Immersion in a Dynamic Legal Culture: Introducing Students in Panamá to the Law, Systems, and Legal Culture of the United States; Part 1 Introduction

 I was delighted to have the opportunity to teach in the Penn State Law-Universidad Latina de Panamá Program on the Legal English in the U.S. Legal System. The program gave me an opportunity to road test portions of my just finished book, Introduction to the Law and Legal System of the United States: Structures, Functions, Principles, and Practices in National and International Context (Carolina Academic Press, forthcoming 2019) (for writing about the development of this book in its prior versions, see IntrotoUSLawBook).  It also permitted me the opportunity to teach the introduction to the U.S. legal system both the well trained non-U.S. lawyers and to do it in Spanish over a short but intense course.

I am grateful to both institutions, and their respective leaderships, for helping to make this possible. A big shout out to my teaching assistants, Isa Ferrera Baca and Brandon Ruggiero, both of Penn State University, for their excellent work in putting together the materials, and especially for their organization of the program exercises and the English-Spanish vocabulary.

This post includes the Syllabus (including course philosophy in English and Spanish)) and the PowerPoints for the first class.  Future posts will follow the class to its conclusion. For those interested in reviewing the page proofs of the Introduction to the Law and Legal System of the United States, please email me for a copy.



Part 1 (Introduction) may be accessed here.
Part 2 (Common Law) may be accessed here.
Part 3 (Equity) may be accessed here.
Part 4 (Statutes) may be accessed here.
Part 5 (Administrative Regulations) may be accessed here.
Part 6 (Ideologies and Practice of Statutory Interpretation) may be accessed here.
Part 7 (Judicial Review and Constitutional Interpretation) may be accessed here.

Human Rights in Latin America: Articles in Vol. 23 Iuris Dictio (Universidad San Francisco de Quito)

Those interested in issues of human rights in Latin America might find the articles in the latest issue of  Iuris Dictio interesting and provocative,  They are highly recommended.

The table of contents with kinks to the articles follow.

From the CPE Working Group on Empire: Ruminations 87-- Reflections on President Trump's July 4th Speech and the Convergence of the Rhetorics of Empire

 

The 4th of July is the day celebrated for the declaration of the intention of the 13 united colonies of their independence from the Crown of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as its Parliament. The event always tends to bring out everyone with an axe to grind--all of which then tend to be plunged into the heads of actual or perceived enemies.  It is a moment when leading groups restate their positions and seek advantage in the never ending process of controlling orthodox official narrative of "reality" and of managing the masses in the pursuit of influence and the harvesting of votes (an industry that remains one of the bright spots of the American economy). Indeed, the United States ruling classes, on its over privileged and arrogantly detached political left and right wings, has tended to indulge in many such moments lately)

The Coalition for Peace & Ethics Working Group on Empire suspects that all of this is both necessary and beside the point at this historical moment.  What CPE-WGE finds remarkable is the way in which the rhetorics around important historical markers (in the case of the U.S. for example the 4th of July)  have begun to converge around two key elements.  

 

The first is the increasing acceptance of a core leader model of governance; in the United States situated around the person of the U.S. President (and thus the intensity of the battles over the body and fate of Mr Trump), and in China around the development of a core leader ideology around the person of President Xi from which radiates collective leadership, which is then replicated down the chain of the organization of state and party apparatus. 

The second, is the way in which the leadership core of both exhibit similar discursive trends in the construction of new models of self reflection, and on that basis of projection of national self understanding outward. In both cases one sees the development of a model in which the core draws on the deep wells of historical tradition, culture and learning to project those insights as the incarnation of a model that can be be projected onto the new era (inward) and exported to the model of empire (outward through America First and Belt and Road Initiatives).

The CE-WGE has spent considerable time considering the development of those rhetorical tropes (and the exploration of the ideology of "new era" empire it reveals) from the Chinese side of empire (e.g., CPE EmpireSeries).  For this post CPE-WGE explores a similar development from the U.S. side of empire.  To that end it provides below a critical analysis of the speech delivered by Mr. Trump at the official 4th of July festivities held at Washington, D.C.  It follows below. For the orthodox discussion of the speech within the U.S. from partisan perspectives see, e.g., here and here). What emerges is an interesting parallel in the way that empire is reconstructed from within a context of globalization.

The Draft "Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration" Now Open for Public Consultation and Comment

For years, people who worried about these sorts of things have worried that the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights was heavy on principle and very light on implementable mechanisms.  That was, of course, a deliberate choice in the development of the UNGP.  They might be understood as primarily privileging principles in order to provide a necessary foundation on which the international community (or effectively constituted fragments thereof), might develop structures and approaches to implementation that would be contextually appropriate. 

Still, the value of unification, especially in the development of standards and processes of remedy, was strong.  I counted myself among those who, years ago, pushed for such efforts around the then nascent Working Group. I argued then:

 "But the WG missed more than that. The WG failed to grasp the opportunity to become the source of the highest and most credible and consistent interpretation of the UNGPs applied in context. That failure to take on a quasi-judicial role, not unlike that of the European Court of Justice in interpreting the application of European Law, in form and effect, though not binding in fact, has significantly diminished the importance of the WG’s work and might well imperil the dynamic element of the UNGPs. The UN Development Program (UNDP) remains a framework in search of a jurisprudence. It’s most significant value lies in its application to concrete disputes among the critical stakeholders to the UNGP – states, business, and individuals on whose behalf civil society plays a decisive role. The principles of the UNDP can only be reified – made concrete – through the dynamic evolution and deepening of the “law” of the UNGPs’ consistent application through a bottom up, case-by-case basis. And this, from the perspective of both static and dynamic evolution of the UNGPs, is fundamental – both for the WG and for those civil society elements that can play a crucial role in bringing such actions and thus adding muscle to the third pillar. To this end an interpretive facility is imperative. There is no evolution of the UNDP without a substantial body of application in which the UNGPs are manifested in the actions of its three stakeholders. . . The binding effect of the determinations of any interpretive facility is less important than the project of producing these interpretations consistently and in the context of disputes actively contested among states, enterprises, and civil society actors before the UNGPs neutral interpreters." (Larry Catá Backer, "From Guiding Principles to Interpretive Organizations: Developing a Framework for Applying the UNGPs to Disputes that Institutionalizes the Advocacy Role of Civil Society," in Business and Human Rights: Beyond the End of the Beginning 97-110 (César Rodríguez Garavito, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2017) . 

Eventually, a group of quite thoughtful and capable individuals who represent the core stakeholder groups in the processes of reifying a rule system for the human rights obligations of economic enterprises,  began a process of considering the possibility of developing at least one form of unifying mechanism for the resolution of claims of human rights wrongs by economic enterprises in ways that would, it would be hoped, contribute to the construction of global consensus (common law style to be sure) on principles and their application (through the mechanisms of arbitration) in this emerging field. A drafting team put themselves together to this end.  Guided by a unifying vision of the value of an arbitral remedial mechanism, they eventually constituted themselves the  Drafting Team of the Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration and included among them Bruno Simma, Chair, Diane Desierto, Martin Doe Rodriguez, Jan Eijsbouts, Ursula Kriebaum, Pablo Lumerman, Abiola Makinwa, Richard Meeran, Sergio Puig, Steven Ratner, Giorgia Sangiuolo, Martijn Scheltema, Anne van Aaken, and Katerina Yiannibas.  

The Drafting Team started with a process of drafting and wide consultation among those interested, including many who frequent the UN Forum for Business and Human Rights in Geneva. Though it has been a long time coming, the effort was perhaps worth the wait.  The Drafting Team has produced a Draft Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration which is now ready for public consultation.  

If you are at all interested in this area--especially in the area of remedies--you might be moved to have a look and make your views known.  This project is likely coming and it will profit from a substantial volume of considered reaction; so make your views known.  Businesses (beyond the usual mega-enterprises heavily involved in the field already) and  civil society (beyond the mega global organs already deeply embedded in these conversations) ought to make their views known.  The development of joint positions might also be valuable among affinity groups for greater impact. 

The call for public comment circulated by Katerina Yiannibas follows along with relevant links and the "Introductory Note" and Article 1 (Preamble).  The Draft Rules contain 51 Articles and a Code of Conduct (also reproduced below). Be aware that comments must be submitted in the boxes provided  to be considered by the Drafting Team; but comments may be freely circulated or directed elsewhere as well if the object is for greater engagement and reaction by other actors. It is my hope as well that the institutional organs of the new Belt and Road Initiative that focus on remedy will also reach out. My comments will follow in a future post.

CPE Working Group on Empire: Part 2--Observations on Xi Jinping, Speech Delivered at the G20 Leaders' Summit on the World Economic Situation and Trade Issues--"Work Together to Create a High Quality World Economy" [习近平在二十国集团领导人峰会上关于世界经济形势和贸易问题的讲话（全文）携手共进，合力打造高质量世界经济]

As noted in a prior post, the Coalition for Peace & Ethics Working Group on Empire has been following the events around the reconstruction of the global trading order through the lens of the bilateral negotiations between the United States and China.  In particular, while it has been considering the specifics of an eventually constructed agreement, the WGE has focused more attention on the construction of something perhaps even more durable--new theories of empire that will sustain the visions being developed now under the leadership of Presidents Xi and Trump. (See CPE EmpireSeries)

While the complex contradictions and battles for control of the narrative of trade in the West is dynamic and contingent, at least it is readily accessible, the Chinese positions are perhaps less accessible outside of the leadership cores of that nation. To the end of centering Chinese perspectives to better balance analysis of the quest of these two great nations to remake the world between them, the CPE-WGE has focused analysis on key pronouncements of the Chinese leadership (with a sensitivity to whether they were constructed for internal or external consumption). The object is not criticism but decoding (something beyond mere translation).  

This post is the second of 2 posts in which the CPE-WGE considered Xi Jinping's important speech delivered at the recently concluded G20 Leaders' Summit in Japan provides another indication of the perspectives and objectives of China's leadership core with respect to the necessary ordering of global trade to its liking.  Understanding that perspective is essential if one is to better understand the parameters within which China is prepared to negotiate, and beyond that, those parameters with respect to which its partners must be willing to go it alone--either without China or in competition with it. The English and original text (中国语文) of the Speech, "Work together to create a high-quality world economy" [携手共进，合力打造高质量世界经济] may be accessed HERE. 

Our first set of reflections, The Meaning is in the Title--Reflections on Xi Jinping Speech, "Work Together to Create a High-Quality World Economy, was prepared by Larry Catá Backer.

Our second set of reflections, G20 in the Shadow of Belt and Road-- Reflections on Xi Jinping Speech, "Work Together to Create a High-Quality World Economy, was prepared by Flora Sapio and follows below. 

 pix credit here

CPE Working Group on Empire: Part 1--Observations on Xi Jinping, Speech Delivered at the G20 Leaders' Summit on the World Economic Situation and Trade Issues--"Work Together to Create a High Quality World Economy" [习近平在二十国集团领导人峰会上关于世界经济形势和贸易问题的讲话（全文）携手共进，合力打造高质量世界经济]

Xi Jinping's Speech delivered at the recently concluded G20 Leaders' Summit in Japan provides another indication of the perspectives and objectives of China's leadership core with respect to the necessary ordering of global trade to its liking.  Understanding that perspective is essential if one is to better understand the parameters within which China is prepared to negotiate, and beyond that, those parameters with respect to which its partners must be willing to go it alone--either without China or in competition with it. These are all political decisions, of course; but political decisions in which the interests of many sub-communities (business, political, intellectual, and civil society, for example) may either converge or fall out of the aggregation of great principles that drive each of the United States and China as they reshape their view of themselves in the world and construct multilateral relations more protective of their core interests and their core partners.  

The Coalition for Peace & Ethics Working Group on Empire has been following these vents closely, While it has been considering the specifics of an eventually constructed agreement, it is focusing on the construction of something even more durable--new theories of empire that will sustain the visions being developed now under the leadership of Presidents Xi and Trump. 

President Xi's speech provides another set of valuable insights from the Chinese side.  It is worth considering in its own right.  In this post and the next  CPE-WGE presents its brief thoughts on the speech and what it may point to in the upcoming negotiations--and more importantly, in the further development of Communist Party ideological thinking that will likely be unveiled in fuller form in the upcoming 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress.

Our first set of reflections, The Meaning is in the Title--Reflections on Xi Jinping Speech, "Work Together to Create a High-Quality World Economy, along with the English and original text (中国语文) of the Speech, "Work together to create a high-quality world economy" [携手共进，合力打造高质量世界经济] follow.  The second reflection prepared by Flora Sapio may be accessed here. 
 

Statement of the CPE Working Group on Empire on the G-20 Meeting of Presidents Trump and Xi

(Pix credit: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters posted HERE )

It was with some relief that the political and economic classes greeted the tentative but from their perceptive positive forward movement between China and the United States after their respective Presidents met at the G-20 Meeting in Japan. "Mr Trump also said he would allow US companies to continue to sell to the Chinese tech giant Huawei, in a move seen as a significant concession. Mr Trump had threatened additional trade sanctions on China. However, after the meeting on the sidelines of the main G20 summit in Osaka, he confirmed that the US would not be adding tariffs on $300bn (£236bn) worth of Chinese imports." (G20 summit: Trump and Xi agree to restart US-China trade talks). This appears to have had an effect on global financial markets (at least in the short term) (Dow Futures Higher as Trump/Xi Meeting Dominates G20 Focus, Keep Markets on Edge).  It was noted, however, that Presidents Trump and Xi had reached a similar agreement last year at the Argentina G20 meeting (‘It’s a temporary timeout’).

The Coalition for Peace & Ethics Working Group on Empire issued the following statement in the wake of that news:

Both Presidents Xi and Trump bear a heavy responsibility for ensuring that they each protect the highest principles and aspirations of their respective countries and that they each promote those core values that all peoples share. The process of realizing these objectives has been made more difficult by the uncertainties that arise at the start of this new era of historical development. For both countries, this new era presents new contradictions unique to each that must be understood as central to their respective continued development. Each requires greater attention to the obligation to emancipate the mind in the face of the respective historical realities of China and of the United States if they are to be overcome. That process can be painful. But under the core leadership of Presidents Xi and Trump, it now appears clearer that the collective leadership of both states will be able to work successfully toward a resolution that respects the core principles of their respective collective economic systems and is also sensitive to the respective dignities of their peoples. In the process, under their collective leadership and guidance, they will together contribute, each in their own way, to a more stable and equitable world order more suitable to the present times.

.

Announcing Publication of "The Cuba-US Bilateral Relationship: New Pathways and Policy Choices" (OUP 2019)

I am happy to announce the (pre)publication of The Cuba-US Bilateral Relationship: New Pathways and Policy Choices published by Oxford University Press and set for delivery September 2019. The book profited from the vision and editing of a great team from Creighton University: Michael J. Kelly, Interim Dean and Professor of Law, Erika Moreno is Associate Professor of Political Science, and Richard C. Witmer is Professor of Political Science.

This book brings together experts from across three disciplines—politics, economics, and law—to address the key issues that affect Cuba-U.S. bilateral relations today. The chapters identify the opportunities and challenges presented to both nations in each of their respective disciplines while staking out what the future may hold. I was delighted to have been included in this effort. The book is especially timely now that the region continues to experience substantial flux. 

Features:

• Looks at the U.S.-Cuban bilateral relationship through the interdisciplinary lens of politics, economics, and law
• Timely analysis of U.S.-Cuban relations since 2014 and during the first two years of the Trump administration
• Includes a foreword by the first U.S. Ambassador to Cuba and an afterword by the acting Secretary of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy

The description, table of contents, and contributor information follows. Finally, as part of the book kick-off, Oxford University Press has created a book flyer with a 30% discount code. I have included the flyer below as well. Feel free to print and circulate--and order the book!

Latin American Research Review: Links to Articles in Vol 54(2)

Happy to pass along the links to what looks like some very interesting new work from the latest issue of the Latin American Research Review. Particularly interestung may be the essays on the situation in Venezuela.

The Latin American Research Review (LARR) is the academic journal of the Latin American Studies Association. LARR publishes original research and review essays on Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latina/Latino studies. It covers the social sciences and the humanities, including the fields of anthropology, economics, history, literature and cultural studies, political science, and sociology.

The journal reviews and publishes papers in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. All papers, except for book and documentary film review essays, are subject to double-blind peer review.

"Theory Before Theory, and the Trade War Before the Trade War: Qiushi writing in Qiushi Journal A Perspective on Sinification" Brief Thoughts on Autumn Stone, "On Correctly Handling Government and Market Relations" [论正确处理政府和市场关系]

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2018)

Over the course of the last several weeks the Coalition for Peace & Ethics Working Group on Empire has been focusing the ongoing reshaping of the global order through the dialogue between the two emerging imperial powers--China and the United States (CPE EmpireSeries). Like others, CPE-WGE has thought to better analyze the underlying premises that shape the communication between these two trade leadership cores through a more rigorous analysis of the writings of Chinese thought leaders not directly intended for Western audiences.

In our last post Larry Catá Backer considered Zheng Yongnian's  essay, "Is Marxism Really Revived in China? [马克思主义在中国真的复兴了吗？]. The engagement with Marxism within the evolving principles of Chinese engagement with the world might provide useful hints about the principles underlying Chinese discursive styles in its negotiations with the U.S. leadership core. (Brief Thoughts on Zheng Yongnian: Is Marxism Really Revived in China? [郑永年：马克思主义在中国真的复兴了吗？]). This is part of the larger project of theorizing empire from the perspectives of Chinese and U.S. critical actors.

In this post Flora Sapio examines the writing of the person writing under the pen name Autumn Stone [秋 石] in Quishi the theoretical journal of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and the Central Party School. More specifically, the post focuses on Autumn Stone's important article, "On Correctly Handling Government and Market Relations",  [论正确处理政府和市场关系] published on January 15, 2018.

Flora Sapio's essay, "Theory before Theory, and the Trade War Before the Trade War: Qiushi writing in Qiushi Journal: A Perspective on Sinification."