Just Published: Backer and Haddad, "Philanthropy and the Character of the Public University"

Happy to announce the publication of "Philanthropy and the Character of the Public Research University: The Intersections of Private Giving, Institutional Autonomy, and Shared Governance", which appears in Facilitating Higher Education Growth Through Fundraising and Philanthropy 28-58 (Henry C.Alpin, Jr.m Jennie Lavine, Stromy Stark and Adam Hocker, eds., IGI, 2016).  It was a pleasure working on this with my co-author and former student Nabih Haddad.

The chapter examines the influence of philanthropy on the increasingly contested governance space of the public research university, and against the backdrop of academic integrity and shared governance.  It is done so by situating the analysis specifically on the relationship among  The Charles G. Koch Foundation, Florida State University, and the FSU economics department.   

The abstract and introduction (citations omitted) follows. 

Just Published: "Regulating Multinational Corporations — Trends, Challenges and Opportunities," Brown Journal of World Affairs 22(1):153-173 (Fall/Winter 2015)

I am pleased to announce the publication of an article that I hope might be of interest to some of you: "Regulating Multinational Corporations — Trends, Challenges and Opportunities", Brown Journal of World Affairs 22(1):153-173 (Fall/Winter 2015).

I am in very good company. The contribution was part of a group of articles sharing distinct perspectives on MNEs. Other contributors include:

Globalization from a Business Leader's Point of View
Frits van Paasschen

Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Corporations: Normative Innovations and Implementation Challenges
John Gerard Ruggie
Tamaryn Nelson

The Cost of Free Trade
Joel Richard Paul

Transnational Mining Corporations, the Environment, and Indigenous Communities
Al Gedicks

Included below is the abstract and introduction (footnotes omitted) to my contribution.  Comments, reactions, etc. most welcome.

白轲。关于中华人民共和国慈善法（草案二审稿）的评论

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2015 )

作者简介： Larry Catá Backer (白轲。)，中文名，白轲。宾夕法尼亚州立大学W.理查德和玛丽.埃谢尔曼学者、法学教授、国际事务教授。他的研究领域集中在宪法与行政法，包括社会主义国家宪法、全球化及全球化在一国治理和体制秩序上所造成的影响等相关议题。他的著作包括法律语言符号学，比较宪法、法律与宗教方面的宪法。他目前正在完成的研究是美国法律理论、法理理论与跨国法和法律构造。白轲教授已经有许多作品发表在中国。白轲教授的联系方式是：239 Lewis Katz Building, University Park, PA 16802. 电话：1.814.863.3640. 电子邮箱：lcb911@me.com.

English version HERE. 

John Knox UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment Presents Two Important Reports to the UN Human Rights Council

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

(John Knox)

Professor Knox has just reported that he will be presenting two new reports to the UN Human Rights Council, one on implementation and one on climate change, to the U.N. Human Rights Council at its March 3, 2016 meeting.  He plans to meet with civil society representatives March 2, 2016 at the UN's offices in Geneva.  The Implementation Report--Report of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment (A/HRC/31/53; 28/12/2015)-- will be available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian (E F S A C R). The second, on Climate Change, details a variety of efforts to focus on relevant issues.

These reports reflect an important step forward in the conceptualization of the way in which environmental and sustainability issues are deeply embedded both in the discourse of human rights and in the ideologies of regulatory governance directed from those with the capacity to order and control to and for the benefit of those on whose bodies and communities the adverse effects of all of these efforts (or lack thereof) tends to fall. It is particularly useful for its quite important illustration of the framework within which regulatory governance beyond the nation-state now appears to be increasingly framed--in terms of transparency regimes (eg here), capacity building (but whose?), rights protections (but not state duty (eg here)), and harmonization (through cooperation frameworks).  Like the other great frameworks of transnational norm making (eg the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights), these efforts are addressed to those with power ("in a position to implement human rights norms in relation to the environment"). To those others, especially those  considered weak governance or conflict zones, other states and transnational actors will step in (eg here, and here). The emerging jurisprudence of application will do much to naturalize these conduct norms within critical, and critically powerful stakeholders it is hoped (eg here, and here). As for the rest, they are consider themselves lucky to be the beneficiaries of these great efforts, and to the extent that civil society, states and others presume to represent their interests and desires, also to participate indirectly through these representatives who are subject to variously effective methodologies of accountability (eg here). It is, in a way, the best one can do at the moment (eg here).  But it also represents a hint of the great work that remains after the complex process of transnational norm identification and adoption is completed (eg here).

Within these frameworks, Professor Knox has moved the conversation forward in important ways. The emerging connections between environment, sustainability, and human rights is a critical addition to the discourse the development of which is a key element of any structure of individual, institutional, state to international obligation.

The announcement with links follows.

The one page summary of the Implementation Report (with links) also follows.

The one page summary of the Climate Change Report (with links) also follows.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) hearing on Gendercide: China’s Missing Girls

 The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) tends to be a good barometer of legislative thinking about China in the United States.  Not that this thinking is either  coherent or well directed.  But it does represent the way in which U.S. "China expert" elites and their legislative masters develop "knowledge" about China.  This knowledge is then used to shape U.S. policy and legislative approaches U.S. China relations.  It also suggests the way that U.S. ideological thinking shapes the way in which China is viewed as understood by the United States. 

 

This characterization is not meant to suggest a personal position on either the outlook or work of the CECC, or of its advisers. That characterization, however, does suggest that ideological blinders tend to tell us more about the  U.S. (in this case) than it does about the Chinese.  It is with the object of helping to understanding American construction of China, rather than of helping to understand Chinese constructions of themselves (however "flawed either exercise may be in and of itself and to itself), that this announcement is offered.

It seems that American legislators, including a candidate for the selection as the Republican Party nominee for President in the 2016 elections, have chosen to focus on what they call "Gendercide" in China.  Senator Rubio ends his statement with what appears to be the them of the hearing: "As a father of four, to include two daughters, I believe it is vital that the U.S. continues advocating for the complete elimination of government-forced population planning as  well as the fundamental rights of all Chinese citizens to live up to their God - given potential."  Apparently his breeding habits, tied to his personal relationship with the religion to which he adheres, appear to be the basis on which U.S. policy toward Chinese population control policies ought to be grounded." Perhaps that is a good a basis as any. But it ought to give pause if only because there is no reason the Chinese cannot on a similar basis begin to attack, through political contributions and the like within the United States, any number of policies they might view as, for their purposes, "barbaric."  There has to be a better way. The issue of gender disparities in birth rates ought to concern Chinese as well as the rest of us.  But it ought to concern us in all parts of the world (if that is the Ambition of American policy abroad). Perhaps something other than a lecture of this sort might produce less smoke but more fire. Still, if the object is an American conversation rather than one with the Chinese, perhaps this is the better way. Still. . . . . .

 

The announcement and the links to the texts of the opening statements of the witnesses follow. Decide for yourselves.

Workshop Presentation: "Theorizing Regulatory Governance Within its Ecology: The Structure of Management in an Age of Globalization"

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2016)

I have written about the interdisciplinary workshop--Workshop on Regulatory Governance at the Department of Business and Politics: The Transformative Power of Regulatory Governance Rules, Resistance and Responsibility-- held at the Copenhagen Business School.  Organized by Poul F. Kjear and Antje Vetterlein both of CBS' Department of Business and Politics,

In my contribution to that workshop, Theorizing Regulatory Governance Within its Ecology: The Structure of Management in an Age of Globalization, I consider the theoretical elements of regulatory governance--that is, whether it is possible to theorize regulatory governance as technique, instrument, framework or ideology. To that end I look at the regulatory governance of the global production chain in garments, and the way the bones of any coherent regulatory structure is exposed in crisis--in this case the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building.

The summary abstract of the paper and the PowerPoints are set out below.

The paper will follow in short order.   

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Workshop on Regulatory Governance at the Department of Business and Politics: The Transformative Power of Regulatory Governance Rules, Resistance and Responsibility

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2016)

It has been my great pleasure to participate in an excellent workshop being held at the Copenhagen Business School.  Organized by Poul F. Kjear and Antje Vetterlein both of CBS' Department of Business and Politics, the Workshop brought together an interdisciplinary group of scholars--from politics, rhetoric, international relations, and law, to consider from a variety of distinct perspectives the movement now toward regulatory governance. The workshop seeks greater insight into a now deepening taste for and deployment of regulation as response to the need to respond to issues touching on individual and institutional behaviors.

 

The Workshop's Theoretical Scope and Objectives follows, along with the Workshop Program.

Incoherence or Discretion in Corruption and Investment Approaches?--The Norwegian Pension Fund Global Places Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) under observation

Norges Bank has decided to place Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) under observation because of the risk of severe corruption. Petrobras is one of the largest state owned petroleum TNCs in Latin America and one that is deeply embedded in corruption investigations  (here and here (including the write off of over $2 billion in bribe payments)) that reached all the way to the office of the President of the Republic (here). The decision is based on the recommendation submitted by the Council on Ethics for the Government Pension Fund Global.

The decision stands in stark contrast to the 7 January 2016 decision by Norges Bank to exclude the Chinese company ZTE Corporation, one of the world’s five largest producers of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, based on an assessment of the risk of severe corruption (my observations here). 

The two decisions together may help begin to make coherent whatever rules may be emerging about the obligations of the Pension Fund Global in matters of corruption under internationalized standards that it invokes.  Especially important may be emerging rules for determining when corruption may trigger greater use of shareholder rights and when it triggers a decision to exclude form investment.  To the extent that these decisions do not add clarity, they ill serve the developing international consensus on the corporate responsibility to avoid corruption and the consequential obligation of investors to police the conduct of the enterprises in which they invest.

Please find the Council’s recommendation here.
Please find the Council on Ethics Recommendation here.

The Council of Ethics opinion and Norges Bank decision, along with some observations, follow.

New Paper Posted: "The Evolving Relationship Between TNCs and Political Actors and Governments"

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2016)

The relationships among states, transnational corporations (TNCs) and political actors stands at the center of the evolving nature and character of governance in the economic sphere. An understanding of these relationships. Projecting outward in time it seems clear that the spaces for governance created through economic globalization has also produced substantial transformations in the nature, structures and frameworks within which the relationships among states, TNCs and political actors are understood and manifested. Though the state remains a critical actor, relationships no longer are networked exclusively through or for the object of inducing state action. TNCs and political organizations are as likely to engage in governance related interactions as both are to reach out to the state. And even in the context of public institutional communication, those might as likely be made to or through international public bodies as they are to be directed to any single or group of states. Among these stakeholders, the nature of communications continues to be complex. To some extent cooperation mechanisms—tilted toward joint governance efforts—are likely to continue to grow. Yet because the interests of political actors and TNCs do not align, there will be instances of relations that are adversarial—from those touching on monitoring and assessing TNC conduct to projections of stakeholder power onto consumer and investor communities to seek to influence discourse (and consensus) on appropriate behavior rules. What is certain, though, is that the relationship among these actors will be central to the evolution of governance norms and structures applied increasingly to production chains across states well into this century.

In this paper, The Evolving Relationship Between TNCs and Political Actors and Governments, I explore those relationships and their trajectories. It can be accessed here.

The abstract follows; comments and reactions gratefully received.

 

Foundation for Law and International Affairs (FLIA): Commentary on Charity Undertakings Law of the PRC (2nd Draft) 中华人民共和国慈善事业法（二审草案)

Chinese authorities have invited commentaries on the 2nd Draft of the People's Republic of China Charity Undertakings Law of the PRC 中华人民共和国慈善事业法（二审草案) , which they have circulated earlier this year. I had posted my preliminary commentary earlier (see here).  Those comments are part of a larger set of integrated comments that represent the efforts of the Foundation for Law & International Affairs (FLIA).

The Foundation for Law and International Affairs (FLIA) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization mandated to promote academic and public discourse at the intersection of law and international affairs. The core vision of FLIA is to promote international cooperation and public dialogue through the development of new ideas and collaboration with various academic, governmental and civil society actors. Our mission is to facilitate international scholarly activities, conduct high quality, independent research and policy analysis, engage in public education and awareness-building programs, as well as amplify the voice of the rising global generation through free and open sharing of ideas. (See here)

FLIA's commentary, submitted to government officials, consists of the following, all of which may be accessed through the links provided below.  The Commentary is also reproduced below in full.

FLIA Commentary to First Draft--here.

FLIA'S COMMENTARY TO 2ND DRAFT CHARITY UNDERTAKINGS LAW--HERE--and below.