Law, Justice, and Development

20 items available

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https://hdl.handle.net/10986/2177

The Law, Justice, and Development series is offered by the Legal Vice Presidency of the World Bank to provide insights into aspects of law and justice that are relevant to the development process. Works in the series present new legal and judicial reform activities related to the World Bank’s work, as well as analyses of domestic and international law. The series is intended to be accessible to a broad audience as well as to legal practitioners.

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The World Bank Legal Review, Volume 4 : Legal Innovation and Empowerment for Development
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013) Cissé, Hassane; Muller, Sam; Thomas, Chantal; Wang, Chenguang; Cissé, Hassane; Muller, Sam; Thomas, Chantal; Wang, Chenguang
The World Bank legal review gathers this input from around the world and compiles it into a useful resource for all development practitioners and scholars. The subtitle of this volume, legal innovation and empowerment for development, highlights how the law can respond to the chal-lenges posed to development objectives in a world slowly emerging from an economic crisis. The focus on innovation is a call for new, imaginative strategies and ways of thinking about what the law can do in the development realm. The focus on empowerment is a deliberate attempt to place the law into the hands of the poor; to give them another tool with which to resist poverty. This volume shows some of the ways that the law can make an innovative and empowering difference in development scenarios. Development problems are complex and varied, and the theme of innovation and empowerment naturally has a broad scope. Consequently, this volume reaches far and wide. It considers the nature, promise, and limitations of legal innovation and legal empowerment. It looks at concrete examples in places such as Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, and Latin America. It considers developments in issues with universal application, such as the rights of the disabled and the effectiveness of asset recovery measures. The theme of legal innovation and empowerment for development complements substantive and institutional sensibilities in current development policy. Substantively, development policy discourse seems to have moved away from tacking hard toward statist policy or neoliberal policy. Although this brief introduction cannot do justice to the richness and complexity of these contributions, it does consider each focal point in turn.
Legal Aspects of Financial Services Regulation and the Concept of a Unified Regulator
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006-01-01) Mwenda, Kenneth Kaoma
This study addresses the legal and policy issues underpinning the development of, and the strengthening of the regulatory and institutional framework for unified financial services supervision. The study discusses developments in a number of jurisdictions, among them Australia, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Malta, the Scandinavian countries, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Chapter 1 examines conceptual issues to be taken into account in designing a sound regulatory and institutional framework for financial services supervision. The chapter also provides a working definition of "regulation" and delves into the intricacies of designing the appropriate regulatory framework. Chapter 2 analyzes the concept of an independent financial services regulator, arguing that a unified regulator that is both independent and accountable would help promote the development of a sound financial sector. Chapter 3 discusses the concept of a unified regulator, examining the question of whether every country should adopt a model of unified financial services supervision. Chapter 4 provides country studies, addressing the efficacy of the framework for unified financial services supervision in Latvia, the United Kingdom, and the Scandinavian countries. Finally, Chapter 5 defines policy recommendations and possible constitutional, and legal challenges that might be encountered when a country is considering unifying its regulation of financial services.
The Human Right to Water : Legal and Policy Dimensions
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004) Salman, Salman M.A.; McInerney-Lankford, Siobhán
The evolution of the right to water can be traced to the developments of the early 1970s. This Study analyzes the resolutions and declarations of the various conferences and forums that have been held since that time, and the ways in which they have confronted the issue of the right to water. The Study then discusses the evolution of the international legal regime for the protection and promotion of human rights, and pays particular attention to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The role of each of the committees established to oversee the implementation of the two Covenants is considered in some detail. Particular attention is given to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, its evolution, and its strengthening, and the practice of issuing General Comments. The last two parts of the Study are devoted to General Comment No. 15, which recognizes the human right to water. These parts analyze the extent to which the Comment recognizes a legal right to water, and highlights some policy aspects that are related to, and may affect, this right. The core thesis of this book is that there exists, within the legal framework of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a human right to water because it is a right that inheres in several other rights, and a right without which key provisions of the Covenant would be rendered ineffectual. This conclusion is buttressed also by the interpretative authority that lies with the Committee having evolved from its initial form as a Working Group, to what is now undeniably, a fully-fledged entity, with significant formal authority and legitimacy. Although this conclusion acknowledges that General Comments do not create new rights, it recognizes that General Comment No. 15 extrapolates the normative and practical bases of a human right to water within the fabric of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Together with a number of General Assembly resolutions on the issue, including the Millennium Development Goal related to water, as well as the voluminous body of soft law provisions, the General Comment arguably provides further evidence that there is an incipient right to water evolving in public international law today. Moreover, the Comment has offered a new momentum to efforts aimed at translating those soft law commitments into substantive, precise, and legally binding obligations.
Conflict and Cooperation on South Asia's International Rivers : A Legal Perspective
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003) Salman, Salman M.A.; Uprety, Kishor
The book analyzes five major bilateral treaty regimes on the South Asian subcontinent: between India and Bangladesh for the Ganges River; between India and Nepal for the Kosi, Gandaki, and Mahakali rivers; and, between India and Pakistan for the Indus River. It explains the background, and legal regimes of these international rivers in the context of the serious challenges to the water resources of the subcontinent, posed by significant population increases, urbanization, industrialization, and environmental degradation. International lawyers, and natural resource specialists will find this book to be useful and informative.