Initial Text of the Hong Kong National Security Law [全国人民代表大会关于建立健全香港特别行政区维护国家安全的法律制度和执行机制的决定（草案）] and National People's Congress Explanatory Note [关于《全国人民代表大会关于建立健全香港特别行政区维护国家安全的法律制度和执行机制的决定（草案）》的说明] And the Legislative Schedule (Statute) Promulagted by Hong Kong Authorities

Pîx Credit: Wall Street Journal

By now global news outlets have provides the customary coverage of the passage of the Hong Kong National Security Law.  

President Xi Jinping has signed the national security legislation Beijing has tailor-made for Hong Kong into law and it will come into effect before the end of Tuesday.The signing was reported by Xinhua news agency, which also confirmed that the country’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, had passed the law earlier in the day although specific elements of the legislation have yet to be spelt out. (National security law: Chinese President Xi Jinping signs legislation for Hong Kong)

It will be book-ended by the usual discursive flourishes. From the internationalist and liberal democratic side (including those committed to the values of civil and political rights in Hong Kong) there will be the predictions that the new law will effectively end that remarkable period of political liberalization in Hong Kong that existed between 1997 and 2019.  From the nationalist and Marxist Leninist side (including those in Hong Kong who feared for the stability of the SAR and its future prosperity) there will be assurances that little will change and that the law is merely meant to ensure the order and stability necessary to preserve Hong Kong's role as an international meeting place for business and innovation (see, China Passes Hong Kong Security Law Aimed at Crushing Protests; National security law: Chinese President Xi Jinping signs legislation for Hong Kong;  Hong Kong security law: Anger as China's Xi signs legislation).

It is of course too early to tell how Hong Kong will change. "Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah also said a dedicated department had been set up to deal with national security cases, as she welcomed the law together with security chief John Lee Ka-chiu and the six heads of the city’s disciplined services." (National security law: Chinese President Xi Jinping signs legislation for Hong Kong).  At the same time, "Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong began to quit, fearful of the new law, and the punishment it allows." (Hong Kong security law: Minutes after new law, pro-democracy voices quit). The rumors immediately before passage provide a window on perpsectives of sectors of the Hong Kong society.

目前建制圈子盛傳，「港版國安法」將於周二（30日）上午表決通過，草案內容隨即正式發布，包括至今未曝光的四項罪行具體定義和罰則等；港府亦會宣布，於7月1日零時零分刊憲，法例即時於香港正式生效和實施。根據法工委早前公布的草案說明，中央人民政府將在香港特別行政區設立維護國家安全公署，國安公署將依法履行維護國家安全職責，行使相關權力，包括分析研判香港特別行政區維護國家安全形勢，就維護國家安全重大戰略和重要政策提出意見和建議等，同時駐港國家安全公署和國家有關機關在特定情形下對極少數危害國家安全犯罪案件行使管轄權。社會關注國安公署的組成和規模，會否如同中聯辦的翻版。據建制派消息透露，公署由一名公安部副部長領導，職級屬副部級官員，比現時中聯辦主任屬正部級為低。消息人士分析，北京以相對較低的副部級官員來港領導國安公署，是希望釋除港人對於國安法的疑慮。草案訂明，駐港國家安全公署和國家有關機關在特定情形下，對極少數危害國家安全犯罪案件行使管轄權。據悉有屬溫和派的資深政協委員向北京高層建議，為啟動有關程序加設一層「香港因素」，在一般情況下，由特首會同將成立的高層次「國家安全委員會」，決定甚麼時候到了「特定情形」的狀態，例如港府已無力自行處理時，才提請中央出手。該消息人士又說，國安公署負責人的人選，早於去年11月北京決定推港版國安法時已初步敲定，「所以當港版國安法在香港正式實施，中央便可宣布國安公署負責人的任命，初期公署可以暫駐在解放軍駐港部隊軍營之內。」[There is currently a rumor in the established circles that the "Hong Kong version of the National Security Law" will be voted through on the morning of Tuesday (30th). The draft content will be officially released immediately, including the specific definitions and penalties of the four crimes that have not been exposed so far. The Hong Kong government will also announce that It was gazetted at 0:00 on the 1st, and the legislation came into effect and implemented in Hong Kong immediately.

According to the draft statement issued by the Legal Work Commission earlier, the Central People’s Government will establish an Office of National Security Maintenance in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The National Security Office will perform its duties of maintaining national security in accordance with the law and exercise relevant powers, including analysis and judgment of the situation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in maintaining national security. Provide opinions and suggestions on major national security strategies and important policies. At the same time, the National Security Agency and relevant national authorities in Hong Kong exercise jurisdiction over a very small number of crimes that endanger national security under certain circumstances.

Civil society is concerned about the composition and scale of the National Security Office, whether it will be a replica of the Liaison Office. According to the news of the establishment system, the office is headed by a deputy minister of the Ministry of Public Security, whose rank is a deputy ministerial official, which is lower than the current directorate of the Central Liaison Office. Sources analyzed that Beijing came to Hong Kong to lead the National Security Office with relatively low-level deputy ministerial officials, hoping to relieve Hong Kong people's doubts about the National Security Law.

The draft stipulates that the National Security Agency in Hong Kong and the relevant national authorities exercise jurisdiction over a very small number of crimes that endanger national security under certain circumstances. It is reported that a moderate senior CPPCC member suggested to Beijing’s high-level to add a layer of “Hong Kong factor” to start the relevant procedures. Under normal circumstances, the high-level “National Security Committee” to be established by the chief executive will decide when it is time to arrive. "Special situation", for example, when the Hong Kong government is unable to handle it by itself, it is called to the central government.

The source also said that the candidate for the head of the National Security Office had been finalized as early as November last year when Beijing decided to push the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law. "So when the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law is officially implemented in Hong Kong, the central government can announce the head of the National Security Office. In the early days, the Office of the People’s Republic of China can temporarily stay in the PLA’s military garrison in Hong Kong."] (港版國安法｜消息：公安部副部長掌國安公署).

The Draft National Security Law along with the National People's Congress Explanatory Note follows in the original Chinese (中文) and in a crude English translation. At the national level, of course, the directions are general, objectives based, and provide the structural constraints.  But this provides a sense of the direction of law as well as the framework within which the challenges of implementation will be addressed.

The devil, of course, is in the detail.  And that detail is provided in the Schedule promulgated as part of the National Security Law by the Hong Kong Government, simultaneously with the action of the central authorities, as the 18 page L.N. 136 of 2020, Promulgation of National Law 2020. That critically important part of the National Security Law for Hong Kong (defining the elements of the crimes against the state and setting out the administrative organs for enforcement) also follows below as well in the original Chinese (中文) and in a crude English translation. Detailed analysis to follow.  The "Crime of colluding with foreign or foreign forces to endanger national security" [ 勾結外國或者境外勢力危害國家安全罪] (articles 29-30), will generate substantial interest, especially among civil society and states. 

Register Now: European Consultation on the Revised Draft of the Proposed Business and Human Rights Treaty Online 1 July 2020

I am delighted to pass along information about a European Consultation on the Revised Draft of the Proposed Business and Human Rights Treaty. The consultation is guided by a remarkable group of academics and civil society actors deeply committed to issues of managing the human rights effects of economic activity:

• Robert McCorquodale, Inclusive Law
• Jernej Letnar Černič, Graduate School of Government and European Studies
• Antoine Duval, Asser Institute
• Maysa Zorob, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
• Daniel Aguirre, Roehampton University
• Shane Darcy, National University of Ireland
• Claire Bright, Nova University
• Mariëtte van Huijstee, SOMO
• Maddalena Neglia, FIDH
• Markus Krajewski, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
• Tara Van Ho, University of Essex
• Nadia Bernaz, Wageningen University

The consultation is scheduled for 12.30 - 16.00 hours BST. The Consultation is free to attend, however, advance registration is required. This event is available for booking but you must be logged in before you can place a booking. Book now.

Join in the conversation @BIICL #bizhumanrights

This is an important event on an equally important, if from my perspective, flawed approach. Flawed or not, the issue of the mechanisms for the management of economic activity on the basis of a moral-political model is of substantial importance.  It is a necessary element of the development of robust structures of globalization, and of the development of a form of  solidarity among economic actors across borders and other communal divisions.  The form of that moral-political structure (law, markets based, or data driven ratings analytics), its location (within or beyond states), its manifestation (state or non state based remedial structures), along with its underlying fidelity to mandatory models of business conduct (compliance based, risk averse prevention, mitigation, remedial regimes VERSUS risk enhancing tort based harm compensating models), and the allocation of the power to protect rights (in rights holders, in the state, or in the hands of civil society "defenders") all remain vitally important and vigorously contested. 

This treaty draft takes one approach.  And it does so in a single minded but coherent way.  Some have contested both that approach and its manifestation in the current text of the draft. The Coalition for Peace & Ethics has circulated its own analysis of both the normative basis of this Draft Treaty and its text.  See Commentary on the U.N. Inter-Governmental Working Group (Geneva) 2019 Draft “Legally Binding Instrument to Regulate, in International Human Rights Law, The Activities of Corporations and Other Business Enterprises” (Textual and Conceptual Analysis) Emancipating the Mind in the New Era: Bulletin of the Coalition for Peace & Ethics 14(2):149-351 (2019).

But now is time to hear the quite remarkable voices of its proponents as they seek to develop and refine a coherent line to take this draft, in its current form (normative and textual) to the next level of development.  Anyone who is interested in the subject and able to attend ought to seriously consider participating.

Consultation details follow. Consultation webpage HERE.

The Situation in Hong Kong--"UN Experts Call for Decisive Measures to Protect Fundamental Freedoms in China" [联合国专家呼吁采取果断措施保护中国境内的基本自由] and Homesickness in International Human Rights Law

Poster for the Movie "Gone with the Wind" 1939

One generally comes to appreciate a way of life, and a way of understanding the fundamental taboos around which a society creates it operative ideal--one appreciates these things--only after they have gone. Appreciation is the expression of loss, and like idealization, can only be fully realized as an act of nostalgia. It is a form of reactionary expression among societal actors, especially elites, who--too late--come to realize that what they had, their way of life and the structures around which they policed the meaning of "right and wrong" has disappeared except in the empty rituals of its now hollowed out expression in the fading fora of old orders.

One begins to see the full flowering of this nostalgia for a golden age in the situation in Hong Kong. And one can capture that longing in the 26 June Statement issued by representatives of the UN Human Rights Special Procedures: "UN Experts Call for Decisive Measures to Protect Fundamental Freedoms in China." The Statement (set out in full below) notes:

From the movie "Gone With the Wind"

The independent experts urge the Government of China to abide by its international legal obligations, including under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and withdraw the draft national security law for Hong Kong. The UN independent experts believe it is time for renewed attention on the human rights situation in the country, particularly in light of the moves against the people of the Hong Kong SAR, minorities of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the Tibet Autonomous Region, and human rights defenders across the country. The independent experts acknowledge that the Government of China has responded to the communications of UN independent experts, if almost always to reject criticism. [独立专家们敦促中国政府遵守其国际法律义务，包括《公民及政治权利国际公约》和《中英联合声明》规定的义务，撤回香港《国家安全法（草案）》。联合国独立专家们认为，现在应该再度关注中国的人权状况，特别是考虑到中国针对香港特区民众、新疆自治区和西藏自治区的少数民族，及全国各地人权维护者所采取的行动。独立专家们承认，中国政府虽然几乎总是拒绝接受批评，但是对联合国独立专家发出的信函作出了回应。]

The Special Procedures Statement provides an excellent mapping of the terrain of the golden age of rights, and of the potential of state-based global representative collective union based on states what was to be one of the great fruits of the (now fashionably despised) foundation of integration through economic globalization. That golden age of rights--overseen by a collective international vanguard embedded within the UN system, would provide increasingly mandatory guidance over the meaning of the framework of human rights which was to serve as the fundamental basis for the constitutive ordering (and disciplining) of states. It was a Leninist ideal that itself has now floundered in the face of a challenge from the largest non-international Leninist organ in the globe. 

Pix Credit Irish Central; HERE

The Special Procedures Statement provides an end note to a process of transformation that began in the 1980s that produced both the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China and the creation of "One Country, Two Systems" as the fig leaf meant to cover the eventual ramifications of the act. The statement serves as the epilogue (in the form of a reactionary prologue) of the inevitable transformation embedded within the actions that produced the current situation in Hong Kong, the quality of which (then and now) remain stubbornly beyond the reckoning of those propelling its inevitability.  It is now left to their successors to offer an elegy, a poetic song of lamentation, in the form of the Special Procedures Statement. Make no mistake--the Special Procedures Statement is an excellent example of its kind.  From the perspective of its own conceptual baselines it is a powerful expression, but perhaps one of a world and a world view that is quickly receding.  In the end it might be heard more like a keening (from Irish caoinim "I weep, wail, lament" usually for the dead), than as a robust expression of an authority grounded in the present.

This post includes the TEXT of the Special Procedures Statement (in English and 中文). It is preceded by brief reflections on nostalgia and the project of international human rights law in the context of the situation in Hong Kong. 

Just Published--Latin American Research Review Vol. 55(2)

I am delighted to pass along links to the articles recently published in the Latin American Research Review (Vol 55).

There is much worth reading here, especially the studies of the structures of race infused social organization  and the economics of ethno-migration in Spain. But also of interest--in particular to students of Cuba (and now developed states)--is the examination of the development of the informal sector and its consequences for public law and management.

"From the Castros to COVID: AN ASCE Virtual Conference" Interview Series: Frank Carlos Martinez

For July and early August 2020, and in the run up to the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE) conference From the Castros to COVID: An ASCE Virtual Conference (13-15 August 2020; Concept Note HERE), ASCE will be organizing a series of interviews of individuals who will be participating in the upcoming conference.  

The interviews will explore in more detail some of the issues that will be presented at the Conference and also will introduce some of ASCE's key actors. The object is to get to know us better as well as to begin to engage in some of the more important issues facing Cuba, Cuba-US relations, and the regional situation in the Caribbean.  Larry Catá Backer hosts the interviews. All interviews may be accessed free of charge.  They are posted to the ASCE YouTube Channel, and may be accessed as well on the Coalition for Peace and Ethics YouTube Channel. They may also be accessed by scanning the QR Code on your mobile phone or other device.

Our first interview is with the youngest member of the ASCE Board.  Frank Carlos Martinez is a recent graduate of the University of Havana and now studying in the US.  Please enjoy the interview with Larry Catá Backer. Frank's short bio follows below. Sneak Peak may be accessed HERE. 

A short video sneak peek of the interview may be accessed HERE. 

Save the Date: "From the Castros to COVID: An ASCE Virtual Conference" 13-15 August 2020

I am delighted to share this "Save the Date" for the event: From the Castros to COVID: n ASCE Virtual Conference" to be held 13-15 August 2020.

The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy usually holds its annual conference in late July. This year, the COVID pandemic made that impossible. In its place we have been working hard, to offer people interested in contemporary issues the study of Cuban society, politics, economy and law an accessible, alternative program.

We will offer six panels over three days. They include (1) The Cuban Economy and Prospects after COVID-19; (2) The Cuba Venezuela Relationship; (3) "Destrabando" the Cuban Economy: An Assessment of Reforms and the Road Ahead; and (4) a Roundtable on Developments in Moving Beyond Cuba's Dual Currency System.

In addition we are delighted to host the annual Carlos Diaz Alejandro Lecture. This year's lecturer is Alejandro de la Fuente, Harvard University, who will speak to “Racism with Equality? Measuring Racial Inequality in Cuba, 1980-2010.”  Lastly we continue with our tradition of highlighting the work of undergraduate and graduate students.  As in prior years (but this time virtually) ASCE will present a panel of the winners of the ASCE student paper competition.

A short Concept Note follows.  Registration is free but required (there is limited capacity).  More information will be made available in future posts along with the link to registration. 

Prior to the conference ASCE will prepare a number of interviews of the participant. The interviews will be posted to the ASCE YouTube page as well as to the ASCE Playlist of the Coalition for Peace & Ethics.  The later may be accessed through this QR Code:

The Situation in Hong Kong: Description of Draft "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Maintenance of National Security"《中华人民共和国香港特别行政区维护国家安全法（草案）》

China unveils details of national security law for Hong Kong amid backlash

Hong Kong is coming one step closer to a National Security Law.  Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, reported on June 20  that

commissioned by the chairman’s meeting, the person in charge of the Legislative Affairs Working Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress made a presentation on the 19th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress on The description of the Security Law (Draft) is summarized below. 电 受委员长会议委托，全国人大常委会法制工作委员会负责人6月18日向十三届全国人大常委会第十九次会议作关于《中华人民共和国香港特别行政区维护国家安全法（草案）》的说明，摘要如下。

Formulation of the Law on the Maintenance of National Security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is an important task to implement the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Party and to implement the Decision of the National People’s Congress on Establishing and Perfecting the Legal System and Implementation Mechanism of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to Maintain National Security. 制定香港特别行政区维护国家安全法是贯彻党的十九届四中全会精神、落实《全国人民代表大会关于建立健全香港特别行政区维护国家安全的法律制度和执行机制的决定》的重要任务

"The much-anticipated legislation, which has provoked deep concerns in Washington and Europe, includes a national security office for Hong Kong to collect intelligence and handle crimes against national security, the official Xinhua news agency reported. " (China unveils details of national security law for Hong Kong amid backlash).

This post includes the text of the description of the Draft National Security Law as circulated through Xinhua News Agency, in the original Chinese along with a crude English translation, along with my brief reflections.  Here is the core point I would be inclined to emphasize:

Much analysis will focus on the details of the National Security Law for signs of the extent to which Western liberal democratic notions of civil and political rights will be transformed (eroded) to better align with the CPC's primary focus on economic, social, and cultural rights, with an emphasis on security and the development of productive forces.  That analysis, however, misses a fundamental point of the legislation.  The National Security Law is essential to the protection of the integrity of the core responsibility of the CPC, as a vanguard party charged with the task of moving all of the nation toward the goal of the establishment of a communist society in China.  Hong Kong may be permitted to deviate from a uniform march toward that core objective--to strive for that perfection at its own pace and consist with its own stage of development--but that different pace does not change the direction of the political development of Hong Kong.  Sooner or later, Hong Kong must advance toward the establishment of a communist society, and must do so in any case, under the leadership of of the CPC. The rest is merely a matter of local context, of timing, and of the pragmatic realities of balancing an unalterable core political goal with the necessity of every era of historical development.  

Ruminations 91: Very Brief Reflections on John Bolton's "Secret History" of Mr. Trump, and the Art of Political Burlesque

"Indeed, I have been forced to conceal the real causes of many of the events recounted in my former books. It will now be my duty, in this part of my history, to tell what has hitherto remained untold, and to state the real motives and origin of the actions which I have already recounted. But, when undertaking this new task, how painful and hard will it be, to be obliged to falter and contradict myself as to what I have said about the lives of Justinian and Theodora: and particularly so, when I reflect that what I am about to write will not appear to future generations either credible or probable, especially when a long lapse of years shall have made them old stories; for which reason I fear that I may be looked upon as a romancer, and reckoned among playwrights." (Procopius, The Secret History of the Court of Justinian (Project Gutenberg edition; originally Athens: Athenian Society, 1896); Introduction)

So begins the now well-known "Secret History" (Anecdota; Greek: Ἀπόκρυφη Ἱστορία, Apókryphe Historía; Latin: Historia Arcana) of Procopius of Caesaria (Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς; born 500- died c. 565)). It was a work known for a time when it was written and then lost until republication int he 17th century. Like others of its kind, it is the work of a disgruntled academic turned functionary, who having spent a lifetime getting into the good graces of the powerful in order to excise (or at least witness) power from the position of a servant, a trained tool of the imperial machinery, produced a scathing criticism--personal and professional--of his former masters after he was cast out by the ungrateful patrons he thought he had served so well. The imperial personages who for many years were portrayed so positively, now descend into caricature.  Their political depravity mirrored (as is common in Western literary tropes of this sort) by their sexual depravity and mental incapacity (on modern versions of this form of conflation for political ends, see, Emasculated Men, Effeminate Law in the United States, Zimbabwe and Malaysia (2005) Yale Journal of Law and Feminism)

But Procopius is not been the last to pen a "Secret History." John Bolton has now written his own "Secret History" describing his service--unappreciated--as a high functionary in the entourage of the President of the United States, cast aside by an ungrateful master.  Like Propocius, Mr. Bolton started as a cliente of Jesse Helms and worked his way through and around the bureaucracies of the American Republic, ultimately servicing various masters as US Ambassador the the United Nations (2005-2006) and then, in his (final?) performance as  National Security Advisor (2018-2019) before turning to the literary tasks that eventually birthed his Anecdota.  The Bolton "Secret History," salaciously (well, we all "Gotta Have a Gimmick") titled "The Room Where it Happened"will be published in late June 2020 by Simon and Schuster, subject of course, to legal action on the Trump Administration's claims that the work contains materials which may not be published (Trump administration sues Bolton over book dispute). Like the Procopius work, it is brimming with accusation and demonization.  His former master is not fit for office (ABC News video); and that he sacrificed national interest to further is own career.  There is more. Like Procopius, the material is meant to incite political maneuverings--in early Byzantine imperial politics centered on the Hippodrome factions (Blues and Greens); in the United States among political parties and disaffected but powerful elements of the elite shut out of office with the loss of the 2016 election.   All of this, of course, is fair play given the mores, the morally binding customs of a particular group (in this case of the high functionaries), of early 21st century America, And perhaps it augurs, like much of what is happening in 2020, the start of a new era, the character of which is still up for grabs. 

The brief Ruminations that follow take this symmetry as its starting point.  It is not focused on the "truth" of the allegations made--as saucy as many of them are. Instead it considers Mr. Bolton's "Secret History" in the context of the type to which it relates. It is an act of revenge, and betrayal as a payback for a perceived betrayal or thwarting of ambition, and is built on the believability of its demonizing revisionism  the most potent element of which is its power to scandalize.The power of Secret Histories lie in the invitation for the target's enemies to treat as fact the interpretations of the disloyal author.

The Economic Effects of COVID-19 on Cuba--A Report from the Field

Pix Cuban Dons Full Body Cardboard Shield

COVID-19 does not play like a movie, or a 30 minute TV show.  It does not follow the conventions of the shrinking attention span of the masses, nor as a useful instrument through which elites can battle each other, and seek advantage in their own inter-crony contests which is what appears to pass for politics in either contemporary liberal democratic or Marxist Leninist states. COVID-19 will not be managed and cannot be channeled to provide maximum benefit to those who would take advantage of its properties.  

COVID-19 will not go away when the moguls of social media, the press, politics, civil society and others have extracted all of the interest and utility they are able to squeeze from it. COVID-19 does not behave for central planners.  It does not do the bidding of markets purists. It does not conform to the strategic planning of the largest multinational enterprises, or conform to the bureaucratic frameworks which contribute to efficient decision making within large international organizations. Even as the elites of developed states  drive attention to what for them are more interesting narratives to (re)construct, the realities of COVID-19 and their all around effects of the lives and societies of developing states continues to develop beyond the lapsed attention span of the world's wealthier masses and their leaders. 

Pix credit: Marc Frank:

Cuba cancels economic fair as imports plummet

Cuba has borne many of the burdens of COVID-19, even as it has sought to manage its way through COVID-19's consequences in the context of national wellbeing. Cuban medical advances and their medical personnel abroad initiatives have brought some benefit--both to those infected and to the Cuban economy. However, recent reporting by Marc Frank, Sara Marsh, Nelson Acosta, and Matt Spetalnik for Reuters (Cuba cancels economic fair as imports plummet; Trump administration orders Marriott to cease Cuba hotel business; On Raul Castro's birthday, U.S. threatens Cuba remittances; Online shopping highlights Cuba's inequality in time of coronavirus; Cuban dons full-body cardboard shield against coronavirus; Cuba starts easing lockdown but shortages hamper businesses) suggests the way that  the Cuban economy, and therefore the ability of Cuba to finance the necessary care of its own residents,  has suffered substantial setbacks. It also suggests the context in which Cuban society has leaned to cope with COVID-19 and provides a window on the broader issues of pandemic beyond the context of worries with respect to which rich states obsess. 

1.  Cuba cancelled its annual international trade and investment fair scheduled for November 2020, a source of networking necessary for deals with foreign investors. Given the dense bureaucratic process (usually on both sides of the transactions) necessary for inbound investment, this will substantial push back the timing of investment inflows irrespective of the number of aspirational memoranda of understanding that may be signed. 

2. Cuba's window on globalization, the Mariel Special zone, has seen a substantial reduction in activity. This has made Cuba's engagement with global trade that much more difficult, and will further isolate the nation, on the one hand, and make it far more dependent on its "benefactor" states, on the other. Neither is good in the long term. 

3.  Cuba's ability to access to foreign exchange, an important factor in its ability to purchase food (Cuba is still attempting to become less food import dependent and its food insecurity ought to be a cause of concern) has been heavily impacted by the now longer term gloomy outlook for its tourist sector. 

4. The US is exploiting the situation in Cuba to heighten the effects of COVID-19 economic effects. The object is of course to destabilize the current government (or at least to make their lives that much more difficult).  But the real object is to advance US interests in the Caribbean around Cuba--with CARICOM states, but especially against Venezuela and Nicaragua. In that respect the US has put tremendous pressure on US branded hotels to cease Cuban operations. The Americans "expanded its list of Cuban entities that Americans are banned from doing business with to include the financial corporation that handles U.S. remittances to the Communist-run country." (On Raul Castro's birthday, supra). 

5.  Cuban efforts to manage the increasing challenge of the scarcity of goods have begun to turn to methods that only exacerbate a class and wealth divide that runs fundamentally counter to the core ordering premises of the Cuban political economic model. This is especially the case with Cuba's efforts to encourage n line shopping to reduce the hours long waits in line for food and other goods in a society where only the well off can afford. "Reuters estimates you would need the equivalent in local currency of $10 per month to shop online, given the time it takes and cost of internet service in a land where the average monthly wage is equivalent to $45. Moreover, 40% of the population does not have cellphone service, let alone the internet, according to the government." (Online shopping, supra). Even for the relatively well off difficulties may arise as the amount and frequency of remittances from abroad is threatened.   

6. Scarcity has forced Cubans to balance between COVID-19 prevention practices and the need to eat (Cubans cast aside coronavirus fears to search for scarcer food (Apr 09 2020)). Yet because of the measures taken by the Cuban state--and the fortuity of being an Island Republic with closed borders, the balancing is less likely to produce the tragedy of similar hard choices in Latin America (Cuba doubles down on testing as coronavirus cases decline (12 May 2020); 'Hubs of infection': how Covid-19 spread through Latin America's markets (Guardian, 17 May 2020)).

7. But scarcity and challenge also appears to bring out the fundamental cultural character of states--sometimes to the shame of their richer and humorless neighbors.  And that is the last, and perhaps most important lesson, that might be offered by vibrant, and neglected, peripheral states.

“I was worried about the asymptomatic cases who could cough just as I passed,” she said. “So I thought: I’ll do a little house with a cardboard box and wear it.”  The retired Cuban nurse salvaged the box from the pharmacy in her Palatino neighborhood and cut arm holes and a window for her face that she covered in clear plastic.** * While her mobile home may be less necessary as Cuba’s outbreak appears to have come under control, Rojas said it still provided necessary comic relief. “In the midst of this pandemic, this stress and anxiety all the time, my little home makes people laugh,” she said. (Cuban dons full-body cardboard shield, supra)

8. That challenge is compounded by the challenges of a fragile state controlled wholesale distribution network already strained by a lock down of the country even after it was eased the third week of June (except in Havana and Matanzas provinces). Easement of restrictive measures will not immediately restore the operation of a state whose supply and distribution chains were challenging even in the best of times. "In Artemisa, the capital of Artemisa province, several owners of private businesses, which in Cuba do not have access to wholesale stores, complained of a lack of supplies, hampering a return to normality. Raul Jimenez said his private cafeteria lacked staple items like ham and bread for sandwiches so was limited largely to selling fresh fruit juices. “We have basically nothing to offer,” he said." (Cuba starts easing lockdown but shortages hamper businesses) COVID-19's effects will linger long after the immediate threat of the virus recedes.

Iuris Dictio: Realismo jurídico contemporaneo (An Engagement With Legal Realism); No. 25 (June 2020)

It my great  honor to serve on the Scientific Advisory Board of the journal Iuris Dictio whose home is the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador).  It is one of the leading legal journals in Ecuador and the Andean region.  Its editors, Diego Falconí Trávez and María Teresa Vera-Rojas are engaged in expanding its international recognition. 

For Volume 25, the editors have assembled a marvelous set of essays in English and Spanish considering contemporary legal realism (realismo jurídico contemporaneo). Authors include Mauricio Maldonado (Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador), Brian Leiter (University of Chicago, USA), Riccardo Guastini (Tarello Institute for Legal Philosophy, Italy), Erica Baum (Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina), CarloVittorio Giabardo (University of Girona, Càtedra de Cultura Juridica, España), Mátyás Bencze (University of Debrecen and Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies, Hungary), Luca Malagoli (Università degli Studi di Genova, Italia), Tomáš Gábriš (Slovak Academy of Sciences / Institute of State and Law, Slovak Republic), Michel Troper (Universidad Paris-Nanterre, Francia), and Patricia Mindus (Uppsala Universitet, Suecia), 

The table of contents with links to the essays (and the entire volume) follow:

Discussion Draft Just Posted: 'Lawyers are not algorithms: Sustainability, corruption, and the role of the lawyer in institutional frameworks and corporate transactions'

Pix credit HERE

Ethics has always been a term that is easy to pronounce, easier to segregate and narrow, and nearly impossible to produce easy answers.  That tendency toward the use of ethics as a slogan (generally), applied as a narrowly tailored set of professional rules of conduct, has had two effects.  As a slogan ethics has been broadened to signify any sort of conduct that is to be condemned; as a narrowly tailored disciplinary rule system, it has become an arcane science with a vocabulary and logic of its own that is hardly ever self evident (as at least a couple of generations of law students might attest). The problem becomes more immediate, at least for me, when one considers a lawyer's ethics (the imperative toward moral conduct) within emerging morally suffused fields--sustainability and corruption are two that come to mind--where the lawyer is not herself, that is where she is an autonomous actors but one who serves as the agent of another (while retaining her own autonomy as a moral actor) within institutions and in the context of client transactions.

And this led me to consider the semiotics of ethics. This required a somewhat different disaggregation of ethics--of ethics as an object, as a sign/symbol, and as the signification of both within a collective and among (autonomous?) individuals. Is it possible that the semiotics of ethics Might provide a useful lens for taking a fresh look at the concept and more importantly, its internalization within individuals and among collectives? Might it prove more useful still when ethics--that combination of norm and conduct, is applied within simultaneously powerful normative and institutional contexts--is understood as a moving target within a matrix of normative elements (the rules of personal conduct plus the morals of the thing undertaken) and personal position (as a moral agent, the the moral agent of another, and as a moral agent of the collective)?

These were the organizing thoughts within which I approached the challenges for lawyers on their ethical responsibilities in relation to sustainability and corruption. Those initial thoughts were shared in remarks that I made at the Joint Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Business Law Forum, and the Wickwire Legal Ethics Lecture, which for 2019 had as its theme “ The ethical and professional responsibilities of business lawyers: Business, Human Rights, and the Sustainable Development Goals.” The event took place at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia 26 September 2019. The PowerPoint of my remarks and a description of the event can be accessed here: The Lawyer is not an Algorithm": Remarks on the Ethical Responsibilities of Lawyers in Relation to Sustainability and Corruption. The video of the event may be accessed HERE: watchwatch. All with great thanks to the remarkable Sara Seck. 

I have recently prepared an initial draft of my thoughts , now perhaps a little further developed, in essay form. That essay is entitled 'Lawyers are not algorithms: Sustainability, corruption, and the role of the lawyer in institutional frameworks and corporate transactions.' It may be accessed HERE. For those interested the abstract and introduction follow. I welcome engagement of any form with the materials.

Now Available--Video Recording of Key4biz Executive Webinar Room 451: 'International Organizations and Systemic Crises'. With Fabio Bassan (Roma Tre University), Larry Catà Backer (Penn State University) and Susanna Cafaro (Università of Salento)

I am delighted to announce the posting of the video recording of the Key4biz Executive Webinar Room 451: 'International Organizations and Systemic Crises'. With Fabio Bassan (Roma Tre University), Larry Catà Baker (Penn State University) and Susanna Cafaro (Università of Salento)

The Webinar was built around a contemporary problem proposed by Professor Bassan around which a solution was proposed. We were given the opportunity to respond both.

The problem focused on the capacity of contemporary international organizations (IOs) to effectively respond to crisis. Where the construction of IOs privilege the complexity of managing physiology (the regulatory perimeter) they may reduce the ability of IOs to quickly and effectively react to the pathology of crisis (systemic shocks): the typical tools of collective emergency are not among the endowments of international organizations, not even those, more recent, less rigid in terms of institutions and delegated powers.

The proposed solution builds on a set of organizing premises. These include first, that States consider systemic crises a challenge and an opportunity to be seized, in a ruthless competition not only between companies and markets but also between legal systems and between States, which in the dynamic of international relations now devoted to market power, have the effect of transforming the latter into political supremacy. Second, the fact that the marginal benefit thus acquired by one State entails a significant sacrifice for one or more other States and therefore entails a sub-optimal balance, constitutes a secondary but not irrelevant aspect. Given these premises, solutions ought to be guided by a principle of proportionality, among those that minimize the costs for the States in terms of transfer of sovereignty and reduction of competition between legal systems and between States in dealing with the crisis, but at the same time allow to coordinate the reaction to systemic crises. In this context IOs must be reconstituted to be able to perform coordination functions of national actions in the immediacy of the crisis, in its management, and in overcoming the crisis. In that reconstitution, IOs should be equipped with internal and operational rules suitable for managing and early warning functions and with a coherent power to direct and coordinate the actions of the States that are part of it. This organization should have legitimacy, at the highest level. The decisions would consist in coordinating the actions of national governments. The decisions should consist in identifying ways and forms of coordinated reaction to critical events. These methods could integrate the use of existing economic institutions. And lastly, an institutionalized form of connection and cooperation of this organization with the International Organizations responsible for economic, financial, health, climatic matters could also be envisaged, in order to acquire practices, protocols, information necessary for the adoption of decisions.

The problem and proposed solution made for some exciting interaction.  The video may be accessed HERE.

The notes of my own responses (organized as International Organizations and Systemic Crisis: Sketching a Response to a Problem With Multiple Solutions) follows below.

 

Join Us for an Exciting Webinar Room 451: 'International Organizations and Systemic Crises' Friday 12 June 9 AM US East Coast and 3 PM CET

Fabio Bassan has organized an exciting series of engaged discussions around quite contemporary topics of international law, politics, and their institutions in the face of the cascading crises that appear to make the current moment.

Scheduled for Friday, June 12, 2020, at 3 PM CET (9 AM US East Coast Time) is  Executive Webinar Room 451: 'International Organizations and Systemic Crises'. With Fabio Bassan (Roma Tre University), Larry Catá Backer (Penn State University) and Susanna Cafaro (Università of Salento). The discussion is in English (my Italian is not quite up to the task).

COME SEGUIRE I WEBINAR

Per seguire l’executive webinar 451 “International Organizations and Systemic Crises” basta cliccare qui: rimanda al canale YouTube di Key4biz dove è già possibile “impostare il promemoria” per ricevere la notifica quando inizierà il live.

È possibile seguire il webinar anche su Facebook cliccando qui: anche su questo social è possibile attivare il “Ricevi promemoria”, una notifica comunicherà alcuni minuti prima l’inizio del live.

 HOW TO FOLLOW THE WEBINARS

To follow the executive webinar 451 "International Organizations and Systemic Crises" just click here: refer to the Key4biz YouTube channel where it is already possible to "set the reminder" to receive the notification when the live starts.

You can also follow the webinar on Facebook by clicking here: also on this social network you can activate the "Receive reminder", a notification will communicate a few minutes before the start of the live.

We will speak to two issues.  The first one is related to the nimbleness of international organizations to respond effectively to crisis.  The second issue is a consequence of the first one, that the most significant gap on the level of international economic organizations is that of a collective reaction to a systemic crisis.

 Information about the speakers and our host follow below (Italian and English).

Announcing 10th Anniversary Project of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights: “Business and human rights: towards a decade of global implementation”

Pix © Larry Catá Backer Cappy Thopmpson "Study for i Image Us as a Holy Family Engaging in the Great Work of Gathering the Light, Tacoma Museum 2006

The UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights has recently announced the commencement of a major project to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the endorsement of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The  Announcement UNGPsnext10 reads as follows:

As countries globally confront the challenges of the Covid-19 crisis and its economic and social impacts, the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights (a group of five independent experts, of balanced geographical representation) is initiating a new project starting on July 1, which aims to chart a course for a decade of action on business and human rights.

The starting point for the project is the forthcoming 10th anniversary in June 2021 of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the UN “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework, the global standard for governments and businesses for preventing and addressing business-related human rights abuses.

This effort, informed by wide-ranging stakeholder consultations, will take stock of achievements to date, and assess existing gaps and challenges. Most importantly, it will develop an ambitious vision and roadmap for implementing the Guiding Principles more widely and more broadly in the next ten years – and beyond – to drive better government and business practice based on respect for human rights, with tangible results for affected individuals and communities.

Supported by the German Government, including in the framework of its 2020 presidency of the Council of the European Union, among other partners, the project will bring together a range of actors – governments, business, civil society, UN and others to help to shape transformational change in all regions of the world. The official launch event (virtual) will take place on 7 July.


Web page: www.ohchr.org/UNGPsBizHRsnext10
Social media: #UNGPs@10 #UNGPstowards2030 #bizhumanrights
Follow: @WGBizHRs
Email: wg-business@ohchr.org

This is going to shape up to be a quite interesting look back and forward that crystallizes the evolving politics of the UN Working Group and its efforts to shape a very specific narrative of business and human rights that aligns with those of key stakeholders and supporters. That alone makes the enterprise very much worth engagement. And it will likely provide the necessary baseline against which opposition as well as alliance will be articulated over the coming year.  I include the  Concept note and Background note below. Analysis and commentary to follow.

Shasha Li: Commentary on Xie Yu, "The Current Situation Dilemma and Solutions of the Supreme People’s Court in the Constitutional Review——Also on the Interpretation of Paragraph 1 of Article 99 of the Legislation Law" (谢宇 最高人民法院在合宪性审查中的现状、困境与出路 ———兼对我国《立法法》第99 条第1 款解释).

Over the course of the last several years, Chinese scholars have been engaging in a very interesting discussion about the way that constitutional sensitivities to human rights affects Chinese law and practice in a number f areas. The conversation intensified after 2004 when the State Constitution was amended to include a third paragraph in its Article 33 that provides: "The State respects and preserves human rights."

This year I have the great privilege of hosting a marvelous visiting scholar from China, Shasha Li. Professor Li is an Associate Professor of Law School of Dongbei University of Finance and Economics. She obtained her Bachelor of Law from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, her Master of Law at Nankai University; ad her Doctor of Law at Jilin University. Professor Li may be contacted at fishsuncat [AT] 126.com.

I have prevailed on Professor Li to offer readers in English a glimpse at some of the rich discussion among academics who are considering the application of principles of human rights with Chinese characteristics and compatible with the Chinese political and normative system. Earlier Commentary may be accessed: first Commentary (HERE); Second Commentary (HERE ); third Commentary (HERE); fourth Commentary (HERE); fifth Commentary (HERE).

For her sixth commentary, Professor Li considers Xie Yu, "The Current Situation Dilemma and Solutions of the Supreme People’s Court in the Constitutional Review——Also on the Interpretation of Paragraph 1 of Article 99 of the Legislation Law" (最高人民法院在合宪性审查中的现状、困境与出路 ———兼对我国《立法法》第99 条第1 款解释).  It was published in the Journal Politics and Law 5:84-93 (2020) (政治与法律2020 年第5 期). Xie Yuyu holds an academic position at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China.  The article was produced as part of an initiative of basic research of humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education entitled "Comparative Research on the Representative System of Various Countries and the System of the National People's Congress of China." The issue considered by Professor Xie and analyzed quite usefully by Professor Li is an important one in China--the institutionalization of constitutional review.  The question revolves around what has become a defacto sharing of formal authority between the Standing Committee of the NCP (with formal authority) and the increasingly aggressive Supreme People's Court (with de facto authority arising from its formal position within the state apparatus). Professor Xie attempts to rationalize the emerging practice within the formal structures of the Chinese constitution based in part on a review of 147 Supreme People's Court decisions.

Abstract: China's "Legislation Law" presupposes that the Supreme People's Court will request the NPC Standing Committee to conduct a constitutional review. Judging from the existing judgment documents, the Supreme People's Court has not followed the path preset by China's "Legislation Law" in practice, but has avoided the request for constitutional review in the vast majority of cases, while in individual cases Conducted a constitutional review and fell into the dilemma of completely avoiding and direct reviewing. The reason for this dilemma is that my country's "Legislation Law" lacks clear provisions on the power base and power exercise procedures of the Supreme People's Court in the review of constitutionality. In this regard, it is urgent to clarify and elaborate through legal interpretation, otherwise the Supreme People’s Court will have no rules to follow and cannot rush to the NPC Standing Committee for constitutional review. In order to resolve this dilemma faced by the Supreme People's Court, it is necessary to interpret Article 99, paragraph 1, of China's Legislation Law, and to deduce that this clause implies another The interpreted power is the pre-trial power, which together constitutes the power foundation of the Supreme People's Court in constitutional review; at the same time, in order to institutionalize the exercise of the pre-trial power and the power to request review, it is necessary to refine its exercise procedures, Establish a pre-review-draw review mechanism.
Keywords: Constitutional review; Supreme People's Court; power of pre-trial; power of application for review; constitutional supervision．

[摘要:我国《立法法》预设了最高人民法院提请全国人大常委会进行合宪性审查的路径。从现有裁判文书来看,最高人民法院在实践中并未遵循我国《立法法》所预设的路径,而是在绝大多数案件中回避了合宪性审查诉求,同时又在个别案件中进行了合宪性审查,陷入了完全回避与直接审查的两难困境。造成这种困境的原因在于,我国《立法法》对最高人民法院在合宪性审查中的权力基础、权力行使程序缺乏清晰的规定。对此,亟待通过法律解释进行明确和细化,否则最高人民法院将无章可循,无法贸然提请全国人大常委会进行合宪性审查。为了化解最高人民法院面对的这一困境,有必要对我国《立法法》第99 条第1 款进行解释,推导出该条款在授予最高人民法院提请审查权时,还隐含着另一项未被释明的权力即预审权,其共同构成最高人民法院在合宪性审查中的权力基础;同时,为了使预审权与提请审查权的行使制度化,有必要对其行使程序进行细化,建立起预审-提请审查机制。
关键词:合宪性审查;最高人民法院;预审权;提请审查权;宪法监督]

Here one finds  an interesting application of politics around the text of dispositive documents.  This is something quite common in liberal democratic states, note the way that the interpretation and use of Presidential power in the United States has been transformed under the last two American presidents in part through the acquiescence of other actors and institutions.  Its operation under the political conditions of China, is less well understood.  Even less well understood is the role (formal, effective, traditional, or anticipated) of the Communist Party in this context. One would think that this is an area at the heart of the collective leadership of the CPC and that its guidance would be both generously developed and widely shared.  But that may not be the case.

Professor Li's English language Commentary follows below along with the original article (Chinese language only; English language Abstract).