Veronica Taylor

Frequently Asked Questions About Rule of Law Assistance (And Why Better Answers Matter)

Despite a voluminous ‘lessons learned’ literature, there is much that we do not understand about rule of law assistance. Conceptually it lacks clarity and in practice seems to proceed in the absence of rigorous empirical research and ‘thick’ descriptions of the institutional histories, reform politics and the legal and social cultures of the countries it targets. Many academic colleagues, development practitioners, lawyers and policy-makersand students are troubled by the knowledge vacuum in rule of law assistance. Here I consider some of the genuine and persistent questions about its scope and effect. I suggest that we need to find better answers, for our own intellectual and practical purposes, but also for the citizens of developing and transitional economies, who are the intended ‘beneficiaries’ of much rule of law assistance.

Truth and Consequences in Rule of Law: Inferences, Attribution and Evaluation

AbstractBillions of dollars are spent on legal development every year, but its effectiveness continues to be questioned. Many donors have responded to this internal and external critique by developing monitoring and evaluating systems. This article problematizes the tendency of conventional modes of evaluation to assume a link between the outcomes of individual projects (the ‘truth’ of rule of law) and the fulfillment of overarching program goals (the ‘consequences’). We argue that examining this assumed link is of particular importance as rule of law projects take place within a host of simultaneous political and social changes; are time consuming and unpredictable and have multiple and sometimes conflicting objectives. Our analysis of four recent rule of law projects from Asia, Africa and Latin America exposes the inability of conventional evaluations to accommodate such complexities. We demonstrate how, by contrast, robust empirical research reveals important truths about the disparity between the actual, intended and unintended consequences of legal development projects.

Globalization and Japanese Regulation: a commercial dispute case study

1. Pushing Back on Globalization: An Introduction John Gillespie and Randall Peerenboom 2. The Role of State, Non-state and Hybrid Actors in Localizing Global Scripts in East Asia John Gillespie 3. Pushing against Globalization: Toward an Analytic Template Michael Dowdle 4. Traditional Knowledge in Asia: Global Agendas and Local Subjects Christoph Antons 5. Giving Content and Effect to Competition Rules: Contrasting Australia and Japan Brendan Sweeney 6. Resistance, Revision, and Retrenchment in the Transition to a Competitive Market Economy in China Randall Peerenboom 7. Regulatory Learning and its Discontents in China: Promise and Tragedy at the State Food and Drug Administration Dali L. Yang 8. Unacknowledged Legislators: Business Participation in Lawmaking in Vietnam John Gillespie and Bui Bich Thi Lien 9. Pushing against Globalization: The Response from Civil Society Groups in Thailand Jakkrit Kuanpoth 10. Globalization and Japanese Regulation: A Commercial Dispute Case Study Veronica L. Taylor 11. Rehabilitating Koreas Corporate Insolvency Regime, 1992-2007 Soogeun Oh and Terence C. Halliday 12. The Peoples Prosperity? Indonesian Constitutional Interpretation, Economic Reform and Globalization Simon Butt and Tim Lindsey 13. Law Reform and Corporate Governance in Malaysia Aishah Bidin