10th Annual Conference of the European China Law Studies Association (欧洲中国法研究协会); University of Cologne — 25–27 September 2015

I am delighted to post the program for the 10th Annual Conference of the European China Law Studies Association (欧洲中国法研究协会): New Perspectives on the Development of Law in China.  

The Conference will be held at the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Cologne. It will bring together scholars from Europe, the Americas and China. Since its founding in 2006, the European China Law Studies Association has become a major international venue for scholars and practitioners who are engaged in the study of Chinese law, from both comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. The annual conference is a leading international academic forum for the exchange of information and ideas on Chinese law, as well as a platform for the initiation of research collaboration. 

The Program follows. 

Part 48: (The Self Coupled and Satan--Harm, Torture and the Educated Social Self): Dialogues on a Philosophy for the Individual

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2015)

With this post Flora Sapio and I (and friends from time to time) continue an experiment in collaborative dialogue. The object is to approach the issue of philosophical inquiry from another, and perhaps more fundamentally ancient, manner. We begin, with this post, to develop a philosophy for the individual that itself is grounded on the negation of the isolated self as a basis for thought, and for elaboration. This conversation, like many of its kind, will develop naturally, in fits and starts. Your participation is encouraged. For ease of reading Flora Sapio is identified as (FS), and Larry Catá Backer as (LCB).

The friends continue their discussion in which Flora Sapio responds to Larry Backer and Betita Horn Pepulim and takes up Larry's challenge of Paolo Freire in the education of the self. considers the moth, the harm principle and the self.
Contents: HERE.

Ruminations 58: And Speaking of Bloggers--On the Beating Death of Rasim Aliyev

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2015)

I have been suggesting the way in which state protection of religion against insult or incitement can contribute significantly to societal norms in which offenses against religion might itself be viewed as enough to insulate people from the legal effects of killing (Ruminations 57: On Hacking Bloggers to Death in Bangladesh and the Price of Insulting Religion). I have posited that while the state, through its law, might have little effect on the structures and belief systems expressed through societal norms, especially those rooted in old religions institutionally supported and elaborated through autonomous rule structures, the state can, through its laws, signal that it might turn a blind eye toward the substitution of societal norms for those of formal law, even constitutional law.  Thus law can activate societal norms (including norms condoning the killing of heretics and those giving offense to religion), "its centrality for individuals and their willingness to give it expression vary with social and political conditions." (Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust (NY Vintage Books 1997), p. 45).

But the effects of legal structures grounded in insult and offense might amplify societal norm structures in other areas as well.  This is especially the case where either the state apparatus, its governmental structures, or its societal structures tend toward authoritarianism. In those instances offense serves as a proxy for a direct attack on the legitimacy of the governmental, religious or societal structures, rules, privileges or organization that is protected by rules against offense.  In effect, offense and incitement serves as an approximation of sedition, or at its extreme, of treason--both traditionally capital offenses. 

We speak not just to the protections of religion against treasonous speech to speech acts.  This pattern extends to all aspects of importance to a society's life and self understanding.  One of the most important is sport.  Sport provides one of the few venues where people can congregate and where emotions may be manifested.  It is not surprising, then, that the passions that is poured into sport may well be directed toward a more overtly political agenda.  It comes as no surprise, then, that a blogger was recently beaten to death in Azerbaijan for insulting a popular Azerbaijani footballer (Azerbaijan journalist dies after beating by football fans, BBC News, Aug. 10, 2015).

Part 47: (The Self Coupled--Harm, Torture and the Educated Social Self): Dialogues on a Philosophy for the Individual

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2015)

With this post Flora Sapio and I (and friends from time to time) continue an experiment in collaborative dialogue. The object is to approach the issue of philosophical inquiry from another, and perhaps more fundamentally ancient, manner. We begin, with this post, to develop a philosophy for the individual that itself is grounded on the negation of the isolated self as a basis for thought, and for elaboration. This conversation, like many of its kind, will develop naturally, in fits and starts. Your participation is encouraged. For ease of reading Flora Sapio is identified as (FS), and Larry Catá Backer as (LCB).

The friends continue their discussion in which Flora Sapio responds to Larry Backer and Betita Horn Pepulim and takes up Larry's challenge of Paolo Freire in the education of the self. considers the moth, the harm principle and the self.     

Contents: HERE.

Ruminations 57: On Hacking Bloggers to Death in Bangladesh and the Price of Insulting Religion

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2015)

On August 7, 2015, the Wall Street Journal, like other Western media outlets, reported that another blogger,  40-year-old Niloy Chattopadhyay writing under the pseudonym Niloy Neel, had been hacked to death in Bangladesh.  He was the fourth to meet this end there over the course of a short period of time.

Mr. Chattopadhyay is the fourth blogger critical of Islam to be murdered in Bangladesh this year. American-Bangladeshi writer Avijit Roy, who championed atheism through his Mukto-Mona [Freethinker] blog, was killed in a machete attack in February. Two other writers, both admirers of Mr. Roy, were killed by suspected Islamic militants in similar attacks in March and May.

The rise of religious extremism in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 160 million people, could affect regional stability, analysts say.

In May, an al Qaeda group based in India claimed responsibility for the killing of Avijit Roy. Ansarullah Bangla Team, another militant outfit, claimed responsibility for the same killing shortly after the attack in a Twitter post.

The Bangladeshi government has banned Ansarullah since then, but security analysts say such groups often change names or operate through loose alliances with other extremist outfits. (Syed Zain Al-Mahmood, Fourth Blogger Hacked to Death in Bangladesh: Killing sparks renewed fears of growing radicalization of Islamic fundamentalists, The Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2015).

This post considers the interesting contrasts between  these murders and those  that are visited upon writers and bloggers in the West, though at the hands of a related set of actors.  It suggests that these reactions, especially of the killings in Bangladesh, reveal much about the way in which ideological contextualization changes expectations of behaviors.  From a Western, and perhaps from a local perspective as well, what tends to be treated generally as outrageous in Paris, for example, tends to be treated as an occurrence less unexpected in Dhaka, not because the level of civilization in Paris is higher or more advanced than in Dhaka, but because its societal foundations are different.   And not merely different, but different and moving in quite dissimilar directions.

Part 46: (The Self Coupled--of Moths, Torture and the Social Self): Dialogues on a Philosophy for the Individual

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2015)

With this post Flora Sapio and I (and friends from time to time) continue an experiment in collaborative dialogue. The object is to approach the issue of philosophical inquiry from another, and perhaps more fundamentally ancient, manner. We begin, with this post, to develop a philosophy for the individual that itself is grounded on the negation of the isolated self as a basis for thought, and for elaboration. This conversation, like many of its kind, will develop naturally, in fits and starts. Your participation is encouraged. For ease of reading Flora Sapio is identified as (FS), and Larry Catá Backer as (LCB).

The friends continue their discussion in which Flora Sapio considers the moth, the harm principle and the self, and Larry and Beita respond, expanding the consideration to the mechanisms for embracing torture, and abuse of "others" not of the societal self.     

Contents: HERE.

Venkatesh Nayak on Governmental Policy Justifications for Narrowing Whistle-Blower Protection and Popular Accountability in India--Substantial Insights for Patterns in Other States

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2015)

Venkatesh Nayak, Programme Coordinator, Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in New Delhi, has been writing about the evolution of whistle blower protections in India, its relation to governmental transparency policies, and recent efforts to shrink both transparency and accountability (through whisteblowing) in the name of state security. See here and here.

The issues are important for three reasons.  First, to mollify public opinion (or at least to manage it) states appear increasingly interested in finding a plate full of palatable policy language to justify narrowing transparency and popular accountability vehicles.  Second, India represents an influential non-Socialist state that is attempting to engage in this narrowing and that may be influential with other developing states.  Third, the effort is important as a means of taking anti-corruption efforts "in house", that is within ruling parties; that would increase the power of parties in power to manage anti corruption efforts (with respect to targeting and exposure) and reduce the ability of people to directly involve itself in such efforts. That effort, may be tempting not just for developing states like India, but also for developed states like the United States, Canada and the Member States of the European Union.

Mr. Nayak has requested the circulation of the following essay, entitled, ""People cannot have an absolute right to blow the whistle" - RTI reveals Government's rationale for whistleblower law amendments given in its Cabinet Note." It analyses the policy bases for restricting both popular accountability and the extent of whistle blower protection for those denouncing corruption.

The Military, Ideological Frameworks and Familial Marxism: A Comment on Jung-chul Lee, “A Lesson from Cuba’s Party-Military Relations and a Tale of ‘Two Fronts Line’ in North Korea”

(Fidel Castro receiving a medal from Kim Jong Il from Arch Ritter, “Reflections” … on Vaclav Havel, Kim Jong Il, Fidel Castro and Raul Castro, The Cuban Economy/La Economía Cubana, Dec. 20, 2011)

Much has been written about both North Korea and Cuba. Most of it has been directed to their respective foreign policies, and their singular variations on Marxist Leninist state organization.  Each is understood to be a peripheral state that, through the circumstances of the Cold War, managed to leverage their place in the world substantially beyond what their size and wealth might have predicted.  But few have sought to compare these two regimes that share so much.  

A recent notable exception centers on the work of the Korean Institute for National Unification.  Representatives of KINU presented a number of quite insightful papers at the 25th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, July 31, 2015.

Jung-Chul Lee, Soongsil University, Korea, “A Lesson from Cuba’s Party-Military Relations and a Tale of “Two Fronts Line” in North Korea”
 

Young-Ja Park, KINU, “Hybrid Economy in Cuba and North Korea”
 

Wootae Lee, KINU, “Historical Progress of the U.S.-Cuba Relationship: Implication for the U.S.-North Korea Case”
 

Discussants: Kyunghwa Lee, Songsil University (Wootae Lee); Larry Catá-Backer, Pennsylvania State University (Jung-Chul Lee); Suk-hoon Hung, KINU (Young-Ja Lee)

This post focuses on one of those papers, Jung-Chul Lee, “A Lesson from Cuba’s Party-Military Relations and a Tale of ‘Two Fronts Line’ in North Korea” for which I served as discussant.  My Comment may be accessed HERE, and the introduction is set out below.

"Global Corporate Social Responsibility (GCSR) Standards With Cuban Characteristics": Presentation at the 25th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2015)

At the 25th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (see here), I was fortunate enough to participate in a panel on "International Economic Topics":

Chair: Helena Solo-Gabriele, University of Miami

--Jorge Perez-Lopez, U.S. Department of Labor (retired), “Foreign Investment in Cuba’s Updating of its Economic Model”
--Larry Catá Backer, Penn State University, “Global Corporate Social Responsibility (GCSR) Standards With Cuban Characteristics: What Normalization Means for Transnational Enterprise Activity in Cuba”
--Jorge Piñón, University of Texas at Austin, “Cuba’s Petroleum Conundrum: Its Dependency on Imported Oil”
Discussants: Bryan Roberts, Econometrica; Luis R. Luis

This post includes the abstract of my topic (below) with links to the PowerPoint used for the presentation.  The paper will  be posted in the near future.

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25th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy: "Cuba–What’s next?”

 

 

The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE) held its 25th annual meeting in the wake of the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba after a break of more than half a century.  The two and-a-half day conference took place July 30-August 1, 2015 in Miami, Florida. 

The three-day conference, around the theme “Cuba–What’s next?,” will focus on what to expect after the recent historic announcements of changes in diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US. Will Cuba make the necessary internal economic reforms to attract enough foreign direct investment to spur economic growth? When will currency reform be implemented? When will the agricultural sector be restructured to increase productivity and output? Can we expect Cuba to develop its banking system and establish well-functioning capital markets? The conference will also include a plenary session on Cuban economic and political trends as well as sessions on social, legal, and sectoral issues related to the economy and a student panel.

La conferencia de tres días sobre el tema de fondo “Cuba–¿Qué es lo que viene?”, se centrará en los cambios que se pudieran esperar después de las recientes declaraciones históricas sobre cambios en las relaciones diplomáticas entre Cuba y los Estados Unidos. ¿Hará Cuba las reformas internas necesarias para atraer la inversión extranjera e impulsar el desarrollo económico? ¿Cuándo se implementarán las reformas monetarias? ¿Cuándo se restructurará el sector agrícola para aumentar la productividad y el producto? ¿Podemos anticipar que Cuba desarrolle el sector bancario y establezca mercados de capital que operen eficientemente?

Download Conference Program here