In 2022, the number of people forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, and disturbing public order increased by 21 per cent from 2021 to an estimated 108.4 million. This means that more than 1 in 74 people worldwide were forcibly displaced. This is a significant increase of 19 million compared to the end of 2021, with UNHCR’s statistics on forced displacement indicating that from 2021–2022 saw the largest ever increase. Over half of this increase was due to record numbers of refugees, asylum-seekers, and other people in need of international protection who were forced to flee in 2022. An estimated 43.3 million (40 per cent) were children below 18 years of age. English proficiency of school-aged children and young people across all migration streams 2018–19 indicates that most children and young people in the humanitarian migration stream identified as having low proficiency in English, highlighting the need for strong on-arrival and long-term English language programs.

In Australia, the regulatory oversight of credit and financial products is primarily vested at the federal level. Credit products are regulated by the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth). This Act replaced the prior state-based system, notably the Uniform Consumer Credit Code. This chapter expounds upon the regulatory architecture governing financial products. It is paramount to acknowledge that additional regulations, regulatory guides and sector-specific codes are crucial to the Australian regulatory matrix concerning financial affairs. Before embarking on a detailed analysis, a brief overview of the historical context leading to the present regulatory system for financial products in Australia is warranted. Pivotal moments in this narrative are the Wallis Inquiry, the Murray Inquiry and the Banking Royal Commission, which largely shaped financial regulation as it is today. With this foundational understanding established, our subsequent focus transitions to the requisite licensing conditions and the salient duties incumbent upon licensees. The most recently introduced product design and distribution obligations and product intervention order are also discussed.

Chapter 7 presents German private law with special consideration given to the Civil Code. The coverage includes the history of the Code, its structure and contents, and its conceptual and methodological style. The way in which the German Civil Code differs from the French Code Civil is also discussed. The function and practice of the Civil Code are demonstrated through a suretyship case, which places the Akzessorietätsgrundsatz at the center of the dispute.

Chapter 9 considers German administrative law as part of the public law framework. The wide range of fields covered by administrative law are discussed. Administrative law disputes involving Muslim halal slaughter are used to present the administrative law framework and to consider the influence of the Islamic Law tradition in the German legal culture.

Chapter Six begins by looking at how Americans of different racial and ethnic stripes think about politics and how these views have changed over time. This chapter looks not only at racial divisions in policy preferences but also at racial differences in public trust and confidence in institutions. Excerpts examine the echo chamber and skepticism over polling and the measurement of public opinion.

Chapter 1 introduces students to the various approaches used to pursue comparative legal studies. It especially presents the orthodox “legal families“ approach to macro-comparative law. The chapter then considers several critiques of that tradition. H. Patrick Glenn challenges the concept of “legal families“ and suggests a “legal traditions” framework to replace it. The chapter then presents the social-contextual approach to comparative law as promoted by Legrand. Finally, the chapter urges students to recognize the ethical implications of comparative law through Frankenberg’s concepts of “distancing” and “differencing.”

Chapter 5 is the second of three chapters laying a basic foundation in German law and politics. The chapter presents the key institutions of German politics and law. It starts with a presentation of the German states and federalism. It then focuses on the strength of the chancellor in governance, including law-making and executive power. The chapter then presents the German judicial system, presenting the decentralized and specialized nature of the German judicial framework.

The outcomes that we should perhaps care most about are substantive representation and responsiveness, and in particular the extent to which policy matches the interests and preferences of different segments of the public. Here we systematically assess the link between individual preferences and aggregate policy outcomes and conclude that race, more than any other factor, determines who wins and who loses on policy. We also look at variation in responsiveness by time and across context to try to identify factors that lead to more equitable representation.