Michael J. Trebilcock

This important book addresses a number of key issues regarding the relationship between the rule of law and development. It presents a deep and insightful inquiry into the current orthodoxy that the rule of law is the panacea for the world's problems. The authors chart the precarious progress of law reforms both in overall terms and in specific policy areas such as the judiciary, the police, tax administration and access to justice, among others. They accept that the rule of law is necessarily tied to the success of development, although they propose a set of procedural values to enlighten this institutional approach. The authors also recognize that states face difficulties in implementing this institutional structures and identify the probable impediments, before proposing a rethink of law reform strategies and offering some conclusions about the role of the international community in the rule of law reform.Reviewing the progress in the rule of law reform in developing countries, specifically four regions - Latin America, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and Asia - this book makes a significant contribution to the literature. It will be of great interest to scholars and advanced students, as well as practitioners in the field, including international and bilateral aid agencies working on rule of law reform projects, and international and regional non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that focus on rule of law reform as a major aspect of their mandate.

This important book addresses a number of key issues regarding the relationship between the rule of law and development. It presents a deep and insightful inquiry into the current orthodoxy that the rule of law is the panacea for the world's problems. The authors chart the precarious progress of law reforms both in overall terms and in specific policy areas such as the judiciary, the police, tax administration and access to justice, among others. They accept that the rule of law is necessarily tied to the success of development, although they propose a set of procedural values to enlighten this institutional approach. The authors also recognize that states face difficulties in implementing this institutional structures and identify the probable impediments, before proposing a rethink of law reform strategies and offering some conclusions about the role of the international community in the rule of law reform.Reviewing the progress in the rule of law reform in developing countries, specifically four regions - Latin America, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and Asia - this book makes a significant contribution to the literature. It will be of great interest to scholars and advanced students, as well as practitioners in the field, including international and bilateral aid agencies working on rule of law reform projects, and international and regional non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that focus on rule of law reform as a major aspect of their mandate.

Rethinking the Welfare State offers a comprehensive and comparative analysis of social welfare policy in an international context, with a particular emphasis on the US and Canada.The authors investigate the claim that a decentralized delivery of government supported goods and services enables policy objectives to be achieved in a more innovative and efficient way, but at a lower cost. Secondly they examine the effectiveness of the voucher system as a solution to problematic welfare concerns. While this system has shown much promise in improving welfare, there have been problems for institutions unable to attract enough voucher-assisted consumers to ensure their survival.In this context, the authors examine major social programmes such as food stamps, primary and secondary education, post-secondary education, labour market training, childcare, healthcare, legal aid, low-income housing, long-term care and pensions.

Rethinking the Welfare State offers a comprehensive and comparative analysis of social welfare policy in an international context, with a particular emphasis on the US and Canada.The authors investigate the claim that a decentralized delivery of government supported goods and services enables policy objectives to be achieved in a more innovative and efficient way, but at a lower cost. Secondly they examine the effectiveness of the voucher system as a solution to problematic welfare concerns. While this system has shown much promise in improving welfare, there have been problems for institutions unable to attract enough voucher-assisted consumers to ensure their survival.In this context, the authors examine major social programmes such as food stamps, primary and secondary education, post-secondary education, labour market training, childcare, healthcare, legal aid, low-income housing, long-term care and pensions.

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.

Developed over a period of some six years by teachers of the subject at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, this book provides the first comprehensive and integrated teaching tool for the very basic field of debtor and creditor relations. The carefully designed text considers first the nature of the credit market and the setting in which debtor-creditor relations are formed. It proceeds to examine self-help collection, execution, garnishment, reviewable transactions, and bankruptcy. Other sections consider the rights of various special creditors (including government creditors and mechanics’ lien claimants), and proposals for comprehensive reform of the debt collection process. The authors attempt to deal with law from a national perspective. While considering in detail the statutory provisions relevant to debtor-creditor relations in Ontario, they also treat significant legislation of other provinces and examine the suitability of differing responses to similar legal issues. Their book should as well be welcomed as the first attempt to treat in detail the current proposals for reform of federal bankruptcy legislation. The authors have accepted the distinct probability that the draft legislation pending before Parliament will be enacted, and have considered the significance of these proposals in the light of the existing law. Throughout the book are extensive introductory notes, explanatory notes, questions and problems; a set of review problems concludes the text. The authors have attempted to make it unnecessary to provide detailed background in lectures. The materials have been designed both to guide the students easily through the technical areas of debtor-creditor relations and to highlight the more interesting issues that arise from legislation.