friday question: should law students be reading literature? October 4, 2013
Posted by Bradley in : law , add a commentThis New York Times piece, reporting on David Kidd and Emanuele Castano‘s article, Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind suggests that the answer may be yes.
improved consultations October 3, 2013
Posted by Bradley in : consultation , add a commentTwo examples of what I would like to see more of in consultations: from the EU’s crowdfunding consultation, and the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consultation on the regulation of consumer credit. Although comments can currently be submitted to the EU crowdfunding consultation in English only the web page suggests that it will soon be possible to submit comments in German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Polish. The consultation landing page seems to be available only in English French and German, and right now it seems that the consultation document is only available in English. So there is some improvement in terms of openness to comments from people who don’t write English (who presumably will rely on online sources and newspapers for information about the consultation). Increasing the amount of translation would enhance transparency further.
The FCA’s consumer credit consultation explicitly invites comments from regular people:
The majority of adults in the UK are customers, or potential customers, of financial services firms. So anyone may be interested in commenting on how we propose to regulate consumer credit firms.
And there’s an outline of the proposals in addition to the 193 page consultation document and 429 pages of appendices. But although the FCA seems to be trying to communicate with people and not just with regulated firms, this article in the Guardian which describes some aspects of the proposals does not encourage people to comment on them but rather seems to present the proposed new rules as a done deal. The Independent takes a similar approach, although an article on the Express website states that “a consultation is open until December 3 and the FCA will publish its final rules and guidance in February.” Which? announced that it is collecting consumers’ stories of their experiences with the credit industry to share them with the FCA.
lady hale on women judges October 2, 2013
Posted by Bradley in : gender , add a commentFrom the Independent:
Lady Justice Hale, who is still the only woman amongst the 12 Supreme Court judges, said: “While I am flattered and proud to have been the first woman to have been appointed as a law lord in 2004, I don’t want to be the last. I’m disappointed that in the 10 years since I was appointed, not one among the 13 subsequent appointments to this court has been a woman.”
cake, anyone? October 1, 2013
Posted by Bradley in : inequality , add a commentOr, rather, home-baked granary bread made from locally sourced flour (anyone can do it, and it’s better for you). And there’s more austerity to come.
what it would be like to teach a course based on decisions of women judges… September 28, 2013
Posted by Bradley in : gender , add a commentA thought experiment prompted (in part) by reading this article.
more uk anti-union moves September 19, 2013
Posted by Bradley in : inequality , add a commentBusiness good, unions bad. Deloitte wins a Big Society award. On top of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill 2013-14 (latest version here), the UK Government issues a call for evidence about what is characterized as a huge waste of resources in paying trade union representatives who are teachers for time off to do union work. The actual call for evidence is drafted in relatively moderate terms but the press release states:
There is also evidence that taxpayers are funding a large number of union representatives who are paid as teachers but do not spend any of their contracted time, whether they are full or part time, teaching. This creates additional work for the very many hardworking teachers across the country. Some of these local, regional and national union representatives have therefore not taught in a school for many years. Some are nominally employed as ‘home tutors’ by their local authority, while others receive large salaries on the teachers’ scale (in some cases up to £70,000 a year) but have no teaching timetable or leadership responsibilities. This represents a significant cost to the taxpayer of many millions of pounds.
uk lobbying regulation bill – second reading September 3, 2013
Posted by Bradley in : lobbying , add a commentThe Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill 2013-14 is having its second reading in Parliament today (Richard III, fracking, BSkyB, and tobacco have featured in the debate). The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee issued a call for, and received, written evidence about the regulation of consultant lobbyists under the Bill. Many of the submissions argued that the Bill would create uncertainty and risked reducing rather than enhancing transparency with respect to lobbying. The Committee took oral evidence today. Meanwhile, charities and even MPs have expressed concern about the Bill. The NCVO published legal advice it obtained about the Bill from Helen Mountfield QC which identifies a number of problems of uncertainty. For example:
Much of the activity which charities and VSOs undertake is, by its nature, policy-orientated and therefore ‘political’ in the widest sense. In my view, many materials produced by charities and VSOs compatibly with the guidance in the Charity Commission Guidance CCR9 are capable of falling within the definition of ‘election materials’ (in s85(3) PPERA as it stands), or of being for an ‘election purpose’ (in s85 (2A) and s85(3) PPERA as prospectively amended by clause 26 of the Bill)… For example, an anti-poverty charity which advocates continuing to spend a particular proportion of GDP on overseas aid and publishes material saying so during the relevant period could ‘reasonably be regarded’ as intending to promote or procure electoral success for a party or parties or candidates who advocate the same in connection with future elections, even though such material could reasonably be regarded as also intended to achieve another purpose such as maintaining a high level of public expenditure on poverty reduction abroad. Thus, expenditure on materials of this kind during the year before a general election could well fall within the definition of ‘election materials’ in PPERA as it stands.
september is hunger action month September 2, 2013
Posted by Bradley in : food , add a commentYou can help Feeding America or one of the local offshoots such as Feeding South Florida which states:
In South Florida, 949,910 individuals don’t know from where they will get their next meal. More than 296,000 of those individuals are children and over 150,000 are older adults.
critique of uk proposals to regulate lobbying July 23, 2013
Posted by Bradley in : transparency , add a commentThe Alliance for Lobbying Transparency describes the new UK proposals in the “Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill 2013-14” as plans to set up a “fake register.” As the Alliance points out, the proposals to regulate lobbying are to apply to “consultant lobbying” which is defined to occur where in the course of a business and in return for payment, the person makes communications “personally to a Minister of the Crown or permanent secretary”on behalf of another person or persons relating to legislation, government policy, contracting, grants, licensing and authorizations and governmental functions. The complexity of this definition and what it covers and doesn’t cover is quite dramatic. I don’t know what making communications “personally” means (written and oral communications are covered). You have to look at Schedule 1 to the Bill to see that consultant lobbying does not include people and firms whose “business .. is mainly a non-lobbying business” (firms of solicitors, for example). Nor does it include people and firms which act “generally as a representative of persons of a particular class or description” where “the income of the person .. derives wholly or mainly from persons of that class or description”, and “the making of communications within section 2(3) on behalf of those persons is no more than an incidental part of that general activity” (trade associations, environmental groups etc.). But the transparency word in the Bill title isn’t really apt here.
From the Government’s perspective it looks as though the really important lobbying-related issue is to do with Trades Unions: there’s a consultation paper about how to create more transparency with respect to trades unions which states:
As membership organisations, it is important that trade union decisions reflect the will of all their members. Knowing who their members are and being able to engage them is intrinsic to a union’s democratic accountability.
What about other membership organizations that take positions on policy? Why not make trade associations disclose who all their members are and how the positions they take on policy issues reflect the interests of their members?
transparencies: spying and trade negotiations July 2, 2013
Posted by Bradley in : transparency , add a commentHenri Malosse, President of the European Economic and Social Committee said he was “shocked by the level of naiveté on the part of the European institutions” which objected on revelations of US spying. It’s difficult to believe that the objections were down to naivete rather than an act. But Malosse does make some very good points about who is granted seats at the tables where policies are worked out:
I am even more shocked by the fact that concerning trade negotiations, the European Commission applies the policy of blackout on its entire mandate on the draft transatlantic market, for example, by denying access to some meetings to legitimate representatives of trade unions, to civil society, to small and medium-sized enterprises, to the European Economic and Social Committee, the second assembly of the EU, and even the European Parliament itself.
While at the same time, the Commission maintains no secret with regard to certain lobbies – particularly those of large companies, but also apparently … for the “big ears” of our American cousins​​!”