Friday, February 28, 2014

Publication announcement: Utrecht Journal of International and European Law - Legal Aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility

The Utrecht Journal of International and European Law, on whose Permanent Board of Referees I serve, has just announced the publication of its latest issue.  This issue contains a number of articles that may of significant relevance to those of you with an interest in legal aspects of corporate social responsibility.

The announcement follows with links. 


Thursday, February 27, 2014

Respond to the questionnaire from the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order

 
 
The Civil Society Section of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is circulating the following set of questions for comment sent out by Alfred M. de Zayas, the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order:
We are pleased to forward this questionnaire from the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order.

***

Nous avons le plaisir de vous transmettre le questionnaire de l'Expert Indépendant sur la promotion d'un ordre international démocratique et équitable.

***

Tenemos el agrado de remitir este cuestionario de la Experta Independiente sobre la promoción de un orden internacional democrático y equitativo.

An Independent Expert is a Special Procedure mechanism appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report on a specific human rights issue or theme. This position is honorary and the expert is not United Nations staff nor paid for his/her work. For more on Special Procedures, please refer to Fact Sheet N° 27: Seventeen Frequently Asked Questions about United Nations Special Rapporteurs (PDF).

The overview of the Mandate, and links to article follows.  One gets a sense of what Mr. Zayas is up to from a recent speech, also set out below.  Interested parties might find it useful to supply an answer to the questionnaire, especially those who might seek to broaden the conceptual perspective at the foundation of this project, especially with respect to the role of business and civil society in this enterprise.  To do otherwise is to consign this effort, like so many others, to the late 19th century--a charming enough epoch, and one that was at least brimming with the elegant possibilities of the full ripening of the state system, but one which might prove less comprehensively useful in the world as we find it today:


Part 16 Brazil Sovereign Wealth Fund--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the Fundo Soberano do Brasil (Brazil Sovereign Wealth Fund).

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Focusing on the State Duty to Respect Human Rights--The UN Working Group and National Action Plans


I have suggested the way the the Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, since its endorsement in 2011, has increasingly emphasized the first pillar obligations--the state duty to respect human rights.  More troubling, perhaps, is the way in which that state duty to protect human rights appears to have become the foundation through which both the second pillar corporate responsibility to respect human rights and the remedial pillar are both constrained and understood.  (e.g., The 2nd U.N. Forum on Busness and Human Rights Live Streaming and Thoughts on Trends in Managing Business Behaviors, Dec. 3, 2013).  As part of this institutional focus on the state in the Guiding Principles, the Working Group has devoted substantial resources to the toolkit development potential of so-called National Action Plans. These are meant to provide the framework for state intervention in the business of human rights for economic activity.  And to that extent they may well be useful devices.  Yet the focus on National Action Plans also suggests possible divergence from the overall objectives and structure of the Guiding Principles.  The first touches on the way that Naitonla Action Plans may evidence a turn toward the creation of a hierarchy among the three pillars of the Guiding Principles.  The Second touches on the short sighted efforts to legitimate and expand the extraterritorial power of state.

From the first, the Working Group has emphasized the importance of the state duty to protect the the fountainhead of regulatory coherence (within itself a system that has traditionally produced as much incoherence through national deviation as coherence through the adoption of chapeau standards non-uniformly enforced or even understood) and has sought to understand the scope and nature fo the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and the remedial obligation through the lens of the state duty.  At the same time, the Working Group has increasingly committed itself to the project of deepening state involvement in the regulation of the human rights detrimental effects of business activity both within their borders and extraterritorially, to the extent of their power.  

Indeed, the focus of this consultation, aimed at subsuming the corporate responsibility to respect human rights within the aegis of the state duty to protect might.  Taken to its limit, this trend will substantially transform the Guiding Principles from  a framework of collaboration among distinct autonomous governance organizations--states, enterprises and international organizations--into a 20th century framework of state grounded legal silos.  That will, in turn, return us to the framework of regulatory incoherence and governance gaps that prompted John Ruggie's work in the first place, the fruit of which was the Guiding Principles.  The corporate responsibility to respect is both transnational in character, that is it derives its principles from sources beyond the state, nor can it be limited by the peculiarities of the expression of state power.It is a critical feature in a global dialogue that was meant to foster change both from the top down and the bottom up, sensitive to the preferences and customs of all critical stakeholders.  The partitioning of the corporate respect for human rights into little corporate culture nationalities effectively writes the second pillar out of the Guiding Principles and turns it merely to an expression of technique--human rights due diligence in the service of the state and not in the service of the individuals who suffer human rights deprivations.

Secondly, to the extent National Action Plans are seen to promote extraterritoriality (now quite fashionable among certain influential sectors of internationalist elites), even under the guise of furthering the international soft law agenda of devices like the Guiding Principles, they will exacerbate the move toward institutionalizing the hierarchy of states, reintroduce the old notion of the "Family of civilized States" and thus a trend toward the revival of neo-colonialism and hegemony now softened by its purported basis in internationalization.  (e.g., Backer, Larry Catá, Economic Globalization Ascendant: Four Perspectives on the Emerging Ideology of the State in the New Global Order. University of California, Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2006) But more troubling might be the way that the National Action Plans might well serve (no doubt inadvertently) to displace the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, and to subordinate it to, and restrict its expression through, the state duty to protect human rights.

The movement toward this new framework is nicely reflected in a recent consultation of the Working Group. From  UN Working Group events & Sessions of the Working Group > Seventh session - 17-21 Feb 2014:
As part of its seventh session, the Working Group held an open consultation on "The strategic elements of National Action Plans in the implementation of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights".

The consultation is open to all stakeholders. Registration is open until 18 Feb.
Concept note
Panellists
Registration form (if you have any registration queries please email: registrationwgbusiness@ohchr.org)
Maps Pregny Building and Palais des Nations
Practical information
Submissions & presentations


More than 175 representatives from States, civil society and business attended the consultation - vice-chair of UN Working Group Michael Addo's opening remarks are available here.

Stakeholders who are unable to attend may also submit their input to the Open Consultation in writing to: wg-business@ohchr.org. A listen-in number will be enabled to listen to the exchange. On 20 February 2014 at 15:00 (Central European Time), please dial +41 22 917 0901 and follow the voice prompt. When prompted for the conference room number, type "18" and then select the desired audio channel. Please check the Working Group website in case there has been a change in the conference room number.

The new approach is nicely articulated by Professor Michael Addo, the vice Chair of the Working Group.  The Statement Read by Michael K Addo Vice-Chair of the Working Group on Business and Human Rights, follows:


Part 15 Qatar Investment Authority--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the Qatar Investment Authority.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Part 14 Abu Dhabi Investment Authority--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Part 13: Kuwait Investment Authority --Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the Kuwait Investment Authority.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Keren Wang on Chinese Constitutionalism--"A Written Constitution Without Functioning Constitutionalism – Analysis of Xi Jinping's 2012 Speech on Chinese Constitution,"

Keren Wang, Assistant Director of the Coalition for Peace and Ethics, has just posted a fascinating article,  "A Written Constitution Without Functioning Constitutionalism – Analysis of Xi Jinping's 2012 Speech on Chinese Constitution," CPE Working Paper No. 2/21 (2014).


(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2014)


Wang explains:
In the wake of the once-in-a-decade leadership transition in China at the end of 2012, there has been considerable amount of attention paid to issues of constitutional integrity and reforms.  Unsurprisingly, these issues were being treated with a certain amount of skepticism and wariness, as it is far from clear if the new leadership will take steps to address the chronic problems of constitutional legitimacy and implementation. Xi Jinping’s speech on December 4, 2012 signaled the first clear indication that senior governmental officials were concerned with the constitutional system and its legitimacy. These concerns touch on the very legitimacy of the political system as a whole and therefore warrant the attention of scholars interested in Chinese history and politics.

It is to the analysis of that speech in the context of emerging  Chinese constitutionalism that the Working Paper turns. The abstract follows.


Sunday, February 23, 2014

Part 12: Korea Investment Corporation--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the Korea Investment Corporation.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Report on the Workshop: "Business and Human Rights - Networks of Transnational Governance” Hebrew University, Israel

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem hosted the recently concluded International Workshop--"Business and Human Rights - Networks of Transnational Governance” 19-20 February 2014.  It was organized by Dr. Guy Harpaz (Hebrew University), Prof. Sascha-Dominik Bachmann (Bournemouth), and Pini Miretski (Hebrew University), with the financial and logistical support of The Leonard Davis Institute of International Relations.  For the Call for Papers, see Call For Papers: "Workshop on Business and Human Rights – Networks of Transnational Governance" at Hebrew University.

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2014)


The workshop brought together scholars and practitioners, to examine the various interfaces among networks of transnational regulation designed to regulate the respect of businesses for human rights. One object was to understand the interfaces and linkages between the various regulative initiatives in this developing field.  Questions were considered touching on whether emerging networks are replacing the roles previously taken by the state, whether the privatization of regulation  is supplied by transnational networks and orchestrated by states, or whether an evolution of polycentric governance is complementing an entrapped and perhaps less centrally relevant international legal order. 

I have included here the program and program participants, and a short description of each paper. Please contact the authors for their papers.

New Book--Transformative Constitutionalism: Comparing the Apex Courts of Brazil, India and South Africa



This from Contectas--Human Rights:

Supreme Courts of the Global South--Study analyzes the role of the highest courts of Brazil, India and South Africa (02/19/2014) (key words: ibsa justice supreme court)

The Pretoria University Law Press (Pulp) has published a new 28-chapter study on the workings of the highest courts of Brazil, India and South Africa, the three members of the IBSA Dialogue Forum.

The publication is the result of the collaborative research project “Justiciability of Human Rights – a comparative analysis: South Africa, Brazil and India”, which was coordinated by Conectas and involved a judge, academics and human rights defenders from these three countries. The team was coordinated in South Africa by Professor Frans Viljoen, in Brazil by Professor Oscar Vilhena Vieira and in India by Professor Upendra Baxi.

In addition to descriptions of the workings of these courts and analyses of civil society strategies to propose cases for them to hear, the publication also carries thematic articles on: women’s rights and heteronormativity, religious freedom, the right to health, social movements and organized civil society, among others.

“This book represents an effort by human rights academics and activists to consider the constitutions of Brazil, India and South Africa as fundamental instruments in the promotion of rights and the consolidation of democracy in these countries. This transformational ideal makes this publication essential reading,” said Juana Kweitel, program director at Conectas.

“All three countries chose to depart from the past – a past of colonialism, apartheid or military regimes – through a constitutional process. These processes resulted in bold constitutional documents that not only aim at regulating the distribution of power, the organization of a system of representation, and the definition of individual rights, but which also aspire to establish a new political and moral foundation for each society,” reads the introduction to the study, which also provides a summary of each of the 28 chapters.

Full publication in PDF follows:

Beyond Foreclosure, Protecting the Social Welfare of the Dispossessed?: Pablo Lerner on Approaches in Israeli Law

Pablo Lerner, abogado (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Doctor in Law (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Professor in the Academic Center of Law and Business (Ramat Gan, Israel) writes extensively in the area of property law and finance.  


 (Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2014; See also "Influencias Extranjeras en la formación de culturas jurídicas nacionales. El caso del Derecho Israelí", University of Buenoa Aires, Derecho Del Día, Año VIII, No. 152, 4 Nov. 2009 ("A su turno, el Dr. Pablo Lerner entendió que es necesario tener en cuenta una visión comparativista y una histórica para comprender a un sistema jurídico."))



He has recently published a very interesting article on Israeli efforts to soften the blow of foreclosure, and in the process develop (perhaps inadvertently) social welfare protections that appear to be human rights enhancing. Pablo Lerner, "La protección a los deudores hipotecarios: soluciones e interrogantes en la ley israelí," Revista Crítica de Derecho Inmobiliario, N.º 740, págs. 4041 a 4072.  

The Israeli approach, to provide for the provision of funds sufficient to pay rent for a period after foreclosure appears unique in legal systems.  Though Professor Lerner suggests it raises a number of issues, it does also suggest the possibility of building human rights sensitive provisions even into ancient domestic law fields.   The abstract, in English and Spanish, follow. 

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Part 11: Italy Strategic Fund--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the Italian Strategic Fund.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Part 10: Palestine Investment Fund--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the Palestine Investment Fund.


Thursday, February 13, 2014

Part 9: Australia Future Fund--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the Australia Future Fund.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

From China's People's Daily: The Twelve Core Values of a Chinese Socialist System



Today's frontpage headline article for China's People's Daily newspaper features prominently an official announcement about the "twelve core values for Chinese socialist system". The article has just been published, and there is no English translation provided yet.

Although discussion around the topic of promoting "socialist core values" has been going on since the beginning of Xi's administration, this article is perhaps the first official effort to elaborate core values in a a systematic way and in a manner that might be accessible to lower level Party cadres nd the general population.

The twelve "core socialist values" identified by the official announcement are: Prosperity (富强), Democracy (民主), Civilization (文明), Harmony (和谐), Liberty (自由), Equality (平等), Justice (公正), Rule-of-law (法治), Patriotism (爱国), Dedication (敬业), Integrity (诚信), and Camaraderie (友善)

These twelve core values are likely to be understood in ways that may differ, and sometimes substantially, from Western conceptions.  They will likely also serve as a basis for orienting Chinese constitutionalism and the construction of both the Chinese state apparatus  (in a way that permits greater accountability for administrative obligations to serve the people) and the Communist Party (in a way that enhances intra-Party democracy, the importance of rules not tied to faction and the opening up of Party Membership to those who embrace its operational norms).

Here's the link to the announcement: http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2014-02/12/c_119290637.htm

And here's a link showing what the front page of today's People's Daily looks like (note the orange box on the top listing the twelve core values): http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2014-02/12/nw.D110000renmrb_20140212_10-01.htm -- 
The texts of both follow 

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Part 8: Indonesia Investment Agency--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the Indonesia Investment Agency.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Part 7: Vietnam State Capital Investment Corporation--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the Vietnam State Capital Investment Corporation.

Sunday, February 09, 2014

Part 6: Iran National Development Fund--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the Iran National Development Fund.


Friday, February 07, 2014

Part 5: Papua-New Guinea SWF--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the the Papua New Guinea Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Part 4: Mauritania National Fund for Hydrocarbon Reserves--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is tp find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the the Mauritania National Fund for Hydrocarbon Reserves.

Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Part 3: Chile Pension Reserve Fund and Economic and Social Stabilization Fund--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is tp find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the Chilean Pension Reserve Fund and Economic and Social Stabilization Fund.

Monday, February 03, 2014

Part 2: Ghana Petroleum Funds--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is tp find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the new Ghana Petroleum Funds.


Sunday, February 02, 2014

Part 1: Israel SWF--Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is to

 find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post considers the new Israel Sovereign Wealth Fund

Saturday, February 01, 2014

Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets: Introduction

(Pix (C) Larry Catá Backer 2014)

This Blog Essay site devotes every February to a series of integrated but short essays on a single theme. For 2014 this site introduces a new theme:  Reimaging the State in the Global Sphere: An Inventory of Sovereign Wealth Fund as Regulator and Participant in Global Markets.

There have been a number of studies that have sought to provide an overarching structure for understanding SWFs. The easiest way to to this is tp find the largest and most influential funds and then extrapolate universal behaviors or characteristics from them.  This is a useful enterprise, it may erase substantial nuance that itself might provide the basis for a deeper understanding of SWFs within globalization and in the context of a state system in which not all states are created equal.  In this sense, while the large SWFs are better known, they do not define the entire field of emerging SWF activity. This study provides a brief critical inventory of the emerging communities of sovereign wealth funds. Each post will consider a different and less well known SWF.  Taken together, these brief studies might suggest the character and nature of the emerging universe of SWFs, and their possible rationalization.

This Post includes an Introduction to this project, a Table of Contents, and a list of prior series.