Abstract: In recent decades, the international community has mobilized in a common fight against corruption, broadly defined as the abuse of entrusted power for personal gain (Transparency International 2019). Based on a growing body of research that links corruption to poor economic performance and weak democratic institutions (see Lambsdorff 2006 for an overview), the World Bank has declared corruption "the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development" worldwide (De Sousa et al. 2014, 34). Hereafter, we refer to the extensive institutional apparatus that has emerged from this mobilization as a global anti-corruption regime, or global anti-corruptionism.According to Krasner, international regimes are "sets of ... Read More PubDate: 2020-02-10T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Over the past three decades, a near consensus has emerged among legal scholars, social scientists, and policymakers regarding the importance of the rule of law—secure property rights, in particular—to stimulating and sustaining economic growth (see, for example, North 1981; Knack and Keefer 1995; Posner 1998; Acemoglu et al. 2001; Dam 2007). During this period, the international development community has dedicated vast sums of money to rule-of-law promotion, including nearly $3 billion in the 1990s and early 2000s from the World Bank alone (Trubek 2006, 74). Regimes that are not reliant on international aid or advice, including authoritarian regimes such as China and Singapore, have likewise recognized the ... Read More PubDate: 2020-02-10T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Public policy on gender-based violence (GBV) is intrinsically linked to a state's political regime.1 These relationships are not always straightforward and are complicated by each country's unique cultural profile (Sanford, Stefatos, and Salvi 2016). In general, however, those countries with mature democratic political structures tend to have more effective public policies on GBV than those with autocratic regimes.In the post-Soviet space, the paradigm of transitioning to democracy has frequently been used to explain the political changes that have occurred since the fall of the Soviet Union (Johnson 2007). Accordingly, the challenges of establishing an effective public policy against domestic violence—and, indeed ... Read More PubDate: 2020-02-10T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Lawyers in robust democracies serve as a linchpin of civil society. They take the often inchoate demands of citizens and shape them into viable claims. The vast majority of such claims have no larger social relevance. But when necessary, lawyers are able to use existing institutional structures—whether courts, administrative agencies, or other established channels to executive and/or legislative authorities—to press for societal reforms. Scrappier lawyers may eschew existing paths in favor of guerilla tactics that challenge the conventional. They are not always successful, nor are all lawyers willing to take on controversial cases, but the potential for lawyers to serve as agents of change is understood and ... Read More PubDate: 2020-02-10T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: This special issue, along with the forthcoming issue of Europe-Asia Studies,1 brings together the work of established and early-career social scientists who write about the post-Soviet region from the law & society perspective. The core premise of law & society scholarship is simple: it focuses not on the letter of the law but on the many ways that the law shapes, and is shaped by, social processes, actors, and institutions. Macaulay, Friedman, and Mertz explained it as the "outside point of view" on "law, legal systems, and legal institutions," which stands in ostensible contrast to the "inside perspective," which focuses on legal processes "the way that lawyers and judges usually see them" and "accepts them more ... Read More PubDate: 2020-02-10T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: The president of the Jewish congregation in Azerbaijan proudly recalled, "When we met with Lukashenka, the president of Belarus, during our visit to the country, I described to him how our president routinely congratulates us on Jewish New Year and expresses his condolences during the Holocaust commemoration. I also told him that we have three Jewish schools and a synagogue. Lukashenka was shocked that this happened in a Muslim country."1 As I will show in this paper, while representatives of the Jewish faith insisted that they had not encountered any problems with government and law enforcement agents in Azerbaijan, the representatives of Evangelical faiths were far less positive about their experiences. In fact ... Read More PubDate: 2020-02-10T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: If ever a country seemed ready for a rule-of-law breakthrough, it was Ukraine in 2014. The massive Euromaidan protests demonstrated Ukraine's consistently high demand for law, which has been deemed crucial to the development of a well-functioning judiciary (Hendley 1999; Pistor 2002; Berkowitz, Pistor, and Richard 2003). During the Revolution of Dignity, which eventually toppled President Yanukovych, the average protester was advocating for the rule of law, rather than for European integration, Ukrainian nationalism, or the partisan opposition (Onuch 2014; Popova and Shevel 2014). Demand for law remains high: a majority of Ukrainians report that judicial reform should be the government's top priority, while civil ... Read More PubDate: 2020-02-10T00:00:00-05:00
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