It will become clear to the reader that there are a number of competing definitions of election fraud. Even scholars who are at the forefront of research on election fraud do not agree on a general conceptual definition. We are discussing the issue where we delineate the steps that we view as essential in working toward a stronger body of research on election fraud and in improving public policies for the detection and prevention of election fraud. The election fraud includes research informed by elections in dozens of countries. It…
Read MoreCLOSING THE INFORMATION GAP IN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS(UFOs) OR UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA(UAP) STUDIES
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), also known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), have long captured the public’s fascination and speculation while stigmatized in scientific circles. The notion of extra terrestrial UFOs visiting Earth has been prevalent in popular culture for the better part of a century. However, the recently re-branded concept “Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) Or Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP)” emerged to represent an increasingly legitimate area of scientific interest and inquiry, relatively agnostic about the “extra terrestrial” hypothesis in pursuit of rational explanations. Current UFOs/UAP research encompasses a variety of…
Read MoreTHE LAW AND ECONOMICS DEBATE ABOUT INSIDER TRADING: AGENCY THEORIES OF INSIDER TRADING : PART I
The law and economics debate about the desirability of prohibiting insider trading – trading by corporate insiders on material, non-public information – is both longstanding and unresolved. The early legal debate centred on whether insider trading is unfair to public investors who are not privy to private corporate information. However, the fairness inquiry was malleable, lacked a rigorous theoretical framework, and therefore did not yield coherent or practical policy prescriptions. Professor Henry Manne abruptly shifted the debate to an efficiency inquiry with his now classic 1966 book, Insider Trading and…
Read MoreREGIONALISM AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE IN THE MULTIPOLAR ORDER: THE EUROPEAN UNION AND REGIONALISM IN MULTIPOLAR ORDER : PART III
The European Union(EU) has for long been a staunch supporter of regional cooperation and integration as a key element of global governance. On the one hand, the European Union(EU) has served as a primary reference point to a variety of region-building projects and has been regularly portrayed as an alternative to the model of economic regionalism promoted by the United States. On the other hand, the European Union(EU) has also sought to actively promote regional cooperation elsewhere as an essential part of its external policies. It has done so as…
Read MoreGLOBAL LAW OF FOOD SEFTY AND GLOBAL LAW OF ANIMAL AND PLANT : OVERVIEW
For the most part, concerns with food and agriculture after World War II focused on food shortages, growing populations, and regular famine. In response, scientists from India, Mexico, the Philippines, and the United States partnered with international organizations and foundations to create a system of cross-country research experiments focused on producing high-yield varieties of cereal grains to feed more people. This scientific collaboration created a system that could sustain further research in poorer countries in the future. Alongside the research collaborations, wealthier countries committed to transferring technologies like tractors, fertilizers,…
Read MoreINTERNATIONAL VOTE BUYING: AN INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PROHIBITION? PART II
The domestic analogy cannot offer definitive answers. It can only help sharpen our intuitions about which factors should matter when we ask whether vote buying is a flaw or merely a feature of the international order. Ultimately, vote buying emerges as neither wholly malign nor entirely unproblematic; rather, we are left with a series of contingent generalizations. To summarize, the domestic analogy suggests that vote buying is more objectionable when it takes place within a political community or, even more so, within an agency relationship; when sovereign equality matters, but…
Read MoreINTERNATIONAL LAW AND MILITARY STRATEGIES: A TOOL OF CHOICE FOR THE WEAKER POWER
The shifting relationship between humanitarian law principles and sovereignty provides opportunities that state and non-state actors exploit in numerous ways, with some of the most creative methods being employed by weaker powers who view international law as a tool to extract otherwise unobtainable advantages from major powers. There are three different examples in which weaker powers have used international law in their relations with stronger powers. One example is Central Asia, where the post-Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have used the West’s own humanitarian and democratic principles…
Read MoreDEMOCRATIC RESPONSES FOR DIGITAL REVOLUTION : DEFICIENCIES OF SPEED SCALE AND SUSTAINABILITY
Despite private corporations and citizens advocating for states to take the reins on fleshing out standards for online content regulation, thus far many Western governments have been hesitant to tread into such territory, but where they have, their responses have been relatively weak. In the European Union, some rules for online content regulation have emerged, while in the United States, no such government policy has been enacted. Regulatory efforts in the United States with regard to algorithmic transparency and accountability have also been limited and largely restricted to public use…
Read MorePOLLUTANTS THAT DEGRADE INDOOR AIR QUALITY AND THEIR EFFECT ON HEALTH
The sources of air pollution in buildings are numerous. Typically, indoor pollutants are categorized by type: chemical (semi-volatile and volatile organic compounds or VOCs, inorganic gases), biological (viruses, bacteria, molds, pet allergens, mite allergens) or physical (particulates, asbestos fibers, artificial mineral fibers, electromagnetic fields). Indoor pollution may also be described according to the three types of sources typically recognized: i) external pollution (air or ground in the case of radon, or soil contaminated by past or present industrial activity), ii) building constituents (construction materials and floor, wall and ceiling coverings)…
Read MoreEMERGING FIELD OF GLOBAL HEALTH LAW
Global health law is a field that encompasses the legal norms, processes, and institutions needed to create the conditions for people worldwide to attain the highest possible level of physical and mental health. The field seeks to facilitate health-promoting behaviour among key actors who significantly influence public health, including international organisations, governments, businesses, foundations, the media, and civil society. The mechanisms of global health law should stimulate investment in research and development, mobilize resources, set priorities, coordinate activities, monitor progress, create incentives, and enforce standards. Study and practice of the…
Read MoreINTERNATIONAL VOTE BUYING: THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND DOMESTIC APPROACHES TO BRIBERY AND ELECTION FRAUD: PART I
The practice of vote buying is neither rare nor isolated. One might then ask how international law affects the vote-buying market, if indeed it plays any role at all. Those conversant in public international law will appreciate already that most international voting is governed by the principle of “one country, one vote.” This system is the norm in the United Nations (notwithstanding the Security Council veto possessed only by the five permanent members) and is implicit in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (“VCLT”), which governs all aspects…
Read MoreTHE POWAR OF PROXIES: WAR SPONSOR, PROXIES, AND SPONSOR-PROXY RELATIONSHIP
Although it is widely acknowledged that the use of proxy forces has a wealth of historical antecedents, their systematic study is a rather recent phenomenon. Despite the increased attention that the use of proxies in conflict has drawn in recent years, however, scholars have yet to agree on a general, integrated theory of proxy sponsorship. One major impediment toward the emergence of such a theory has been a lack of terminological and conceptual clarity related to the use of proxies in conflict. The present study places its analytical attention on…
Read MoreREGIONALISM AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE IN THE MULTIPOLAR ORDER: PART II
Although regionalism has often been portrayed as a force opposed to globalization, both processes are intrinsically linked to global developments. Moreover, during the “third phase” of regionalism, globalization itself can be seen as one of the main drivers of regionalism and regionalization. In the emerging inter-polar world order, regional cooperation and integration are likely to continue to play a major role. Within the context of the current transformation of the world order, however, regional developments have attained rather limited public and scholarly attention. This is peculiar as regional cooperation continues…
Read MoreIN SEARCH FOR A BETTER MODEL FOR SPACE GOVERNANCE THROUGH THE DECENTRALIZATION OF THE CURRENT STATE OF SPACE GOVERNANCE
The crisis in space governance has not escaped the notice of the space community. The 2014 Manfred Lachs International Conference, organized by the McGill University Institute of Air and Space Law and held in Montreal, was devoted to this issue, under the general theme of Global Space Governance. The conference culminated with the Montreal Declaration, which noted that “the current global space governance system that was created during the 1960s and 1970s has not been comprehensively examined by the international community since . . . [although] numerous developments have occurred…
Read MoreINTERNATIONAL COLLECTIVE ACTION FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
Reducing the risks of climate change is the most important example of the provision of a global public good. It is also in many ways the ‘purest’ example of a public good in that emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from any one country have the same effect on the atmosphere as those from any other. Climate change also shares some key characteristics with other environmental challenges that require the international management of common resources, including the depletion of fisheries, the protection of the ozone layer, and with the provision of…
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