Suchergebnisse

The recent growth in campaign spending has been accompanied by rapid growth in the number and size of independent-expenditure organizations, especially in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC. Whereas political committees coordinate their actions with candidates, independent-expenditure organizations, by definition, must carry on their activities without such coordination. With its ruling that independent expenditures do not give rise to concerns of quid pro quo corruption, the Court has placed these expenditures almost entirely outside the realm of campaign finance regulation that applies to political committees. Following Citizens United, federal courts have made various attempts at applying this principle to the organizations that make independent expenditures, with inconsistent results. This Comment reviews the modem history of campaign finance jurisprudence to discern the rationale behind the Citizens United decision. Recent Courts of Appeals' decisions are also examined to determine how this rationale is and should be applied to independent expenditure organizations. Next, this Comment considers which standard the courts should apply to determine whether independent expenditure organizations that are closely tied to political committees should be outside the application of campaign finance laws, despite the possibility of coordination with political candidates. To resolve this question, this Comment proposes that the courts make use of a modified application of the alter ego doctrine to decide such questions, as federal courts already use this doctrine to determine when to treat two purportedly separate organizations as a single entity when applying federal law.

AbstractThe paper reviews the regulation of water companies in England and Wales since 1989 by reference to the historical regulation of utilities in these countries. It considers how comparative competition, service standards and charging arrangements are developing. Particular mention is made of the debates over rates of return and household metering. The conclusion is that regulation, to be effective and appropriate, must be capable of evolution.

AbstractDespite that independent agencies are typically justified in terms of technical efficiency, they inevitably have to make political judgments. How can political reasoning be legitimate in such institutions? This paper starts by investigating the merits of two prominent models. The "avoidance model" asks agency reasoning to stick to empirical facts and as far as possible stay clear of political values. By contrast, the "specification model" recognizes the need for constructive normative work, but confines it to the refinement of given statutes. This paper challenges both models and defends a third alternative. The "public reason model" requires agencies to ground their value judgments in a publicly accessible framework of reasoning, which is here interpreted as their overarching mandate. The paper argues that agency mandates should be conceived as distinct domains of reasoning, and it delineates three institutional virtues that enable agencies to track this domain.

This article looks at how 'indigenous' medical systems, particularly Ayurveda figured in the official discourse of the Government of India in the post-independence period. In doing so, it studies the recommendations of the committees set up in the first few decades after independence to prepare reports on 'indigenous' medicines in India. By studying these reports, we may gain some insights on the paths that were cleared in the professionalisation of Ayurvedic medicine and its institutionalisation in colleges and hospitals. The focus here is on the recommendations and analyses of five committee reports. This article analyses the similarities and near consensus in their approach to the issue of research in Ayurveda. What accounts for such a consensus despite the constitution of different committees over a period of time? How are some of the differences in the recommendations and analyses of the reports resolved in ways that maintain an overall similarity? This article engages with these questions in its analysis of the committee reports.