Is there decentralization in North Korea? Evidence and lessons from the sloping land management program 2004–2014

In the 1990s, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) suffered from severe food shortages and large-scale deforestation, which triggered a stage of rural conservation reform. Since 2004, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), North Korea’s Ministry of Land and Environmental Protection (MoLEP) has implemented a Sloping Land Management Program (SLMP). The SLMP established sloping land user groups and granted these groups the right to use marginal land for agroforestry development. This devolution of land rights from state control onto local groups is a landmark in North Korea, and this decentralization initiative has now expanded to over eight counties to involve thousands of households. It has also led to the launch of a National Agroforestry Policy and Strategy. Drawing from both qualitative and quantitative data collected from 2008 to 2014, this paper documents the process and effects of the SLMP. It argues that the decentralization reform in land management has contributed to not only food security with increased food crop diversity and productivity, but also notably forest recovery through an expansion of tree plantations and agroforestry practices on degraded sloping lands. However, an insufficient power transfer in the form of a lack of timber rights granted to the local user groups has hampered the effectiveness of the SLMP. There are also institutional and geopolitical challenges that are limiting further scaling-up of land-use decentralization across the country. The policy implication calls for more international investment as well as national land-use policy reforms in order to promote and facilitate further decentralization of sloping land management and to secure greater use rights for sloping land user groups.     

Un-forgetting walls by lines on maps: A case study on property rights,cadastral mapping,and the landscape of the Kowloon Walled City

This paper demonstrates that the framing of post-war Kowloon Walled City through photos has been dominated by the maps commonly used to represent this Chinese enclave in colonial Hong Kong as a place. Inspired by and extending Wylie’s (2009) argument that emptiness and presence are equally important, this paper uses basic GIS techniques and hitherto unpublished archival materials to help (a) argues that the colonial government’s mindset of clearly defining the spatial boundary of the city, which is a subtle admission of an officially and diplomatically denied otherness in ownership, created the city as a quasi-cadastral unit; and (b) explains how this shaped the framing of the landscape of the city by promoting investment and trade in high-rise housing development units. The government did not destroy its walls. When these were physically destroyed, it did not ignore the walls’ original alignments but treated the city as a planning unit, as if they still existed.     

Regional development and migration in the Lower Basin of the Zambezi River. The importance of property rights

Globalization is associated with pressures and conflicts over natural resources, with migration, urbanization and development. The analyzes these phenomena focusing the Lower Basin of the Zambezi River in Mozambique where external demand over natural resources have been associated with huge projects on transport infrastructures, coal mining and agroforestry, somehow correlated with recurring conflicts. The approach proposes and uses a regional development model that highlights the impacts of the spatial allocation of property rights on income and migration. Results show the importance of resources ownership in the spatial profile of development and social unrest.     

论墨子的劳动观及其当代价值

墨子是我国古代劳动人民利益的伟大代表,被尊称为"平民圣人"。墨子的劳动观内在地蕴涵着三个价值判断:尊重劳动;保护劳动人权;珍惜劳动价值。当前,我国正处于全面建成小康社会和实现中华民族伟大复兴的关键阶段,墨子劳动观的合理思想无疑对我们具有十分重要的借鉴意义:尊重劳动,大力彰显劳动价值;尊重劳动者,努力使其实现体面劳动;珍惜劳动成果,厉行节约,反对浪费,共圆中国梦。     

International free riding on institutions

Economic institutions are linked to economic growth because they create conditions favourable for production and exchange. Institutions can give a country comparative advantage in producing some goods. If its trading partners lack such institutions, it can still enjoy their benefits by importing these goods. Some institutions, such as intellectual property rights, have non‐excludable benefits because the resulting production is intangible, non‐rival, and often publicly disclosed. The profits, or surplus, that result, however, is rival. Foreign countries can ‘free ride’ on this benefit by misappropriating rival surplus through infringement. This article develops a theory of institutional free riding in which firms in one country free ride on the benefit of foreign institutions to the detriment of their competitor firms and their countries' institutions. It evaluates the incentives of firms and governments for this free riding, its effects, and potential responses to mitigate these effects.     

The prospect of decent work,decent industrial relations and decent social relations in China: towards a multi-level and multi-disciplinary approach

Abstract

Decent Work is a key initiative launched by the International Labour Organization in 1999. The initiative is to promote decent and productive employment with decent conditions of freedom, equality, security and human dignity. In reviewing academic literature on decent work, existing studies have been conducted primarily from a legal and political economic perspective. It is also largely situated outside any national industrial relations framework, both theoretically and practically. Decent work is an advocacy initiative of ILO, but the promotion of universal values embodied in the notion (e.g. equality, fairness, justice and dignity) needs to be tailored to specific societal contexts. Drawing on existing academic literature, this review article examines ideological, institutional and cultural distances between decent work and the reality of employment in China. It argues that achieving decent work requires an ideological transition of ‘traditional’ Chinese work ethics and a cultural transition from collectivism and altruism towards individualism and an emphasis on individual rights. This study also examines and highlights regulatory enforcement deficits and the inadequate role of the trade union in facilitating the advancement of decent work at various levels. Finally, the article argues that the study of decent work should be mainstreamed as an integral part of decent industrial relations and ultimately, decent social relations. It calls for a multi-level and multi-disciplinary approach to examining the historical, political, economic, ideological and cultural context of specific countries in fulfilling the ‘Decent Work’ agenda.     

土地使用权转让法律规制的困境与出路

研究目的:分析当前土地使用权转让法律规制的困境,并探索其解决办法。研究方法:文义解释、目的解释与原理论证。研究结果:(1)刑法在规制土地使用权转让行为时需援引行政法的规定,在行政法规制密度过大的情况下容易导致非法转让、倒卖土地使用权罪的滥用,与民商法在违法性认定问题上也存在一定冲突;(2)基于文义解释、合宪分析和原理论证方法,不仅能准确界定刑法中土地使用权非法转让的具体范围,而且能消解不同部门法在违法性认定上的冲突。研究结论:《土地管理法》第七十四条和《刑法》第二百二十八条应作相应修改。     

Institutional failure or market failure?

We investigate the effect of the power of creditors, property rights protection, and institutional quality, on bank profits using a panel of 498 banks from 46 countries. Results show that better institutions and stronger property rights protection reduce bank profits, while stronger power of creditors drives up bank profits significantly. Results imply that better institutions and enhanced property rights protection lead to greater flow of credit allowing firms and investors to undertake more profitable ventures. By extension, stronger creditor rights erect steeper barriers to external finance for firms and investors. National indicators of economic freedoms may be more important to lowering the spread than strict creditor rights. Seemingly, credit markets fail when economic institutions fail or when governments intervene into these markets in ways that impede the safety and soundness of financial transactions and private contracting.     

集体林权配套改革非农就业地理距离与农户林业投入行为——基于9省18县面板数据的验证

基于9省18县市2009~2013年1452户农户数据,运用面板数据随机效应模型,论证了非农就业地理距离,集体林权配套改革对于农户林业投入行为会产生的影响。基于研究得出结论:非农就业的地理距离越远,家庭外出务工指数越高,对家庭林业投入产生的负向作用越大;集体林权配套改革中,林权贷款以及林地流转对农户林业投入有显著正向影响;此外,农户林地面积、所在村到县城距离、是否为山区、是否获得林权贷款以及是否参与林地流转都对农户林业投入有显著影响。因此,提出充分利用当地林业资源推动农户本地非农就业以及推动林地流转与林权贷款等配套改革措施的政策建议。     

新型个人信息保护体系构建研究

大数据时代,传统的以“信息收集”规制为着力点的个人信息保护出现适法性困境,以“知情同意”为框架的机理失灵,个人信息的利用对象从直接个人信息逐渐向间接个人信息过渡,其财产价值凸显,新型个人信息财产权呼之欲出。立法应顺应数字经济的发展,构建合理新型个人信息体系。具体而言:纵向层面,以“宽进+删除权”为具体保护策略;横向层面,在信息主体和信息产业者之间合理配置权利,即信息主体享有个人信息权和个人信息财产权,信息产业者享有信息资产权。