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Nudging is a policy tool that steers people’s behavior through noncoercive psychological pushes. This has consequences for people’s lives to varying degrees. For example, the nudge of a sticker of a fly in a urinal encourages peeing inside a urinal, while an organ donation default brings people to agree to donating their organs after their decease. Governments do not yet systematically examine which nudges have to be subjected to all safeguards of the rule of law—for example, parliamentary control, judicial review, or compliance with legal principles such as proportionality. This article argues that a legal doctrine is necessary to carry out this examination. Moreover, it contributes to the development of such a doctrine, using the approach of the European Court of Human Rights as a source of inspiration. The doctrine consists of a “de minimis” principle for nudges: Public institutions only need to ensure that a nudge complies with rule of law safeguards when the nudge has substantial consequences. In addition, the doctrine includes a criterion to determine which nudges have such substantial consequences. In particular, it is argued that a nudge should be subjected to at least some safeguards when it has a serious effect on people’s autonomy.
Normothermic Regional Perfusion, or NRP, is a method of donated organ reperfusion using cardiopulmonary bypass or a modified extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) circuit after circulatory death while leaving organs in the dead donor’s corpse. Despite its potential, several key ethical issues remain unaddressed by this technology.
Chapter 10 explores the increasingly blurred line between public and private authority in designing and applying the AI tools, and searches for appropriate safeguards necessary to ensure the rule of law and protection fundamental rights. ADM tools are increasingly sorting individuals out, with important consequences. Governments use such tools to rank and rate their citizens, creating a data-driven infrastructure of preferences that condition people’s behaviours and opinions. Some commentators point to the rule of law deficits in the automation of government functions, others emphasize how such technologies systematically exacerbate inequalities, and still others argue that a society constantly being scored, profiled, and predicted threatens due process and justice generally. Using the case of Houston Federation of Teachers v. Houston Independent School District as a starting point, Lin asks some critical questions still left unanswered. How are AI and ADM tools reshaping professions like education? Does the increasingly blurred line between public and private authority in designing and applying these algorithmic tools pose new threats? Premised upon these scholarly and practical inquiries, this chapter seeks to identify appropriate safeguards necessary to ensure rule of law values, protect fundamental rights, and harness the power of automated governments.
This chapter assesses the compatibility of capital controls and other CFMs with the multilateral trade framework; that is, the WTO’s GATS. The GATS contains several provisions that relate to controls and restrictions on services in general, and to financial services in particular. This chapter begins by setting out the framework for obligations in the GATS relevant to cross-border capital movements before explaining and evaluating the relevant exceptions. While the exceptions should in theory allow capital controls to be put in place in a manner that is consistent with the GATS, each of the exceptions contain uncertainties which, depending on how they are interpreted, could mean capital controls would fall outside the scope of the exceptions. Recent jurisprudence, however, should provide some comfort to governments seeking to make use of exceptions in the financial services sector, namely the so-called prudential exception. In this regard, the GATS should not be viewed as a major impediment to the implementation of CFMs implemented in good faith and for prudential reasons.
With cracks in the liberalisation approach to capital flows appearing during the Asian Financial Crisis and subsequent crises in the early 2000s, policymakers and commentators began to understand that unregulated finance and cross-border flows could generate extreme financial instability. Capital controls have become widespread. For some, the controls are limited in nature and duration, but for others the controls are widespread and remain in place for an extended period. This shift has occurred at the same time the IMF has been more accepting of CFMs and in particular shifted its position on the extent to which they can be a source of instability in emerging markets. This chapter focuses on the role and legitimacy of CFMs. The chapter first provides a definition of CFMs and explains their role and impact in terms of capital flow management. Next, the chapter explains why CFMs are so controversial and elaborates on their operational aspects and overall desirability. The chapter concludes with a discussion on why CFMs remain difficult to manage from a macro level in the absence of a global regulatory framework.
This paper offers a comprehensive study of the jurisprudence on the ‘as a result of unforeseen developments’ test under the WTO's safeguards (SG) rules. It contributes to the existing scholarship by making three fresh arguments. First, the Appellate Body's decision to ‘revive’ this test as a prerequisite for the application of SG measures is not necessarily incompatible with the drafting record of the SG Agreement, even though this agreement does not make explicit reference to the test. Second, the test is not excessively difficult to satisfy under the standard of review established by case law, even though governments failed to pass it in almost all SG disputes to date. Third, in sharp contrast, the recent US–Safeguard Measure on PV Products decision took a strikingly more deferential approach which fell far short of the established standard of review, leading to the first and only decision in which the test was found to be satisfied. This decision has arguably created a new standard which could lead to abuse of SG measures and damage to the dispute settlement system and hence should be avoided in future disputes.
For more than fifty years, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the wider nuclear nonproliferation regime have worked to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Analysts and pundits have often viewed the regime with skepticism, repeatedly warning that it is on the brink of collapse, and the NPT lacks many of the characteristics usually seen in effective international institutions. Nevertheless, the treaty continues to enjoy near-universal membership and high levels of compliance. This is the first book to explain why the nonproliferation regime has been so successful, bringing to bear declassified documents, new data on regime membership and weapons pursuit, and a variety of analytic approaches. It offers important new insights for scholars of nuclear proliferation and international security institutions, and for policymakers seeking to strengthen the nonproliferation regime and tighten international constraints on the spread of nuclear weapons.
The chapter describes and analyses the principles of European Macroeconomic Constitution and how it guides the ECB and EU in its macroeconomic governance. The principles can be divided into objectives and safeguards. The main objective of the economic constitution, integration through internal market, continues but gets price stability as the main macroeconomic objective, and to an extent a more elaborated open market economy principle to guide EU institutions. The safeguards start from central bank independence that are further defined by the prohibition of central bank financing and a narrow central banking model without explicit value judgments. Member States remain responsible for the other areas of economic policy with the obligation of sound fiscal policy. The principles form a logical whole and complement the earlier microeconomic constitution. However, the assumptions and theory backgrounds of the two constitutions differ substantially, which has many implications, including for the role of law and courts as well as independent experts, such as the ECB. These implications have even become apparent already in the earlier case law by the CJEU.
The chapter analyses the fate of the constitutional principles of the European Macroeconomic Constitution after the recurring crises. The measures by the ECB stretched the principles to the limits and beyond. The objectives of internal market and price stability fared relatively well, but the principle of open market economy less so. However, the institutional choices and safeguards were all seriously altered, where the prohibition of central bank financing and Member States responsibility for sound fiscal policy were among the key principles that were the most fundamentally transformed. This, apart from the concerns about the constitutionality of individual measures, raises fundamental questions about the European Macroeconomic Constitution. The accountability and even legitimacy of the ECB relied on its unique position as a central bank of an economic constitution. It empowered it, gave it independence, but also constrained and controlled it. The chapter argues that the preconditions for an independent expert role of the ECB have been challenged by its measures and the inability of the judicial review to sustain sufficient boundaries. Consequently, the accountability and legitimacy of the ECB have been compromised, and with that also the rule of law with regard to the EMU is under threat.
Chapter 1 explains the function of Article 1 as the threshold provision defining the applicability of the Agreement on Safeguards. It explains what safeguard measures are for purposes of WTO law.
Article 16 of the Ireland–Northern Ireland Protocol annexed to the EU–UK Withdrawal Agreement is an escape clause which allows the parties to deviate from their obligations under certain conditions. This article maps out the main features of the safeguards provision in the Protocol in light of international trade law and international relations literature on treaty design. It provides a detailed examination of the safeguards provision in the Protocol and highlights the key design flaws associated with this regime as well as some potential solutions to such flaws.
Drawing upon Fernando Piérola-Castro's extensive experience as a WTO practitioner, this book is a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of safeguard measures. With each chapter exploring a different provision of the agreement, it explores the relevant rules and procedures that govern safeguard investigations, the imposition of measures, the question of consultations and rebalancing and the multilateral transparency requirements of notification. Grounded in relevant case law, this book emphasises practice, logistics and risk management. Without focussing on the practice of any particular jurisdiction, it offers a general framework that can be applied to several domestic laws. It is a practical manual with the view of assisting in day-to-day problems in the handling of safeguard matters.
Unhappy with the rulings of the WTO dispute settlement system, which disproportionately targeted US use of trade remedies, the United States ended the entire system in 2019. There are multiple hurdles to agreeing to new terms of trade remedy use and thus potentially restoring some form of binding dispute settlement. First, a change would affect access to policy flexibility by the now large number of users of trade remedies. Second, although China's exports are the overwhelming target of trade remedies, exporters in other countries increasingly find themselves caught up in trade remedy actions linked to China. Third, critical differences posed by China's economic model may call for new rules for trade remedies, but no consensus on those rules has emerged. Even some of the most promising reforms have practical limitations, create additional challenges, or may be politically unviable.
This chapter aims to discuss the main features of Protocol Article 16 and Article 773 TCA. In particular, it outlines the main differences between these safeguards and those safeguards inspired from the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that are typically included in standard trade agreements. It also explores how the distinctive features of Article 16 of the Protocol may impact the judicial review of safeguard measures. The chapter considers (i) safeguards as regulated under the law of the WTO, (ii) the safeguard provisions contained in the Protocol and the TCA and (iii) the extent to which the invocation of the safeguard provisions contained in the WA and the TCA might be capable of being judicially reviewed both under the arbitration provisions of the TCA and as a matter of EU and UK law.
The stalling of WTO multilateralism and the proliferation of preferential trade agreements in recent decades have drawn substantial attention to the impacts of preferential liberalization. A critical question is how they affect the trade barriers imposed against outsiders. I examine the relationship between preferential trade liberalization and protection against non-member countries by testing the predictions of a political–economy model based on the previous literature. Focusing on a specific model allows me to uncover the mechanisms via which preferential liberalization affects external import protection, whereas most of the existing literature has focused on establishing the sign of the effect only. Furthermore, I focus on not only tariffs, as most studies do, but also on the temporary trade barriers of antidumping and safeguards. I test the predictions for Latin America and obtain results that provide solid evidence supporting two mechanisms from the theory, which lead to lower protection against non-members of a preferential trade agreement. First, a lower preferential import protection level means that the increase in preferential imports from increasing the external tariff creates a smaller increase in tariff revenue. Second, as preferential import protection is cut, there is a decrease in the markup and sales of domestic firms, and thus raising the external import protection generates less profit. Moreover, this second effect is present when the political motivation of the government is sufficiently strong.
The success of any arms control treaty generally depends on its ability to achieve its primary objectives and intended outcomes. At the heart of measuring such success are effective compliance criteria and verification mechanisms. This includes the ability to apply metrics to assess tangible outcomes and measurable outputs and benchmarks of achievement, including on-site visits. In relation to nuclear issues, this also means that verification of both the non-diversion of nuclear material from declared peaceful activities (i.e., correctness of conduct), and the absence of undeclared or clandestine nuclear activities in a particular state (i.e., completeness in following treaty terms).
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons 2017 marks an important development in nuclear arms control law, diplomacy and relations between states. Adopted by the UN General Assembly on July 7, 2017, it was supported by 122 nations, representing a potential disruptor to the nuclear status quo. It is the first treaty to ban nuclear weapons outright, taking a clear humanitarian approach to disarmament. Despite its success in coming to fruition, however, it is not celebrated by all nations. The permanent members of the UN Security Council neither participated in its negotiations, nor adopted the final text. No state with nuclear weapons endorses the Treaty and indeed they openly oppose its very existence.
Great Judgments of the European Court of Justice presents a new approach to understanding the landmark decisions of the European Court of Justice in the 1960s and 1970s. By comparing the Court's doctrines to the enforcement and escape mechanisms employed by more common forms of trade treaty, it demonstrates how the individual rights created by the doctrine of direct effect were connected to the practical challenges of trade politics among the European states and, in particular, to the suppression of unilateral safeguard mechanisms and inter-state retaliation. Drawing on the writings and speeches of French Judge and President of the Court, Robert Lecourt, it demonstrates that one of the Court's most influential judges shared this understanding of the logic of direct effect. This book offers a distinctive interpretation of the Court of Justice's early years, as well as of the purpose of the fundamental principles of European law.
In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the criminal law prohibiting physician assisted death in Canada. In 2016, Parliament passed legislation to allow what it called ‘medical assistance in dying (MAID).’ The authors first describe the arguments the Court used to strike down the law, and then argue that MAID as legalized in Bill C-14 is based on principles that are incompatible with a free and democratic society, prohibits assistance in dying that should be permitted, and makes access to medically-assisted death unnecessarily difficult. They then propose a version of MAID legislation (‘Ideal MAID’) that gives proponents and opponents of MAID everything they can legitimately want, contend that it is the only way to legalize MAID that is compatible with a free and democratic society, and conclude that it is the way to legalize MAID in Canada and other similarly free and democratic societies.
This chapter gives more clarity on indigenous peoples as communities that, given their special social and cultural connection with land and natural resources, are inherently vulnerable to the global spread of projects that necessitate significant, and often irreparable, land disturbance and the transnational legal dynamics and behaviours that facilitate that disturbance. Far greater effort is needed to think about the indigenous movement in a more pluralistic framework: as specifically vulnerable to development projects in a much broader outlook, that is, beyond settler-colonial geographical area and one in which private concessionaires and financiers are, through contractual and policy mechanisms, shaping the movement with significant impacts for rights recognition and implementation. This chapter also defines the specific characteristics of modern development projects that matter for indigenous land rights issues, including the diminished role of the state in these projects and the implementation gaps that appear in development finance mechanisms for resettlement. The chapter concludes by examining the private legal nature of the plural contracts that secure a development project.