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11. Clearing the Path: Withdrawal of Consent and Termination as Next Steps for Reforming International Investment Law

Author:
Lise Johnson, Lisa Sachs, Brooke Güven, and Jesse Coleman
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
This is a crucial moment in international investment policymaking. Two factors have converged, calling for a new direction. First, it has become increasingly difficult to justify investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS); even governments that had been among its strongest proponents are now changing course and have raised a range of fundamental, systemic and inter-related issues relating to ISDS. Second, policy makers and other stakeholders have a greater awareness of the need to design appropriate policies to maximize the contributions cross-border investment can make to sustainable development. Influenced by these factors, various reform efforts related to investment policy are underway at the national, regional, and international levels. These discussions about reform are likely to be slow, and outcomes uncertain. In the meantime, governments and their stakeholders remain tied to an outdated system that is widely acknowledged to be ill-suited for modern investment policy objectives, with increasingly concerning consequences. This policy paper explores two near-term options that governments engaged in reform discussions can pursue, alongside longer-term work on substantive and procedural reform. These options are: (1) a joint instrument on withdrawal of consent to arbitrate; and/or (2) a joint instrument on termination. The paper examines how both options could be implemented, and makes the case for putting a pause on ISDS to ensure that investment treaties and their dispute settlement mechanisms achieve their desired ends, produce legitimate decisions, and do not undermine international economic cooperation and sustainable development more broadly.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Regional Cooperation, Governance, Reform, Policy Implementation, and Investment
Political Geography:
Global Focus

12. Shipping and Climate Change: International Law and Policy Considerations

Author:
Aldo Chicop, Meinhard Doelle, and Ryan Gauvin
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Abstract:
This report investigates the international law and policy challenges to the determination of the international shipping industry’s contribution to climate change mitigation efforts through the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a specialized agency of the United Nations and the competent international organization with respect to shipping in international law. The report sets out the international legal framework that serves as the context for the IMO initial strategy, the challenge of regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from international shipping, and the process and issues in determining the industry’s “fair share” of mitigation efforts and potential legal pathways. The report concludes with general, policy and legal considerations that have a bearing on the current and possible future directions of the nascent IMO strategy. General considerations include the observation that the complexity and uncertainty underscoring the development of the IMO strategy call for a long-term planning instrument that is integrated and systemic in scope, flexible in approach and adaptive in application. As other regimes and sectors progress in developing and delivering on mitigation efforts, care should be exercised in considering lessons and tools from other sectors for application to shipping, given its uniqueness and that other sector experiences emanate from different contexts and considerations. Given continuing significant differences on GHG issues in the IMO, it is vital for the long-term IMO strategy to be advanced and maintained on the basis of the culture of consensus that has helped shape the IMO as a successful regulatory body.
Topic:
International Law, United Nations, Policy Implementation, IMF, and Shipping
Political Geography:
Global Focus

13. Enhancing Public Health Outcomes in Developing Countries: From Good Policies and Best Practices to Better Implementation

Author:
Michael Woolcock
Publication Date:
02-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
In rich and poor countries alike, a core challenge is building the state’s capability for policy implementation. Delivering high-quality public health and health care – affordably, reliably, at scale, for all – exemplifies this challenge, since doing so requires deftly integrating refined technical skills (surgery), broad logistics management (supply chains, facilities maintenance), adaptive problem solving (curative care) and resolving ideological differences (who pays? who provides?), even as the prevailing health problems themselves only become more diverse, complex and expensive as countries become more prosperous. The current state of state capability in developing countries, however, is demonstrably alarming, with the strains and demands only likely to intensify in the coming decades. Prevailing ‘best practice’ strategies for building implementation capability – copying and scaling putative successes from abroad – are too often part of the problem, while individual training (‘capacity building’) and technological upgrades (e.g., new management information systems) remain necessary but deeply insufficient. An alternative approach is outlined, one centered on building implementation capability by working iteratively to solve problems nominated and prioritized by local actors.
Topic:
Health, Developing World, State, Public Policy, and Policy Implementation
Political Geography:
Global Focus

14. National Action Plans on Preventing Violent Extremism: A Gendered Content Analysis

Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN)
Abstract:
Due to the importance of National Action Plans as policy instruments in the prevention of and protection against violent extremism, and the ongoing work in this realm by national governments and civil society organizations, the International Civil Society Network (ICAN) sought to gain a better understanding of the content of the plans that have been published thus far in 2017, and to highlight good practices and gaps particularly in relation to the inclusion of civil society and gender perspectives and priorities. To this end, ICAN conducted a content analysis of nine NAPs, analyzing whether and how specific themes and target groups were discussed, including education, media, civil society, gender/ women, and human rights.
Topic:
Civil Society, Violent Extremism, Women, Gender Based Violence, Policy Implementation, WPS, and Civil Society Organizations
Political Geography:
Global Focus

15. Security Aspects of Political Decentralisation in Ukraine: Visions, Realities, and Possible Implications

Author:
Philipp H. Fluri and Valentyn Badrack
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Razumkov Centre
Abstract:
This study seeks to offer an analysis of security aspects of two approaches to the definition of “Decentralisation” currently existing in Ukraine. One is stipulated by the Minsk agreement, particularly Article 11 of A List of Measures to Fulfill the Minsk Agreement, 12.02.2015, and refers to the ‘particular districts of Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts’
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Treaties and Agreements, Governance, Policy Implementation, and Institutions
Political Geography:
Ukraine and Global Focus

16. Implementing decisions of the WTO Dispute Settlement in Brazil: is there a place for transparency and participation?

Author:
Camila Capucio
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional (RBPI)
Institution:
Instituto Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (IBRI)
Abstract:
This paper aims to discuss the democracy gap in the implementation process of decisions of the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement System in Brazil and possible measures to increase its transparency and accountability. Although the selection of the implementation measure is a sensible political choice that impacts a wide spectrum of different interest groups in diverse manners, government shall give publicity and transparency to the selecting process, making possible for interest groups and agents to present their arguments regarding the possible implementation paths and connecting state governance structures to stakeholders, and allowing the collective and legitimate construction of public interest.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, International Trade and Finance, World Trade Organization, and Policy Implementation
Political Geography:
Brazil and South America

17. Journal of Public and International Affairs 2016

Author:
Megan Campbell, Geoff Cooper, Kathryn Alexander, Aneliese Bernard, Nastasha Everheart, Andrej Litvinjenko, Kabira Namit, Saman Rejali, Alisa Tiwari, and Michael Wagner
Publication Date:
05-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
It is rare to find a journal that examines women’s participation in South Sudan in one chapter and the exploitation of outer space resources in the next; that dissects the effects of Chinese investment in Sub-Saharan Africa and demystifies the Ferguson effect. But the Journal of Public and International Affairs is not your average journal. It represents the very best of what graduate-level public policy students have to contribute to the pressing policy debates of today. It is wide-ranging in subject matter and trenchant in its recommendations. Founded in 1990, but with an ancestor publication dating back to 1963, the JPIA is based on the notion that students of public policy have important things to say about public affairs and that careful analysis and targeted critique can pave the way for meaningful change and progress. The graduate students published in this year’s JPIA combine practical experience from around the world with intensive academic study. They have spent the last year diving deep into the issues they are passionate about and have all been challenged by the need to move past descriptive analysis and towards concrete solutions. These papers represent the best of their scholarship.
Topic:
Security, Gender Issues, Government, Regional Cooperation, International Affairs, Foreign Direct Investment, Counter-terrorism, Women, Inequality, Protests, Policy Implementation, Rural, and Sanitation
Political Geography:
China, Iran, Middle East, India, Central America, West Africa, North America, South Sudan, Sahel, and United States of America

18. The Institutionalisation of Climate Policy in India: Designing a Development-Focused, Co-Benefits Based Approach

Author:
Navroz K. Dubash and Neha B. Joseph
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
While there is growing attention to climate policy, effective coordination, design and implementation of policy require attention to institutional design for climate governance. This paper examines the case of India, organized around three periods: pre-2007; 2007–2009 and 2010-mid-2014, providing institutional charts for each. Several key themes emerge. First, the formation of climate institutions have frequently been driven by international negotiations, even while filtered through domestic context. Second, once established, institutions tend not to be stable or long-lasting. Third, while various efforts at knowledge generation have been attempted, they do not add up to a mechanism for sustained and consistent strategic thinking on climate change. Fourth, coordination across government has been uneven and episodic, reaching a high point with a specialised envoy in the Prime Minister’s Office. Fifth, the overall capacity within government, in terms of specialised skills and sheer numbers of personnel remains limited. Sixth, capacity shortfalls are exacerbated by closed structures of governance that only partially draw on external expertise. Seventh, institutional structures are not explicitly designed to enable India’s stated objective of climate policy in the context of development, which implies specific attention to co-benefits and mainstreaming.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Government, Policy Implementation, and Institutions
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, and Asia

19. Patterns of Implementation: Do Listing Practices Impede Compliance with UN Sanctions? A Critical Assessment

Author:
David Cortright
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Fourth Freedom Forum
Abstract:
The salience of the due process issue varies considerably among states. Concerns are highest among European states that are constitutionally and politically bound to the enforcement of rigorous human rights standards. Many of these states also have concerns about broader UN reform issues related to the representativeness of the Security Council and the legitimacy of its working methods. For other states the controversy over due process reinforces a general skepticism about sanctions, and may serve as an excuse for inaction.
Topic:
United Nations, Sanctions, Policy Implementation, and UN Security Council
Political Geography:
Europe and Global Focus