This document discusses the challenges that arise when religious institutions seek to directly participate in politics within multi-religious states. It argues that where religious groups enter politics, their beliefs should not be granted special privilege or protection from criticism. The document examines examples in Pakistan, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Western countries to show how privileging religion can undermine principles of secular rule of law, democracy, and minority rights. It concludes that while religion is increasingly political, institutions may not be prepared to engage in politics without insulating their beliefs from political contestation and debate. This could transform political systems in ways incompatible with liberal democracies.
Briefly analyzes religious extremism in the global and Indian contexts and concludes that this poses the single biggest threat to India's national integrity. It could also be the driving force for a second Partition of India
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM INSTITUTE ORGANIZATION AND MYANMARMYO AUNG Myanmar
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM INSTITUTE ORGANIZATION AND MYANMAR
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/cornerstone/politicizing-religion?rq=Myanmar
Politicizing Religion
Paul Marshall October 1, 2018
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/blog/cardinal-bo-message-to-south-and-southeast-asia-consultation
Cardinal Bo: Message to South and Southeast Asia Consultation
Religious Freedom Institute March 29, 2018 SSEA
https://youtu.be/3kzigQIRWHQ
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57052f155559869b68a4f0e6/t/5abd46dd8a922d8a0be909fb/1522353886016/Cardinal+Bo+Greeting+for+Colombo+Consultation+%28March+15%29.pdf
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/news/press-release-the-rohingya-crisis
The Rohingya Crisis: The Shameful Global Response to Genocide and the Assault on Religious Freedom
Religious Freedom Institute August 15, 2018 Press Release, IRF Action Team, S & SE Asia Action Team
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57052f155559869b68a4f0e6/t/5b74681088251b23471de911/1534355480722/RFI-Rohingya+Crisis+-+August+2018.pdf
THE ROHINGYA CRISIS The Shameful Global Response to Genocide and the Assault on Religious Freedom
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/cornerstone/2016/7/14/tj7jtiv3wspvp389k5grgf56775xaw?rq=myanmar
Burma: Religious Freedom and Rohingya Muslims in Peril
Religious Freedom Institute July 14, 2016
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/cornerstone/2016/7/14/persecuted-and-stateless-the-crisis-of-rohingya-muslims?rq=Myanmar
Persecuted and Stateless: The Crisis of Rohingya Muslims
Religious Freedom Institute July 14, 2016
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/news/2017/press-release-rohingya-burma?rq=Myanmar
RFI Calls for End to Ethnic and Religious Cleansing of Muslim Rohingya in Western Burma
Religious Freedom Institute September 15, 2017 RFI Updates, Press Release, S & SE Asia Action Team
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/cornerstone/2016/7/14/religious-freedom-in-southeast-asia?rq=Myanmar
Religious Freedom in Southeast Asia
Religious Freedom Institute July 12, 2016
THE ROHINGYA CRISIS The Shameful Global Response to Genocide and the Assault on Religious Freedom
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57052f155559869b68a4f0e6/t/5b74681088251b23471de911/1534355480722/RFI-Rohingya+Crisis+-+August+2018.pdf
THE ROHINGYA CRISIS
The Shameful Global Response to Genocide
and the Assault on Religious Freedom
Briefly analyzes religious extremism in the global and Indian contexts and concludes that this poses the single biggest threat to India's national integrity. It could also be the driving force for a second Partition of India
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM INSTITUTE ORGANIZATION AND MYANMARMYO AUNG Myanmar
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM INSTITUTE ORGANIZATION AND MYANMAR
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/cornerstone/politicizing-religion?rq=Myanmar
Politicizing Religion
Paul Marshall October 1, 2018
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/blog/cardinal-bo-message-to-south-and-southeast-asia-consultation
Cardinal Bo: Message to South and Southeast Asia Consultation
Religious Freedom Institute March 29, 2018 SSEA
https://youtu.be/3kzigQIRWHQ
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57052f155559869b68a4f0e6/t/5abd46dd8a922d8a0be909fb/1522353886016/Cardinal+Bo+Greeting+for+Colombo+Consultation+%28March+15%29.pdf
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/news/press-release-the-rohingya-crisis
The Rohingya Crisis: The Shameful Global Response to Genocide and the Assault on Religious Freedom
Religious Freedom Institute August 15, 2018 Press Release, IRF Action Team, S & SE Asia Action Team
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57052f155559869b68a4f0e6/t/5b74681088251b23471de911/1534355480722/RFI-Rohingya+Crisis+-+August+2018.pdf
THE ROHINGYA CRISIS The Shameful Global Response to Genocide and the Assault on Religious Freedom
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/cornerstone/2016/7/14/tj7jtiv3wspvp389k5grgf56775xaw?rq=myanmar
Burma: Religious Freedom and Rohingya Muslims in Peril
Religious Freedom Institute July 14, 2016
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/cornerstone/2016/7/14/persecuted-and-stateless-the-crisis-of-rohingya-muslims?rq=Myanmar
Persecuted and Stateless: The Crisis of Rohingya Muslims
Religious Freedom Institute July 14, 2016
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/news/2017/press-release-rohingya-burma?rq=Myanmar
RFI Calls for End to Ethnic and Religious Cleansing of Muslim Rohingya in Western Burma
Religious Freedom Institute September 15, 2017 RFI Updates, Press Release, S & SE Asia Action Team
https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/cornerstone/2016/7/14/religious-freedom-in-southeast-asia?rq=Myanmar
Religious Freedom in Southeast Asia
Religious Freedom Institute July 12, 2016
THE ROHINGYA CRISIS The Shameful Global Response to Genocide and the Assault on Religious Freedom
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57052f155559869b68a4f0e6/t/5b74681088251b23471de911/1534355480722/RFI-Rohingya+Crisis+-+August+2018.pdf
THE ROHINGYA CRISIS
The Shameful Global Response to Genocide
and the Assault on Religious Freedom
This presentation examines on extremism and act of terror committed at the global level. Since extremism is an age-old phenomenon that existed all throughout in the history of mankind, the presentation will focus on the many forms of extremism that happen during this modern age of globalization and telecommunication. The crux of the presentation will focus on the root causes of extremism and how to remedy the ever increasing rate of terror attacks that happens all over the world. The researchers have also highlighted that it is unfair to associate extremism carried out by people to their religions. This sort of an unfair judgment has been done in the case of a Muslim to Islam, while the non-Muslim is associated to mental illness. Last but not least, the researchers call for a concerted effort from all, regardless race and religion to join force to eradicate extremism and make this world a safe place for all to live.
Geopolitical Analysis of Boko Haram, with few slides you will understand better, with numbers and story, this conflict who make ravages in Africa. I did this analysis in 3rd year of BBA at INSEEC. www.rayanehocine.com
US STATE DEPARTMENT RELEASE 2018 BURMA HUMAN RIGHT REPORT ON 13-3-2019 MYO AUNG Myanmar
US STATE DEPARTMENT RELEASE 2018 BURMA HUMAN RIGHT REPORT ON 13-3-2019
https://burmese.voanews.com/a/us-state-department-human-rights-report-2019/4827968.html?ltflags=mailer
ျမန္မာ့ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး စိုးရိမ္မကင္းျဖစ္မႈ ကန္အစီရင္ခံစာ ေထာက္ျပ
https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2019/03/290295.htm
https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/289277.pdf
Dr Sadek Hamid A Mapping of Islamist trends in the UK final version for CCEYahyaBirt1
Dr Hamid's 2019 commissioned paper for the Commission for Countering Extremism in the UK which was not published. It is published here for the sake of academic freedom.
Contra Costa faith and community leaders are uniting in their call for an end to mass incarceration and mass deportation. This is an overview of the Invest in People, Not Prisons campaign which helped shift over $4 million dollars in Contra Costa County away from a jail expansion and into investments in public services, job training, and housing for people coming home from prison.
This report has focused on certain minority communities, such as the Christian, Hindu and Ahmadi communities, because they are the most visible and most targeted communities for discrimination and violence. However, we recognise all minority communities in Pakistan as sovereign citizens of the state who deserve equality, justice and dignity.
My research indicates that minorities identify strongly with a Pakistani national identity, even as they are persecuted on the basis of their religious identity. Minorities who have a historical connection to this land and have been contributing members of society are now being targeted for their beliefs. Alongside, Pakistan needs to address and take measures to rectify the wide spread prejudice and intolerance within the government, the judiciary, law enforcement, the media, as well as society at large. Ultimately and fundamentally, transition from Pakistan’s currently institutionalised “two-tiered” citizenship, i.e., Muslim and non-Muslim, into one that ensures equality of all citizens and the plurality that was envisioned by Mohammad Ali Jinnah should be supported.
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI)inventionjournals
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI) is an international journal intended for professionals and researchers in all fields of Humanities and Social Science. IJHSSI publishes research articles and reviews within the whole field Humanities and Social Science, new teaching methods, assessment, validation and the impact of new technologies and it will continue to provide information on the latest trends and developments in this ever-expanding subject. The publications of papers are selected through double peer reviewed to ensure originality, relevance, and readability. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online.
Role of Organised Criminal Groups in Contemporary Forms of SlaveryCecilia Polizzi
The CRTG Working Group has has responded to the Call for Input of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. The submission regards organized criminal groups, including terrorist designated organizations, engaging in modern slavery in the Syrian Arab Republic and will be presented to the General Assembly 76th session in October 2021.
A former Marine Corps officer, John Guandolo resigned from the Corps to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For nearly two decades, he researched terrorism and trained agents on how to eliminate the terrorist movement. Due to his excellence in the field of counterterrorism, John Guandolo was invited to coauthor Shariah - The Threat to America.
This presentation examines on extremism and act of terror committed at the global level. Since extremism is an age-old phenomenon that existed all throughout in the history of mankind, the presentation will focus on the many forms of extremism that happen during this modern age of globalization and telecommunication. The crux of the presentation will focus on the root causes of extremism and how to remedy the ever increasing rate of terror attacks that happens all over the world. The researchers have also highlighted that it is unfair to associate extremism carried out by people to their religions. This sort of an unfair judgment has been done in the case of a Muslim to Islam, while the non-Muslim is associated to mental illness. Last but not least, the researchers call for a concerted effort from all, regardless race and religion to join force to eradicate extremism and make this world a safe place for all to live.
Geopolitical Analysis of Boko Haram, with few slides you will understand better, with numbers and story, this conflict who make ravages in Africa. I did this analysis in 3rd year of BBA at INSEEC. www.rayanehocine.com
US STATE DEPARTMENT RELEASE 2018 BURMA HUMAN RIGHT REPORT ON 13-3-2019 MYO AUNG Myanmar
US STATE DEPARTMENT RELEASE 2018 BURMA HUMAN RIGHT REPORT ON 13-3-2019
https://burmese.voanews.com/a/us-state-department-human-rights-report-2019/4827968.html?ltflags=mailer
ျမန္မာ့ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး စိုးရိမ္မကင္းျဖစ္မႈ ကန္အစီရင္ခံစာ ေထာက္ျပ
https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2019/03/290295.htm
https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/289277.pdf
Dr Sadek Hamid A Mapping of Islamist trends in the UK final version for CCEYahyaBirt1
Dr Hamid's 2019 commissioned paper for the Commission for Countering Extremism in the UK which was not published. It is published here for the sake of academic freedom.
Contra Costa faith and community leaders are uniting in their call for an end to mass incarceration and mass deportation. This is an overview of the Invest in People, Not Prisons campaign which helped shift over $4 million dollars in Contra Costa County away from a jail expansion and into investments in public services, job training, and housing for people coming home from prison.
This report has focused on certain minority communities, such as the Christian, Hindu and Ahmadi communities, because they are the most visible and most targeted communities for discrimination and violence. However, we recognise all minority communities in Pakistan as sovereign citizens of the state who deserve equality, justice and dignity.
My research indicates that minorities identify strongly with a Pakistani national identity, even as they are persecuted on the basis of their religious identity. Minorities who have a historical connection to this land and have been contributing members of society are now being targeted for their beliefs. Alongside, Pakistan needs to address and take measures to rectify the wide spread prejudice and intolerance within the government, the judiciary, law enforcement, the media, as well as society at large. Ultimately and fundamentally, transition from Pakistan’s currently institutionalised “two-tiered” citizenship, i.e., Muslim and non-Muslim, into one that ensures equality of all citizens and the plurality that was envisioned by Mohammad Ali Jinnah should be supported.
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI)inventionjournals
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI) is an international journal intended for professionals and researchers in all fields of Humanities and Social Science. IJHSSI publishes research articles and reviews within the whole field Humanities and Social Science, new teaching methods, assessment, validation and the impact of new technologies and it will continue to provide information on the latest trends and developments in this ever-expanding subject. The publications of papers are selected through double peer reviewed to ensure originality, relevance, and readability. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online.
Role of Organised Criminal Groups in Contemporary Forms of SlaveryCecilia Polizzi
The CRTG Working Group has has responded to the Call for Input of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. The submission regards organized criminal groups, including terrorist designated organizations, engaging in modern slavery in the Syrian Arab Republic and will be presented to the General Assembly 76th session in October 2021.
A former Marine Corps officer, John Guandolo resigned from the Corps to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For nearly two decades, he researched terrorism and trained agents on how to eliminate the terrorist movement. Due to his excellence in the field of counterterrorism, John Guandolo was invited to coauthor Shariah - The Threat to America.
Normalization With Cuban Characteristics: How Might Cuba Navigate Normalizati...Larry Catá Backer
Cuba has constructed a tightly woven framework of macro-economic policy and political structures around a unique application of European Marxist-Leninism. That framework has proven durable even in the face of substantial economic crisis and a political situation increasingly subject to internal pressures. Closer working ties with the United States will only exacerbate the tensions and contradictions of the current system. If Cuba means to keep a Marxist-Leninist political structure, something will have to evolve.
China, Law and the Foreigner: Mutual Engagements on a Global StageLarry Catá Backer
Prepared for the Conference: “Foreigners and Modern Chinese Law”, Tsinghua University School of Law, Beijing, China, July 9-10, 2016; Organized by Profgessors Xu Zhangrun and Chen Xinyu
Marilyn Brouette, clinician
Are your students college ready?
Expository Reading and Writing Strategies for independent study adapted from E.R.W.C.
California Consortium of Independent Study
November 17, 2014
San Diego, California
Shared Governance Under Stress: Reflections of the Chair of the Penn State Un...Larry Catá Backer
Presentation provided a review of the governance crisis at Penn State precipitated by the arrest of Mr. Sandusky and the termination of its President and Head Football Coach followed by unprecedented investigations and NCAA sanctions. The focus will be on the absence of faculty from any meaningful engagement in any of these events.
Human Rights Fracture in Context--Differences in Approaches to Realizing Huma...Larry Catá Backer
The early fracture of the unity of human rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into a focus on social economic and cultural rights on the one hand, and on political and civil rights on the other has deep implications for the focus and practice of human rights in context, especially within home states in multinational enterprise supply chain systems. These differences are more pronounced where the political context of home states may be different from accepted forms common in developed states. This is particularly the case with two of the most important emerging states--India and China. India provides an example of the approach to human rights protection in which economic and social rights are vindicated through the application of political and civil rights within a state in which individual rights are understood as constraints against state power and courts serve a critical mediating role. In China, on the other hand, civil and political rights are vindicated through the state and its role in ensuring the provision of social, economic and cultural rights through the administrative apparatus of the state, within a state in which individual welfare is understood as a core obligation fo the state to be vindicated through governmental action. These differences have important ramification for the way in which international human rights frameworks, like the UN Guiding Principles, may be successfully transposed in context. These are explored in the paper through examples from both states.
Senate Council Meeting Freeh Group Report 7 18-2012Larry Catá Backer
Purpose of meeting of the Penn State University Faculty Senate Council to consider next steps in implementing the Freeh Group recommendations for changes at Penn State in light of the Sandusky scandal.
On the constitution of transnational governance; comparative law and transnational legal pluralism in comparative corporate law, comparative constitutional law, administrative Law
Whose Crisis? Secular Liberalism, the Theocratic State and the Political Cons...Larry Catá Backer
2013 Law and Society Annual Meeting
An Existential Crisis for Secular Liberalism (Part I)
Fri May 31 2013, 12:30 to 2:15pm,
Building/Room: Boston Sheraton Hotel / Room 03
The Algorithms of Ideology in Economic Planning: A Critical Look at Cuba’s N...Larry Catá Backer
Short Abstract: The development plans of Marxist Leninist states are usually given short shrift as expressions of ideology (at best) and propaganda (at its most pathetic). Yet there is value in considering critically these development plans, if only to get a sense of the mindset of high level functionaries with control over macro-economic policy, and to get a sense of the administrative cultures within which governmental middle managers will actually exercise discretionary authority. Especially useful in that context is the Cuban Communist Party 7th Congress’s Conceptualización del modelo económico y social Cubano de desarrollo socialista: Plan nacional de desarrollo económico y social hasta 2030: Propuesta de vision de la nación, ejes y sectores estratégicos in which the PCC posited that development can be better managed by rejecting the central role of markets, and substituting state planning in its place, taking an all around view of economic planning as inextricably bound up in social, political and cultural progress of a nation. The resulting structural proposal elaborated in the Cuban National Economic and Social Development Plan 2030 (PNDES) suggests behavior and choice algorithms with interesting implications even if only partially realized. It is particularly important as a vision for transition developed in the wake of anticipated changes in higher leadership and the effects of normalization with the United States. This essay critically considers PNDES in the current context national and regional context. It starts with a brief analysis of PNDES for what it can reveal about entrenched ideological perspectives that shape decision making and analysis within Cuban Party and administrative elites. It then considers the way these appear to manifest themselves as a set of self-referencing decision systems that substitute or supplant market or regulatory determinations. Those premises are tested against Cuban approaches to the pharma sector, among the most important targets of centrally planned development. The essay ends with an assessment of the consequences of Cuban current approaches for national and regional affairs.
“One Belt One Road and RMB Internationalization—A Strategic Alliance” Larry Catá Backer
Focus: Consideration of the peripheral structures of Chinese trade and investment policy and its potential effects on RMB internationalization. Thesis: RMB internationalization is one small part of a larger more ambitious project: (1) External: An integral part of Chinese trade and development policies; an interlocking set of objectives to solidify the all around central position of China; (2) Internal: Core of socialist modernization and development of productive forces within China; situating China at center of global commerce essential for next stage of economic and political development.
Structures of discussion: (1) Situating RMB internationalization within broader issues of Chinese policy; (2) The OBOR initiative and related development efforts. Last section considers putting the pieces together; and (3) Tie it back to issues of reality (trade and investment use) and perception (consensus of others states)
Why are OBOR and RMB internationalization linked? (1) Stability; (2) Development; and (3) Control
Unpacking Accountability: The Multinational Enterprise, the State, and the In...Larry Catá Backer
Businesses, states and civil society are thought to be accountable. But to whome, and how? Effective imposition of accounting regimes requires a more nuanced understanding of the structures of the character and ecologies of accounting. Thesis:
In a working system of accountability Corporate Violations of Human Rights, Labor and Environmental Standards all stakeholders in the system must (1) bring each other to account, (2) be brought to account and (3) bring oneself to account.
The Privatization of Governance: Emerging Trends and ActorsLarry Catá Backer
Globalization's challenges, tensions and contradictions, indeed all of the variables that contribute toward the trajectory of globalization and its relationship to its principal actors, merely reinforce the primacy of globalization itself as a singular orthodoxy. And it is an orthodoxy that is itself embedded in the more fundamental governance orthodoxy of the mid-1945s from out of which the framework of its conception and operation was itself embedded. That orthodoxy itself posited a hierarchy in which politics served as the legitimating instrument of power, and that the state served as the apex organization of politics. That organization, itself, was expressed as the institutionalization of mass power framed within a set of fundamental substantive norms the limiting principles of which would be set by the community of states dominated by its leading members. Thus, the appearance of challenge and opposition that has been more sharply drawn since the start of this century might be understood as occurring within a carefully protected orthodoxy the object of which is to protect the primacy of politics (and law) with the state as its apex.
And yet, one of the great ironies of globalization is the way in which its effort to cement a framework orthodoxy after 1945 has served to overturn orthodoxy itself, and in its place, has ushered in an age of heterodoxy that is both ordered but anarchic. This presentation introduces some of the basic trends and actors that have emerged from out of the orthodox conceptual framework of globalization, and the extent to which these are contributing to its transformation as a vector of governance.
The Responsibilities of Banks, Sovereign Wealth Funds and Other Financial Ins...Larry Catá Backer
Extractive industries have been at center of CSR and environmental responsibilities debates at the national and international level. It has been noted that "The sector faces unique social and environmental challenges when operating in developing countries. Faced with these challenges, a number of Canadian companies are engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, generally defined as the voluntary activities undertaken by a company to operate in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner" (Building the Canadian Advantage: A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Strategy for the Canadian International Extractive Sector). These generally involve direct compliance. Domestic law focuses on the law and regulatory frameworks of home and host states. Soft law focuses on national (to a small extent) and more generally in international framing mechanisms and indigenous law (national an international). In addition, private law also applies--to the extent that extractive enterprises build their own internal governance systems applicable through their production chains worldwide.
But increasing there is a need to think about indirect compliance: especially the responsibilities of financial institutions, suppliers, and upstream customers to gauge their conduct by the legal/normative compliance of the extractives enterprise itself.
This presentation focuses on financial institutions and their responsibilities with respect to the human rights responsibilities of their borrowers.
Sovereign Wealth Funds, Capacity Building, Development, and Governance Larry Catá Backer
Abstract: Though operating in some form or another for over half a century, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) did not become an object of general attention until the early part of the 21st century when a combination of the need of developed states for investment and the growing acceptability of state investment in private markets abroad made them both threatening and convenient. Assured by the framework of the Santiago Principles most states now view SWFs as a useful multi-purpose sovereign investment vehicle. Yet over the last decade or so, SWFs appear to have developed the potential to become an important instrument in good governance and development, especially for resource rich and capacity poor developing states. Following the lead of Chile, and with the patronage of IFIs, these SWFs have begun to serve objectives as and with development banks both within and beyond their home state. This paper considers the capacity of SWFs to serve ends beyond mere fund value maximization as envisioned in the Santiago Principles. It explores the value of SWFs as a means of enhancing governance capacity in weaker states, its utility in enhancing development objectives, the emerging landscape of joint ventures among SWFs for development and their intersections with emerging infrastructure and development banks, and their importance in enhancing the operationalization of emerging international business and human rights standards not only within their own organizations but through their investment activities. A brief assessment of these trends ends the paper. Lastly it develops a set of transformative changes in approaches to SWF instrumentality that SWFs, especially the smaller SWFs and those in developing states, might deploy in structuring and operating their SWFs within a globalized economic order. These strategies are meant to avoid the circular characteristics of current discussions grounded on premises of finance instrument silos and state based systems that no longer accord with the realities of, and fail to take advantage of the possibilities now offered through, global finance and can be grouped into the three transforming categories suggested in Section III: regionalization strategies; financial objectives strategies; governance strategies.
Diversity in Legal Education: Considering the Hollow Spaces Between Speech an...Larry Catá Backer
Prepared for Event: All in at Penn State Law: Addressing Diversity & Implicit Bias; Sponsored by the Diversity Committee Penn State Law. March 16, 2017.
Institutions of post secondary education, has been struggling with the very hard work of moving from the embrace of flowery statements of solidarity respecting diversity to actually making it a lived reality in the environment in which students, staff, faculty and particularly administrators operate. (Statement From the Penn State University Faculty Senate Chair ). Much of the discussion has focused on obligation centers--students, faculty and others at the lowest end of the institutional pyramid. But fairly little attention has been paid to responsibility centers--middle Managers (deans and their staff), central university administrators. Is it time to refocus the analysis of diversity and diversity related programs from conformity at the bottom to shaping responsibility at the top? How does an institution create robust measures to assess and discipline those whose responsibility is to shape the organizational cultures of their units?
Presentation Delivered January 26, 2017Johns Hopkins University School of Education. his presentation will help to build a broader understanding of governance issues and models within academe and provide an overview of challenges to shared governance derived principally from a university model of faculty senate. Professor Backer has served as a member of Penn State’s University Faculty Senate in the capacities of Senate Chair, Parliamentarian, Representative for the Law School, and Chair, Co-Chair and Member of various senate committees. He maintains a website devoted to faculty voice entitled Monitoring University Governance with the mission of “promoting transparency and engagement in shared governance in universities and colleges.”
The Corporate Social Responsibilities of Financial Institutions for the Condu...Larry Catá Backer
Abstract: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be split along two distinct lines. The first touches on the nature of corporate personality and is rooted in domestic law regulating enterprises specifically and legal persons generally. The second touches on the nature of the rights of individuals and is rooted in international law (and sometimes domestic constitutional law) defining the scope of the human rights of individuals and the consequential obligations of states and legal persons. Both conversations intertwine though they tend to operate autonomously. In both cases, however, the traditional focus of corporate responsibility has focused on the relationship between an operating company and its direct effects on individuals, society and the environment. That discussion remains contentious, conflicted and unresolved. But it ignores a critical actor—the financial institutions which provide operating capital to enterprises. This paper considers the corporate social responsibilities of financial institutions, including sovereign wealth funds, for the conduct of their borrowers. The focus will be the extent of any duty or responsibility of lenders to ensure that their borrowers comply with CSR obligations (or alternatively conforms to international human rights standards) as a core aspect of their own CSR obligations (or alternatively) of their responsibility to respect human rights. Section II examines the general regulatory framework. There are two aspects that are relevant. The first is to understand the scope and character of the legal norms that may be applied to enterprises generally with respect to their operation’s that might be understood as CSR-human rights related in nature. The second is to consider the range of non-legal normative governance rules that might apply. In the process it will be important to distinguish between a CSR based regulatory approach and a human rights based approach. Section III considers the application of these norms to financial institutions. This requites distinguishing between those obligations that apply to the internal operations of financial institutions generally, and those obligations that apply to the financial institution’s obligations with respect to its lending activities, that is with respect to its relationship with its borrowers. The essay ends with a brief examination of recent cases in which financial institutions undertook such a responsibility, and the ways in which that obligation was undertaken. Three different types of institutions are considered—private banks, sovereign wealth funds and international financial institutions (IFIs). The paper ends with a preliminary consideration of the consequences of this movement for domestic CSR in the U.S.
Between the Judge and the Law—Judicial Independence and Authority With Chines...Larry Catá Backer
Abstract: What is the scope and nature of judicial reform? To what extent does borrowing from Western models also suggest an embrace of the underlying ideologies that frame those models? It is a common place in the West, whether in Common Law or Civil Law states, that the integrity of the judiciary depends on their authority to interpret law and to apply that interpretation to individual cases and the litigants that appear before the courts. That presumption, however, embeds premises about the organization of political and administrative authority that may be incompatible with those of states developing Socialist Rule of Law structures within Party-State systems. In Common law states those deep presumptions touch on the disciplinary role of judicial opinions as a constraint on judicial interpretation. In civil law states that discipline arises from the constraining principles of the legal codes themselves. In both the legislatures serve as the ultimate check in a complex dialogue with courts in three respects. First, judges serve a political role in their relation to law. Second, cases themselves serve an important political role as well. Third, courts begin to serve as the place where societal narratives are forged and popular expression is constructed and applied. In Socialist rule of law systems, the disciplinary systems are quite different and ought to produce a different relationship between courts, law, and the cases they are bound to apply fairly and consistently under law. This paper considers the way that the logic and grounding principles of Chinese Marxist Leninism may provide guidance in the construction of a judicial enterprise that is both true to its organizational logic and which enhances the authority of judges to serve litigants fairly. It suggests the points of compatibility and incompatibility in the ideologies of these distinct systems of judging and what it may mean for judicial reform in China. That consideration, in turn is based on a fundamental difference, in Socialist Rule of Law systems, between the authority to interpret law and the authority to apply law to an individual case. For Chinese judicial reform it is in the perfectibility of the judge that lies the perfectibility of law that in turn ensures the perfectibility of the judge. Part II considers in very broad strokes the relationship between the judge and law in the West. Part III then considers Chinese reforms touching on the relationship between the judge and the law, and the evolution of normative structures within which one can speak to judicial independence. Part IV then considers the project from the perspective of the grounding ideology of the Chinese state. From that fundamental distinction, the paper will propose a Socialist approach to the judicial function compatible with its own logic and legitimacy enhancing under global consensus principles for a well-organized and functioning judiciary.
中国,法律与外国人:国际舞台上的相互交融 ("China, Law, and the Foreigner: Mutual Engagements on a...Larry Catá Backer
外国人在中西法律交流中的角色类似于新中国前的情形。
这表明了中西法律交流的典型形态
这表明了中国人自身在“走出去”的战略中可以从中西法律交流中摄取经验。
内部思考:是否可以从党的“建设社会主义现代化”中发展出一套思维—以实事求是的态度来发展现代化。
外部:中国人是否可以避免西方曾经的错误,从而变成他国之上的“老外”?"China, Law, and the Foreigner: Mutual Engagements on a Global Stage," considered the structures of patterns of engagements between China and foreigners from the template well established by the end of the Qing dynasty. Drawing form those patterns, the paper developed a number of archetypes that I suggested could provide a useful framework for analysis. Those archetypes also suggested lessons for China as its now assumed the position of inferential foreigner in other states.
Central Planning Versus Markets Marxism: The Cuban Communist Party Confronts ...Larry Catá Backer
The 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party stands in stark contrast to its predecessor. The 6th PCC Congress appeared to usher in an era of at least limited opening up and the institutionalization of a private sector of sorts. Yet the 7th PCC Congress in many respects appeared to disappoint. Procedurally it appeared to mark a step back from the openness of the 6th Congress. And it offered little by way of political opening up, even an opening up ushering in more robust intra-Party democracy. Most importantly, the 7th PCC Congress appeared to fall far short of confronting the economic model reaffirmed in the 4th PCC Congress—a model of central planning and Soviet bureaucratic mechanisms substituting for any sort of markets based regulation of economic activity. This paper considers the potential and the missed opportunities of the 7th PCC Congress. A close reading of the 7th PCC Congress will suggest the limits of reform in Cuba. Ideological limits are suggested by a political timidity that has been built into the operating culture of the PCC. As a consequence the PCC is finding it hard to move even from soviet style central planning ideologies to Marxist market ideologies that have proven more successful in other states. The PCC is suffering from a paralysis that may be more dangerous to its long term authority than any machinations originating in its enemies. The paper ends with a consideration of options and likely movement over the short term moving forward.
Transnational Law and the Multinational Enterprise: From Legal Concept/Method...Larry Catá Backer
At first blush, transnational law’s engagement with TNCs reflects the situational and ad hoc approach of the transnational law project. Transnational law tends to focus on the TNC as an actor apart, like the state, within transnational law situational processes.
Like the state, TNCs are governance singularities into which law can be poured, extracting coherent action. It moves the TNC from the construction of a category to consequential instrumentalism
But is this relationship between TNCs and transnational law construct TNCs too restrictively?
Does it fail to describe the reality of TNCs (the problem of definition)?
Should we consider TNCs as a transnational legal order in its own right (the systems issue)?
Should we consider TNCs instead as the constitution of production chains (the conflation issue)?
Presented at “Jessup’s Bold Proposal: Engagements with 'Transnational Law’ after Sixty Years” Transnational Law Institute, The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College, London, Friday-Saturday 1-2 July 2016
Financial Sector Responsibility for Human Rights Conduct of Borrowers: What W...Larry Catá Backer
Extractive industries have been at center of CSR and environmental responsibilities debates at the national and international level
The sector faces unique social and environmental challenges when operating in developing countries. Faced with these challenges, a number of Canadian companies are engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, generally defined as the voluntary activities undertaken by a company to operate in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner. Building the Canadian Advantage: A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Strategy for the Canadian International Extractive Sector
To what extent are financial institutions responsible for the human rights breaches of their borrowers?
“While the obligation for the protection of human rights lies with the state, IFIs and their member states also have responsibilities to ensure that activities they support do not cause, or contribute to, human rights abuses by putting in place adequate safeguards.” Statement of Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to UN Human Rights Council. How might these obligations constrain borrowers?
Trail By Fire: Rana Plaza and Transnational Legal Orders Larry Catá Backer
Considering the construction of transnational legal orders through the lens of a deep study of the aftermath of the Rana Plaza Factory building collapse in 2013.
Analysis of the General Program of the Chinese COmmunist Party COnstitution as a basis for theorizing the fundamental principles of Chinese political and legal theory
Global Corporate Social Responsibility (GCSR) Standards With Cuban Characteri...Larry Catá Backer
This paper suggests the issues that may face Cuba and enterprises, including U.S. based enterprises, in the wake of normalization. After the introduction, Part II considers briefly the local legal and political context in which enterprises may operate in Cuba, with particular focus on Ley No. 118/2014 (De la Inversión Extranjera), and its contextualization within the legal structures of Cuban macro-economic policy. Part III then outlines two important standards systems for global CSR with effect in Cuba, the OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the U.N. Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights. Part IV then considers the ways in which MNEs may have to approach their investment activities in light of these standards, the pressures for change they might produce, and the adverse effects their adverse effects on MNE decisions to invest or operate in Cuba.
Institutionalization of Faculty Role in Shared Governance: The Faculty Senate...
From Secular Liberalism to "Hobby LobbY"--the State
1. Secular Liberalism, the Faith Communities State,
and the Political Consequences of an Unbalanced
Privileging of Religion for Multi-Religious States
• Conference “Law and Human Rights in a Post Secular,
– Mississippi College School of Law
– March 28-29, 2014
• Larry Catá Backer
– W. Richard and Mary Eshelman Faculty Scholar & Professor of Law,
– Professor of International Affairs
– Pennsylvania State University
• 239 Lewis Katz Building University Park, PA 16802
• 1.814.863.3640 (direct), lcb11@psu.edu
2. The Problem
• On the one hand Western elites continue to cultivate a broad solicitude for
religion—not merely as individual belief but as an organized force with
institutional life.
• On the other, it is increasingly willing to admit (or unable to prevent) the
participation of religion in political life—but protected by the privilege of
religion against broad in the give and take of political contests.
• At the international level this is evidenced in the continuing efforts to develop a
consensus among the community of states that would constitutionalize religious
solicitude in the form of prohibitions against insulting or blaspheming religion
and its sacred objects and habits.
• At the domestic level, it is evidenced by a greater willingness to permit the
secular state to be organized within frameworks of religious values.
2
3. The Issue
• This paper considers the issue of the "return" of religion
from a comparative constitutional perspective.
• THESIS:
– where the apparatus of institutional religion seeks to
enter into the political life of a state its religious beliefs
ought not to be accorded any particular deference.
• The interactions of blasphemy, democracy, hierarchy and
religion, then, are the subjects of this essay.
3
4. My Roadmap
• Part II
– considers the relationship between rule of law and blasphemy in Pakistan and its
implications.
• Part III
– considers the effects of this framework on the democratic foundations of Pakistan.
• Part IV
– extends the analysis to the Sudan and its interrelations with foreigners.
• Part V
– considers the way Western secular states have facilitated this new role for religion
in places like Afghanistan.
• Part VI
– considers the political consequences in theocratic States
• Part VII
– concludes with a consideration of the resulting nature of the dilemma in Western
style states.
4
5. Law and blasphemy in Pakistan
5
Asia Bibi and The State:
The form of secular rule Vs. Functional
objective to protect privilege
Law state vs. norm-state
6. The Story
• 2 versions
– Shabaz Bhatti (Catholic Minister Minority Affairs)
• Bibi drew the ire of fellow farmhands after a dispute in June
2009, when they refused to drink water she collected and she refused
their demands that she convert to Islam. The women reported the
incident to a cleric, who concluded that Bibi had committed blasphemy
and then gathered a crowd that forced her to the police station. He said
that the police did not investigate and that a court, without hearing
Bibi's full account, handed down a death sentence 4 months later.
– Popular Press
• Asia Bibi while working in a field with several Muslim women in a
village southwest of Lahore said that "the Quran is fake and your
prophet remained in bed for one month before his death because he
had worms in his ears and mouth. He married Khadija just for money
and after looting her kicked her out of the house," local police official
Muhammad Ilyas told CNN
6
7. Democracy, Blasphemy and Law in
Pakistan
7
Mass
democracy:
The Weimar
model and
shadow
constitutionali
sm of the
social will;
Democracy
from
objective to
method
8. The Story
• Salmaan Taseer, governor of Punjab province and a critic of the laws,
who was shot by a member of his security detail. The shooter, Mumtaz
Qadri, later said he killed Mr. Taseer because of the politician's
opposition to the laws. Mr. Taseer was a member of the Pakistan
People's Party, which runs the governing coalition, and was close to
President Asif Ali Zardari."
– If you kill an innocent person, it means you are killing all humanity," said Mohammed
Ziaul Haq, a council spokesman and author whose new book is titled "WikiLeaks:
America's Horrendous Face." "Islam is a religion of peace and love, and it asks its
followers to restrain themselves."
– But killing in response to blasphemy is another matter, he said, making it "totally
different from terrorism.'' The government had done nothing to silence Taseer's
criticism of the blasphemy ban, he said, or his support for a Christian woman
sentenced to death for the law, which he said had made Taseer an "indirect"
blasphemer himself. "Ninety percent of people in Pakistan think Mumtaz Qadri is a
hero,"
• The democratic process has been invoked to ensure that while religion
can participate in politics, it is insulated from attack, ostensibly on
religious grounds.
8
9. Blasphemy and Foreigners: Sudan
9
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1687755,00.html
The Blasphemous Teddy Bear, Time
Popular Assembly – Colonialism – Religion – the Foreign –
speaking to the natives
10. The Story
• Gillian Gibbons, a citizen of the United Kingdom, took it into her head to
travel to the Sudan to do good as she saw it. There she sought to teach
children at a Sudanese primary school, appropriately named the Unity
High School.
– “In September, Mrs Gibbons allowed her class of primary school pupils to name the
teddy bear Muhammad as part of a study of animals and their habitats.
– She was arrested after another member of staff at Unity High School complained to
the Ministry of Education.”
– She was ultimately convicted of the generic catch all charge—insulting religion (that is
Islam, since it does not appear that the provision extends beyond that construction of
the offense in fact if not in law). “It is seen as an insult to Islam to attempt to make an
image of the Prophet Muhammad.”
– She might have been charged and convicted of graver offenses—inciting hatred (of
Islam) or showing contempt (of Islam).
– Mrs Gibbons apologised to the court for any offence she may have caused.” Id.
Gratitude for the kindness of the court abounded. “The school's director, Robert
Boulos, told the AP news agency: ‘It's a very fair verdict, she could have had six
months and lashes and a fine, and she only got 15 days and deportation.’
10
11. “Teddy” in the Service of ironies or perversions?
• 1. Symbolic role and means of developing public
expression, but in tension with liberalism from
which expression derived,
• 2.Expression reveals the power and shape of norm-
state rule of law systems (shar’ia)
• 3. Expression shaped by the colonialist past shaping
religious reaction
• 4. Tension between internal and external rules of
popular expression.
11
12. Western Constructs: Afghanistan
--Islam considers conversion to another religion a grave insult to God.
--In some Muslim states including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan, it is punishable by death.
--Abdul Rahman, an Afghan convert toChristianity pictured at right during his trial for apostasy,
only escaped death in 2006 because of an international outcry; he found refuge in Italy.
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2008/03/23/vatican-baptism-raises-questions-about-
catholic-muslim-dialogue/
12
13. Irony and order in Polities Privileging Religion
• Abdul Rahman points ot the consequences of
ordering polities in religion privileging states
• The body of the faithful the body of the polity
– Compare CCP and Chinese polity
• Apostasy and treason merge
• Malaysia
– Ethnicity and religion merge (characteristic of Malay
ethnicity is Islam)
13
15. The Interpretive Community
• Legal discourse as theology/error as sin/politics of impiety
– The religious elite is set to use impiety against their political opponents. Legal and
constitutional discourse is now possible only through religious discourse. The
Pakistani blasphemy model is inverted; the priest has become the judge.
• In 2009, Iran's Supreme Leader accused the opposition of breaking the
law by insulting the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged opposition leaders to identify
"those behind the insult to Imam Khomeini". The remarks centre on an
alleged incident last Monday during which a poster of Imam Khomeini
was torn up. Opposition leaders say the alleged incident - shown on
state television - has been doctored.
– And not just in Iran. Indonesia adopted a blasphemy law overseen by an Islamist
Board, Bakor Pakem, that sits in the Attorney General’s office In the course of
investigations of religious offenses. “In February 2006, 40 Sunni clerics and four
police officers signed a public statement, declaring that Shia Islam was heretical.
The statement mentioned two meetings with Shia clerics, in which the Shia were
told to return to “real Islam” but refused to do so
15
16. political consequences: the “Teddy”
problem comes home
16
There was an uproar in Britain recently when Sudan charged a British teacher with blasphemy for allowing her
pupils to name a teddy bear Mohammad. Do you think London should sweep in front of its own door before
criticising blasphemy laws elsewhere? Reuters Jan. 2008 http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2008/01/11/blasphemy-
and-the-beast-as-britain-debates-church-state-ties/
Deutsche Oper: Idomeneo
Uneven religious sensibilities
17. Benedict XVI in Brazil
• Benedict issued a statement, that he supported the position of the
Mexican bishops who has threatened to excommunicate Mexican
politicians who voted in favor of the legalization of abortion within
Mexico City. When the Brazilian Health Minister, himself a Catholic, was
asked about the threat of excommunication for officials that acted
contrary to the will of the Magisterium of the Church, he responded
• “a fé não pode ser excommungada” (faith cannot be excommunicated).
– In effect, Benedict rejects the notion of a "soft Catholicism" in the same way that
many in the Muslim world have rejected a version of "soft Islam.”
– Benedict suggests, and from his perspective not incorrectly, that faith is the
paramount community, and that the obligation of the faithful must seamlessly
conform to its requisites in all of the individual's actions--both personal and
representational. One can only represent others in a political system by being true to
the tenets of one's faith obligations.
– Thus, faithfulness to the political community may require faithlessness to the
community of the faithful—at least to the extent that faith communities seeks to
universalize its mores over the body of different believers.
17
18. Character of the Crisis of Secular
Liberalism
• Rule of law . . . . . And religion
• Direct democracy. . . . . .and religion
• Apostasy/treason. . . . . And religion
• Interpretation/Participation . . . . . .and religion
• Foreigners/minorities. . . . . . And religion
• Representation in Multi Religious political
communities . . . . And religion
18
19. The Spectre of Hobby Lobby
• Rule of law . . . . . And religion
• Direct democracy. . . . . .and religion
• Apostasy/treason. . . . . And religion
• Interpretation/Participation . . . . . .and religion
• Foreigners/minorities. . . . . . And religion
• Representation in Multi Religious political
communities . . . . And religion
19
20. Summing Up
• Institutional religion is returning to the state
• But is it ready to engage in politics without the
protection of its privilege?
• The rise of blasphemy, insulting religion or inciting
religious hatred and the use of excommunication
suggests not.
• The consequence will be transformative, but not
necessarily in a way that is compatible with
framework political notions of Western liberal
democracies.
20