Michael J. Trebilcock

Whenever governments change policies--tax, expenditure, or regulatory policies, among others--there will typically be losers: people or groups who relied upon and invested in physical, financial, or human capital predicated on, or even deliberately induced by the pre-reform set of policies. The issue of whether and when to mitigate the costs associated with policy changes, either through explicit government compensation, grandfathering, phased or postponed implementation, is ubiquitous across the policy landscape. Much of the existing literature covers government takings, yet compensation for expropriation comprises merely a tiny part of the universe of such strategies. Dealing with Losers: The Political Economy of Policy Transitions explores both normative and political rationales for transition cost mitigation strategies and explains which strategies might create an aggregate, overall enhancement in societal welfare beyond mere compensation. Professor Michael J. Trebilcock highlights the political rationales for mitigating such costs and the ability of potential losers to mobilize and obstruct socially beneficial changes in the absence of well-crafted transition cost mitigation strategies. This book explores the political economy of transition cost mitigation strategies in a wide variety of policy contexts including public pensions, U.S. home mortgage interest deductions, immigration, trade liberalization, agricultural supply management, and climate change, providing tested examples and realistic strategies for genuine policy reform.

An internationally renowned scholar of law and economics, Michael J. Trebilcock has spent over fifty years teaching and researching at the intersection between ideas, interests, and institutions. In Public Inquiries, Trebilcock reflects on his extensive experiences and sheds light on the role of scholars in engaging with the Canadian public policy-making process. Drawing on a number of case studies, Public Inquiries gives an informed overview of the role of ideas and interests in shaping the policy-making process. Trebilcock takes readers through his personal experiences and what he has learned throughout his career. He puts forward general lessons about the public policy-making process and reform in areas including consumer protection, competition policy, trade policy, electricity reform, and legal aid. By showing that not all experiences have been triumphant, and that disappointments can be as revealing as successes, Trebilcock draws out personal lessons and insights with a view to improving the structure and effectiveness of public inquiries.

Is Free Trade desirable? Does it primarily benefit the wealthy? And what are its impacts on individual autonomy and human dignity?These are some of the fundamental questions that acclaimed trade law expert, Michael Trebilcock, sets out to answer in this pithy and insightful journey through the past, present and future of international trade agreements and trade policy.Exploring both the historical and contemporary conflicts and controversies surrounding the free trade vs fair trade debate, from the perspective of both developed and developing countries, the book illuminates the nuances of such issues as trade deficits, currency, subsidies, intellectual property rights, health and safety and environmental standards and competition policy. Navigating the Free Trade - Fair Trade Fault-lines completes the journey by bringing us squarely into our times with a discussion on the implications of worldwide pandemics for international trade, and with an additional focus on the current trade conflict between the US and China.Packed with insight and reasoned analysis, this short but powerful book will be an essential read for seasoned experts and newcomers alike. The book offers thought-provoking guidance to policy makers, lawyers, economists, scholars and anyone with a stake in the future of the international trading system.

Is Free Trade desirable? Does it primarily benefit the wealthy? And what are its impacts on individual autonomy and human dignity?These are some of the fundamental questions that acclaimed trade law expert, Michael Trebilcock, sets out to answer in this pithy and insightful journey through the past, present and future of international trade agreements and trade policy.Exploring both the historical and contemporary conflicts and controversies surrounding the free trade vs fair trade debate, from the perspective of both developed and developing countries, the book illuminates the nuances of such issues as trade deficits, currency, subsidies, intellectual property rights, health and safety and environmental standards and competition policy. Navigating the Free Trade - Fair Trade Fault-lines completes the journey by bringing us squarely into our times with a discussion on the implications of worldwide pandemics for international trade, and with an additional focus on the current trade conflict between the US and China.Packed with insight and reasoned analysis, this short but powerful book will be an essential read for seasoned experts and newcomers alike. The book offers thought-provoking guidance to policy makers, lawyers, economists, scholars and anyone with a stake in the future of the international trading system.

This important book focuses on the idea that institutions matter for development, asking what lessons we have learned from past reform efforts, and what role lawyers can play in this field. What Makes Poor Countries Poor? provides a critical overview of different conceptions and theories of development, situating institutional theories within the larger academic debate on development. The book also discusses why, whether and how institutions matter in different fields of development. In the domestic sphere, the authors answer these questions by analyzing institutional reforms in the public (rule of law, political regimes, bureaucracy) and the private sectors (contracts, property rights, and privatization). In the international sphere, they discuss the importance of institutions for trade, foreign direct investment, and foreign aid. This book will be essential reading for those interested in a concise introduction to the academic debates in this field, as well as for students, practitioners and policy makers in law and development.

Immigration policy is a subject of intense political and public debate. In this second edition of the widely recognized and authoritative work The Making of the Mosaic, Ninette Kelley and Michael Trebilcock have thoroughly revised and updated their examination of the ideas, interests, institutions, and rhetoric that have shaped Canada's immigration history. Beginning their study in the pre-Confederation period, the authors interpret major episodes in the evolution of Canadian immigration policy, including the massive deportations of the First World War and Depression eras as well as the Japanese-Canadian internment camps during World War Two. New chapters provide perspective on immigration in a post-9/11 world, where security concerns and a demand for temporary foreign workers play a defining role in immigration policy reform. A comprehensive and important work, The Making of the Mosaic clarifies the attitudes underlying each phase and juncture of immigration history, providing vital perspective on the central issues of immigration policy that continue to confront us today.

Offering a unique cross-disciplinary approach to scholarship in law and economics, this much-needed work expounds and critically evaluates all of the major doctrines of Canadian competition policy. The topics addressed, each in a separate chapter, include: Canadian competition policy in an historical context; basic economic concepts; multi-firm conduct; horizontal agreements; the merger review process; predatory pricing and price discrimination; vertical restraints; intra-brand competition; inter-brand competition; abuse of dominance; competition policy and intellectual property rights; competition policy and trade policy; competition policy and regulated industries; and enforcement. The treatment of each substantive topic is organized first around a discussion of the relevant body (or bodies) of economic theory and then the pertinent bodies of legal doctrine, including case law. Each chapter contains a critique of existing law in light of contemporary economic theory. This is the only book available that offers an up-to-date integrated analysis of economic theory and legal doctrine in the context of Canadian competition policy.

Our legal system is committed to the idea that private markets and the law of contracts that supports them are the primary institutions for allocating goods and services in a modern economy. Yet the market paradigm, this book argues, leaves substantial room for challenge. For example, should people be permitted to buy and sell blood, bodily organs, surrogate babies, or sexual favors? Is it fair to allow people with limited knowledge about a transaction and its consequences to enter into it without guidance from experts?

Immigration remains a cornerstone of national policy, although it has undergone significant transformations across economic, family, and refugee admission streams in the past two decades. Reshaping the Mosaic offers an insightful exploration of Canada's immigration policy, ranging from its historical roots to contemporary developments. The book examines the growth in permanent and temporary immigration to Canada. It explores changes in selection criteria and evaluates their impact on key policy objectives: contributing to Canadian economic prosperity, facilitating family reunification, providing refuge for those fleeing persecution, and enabling the integration of immigrants and their descendants into Canadian society. The book sheds light on the legal, political, economic, and social paradoxes inherent in Canadian immigration policy, highlighting shifts in exclusion powers, deportation practices, settlement support, and citizenship rules, as well as their implications for Canadian ideals of multiculturalism, fairness, and integration. It documents the lack of transparency and informed public engagement in policy formation and the implications this lack may have on maintaining public confidence and ensuring that immigration policies align with the national interests. Driven by a conviction that the contemporary changes in immigration policy need to be examined in a comprehensive and inclusive way, Reshaping the Mosaic looks at recent shifts and their implications for society and offers invaluable insights for policymakers, scholars, and stakeholders, aiming to assist the development of a new immigration policy framework.

Immigration remains a cornerstone of national policy, although it has undergone significant transformations across economic, family, and refugee admission streams in the past two decades. Reshaping the Mosaic offers an insightful exploration of Canada's immigration policy, ranging from its historical roots to contemporary developments. The book examines the growth in permanent and temporary immigration to Canada. It explores changes in selection criteria and evaluates their impact on key policy objectives: contributing to Canadian economic prosperity, facilitating family reunification, providing refuge for those fleeing persecution, and enabling the integration of immigrants and their descendants into Canadian society. The book sheds light on the legal, political, economic, and social paradoxes inherent in Canadian immigration policy, highlighting shifts in exclusion powers, deportation practices, settlement support, and citizenship rules, as well as their implications for Canadian ideals of multiculturalism, fairness, and integration. It documents the lack of transparency and informed public engagement in policy formation and the implications this lack may have on maintaining public confidence and ensuring that immigration policies align with the national interests. Driven by a conviction that the contemporary changes in immigration policy need to be examined in a comprehensive and inclusive way, Reshaping the Mosaic looks at recent shifts and their implications for society and offers invaluable insights for policymakers, scholars, and stakeholders, aiming to assist the development of a new immigration policy framework.

Occupational licensure, including regulation of the professions, dates back to the medieval period. While the guilds that performed this regulatory function have long since vanished, professional regulation continues to this day. For instance, in the United States, 22 per cent of American workers must hold licenses simply to do their jobs. While long-established professions have more settled regulatory paradigms, the case studies in Paradoxes of Professional Regulation explore other professions, taking note of incompetent services and the serious risks they pose to the physical, mental, or emotional health, financial well-being, or legal status of uninformed consumers. Michael J. Trebilcock examines five case studies of the regulation of diverse professions, including alternative medicine, mental health care provision, financial planning, immigration consulting, and legal services. Noting the widely divergent approaches to the regulation of the same professions across different jurisdictions – paradoxes of professional regulation – the book is an attempt to develop a set of regulatory principles for the future. In its comparative approach, Paradoxes of Professional Regulation gets at the heart of the tensions influencing the regulatory landscape, and works toward practical lessons for bringing greater coherence to the way in which professions are regulated.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.In this thoroughly revised and updated second edition, Mariana Mota Prado and Michael J. Trebilcock offer a succinct and readable introduction to the main concepts and debates in the field of law and development. They examine the role of legal systems and institutions, investigate perceptions around what laws and legal arrangements encourage and facilitate development, and probe the issues arising in both private law and public law as well as in international economic relations.Key features of the second edition include:Discussion of the role of technology in promoting developmentAnalysis of the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on developing countriesA brand new chapter investigating the role of health and education in developmentWritten with the insight of two top experts in the field, this Advanced Introduction covers the most recent trends in law and development research and highlights areas that remain underexplored. It will be essential reading for students, practitioners and policy-makers looking to gain a clear understanding of the core principles of this multifaceted topic.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.In this thoroughly revised and updated second edition, Mariana Mota Prado and Michael J. Trebilcock offer a succinct and readable introduction to the main concepts and debates in the field of law and development. They examine the role of legal systems and institutions, investigate perceptions around what laws and legal arrangements encourage and facilitate development, and probe the issues arising in both private law and public law as well as in international economic relations.Key features of the second edition include:Discussion of the role of technology in promoting developmentAnalysis of the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on developing countriesA brand new chapter investigating the role of health and education in developmentWritten with the insight of two top experts in the field, this Advanced Introduction covers the most recent trends in law and development research and highlights areas that remain underexplored. It will be essential reading for students, practitioners and policy-makers looking to gain a clear understanding of the core principles of this multifaceted topic.

Written by two leading scholars with 60 years of collective experience in the area, this insightful and updated second edition provides a clear and concise introduction to the fundamental components of international trade law, presenting the basic structure and principles of this complex area of law, alongside elucidation of specific GATT and WTO legal rules and institutions.Key features include:a nuanced yet highly readable summary of the areaplacement of trade law into historical, political and economic contexts, including new analysis of populist critiquesreferences to the most recent cases, decisions, treaty negotiation developments and economic and legal scholarshipanalysis of new areas including digital trade, migration and security exceptions to alert students to developments in international trade lawlinks and connections between different areas of trade law to provide students with an integrated overview of the topic.Interdisciplinary in nature, this second edition will be an indispensable guide for students in law, economics, political science and international relations. Comprehensive and accessible, it will be essential reading for non-specialist scholars and policy advisors seeking to further their understanding of international trade law. 'This Advanced Introduction provides an excellent succinct yet accurate summary of the international trade rules applicable, inter alia, to trade in goods, services, intellectual property, and investment. It also explores international standards, social issues such as development, environment, labour, human rights, and it addresses the institutional framework and the future of the world trading system. As an experienced practitioner in this field, I highly recommend this book to government officials, business people, and students who will all get a clear interdisciplinary tour d'horizon in the field of international trade.' - Gabrielle Marceau, University of Geneva, Switzerland and Senior Counsellor at the WTO

Institutional bypass is a reform strategy that creates alternative institutional regimes to give citizens a choice of service provider and create a form of competition between the dominant institution and the institutional bypass. While novel in the academic literature, the concept captures practices already being used in developing countries. In this illuminating book, Mariana Mota Prado and Michael J. Trebilcock explore the strengths and limits of this strategy with detailed case studies, showing how citizen preferences provide a benchmark against which future reform initiatives can be evaluated, and in this way change the dynamics of the reform process. While not a 'silver bullet' to the challenge of institutional reform, institutional bypasses add to the portfolio of strategies to promote development. This work should be read by development researchers, scholars, policymakers, and anyone else seeking options on how to promote change and implement reforms in developing countries around the world.

Institutional bypass is a reform strategy that creates alternative institutional regimes to give citizens a choice of service provider and create a form of competition between the dominant institution and the institutional bypass. While novel in the academic literature, the concept captures practices already being used in developing countries. In this illuminating book, Mariana Mota Prado and Michael J. Trebilcock explore the strengths and limits of this strategy with detailed case studies, showing how citizen preferences provide a benchmark against which future reform initiatives can be evaluated, and in this way change the dynamics of the reform process. While not a 'silver bullet' to the challenge of institutional reform, institutional bypasses add to the portfolio of strategies to promote development. This work should be read by development researchers, scholars, policymakers, and anyone else seeking options on how to promote change and implement reforms in developing countries around the world.

An important read for academics and policy-makers alike, Hard Choices, Soft Law asserts that voluntary standards, or 'soft' law, are an important supplement to international law in a number of areas. This key work firstly outlines the approach taken to combining soft and hard law and trade, environment and labour values in the WTO and NAFTA, and in the prospective Millennium Round. Then, using the forestry sector - a realm where formal international law remains largely absent - the book provides a detailed examination of the role of soft law in action. It demonstrates how soft and hard law can be combined to promote trade, environmental and social cohesion, in ways that also permit sustainable development. The book presents a wealth of knowledge from a range of contributors familiar with the work of the G7/G8, the OECD, the Biodiversity Convention and the Codex Alimentarius.

Though most conceptions of the rule of law assume equality before the law – and hence equal access to the justice system – this basic right is not being met for many low and middle income Canadians. This book focuses on the problem of civil access to justice for middle income earners – those whose household income is high enough to disqualify them from legal aid but not high enough to cover the costs of litigation. Featuring contributions by leading Canadian and international scholars, practitioners, and members of the judiciary, this multidisciplinary collection draws on scholarship in the fields of law, social science, and public policy. There is a particular emphasis on family law, consumer law, and employment law, as these are the areas where research has indicated that unmet legal needs are highest. Middle Income Access to Justice presents a variety of innovative solutions, from dispute resolution process reforms to the development of non-lawyer forms of assistance and new methods for funding legal expenses. In doing so, it lays the foundation for the development of a much-needed new delivery model to provide early intervention for legal services.

Though most conceptions of the rule of law assume equality before the law – and hence equal access to the justice system – this basic right is not being met for many low and middle income Canadians. This book focuses on the problem of civil access to justice for middle income earners – those whose household income is high enough to disqualify them from legal aid but not high enough to cover the costs of litigation. Featuring contributions by leading Canadian and international scholars, practitioners, and members of the judiciary, this multidisciplinary collection draws on scholarship in the fields of law, social science, and public policy. There is a particular emphasis on family law, consumer law, and employment law, as these are the areas where research has indicated that unmet legal needs are highest. Middle Income Access to Justice presents a variety of innovative solutions, from dispute resolution process reforms to the development of non-lawyer forms of assistance and new methods for funding legal expenses. In doing so, it lays the foundation for the development of a much-needed new delivery model to provide early intervention for legal services.

This important book focuses on the idea that institutions matter for development, asking what lessons we have learned from past reform efforts, and what role lawyers can play in this field. What Makes Poor Countries Poor? provides a critical overview of different conceptions and theories of development, situating institutional theories within the larger academic debate on development. The book also discusses why, whether and how institutions matter in different fields of development. In the domestic sphere, the authors answer these questions by analyzing institutional reforms in the public (rule of law, political regimes, bureaucracy) and the private sectors (contracts, property rights, and privatization). In the international sphere, they discuss the importance of institutions for trade, foreign direct investment, and foreign aid. This book will be essential reading for those interested in a concise introduction to the academic debates in this field, as well as for students, practitioners and policy makers in law and development.