RegNet
Newsletter
Vol. III, No.4
September 2003
UPCOMING
REGNET EVENTS
Printer friendly
REGNET
CONFERENCE
WORKSHOP
SEMINARS
NEW
REGNET CENTRE
CONGRATULATIONS
PROJECTS
ANU
GAMBLING RESEARCH CENTRE
OTHER
NEW APPOINTMENTS TO REGNET, RSSS
REGNET
PROFILES
NEW REGNET BUILDING
RegNet
Conference
The
Nodal and the Global
9-11
December 2003
Innovations
Building
Eggleston Road
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
A First Annual Conference: The Regulatory Institutions
Network will have an annual conference in the second
week of December every year. Starting next year, these
will be more traditional conferences for which there
will be a registration fee and a general call for papers.
Registration is free this year. Because RegNet has had
such huge growth in the number of RegNet faculty in
the Research School of Social Sciences at ANU, this
year's conference will be mainly dedicated to RegNet
RSSS people listening to each other, finding out what
points of connection we should be better exploring,
with just two set piece papers from overseas stars.
The locals will not be presenting formal papers. Instead
they have been clustered into eight groups to lead conversations
about the ideas they are working on.
|
Tuesday
9 December
|
|
4.30 pm Registration
and coffee
|
|
5.00 - 6.15 pm
|
John Braithwaite
Welcome
Doreen McBarnet, Oxford
Regulating Global Business:
New Mechanisms of Control
|
| |
|
6.15 - 7.30 pm Drinks
and Nibbles
|
|
|
Wednesday
10 December
|
| 9.00 am |
Clifford Shearing
Introduction to the
Nodal and the Global
Conversation Leaders
:Jennifer Wood, Monique
Marks, Jenny Fleming, Peter Grabosky, Clifford
Shearing
Nodal Security
|
| |
|
10.00 am Morning Tea
|
|
| 11.00 am |
Conversation Leaders:
Heather Strang, Lawrence
Sherman, Eliza Ahmed
Restorative Justice
|
| |
|
12.30 - 1.30pm Lunch
|
|
| 3.30 - 5.00 pm |
Conversation Leaders
Peter Drahos, Matt Rimmer,
Janet Hope and Geertrui Van Oveerwalle
Global and Nodal Information
|
|
5.00 - 6.00 pm Drinks
and Nibbles
|
|
|
Thursday
11 December
|
| 9.00 - 9.30 am |
Reuven Avi Yonah, University
of MichiganCorporations
Society and the State:
A Defense of the Corporate Tax
|
| 9.30 - 11.00 am |
Conversation Leaders
Valerie Braithwaite,
Tina Murphy, Michael Wenzel, Greg Rawlings, Jenny
Job
Tax System Integrity
|
|
11.00 - 11.30am Morning
Tea
|
| 11.30am - 1.00 pm |
Conversation Leaders
Peter Drahos, Christine
Parker, David Levi-Faur, Vij Nagarajan, Natalie
Stepanenko
Competition and Consumer
Policy
|
|
1.00 - 1.45 pm Lunch
|
|
| 1.45 pm - 3.15 pm |
Conversation Leaders
Richard Johnstone, Neil
Gunningham, Andrew Hopkins, Liz Bluff
Occupational Health
and Safety
|
| |
| |
| 3.45 - 5.15 pm |
Conversation Leaders
Sascha Courville, Helen
Watchirs, Nicola Piper, Robyn Bartel
Applying Global Standards
at the Local Level
|
| |
| 5.15 - 5.30 pm |
Michael Dowdle
Departing suggestions for
the future RegNet Research Agenda
|
REGISTRATION
FORM
top
Workshop
Thursday 9- Friday 10
October, 9am – 5pm
'The
Future of Ecolabelling in Australia’
The Australian Academy
of Science Shine Dome
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
top
Seminars
September
"Towards an Analytics
of Trends in Governance: The Case of Policing Reform
in Northern Ireland"
Michael Kempa (PhD Scholar, Mid-Term review, RegNet)
Tuesday, 23 September, 2pm
Note: Seminar Room F
"Transforming Armed Intervention: Redefining the
Rules and Reshaping Deployment as a force for good"
Peter Reddy (PhD Scholar, 6 monthly review, RegNet)
Wednesday, 24 September, 2pm
Note: Seminar Room E
"Protecting Australia's
Fossil Heritage"
Jodie Houston (PhD Scholar, Mid-Term review, RegNet)
Thursday, 25 September, 2pm
Note: Seminar Room E
"The Diffusion of
Community Policing"
Jimmy Fan (PhD Scholar, 6 monthly review, RegNet)
Monday, 29 September, 2pm
Note: Seminar Room F
"Why we urgently
need a proper, working systemic model of the Australian
federal tax system"
Michael Inglis (Tax Barrister)
Tuesday, 30 September, 1.30 pm
Note: Seminar Room A
October
"The
interface of inspection and regulation: prison inspection
in Western Australia."
Professor Richard Harding (Office of the Inspector
of Custodial Services, WA)
Tuesday, 7 October, 2pm
Note: Seminar Room F
"The community governance of crime, disorder and
the anti-social: instabilities of the modernisation
project in the UK"
Gordon Hughes (Criminologist, UK)
Tuesday, 14 October, 2pm
Note: Seminar Room F
"Online Privacy
in the
Workplace"
Kathy Eivazi (PhD Scholar, 6 monthly review, ANU)
Tuesday, 28 October, 11am
Note: Seminar Room D
"TBA"
Geoff Stewart-Richardson (PhD Scholar, 6 monthly
review, ANU)
Thursday, 30 October, 2pm
Note: Seminar Room D
November
"Post violence as a sociological issue"
John Brewer (Professor of Sociology at Queen's University,
Belfast)
Tuesday, 4 November, 2pm
Note: Seminar Room C
"TBA"
Anthony Krone
Tuesday, 18 November, 2pm
Note: Seminar Room E
"TBA"
Zein Kebonang (PhD Scholar, review, ANU)
Wednesday, 19 November, 2pm
Note: Seminar Room E
"TBA"
Miranda Forsyth (University of South Pacific, School
of Law)
Monday, 24 November, 2pm
Note: Seminar Room E
"TBA"
Alexander George (PhD Scholar, Mid-Term review, UK)
Tuesday, 25 November, 2pm
Note: Seminar Room E
"TBA"
Waanda McCarthy (PhD Scholar, 6 monthly review, RegNet)
Tuesday 2 December, 11am
Note: Seminar Room E
top
NEW
REGNET CENTRE
The Australian
Centre of Regulatory Economics (ACORE) will be initiated
next year as a new Centre within RegNet in the ANU Faculty
of Economics, providing a unique research and education
program bringing together world-class experts to undertake
the most extensive program of research on economic regulation
in Australia.
It will
also introduce three new types of postgraduate programs
including intensive Summer School courses on selected
topics for senior staff of regulatory bodies and industry,
providing an education program that is currently unavailable.
This joint
initiative comprises Australian regulatory agencies,
organisations that are subject to regulation and the
ANU.
top
CONGRATULATIONS
Dr Nicola Piper
has been
promoted from Research Fellow to Fellow.
Dr Valerie Braithwaite
was awarded
the ANU's Certificate in Recognition of Exceptional
Performance in Equity and Diversity.
Professor Peter Drahos
was appointed Temporary Advisor to the World Health
Organization and in that capacity went to the Expert
Meeting on Improving Access to Essential Medicines in
the Western Pacific Region that was organized by the
World Health Organization and held in Penang on 15-17
July. Amongst other things, the meeting examined the
possible impacts of trade globalization on access to
essential medicines in the Western Pacific region. Professor
Drahos gave a presentation on intellectual property
rights and access to medicines. He was also the rapporter
for the meeting. The meeting produced a draft strategic
plan entitled 'Improving Access and Affordability of
Essential Medicines in the Western Pacific
Region of the World Health Organization'.
Professor Philip Petitt(Philosophy/Social
and Political Theory) was recipient of the Centenary
of Federation Medal.
top
PROJECTS
Nicola Piper
Under the auspices of
UNESCO, I have been commissioned to identify the obstacles
to signing the UN Convention on the Protection of the
Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
from 1990 (Professor Robyn Iredale, director of the
Asia Pacific Migration Research Network, University
of Wollongong, is the project coordinator). The goals
are to encourage dialogue in the region among researchers,
policy makers and NGOs; to promote understanding of
the major social, economic and political obstacles that
prevent countries from signing the Convention; and to
develop policy options to encourage governments to sign
the Convention. The project involved fieldwork in seven
countries within the Asia Pacific region (New Zealand,
Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Japan and
Korea) and the 'data collecting phase' has just been
completed involving interviews with a variety of stakeholders
on the issues of migrant workers and human rights.
The final outcome of
this project is the compilation of a report on the reasons
for countries not signing the Convention with recommendations
which will be used for developing the second phase of
this project, a Plan of Action. The report is to be
completed by July 2003 and will be made available to
the wider public on UNESCO's website.
top
ANU
GAMBLING RESEARCH CENTRE
Activities May-August 2003
CURRENT FUNDED RESEARCH
Professor Jan McMillen
· (with Dr David Marshall) Study of the Development
of Internet/interactive Gambling and Sportsbetting -
ARC Strategic Partnership Industry Research Training
(SPIRT) grant.
· Protecting Community Interest and Building
Corporate Integrity in the Queensland Gambling Industry
- with the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance
(KCELJAG), Griffith University. Funded by Queensland
Treasury.
· (with Dr David Marshall, Dr Eliza Ahmed and
Dr Michael Wenzel) Longitudinal Community Attitudes
Survey and Validation of the Victorian Gambling Screen.
Funded by the Victorian Gambling Research Panel.
· Concept Testing and Market Research for the
Responsible Gambling Communication Strategy. Expert
adviser to ACNielsen. Funded by Queensland Treasury.
· 3hr Shutdown Impact Evaluation- NSW Clubs.
Expert adviser to ACNielsen. Funded by NSW Department
of Gaming and Racing (completed June 2003).
Professor Peter Grabosky
· (with Julie Lahn) Gambling and Clients of ACT
Corrections. Funded by the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission.
Completed and Final Report submitted 30 June 2003.
· (with Julie Lahn and Dr Paul Delfabbro, Flinders
University) Adolescent Gambling - Prevalence, Risk Factors
and Opportunities for Controls and Interventions. ARC
Linkages Grant, in partnership with ACT Gambling and
Racing Commission.
top
OTHER
NEW APPOINTMENTS TO REGNET, RSSS
Jenny Fleming
is a Fellow located in
the Security 21 project, part of the Regulatory Institutions
Network. Her Ph.D. in public policy is from Griffith
University, QLD (1998). Her previous research appointment
was with the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and
Governance at Griffith University where she examined
the regulation of ministerial behaviour in Australia
and overseas and institutional value systems. Her research
interests include: the politics of police management,
police reform, police unionism, public sector management,
organisational culture and police labour issues.
Jimmy Fan,
joined the Singapore Police Force in 1997 after graduating
with a bachelor degree in Sociology and Philosophy from
the National University of Singapore, Singapore. After
4 years with the 'men in blue', left for Britain where
he completed his MSc degree in Criminal Justice Policy
at the London School of Economics and Political Science
in 2002. Thereafter, he went home to Singapore before
coming over to join RegNet in 2003.
Tali Gal, after
graduating the Law School at the Hebrew University,
Jerusalem, Tali has been a children's rights advocate
since 1996, first as a director of a child-victim assistance
project and later as the legal advisor of a non governmental
organization in Israel. Tali was also a co-founder and
a member of the Israeli Victims' Rights Coalition. After
completing her LLM thesis on child-victims, she taught
a course on victims' rights at Ramat Gan Law College,
Israel.
Tony Foley's
background is as a practising solicitor and he now teaches
in the Practical Legal Training program in the Law Faculty.
His interest is in the potential for the use of restorative
justice practices in the legal system.
Fiona Harris,
has a Diploma in Law through the Legal Practitioners
Admission Board (completed in 1996), a Graduate Diploma
in Legal Practice through the College of Law (completed
in 1997) and a Masters in Criminology with distinction
through the University of Western Sydney (completed
in 2002). She has practised as a solicitor for close
to five years mainly in the area of common law claims
for injured workers.
Peter Reddy, About
four years ago Peter decided to take a year's break
from the stresses of over a decade involved in business,
in the training and employment services sector, and
complete a law degree. During this course he chanced
upon criminology, completed a Master's and by then the
study bug was 'embedded'. His earlier working life was
spent in the military and his later activism in both
human rights and politics has lead to his current thesis
research in war crimes.
Monique Marks,comes
to us from the University of Natal, South Africa where
she was a senior lecturer in the Sociology Program.
She is currently interested in issues of police organisational
change and police labour relations and hopes to develop
a deeper interest into the areas of governance of security.
David Marshall,
is a postdoctoral research fellow in RegNet’s Centre
for Gambling Studies, a field in which he has been involved
since 1996. He has a BA (Honours) from Flinders University
and a PhD from the University of New England. David's
research agenda has mainly focused on the social, economic
and regulatory aspects of gambling proliferation in
Australia, particularlyelectronic gaming machines .
Waanda McCarthy,
In 2003 Waanda was associate to Justice Mary Gaudron
on the High Court. Previously to that she was in private
practice as a barrister in Queensland and a member of
a Community Corrections Board.
Jan McMillen,
has recently been appointed as Director, Centre for
Gambling Research, RegNet. Jan previously held the position
as Australia’s first Professor of gambling research
at the University of Western Sydney. As Director of
the former Australian Institute for Gambling Research
she established a reputation as a national and international
leader in the analysis of gambling policy and regulation,
the study of gambling impacts and social policy.
Jan has conducted multidisciplinary
gambling research in all Australian states/territories
and overseas where she has developed a collaborative
relationship with regulators, industry providers and
community groups. Current research includes analysis
of the ethics of gambling regulation and industry governance,
and a three-year study of internet gambling.
Jan has also held statutory
appointments to two independent Gaming Commissions (Victoria
1991-93, and Queensland 1991-2002). These positions
have given her a unique and detailed understanding of
the legislated and social responsibilities of gambling
operators, and the practical aspects of gaming policy
and regulation.
Linda Rasmussen, finished
a Postdoc appointment on Medieval History at the University
of Southern Denmark 2000-2002 after completing a PhD,also
on Medieval History, at ANU in 2000 .
Sascha Walkley, has
completed a BA (Criminology) and Honors at the University
of Western Sydney. During my PhD, I tutored part-time
for 2 years in criminology and lectured for 1 semester
on a subject: Computer, Corporate and Cyber Crime. I
was a Postgraduate representative on the Academic Senate
and Research Studies Committee. Sascha is also a member
of the ABC Advisory Council.
Helen Watchirs has
had her 1 year postdoc on ADIS audit, supported jointly
by the AIDS trust and RegNet, extended to a second year.
Jennifer Wood,
Research Fellow in Security 21. Has already been visiting
with us for much of 2002 and will arrive in late 2003
from the University of Toronto this time into a salaried
RegNet appointment.
top
REGNET
PROFILES
Michael Dowdle
Michael works on issues
of Chinese and comparative constitutional and public
law development. He has taught at Columbia University,
New York University, and Beijing University; and for
the summer of 2002 was appointed to the Qinghua (Tsinghua)
University Law Faculty as the Himalayas Foundation Distinguished
Visiting Professor in comparative constitutional law.
Over the past year (2002), he has been invited to lecture
at the University of Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies,
the Harvard Law School, the Columbia Law School, the
University of Leiden Department of Public Administration,
the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research of Harvard
University, the Columbia University East Asian Institute,
the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the American
Embassy in Beijing. He has served as a consultant on
legal and constitutional development projects for the
United States Department of State, the Canadian Foreign
Ministry, the Ford Foundation, and the China Securities
Regulatory Commission. A member of the New York bar,
he has worked pro bono for the American Civil Liberties
Union, the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, and
the North American China Coordination Group of Amnesty
International.
Peter Grabosky
Peter Grabosky holds
a Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University,
and has written extensively on criminal justice and
public policy. His general interests are in harnessing
resources outside the public sector in furtherance of
public administration, the use of incentives and inducements
as regulatory instruments. He was previously Deputy
Director of the Australian Institute of Criminology,
and has held a number of visiting appointments in the
United States, Japan and China. He was rapporteur for
the Workshop on Crimes Related to the Computer Network
at the Tenth United Nations Congress on the Prevention
of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Vienna, 2000.
From 1998 - 2000 he was President of the Australian
and New Zealand Society of Criminology. In 1999 he was
elected to the Board of Directors, and Deputy Secretary
General, of the International Society of Criminology.
Richard Johnstone
Richard Johnstone is
Director of the National Research Centre for Occupational
Health and Safety Regulation. He also has a 50 per cent
professorial appointment in the Faculty of Law, at Griffith
University, where he directs the Occupational Health
and Safety Regulation Research Unit and is a Co-Director
of the Socio-Legal Research . His empirical research
into OHS regulation has focused principally on OHS enforcement,
with a major study on OHS prosecution in Victoria, which
has just
been published Occupational Health and Safety, Courts
and Crime, Federation Press, 2003, and smaller studies
on enforcement in New South Wales, and in the construction
industry in Queensland. Recently he has begun to work
on compliance with OHS regulation. This work began with
a small study on OHS work plans in Queensland, and will
continue with ARC-funded studies into compliance with
OHS, anti-discrimination and dismissal law.
With Neil Gunningham,
Richard has conducted major policy studies for the National
Occupational Health and Safety Commission, the Department
of Minerals and Energy, New South Wales and the WorkCover
Authority of New South Wales. The WorkCover Authority
of New South Wales study was further developed, and
was published as Regulating Workplace Safety: Systems
and Sanctions, in the Oxford Socio-Legal Studies Series
in 1999. Richard has also published a leading general
text, Occupational Health and Safety Law and Policy
(LBC, 1997), and is currently working on a second edition.
Recently he has shifted his attention to the regulation
of OHS in non-employment relationships, including work
on road freight, contractors and sub-contractors, labour
hire, and franchise arrangements.
He has also published
five books and a dozen articles or chapters on various
aspects of law teaching. Each of these publications
has been the result of a genuine engagement with educational
theory and research.
Flavio Menezes
Flavio Menezes is Reader
in Economics at the School of Economics at the ANU.
He has published widely in theory of auctions and is
regarded as Australasian's leading auction expert. This
expertise is essential for navigating the waves of the
new regulatory regimes that followed the restructuring
of major infrastructure industries in Australia and
around the world. It is widely understood now that in
many situations (e.g., access) auctions are the appropriate
pricing mechanism. However, one cannot simply apply
auction theory without knowing all the caveats. In addition,
several existing markets (e.g., spot electricity markets)
can be better understood by using auction theory. Flavio
Menezes has extensive teaching experience in the areas
of game theory, industrial organization and on the theory
of incentives (the foundation of modern economic regulatory
theory). He has presented seminars and delivered lectures
in the Americas, Europe and in the Asia Pacific Region.
He has lectured to both academic audiences and practitioners.
Flavio Menezes has lectured on auction theory to treasury
officials, general audiences and staff of consulting
firms.
Flavio Menezes has also
a very rich consulting experience. Overseas consulting
includes being the main advisor on the determination
of the privatisation model for Furnas (the largest electricity
utility in Brazil), advising the Brazilian government
on electricity regulatory reform, and on reviewing the
Brazilian government procurement practices. Consulting
experience in Australia include advising ACCC on tendering
and bidding for access and reviewing a Productivity
Commission report on the role of auctions to allocate
public resources.
Helen Watchirs
Helen Watchirs is a post-doctoral
fellow in RegNet at RSSS, having been awarded an AIDS
Trust of Australia, Jonathan Mann Health and Human Rights
scholarship. She has a BA and LLB from the University
of Sydney, and a Masters of Public Law and PhD from
the Australian National University. Her research interest
is in health and human rights law, and she is currently
piloting a tripartite human rights and HIV/AIDS audit
in Australia. She first developed the human rights audit
methodology in the mental health area for the Australian
Health Minister's Advisory Council, National Mental
Health Working Group. Over the last twenty years Helen
has worked as a human rights lawyer for the Australian
government in Canberra, and UNAIDS in Geneva. In 1992
she was awarded a WHO Fellowship based at the Harvard/WHO
Collaborating Centre on Health Legislation. Helen managed
an intergovernmental HIV/AIDS law reform project, and
wrote the draft text of the International Guidelines
on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights in 1996. She has been a
part-time legal member of the Social Security Appeals
Tribunal from 1997-2002. In 2002 she was a rapporteur
at the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona.
She has written extensively on HIV/AIDS and human rights
issues, such as discrimination, public health, criminal
law and privacy and has served as an expert on working
groups and a consultant for various UN agencies, including
the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,
UNAIDS, WHO, ILO and UNDP.
top
WORKSHOPS
The National OHS Regulatory
Research Consortium
4-5
February 2003
The National OHS Regulatory
Research Consortium was established by RegNet's National
Research Centre for OHS Regulation to foster, develop
and support an interdisciplinary collaborative network
of Australian researchers interested in OHS regulation.
The aim is to increase the amount of high quality evidence-based
and policy focused research into OHS regulation. The
Centre provides the administrative support for the Consortium,
maintains an email discussion list for members, convenes
an annual OHS regulatory research workshop at which
Consortium members present and discuss their work in
progress, promotes OHS regulatory research seminar groups
in each major Australian city, and works with the National
Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) and
other organisations to hold conferences on OHS regulation.
Information about consortium members and their research
interests and output can be found at http://www.ohs.anu.edu.au.
In the longer term the Centre and the Consortium will
be working towards creating research centres specialising
in OHS regulation in other Australian cities. An OHS
Regulatory Research Unit has already been established
within the Socio-Legal Research Centre in the Law School
at Griffith University.
At it's first regulatory research workshop in February
2003, topics of research in progress presented by consortium
members included:
(1) OHS consultation and representation in the metalliferous
mining industry in Australia; (2) risk management in
the mining industry; (3) the OHS and associate challenges
of precarious employment;
(4) the implementation of process regulation in OHS:
a comparative study of policy and practice;
(5) OHS enforcement in Australia;(6) an analysis of
responses to constitutive regulation of working relationships;(7)
duty holder responses to enforcement of workplace health
and safety legislation in Queensland; (8) OHS in the
design and manufacture of plant; (9) flexible systems
for OHS management; (10) understanding context in the
globalisation of OHS standards; (11) a social theory
and action perspective of disability; (12) long-term
ethylene oxide exposure trends in US hospitals and OSHA
regulatory activity; (13) regulating pesticide safety;
(14) occupational violence/bullying in the maritime
industry; (15) OHS legislation and workers driving light
fleet vehicles;(16) using the voice of contingent workers
to improve workplace health and safety; (17) an action
research program to establish an OHS infrastructure
for East Timor;(18) investigating strategies to minimise
the impact of work on health;and(19) evaluation of OHS
educational interventions in Queensland workplaces.
top
Auditing
in Perspective: Regulatory Tool, Moribund Remedy or
Democratic Champion?
6 February
2003
The Workshop held on
6 February 2003 at the ANU Innovations Building was
by all accounts a successful venture. The keynote speaker
was Professor Mike Power from the Centre for Analysis
of Risk and Regulation at the London School of Economics.
He spoke on evaluating the audit explosion, based on
his 1997 book, The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification.
Over a hundred people registered from a range of disciplines
and work backgrounds – academic, public service,
private practice and NGOs. The National Institute of
Government and Law assisted with funding and printing
a Workshop pamphlet that was instrumental in gaining
such a good response.
The Workshop had
three substantive sessions and a discussants’ panel.
The first session examined accountability for democratic
governance and the speakers were Sasha Courville on
social audits, Marion Sawer on democratic audits and
Helen Watchirs on human rights audits. The second session
discussed meta-regulating compliance and the speakers
were Christine Parker on corporate compliance, Keith
Houghton on corporate auditing and Roger Burritt on
environmental auditing. The third session covered public
sector regulation and the speakers were Colin Scott
on Australian issues, Peter Wilkins on international
experiences and Fiona Tito on clinical audits and consumer
perspectives.
The Workshop was deliberately
designed to encourage lively debate among participants,
by giving adequate time for audience questions after
each speaker session and the discussants panel. Many
participants also took the opportunity to hear the keynote
speaker deliver another paper the following day on ‘Risk
Management and Corporate Social Responsibility’
that was co-sponsored by NIGL, the Australian National
Centre for Audit and Assurance Research and RegNet.
top
Regulating Law Workshop
20-22 March 2003
The Regulating Law workshop
was organised by RegNet members, John Braithwaite, Nicola
Lacey, Christine Parker and Colin Scott to investigate
the double aspect of 'regulating law' - how law regulates
and is regulated. We hypothesised that it might be useful
to apply a regulatory 'lens' to the main areas of legal
doctrine in the law school curriculums of the common
law countries. To that end we invited leading scholars
in the areas of contract law (Hugh Collins), financial
services law (Julia Black), corporate governance (Angus
Corbett and Stephen Bottomley), family law (John Dewar),
labour law (Richard Johnstone and Richard Mitchell),
torts (Jane Stapleton), trusts and fiduciaries (Susanne
Corcoran and Paul Finn), criminal law (Nicola Lacey),
property law (Peter Drahos), competition law (Imelda
Maher), administrative law (Peter Cane), constitutional
law (Colin Scott) , and international law (Hilary Charlesworth
and Christine Chinkin) to present papers reflecting
on the relationship between law and regulation in their
areas.
Hugh Collins' book, Regulating
Contracts (Oxford University press, 1999) was used as
a model and testing ground for the way in which regulatory
and legal doctrinal analysis might be intertwined. The
presentations, Collins' Regulating Contracts and the
(much maligned) issues paper previously prepared by
the editors provoked much lively discussion and controversy
over the difference, if any, between law and regulation,
the possibility of applying a 'regulatory lens' to law,
and the meaning and scope of regulation. In some areas
of doctrine, such as tort and trusts, presenters thought
it was quite difficult to find clear regulatory purposes.
In others, presenters argued it was impossible to separate
them, and perhaps insignificant to comment on the relationship
between. Nevertheless the papers provided insight into
the way that different areas of law with different levels
of regulatory intent interact, and interfere, with one
another.
Overall the presenters
applied a regulatory lens to law in three different,
but overlapping ways. Hugh Collins' min-keynote at the
beginning of the workshop helped us all to clarify these.
The first involves a dialogue between lawyers and regulationists
about the questions and methodologies in their respective
areas of scholarship and how they do and can intersect.
The second involves the consideration of the varying
regulatory purposes or orientations of different areas
of law and how they interconnect and compete with each
other. The third focuses on how law (seen overall as
just one form of regulation in society) interacts with
other forms of regulation or normative ordering.
The papers will be published
as an edited collection under the title, Regulating
Law in 2004 by Oxford University Press. The organisers
would like to thank Leah Dunn, Natalie Stepanenko and
especially Bron Stuart for their hard work in organising
the workshop.
top
Building
a Global Competition Culture:The Role of Civil Society,
Business & Government
22 July
2003
Good competition
policy and regulation, in concert with good consumer
protection policy and regulation, has contributed markedly
in many countries directly to consumer welfare and to
economic performance generally. Countries with developing
economies and economies in transition are building their
capacities in these areas of governance, but need substantial
technical assistance. In addition the extent to which
they and developed economy countries can maximize the
benefits of economic globalisation is compromised by
cross-border anti-competitive arrangements and conduct,
particularly international cartels. The forthcoming
WTO talks in Cancun will discuss the potential contribution
of a multilateral agreement on competition. But, a large
number of countries are concerned that many complex
issues need to be resolved before any kind of agreement
can be contemplated. In part this can be attributed
to the limited capacity in competition policy, law and
regulation in many countries. The WTO, UNCTAD, the European
Commission and other bodies, including bilateral development
cooperation agencies, are taking steps to assist capacity
building in these countries.
This seminar has brought together a number of key policy,
business, civil society and academic people from Australia
and countries in the region to share information and
ideas.
'Trade and
Competition: The Links', Jane Drake-Brockman, Convenor,
Australian Services Roundtable
'How Smaller Nations
Can Make the WTO System Work in their Interest', Peter
Drahos, ANU
'A Global Competition
Policy: A Role for Civil Society' , Imelda Maher, CCCP
& Robin Brown, FEMAG.
'Social & Environmental
Standards: A Case Study or Regulating Internationally
and Implementing Locally', Sasha Courville, SASA
Papers helped
to inform participants on:
• the possible
scope of the multi-lateral agreement and the different
perspectives on
controversial issues;
• developments in the various international forums
on competition policy and regulation emergence of new
forms and networks and efforts being taken to build
common ground;
• the interaction between trade and competition
and the particular relevance of competition policy to
trade in services;
• research on competition policy and regulation
in countries with developing economies and economies
in transition and the reasons some are making slower
progress than others;
• the roles government, business and civil society
must play, the critical need for a common knowledge
base amongst them and for tripartite dialogue and collaboration
at national and global levels for accelerated progress;
and
• the under-appreciation of advocacy in civil society
(especially the consumer movement) as a contributor
to constituency building for competition policy development
and to the protection of the independence of regulatory
agencies. Roundtable discussions was held under Chatham
House rules to ensure maximum opportunity for a free
exchange of views.
top
The International
Workshop on the Rights of Migrant Workers
6-7 August 2003
The workshop
was opened by Professor Michael Coper, the Dean of Law
and Convenor of NISSL) who noted the common theme in
the story of the migrant worker worldwide is the tension
between the hope of a better life, on the one hand,
and the fear of exploitation on the other. He went on
to draw out the balance of interests and whether rights
are best achieved through the legislative process or
through the courts, or indeed through some symbiotic
partnership between these and perhaps other institutions.
Finally he concluded with the observation that sociological
analysis of the actual experiences and needs of migrant
workers was indispensable to legal approaches if practical
solutions were to emerge.
Nicola Piper provided a Snapshot of migration and rights
issues in the Asia Pacific region" outlining of
the emerging trends and issues revolving around contemporary
cross-border labour migration and migrants' rights in
the Asia Pacific region. Using as case studies Bangladesh,
Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, and
Singapore. Contemporary forms of labour migration are
characterised by
1) increasing participation of women,
2) increasing regionalisation, and
3) obstacles to long-term residence, let alone settlement
due to short term contracts being of unauthorised nature.
Dr Piper concluded by noting that the gap between governmental
policies and migration reality is widening and abusive
practices are rampant. While NGOs have taken an important
role of service providers and rights' advocates, engaging
in transnational networking as best as they can on the
basis of their limited resources, there is much more
to do.
The following three papers and discussion all picked
up on the key point raised by Dr. Piper through case
studies. Mary Lou Alcid spoke from the perspective of
the Migrant Forum of Asia and the challenges they face
promoting Asian migrant workers' rights and their approach
through campaigning to have nations (particularly migrant
receiving countries) ratifying the UN Convention on
Migrant Workers. Sarah Biddulph spoke on the changing
patterns for regulating internal migration in China
and how that had changed over the past fifty years.
This has involved a slow but tacit recognition of the
reality of internal labour migration in China and that
less punitive approaches were necessary and that changes
were slowly occurring. Saw Min Lwin provided an overview
of the general situation of migrant workers from Burma
and noted that the case of some two million migrant
workers in Thailand was in inexorably linked to the
political repression in Burma.
The afternoon session looked at the specific experiences
of migrant workers in different situations. Kathy Richards
looked at migrant worker trafficking and its associated
corruption. Teresa O'Connell focussed on migrant sex
workers in U.S. Military Camps in Korea, and Anne Loveband
used the response to the SARS outbreak in Taiwan as
a very tangible way to understanding the difficulties
that foreign domestic workers have in having their rights
recognized. All three papers highlighted the vulnerability
that migrant workers experienced in the host countries.
In the morning of the August 8 Michele Ford and Wahyu
Susilo looked at the specific case of Indonesia and
the migrant worker rights issues in Indonesia a labour
exporting country. Professor Chowdury Arbrar looked
at the role of institution building and the labour recruitment
process in Bangladesh and how these could be strengthened
to provide better outcomes for migrant workers from
Bangladesh. Patrick Kilby concluded the workshop with
a paper looking at the role of development assistance
in migrant labour programs and how aid has generally
not been directed to improving migrant labour programs
despite their importance for so many economies in the
Asia Pacific region.
Not only were the participants challenged by the papers
presented but also the quality of discussion and the
issues raised have provided direction for future work
in the area of migrant labour rights. The papers are
being edited as a result of the discussion and will
be put together into a special issue of a journal such
as "International Migration Review" or "International
Migration" or "The Human Rights Quarterly".
It is expected to have the final edited papers by October
2003.
top
NEW
REGNET BUILDING
Work is
progressing well on the building and the proposed move
is planned for February/March 2004. RegNet, Law Program
and the Centre for Tax System Integrity, RSSS will occupy
the top two floors of the building (60) offices plus
meeting spaces). The bottom floor will be teaching space
mainly used by the Research School of Pacific and Asian
Studies. Ideas for naming the building are still being
considered and are welcomed.
top
