Professor Jerome A. Cohen assessed recent U.S.-China criminal justice disputes in the historical context. Dr. Murray Scot Tanner focused on contemporary criminal justice and anti-torture regulations in China. Dr. Michael D. Swaine moderated the discussion.
Stephen Golub discusses his new Working Paper that challenges rule of law orthodoxy.
The challenge of building democratic societies in Central Asia is becoming more profound with each passing year, and unfortunately there are no easy answers to the question of how to alter this situation.
Discussants examine the influence of the Chinese Communist Party leadership on judicial independence in China.
Major oil producers in West Africa and Latin America can make an important contribution to US energy security, since they are not affected by the intractable problems of the Middle East. They have problems of their own, however, and to mitigate them, the U.S. should encourage transparency and democratic processes in the distribution of oil revenue.
Contrary to claims that the war on Iraq was the product of a vast conspiracy peddled by a small band of neoconservatives, history shows that, even under the Clinton administration, Iraq was perceived as a strategic threat due to Saddam's proven record of aggression and barbarity, his admitted possession of weapons of mass destruction, and the certain knowledge of his programs to build more.
The international aid field of law and development focuses too much on law, lawyers and state institutions, and too little on development, the poor and civil society. In fact, it is doubtful whether "rule of law orthodoxy," the dominant paradigm pursued by many international agencies, should be the central means for integrating law and development.