Suchergebnisse

Abstract The Law and Development literature still debates on the role of international institutions in promoting legal reforms as a means of inducing economic growth. This article takes one step further by arguing that incremental circumstances compelled such institutions to change from bilaterally-binding pressures to soft-based multilateral strategies, by analyzing the gradual rise of the World Bank's "Doing Business" initiative.

In April 2010, the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal, or STF) controversially decided to uphold the country's amnesty law, which currently prevents prosecutions for violations of human rights committed during the military dictatorship. However, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights immediately followed with an opposing view in the Araguaia case, declaring that the amnesty law lacks effect under the American Convention on Human Rights. Brazilian society now faces an unprecedented challenge: can it expect its domestic courts to implement such international obligations? Drawing upon the prospects that a renewed STF may revisit the case in response to the mounting pressures of Araguaia, this article examines the complex legal issues that remain around the enforceability of international justice under Brazil's constitutional framework. The analysis suggests that different judicial strategies could still be explored in order to shift the STF's stance towards a more consistent application of international human rights principles.

Abstract The international trade system has been facing a relative decrease in the relevance of tariffs in favour of non-tariff, regulatory requirements (technical, sanitary and phytosanitary standards). The proliferation of these measures, which essentially consist of rules on product labelling and on production processes and methods, may be explained by the growing influence of private agents, such as corporations and business associations. Although these players are willing to develop and enforce a competing regulatory framework such as this on a broader range of topics, this may also generate more fragmented trade rules at both geographic and substantive levels, thus leading to a significant resistance among governments to integrate private standards into the multilateral trade system. Therefore, a mounting debate emerges on the ways in which private standards have been stonewalled in the current negotiation processes of the World Trade Organization (WTO). By relying on Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), we address this question with a particular focus on the current efforts and struggles within the WTO to incorporate private regulations into the international trade agenda.