2 part consideration of human and contract order in late Imperial China.  For Part 1 here: No.170-1.  The essay considers an important issue in Chinese law and economic structures--the nature of the personal in contract law and relations. This touches on the notions of interpersonal relations as embedded in or exogenous to formal contract relations. The societal and legal development of this foundation is crucial to the study of Chinese commercial law. He notes that in conventional research, the "human" in Chinese traditional contract has been described as the function image of middleman, guarantor or mediator, but little discussion has been given on the internal mechanism and cultural factors of forming this function. If the human problem is restored to the traditional Chinese society, through the human and the parties to form a network of interpersonal relationships, you can see the abstract contractual relationship is actually a concrete relationship.

This Part 2 considers (1)  Culture: The mechanism of human being's role in the practice of contract in Ming and Qing Dynasties 文化：中人在明清契约实践中发挥作用的机制; and (2) an Epilogue: Chinese culture and flexible legal orders (六、余论：中国文化所认可的柔性私法秩序).

The essay was posted to 叁會學坊, the San Hui Fang Workshops microblog and it follows below 中国语文 only.

Will Donald Trump Be A Good President?. . . . Yes-No-On the Fence

(Pix WalletHub 15 Dec. 2016)

John Kiernan over at WalletHub Blog has put together a very interesting conversation among a number of people.  We were all asked to answer the question: Will Donal Trump be a good president?

Every president takes his (or her) own unique path to the White House, but the ascent of President-Elect Donald J. Trump has truly been unlike anything we’ve seen before. Trump has gone from rich kid to real-estate mogul, from bankrupt to “The Celebrity Apprentice,” and from leader of the birther movement to leader of the free world. And with no previous political experience, it’s fair to wonder whether the Oval Office will suit him.

So will President-Elect Donald Trump grab the bull by the “wherever” and fulfill his promise to “make America great again”? Or will we find ourselves worse off and wishing we could say, “You’re fired”? It can be difficult to put politics aside when contemplating such questions, especially so soon after such a contentious election, but our expert panel is up to the task.

In search of more insight into what we can expect from at least the next four years, we asked experts in the fields of economics, finance, public policy and more to answer one simple question: Will Donald Trump be a good president? All in all, twelve experts say no, sixteen vote yes and five are on the fence. You can check out their responses below. And if you’d like to weigh in with a theory of your own, please share your thoughts in the Comments section at the bottom of the page.

The responses were quite enlightening (All Experts). They do a good job of reflecting the current thinking among a group of people whose opinions may be useful for others contemplating this question.

This post includes the full text of my own response and links to the text of all responses.   Happy to have interested people weigh in as well.

Éclairer l’obscur: Research from the Collège des Bernadins (Paris)

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2015)

The Collège des Bernardins in Paris offers a rich intellectual life for those lucky enough be be able to participate. For French speakers, the Collège posts some of its public events. For those interested in the intersectiond of law, theology, globalization, and their management, the lectures and papers presented recently will be of some interest. These were introduced by Father Frédéric Louzeau of the Collège des Bernadins in his "Research Letter" with the deliciously ambiguous title-- Éclairer l’obscur.

Deux publications importantes marquent la fin d’année pour le Pôle de recherche.

D’une part, sous la direction d’Antoine Arjakovsky, co-directeur du département “Politique et religions”, paraît une première Histoire de la conscience européenne, fruit d’un séminaire de recherche – Mémoires, Identités et Imaginaires des Européens (2014-2016) – puis d’un travail collectif rassemblant les contributions d’historiens de toute l’Europe. Le détour par l’histoire est probablement la voie la plus féconde pour retrouver le sens et l’avenir du projet européen, surtout lorsqu’il a été recouvert d’un voile de procédures. Destiné notamment aux enseignants, ce livre, nous l’espérons, pourra soutenir l’espérance européenne, si mise à mal. D’autre part, le Forum des Bernardins, collectif de personnalités engagées dans la société civile à un haut niveau, publie un petit volume intitulé : La mondialisation : espérance pour les nations, avenir pour l'Europe : construire le progrès, l'alternative à la barbarie, fruit de deux années de recherche. Dans ces deux publications, c’est la question de la forme politique et économique de l’unité de l’humanité qui est de nouveau posée.

On notera également qu’un programme s’achève – Innovation managériale (2014-2016) – devant déboucher sur une proposition de formation pour des jeunes cadres durant l’année 2017-2018, tandis qu’une nouvelle recherche commence sur la liberté de conviction et de religion dans le monde méditerranéen (2017-2019).

Bonne lecture. Bonnes fêtes de Noël et de fin d’année.

I have included summaries and links to some recent events that may be of interest (française seulement):

No.170-1 王帅一 : 明清时代的“中人”与契约秩序（上） (Wang Shuaiyi: "Human" and Contract Order in the Ming and Qing Dynasties)

This is another in the series of essays that were presented at the “来华外国人与近代中国法” 国际学术研讨会 "Foreigners and Modern Chinese Law" International Symposium Conference and then continued thereafter in the same spirit.

No.170-1 王帅一 : 明清时代的“中人”与契约秩序（上） (Wang Shuaiyi: "Human" and Contract Order in the Ming and Qing Dynasties).

The essay considers an important issue in Chinese law and economic structures--the nature of the personal in contract law and relations. This touches on the notions of interpersonal relations as embedded in or exogenous to formal contract relations. The societal and legal development of this foundation is crucial to the study of Chinese commercial law. He notes that in conventional research, the "human" in Chinese traditional contract has been described as the function image of middleman, guarantor or mediator, but little discussion has been given on the internal mechanism and cultural factors of forming this function. If the human problem is restored to the traditional Chinese society, through the human and the parties to form a network of interpersonal relationships, you can see the abstract contractual relationship is actually a concrete relationship.

The essay was posted to 叁會學坊, the San Hui Fang Workshops microblog and it follows below 中国语文 only.

Ruminations 67: Reflections on Human Rights Day and the U.N. "Stand Up for Someone's Rights! Campaign

(Eleanor Roosevelt addresses the United Nations on the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; video here)

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To mark that anniversary, in 1950 the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 423 (V) (4 December 1950), inviting all States and interested organizations to observe 10 December of each year as Human Rights Day.

As has been the recent practice, for this year the United Nations adopted a specific theme: "Stand Up For Someone's Rights!"

This year, Human Rights Day calls on everyone to stand up for someone's rights! Disrespect for basic human rights continues to be wide-spread in all parts of the globe. Extremist movements subject people to horrific violence. Messages of intolerance and hatred prey on our fears. Humane values are under attack. We must reaffirm our common humanity. Wherever we are, we can make a real difference. In the street, in school, at work, in public transport; in the voting booth, on social media. The time for this is now. “We the peoples” can take a stand for rights. And together, we can take a stand for more humanity. It starts with each of us. Step forward and defend the rights of a refugee or migrant, a person with disabilities, an LGBT person, a woman, a child, indigenous peoples, a minority group, or anyone else at risk of discrimination or violence.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights proclaims: "There is no action that is too small: wherever you are, you can make a difference." (Video of message HERE). The Secretary General reminds us that "Respect for human rights advances well-being for every individual, stability for every society, and harmony for our interconnected world." In his message, the Secretary General stresses the connection between individual human rights and the obligation of individual action:

Upholding human rights is in the interest of all. Respect for human rights advances well-being for every individual, stability for every society, and harmony for our interconnected world. And this work can be done by all, at every level of society. States have the primary responsibility for upholding human rights. The United Nations, along with partners around the globe, must continue to strengthen responses to abuses, and work better to prevent human rights crises.  All of us can – and must – act in our daily lives to advance the human rights of the people around us. This is the driving force behind a new global campaign being launched by the UN Human Rights Office -- “Stand Up for Someone’s Rights Today.”"(Message here). 

Together, the High Commissioner urges that we are to mark the day by taking a stand for more humanity (id.).

This post considers this theme in the context of the global transformations that have become to emerge from out of the convergences and resistances that now mark globalization.

Joel Slawotsky Reports From Chinese University of Hong Kong: Asia FDI Forum II--China's Three-Prong Investment Strategy: Bilateral, Regional, and Global Tracks

(CUHKFacultyofLaw ‏@CUHKLaw Nov 28 #AsiaFDI2016 with a packed house Ready for two days of enlightening discussions on #FDI #ISDS #China @JChaisse @MFeldman97 @fernandodsimoes)

Joel Slawotsky, of the Radzyner School of Law, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel, and the Law and Business Schools of the College of Management, Rishon LeZion, Israel has guest blogged for "Law at the End of the Day"  on issues relating to corporate liability under international law  (e.g., "Rethinking Financial Crimes and Violations of International Law", Jan. 9, 2013; "Corporate Liability Under The Alien Tort Statute: The Latest Twist"April 26, 2014) has recently also served as Guest Editor of the Sovereign Wealth Fund special issue of Qatar University International Review of Law (IRL) (2015). 

He has very kindly reported on the recently concluded conference held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong: Asia FDI Forum II: China's Three-Prong Investment Strategy: Bilateral, Regional, and Global Tracks in which he participated.

(Pix from Joel Slawotsky)

The Background Note to the conference explained:

Launched by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2015, the series of Asia FDI Forum provides a multi-stakeholder platform anchored in Hong Kong for participants from academia, government, the private sector and civil society to discuss regional investment trends, highlight specific features of investment treaties and policies, analyze Asia's relationship with other regions of the world, and explore the various legal and policy implications of the emergence of new actors, issues and norms which shape the future of Asia FDI. The Asia FDI Forum 2016 is structured around the emerging three tracks of China's investment policy and strategy.

His Report follows. The Conference Program may be accessed HERE (and portions of which follow the Report);  the Background Note may be accessed HERE; a list of Conference Participants may be accessed HERE.
 

Italy's Constitutional Referendum: A View From Italy in Conversation With Flora and Alessandro Sapio

Italians go to the polls on Sunday to vote on a complex set of constitutional changes aimed at changing a substantial portion of the structures and operations of its multilevel government apparatus.  The reform package itself,  La Riforma Constituzionale: Testo di legge costituzionale (pubblicato sulla Gazzetta Ufficiale n°88 del 15 aprile 2016) runs about 309 pages (Council on Foreign Relations Brief here; Six charts that are key to understanding Italy’s referendum).  It has also been viewed as suggesting hints of the future of Europe as a political and economic conception. 

This post considers the constitutional referendum in broader context of the techniques and management of democratic engagement in Western liberal states.  It's central focus, however, is to consider briefly the issues the Referendum raises for Italians and within the context of Europe.  To that end I include the recent analysis of Fraces D'Emilio that appeared in the popular press and the exceptional analysis of Flora and Alessandro Sapio, to whom I am grateful for their willingness to share. 

Comparative Analysis From Cuba CounterPoints: (1) From Cuba, Trump: Reality Show or Real Politik?; (2) November 26, 2:13am: A Testimony and (3) U.S. Cuban Policy After Obama

(Cover Image by Gilberto Conill. Little Havana Street Celebration of Fidel Castro’s Passing (Nov. 26, 2016))

Our friends at Cuba CounterPoints have been following the two recent events with the greatest potential impacts on U.S.-Cuba relations--the election of Donald Trump and the death of Fidel Castro.  The former marks a very concrete possibility real changes going forward; the latter marks a potent symbolic passing of the manifestation of a foundational vision. They have published three interventions that may be of interest, one from Cuba, from the U.S. and one from the "trenches"  of the Cuban Diaspora.  The three follow below with links to the originals in Cuba Counterpoints. The first, from Cuba, Trump: Reality Show or Real Politik? By Yailenis Mulet Concepción (and translated from the Spanish original by Ariana Hernandez-Reguant) who concludes:

A Cuba without Fidel could evolve gradually toward an economic and political transition. Initially, that transition would unravel under the Development Plan’s guidelines, announced during the 7th Communist Party Congress and intended until 2030. Once Raúl Castro relinquishes the presidency, the process could accelerate. A Trump administration could alter these plans, either with a costly and fruitless reality show (a return to the Cold War and to U.S.-Cuban conflict) or with a real politik of greater positive consequence than that of Obama’s in normalizing relations between the two countries.

The second, November 26, 2:13am: A Testimony, by Vanessa Garcia provides a necessary cultural perspective from the Cuban diaspora:

My grandmother said it best when my mom told her what had happened. “Me siento extraña,” she said. “I feel strange.” For an entire generation on the island there is no reference point for change. For an entire generation outside the island, there is no reference point for our lives without Fidel, that real and imaginary figure, reshaped in Miami – Enemy #1. No wonder we spin, and spin. The hope is that once we stop spinning, we’ll still be able to find our North Star.

The third is my short intervention, U.S. Cuban Policy After Obama, which concludes:

The legacy of Obama might not be completely undone. But it will be redirected, and the pace of change may slow. Fidel’s death makes things easier—he has moved from contemporary to historical presence. But Cuba and the U.S. still speak quite different political languages, and their objectives for Cuba are quite different: well-managed economic contributions for the Cubans, and political transition for the United States. There is a small space where their interests converge. But there are still many people fighting old ghosts on both sides of the Florida Straits, and it is possible that even this small space may be appropriated by those with a substantial interest in preserving the past.

Additional articles are also worth reading (Freddie Monasterio, The New Creative Economy of Music; and Afonso Dias Ramos, The EY Exhibition: Wilfredo Lam). My thanks to Ariana Hernandez-Reguant for her critical work in pulling this together.

Jen Hendry & Melissa Tatum: "Contested Spaces and Cultural Blinders: Perspectives on the Dakota Access Pipeline"

Protesters gather at an encampment near Cannon Ball, N.D., on Saturday, a day after tribal leaders received a letter from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers saying the federal land would be closed to the public Dec. 5.

(James MacPherson / Associated Press)

The intertwining of environmental responsibilities, human rights, and the relationship of indigenous peoples to the land and their neighbors within the structures of the modern nation state  is very much in evidence in the still smoldering confrontation around the Dakota Access Pipeline. That confrontation involves the government of the United States, the project developer, Energy Transfer Partners, and the Standing Rock Sioux, near whose lands the pipeline will pass. Yet in a larger sense, it involves all of us.

The Standing Rock Sioux opposes the pipeline's construction near the Sioux reservation on the grounds that it threatens their public health and welfare, water supply and cultural resources. What began as a small protest camp in April on the Standing Rock reservation has since morphed into an encampment with over 1,000 people. Over the past few months, the Sacred Stone Camp, as it is now called, has been the site of a number of antagonistic face offs between protesters and the oil company (Aaron Sidder, Understanding the Controversy Behind the Dakota Access Pipeline,  Smithsonian, September 14, 2016).

The confrontation has involved lawsuits, calls by the government for voluntary work stoppage, and sometimes violent clashes between those who would halt the project and the company and its supporters. Only recently, "North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple on Monday ordered a mandatory evacuation of protesters seeking to block construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, but both the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said they have no plans for “forcible removal” of the protesters. The Corps of Engineers earlier had said that it planned to close the camp, led by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe of North Dakota, by Dec. 5, and that anyone still there could be prosecuted for trespassing." (see here).

My colleagues, Melissa Tatum, Research Professor of Law at the University of Arizona, and Jennifer Hendry, an Associate Professor in Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds School of Law, have taken on the issues raised in this context. Their essay, Contested Spaces and Cultural Blinders: Perspectives on the Dakota Access Pipeline, follows.

境外非政府组织代表机构登记和临时活动备案办事指南 Guidelines for the registration of non - governmental organizations on behalf of foreign entities and the filing of provisional activities

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2016)

I have been writing about the new Foreign NGO Management Law in China. 

1. Introduction to China's Foreign NGO Management Law
2. Flora Sapoio on the FNGOML
3. Larry Catá Backer on the FNGOML.
4. Flora Sapio Response to Larry Catá Backer on FNGOML.

With thanks to Susan Finder who pointed this out to me, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security has recently uploaded to its website a set of guidelines for Foreign NGO Registration, with forms.  For those interested, this is worth a look.   

The link to the official site is HERE.  I include the original below (中国语文 only) to serve as a basis for comparison as these Guidelines (and the underlying legal structures) evolve.

Ruminations 66/Democracy Part 37: "Las Ideas no se Matan;" Thoughts on the Death of Fidel Castro Ruz

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2016)

"Querido pueblo de Cuba. Hoy, 25 de noviembre, a las 10:29 horas de la noche falleció el Comandante en Jefe de la Revolución Cubana Fidel Castro Ruz. En cumplimiento a la voluntad expresa del Compañero Fidel, sus restos serán cremados. En las primeras horas de mañana sábado 26, la comisión organizadora de los funerales, brindará a nuestro pueblo una información detallada sobre la organización del Homenaje póstumo que se le tributará al fundador de la Revolución Cubana. ¡Hasta la victoria siempre!" (video here).

It was with substantially these words that Raúl Castro, the current First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba since 2008, announced that the body of his brother, Fidel Castro Ruz, ceased to function (video here). The announcement was a surprise, though only in that momentary sense of finally hearing what had long been expected.  In a sense Fidel Castro had died many years before--only his body lingered. Yet even that body continue to serve as the physical manifestation of those points of conflict, rupture, solidarity and ideology around which so many people, states, enterprises and organizations, had ordered their lives and their relationships to each other. That body served as the physical manifestation of clusters of conceptions, of approaches to the world and to the management of its people, of the concrete manifestations of values around which the world organized its normative structures and applied them, in at time the most brutal ways possible. That, certainly, was the sense of some of us in the Cuban community--both in Cuba and abroad.  It was a sense of liberation long after its most profound effects had long passed. 

And now of course, one is treated to the usual unctuous blandness that provides the self serving reflections of those who speak for the global communities. These reflections tell us more about those who utter them, and their own relationship with the dead, than they do about the object of their speaking.  The official U.S. response from our highest elected leaders provides a case in point.  Both President and President Elect spoke to the passing, each each statement was more notable for the way it spoke about the men who made them and their relationship to their own agendas (e.g., here for the respective statements), than it said much about the  confluence of events whose body was even then being prepared for incineration (e.g., here).  Others exhibited the same self reference (e.g., here, here, here). 

But even as his body is reduced to ash--to be venerated or despised in accordance with one's tastes-- the ideas, developed over half a century and more, appear more alive than ever.  "Las ideas no se matan" (ideas are not killed) (e.g., here, and  here).  Fidel was fond of weaving this notion in his speeches--derived ultimately from the French Enlightenment through Domingo Sarmiento, one of the great 19th century Argentine statesmen (e.g., here).  And they are more alive precisely because they have finally been liberated from the body whose own self interests, histories and lusts served to anchor and diminish their possibilities--for good or ill--in the world.  

It is to some of those ideas, now liberated and free to roam as they will, and to assume what form they will, and to be deployed as others might will, that is the object of this post. One cannot condense the dense interweaving of a maturing world view into a short post, but one can mark some of what for me are its most prominent features. These remains of Fidel Castro, are likely to retain their potency and influence in the years to come, especially in developing states (e.g., here).  It is the fool that would dismiss them and not prepare for their deployment, or fashion them for her own use int he coming years. And yet, perhaps, it is the greater fool that develops insights he is incapable of applying to his own circumstances.

Dialogue in Extremis: Venezuela and Political Dialogue Among the Ruins of Economy and Society

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2016)

The indulgence of extremes in politics  invariably has a terrible effect--not on the political classes that profit from cultivating these schisms, but on the people on whose bodies these ideologies are etched--in hunger, deprivation, and forced migration. When they are not busy appearing at times to stoke those flames in the United States, American newspapers will sometimes chronicle the deterioration that is the indulgence of extremism within national political elites.  Venezuela provides the most egregious example.

This post considers fracture and dialogue in Venezuela's political scene.  It serves as a reminder that the indulgence in politics of the extreme, of ideological rigidity, can have disastrous effects on the internal operation of a state--no matter how wealthy and powerful it might have been.  It is also a reminder that these factional battles among elites will inevitably count as its principal victims the people in whose names these power-ideology conflicts are undertaken.  It is those victims of the enormous resources devoted to social, economic and political engineering, who are forced to endure the drama at the shortest distance from a stage which has been built on the ambition of national structural power and directed, in turn, by those great international forces to which all holders and aspirants to national power are obliged (e.g., here) including the United States (e.g., here). 

Flora Sapio: Reflections on the FLIA & CPE Side Event "Political Participation and the Global Civic Education of Youth" to the Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2016)

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Human Rights Council Resolution 28/14 established a Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law. Further to that effort the UN announced its first Forum to be held in Geneva 21-22 November 2016 in Room XVII Palais des Nations. The theme for the first session of the Forum was Widening the Democratic Space: The Role of Youth in Public Decision Making. 

 Both the Foundation for Law and International Affairs (FLIA) and the Coalition of Peace & Ethics (CPE) submitted responses to the call for consultation (see here and here). 

A number of side events were held in connection wit the first Forum: 

Widening space for young human rights defenders
YouthUp democracy through participatory policy-making
Not Too Young to Run: Promoting the rights of young people running for public office and leadership positions - Invitation
Tools to support Youth Engagement in the UN System

FLIA and CPE also organized a side event: Political Participation and the Global Civic Education of Youth. Flora Sapio here provides reflections on these events and those efforts, with a focus on education.   We invite comments and engagements.  This is an area in which there is much work to be done--and much to be undone. 

Reflections on the 2016 U.N. Forum on Business and Human Rights ("Leadership and Leverage: Embedding human rights in the rules and relationships that drive the global economy”)

For the last several years I have offered reflections on the U.N. Forum for Business and Human Rights, a great gathering of critical stakeholders--states, enterprises and civil society--around the the U.N. Guiding Principles (UNGPs), its development and application ().

The 2016 UN Forum on Business and Human Rights program continued its fundamental objective to deepen efforts to strengthen action on the U.N. Guiding Principles (UNGPs), and its conceptual framework grounded in the "protect, respect and remedy" framework. For the 2016, this effort was framed around the Forum theme: Leadership and Leverage:Embedding human rights in the rules and relationships that drive the global economy” (for explanation see here).

This post is a collection of impressions on the 5th Forum in light of its themes :

1. State leadership and leverage: discussions will focus on the need for Governments to step up their efforts to protect human rights and lead by example in their own business-related operations.
2. Business leadership and leverage: sessions will unpack the dual concepts of leadership and leverage across the company value chain and in business relationships with various stakeholders.
3. The role of financial institutions: participants will take a closer look at how human rights intersect with capital markets and explore the responsibility of financiers to drive respect.

It suggests that the burdens of maturity now require some hard reflection by both the Working Group and its Secretariat respecting both the mission of the Working Group and the direction of future Forums.

Ruminations 65A: Flora Sapio Responds to "Thoughts on the 2016 United States Presidential Election--Consequences and Tragedies"

 (Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2016)

It is by now well known that contrary to the expectations of some, Mr. Trump was elected presumptive President Elect of the United States on November 8, 2016. In Ruminations 65: Thoughts on the 2016 United States Presidential Election--Consequences and Tragedies I considered what might be some of the more interesting and less considered ramifications that this election illustrates. I suggested that the contours of tragedy (not for a particular candidate or political party, but for a leadership class and its disciplinary structures) as the potential for power slipping out of the hands of a once magnificent leadership community (with its own intellectual factions to be sure but bound together by  some rudimentary consensus) increases as it seeks blame for its predicament everywhere but within its own structures and behaviors.

In this Post, Flora Sapio responds. This marvelous response provides a lot of food for thought, providing added depth to an analytic line rich with possibilities. 

Announcing New Blog: Tara Van Ho, "Business and Human Rights"

I am happy to announce, and to recommend to all of my friends interested in the most contemporary and sophisticated discussions of global movements in business and human rights a new blog, Business and Human Rights. It is authored by Tara Van Ho, now at Aarhus University where she devotes herself to research critical aspects  of business and human rights.  Please check out the great posts already up:

 Norwegian Bank Pulls out of Dakota Access Pipeline

 

 A Call for Rethinking the UN Forum on Business & Human Rights

Thoughts on John Ruggie, "Making Globalization Work for all: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Through Business Respect for Human Rights", Remarks Delivered at the 5th UN Business and Human Rights Forum

John G Ruggie, who from 2005-2011 served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Business and Human Rights, in which capacity he produced the U.N. Guiding Principles, delivered his remarks at the opening of the 5th U.N. Forum on Business and Human Rights, November 14, 2016. The remarks are worthy of careful study.  It suggests, and quite presciently, the challenges and opportunities for the project of embedding business and human rights norms within the structures and regulatory structures of economic activity. 

This post includes the text of those remarks and my brief thoughts on their implications for both the UNGP and sustainability.

2016 U.N. Forum on Business and Human Rights: Presentación de Laura Zúniga Cáceres (COPINH); Sesión Defensores de Derechos Humanos en América Latina (Presentation of Laura Zúniga Cáceres to the Session of Human Rights Defenders in Latin America )

It was my great good fortune to attend the Session on Human Rights Defenders in Latin America at the 2016 UN Forum on Business and Human Rights. Fifth U.N. Forum on Business and Human Rights.

The great highlight of that session was the moving and quite powerful presentation of Laura Zúniga Cáceres, the daughter of Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores, a Honduran human rights defender and co-founder of the Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH)) (COPINH blog here), who was recently murdered.

 Laura Zúniga Cáceres (pix L.C.Backer)

Her speech is worth serious contemplation, both for its power as a witness statement as for its analysis of the context in which front line stakeholders confront issues of globalization, state power, and enterprise markets behavior within the complex web of law and norms that serves as the regulatory framework of globalization. The issue of indigenous and other traditional communities' engagement with productive forces in globalization has yet to be seriously confronted  in the mainstream discussion in business, and in human rights.  The time for that engagement is seriously overdue.

What follows is (1) information about the session in which Ms. Zúniga Cáceres' presentation was delivered, and the (2) the presentation itself in Spanish (original) and English (my translation with apologies for its lapses).