Process Of Law Reform Research Articles

The Transference of Gender-based Norms in the Law Reform Process: A Reflection on my Work in Thailand

2008 verbrachte ich als Spezialistin fur Rechtsstaatlichkeit ein Jahr in Thailand beim International Rescue Committee (IRC) im Kontext eines Stipendienprogramms fur Menschenrechtsanwaltinnen und –anwalte. Mir war die Aufgabe ubertragen worden, die Entwicklung einer ubergreifenden gesetzlichen Regelung fur die Fluchtlingscamps entlang der Grenze zwischen Thailang und Burma zu unterstutzen. Als Teil meiner Arbeit versuchte ich auserdem, durch die Einbeziehung thailandischer und internationaler Menschenrechtsnormen die geschlechtsspezifischen gesetzlichen Schutzmasnahmen zu verbessern. In diesem Artikel wird der Verlauf meiner Arbeit beim IRC reflektiert. Das Reformprojekt begegnete der Ubertragung der umstrittenen internationalen Normen zum Schutz von Frauen und Madchen auf zwei Weisen: a) durch die integrative Ausrichtung des Gesetzesreformprozesses und b) durch die Einrichtung eines Verbots von Vorschriften, die eindeutig internationale oder nationale Gesetze verletzten. Durch die Bildung einer Arbeitsgruppe und den ausdrucklichen Einsatz von Gemeindeabsprachen als Wegbereiter fur die endgultige Formgebung gesetzlicher Regelungen wurde Fluchtlingsperspektiven, im Besonderen weiblichen Perspektiven, die Moglichkeit eingeraumt, die Interpretationen nationaler und internationaler Rechtsstandards zu beeinflussen. Durch die geforderte Ubereinstimmung mit nationalen und internationalen gesetzlichen Regelungen sowie der nachdrucklichen Klarung und Erlauterung nationaler und internationaler Standards in Diskussionen unterstutzte das Projekt zudem eine kompatible Ubertragung internationaler Normen auf einen spezifischen Gemeindekontext. Wir erhofften uns als Resultat dieser normierten Ablaufe gesetzliche Regelungen, die einen tragfahigen Kodex fur geschlechtsspezifische Schutzmasnahmen darstellen und Abhilfe in Fallen sexueller und geschlechtsspezifischer Gewalt bieten wurden. Im Laufe der Verhandlungen wurde deutlich, dass die integrative Ausrichtung des Gesetzesreformprozesses eine weitaus grosere und positivere Rolle bei der erfolgreichen Ubertragung gesetzlicher Normen spielt als die Inhalte der Normen selbst. Die Normen, die am bereitwilligsten angenommen wurden, waren solche, die von der Reformarbeitsgruppe selbst eingebracht wurden. Lokale Normubersetzer spielten bei der Verbreitung der Normen eine ausschlaggebende Rolle. Obwohl es verfruht ware, endgultige Schlusse uber den Erfolg des Projektes zu ziehen, glaube ich doch, dass die beobachteten Prozesse aufschlussreiche Beispiele fur die Normubertragung auf dem Feld der humanitaren Intervention und Entwicklungshilfe bieten.

The Transference of Gender-based Norms in the Law Reform Process: A Reflection on my Work in Thailand

2008 verbrachte ich als Spezialistin fur Rechtsstaatlichkeit ein Jahr in Thailand beim International Rescue Committee (IRC) im Kontext eines Stipendienprogramms fur Menschenrechtsanwaltinnen und –anwalte. Mir war die Aufgabe ubertragen worden, die Entwicklung einer ubergreifenden gesetzlichen Regelung fur die Fluchtlingscamps entlang der Grenze zwischen Thailang und Burma zu unterstutzen. Als Teil meiner Arbeit versuchte ich auserdem, durch die Einbeziehung thailandischer und internationaler Menschenrechtsnormen die geschlechtsspezifischen gesetzlichen Schutzmasnahmen zu verbessern. In diesem Artikel wird der Verlauf meiner Arbeit beim IRC reflektiert. Das Reformprojekt begegnete der Ubertragung der umstrittenen internationalen Normen zum Schutz von Frauen und Madchen auf zwei Weisen: a) durch die integrative Ausrichtung des Gesetzesreformprozesses und b) durch die Einrichtung eines Verbots von Vorschriften, die eindeutig internationale oder nationale Gesetze verletzten. Durch die Bildung einer Arbeitsgruppe und den ausdrucklichen Einsatz von Gemeindeabsprachen als Wegbereiter fur die endgultige Formgebung gesetzlicher Regelungen wurde Fluchtlingsperspektiven, im Besonderen weiblichen Perspektiven, die Moglichkeit eingeraumt, die Interpretationen nationaler und internationaler Rechtsstandards zu beeinflussen. Durch die geforderte Ubereinstimmung mit nationalen und internationalen gesetzlichen Regelungen sowie der nachdrucklichen Klarung und Erlauterung nationaler und internationaler Standards in Diskussionen unterstutzte das Projekt zudem eine kompatible Ubertragung internationaler Normen auf einen spezifischen Gemeindekontext. Wir erhofften uns als Resultat dieser normierten Ablaufe gesetzliche Regelungen, die einen tragfahigen Kodex fur geschlechtsspezifische Schutzmasnahmen darstellen und Abhilfe in Fallen sexueller und geschlechtsspezifischer Gewalt bieten wurden. Im Laufe der Verhandlungen wurde deutlich, dass die integrative Ausrichtung des Gesetzesreformprozesses eine weitaus grosere und positivere Rolle bei der erfolgreichen Ubertragung gesetzlicher Normen spielt als die Inhalte der Normen selbst. Die Normen, die am bereitwilligsten angenommen wurden, waren solche, die von der Reformarbeitsgruppe selbst eingebracht wurden. Lokale Normubersetzer spielten bei der Verbreitung der Normen eine ausschlaggebende Rolle. Obwohl es verfruht ware, endgultige Schlusse uber den Erfolg des Projektes zu ziehen, glaube ich doch, dass die beobachteten Prozesse aufschlussreiche Beispiele fur die Normubertragung auf dem Feld der humanitaren Intervention und Entwicklungshilfe bieten.

A Consideration of the Legitimacy and Equity of Queensland's Offender Levy

In 2012 the Queensland Government introduced an offender levy. The levy is applied to every offender, other than a child, who is sentenced in a Queensland court. Queensland's offender levy does not form part of the sentence imposed by the court and applies regardless of the offender's circumstances. The levy cannot be waived or reduced. Revenue raised from the levy is directed to consolidated revenue and will help pay for the cost of law enforcement and administration. Drawing on experiences of offender levies in other jurisdictions, this article examines the legitimacy and equity of the Queensland offender levy regime and the law reform process surrounding it.

Assessing the Organisation pour l’harmonisation en Afrique du droit des affaires’s Contributions to Poverty Reduction in Africa: A Grounded Outlook

AbstractThis article inquires into the Organisation pour l’harmonisation du droit des affaires en Afrique (OHADA)’s claims to innovation for its law reform processes and into its ambition to become a precedent for pursuing legal integration among countries elsewhere in Africa and in the world. It seeks to assess whether the OHADA regime effectively contributes to, or has the potential to contribute to, socio-economic development in member states. In making this assessment, the article revisits assumptions about the part that international and Western inspired law should play in development, institutional renovation and law reform in OHADA countries. The article argues that a shift of paradigms should occur in OHADA and international economic law from the foreign investor credo towards a more nuanced empirically informed approach to law making. Legal, policy and economic experts should concentrate more efforts on the needs, practices and realities of businesses in OHADA states, particularly local enterprises the majority of which are micro, small and medium (MSM) and are regulated by both formal and unofficial rules. Focusing on facilitating the operation of local businesses as well as on poverty reduction rather than on making regional economic integration, the dominant goal of business law reform in the OHADA can lead to commercial rules and strategies more successful at fostering sustainable development in member parties.Bearing this in mind, the article analyses some of the innovations ascribed to the OHADA regime with a view to investigating whether they actually contribute usefully to the operation of businesses and more generally to socio-economic development in member states. The attributes examined concern both the form and the substance of the new law. Part A looks at the alleged increased physical accessibility and logical ordering of member states’ business law rules. In order to better appreciate the impact of this claimed novelty, Part B focuses on the OHADA Acts themselves and analyses three of their fundamental characteristics, namely their supranational, transplanted and viral-like nature, the latter two qualifiers being used metaphorically. The article shows that while OHADA-promoted rules and concepts are innovative in a number of respects, their supranational, transplanted and viral qualities have either little, none or adverse effects on the operation of local MSM businesses in the OHADA region.Some commentators contend that the adverse effects and poor effectiveness of laws can be linked to a system’s legal origins. In particular, law and economics scholars and other academics have asserted that common law is a superior normative framework to civil law for law reform aimed at promoting economic development and the “rule of law”. Part C considers this claim and argues that the debate is beside the point since it presupposes a hermetic conception of legal traditions, conceives development as being primarily dependent on foreign investment and does not rest on solid empirical data from OHADA states.

Divergent directions in reforming legal responses to lethal violence

Over the past three decades, debates about legal reforms to lethal violence have been evident across Australia and in other jurisdictions. While these debates have often arisen from shared concerns, the resulting reforms have taken different approaches to reformulating the defences to murder. This article considers the divergent approaches taken to reform and the process of law reform itself, documenting the significance of localised histories and high profile cases. It also questions whether reforms to the defences to murder have responded adequately to the varying contexts within which men and women kill. The analysis reveals the limitations of law reform inquiries that fail to take a comprehensive approach to considering the operation of the laws in this area. The article calls for ongoing critical analysis of homicide within and beyond the law.

From Global Convergence in China's Enterprise Bankruptcy Law 2006 to Divergent Implementation: Corporate Reorganisation in China

The enactment of China's Enterprise Bankruptcy Law in 2006 after debates spanning two decades was a milestone in the development of China's market-based economy. Bankruptcy laws have served as a key mechanism for market economies to adhere to their stated goals. One way of softening the harsh effects of insolvency is to develop a system of corporate reorganisation or rescue; China has also sought to move in this direction through its bankruptcy law reforms. However, the implementation of these laws has revived many of the older debates that undermined the law reform process. Paradoxically, although the Chinese economy has slowed considerably with the continued global financial crisis, there has been a very limited use of company reorganisation procedures and insolvency administrators in China. This demonstrates the limits to which external legal models will be effective in China and the complexity of the problems that remain to be resolved.

From Alice and Evelyn to Isabella

This article explores the role of discourse and narrative in shaping the recent wave of reforms to surrogacy law and policy around Australia. I examine two sites of dialogue – parliamentary debate and media representations – where discourses concerning surrogacy have been reframed dramatically to justify a new era of regulation. The themes that have emerged through these reform dialogues both reflect and recraft contemporary understandings of surrogacy specifically, and non-traditional family formation more broadly. As such, this is both an analysis of the role of evolving discourses of surrogacy, infertility and assisted reproductive technology in Australia, and a case study of a multiple-jurisdiction law reform process dominated by narrative and anecdote.

The Process of Law Reform: Conditions for Success

Changing the law can be a tricky business. Seen from the perspective of non-governmental organisations, law reform can mean years of lobbying governments and politicians for change; seen from inside government, law reform may signify months or years of consultation, drafting bills, and holding one's breath for Parliament; seen from Parliament, law reform may mean a relatively simple examination and passage of a Bill or months of political haggling; from the perspective of the public, law reform may appear variously political, idealistic, long and drawn out or hasty. Law reform is all of these things.

The Process of Law Reform: Conditions for Success

The Process of Law Reform: Conditions for Success

‘A carnival of crime on our border’: International Law, Imperial Power, and Extradition in Canada, 1865–1883

Abstract: This paper traces the development of Canadian extradition law from the formation of a pro-extradition consensus in the 1860s to the passage of a new Canadian statute in 1877, to that act's final ratification by Britain in 1883. This process of law reform illustrates Britain's continuing legal power in Canada. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s imperial authorities suppressed, delayed, and rewrote dominion extradition law, bringing it back into line with Britain's shifting policy. But the legal ideas that Britain exported to the colonies in this period were not particularly British at all. Rather, what arrived in Canada in the 1870s was an emerging branch of international law heavily influenced by Europe – one that balanced extensive international co-operation against crime with individual civil liberties protections and safeguards for political asylum-seekers. Its origins were in post-revolutionary France, and as it spread to Britain and then the colonies it frustrated Canadian attempts to design a new extradition policy. As a result, this article illustrates the interplay between international law and imperial power in nineteenth-century Canada.

An analytical framework for water services law – Comparative approaches in Scotland and South Africa

This paper will examine reforms in water services law in two jurisdictions, Scotland and South Africa, and set out an analytical framework for such a reform process. In both jurisdictions, despite their many differences, there is a commitment to the public sector, and to finding ways to better regulate the public sector. From the commonalities, it is possible to draw out an analytical framework against which the process of law reform may be assessed.

Attitudes, Rape and Law Reform in South Africa

In the last decade South Africa has undergone an extensive process of sexual offence law reform. This process has attempted, amongst other things, to address deficiencies in the criminal justice response to rape and has also recognised some of the limits to the impact of legal reform. These limits are partly defined by rape supportive attitudes and myths that appear to influence decision-making at all points in the criminal justice process. In South Africa, and many other jurisdictions, evidence suggests that police, prosecutorial and judicial decision-making is influenced, in part, by a range of social attitudes that misconstrue sexual violence, as well as serve to undermine the credibility of complainants. This article examines the impact of myths, social definitions of rape on rape law reform in South Africa and the points at which these reforms are likely to be undermined by social attitudes and what potentially might be done to address this problem.

Public attitudes and law reform: extending the legal framework for child contact to unmarried fathers, grandparents and step-parents?

The demographic transformations of partnership and parenthood present fresh challenges for family law and the rules governing child contact following parental separation are no exception. As children are now more likely to live in non-traditional families and experience family transitions, more kin act as de-facto parents, at least in some respects. Unmarried fathers, grandparents and step-parents are increasingly pressing their claims for extending rights of contact with children after parental separation. Law reformers are said to be sensitive to public attitudes about changing family norms. This paper traces how one European jurisdiction, Scotland, took account of these in relation to child contact in a family law reform process that culminated in the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006. It compares the direction ultimately taken with public opinion, using evidence from a family attitudes module of the Scottish Social Attitudes survey. Where public attitudes are clear-cut, law reform can move in the direction of social attitudes. But where social attitudes are ambivalent or incompatible with other pressures for reform, they do not offer a steer for the direction of law reform.

The Scottish Law Commission: Promoting Law Reform in Scotland

AbstractNick Brotchie, Librarian of the Scottish Law Commission, provides a history of law reform initiatives in Scotland, traces the evolution of the Scottish Law Commission and explains the process of law reform in Scotland.

The Legislation We Had to Have?: The Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act 2009 (NSW)

In the wake of several high-profile incidents of outlaw ‘bikie’ gang-related violence, including a fatal bashing at Sydney Airport, the New South Wales Government has introduced new laws to expand police powers relating to ‘criminal organisations’, membership, and association. This comment provides a critical overview and analysis of the Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act 2009 (NSW) (the Act), with reference to recent related legislation in other States and at federal level. The Act contains a number of problematic aspects, as it creates what are in effect status offences and makes compromises regarding conventional rules of procedure, proof and evidence. This Comment argues that the Act must be understood in the broad context of penal popularism and that it is symptomatic of the dominance of ‘law and order’ politics in NSW. Revealing a clear debt to anti-terrorism legislation, an emphasis on risk and prevention, and the curtailment of individual rights in the larger interests of security, the Act is an unfortunate if not unexpected step in the ongoing process of criminal law reform in NSW.

‘A carnival of crime on our border’: International Law, Imperial Power, and Extradition in Canada, 1865–1883

Abstract: This paper traces the development of Canadian extradition law from the formation of a pro-extradition consensus in the 1860s to the passage of a new Canadian statute in 1877, to that act's final ratification by Britain in 1883. This process of law reform illustrates Britain's continuing legal power in Canada. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s imperial authorities suppressed, delayed, and rewrote dominion extradition law, bringing it back into line with Britain's shifting policy. But the legal ideas that Britain exported to the colonies in this period were not particularly British at all. Rather, what arrived in Canada in the 1870s was an emerging branch of international law heavily influenced by Europe – one that balanced extensive international co-operation against crime with individual civil liberties protections and safeguards for political asylum-seekers. Its origins were in post-revolutionary France, and as it spread to Britain and then the colonies it frustrated Canadian attempts to design a ...

Engaging a Window of Opportunity: Synchronicity between a Regional River Conservation Initiative and Broader Water Law Reform in South Africa

This paper describes how processes used in environmental conservation efforts for rivers, with emphasis on those in the Kruger National Park Rivers Research initiative, interacted with water law reform processes in South Africa designed to balance resource protection and use sustainably. The paper uses complementary frameworks from resilience and business management theory to analyze progress and synchronicity. A long phase of preparation and sensing by ecologists, and an overwhelming drive for equity once democratization began, allowed for sustainability issues to successfully link the two processes during a short window of opportunity. Such synergies are unpredictable, and cannot be fully planned in advance. Ongoing sensing strategies, visionary leadership and serendipity are crucial. A difficult implementation phase lies ahead and the paper suggests actions and processes that might assist.

Family <i>vs</i> solidarity<br> Recent epiphanies of the Italian reductionist anomaly in the debate on <i>de facto</i> couples

Whilst the academic world has already started analysing the legal recognition of de facto couples ( coppie di fatto ), even more so since the Italian Parliament began discussing the Bill on the Patto civile di solidarieta (Pacs), the political debate on de facto couples has become more and more articulated after the Government drafted its bill on ‘Rights and duties of cohabitants’ (DiCo) early in 2007. Subsequently, the Italian Parliament recast previous proposals, including the governmental one, in a new bill introducing the ‘Contract of solidarity union’ (CUS). In this paper, both the general orientations and the specific traits of each of these three bills will be reviewed, against the background of both European and global experiences and good practices. It will be argued that, whilst there are significant differences in the general inspiration that characterises each bill, the reductionist concept of ‘solidarity’ runs across them as a common thread. Acknowledging the importance of this concept, it is claimed that the focus on reductionist solutions is derived from a frame of reference characterised by the binary approach of the Constitutional court and scholars alike, which insulates the traditional family from critical review and confines all other cohabitation arrangements within the boundaries of ‘solidaristic’ unions. It will thus be speculated that the Italian anomaly lies precisely in the fact that reductionist legislative solutions have up until now been presented by mainstream discourse as the maximum of legal protection that may be supported. It is argued that this approach neglects both the specific problem of marital equality for same-sex couples and the problematisation of broader concepts of masculinity and homophobia in Italian society. While maintaining that the Italian debate on de facto couples is deficient in terms of both the internal law reform process and openness towards foreign legal schemes, as recent court cases demonstrate, it is concluded that the way out of the present cul-de-sac could be more easily found once legal scholars accept that the right questions to be asked are different from the ones asked thus far.

Directors’ Duty of Care in Australia—A Reform Model?

Unlike in Hong Kong, the Australian responses to corporate collapses in the modern commercial world have been implemented at both judicial and legislative levels over a period of decades. Hong Kong has lagged behind the reform process, only relatively recently announcing that it will review its company laws with a view to reforming, inter alia, directors’ duties. Such a review naturally leads to an examination of options utilised in other nations. This article looks at the directors’ duty of care in Australia, analysing whether the approach taken there provides any useful guidance in regard to options for reforming jurisdictions such as Hong Kong. It is concluded that instruction may be gained from both statutory reforms of the duty of care and the judicial development of an objective standard of care in Australia. Ultimately, the Australian legislative regime is not without legitimate criticism and reforming jurisdictions should only selectively adopt certain changes that have been made. Nevertheless, there are clearly lessons that places such as Hong Kong can learn from the corporate law reform process in Australia.

The Governance of Terror: Precautionary Logic and Counterterrorist Law Reform After September 11

This article examines how lawmakers respond through law reform to the prospect of further terrorist attacks after September 11. The first part examines ways of conceptualizing the terrorist threat, drawing upon notions of risk, fear, catastrophe, and precaution. The concept of the Precautionary Principle is introduced and explored as a tool for making sense of, and improving, law reform processes in counterterrorism. The second part deploys these concepts through two case studies of counterterrorist law reform: Canada and Australia. What constitutes expertise in this area is considered, as is the capacity of legislators to scrutinize the arguments of necessity and prognoses of dire threat put forward by executive government.