|
Presentation
Practical informations
Complete text (in french)
Publications
Congress: "Le Savant
et le Politique: Chercheurs et décideurs au coude à coude
dans la régulation juridique en contexte de globalisation".
Curitiba (Parana), Brasil, 12-15 August 2002
GEDIM Annual Report -2001
(in French and Portuguese)
GEDIM Annual Report -2002
UNITWIN Chair
To
the UNESCO/UNITWIN
Chair
|
Presentation
This global project (research, training, documentation and publications)
comes within the priority area on "Coping locally and regionally with
economic, technological and environmental transformations" of the MOST
Programme. The GEDIM project deals with the study of the consequences
of globalization on the legal structure of some key organizations and
institutions within the MERCOSUR.
Legal management, by private and public sector decision-makers, of
transformations brought about by the globalization process inside the
regional economic bloc of Mercosur.
The project concerns an area that has been studied very little in terms
of social science methods: law. Although traditionally law has almost
exclusively, in positivistic countries, guaranteed that conflicts have
been settled, it must be admitted that this is no longer the exclusive
rule today. Many of the other sources of conflict settlement are not based,
in daily practice, on a legal norm stricto sensu. Law, however, has a
fundamental place in the institutionalization of these "soft" forms of
societal regulation, frequently known as "governance". It is true that
this term, of a well known origin (corporate governance, World Bank and
structural adjustments), is ambiguous when extended to the legal field
and thus lends itself to plentiful opportunities for manipulation.
Yet the notion of "governance" has the merit of providing new forms of
issues where old ways of thinking can solve nothing, in particular concerning
the regulation of the public arena where law occupies a central place,
albeit not an exclusive one. We now speak in terms of programming, planning
or policy which, avoiding the excess of centralization around the State
and enhancing the "bottom-up" approach, link the decision-making processes
with the participation of non-State players. What forms of governance
may be concerned in the themes specifically studied in this Project?
The research sets out to study, on the conceptual basis of a minimal
lexicon of legal terms related to globalization (beginning with "governance"),
to what extent the regulation operated by State laws on certain private
sector organizations (business law and company law) and public sector
institutions (police and justice) must either be replaced by governance
(and if so of what kind?) or be modified according to a process of governance
(and if so which one?) to achieve a certain harmony with the inevitable
contemporary movement towards the regionalization and globalization of
exchanges. It is deemed vital to begin with a specification of the language
introduced into law and public policy as a consequence of the globalizing
trend whose impact is making itself felt in these areas. Furthermore,
it is felt that a comparison of the public and private aspects of these
themes will open up new prospects by breaking down the hermetic seal separating
these insular bastions of decision-making.
The starting-point is the notion that administrators have always considered
that they were not affected by the same contextual constraints as entrepreneurs,
and vice versa. They do not feel that they are concerned in the same way
by the transformations operated by the globalization of exchanges (including
trade) nor by the implacable trend towards the constitution of geopolitical
areas into regional blocs. Yet studies conducted in other regions than
MERCOSUR have shown that, with globalization 1) the distinction between
private and public is becoming blurred, 2) the enterprise logic is imposing
itself in both sectors and 3) decision-making strategies are being radically
transformed.
The original aspect of the research lies in the fact that: (a) it brings
together researchers, private sector entrepreneurs and administrators
in a joint discussion and reflection aimed at leading to reforms; (b)
it entails a joint observation of the effects of globalized exchanges
(and trade) in the light of the three remarks made above, in a region
that has been hard hit by globalization, MERCOSUR; and (c) it responds
to new questions posed by this impact of globalization in daily practice,
in particular that of the inadequacy of the traditional organizational
and institutional legal structures and the fact that the transformation
of standard-setting processes has not been mastered.
In other words we wish to offer the decision-makers, both in the public
and private sectors, scientifically founded information that will give
them the means to think of ways of bringing about the legal restructuration
of organizations (companies, administrations, etc.) and institutions (beginning
with justice and the police), to break free from the sensation of uncertainty
and ungovernability, to master as far as possible the standard-setting
process and to know when to resort to the process of creating law and
when to rely on other forms (governance) of social and economic regulation,
while acknowledging as far as possible the consequences of their choice.
This is a form of research which in the case of Latin America, has not
yet been conducted.
This project is the end-result of several years of efforts to interest
researchers, entrepreneurs and administrators in the issue and to enlist
them in a series of common actions (research, training, documentation,
publications and meetings). In addition to several seminars held on these
issues in Rio de Janeiro since 1997, GEDIM (Interdisciplinary Programme
on Economic Globalization and Rights in Mercosur - Globalização Econômica
e Direitos no Mercosul), based in Rio de Janeiro, has been invited to
moderate Round Tables in Europe (Nantes, University/City Colloquy, May
2000; Barcelona, RED&S Seminar, June 2000; Paris, Carré des Sciences,
France-Brazil Week, October 2000). These meetings enabled the core project
team gradually to formulate the project itself, to turn GEDIM into a researcher
network and to create the research proper.
The network now extends not only across a significant number of states
in the Confederation of Brazil but also includes the Law Faculties of
the University of Buenos Aires, the University of Uruguay and the Diego
Portales University of Santiago, Chile.
Pursuit of the objectives outlined above has called for the creation
of a three-sided methodological approach: quantitative analysis, qualitative
analysis and documentary analysis, by taking the following steps: 1) systematic
documentary analysis of recent study and research work; 2) secondary analysis
of statistics; 3) surveys by questionnaire of samples, enabling the nature
of problems encountered to be grasped in their entirety and the perception
of the current functioning of the organizations at stake to be assessed
along with the prospects for development; 4) qualitative enquiries by
means of comprehensive interviews aimed at observing management and control
practices and the strategies of the players involved.
In order for the Project to be set up, special working arrangements have
been necessary, namely the creation of small, flexible teams of researchers
coordinated by a researcher who is a confirmed specialist in the field.
All the teams are coordinated in turn by a core of confirmed researchers
responsible for ensuring unity of work and exchanges among the groups
of researchers. The research is at its beginning; the hypotheses proper
to each thrust have been explained in the Project which has already been
submitted.
Impact of the globalization of exchanges on company law, business
law and the police and judiciary
When it comes to the legal regulation of companies, to deal with the
direct impact of globalization there is a need for a minimal harmonization
of the rules concerning them worldwide, along with the need to adapt to
the special features of each sector of activity. Hitherto enterprises
have tried to act upon the national decision-makers to obtain the necessary
changes. The legal rules governing company activity are taking on new
characteristics: less general and binding rules, imposed unilaterally,
and more special rules, often supplementary, and ostensibly negotiated.
This leads to major questions that cannot be dealt with systematically
such as: (1) the tensions between the private interests of companies and
collective interests, (2) the control of companies' activities in a global,
rather than national, framework, (3) the paradox between global standard
harmonization and regional economic disparity. The proposals made to date
at several international organizations, such as OECD, UNCITRAL (United
Nations Commission on International Trade Law) and the World Bank, have
proved unsatisfactory. This aspect of the research sets out to find new
solutions.
The police as an institution is currently committed to a company logic
when tackling transnational crime. We need to determine to what extent
it is the globalization process that is responsible for the new forms
of organized crime and its expansion. In Latin American countries the
economic globalization process seems to be a decisive factor of that development.
Yet, paradoxically, the impact of globalization on social and control
policies may also be regarded as a vehicle of a process that is likely
to give rise to new types of controls that might well prove effective
(more specifically what in English is known as "deterrence").
Decision-makers face various political and practical challenges to be
tackled as "problem situations", such as the issue of coordinating international
efforts to combat drug trafficking between sovereign countries when the
strategy being framed and the availability of material means and information
are concentrated in a hegemonic country (the United States of America);
or the restructuring of criminal control institutions that reveal a major
force of corporative resistance and a persistent vocation of local intervention
as is the case in the Cono Sur.
As far as Justice is concerned - and in a recent report the World Bank
made it one of the major indicators, for any given country, of the state
of its economic and political development - while it seems true that adjustments
are called for, it would be over-ambitious to propose that it should be
fully overhauled. Yet a precondition for that restructuring is an analysis
of the policies that would make it possible to put together a judiciary
that could respond to new requirements arising from the consequences of
globalization, set out above. That is what, in this area, the present
Project will attempt to achieve.
Once the Programme as a whole has been completed (research, seminars
and colloquies), we intend to present information that could make it possible
to frame policies based on specific practical information. More specifically,
we plan to give opinions on socially viable development policies, and
perhaps even to issue recommendations on policies, strategies and action,
or to frame policies and proposals for changes to legislative and regulatory
arrangements.
We therefore intend to work in cooperation with entrepreneurs and administrators
and to disseminate widely any information gathered and any findings obtained.
This will be done through forums, meetings, training activities and publications;
each of these forms of dissemination will use real and virtual media.
Major expected results include: (1) the identification of
various national and international legislative arrangements at stake when
setting up a company and, consequently, the proposal for new legislative
arrangements; (2) an on-the-ground understanding of the expectations of
national, regional and global entrepreneurs concerning desirable company
law structures, of those of workers vis-à-vis the various models that
could be proposed and those of the major players at control institutions,
with regard to desirable legal structures; (3) an estimate of the real
impact of NGO action in solidarity initiatives in order to find out whether
it is possible to include them in public policies, and if so, which ones,
how and to what extent; (4) a modification of the legal set-up; (5) the
framing of recommendations for structural changes to the institutions
that control transnational crime; (6) the provision of appropriate training
to enable young people to enter the labour market with a proper knowledge
of these issues; (7) the compilation of documentary funds, in particular
by using the latest advances in new technologies. Click here to enter
the full text of the project. 
Practical information
Keywords
Global/local - Regional understanding - Governance - Government - Governability
- Decision-making - Complexity - Pluralism - State policy - Community
- Transnational legal practice - Legal regulations - State sovereignty.
Coordination
Coordination of GEDIM is provided by a College comprising all Project
Managers and Experts. This College designates one of its Members to see
to the General Coordination of the Programme.
Registration
Colleagues and advanced students interested in the Programme may contact
one of the Research Project Mangers directly or contact the coordination
of the Programme. Decision-makers and practitioners concerned with issues
dealt with in the GEDIM Programme are invited to present themselves. Registration
is free. Applications should be submitted to the GEDIM Coordination in
the form of a letter of interest followed by a brief curriculum vitae.
They are processed during the session of the GEDIM Coordination College
following their receipt.
Research Managers
Research project managers in the framework of this GEDIM Programme may
be contact either individually:
- or through the Programme GEDIM, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil DireGlob@aol.
Contacts
Direction
Prof. Dr. André-Jean A R N A U D
Docteur en Droit
Directeur de Recherche Émérite du CNRS Centre de Théorie
et Analyse du Droit,
Université de Paris X-Nanterre
Expert près l'UNDP / SURF-LAC & WA
Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair "Human Rights, Violence: Public
Policies and Governance"
(UEC, Bogotá, Colombia - Carlos III, Madrid, Spain - PUC-Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil - UNISINOS, RS, Brazil)
Codirecteur du RED&S
Réseau Européen Droit et Société
Maison des Sciences de l'Homme de Paris
www.reds.msh-paris.fr/
Diretor do GEDIM [MOST Programme, UNESCO]
Globalização Econômica e Direitos no Mercosul, Rio
de Janeiro (RJ)
www.unesco.org/shs/most
+ Globalization + GEDIM
aja@msh-paris.fr
General Secretariate:
GEDIM,Prof. Dr. Eliane Botelho Junqueira
Instituto Direito e Sociedade
Rua Santa Luzia 776 sala 804
RIO DE JANEIRO - RJ -
CEP 20030-040, Brasil
Tel. +55 - 21/ 2532-5215
gedim@alternex.com.br, ides@alternex.com.br
Cooperation
This Programme was created as part of cooperation with the European
Network on Law and Society (Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris).
Any colleague or advanced student who is interested may consult the RED&S
website at: http://www.reds.msh-paris.fr/
|
|
