scholarly journals Looking at the World Bank’s safeguard reform through the lens of deliberative democracy

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Houghton
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Law ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Consultation Process ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Law Making

AbstractThe sheer amount of non-state participation in the creation of the World Bank Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) is surely noteworthy. The aim of the Bank’s consultation was to get ‘global’ input and feedback, and with over 8,000 stakeholders from over 63 countries taking part, it is laudable. The extent of the participation challenges the positivist approach to international law-making, which views only states as having the power to make law and raises questions about how to legitimize such international soft-law making. Legitimacy is entangled with democracy, as scholars debate whether democracy is the required benchmark for decision-making processes at international organizations. This article uses deliberative democracy to analyse the ESF consultation process. Whilst, democratic legitimacy has been interpreted to mean inclusivity and participation, deliberative democracy raises a series of hard questions about equality and power that scholarship on global governance needs to grapple with. Although this participatory process at the World Bank challenges traditional narratives in international law, analysing it through a lens of deliberative democracy exposes the work that still needs to be done to discuss democracy in international decision-making.

Recognized and Violated by International Law: The Human Rights of the Global Poor

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 717-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
THOMAS POGGE
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
World Bank ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
The World

Various human rights are widely recognized in codified and customary international law. These human rights promise all human beings protection against specific severe harms that might be inflicted on them domestically or by foreigners. Yet international law also establishes and maintains institutional structures that greatly contribute to violations of these human rights: fundamental components of international law systematically obstruct the aspirations of poor populations for democratic self-government, civil rights, and minimal economic sufficiency. And central international organizations, such as the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank, are designed so that they systematically contribute to the persistence of severe poverty.

scholarly journals A managerial approach for the coherent development of sustainable development law

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-99
Author(s):  
Stephanie De Moerloose ◽  
Makane Moïse Mbengue
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
International Law ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Integrated Development ◽  
Multilateral Development Banks ◽  
Law System ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Development Banks ◽  
European Investment

While judicial bodies have proliferated in the last fifty years in a process that has been deemed “quasi-anarchic” (Guillaume, G., 2000) creating a risk of inconsistency in their decisions which would endanger the international law system, quasi-judicial bodies such as Multilateral Development Banks' accountability mechanisms are not spared by this legal phenomenon. They have diverse proceedings and jurisdictions, operate with different sets of environmental and social safeguards, but may confront similar factual scenarios, especially in the case of co-financing. The recent Kenya Electricity Expansion Project presented before the World Bank and the European Investment Bank’s accountability mechanisms illustrates that, through a managerial approach, potentially conflicting findings can be avoided. This paper aims to show that quasi-judicial bodies can constitute a source of inspiration for the integrated development of international law.

scholarly journals Biased Policy Professionals

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheheryar Banuri ◽  
Stefan Dercon ◽  
Varun Gauri
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Development ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Private Capacity ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Subject Pool ◽  
The World ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Although the decisions of policy professionals are often more consequential than those of individuals in their private capacity, there is a dearth of studies on the biases of policy professionals: those who prepare and implement policy on behalf of elected politicians. Experiments conducted on a novel subject pool of development policy professionals (public servants of the World Bank and the Department for International Development in the UK) show that policy professionals are indeed subject to decision-making traps, including the effects of framing outcomes as losses or gains, and, most strikingly, confirmation bias driven by ideological predisposition, despite having an explicit mission to promote evidence-informed and impartial decision making. These findings should worry policy professionals and their principals in governments and large organizations, as well as citizens themselves. A further experiment, in which policy professionals engage in discussion, shows that deliberation may be able to mitigate the effects of some of these biases.

New Member of the International Committee

1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (111) ◽  
pp. 326-326
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Plenary Session ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Assistant Director ◽  
Federal Administration

At its plenary session on 14 May 1970, the International Committee of the Red Cross elected Mr. Victor H. Umbricht as a new member.Mr. Umbricht was born at Untersiggenthal in the canton of Aargau in 1915. After studying at various universities he obtained a doctorate in international law. He was a member of the Tribunal of Baden and then, from 1941 to 1953, was in the Swiss diplomatic service. He subsequently became assistant director of operations at the World Bank, Washington, for Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. In 1957 he was appointed Director of the Federal Administration of Finances in Bern.

Resistance Is Futile – You Will Be Assimilated

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 259-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSAN MATHEWS
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
World Bank ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Light And Shadow ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

Sigrun Skogly, The Human Rights Obligations of the World Bank and the IMF, London, Cavendish Publishing, 2001, ISBN 1859416659, 240 pp., £71.50 (pb).Mac Darrow, Between Light and Shadow:The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and International Human Rights Law, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2003, ISBN 1841133906, 376 pp., £42.00.00 (hb).Balakrishnan Rajagopal, International Law from Below: Development, Social Movements and Third World Resistance, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0521016711, 360 pp., £19.99 (pb).

scholarly journals Facts, Evidence and the Burden of Proof in the World Bank Group Sanctions System

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 685-702
Author(s):  
Joachim Åhman
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Burden Of Proof ◽  
World Bank Group ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
Procedural Law ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Bank Group

ABSTRACT The large and growing number of international judicial and quasi-judicial bodies has made international procedural law an important part of public international law. This article examines how procedural rules of a certain type—provisions related to facts, evidence, and the burden of proof—have been designed in the World Bank Group Sanctions System. The main conclusion is that such rules play a central role, and that considerable efforts have been made during the last two decades to develop a well-functioning body of procedural provisions. However, the article also argues that certain parts of the system could be developed further, in order to make it as clear as possible what is expected from the different actors in the proceedings.

Managing data using an ontology for enterprise decision making: a case of the World Bank

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 326
Author(s):  
Tengku Adil Tengku Izhar ◽  
Torab Torabi ◽  
Trieu Minh Nhut Le
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
World Bank ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World
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