This article explores sustainability problems in China and foreign interests on the ‘rule of law’ problems there. The article undertakes an organic process improvement method (Define, Measure, Analyze, Control – ‘DMAC’) in hope to improve the west’s expectations of China and China’s own becoming of a rule of law nation. Corruption and environmental problems are of particular interest; China’s legal and political reform histories serve as our starting point; synergies between Confucian mercantile philosophy and modern corporate social responsibility principles are the undertones. The article will first Define the scope of China’s environmental, social, and economic problems; it will Measure the effects of these problems by observing the ontological and metaphysical uniqueness of the Chinese notion of ‘rule of law’ from a historical perspective; the Analysis will involve identifying synergies between Confucianism and Corporate Social Responsibility (hereinafter ‘CSR’); from these observations, this article will submit to Controling steps. Consequently, this article recognizes the need for ‘humanity’ and ‘formality’, in the Chinese sense, to aid one’s becoming of a law-biding person in China. The Chinese people will Control the laws that matter to them; those laws will evolve to cure the virtues of the people they are to govern.

Whether a legal system decides to centralize or decentralize constitutional review by the judiciary is dependent on various factors. This article critically considers a host of these factors, ranging from the separation of powers to the desire to bring about far-reaching constitutional change and the possible impact of membership of the European Union, in studying whether in the Netherlands constitutional review should be centralized or decentralized upon its possible introduction. The conclusion is reached that although decentralization can be opted for under the current circumstances, a persuasive case for centralization can also be made and might even become stronger and inevitable depending on the course of future constitutional reform.

In 2002, the civil procedure in the Netherlands was reformed. A fairly simple system of positive and negative stimuli was set up in order to ensure that the civil process develops in an efficient and timely manner. In this article, we explore the prevalence of process-disturbing behaviour as well as the response of the judges to such behaviour. Ninety eight civil cases were observed. We also conducted interviews with judges, lawyers and parties involved in these cases. The main finding is that in almost all cases there is at least one process-disturbing behaviour. On average there are 3.4 instances of such behaviour per case. Most often the disturbing behaviour is part of the categories communication problems. As it concerns the reaction of the judges, we see patterns of various strategies. Judges are not immediately responding actively to disturbing behaviour. However, when a certain threshold has been reached, the judges tend to take active steps and apply the tools they have. Most often, judges use different sorts of communication interventions. Procedural instruments for counteracting disturbing behaviour are used vey rarely. Our interpretation is that judges in the Netherlands are concerned about process efficiency but are also aware of the procedural justice and particularly interpersonal justice aspects of the process. We recommend that initial and ongoing legal education and training pays more attention on the communication and interpersonal skills and abilities involved in dispute resolution.

In Central and Eastern European countries, the enactment of gender equality laws (GELs), defined as stand-alone national legislation that provide an overarching legislative response to gender discrimination as distinct from the traditional approach of incorporating gender equality provisions into existing legislation or constitutions, has been a marked regional trend since the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, rather than being driven by domestic movements for change, GELs seem primarily to have emerged due to pressure from development agencies, potential trading partners and donor organisations which predicate their assistance and business on the establishment of the ‘rule of law’ and of particular relevance in the region the desire to join the European Union (EU), which requires potential members to introduce gender equality legislation as part of the communtaire aquis. Despite the widespread enactment of GELs in the region, research suggests that the implementation of GELs has been slow, inefficient and in some cases non-existent. Reasons posited for this include a lack of judicial familiarity with new concepts contained in the legislation, the use of legislation taken from models in existing member states, lack of information disseminated about the new laws to relevant parties, weak political support and capacity weakness in states that are resource stretched. This article considers a further reason – the weakness of the enforcement and implementation mechanisms in the laws themselves and argues that despite the placement of expansive positive duties on a range of public and private actors in many of the GELs, the implementation and enforcement mechanisms of the fifteen GELs considered are weak. Consequently, despite their remarkable scope the duties created under the GELs are largely symbolic and will continue to be so unless, such legislation is amended to include mechanisms to enable the realization of those duties in practice.

This article examines how a liberal public morality can be most successfully defended against perfectionism. First of all the five most important liberal arguments for freedom are taken from what is called the liberal canon: a number of characteristic works of John Locke, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, Isaiah Berlin, Joseph Raz, Ronald Dworkin, and John Rawls. These five arguments are identified as: social and political realism, respect for autonomy, fallibility of ideas, pluralism, and respect for reasonableness. Next, the persuasiveness of these arguments is assessed, starting with the argument of respect for reasonableness, which is at the heart of Rawls’s political liberalism. It is concluded that in itself this argument is not strong enough to persuade perfectionists. A powerful defence of a liberal public morality needs the other arguments for freedom as well. Finally, the paper outlines how these other arguments can strengthen the argument of respect for reasonableness in a coherent manner.

This article seeks to explain the significance of carrying out extensive legislative scrutiny in any jurisdiction, with emphasis being placed on the Ugandan experience as far as legislative scrutiny is done. As Parliaments all over the world continue to make laws that govern their citizens, it is only right that before any law is enacted, there must be adequate mechanism to ensure quality in the law in terms of substance and effect of the legislative proposal which ultimately impacts on good governance. Best practices and emerging trends in legislative scrutiny is drawn from the United Kingdom and Australia, which have put in place elaborate procedures and mechanism to ensure that all their legislative proposals are thoroughly scrutinized before they passed into law: and that even after the law has been enacted, it can be evaluated to see the effect of the law. Pre-legislative scrutiny and post-legislative scrutiny are thus important tools to ensure quality in legislation.

When construing multilingual Laws, the use of rules and methods generally used in the monolingual statutory interpretation becomes more complicated due to a multiplicity of texts equally authentic. Also, the pre-eminence of one language version to the other version(s) does not facilitate the interpreter because if the other language version can shade light to elucidate the first, it can also increase uncertainty about the first. This dilemma leads to the question of knowing whether there could not be another appropriate approach to moderate these two options.
The answer is derived from a comparison of the prevalence of one language version approach both adopted in Rwanda and Ireland and the equal authenticity rule adopted in Canada. The comparison is made by analysing the sequential steps of approaches used differently in the three respective multilingual jurisdictions in order to point out gaps of the two approaches.

This article seeks to explore how historical patriarchal theories have crept into the world’s legal systems to date and has led to inflation in legislation upon women’s bodies. The article highlights how legislation has been used as a tool to deny women autonomy over their bodies by placing unnecessary controls upon women’s bodies by legislative, social and political systems and concludes by an examination of the discipline legislative drafting and how an active approach through drafting activism on the part of legislative drafters and policy makers may combat the inflation in legislation upon women’s bodies.

Consultation in legislative drafting process is important and widely acknowledged. So far, many countries in the world have taken steps to foster consultation during the early stage of the drafting process. In Malaysia, the importance of opinion from the public or stakeholders in the output of the drafting process was recently evident when several bills presented before the Parliament were criticized because of the failure to take into consideration views and opinions from the public. In some cases, bills were postponed for policy review and refinement. This article examines and discusses consultation practices during the drafting process and analyses and considers the influence of consultation on the efficiency of the drafting process in Malaysia. The influence of consultation practice in relation to the drafting process were shown from a survey conducted on the drafters in the Drafting Division of the Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia.

Rwanda is a country in search a stable legal system, which includes the drafting of quality legislation. Following the events of the 1994 genocide the lack of experienced drafters and the civil law method of decentralized drafting the Rwandan legislation tends to be of bad quality mainly because of the bad quality drafts provided by the various, often unidentifiable sources of drafting. This article spells out the specific problems that the Rwandan drafter faces and offers solutions by means of a case study. The article concludes by making some specific recommendations.

Maintenance law in European jurisdictions is in a state of constant transformation. Recent reforms, however, show some areas of major concern. In child maintenance law, particularly joint custody of the parents and an alternating residence of the child make the need for a better calculation of maintenance more apparent. The use of guidelines with tables and formulas is on the rise. In maintenance after divorce, the growing influence of the principle of self-sufficiency is leading to reductions of the maintenance payments made to former spouses. Enforcement of maintenance claims, the role of the State and the relationship with social security benefits remain difficult.

In recent decades, regional efforts have been made to reform and harmonize the rules governing international arbitration. These efforts have resulted in the adoption of regional instruments governing commercial arbitration in specific areas. This paper analyzes the arbitration regimes created at a regional level in Africa and America, and particularly focuses on arbitral institutions that were created within the Organization for Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) and within the Organization of American States (OAS). The objective of the paper is to identify any advantages provided by either regime, which can help improve regional and international commercial arbitration.

This paper, presented at a colloquium at Barcelona University in 2010, outlines the history of the codification of Private International Law (PIL) in the Netherlands, which was completed in 2011 by the introduction of Book 10 of the Dutch Civil Code (conflict of laws). It describes the policy guidelines followed in giving effect to international instruments, i.e. conventions and European legislation. Basically all types of international PIL rules are further regulated at the national level. Moreover, the national PIL codification contains a number of provisions which were borrowed from or inspired by international instruments.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), as seen by observers, resembles a greedy international cartel that preys on the public in defiance of market competition. High oil prices are considered as a principal cause of the US economic woes. Some US congressmen pinpointed OPEC’s alleged inconsistency with the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and called upon the US administration to open dispute settlement proceedings against OPEC. This article discusses the legal issues arising from a US action at the WTO level against OPEC countries. The first sections of the article comprise an institutional review of the WTO and OPEC. The article addresses the interplay between the WTO and OPEC. It then illustrates the central provisions of the WTO that can be used for arguments and counter-arguments concerning such a WTO action. It culminates with a set of concluding thoughts.

In this article, the authors explore how active state support for religions and worldviews could be in accordance with the principle of liberal neutrality. They focus on the Belgian church-state policy because this policy is characterised by an explicit and extended form of active support for recognised worldviews. If this policy is in accordance with liberal neutrality, some other, weaker forms of state support for religions and worldviews may also be in accordance with this neutrality principle. In the light of these considerations, the authors make some suggestions about possible ways to bring the Belgian church-state policy more in accordance with liberal neutrality.