Placing sustainable development at the heart of government in the UK: the role of law in the evolution of sustainable development as the central organising principle of government

Legal Studies ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 578-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Jenkins

The government has made a commitment to ensure that sustainable development is placed at the heart of decision-making. The UK's strategy has primarily involved the development of voluntary measures to achieve sustainable development in policy-making. These measures are monitored by a Sustainable Development Commission and, most importantly, a parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee. However, a number of public bodies also have a statutory duty in respect of sustainable development. These duties do not create enforceable legal obligations, but may have significant value as a clear statement of policy on the achievement of sustainable development – providing political leadership at the highest level. It is essential to this aim that the government provides a clear message regarding the objective of sustainable development. However, close investigation of these duties reveals not only a partial legal framework, but a number of inconsistencies in the government's approach to the achievement of sustainable development.

Author(s):  
Asha Bajpai

The chapter commences with the change in the perspective and approach relating to children from welfare to rights approach. It then deals with the legal definition of child in India under various laws. It gives a brief overview of the present legal framework in India. It states briefly the various policies and plans, and programmes of the Government of India related to children. International law on the rights of the child is enumerated and a summary of the important judgments by Indian courts are also included. The chapter ends with pointing out the role of civil society organizations in dealing with the rights of the child and a mention of challenges ahead.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léa Sébastien ◽  
Tom Bauler ◽  
Markku Lehtonen

This article examines the various roles that indicators, as boundary objects, can play as a science-based evidence for policy processes. It presents two case studies from the EU-funded POINT project that analyzed the use and influence of two highly different types of indicators: composite indicators of sustainable development at the EU level and energy indicators in the UK. In both cases indicators failed as direct input to policy making, yet they generated various types of conceptual and political use and influence. The composite sustainable development indicators served as “framework indicators”, helping to advocate a specific vision of sustainable development, whereas the energy indicators produced various types of indirect influence, including through the process of indicator elaboration. Our case studies demonstrate the relatively limited importance of the characteristics and quality of indicators in determining the role of indicators, as compared with the crucial importance of “user factors” (characteristics of policy actors) and “policy factors” (policy context).


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (02) ◽  
pp. 216-227
Author(s):  
Abustan Abustun

Dalam perjalanan ketatanegaraan Indonesia, sistem pemerintahan desa kembali mulai diseragamkan melalui Undang-Undang Nomor 6 Tahun 2014 tentang Desa. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjelaskan peran lembaga pemerintahan desa dalam pelaksanaan pembangunan berkelanjutan di pedesaan serta tata kelola kebijakan pembangunan desa melalui pemanfaatan Dana Desa. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah penelitian hukum empiris. Hasil penelitian ini menjelaskan bahwa faktor pendukung pelaksanaan tugas Kepala Desa di Kecamatan Trucuk yaitu adanya pengarahan, bimbingan, serta pelatihan bagi Kepala Desa dalam menyusun rancangan peraturan desa untuk mewujudkan percepatan pembangunan desa yang berkelanjutan. Sedangkan faktor yang menghambat pelaksanaan tugas Kepala Desa di Kecamatan Trucuk yaitu rendahnya partisipasi masyarakat dalam menyikapi program kerja yang dijalankan oleh pemerintah desa serta rendahnya kesadaran masyarakat dalam memelihara fasilitas umum yang ada di desa. Pemerintahan desa yang baik adalah sebuah kerangka institusional untuk memperkuat otonomi desa karena secara substantif desentralisasi dan otonomi desa bukan hanya masalah pembagian kewenangan antarlevel pemerintah, melainkan sebagai upaya membawa pemerintah untuk lebih dekat dengan masyarakat. Pemerintah desa yang kuat dan otonom tidak akan bermakna bagi masyarakat tanpa ditopang oleh transparansi, akuntabilitas, responsivitas, dan partisipasi masyarakat.   IMPLEMENTATION OF ACCELERATION OF VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT IN REALIZING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON LAW NUMBER 6 YEAR 2014 ABOUT VILLAGE Abstract In the course of the Indonesian state administration, the village government system began to be uniform again through Law Number 6 of 2014 concerning Villages. This research aims to explain the role of village government institutions in the implementation of sustainable development in rural areas and the governance of village development policies through the use of Village Funds. The method used in this research is empirical legal research. The results of this research explain that the supporting factors for the implementation of the duties of the village head in Trucuk Village are direction, guidance, and training for village heads in drafting village regulations to realize the acceleration of sustainable village development. Meanwhile, the factors that hinder the implementation of the duties of the village head in Trucuk Village are the low participation of the community in responding to the work programs run by the village government and the low awareness of the community in maintaining public facilities in the village. Good village governance is an institutional framework to strengthen village autonomy because substantively decentralization and village autonomy are not just a matter of sharing authority between levels of government, but as an effort to bring the government closer to the community. A strong and autonomous village government will not be meaningful to the community without being supported by transparency, accountability, responsiveness and community participation.  


Author(s):  
David Baxter Bakibinga

Witness protection is now firmly entrenched in the modern criminal justice systems especially in jurisdictions dealing with organized and violent crime. The decision by the government of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas to enact legislation in respect to procedural and non-procedural measures for protection of witnesses is commendable, given that violent and organized crime is rife in the country. This article highlights the basic tenets of witness protection and the legal framework, both at the international and national level. It also addresses the role of key duty bearers in the process of witness protection. Furthermore the procedural and non-procedural measures taken by law enforcement officers in The Bahamas are explored. And lastly, the challenges encountered in the implementation of the witness protection measures in The Bahamas are examined. This is intended to aid policy makers, advisers and those entrusted with decision making, like parliamentarians, to devise means and ways to eradicate and/or mitigate challenges faced in the implementation of witness protection measures in The Bahamas.


2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hodgkinson

This article is a response to a speech addressed to the Economic and Social Research Council which was made, in February this year, by the UK Secretary of State for Education and Employment, David Blunkett. The speech was entitled ‘Influence or Irrelevance: can social science improve government?’ . Blunkett's programme for engaging social science in the policy process is far from unique and many of the arguments have been heard before. However, the curiosity of the speech lies in the fact that the conception of social science which Blunkett advocates mirrors the approach New Labour itself has to politics and government. This raises some rather interesting difficulties for social scientists. How do we engage in a debate about the role of social scientific research in the policy process when our own conception of the discipline may be radically at odds with that of the government? Furthermore, New Labour's particular conception of the relationship between social and policy-making means that we not only have to contest their notion of what it is we do, but also challenge their conception of the policy process. We cannot ignore this engagement, even if we wanted to. The challenge is to address it and to do so, moreover, in terms which Blunkett might understand. This article is an attempt to start this process.


Author(s):  
Saleem Zoughbi

The success of government data platforms and systems do not depend only on technology. There are other issues that affect this progress. Some of these are very essential to the continuity and not only the implementation, such as leadership. Other issues are the absence of a clear well adopted policy and legal framework that governs its data, security of data, cyber legislation and laws. The government-provided ICT resources and the infrastructure would also be an important issue that would affect government data. Financing is also another critical issue. For developing countries, sustainability of development is a necessity for best impact of development projects. As it is adopted by the United Nations, sustainable development goals (SDG's for the agenda of 2030) have substantial dependency on information and communications technology. All goals practically require government data in one way or another, and hence sustainable development is directly related to government data should successful development is sought. Other issues include open data, open government. This chapter discusses such issues and sheds light on ways of handing them.


Author(s):  
Ed Beale ◽  
Libby Kurien ◽  
Eve Samson

This chapter examines the ways in which the UK Parliament formally constrains the government and engages with European Union (EU) institutions. The House of Lords and the House of Commons both have processes to ensure that legislation proposed at the EU level has been properly reviewed before it takes effect in UK law. The ‘scrutiny reserve’, which stipulates that ministers should not agree to proposals under scrutiny, is used to elicit information about the government's negotiating position. Parliament also has a role in examining EU legislation and providing direct access to European institutions. The chapter first provides an overview of the EU legislative process, focusing on three principal EU institutions: member states, the European Parliament (EP), and the European Commission. It also considers the formal role of national parliaments in the EU legislative process, the UK Parliament's scrutiny of the EU legislation and its effectiveness, and parliamentary scrutiny after Brexit.


2019 ◽  
Vol 250 ◽  
pp. R47-R53
Author(s):  
Tim Besley ◽  
Richard Davies

Executive SummaryAlongside the challenge of maintaining economic competitiveness in the face of great uncertainty, Brexit brings an opportunity for the government to set out a new industrial strategy. The case for doing so rests on the need to address areas of persistent structural weakness in the UK economy, including low productivity. But it is important that any new industrial strategy be based on appropriately granular data reflecting the real structure of the UK corporate sector: the overwhelmingly preponderant role of services as opposed to manufacturing, for example; the importance of young, fast-growing firms as opposed to SMEs; the relatively high failure rate of companies in the UK; and the relative lack of successful mid-sized firms. Such a data-driven approach might spawn an industrial strategy quite different from the piecemeal programmes of recent years.Internationally, the UK is a laggard in this area, and the recently-created Industrial Strategy Council does not look strong enough to change that position. To move forward, the government needs to make industrial strategy a central plank of economic policy, embedded at the heart of the administration with its own staff and funding, and operations based on a comprehensive review of the economic contribution and potential of various types of firm. Needless to say, it cannot be a substitute for a continuing commitment to competition and markets, or a stalking horse for protectionism: interventions should be justified by carefully-argued market failure arguments, be time-limited, and transparently evaluated.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 472-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Paterson

The English scheme of arrangement process has, in many ways, proved a reliable friend to distressed companies and their majority finance creditors in the decade following the financial crisis. However, experience of using the scheme process to achieve a debt restructuring has highlighted a number of areas where it could be improved for the present, or to make it more adaptable in the future. This article was written at a time when the Insolvency Service had launched a review of the corporate insolvency framework in the UK (and published many of the responses which it has received to the consultation), and the European Commission had published a proposal for a new Directive setting minimum harmonisation standards for restructuring law. Both the consultation and the proposal have significant implications for the reform agenda, and the Government has published its response to the UK consultation just as this article is going to press. This paper focuses on the introduction of a preliminary moratorium as a gateway to restructuring efforts, the crucial question of how to value the enterprise if a cram down mechanism is introduced and the role of the insolvency practitioner in the scheme context.


2019 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 284-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Middleton ◽  
Georgios A Antonopoulos ◽  
Georgios Papanicolaou

A significant body of law and policy has been directed to organised crime generally, with Human Trafficking remaining high on the political agenda. This article conducts a contextualised study of Human Trafficking in the UK, examining the underpinning legal framework before drawing on the expertise of key professionals in the sector, who have been interviewed for this purpose. It is suggested that it is not so much the legal framework that is the problem, but rather there are a number of practical and policy-related considerations that the government should consider as part of their efforts to combat Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.


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