The Right to Repair

In recent decades, companies around the world have deployed an arsenal of tools-including IP law, hardware design, software restrictions, pricing strategies, and marketing messages-to prevent consumers from fixing the things they own. While this strategy has enriched companies almost beyond measure, it has taken billions of dollars out of the pockets of consumers and imposed massive environmental costs on the planet. In The Right to Repair, Aaron Perzanowski analyzes the history of repair to show how we've arrived at this moment, when a battle over repair is being waged-largely unnoticed-in courtrooms, legislatures, and administrative agencies. With deft, lucid prose, Perzanowski explains the opaque and complex legal landscape that surrounds the right to repair and shows readers how to fight back.

Digital Transformation: Smart Strategy in Administrative Reform in Vietnam

Objectives: Digital transformation is becoming such a big trend that countries worldwide cannot resist because it brings prosperity and development to social progress. Therefore, countries, especially emerging countries, need to quickly bring the latest technology advances into socio-economic development. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to point out the theoretical issues of digital transformation, the advantages and challenges, and their impact on Vietnam's provincial administrative reform and forecast the trend of impacts of the digital transformation to administrative reform at the provincial level. Methods/Analysis: Qualitative and quantitative research methods have been used together, in which quantitative methods used available literature sources. The qualitative method has been developed based on designing two questionnaires on digital transformation and administrative reform, thereby exploring the current results of digital transformation and administrative reform in a cross-section. Findings: Research has shown that the reality of digital transformation and administrative reform in provincial administrative agencies in Vietnam is still limited. Although administrative reform is superior to digital transformation, they are closely positive related. Novelty /Improvement: Research shows that administrative reform at the provincial level in Vietnam will become more competent and more efficient when administrative agencies promote the application of digital transformation; both digital transformation and administration reform need to be concerned at the same time. Moreover, a more focus on developing digital capacity and skills for civil servants is necessary for digital transformation and administrative reform to achieve high efficiency. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-04-06 Full Text: PDF

Advanced Introduction to U.S. Environmental Law

Providing a comprehensive overview of the current and developing state of environmental governance in the United States, this Advanced Introduction lays out the foundations of U.S. environmental law. E. Donald Elliott and Daniel C. Esty explore how federal environmental law is made and how it interacts with state law, highlighting the important role that administrative agencies play in the creation, implementation, and enforcement of U.S. environmental law.

Survey on the dissemination of Web-based information on “evacuation and sheltering” in the context of COVID-19 by the Japanese Government

Purpose This study examines the websites of central government ministries, prefectures and municipalities to obtain a comprehensive bird’s-eye view of how they are preparing for natural disasters in the context of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Design/methodology/approach This study examines the websites of central government ministries, prefectures and municipalities in Japan to survey the actual status of information dissemination on “evacuation and sheltering” in the context of COVID-19. Findings This study found that the central government issued many notices, notifications and administrative communications to prefectures, cities with public health centers and special wards, which were mainly related to opening, securing and operating evacuation centers and improving the environment. It was found that most prefectures disseminated information on both survival and living evacuation and did so from June onward, when the flood season was approaching. Among the municipalities, there were differences in information dissemination tendencies by prefecture, and it became clear that smaller municipalities were especially incapable of fully disseminating information via the Web. Research limitations/implications The data from the prefectures and municipalities surveyed in this study were collected from websites and do not necessarily represent the actual response to disaster-related evacuation in the context of COVID-19 in those areas. To clarify this evacuation, more detailed surveys are needed. Originality/value This study is unique because no research has been conducted on the response of Japanese administrative agencies to disaster-related evacuation in the context of COVID-19; the actual situation was analyzed in this study by examining central government ministries, prefectures and municipalities as administrative agencies and comparing their responses.

Relationship between Transformational Leadership Style and Leadership Thinking of Provincial Administration Leaders

Objectives: The transformational leadership style is accepted as suitable for leading administrative agencies to achieve outstanding results and help organizations cope with challenges. Besides, leadership thinking is also considered to have a very important role in leadership performance in administrative agencies. Therefore, the main objective of the study is to explore the relationship between transformational leadership style and leader thinking to organization's performance. Methods: The article focuses on explaining the views on transformational leadership style, healthy thinking, and the relationship between transformational leadership style and leadership thinking, and at the same time points out the current status of transformational leadership style, transformational leadership, leadership thinking as well as this relationship in practice among the leaders of provincial agencies in Vietnam. Descriptive, inductive, deductive, synthetic, and quantitative statistical methods were applied to interpret the results. Findings: Research results show that transformational leadership style, leadership thinking in the team of leaders of provincial agencies is quite average, there is a strong positive correlation between transformational leadership style. In contrast to leadership thinking, a more transformative leadership style means that it requires an innovative leadership thinking. Novelty:The results achieved when applying a transformational leadership style are quite closely related to the application of leadership thinking to solve leadership challenges. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2021-01307 Full Text: PDF

Collective Decision-Making and Administrative Justice

This chapter considers how administrative agencies in different countries use aggregate procedures to hear common claims brought by large groups of people. In many countries, administrative agencies promise each individual a ‘day in court’ to appear before a neutral decision-maker and receive a reasoned decision based on the factual record they develop. A handful of US and other countries’ administrative hearing programmes, however, have quietly bucked this trend—using class actions, statistical sampling, agency restitution, public inquiries, ‘test case’ proceedings, and other forms of mass adjudication to resolve disputes involving large groups of people. This chapter examines how administrative agencies can more effectively resolve common disputes with aggregate procedures. Aggregate procedures offer administrative agencies several benefits, including: 1) efficiently creating ways to pool information about recurring problems and enjoin systemic harms; 2) achieving greater equality in outcomes than individual adjudication; and 3) securing legal and expert assistance at critical stages in the process. By charting how administrative systems in different countries aggregate cases, we hope to show that collective hearing procedures can form an integral part of the adjudicatory process, while serving several different models of administrative justice.

Los órganos administrativos transitorios

LABURPENA: Administrazio-organoen sailkapenek jakintzat eman ohi dute organo guztiek izaera egonkorra eta iraunkorra dutela. Ez dute kontuan hartzen guztiz normala dela zenbait administrazio-organo aldi baterako izaeraz ez ezik, baita izaera iraunkorraz ere, sortzea, xede jakin batez, maiz administrazio-prozedura bakar bat izapidetzeko, eta hura amaituta, desegin egiten direla. Hala legegileak nola zientzia-doktrinak ez diete jaramonik egiten organo horiei, eta administrazio-organoei aplikatu beharreko araudi orokor gehienak ez dira bateragarriak haien izaerarekin. ABSTRACT: Classifications of administrative bodies or agencies usually assume that all of them are stable and permanent. They ignore the absolutely normal existence of administrative bodies that are created not only temporarily, but also transitory, with a specific task, often for the processing of a single administrative procedure, at the conclusion of which they are dissolved. Both the legislator and the scientific doctrine do not pay attention to these bodies, most of the general regulations applicable to administrative agencies are incompatible with their nature. RESUMEN: Las clasificaciones de los órganos administrativos suelen dar por supuesto que todos los órganos tienen carácter estable y permanente. Ignoran la existencia, absolutamente normal, de órganos administrativos que se crean con un carácter no solo temporal, sino transitorio, con una misión determinada, a menudo para la tramitación de un único procedimiento administrativo, a cuya conclusión quedan disueltos. Tanto el legislador como la doctrina científica no prestan atención a estos órganos, la mayor parte de la normativa general aplicable a los órganos administrativos resulta incompatible con su naturaleza.

Administrative Justice and Cultures of Rule Application

Most modern administrative agencies employ a body of authoritative rules, designed to guide and constrain officials and to promote administrative justice. Decades ago, however, American ‘legal realist’ scholars questioned whether legal rules can in fact control official decision-making. This essay, drawing on sociolegal research, first shows that through social and organizational processes, administrative agencies and offices develop ‘cultures of rule application’ that make rules matter. Secondly, the essay discusses variation across administrative agencies in their cultures of rule application, resulting in interpretive styles that range from legalistic to flexible and consequence-oriented. Finally, the essay discusses organizational, contextual, and political variables that influence agencies’ development of particular cultures of rule application.

4. Due process

This chapter explains the overlapping ideas of natural justice, procedural fairness, and due process, and discusses the importance of comity between judges and administrative agencies. The elements of process are outlined: notice and disclosure, oral hearings, waiver, reconsideration, and appeals. Proportionality is presented as a general principle of the procedural duties of public authorities, and the chapter explains the three process values: procedural requirements can improve decisions, treat people with respect, and subject the administration to the rule of law. The chapter explains the irony of process: the law must sometimes require procedures that impose disproportionate burdens on administrative authorities, in order to protect due process. The chapter concludes with an explanation of discretion in process and of the potential dangers involved in administrative processes.