Suchergebnisse

The term "end-poverty" is deployed by the World Bank (WB) in working with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and countries along the Belt and Road on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This chapter contextualizes the BRI in a world a struggle, one in which actors take actions, based on their own field of expertise and knowledge, to further their interests. Inspired by David Kennedy's argument of the role of expertise in a world of struggle, this chapter explores the role of the term, "end poverty", in enabling relevant actors to further their interests. This chapter argues that "end poverty" is the middle-ground between various actors, including the sovereign nations, new and established financial institutions involved in the BRI. The moral endowment and indeterminacy of the term enables WB and other institutions, including AIIB and New Development Bank (NDB), to engage with the BRI for the purpose of its own agendas. The term, as well, facilitates China to deploy its global strategy in the political economy of the contemporary world. The indeterminacy of the term, however, covers up the story of the struggle of the member countries of the new institutions for strategic advantages in multilateral lending and global economic governance, and largely conceals the political objectives and effects of particular countries within the new institutions. The term as well neglects the sufferings of those disadvantaged in regions and countries of the BRI, that the BRI projects strengthens the elites and their power in the recipient countries over their populations. In deploying the term and furthering the global strategy, China's infrastructure financing increases uncertainty and risks in the global financial system. ; Peer reviewed

The ecological vulnerability of the regions within the Silk Road Economic Belt requires environmental protection. The infrastructure-pillared structure of the Belt and the legal procedures for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of various infrastructures inform this article's approach to environmental protection along the Belt through the right to information about, and involvement in, environmental decision making (the right to in- formation and involvement). How to protect this right along the Belt? The rights approach to the environment, as this article first examines, leads to an exploration of the social and historical background of the adoption of the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention).1 Parties to the Aarhus Convention largely overlap with the countries within the Belt. Critical analysis of the EIA legislation and its practice, and the contradiction within the principle of 'public participation' reveal the inadequacy of formal legislation in protecting the right to information and involvement. A case study on informal participa- tion in environmental decision making in China illustrates the value of informal participa- tion in protecting this right. Informal participation is forming a communicative form of environmental governance in Singapore, in which the right to information and involvement is protected. This article argues that informal participation can facilitate the protection of the right to information and involvement along the Belt. ; Peer reviewed

Abstract
While inequality within and between states has attracted the attention of international lawyers, international law research on inequality between individuals globally remains a rarity. This article examines inequality between individuals by targeting 'finance and inequality'—the linkage between international finance and the rising inequality between individuals at the global level. The article builds on the legal theory of finance and its contention that financial market operations are legally constructed, and from there, it highlights the essential role of states and state-backing in international finance. Furthermore, operations in the global financial market often take place through legal fields that are familiar to international lawyers but not often thought of as having to do with finance. The article, therefore, makes the case that international finance should be a new frontier in international lawyers' fight against inequality. The article invites international lawyers to approach international finance by learning the vocabulary and grammar of finance and bringing in the toolbox and aesthetics of international lawyers in studying finance, inequality, and international law. As a performance of such practice, the article conducts a case study on credit rating agencies and highlights the linkage between states, international law and standards, and the distributive implications of these agencies through financial market mechanisms.

This timely book offers revealing insights into the changing role of China in world governance as exemplified by the Silk Road Initiative, the People's Republic's first published major initiative for external affairs. Focusing on various aspects of the Silk Road Initiative, particularly those that are largely neglected in current discussions, including culture and philosophy, finance and investment, environmental protection and social responsibility, judiciary and lawyers, the authors explore a wide range of contexts in which China's role as an emerging power in international relations and international law is examined. In the current era of ever-increasing populism, protectionism and challenges to globalization, the authors explore the Chinese philosophy underpinning Chinese norms of regional and international development. Bearing in mind the political and economic uncertainties hampering the establishment of such norms, the authors offer crucial insights into how the Silk Road Initiative could or should be developed and regulated. Given its depth of coverage, the book is an indispensable read for anyone interested in the Initiative and its social-legal implications.