New Book edited by Ulrike Davy & Albert Chen: Law and Social Policy in the Global South: Brazil, China, India, South Africa (Routledge)

 Law and Social Policy in the Global South:
Brazil, China, India, South Africa
Edited by Ulrike Davy & Albert Chen

Routledge

Published in December 2022

280 pp.

Description: The book is an in-depth study of the origins and the trajectories of the law governing social policies in Brazil, China, India, and South Africa, four middle-income countries in the global South with a history in social policy making that starts in the 1920s.

     The policies of these countries affect almost half of the world’s population. The book takes the legal framework of the policies as a starting point, but the main interest lies behind the letter of the law: What were the objectives and goals of social policy over the course of the last 100 years? What were the ideas, ideologies, and values pursued by relevant actors? The book comprises four country studies and a comparative study. The country studies concentrate on the political and social context of social policy making in Brazil, China, India, and South Africa as well as on the ideas, ideologies, and values underpinning the constitution, statutory laws, and case law that frame and shape social policy at the national level. The country studies are complemented by a comparative study exploring and describing the commonalities and differences in the ideational approaches to social policies across the four countries, nationally and – in the formative decades – internationally. The comparative study also identifies the characteristics that make Brazilian, Chinese, Indian, and South African social policies distinct from European social policies. With its emphasis on law and drawing on legal scholarship, the book adds a new dimension to the existing accounts on welfare state building, which, so far, are dominated by European narratives and by scholars with a background in sociology, political science, and development studies.

     This book is relevant to specialists and peers and will be invaluable to those individuals interested in the fields of comparative and international social security law, human rights law, comparative constitutional law, constitutional history, law and development studies, comparative social policies, global social policies, social work, and welfare state theory.

Guanghua Yu on Open Access Order and Interconnected Institutions in Brazil (Law & Development Rev)

"Open Access Order and Interconnected Institutions in Brazil: A Challenge"
Guanghua Yu
Law and Development Review
Published Online: 2018-05-10
Abstract:

This article examines the evolution of democratic practice in Brazil. The article begins with a discussion on the country’s performance in terms of social equality, violence, and weak economy after the consolidation of democracy in 1985. Based on historical evidence, the article offers explanations concerning the weak performance in Brazil. The case of Brazil provides a challenge to the theory of open access order of North and his colleagues in the sense that open access to political organizations and activities does not necessarily lead to either better political representation or better economic performance. The case of Brazil also shows that open access to economic organizations and activities in the absence of the necessary institutions in the areas of property rights protection and contract enforcement, the financial market, the rule of law, and human resources accumulation does not lead to long-term economic growth.

Marcelo Thompson Cited by Brazil's Apex Court

Congratulations to Marcelo Thompson whose article ("The Democracy of FLOSS: Software Procurement under the Democratic Principle" (2008) 5 U. Ottawa L & Tech J 79) was cited with approval by the Brazilian Supreme Court ("Supremo Tribunal Federal"), the apex court in constitutional matters.  The case concerned the abstract judicial review of primary legislation from the state of Rio Grande do Sul establishing a system of preference for open source software (over "proprietary" software) in public procurement.  The Court upheld the constitutionality of the law which had been found unconstitutional in an interlocutory decision of the Court.  The decision forecloses the possibility of software companies imposing ex-ante designed end-user license agreements on the government.  The Court's judgment (dated 9 April 2015) in Portuguese can be downloaded here.