Rule of Law and Rules‐Lawyering: Legal Corruption and ‘Reprivatization Business’ in Warsaw

Delving into the nexus between the state and informality, this paper discusses the informality of the legal and judicial systems. Produced by structurally powerful actors, this kind of informality is not so much legitimized by the law, but concealed within the very process of legitimization. To capture how legal engineering welds formalized laws with informal translations, I look at judicial outcomes that, while formally legal, are socially delegitimized and perceived as legal corruption. After analysing the contested judicial outcomes of Warsaw's ‘reprivatization’ process (property restitution), I define the mechanism of legal corruption as rules‐lawyering, by which I mean an attempt to gain legal advantage by obsessively sticking to the written laws, while deliberately desecrating its spirit. I describe three of its mechanisms: appropriation, redefinition and fraud laundering. Finally, in my preliminary vivisection of the recent and ongoing process of delegalizing the legal corruption that has been part of the reprivatization process, all the allied concepts of this forum come together to demonstrate the essential inseparability of informality and state.     

‘ALL EYES ON ME’: The (In)Formal Barriers to Market Trade in Europe

Studies of marketplaces in the global North have often conceptualized markets as important public spaces of social encounter and conviviality where visitors, regardless of race, age, class or gender, feel they have an equal right to be. Yet comparatively little has been written about how inclusive European marketplaces are for the traders who (want to) work there. In this article we argue that the common conception of marketplaces as accessible to everyone, and as vehicles of socioeconomic mobility, is oversimplistic and romanticized. We draw on empirical data from marketplaces in four European countries to focus on the more or less informal ways in which markets are regulated by managers and traders themselves, and on the exclusionary and inclusionary effects of this process that may ultimately determine traders’ access to and success in these markets. This article not only challenges dominant conceptions of marketplaces as accessible and inclusive, but also addresses prevalent stereotypes about economic practices in the global North and assumptions about the ways in which these differ from practices in the global South.     

Drivers of firm formalization in Vietnam: an attention theory explanation

Informal enterprises are widely viewed as a mechanism to engage unemployed people in the economy and thereby alleviate poverty in developing economies. However, over-representation in an economy may lead to both economic growth and broader employment opportunities being sacrificed. This paper presents a process model to investigate three potential drivers for firms to formalize: the first from a desire to grow and develop the firm through innovation, the second from the wish to access government financial support and the third stimulated by the payment of unofficial payments or bribes. We use data from surveys of Vietnamese firms in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011 to investigate these drivers of formalization. Although we find support for all three of these drivers, the results differ in significance across years and firm types. We explain these differences using attention theory to show how different situations and events can make the formalization decision more likely over time.     

浅谈土地登记信息系统建设研究

完善各项土地登记制度、规范土地登记行为、统一土地登记标准和管理平台,实现省、市、县(市、区)土地登记信息互联互通,为社会提供土地登记信息公开产品和服务。     

Equity,Fairness and Justice Implications of Land Tenure Formalization in Cameroon

This article examines Cameroon's modern land policy. Initially, it traces the policy's roots to the colonial era. As the only African country that came under the control of three European colonial powers, viz. Germany, Britain and France, Cameroon provides a unique opportunity to understand colonialism's influence on Africa's persistent land problem. This is because the problem is structurally embedded in the historical processes of colonial rule. The heart of the article focuses on the policy's provisions for land tenure formalization, especially the land titling process. Of interest are the implications of this process for questions of equity, fairness and justice as they relate to access to land in the country. It suggests that, contrary to what proponents claim, land tenure formalization is not a panacea enabling capital accumulation for all. The article marshals evidence to show that the land tenure formalization requirements in Cameroon have effectively served to aggravate socioeconomic inequalities in the country. This is especially because the requirements favour societal elites, including bureaucrats, politicians and entrepreneurs. The article concludes that, by making government‐issued land titles the unique testament to landownership, the country's indigenous authorities have aggravated the problem of inequitable, unfair and unjust access to land that they inherited from their colonial predecessors.     

基于封闭住区开放博弈视角的城市土地产权问题研究

封闭住区开放对解决城市经济和社会问题以及城市空间和交通问题等具有重要意义。本文针对封闭住区开放的目标,在梳理已有研究成果的基础上,以博弈论为视角、以土地产权制度改革为重点展开研究。通过分析明确了土地产权结构形式与封闭住区开放的逻辑关系、封闭住区外部性内在化的机理,最后阐明了基于封闭住区开放博弈的城市土地产权制度变革的理论认识,提出了封闭住区走向开放的具体措施。     

省以下地方审计机关人财物统一管理提升审计质量了吗?

独立性是审计的\"灵魂\",如何提高审计机关独立性对提升审计质量具有重要的意义。以省以下地方审计机关人财物统一管理改革试点作为准自然实验,选取2013—2017年我国地级市审计机关为研究样本,基于双重差分模型实证检验审计机关独立性对地方审计机关审计质量的影响。实证结果显示,改革显著提升了地方审计机关审计质量。进一步研究发现,在法制化水平低、财政压力小以及东部地区,省以下地方审计机关人财物统一管理对于审计质量的提升作用更显著。在经过一系列稳健性检验后结果保持不变。研究结论对继续深化我国审计管理体制改革具有重要的启示意义。