London: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers Ltd. 2013. 377 p.
Law of the Future Series 3. The Hague: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher. 2012. 537 p.
BUSINESS POLITICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
INFORMAL INTERNATIONAL LAWMAKING: CASE STUDIES
Although most Arab countries remain authoritarian, many have undergone a restructuring of state-society relations in which lower- and middle-class interest groups have lost ground while big business has benefited in terms of its integration into policy-making and the opening of economic sectors that used to be state-dominated. Arab businesses have also started taking on aspects of public service provision in health, media and education that used to be the domain of the state; they have also become increasingly active in philanthropy. The “Arab Spring”, which is likely to lead to a more pluralistic political order, makes it all the more important to understand business interests in the Middle East, a segment of society that on the one hand has often been close to the ancien régime, but on the other will play a pivotal role in a future social contract. Among the topics addressed are the role of business in recent regime change; the political outlook of businessmen; the consequences of economic liberalisation on the composition of business elites in the Middle East; the role of the private sector in orienting government policies; lobbying of government by business interests and the mechanisms by which governments seek to keep businesses dependent on them.
Edited by Ayetet Berman, Sanderijn Duquet, Joost Pauwelyn, Rames A. Wessel and Jan Wouters
Edited by Steffen Hertog, Giacomo Luciani and Marc Valeri
Informal International Lawmaking: Case Studies examines informal international lawmaking (IN-LAW) in diverse policy areas, including finance, investment, competition, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food regulation, human rights, disaster management, and trade in diamonds. The term “informal” is used in contrast and opposition to “traditional” international lawmaking. More concretely, IN-LAW is informal in the sense that it dispenses with certain formalities traditionally linked to international law. These formalities may have to do with the process, actors and output involved. The literature has mostly criticised IN-LAW for its accountability deficits. The chapters in this book, hence, approach the case studies from an accountability perspective. This book is the result of an international research project headed by Professor Joost Pauwelyn of the Graduate Institute and supported by the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HILL). Another project output has been Informal International Law-Making (edited by J. Pauwelyn, R. Wessel and J. Wouters, OUP, 2012). > www.fichl.org/fileadmin/fichl/
documents/LOTFS/LOTFS_3_Web.pdf
Graduate Institute ePaper 20. Geneva: Graduate Institute Publications. 2013.
COLLAPSE OF THE OPPOSITION INTER-PARTY COALITION IN UGANDA Catherine Promise Biira “It’s not so much what you agree upon, what you write on paper, but something intangible that in the end determines the success of political cooperation”, stated the leader of the Uganda Peoples Congress Dr Olara Otunnu. Hoping to put an end to the dominant-party system of Uganda – where President Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Movement had ruled since 1986 – four parties of the opposition gathered in 2008 under the banner of the Inter-Party Coalition (IPC) and intended to field a single candidate for the 2011 general election. And yet the IPC collapsed five months before the election day. Through an analysis of official documents, media reports and primary data obtained from interviews with party leaders, this ePaper examines the dynamics of the negotiations which led to the formation and collapse of the coalition. It argues that the claims by party leaders that the coalition fell because of disagreements over whether or not to participate in the elections are but a veil put up to cover the much deeper relationship issues between coalition members, which are the real explanation for the IPC’s demise. There are, however, common grounds between former coalition members which might lead to new avenues for further cooperation between opposition parties. Among all the lessons to be drawn from the IPC’s downfall, the author emphasises mostly the need for confidence-building measures in order to deal with the underlying feelings of mistrust among members. > iheid.revues.org/703 35