Добірка наукової літератури з теми "Constituent authority"

The concept of constituent power is often invoked in jurisprudence and literature to account for the origin and supremacy of the constitution, the limits of constitutional amendment, and the basis of constitutional interpretation. Nevertheless, the concept of constituent power has been under criticism for quite some time, and there remains today some full-fledged arguments to dispense with it as a mythical concept, unnecessary or harmful. In order to answer the question of whether the concept of constituent power has meaning and value on the horizon of constitutional law scholarship today, it might be useful to confront these contemporary criticisms alongside a consideration of the history of the concept. A noteworthy point in the historical examination of the concept of constitutional power is the fact that Sieyès tried to distance the concept of constituent power from that of sovereignty. While Sieyès proposed ‘pouvoir constituant’ as a concept that expresses the ‘the political authority of the people’, he rejected the idea of sovereignty as a “monastic” and “colossal” that cannot give adequate explanatory function of modern form of political legitimacy. Carl Schmitt, on the other hand, who inherited the concept of constituent power from Sieyès but closely linked it to the concept of sovereignty, used the unmediated delegation of constituent power as a basis for justifying a transitional sovereign dictatorship that suspended all separation of powers. Contemporary critiques of the concept of constituent power take several forms. A positivist version suggests that the concept of constituent power as a immediate presence without representation, “das formlos Formende” is itself inconceivable. In addition, the concept reduces the question of validity and legitimacy of the legal order to the question of “who” created the constitution, while the circumstances regarding the enactment of a legal norm cannot be an independent, determinative basis for the obligation to obey the law. A normativist version argues that the concept of constituent power fails to explain coherently the problem of law's authority for it locates the source of law's authority outside the legal order. But as emphasized by Fuller and Dworkin, the authority of law is better explained by the internal morality of the legal order and this renders the concept of constituent power unnecessary. The former view contends that constitutions can only be justified in terms of their conformity to extralegal moral and practical considerations, and thus a concept of constituent power that centers on the question of “who” made them loses its importance. The latter view argues that constitutions can be justified through internal morality of the law itself, and thus the question of constitutional authority that locates the source of their authority outside the legal order is not raised in the first place. The view that the constituent power is “das formlos Formende”, the presence of the people without representation, however, may be just one interpretation of constituent power, but not the only one. Rather, Sieyès' concept which emphasizes the limited powers of the extraordinary representative in constitution-making, seems to be closely linked to considerations on the process of representation. In addition, understanding constitution-making power as extra-legal authority without any normative dimension or ‘plenitudo potestatis’, free of any legal constraints seems to be a distinctively Schmittian interpretation. It should not be overlooked that the concept of the constitution that the critiques presuppose underscores the meaning of positive ‘written’ constitution as a product of actual political processes. However, it is necessary to consider in a serious manner the problem of mystification and possible misuse of the concept of constitutional power that these criticisms highlight.

The subject of this research is the federal legislation establishing competence of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the sphere of tourism. With passing of the Strategy for the Development of Tourism until 2035 by the government of the Russian Federation, and the corresponded change in the paradigm of the national tourism policy, the question on the nature and the extent of participation of the branches of public authority of various levels in its realization gains special importance. Its solution is exacerbated by the fact that tourism as a phenomenon affects different spheres public life. Therefore, it objectively serves as the subject of legal regulation of the acts of various branches of legislation, thus in one way or another, relates to majority of the subject of jurisdiction of all levels of public authority. This article is dedicated to the analysis of the state and forecast of the key trends of development of federal legislation establishing authority of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the sphere of tourism due to the coming enactment of the new Strategy for the development of tourism. The conducted research allowed the author to substantiate the inadequacy of the regulation of the authority of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the sphere of tourism by the Federal Law “On the Fundamentals of Tourism Activity in the Russian Federation”, as well as indicate the gaps therein; outline other legislative sources of competence of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the sphere of tourism; determine the factors of differentiation of the legal regulation of tourism as a subject of shared jurisdiction of the Federation and its constituents; signify the problems of legal formalization of the competence of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and formulate proposals for their solution. Additionally, this article is first to subject the Strategy for the Development of Tourism until 2035 to legal assessment from the positions of competence of the Russian Federation constituents, underlining narrow avenues of its implementation from the perspective of current legislation.

As children, we are often told both what to do and what to think. For a child to learn at all, it must in the first instance simply trust those, such as parents, who teach it things; and this goes for practical as well as theoretical learning. Doubting is necessarily something that comes later, for to be able to doubt one must have some beliefs already, e.g. concerning what sort of reasons count as good reasons, and what count as bad. But in growing up, a person does, or should, develop the capacity for rational doubt, and also the capacity for rational resistance to being told what to do. The first capacity constitutes a critical faculty, and the second is an essential constituent of practical autonomy.

AbstractI argue that legal and constitutional theory should avoid the idea of constituent power. It is unhelpful in seeking to understand the authority of law and the place of written constitutions in such an understanding. In particular, it results in a deep ambivalence about whether authority is located within or without the legal order. That ambivalence also manifests itself within positivist legal theory, which explains the affinity between theories of constituent power and legal positivist accounts of authority. Legal theory should then focus on the question of law’s authority as one entirely internal to legal order, thus making the question of constituent power superfluous.

The article examines the historical relationship of people’s sovereignty with parliamentarism, with the constituent power and legislative activity, which allows a better understanding of the essence, specifics and boundaries of both the constituent power and legislative activity, as well as its derivative legislative activity. The development of the idea of popular representation and its reflection in the doctrine of democracy can be traced. The phenomenon of parliamentarism in the modern world as a system of political organization of the state is studied, in which the parliament, due to the fact that it is the highest body of popular representation, as elected directly by all people and, therefore, designed to express the sovereign will of all authorities. The scope, limits, and procedure for exercising the sovereign power of the people, including the exercise of legislative and constituent power directly by the people, the peculiarities of adopting the constitution, amending it by a referendum or constituent assembly or parliament, the possibilities and features of the people’s exercise of legislative initiative, the power of parliament to exercise constituent and legislative power. The special role of the current Constitution and the procedures established by it in the exercise of the power delegated by the people by the parliament is emphasized. Some constitutional constituent powers of the parliament are analyzed (appointment of an all-Ukrainian referendum, appointment of the President of Ukraine, appointment of the Prime Minister of Ukraine and a number of ministers and other officials, resignation of the Prime Minister of Ukraine, members of the Cabinet of Ministers Ukraine and others), implementation by the parliament of budgetary, control, ceremonial powers. Particular attention is paid to one of the most important tasks of the parliament - to exercise legislative power, in accordance with the constitutional principle of separation of powers, enshrined in Article 6 of the Constitution of Ukraine. The direct connection and dependence of the legislative powers on the legislative power of the parliament is emphasized.

Intensification of the rule-making process in healthcare, active position of citizens and their increased demands for conditions of receiving medical services and quality of health care have resulted in increased burden on health authorities. To ensure efficiency in achieving targets in healthcare reforming and modernization, the requirements for quality managerial personnel are being increased. A wide variety of organizational and legal forms of the central health executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, their often insufficient staff size and imbalance in the staffing of structural units necessitate development of unified methodological approaches to the formation of the structure of the central health authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and substantiate methodology for calculating the staff size. The purpose of the study: to develop a methodology for creating the optimal structure of the health executive authority of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation and methodological recommendations for calculating their staffing. Results. Analysis of the organizational and legal structure and functional responsibilities of the state authorities in healthcare in 13 constituent entities of the Russian Federation has identified significant differences and different competencies, although each constituent entity of the Russian Federation solves general health issues within the competences, therefore, the scope of activities of all levels of government should be coordinated. Staffing of the regional executive authority (REA) should primarily depend on the population size of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation, its density, number of medical organizations, their total bed capacity, planned capacity of units providing outpatient care, and the number of medical personnel. A coefficient has been derived for calculating the staffing level of the state health authority in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. In accordance with the general calculation criteria, several models of the REA structure were proposed, depending on the population size of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. For REA with the number of deputies four and over, two versions of the model with different hierarchical subordination were proposed. Conclusion. Active processes of the industry reforming against the background of objective factors that determine new approaches to the healthcare system impose new, increased requirements to the executive bodies of state authority of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, necessitate optimization of the structure, management and functional load of regional health executive authorities.

This article analyses the Treaty of Waitangi in light of Carl Schmitt's concept of constituent power – the idea that in a democracy the people hold the power to make fundamental political decisions to determine their form of political existence. It finds that in 1840, Māori, as the holders of constituent power, made a fundamental political decision to share authority between themselves and the Crown. This fundamental political decision is a key element of the New Zealand constitution; limiting potential constitutional changes that would override the substance of the decision, and requiring changes to the current legal framework in order to comply with the decision to share authority. This article focuses solely on the conservative implications of characterising the Treaty as a fundamental political decision. It concludes that only a further exercise of constituent power by Māori can legitimately override or significantly change the fundamental political decision in the Treaty.

This article is the first attempt to analyse the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania of 1992 from the perspective of the comparative concept of multi-stage constitution-making. The article consists of three parts: the first two explain, why the 1992 Lithuanian Constitution is not only a result of the 1989–1992 political and legal events in the country, but also bears some conceptual similarities in the latter legal steps with those of 1918–1922. From a comparative perspective, we can see that the multi-stage constitution-making in Lithuania (as well as other Baltic states) in the late 1980s and beginning of 1990s differs from some countries in the region of Central Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland and Hungary), because it includes the concept of continuity with the inter-war republics and does not include the phenomenon of “round tables” between the Communist party and so-called new People’s Front movements. The third difference is that the new constitutions were adopted in Lithuania and Estonia (and re-adopted in Latvia) at the beginning of 1990s, i.e., during the so-called “constitutional moment”, while in Poland and Hungary this happened a bit later. The last chapter of the article shows some constitutional paradoxes of constitution-making, namely: the paradox concerning the legitimacy of the authority having the power to adopt a constituent act; the paradox of mutual inter-dependence between the constituent authority and the constituent act, adopted by this authority; the so-called paradox of “illegality of law” of the constituent act (including the constitution adoption process) and the paradox of retrospectivity of the constituent act.

AbstractConstituent power is a helpful component of constitutional theory because it provides a conceptual and potentially normative explanation of how a new constitution can be made without any existing legal authority to do so. Contemporary theories of constituent power, however, unhelpfully treat constituent power as a fictive entity, typically the people, that subsists through time. This predominant account of constituent power fails adequately to explain examples of constitution-making and also lends support to the populist claim that a unitary and unchanging people has an immanent but continuing role as a constitutional actor superior to the constitution itself. This enables populist leaders to rely on prevalent understandings of constitutionalism to support the sidestepping and/or removal of constraints on their power. In this Article, I trace the connections between mainstream theories of constituent power and the academically peripheral claims of populist constitutionalism. I argue for a different understanding of constituent power as a capacity that, in principle, may momentarily be exercised by any entity. This explains how a new constitution can unlawfully replace a pre-existing constitution yet come to have lawful authority itself, without implying the diachronic existence of the constituent power as an entity. I illustrate this understanding of constituent power with reference to the constitutional development of Taiwan and Ireland. These examples show—contrary to the predominant account of constituent power—that constitutional systems may be created without the exercise of constituent power and that constitutional law can play an important role in constructing an entity capable of exercising constituent power. Seen in this way, popular references in preambles are important not for their account of how a constitution was made but rather for their account of whom a constitution is for. This account of constituent power undermines core claims of populist constitutionalism. But it also provides a salutary lesson for liberal constitutionalists: a constitution adopted for a people must broadly serve the interests of that people.

La France a vécu, dans son histoire, sous plus de constitutions écrites édictées par un pouvoir exécutif que par une Assemblée constituante. Ce constat est contrintuitif au regard de l’importance doctrinale du constitutionnalisme révolutionnaire et de ses présupposés démocratiques. Il contredit par ailleurs la prégnance du modèle d’Assemblée constituante dans la culture constitutionnelle française. Cette étude propose d’expliquer pourquoi et comment les données de l’histoire constitutionnelle française semblent autant s’éloigner de ces présupposés révolutionnaires.Pour ce faire, une notion est construite, définie et mobilisée : l’autorité constituante. Elle permet d’articuler les dimensions spécifiquement politiques et juridiques de l’opération constituante, en éclairant sur les influences réciproques qu’elles exercent sur la manière dont est élaborée la Constitution. Cette approche conduit notamment à décrire l’importance des fondements politiques dans le processus constituant. Cette étude propose ainsi une histoire de l’autorité constituante en France. Son objet est d’éclairer les justifications et les conditions d’exercice des pouvoirs constituants non démocratiques de l’histoire constitutionnelle française
Throughout its history, France has lived under more written constitutions enacted by an executive than by a Constituent Assembly. This observation is counterintuitive with regard to the doctrinal importance of revolutionary constitutionalism and its democratic presuppositions. It also contradicts the importance of the Constituent Assembly model in French constitutional culture. This study proposes to explain why and how French constitutional history seems so far removed from these revolutionary presuppositions.To this end, a concept is constructed, defined and mobilized: constituent authority. This concept articulates the specifically political and legal dimensions of the constituent process, and sheds light on the reciprocal influences they exert on the way in which the Constitution is drawn up. In particular, this approach leads to a description of the importance of political foundations in the constituent process. This study offers a history of constituent authority in France. Its aim is to shed light on the justifications and conditions for the exercise of non-democratic constituent powers in French constitutional history

La question contemporaine de la place et du rôle du Parlement au sein des institutions françaises interroge la nature de l’autorité traditionnellement reconnue à la représentation nationale. Cette recherche a pour objet d’analyser les origines révolutionnaires de ce paradigme du droit constitutionnel français consistant à voir dans l’assemblée des représentants de la Nation le siège d’une autorité politique trouvant sa source dans l’expression représentative de la volonté générale.La Révolution française est longtemps apparue comme le moment matriciel du droit constitutionnel et du constitutionnalisme modernes en France. Mais à la différence de ses devancières d’Angleterre et d’Amérique du Nord, celle-ci eut moins pour objet de limiter le pouvoir que d’en régénérer à la fois le fondement et l’exercice. À cet égard, elle se présente au droit constitutionnel comme une révolution de l’autorité, c’est-à-dire comme un bouleversement total des fondements de l’existence politique tendant à substituer à l’ancienne monarchie, traditionnelle et sacrale, un ordre constitutionnel moderne prenant pour base l’égale liberté des citoyens et l’autonomie naturelle de la collectivité nationale. Le grand œuvre des révolutionnaires français fut donc de redéfinir la relation de commandement à obéissance en substituant à l’autorité transcendante du monarque celle, immanente, d’une Nation appelée à vouloir pour elle-même par l’intermédiaire de ses représentants. C’est en effet par le prisme de la représentation que la Révolution a entrepris de réconcilier autorité et liberté. L’avènement de la représentation nationale, appelée à devenir, et pour longtemps, le centre de gravité de la vie politique française, trouve donc son origine dans cette volonté de refonder l’obligation d’obéissance à travers la conjonction de l’autonomie individuelle et de l’autonomie collective.Ce projet libéral et émancipateur, consistant à réaliser l’emprise de la Nation sur elle-même par le canal de la représentation, souffre pourtant d’une ambivalence congénitale tenant aux aspirations contradictoires du constitutionnalisme révolutionnaire. Celui-ci est en effet partagé entre la nécessité de justifier la subversion de l’ordre ancien, et le souci de fonder pour l’avenir un gouvernement libéral et tempéré, tendant à rationaliser et à dépersonnaliser l’autorité publique. L’institution de la représentation nationale, à la fois produit et moteur de la Révolution, cristallise alors cette tension. Les travaux de l’Assemblée constituante et de la Convention nationale révèlent en effet que les constituants révolutionnaires n’ont cessé d’osciller entre deux conceptions de la représentation et du constitutionnalisme. L’une, moderne, se fonde sur l’altérité de la Nation et de ses représentants pour placer la Constitution et la garantie des droits au-dessus de l’autorité de ces derniers. L’autre, plus ancienne, tend au contraire à en opérer la symbiose en fondant l’autorité de la représentation nationale sur un impératif existentiel : prêter vie à cette nation souveraine qui ne peut advenir à l’existence juridique que par l’expression d’une volonté commune. Le constitutionnalisme révolutionnaire reste donc au milieu du gué, bloqué entre la tradition organiciste d’Ancien Régime, dans laquelle il plonge ses racines, et l’esquisse d’un constitutionnalisme moderne tendant au contraire à dissocier l’État et la Société, l’autorité et la liberté
The place and the contemporary role of Parliament in French institutions lead to question the nature of the traditionally recognized authority of national representation. The objective of this research is to analyze the revolutionary origins of French constitutional principle which consists in seeing, in the assembly of representatives of the Nation, the heart of a politicial authority whose source is the representative expression of the general will. The French Revolution has long appeared as the matrix moment of modern constitutional law and constitutionalism in France. However, unlike its predecessors in England and North America, it was less intended to limit power than to regenerate both its foundation and exercise. In this respect, it presents itself to constitutional law as a revolution of authority, that is to say as a total upheaval of the foundations of political existence tending to replace the old monarchy, traditional and sacral, with a modern constitutional order based on the equal freedom of citizens and the natural autonomy of national community. The great work of the French revolutionaries was, therefore, to redefine the relation of command to obedience by substituting the transcendent authority of the monarch, by the immanent authority of a Nation, which materializes itself through its representatives. It is in fact through the lens of representation that the Revolution undertook to reconcile authority and freedom. The advent of the national rpresentation, destined for a long time to become the center of gravity of French political life, finds its origin in this desire to refound the obligation of obedience through the conjunction of individual autonomy and collective autonomy. This liberal and emancipatory project, which consists in realizing the nation’s grip on itself through representation, nevertheless suffers from a congenital ambivalence due to the contradictory aspirations of revolutionary constitutionalism. It is divided between the need to justify the subversion of the old order, and the desire to establish for the future a liberal and temperate government, tending to rationalize and depersonalize public authority. The institution of national representation, produced and generated by the Revolution, crystalized this tension. The work of the Constituent Assembly and the National Convention reveals that the revolutionary constituents have constantly oscillated between two conceptions of representation and constitutionalism. One, modern, relies on the otherness of the Nation and its representatives to place the Constitution and the guarantee of rights above the authority of the latter. On the contrary, the older one tends to symbiosis with it by basing the authority of national representation on an existential imperative: to give life to this sovereign nation which can only come to legal existence by the expression of a common will. Revolutionary constitutionalism therefore remains in the middle, stuck between the organicist tradition of the Old Regime, in which it has its roots, and the outline of a modern constitutionalism tending instead to dissociate the state and the society, as well as authority and freedom

When addressing the issue of the legal form of citizenship in Brazil, one must question how the needs and interests of citizens were considered and debated in the Constituent of 1987/1988 and are recognized and protected by the State from the Constitution of 1988. In order to describe the constitutionalisation of citizenship, we seek to explore and explain how relations between citizens and the State are established. It starts from the hypothesis that the rights and duties of citizenship reflect and are used to justify relations of domination, whose effects are varying degrees of inclusion or exclusion, access and exercise of powers by citizens, with intermediation of the State. Adopting as a methodology a multidisciplinary investigation, it is based on the theoretical referential of the genealogy of power procedure, through the application of instruments of critical analysis of textually oriented discourse, on primary and secondary sources of empirical and theoretical bibliographic material, in a qualitative way. This return to the constituent context is justified as a means to achieve the purpose of understanding the the foundations and manifestations in the constitutional text, as its limitations and possibilities in social reality. In a structure divided into three chapters, the following contente are displayed: (1) formation and constituent works used the yearning for popular participation, to establish a constitutional system of democracy based on representation, being citizenship more configured by the State than built by the citizens; (2) oligarchic groups manipulated and manipulate the constituent power using the common needs to meet hegemonic interests, which makes that power a symbolic power and citizens less subject than objects of power, being citizenship subject to regulation and control by the State; and (3) this lack of constituent legitimacy hampers constitutional effectiveness, since power is exercised and justified by agents of the State even without authority being conferred on them by the citizens, which is not criticized as it could by constitutionalist doctrine, making citizenship more utopia than reality.
Ao se abordar o tema da forma jurídica da cidadania no Brasil, deve-se questionar como as necessidades e os interesses dos cidadãos foram considerados e debatidos na Constituinte de 1987/1988 e são reconhecidos e protegidos pelo Estado a partir da Constituição de 1988. Com o objetivo de descrever a constitucionalização da cidadania, procura-se explorar e explicar como se estabelecem as relações entre os cidadãos e o Estado. Parte-se da hipótese de que os direitos e deveres de cidadania refletem e são usados para justificar relações de dominação, cujos efeitos são diversos graus de inclusão ou exclusão, acesso e exercício de poderes pelos cidadãos, com intermediação do Estado. Adota-se uma metodologia de investigação multidisciplinar, amparada no procedimento de genealogia do poder como referencial teórico, mediante aplicação de instrumentos de análise crítica de discurso textualmente orientada, em fontes primárias e secundárias de material bibliográfico empírico e teórico, de modo qualitativo. Justifica-se esse retorno ao contexto constituinte como meio para atingir a finalidade de compreender os fundamentos e as manifestações de poder no texto constitucional, assim como suas limitações e possibilidades na realidade social. Numa estrutura dividida em três capítulos, apresenta-se o seguinte conteúdo: (1) a formação e os trabalhos constituintes usaram o anseio de participação popular para instituir um regime constitucional de democracia baseada na representação, sendo a cidadania mais configurada pelo Estado do que construída pelos cidadãos; (2) grupos oligárquicos manipularam e manipulam o poder constituinte utilizando as necessidades comuns para atender a interesses hegemônicos, o que faz daquele poder um poder simbólico e dos cidadãos menos sujeitos do que objetos de poder, estando a cidadania submetida à regulação e ao controle pelo Estado; e (3) esse déficit de legitimidade constituinte dificulta a eficácia constitucional, na medida em que o poder é exercido e justificado por agentes do Estado mesmo sem que a autoridade lhes seja conferida pelos cidadãos, o que não é criticado como se poderia pela doutrina constitucionalista, fazendo da cidadania mais utopia do que realidade.
São Cristóvão, SE

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
This research explores what roles nonprofits play in political representation by applying the concept of the representational role to nonprofits. The representational role consists of representational focus and style. Representational focus shows those whom nonprofits aim to serve: members, constituents, or the general public. Representational style denotes the ways nonprofits advocate for their focal groups: the delegation, trusteeship, and educational styles. The survey and regression analysis results demonstrate that nonprofits serving their members are most likely to convey their members’ voices directly to policy makers: the delegation style. In contrast, nonprofits advocating for their constituents are likely to pursue what they independently identify as the interests of their constituents: the trusteeship style. Finally, nonprofits speaking for the general public are most likely to work toward educating the general public: the educational style. These results suggest that nonprofits play different roles in political representation, depending on the types of their focal groups.

The European Union (EU) has been through almost two decades of near-constant constitutional crisis. The failure of the Constitutional Treaty was followed in quick succession by the struggles about the Lisbon Treaty, the Eurozone emergency, Brexit, and, recently, Corona-crisis-induced conflicts about financial solidarity. Over the course of these events, it has become clear that the EU’s constitutional development largely evades popular control. At the same time, the EU faces increasing politicization from below. While Eurosceptic forces seek to ‘take back control’ at the national level, pro-European citizens challenge the role of the states as the ‘masters of the treaties’. They reclaim what—in their view—has been illegitimately withheld from them: the right to shape the EU polity. This book advances the argument that these developments prompt the need for a theory of constituent power in the EU. The reason why European integration eludes citizen control and meets with growing discontent is that it allows constituted powers to operate as de facto constituent powers. Starting from claims to founding authority articulated in public narratives, the book explores competing models of constituent power in the EU—regional cosmopolitanism, demoi-cracy, split popular sovereignty, and destituent power—revealing their respective strengths and weaknesses. Rationally reconstructing established democratic practices of EU constitutional politics, it develops a new theory of constituent power in the EU. Addressing questions of the adequate conceptualization, allocation, agency, and institutionalization of constituent power, the book opens up the prospect of a more democratic mode of European integration.

Political and epistemic authorities in the global governance system often restrain the freedom of constituent members and therefore need to be justified with reference to the impartial pursuit of a shared social purpose. An international authority must therefore develop a convincing legitimation narrative and display a sense of impartiality to be seen as legitimate. The thrust of the argument in this chapter is that the legitimacy of the global governance system is structurally precarious. Two legitimation problems can be identified: a technocratic bias in the justification of authority and the lack of impartiality in the exercise of authority. International institutions often have authority, but lack sufficient legitimacy beliefs.

This chapter locates a vision of democratic self-constitution beyond origins within Thomas Jefferson’s concept of a regenerative founding. It traces this alternate conception of founding to Jefferson’s writings while minister of France on the eve of the French Revolution, particularly those surrounding his 1789 letter to James Madison. It reevaluates the letter’s central question—“Whether one generation of men has a right to bind another”—and Jefferson’s answer: “that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living.” Constitutional scholarship has traditionally turned to this letter to find in it a critique of constitutionalism and an invitation to ongoing revolution. This chapter makes the case for a third interpretation that turns our attention to issues of originary authority, revolutionary founding, popular sovereignty, and constituent power, and argues that Jefferson provides a compelling argument against singularly binding origins and for ongoing constituent change within constitutional democracies.

Carl Schmitt accommodated himself to the ascendency of democratic thinking in the post–World War I world of the 1920s. No sovereign authority, he argued, could fail to acknowledge “the people” as the constituent power of an established political order. Consequently, democracy and “the political” become synonymous in his Constitutional Theory (1928). To champion democracy, however, Schmitt emphasized the historical distinction between democracy, based on equality and homogeneity of the collective, and liberalism, which features the primacy of the private individual’s liberty. This chapter shows that key to understanding Schmitt’s defense of democracy against liberalism are his notions of representation, acclamation, and plebiscitary leadership, as well as a strong sense of the public persona of the citizen. The chapter argues that even though we shun his reading of democracy today, a full understanding of the liberal-democratic compromise that we now call democracy benefits from a close reading of Schmitt.

This chapter explains how the UK bank resolution is managed, as the United Kingdom is unusual amongst EU countries in a number of ways as regards resolution. In particular, the UK authorities have set out in their approach documents a detailed plan as to how resolution powers might be used in different circumstances, and these plans are described and analysed. The basis of the approach is the division of bank resolutions into three phases: the stabilization phase, in which the provision of critical economic functions is assured, either through transfer to a solvent third party or through bail-in to recapitalize the failed firm; the restructuring phase, during which any necessary changes are made to the structure and business model of the whole firm or its constituent parts to address the causes of failure; and the exit from resolution, where the involvement of the resolution authority in the failed firm and any successor firms comes to a close. The chapter also considers the special regimes—the bank insolvency regime, the bank administration regime, and the investment firm special administration regime.

Who is ‘the people’? How does it exercise its power? When is the people entitled to exercise its rights? From where does that people derive its authority? What is the meaning of its self-government in a democratic constitutional order? For the most part, scholars approach these questions from their disciplinary perspectives, with the help of canonical texts, and in the context of ongoing theoretical debates. Beyond the People is a systematic and comprehensive, yet less disciplinarily disciplined study that confronts the same questions, texts, and debates in a new way. Its point of departure is simple and intuitive. A sovereign people is the work of a theoretical imagination, always shaped by the assumptions, aspirations, and anticipations of a particular theorist-imaginer. To look beyond the people is to confront them directly, by exploring the ways in which theorists script, stage, choreograph, record, and otherwise evoke the scenes, actors, actions, and events that permit us to speak intelligibly—and often enthusiastically—about the ideals of popular sovereignty, self-determination, constituent power, ultimate authority, sovereign equality, and collective self-government. What awaits beyond these ideals is a new set of images, and a different way to understand the perennial Who? What? Where? When? and How? questions—not as the suggestions about how best to understand these concepts, but rather as the oblique and increasingly costly ways of not asking the one we probably should: What, more specifically, do we need them for?

Despite popular reports that the legal system is in a state of crisis with respect to its African American constituents, research on black public opinion in general is limited owing to the difficulty and expense of assembling representative samples of minorities. We suspect that the story of lagging legal legitimacy among African Americans is in fact quite a bit more nuanced than is often portrayed. In particular, black public opinion is unlikely to be uniform and homogeneous; black people most likely vary in their attitudes toward law and legal institutions. Especially significant is variability in the experiences—personal and vicarious—black people have had with legal authorities (e.g., “stop-and-frisk”), and the nature of individuals’ attachment to blacks as a group (e.g., “linked fate”). We posit that both experiences and in-group identities are commanding because they influence the ways in which black people process information, and in particular, the ways in which blacks react to the symbols of legal authority (e.g., judges’ robes).

Abstract Federalism is a very familiar form of government, deployed by constitution-makers to manage diverse polities at various key stages in the history of the modern state. Despite its pervasiveness in practice, federalism has been strangely neglected by constitutional theory, tending to be subsumed within one default account of modern constitutionalism or treated as an exotic outlier—a sui generis model of the state rather than a form of constitutional ordering for the state. This neglect is both unsatisfactory in conceptual terms and problematic for constitutional practitioners, obscuring the core meaning, purpose, and applicability of federalism as a specific model of constitutionalism with which to organise territorially pluralised and demotically complex states. In fact, the federal contract represents a highly distinctive order of rule which requires a particular, ‘territorialised’ approach to core constitutional concepts: constituent power, the nature of sovereignty, subjecthood and citizenship, the relationship between institutions and constitutional authority, patterns of constitutional change, and ultimately the legitimacy link between constitutionalism and democracy. In rethinking the idea and practice of federalism, this book adopts a root and branch recalibration of the federal contract. It does so by analysing federalism through the conceptual categories which characterise the nature of modern constitutionalism: Foundations, Authority, Subjecthood, Purpose, Design, and Dynamics. This approach seeks to explain and in so doing revitalise federalism as a discrete, capacious, and adaptable concept of rule that can be deployed imaginatively to facilitate the deep territorial variety of so many states in the twenty-first century.

Human rights are often presented as constraints on the people. This chapter argues that human rights, rather than constraining the people, can also be presented as co-constitutive of the people. Drawing on Rancière’s image of the ‘rights of man’ as ‘inscriptions of the community as free and equal’ it is argued that human rights are counter claims that we make to the claims of authority to which we are subjected. It is in the act of claiming our human rights that we reflexively identify with the community in whose name authority is claimed over us – that ‘people’ as a community of free and equal persons. But while this act brings into being a ‘people’ in whose name authority can be legitimacy claimed, the question of who that ‘people’ is and what it wants can never be fully determined – the people must necessarily be both present and absent. And it is again the act of claiming human rights that makes it possible for the ‘people’ to remain absent as the sovereign yielding power directly over its subjects.

In On Revolution, Hannah Arendt addresses the central conundrum of legitimacy: the source of authority to found a new political form. On Arendt’s account, for revolutionary founding to evade the twin dangers of an infinite regress or a vicious circle, and to succeed in the constitution of a political body, it must enact and invoke both a worldly and a temporal component. To understand the bond between authority, constitution, and constituent power, Arendt thus analyzes the exchange between political space and political time. For the inauguration of a stable and secure public space, the events of founding must permit the independence of what it founds, unbinding the founding deed from the worldly object. For the inauguration of enduring public time, the constitutional document must contain a principle of self-preservation or endurance, allowing the present to appeal to both the past (ancestors) and the future (descendants). By thus distinguishing the authority of a constituted document, which maintains jurisdiction through time, both from the public theater within which the people’s plurality, creativity, and power can flourish, and from inaugural violence, the authoritative relay between space and time also sustains a politics of inheritance that moves between binding and unbinding.

Abstract Chapter 7 argues that postnationalism’s more time-sensitive ambitions suggest we conceive constituent power not as the authority of rational order or decisive command but instead as the authority to judge. The chapter draws together Hannah Arendt’s reflections on the faculty of judgement and its relation to her theory of narrativity and political action with Seyla Benhabib’s concept of ‘democratic iterations’ and its ties to Jacques Derrida’s work on ‘iterability’. On these conceptual grounds, an account of postnational constituent power counterposed to reification must reclaim a narratival form of the free act: pouvoir constituant narratif. The national and supranational pendants of pouvoir constituant narratif create a space in which the capacity for iterated judgement can arise, a space intended to disclose the iterative (non-identical) nature of norm and decision. The model affords a political community a position from which to judge with self-awareness and self-critique how it exercises its agency always within a ‘web’ of narratives among a plurality of others. It reminds the polity that its actions will form part of its narrative history, interpreted by other states and other generations. Freedom—agency—is on this account less an act unencumbered by interference or domination but an act for which one can take responsibility. It is relational, social, and historical in character. The chapter details how this democratic theory recasts Article 4(2) TEU as the right to constitutional narrative and strengthens criticism of recent abuse of the right by illiberal states.

The notion ‘constituent power’ is an answer to the question about the origins of the constitution and the legal order. Within democratic-constitutional thought, it expresses the conviction that power is ultimately vested in an entity known as ‘the people’ which is the fundamental source of all political authority. Accordingly, a constitution is deemed legitimate only if ‘the people’ has both created it and continues to endorse it....

Abstract In the United States, mixed-waste is typically defined as waste that contains both radioactive constituents and non-radioactive constituents that pose a threat to human health or the environment (hazardous waste). Prior to 1986 the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had sole regulatory authority over mixed-waste because of its radioactive constituents. In 1986, however, the U.S. Environmental Protections Agency (EPA) was granted regulatory authority over the hazardous constituents in mixed-waste; and, a system of dual regulation was created. Dual regulation of mixed-waste by the EPA and the NRC has caused significant problems for the regulated community. The burden of dual regulation has contributed to the slow development of treatment technologies, and to the overall lack of treatment capacity available to U.S generators of mixed-waste. This paper reviews the requirements that the EPA and the NRC mandate with regard to mixed-waste generation, treatment and disposal; and it explores technical impacts of those requirements as they relate to generators, treatment facilities and the public.

Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates has a unique tidal system. Understanding the tidal hydrodynamics in Abu Dhabi waters is very important for the design of the hydraulic structures and in the marine environmental studies. The objective of this study is to investigate the tidal water levels and tidal motion in Abu Dhabi, making use of the long-term water levels available. To achieve the aim of the study, the National Energy and Water Research Center (NEWRC) of Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority installed tidal gauges at different locations in Abu Dhabi waters to obtain long-term water level measurements. At present, long-term water level measurements for at least 3 years period are available at different locations in Abu Dhabi waters. Tidal analysis was carried out on the available data to determine the characteristics of the tidal wave in Abu Dhabi Emirate and to get the main tidal constituents affecting the tidal motion. The obtained tidal constituents are used in updating and improving the boundary conditions of the numerical hydrodynamic models simulating the flow pattern in Abu Dhabi waters. The set up of the water level measurement program in Abu Dhabi waters and the results of the tidal analysis are presented and discussed in the paper.

In addendum 4 to the license of the German KONRAD repository, which considers mainly radiological aspects, a water law permit was issued in order to prevent the pollution of the near-surface groundwater. The water law permit stipulates limitations for 10 radionuclides and 2 groups of radionuclides as well as mass limitations for 94 substances and materials relevant for water protection issues. Two collateral clauses, i.e. additional requirements imposed by the licensing authority, include demands on the monitoring, registering and balancing of non-radioactive harmful substances and materials /1/. In order to fulfill the requirements of the water law permit the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) being the operator of the KONRAD repository has developed a concept, which ensures the compliance with all requirements of the water law permit and which provides standardized easy manageable guidance for the waste producers to describe their wastes. On 15 March 2011 the competent water authority, the “Niedersaechsischer Landesbetrieb fuer Wasserwirtschaft, Kuesten- und Naturschutz” (NLWKN) issued the approval for this concept. Being the most essential part of this concept the procedural method and the developed description of non-radioactive waste package constituents by use of standardized lists of materials and containers is addressed and presented in this paper. The waste producer has to describe his waste package in a standardized way on the base of the lists of materials and containers. For each material in the list a comprehensive description is given comprising the composition, scope of application, quality control measures, thresholds and other data. Each entry in the list has to be approved by NLWKN. The scope of the lists is defined by the waste producers’ needs. Using some particular materials as examples, the approval procedure for including materials in the list is described. The procedure of describing the material composition has to be considered in the KONRAD waste acceptance requirements. The respective part of these requirements will be introduced. In order to clarify the procedure of describing waste packages by use of the standardized lists of materials and containers some examples of typical waste package descriptions will be presented.

Ernesto Melo e Castro, Covilhã 1932–202, is a textile engineer and Portuguese artist, trained in Bradford. He dedicated is life to textile design and to the technical direction of textile engineering companies. At the same time, he developed research in the field of Brazilian concrete poetry and Portuguese experimental poetry; being a fundamental and very innovative author that used the computer in the last phase of its journey as an artist.His work is based on an ideographic structure where the visual composition, which uses exclusively typography, is based on the principle of the ideogram, where the general graphics of the piece provide the idea for the visual piece. Melo e Castro makes use of lyrics, lines, arrows and various symbols that depart from the conventional music agenda, approaching the notation practices of the authors of American experimental music.His later works, particularly ‘Interactive Sound Poetry’ makes use of a typeface not printed but drawn. Melo e Castro elaborates a capital letter register that mimics the homogeneity of typography. The gestural character of the lyrics shows a phonetic intensity that can be inferred from the writing itself, fixed in the score, where the rapidity of the gesture and the erasure are dominant characteristics. This score is based on a computer interactive creation around phonetics and sound, making use of a computer, keyboard and synthesizer with words amplified and where the user performs poetic sequences randomly as he presses the keys. The observer is faced with a set of words: 'freedom', 'love', 'action', 'chance' and 'peace', within a circle, functioning as reading pivots, providing combinations of graphically noted words.The user makes associations and sequences, learns as a musician learns a piece of computer music, producing conceptual chains of words and the associations will not necessarily be logical or grammatical, and can be casual and therefore produce new and unexpected meanings in the sound and conceptual plane. This piece, being neither singing nor speaking, fits within a mediation between singing and speaking, a technique systematized by Arnold Schoenberg, which constitutes one of the most important criteria in the sound character of the work, starting from a study of the basic phonetics of Portuguese.To confirm this research we are now carrying out an observation around the work ‘Negative Music’ that is not developed as in the works of John Cage in an appreciation of musical silence, although this fact seems at first sight evident. It is a piece for the eyes and not for the ears. The computer game of silence represents first of all a response to the paternal authority of Melo e Castro and a metaphor against the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal. With this in mind, it is first of all a semiotic poem of conceptual visuality; In a second analysis this poem becomes a performative interpretation. In addition to its functional aspect, Melo e Castro’s notation presents a strong graphic and typographic bent, with a notorious concern to produce an object of visual characteristics where there is a balance between its constituents.

This presentation will provide a historical perspective on the development of waste-to-energy (WTE) and conversion technologies in the 1970s and 1980s. During this time period, U.S. EPA provided grant assistance to a variety of projects and technologies including refuse derived fuel (RDF) production, RDF combustion, pyrolysis, gasification and anaerobic digestion. This presentation will also provide the latest, up-to-date information about WTE and alternative technologies, including data on costs, and current status of projects developing across North America as they exist in 2010. It will provide a review of WTE technologies as an element of integrated solid waste management systems and highlight some of the advances which have been moved into production units to make WTE environmentally friendly. It will also include a brief look at plants worldwide, followed with a focus on facilities, technologies and companies operating in the U.S. Specific examples of technologies and associated facilities will include: –Mass Burn; –Modular; –RDF - Processing & Combustion; –RDF - Processing Only; –RDF - Combustion Only. Municipal waste combustors are regulated under the federal Clean Air Act (CAA), originally passed by Congress in 1963 and amended in 1967, 1970, 1977, 1990 and 1995 and 1998. The U.S. EPA may implement and enforce the requirements or may delegate such authority to state or local regulatory agencies. The CAA places emissions limits on new municipal waste combustors. In addition, the 1995 amendments to the Clean Air Act (CAA) were developed to control the emissions of dioxins, mercury, hydrogen chloride and particulate matter. By modifications in the burning process and the use of activated carbon injection in the air pollution control system, dioxins and mercury, as well as hydrocarbons and other constituents, have effectively been removed from the gas stream. The presentation will also review the companies offering WTE in the form of alternative technologies being promoted and considered in the U.S., and several recent and current procurements will be reviewed. GBB tracks over 150 different companies offering technologies, facilities and services whose developmental stages range from engineering drawings and laboratory models to full-scale operating prototypes. The presentation will provide an overview of these systems and their status. Implementation of new WTE projects — whatever technology is selected — will involve local governments in the process because MSW management is a local responsibility. Implementation will involve risks for local government and any private entities involved. A comprehensive review of the risks and challenges associated with implementing various technologies will be provided. The presentation will conclude with key elements to keep in mind when implementing WTE and/or conversion technologies. The last new MSW-processing WTE facility constructed in the U.S. commenced operations in 1996. Since that time, no new greenfield commercial plant has been implemented. In the past few years, however, interest in WTE and waste conversion has begun to grow, again. This renewed interest in waste processing technologies is due to several factors: successful CAA retrofits, proven WTE track record, increasing cost of fossil fuels, growing interest in renewable energy, concern of greenhouse gases, reversal of the Carbone Supreme Court Case, and the change in U.S. EPA’s hierarchy, which now includes WTE. Since 2004, several municipalities commissioned reports in order to evaluate new and emerging waste management technologies and approaches. These will be summarized. With the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the U.S. DOE has been working to advance innovative green energy technologies, which can be applied to MSW as well as other bio-feedstocks. DOE has made a number of grant awards to projects where MSW is used as a feedstock. This presentation will summarize the status of these projects and discuss how they should be viewed when considering new projects. The presentation will also outline policies for governments to consider when considering recycling goals with WTE. This review will be done in the context of environmental and energy considerations as well as public policy considerations. Comments will be included regarding current legislation and regulations, specifically for greenhouse gas emissions, being considered by the U.S. or state governments. The presentation will provide participants with: –A historical reference for experiences with WTE/alternative technologies in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s; –Latest information on the state of WTE/alternative technologies in the U.S., including their environmental performance; –A global understanding of current technologies and trends; –Understanding of the risks and challenges associated with implementing various technologies; –Understanding the key elements to keep in mind when implementing WTE; –Suggested policy for recycling and WTE to co-exist as components of a local solid waste system; and –Comments about current legislation being considered by the U.S. and state governments.

Employment charters are voluntary initiatives that attempt to describe ‘good’ employment practices and to engage and recognise those employers that meet or aspire to meet these practices. They can operate at different spatial scales, ranging from international and national accreditation schemes to local charters that focus on engaging employers in specific regions or cities. The latter are the focus of this briefing paper. At least six city-regions in England had local employment charters at the time of our research. These areas alone account for over a fifth (21 per cent) of the resident working-age population (based on ONS 2022 population estimates), highlighting the potential reach and significance of these voluntary initiatives in terms of setting employment standards, although the number of employers directly accredited with local schemes is still relatively small. Despite their popularity with policymakers, there is only limited research on local employment charters. A few studies have explored issues relating to the design, implementation and evaluation of charters, reflecting demand from policymakers for toolkits and support to develop local policy initiatives (e.g. Crozier, 2022). But several years into the implementation of some of these charter initiatives, and as more areas look to develop their own, we argue that it is time to revisit some more foundational questions around what local charters are for, and how far they can support ‘good work’ agendas. It remains to be seen which employers can and will engage substantively with these initiatives, how employer commitments might be validated and the good employment criteria enforced, and how local charters will be integrated with local authority commissioning and procurement practices (TUC, 2022). The local charters that have emerged so far within the UK have been conceived predominantly as employer engagement tools, adopting language and approaches designed to appeal to employer interests and priorities and emphasising the value that employers can derive from being part of the initiative. This contrasts with approaches emphasising the engagement of other constituents, like citizens and employees, as a route to influencing employer engagement (Scott, Baylor and Spaulding, 2016; Johnson, Herman and Hughes, 2022). This briefing paper shares findings from a scoping study involving key informants in the North West of England (2022-2023) which explored how local charter initiatives could influence employers to improve their employment practices. Participants in the study shared their views on: 1) How voluntary local employment charters could influence employers to change their employment practices? 2) What types of employers local charters could engage and influence? Alongside this study, we have also developed a series of case studies of the charters that have been introduced across six city regions in England. These encompass the Fair Work Standard (London); Good Employment Charter (West of England); Good Work Pledge (North of Tyne Combined Authority); Fair Employment Charter (Liverpool City Region Combined Authority); Good Employment Charter (Greater Manchester) and the Fair Work Charter (West Yorkshire Combined Authority). The case studies are published separately. Our conversations with policymakers, union representatives and campaigners indicate that while there are some potential ‘win-win’ outcomes from promoting good employment practices, there are also some key tensions that should be more clearly acknowledged. In particular, one point of divergence relates to what would be the most effective and meaningful way to engage with employers in order to secure improvements in employment practices. On the one hand, employment charter initiatives could set consistent, clear and relatively high standards of practice that employers could be required to meet from the outset, creating a clear dividing line between those employers who were engaged in some way with the initiative and those who are not. On the other, these initiatives could prioritise engaging as many employers as possible with few or no specific red lines (e.g. around paying the living wage) so that the charter provides an opportunity to work with employers to secure hopefully more substantive commitments down the road. There are challenges and trade-offs associated with both of these viewpoints. One problem with the former strategy of setting a consistent standard is that the principles of employment that the charter promotes may not be particularly stretching in some sectors, or indeed may only describe a minimum set of commitments for certain types of work; whilst in other sectors they may be viewed as being too stringent. A more incremental, flexible strategy of engaging with employers and working with them to change their employment practices, in contrast, relies on sustained commitment from both policymakers and employers. Whether charters can simultaneously offer a ‘safe space’ to employers to share information and change their practices whilst also operating in a more regulatory way appears as a fundamental tension in existing visions for these initiatives. We return to these different views on how to engage employers and secure change in the conclusion to this paper.

Banco de la República is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. This is a very significant anniversary and one that provides an opportunity to highlight the contribution the Bank has made to the country’s development. Its track record as guarantor of monetary stability has established it as the one independent state institution that generates the greatest confidence among Colombians due to its transparency, management capabilities, and effective compliance with the central banking and cultural responsibilities entrusted to it by the Constitution and the Law. On a date as important as this, the Board of Directors of Banco de la República (BDBR) pays tribute to the generations of governors and officers whose commitment and dedication have contributed to the growth of this institution.1 Banco de la República’s mandate was confirmed in the National Constitutional Assembly of 1991 where the citizens had the opportunity to elect the seventy people who would have the task of drafting a new constitution. The leaders of the three political movements with the most votes were elected as chairs to the Assembly, and this tripartite presidency reflected the plurality and the need for consensus among the different political groups to move the reform forward. Among the issues considered, the National Constitutional Assembly gave special importance to monetary stability. That is why they decided to include central banking and to provide Banco de la República with the necessary autonomy to use the instruments for which they are responsible without interference from other authorities. The constituent members understood that ensuring price stability is a state duty and that the entity responsible for this task must be enshrined in the Constitution and have the technical capability and institutional autonomy necessary to adopt the decisions they deem appropriate to achieve this fundamental objective in coordination with the general economic policy. In particular, Article 373 established that “the State, through Banco de la República, shall ensure the maintenance of the purchasing power of the currency,” a provision that coincided with the central banking system adopted by countries that have been successful in controlling inflation. In 1999, in Ruling 481, the Constitutional Court stated that “the duty to maintain the purchasing power of the currency applies to not only the monetary, credit, and exchange authority, i.e., the Board of Banco de la República, but also those who have responsibilities in the formulation and implementation of the general economic policy of the country” and that “the basic constitutional purpose of Banco de la República is the protection of a sound currency. However, this authority must take the other economic objectives of state intervention such as full employment into consideration in their decisions since these functions must be coordinated with the general economic policy.” The reforms to Banco de la República agreed upon in the Constitutional Assembly of 1991 and in Act 31/1992 can be summarized in the following aspects: i) the Bank was assigned a specific mandate: to maintain the purchasing power of the currency in coordination with the general economic policy; ii) the BDBR was designatedas the monetary, foreign exchange, and credit authority; iii) the Bank and its Board of Directors were granted a significant degree of independence from the government; iv) the Bank was prohibited from granting credit to the private sector except in the case of the financial sector; v) established that in order to grant credit to the government, the unanimous vote of its Board of Directors was required except in the case of open market transactions; vi) determined that the legislature may, in no case, order credit quotas in favor of the State or individuals; vii) Congress was appointed, on behalf of society, as the main addressee of the Bank’s reporting exercise; and viii) the responsibility for inspection, surveillance, and control over Banco de la República was delegated to the President of the Republic. The members of the National Constitutional Assembly clearly understood that the benefits of low and stable inflation extend to the whole of society and contribute mto the smooth functioning of the economic system. Among the most important of these is that low inflation promotes the efficient use of productive resources by allowing relative prices to better guide the allocation of resources since this promotes economic growth and increases the welfare of the population. Likewise, low inflation reduces uncertainty about the expected return on investment and future asset prices. This increases the confidence of economic agents, facilitates long-term financing, and stimulates investment. Since the low-income population is unable to protect itself from inflation by diversifying its assets, and a high proportion of its income is concentrated in the purchase of food and other basic goods that are generally the most affected by inflationary shocks, low inflation avoids arbitrary redistribution of income and wealth.2 Moreover, low inflation facilitates wage negotiations, creates a good labor climate, and reduces the volatility of employment levels. Finally, low inflation helps to make the tax system more transparent and equitable by avoiding the distortions that inflation introduces into the value of assets and income that make up the tax base. From the monetary authority’s point of view, one of the most relevant benefits of low inflation is the credibility that economic agents acquire in inflation targeting, which turns it into an effective nominal anchor on price levels. Upon receiving its mandate, and using its autonomy, Banco de la República began to announce specific annual inflation targets as of 1992. Although the proposed inflation targets were not met precisely during this first stage, a downward trend in inflation was achieved that took it from 32.4% in 1990 to 16.7% in 1998. At that time, the exchange rate was kept within a band. This limited the effectiveness of monetary policy, which simultaneously sought to meet an inflation target and an exchange rate target. The Asian crisis spread to emerging economies and significantly affected the Colombian economy. The exchange rate came under strong pressure to depreciate as access to foreign financing was cut off under conditions of a high foreign imbalance. This, together with the lack of exchange rate flexibility, prevented a countercyclical monetary policy and led to a 4.2% contraction in GDP that year. In this context of economic slowdown, annual inflation fell to 9.2% at the end of 1999, thus falling below the 15% target set for that year. This episode fully revealed how costly it could be, in terms of economic activity, to have inflation and exchange rate targets simultaneously. Towards the end of 1999, Banco de la República announced the adoption of a new monetary policy regime called the Inflation Targeting Plan. This regime, known internationally as ‘Inflation Targeting,’ has been gaining increasing acceptance in developed countries, having been adopted in 1991 by New Zealand, Canada, and England, among others, and has achieved significant advances in the management of inflation without incurring costs in terms of economic activity. In Latin America, Brazil and Chile also adopted it in 1999. In the case of Colombia, the last remaining requirement to be fulfilled in order to adopt said policy was exchange rate flexibility. This was realized around September 1999, when the BDBR decided to abandon the exchange-rate bands to allow the exchange rate to be freely determined in the market.Consistent with the constitutional mandate, the fundamental objective of this new policy approach was “the achievement of an inflation target that contributes to maintaining output growth around its potential.”3 This potential capacity was understood as the GDP growth that the economy can obtain if it fully utilizes its productive resources. To meet this objective, monetary policy must of necessity play a countercyclical role in the economy. This is because when economic activity is below its potential and there are idle resources, the monetary authority can reduce the interest rate in the absence of inflationary pressure to stimulate the economy and, when output exceeds its potential capacity, raise it. This policy principle, which is immersed in the models for guiding the monetary policy stance, makes the following two objectives fully compatible in the medium term: meeting the inflation target and achieving a level of economic activity that is consistent with its productive capacity. To achieve this purpose, the inflation targeting system uses the money market interest rate (at which the central bank supplies primary liquidity to commercial banks) as the primary policy instrument. This replaced the quantity of money as an intermediate monetary policy target that Banco de la República, like several other central banks, had used for a long time. In the case of Colombia, the objective of the new monetary policy approach implied, in practical terms, that the recovery of the economy after the 1999 contraction should be achieved while complying with the decreasing inflation targets established by the BDBR. The accomplishment of this purpose was remarkable. In the first half of the first decade of the 2000s, economic activity recovered significantly and reached a growth rate of 6.8% in 2006. Meanwhile, inflation gradually declined in line with inflation targets. That was how the inflation rate went from 9.2% in 1999 to 4.5% in 2006, thus meeting the inflation target established for that year while GDP reached its potential level. After this balance was achieved in 2006, inflation rebounded to 5.7% in 2007, above the 4.0% target for that year due to the fact that the 7.5% GDP growth exceeded the potential capacity of the economy.4 After proving the effectiveness of the inflation targeting system in its first years of operation, this policy regime continued to consolidate as the BDBR and the technical staff gained experience in its management and state-of-the-art economic models were incorporated to diagnose the present and future state of the economy and to assess the persistence of inflation deviations and expectations with respect to the inflation target. Beginning in 2010, the BDBR established the long-term 3.0% annual inflation target, which remains in effect today. Lower inflation has contributed to making the macroeconomic environment more stable, and this has favored sustained economic growth, financial stability, capital market development, and the functioning of payment systems. As a result, reductions in the inflationary risk premia and lower TES and credit interest rates were achieved. At the same time, the duration of public domestic debt increased significantly going from 2.27 years in December 2002 to 5.86 years in December 2022, and financial deepening, measured as the level of the portfolio as a percentage of GDP, went from around 20% in the mid-1990s to values above 45% in recent years in a healthy context for credit institutions.Having been granted autonomy by the Constitution to fulfill the mandate of preserving the purchasing power of the currency, the tangible achievements made by Banco de la República in managing inflation together with the significant benefits derived from the process of bringing inflation to its long-term target, make the BDBR’s current challenge to return inflation to the 3.0% target even more demanding and pressing. As is well known, starting in 2021, and especially in 2022, inflation in Colombia once again became a serious economic problem with high welfare costs. The inflationary phenomenon has not been exclusive to Colombia and many other developed and emerging countries have seen their inflation rates move away from the targets proposed by their central banks.5 The reasons for this phenomenon have been analyzed in recent Reports to Congress, and this new edition delves deeper into the subject with updated information. The solid institutional and technical base that supports the inflation targeting approach under which the monetary policy strategy operates gives the BDBR the necessary elements to face this difficult challenge with confidence. In this regard, the BDBR reiterated its commitment to the 3.0% inflation target in its November 25 communiqué and expects it to be reached by the end of 2024.6 Monetary policy will continue to focus on meeting this objective while ensuring the sustainability of economic activity, as mandated by the Constitution. Analyst surveys done in March showed a significant increase (from 32.3% in January to 48.5% in March) in the percentage of responses placing inflation expectations two years or more ahead in a range between 3.0% and 4.0%. This is a clear indication of the recovery of credibility in the medium-term inflation target and is consistent with the BDBR’s announcement made in November 2022. The moderation of the upward trend in inflation seen in January, and especially in February, will help to reinforce this revision of inflation expectations and will help to meet the proposed targets. After reaching 5.6% at the end of 2021, inflation maintained an upward trend throughout 2022 due to inflationary pressures from both external sources, associated with the aftermath of the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and domestic sources, resulting from: strengthening of local demand; price indexation processes stimulated by the increase in inflation expectations; the impact on food production caused by the mid-2021 strike; and the pass-through of depreciation to prices. The 10% increase in the minimum wage in 2021 and the 16% increase in 2022, both of which exceeded the actual inflation and the increase in productivity, accentuated the indexation processes by establishing a high nominal adjustment benchmark. Thus, total inflation went to 13.1% by the end of 2022. The annual change in food prices, which went from 17.2% to 27.8% between those two years, was the most influential factor in the surge in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Another segment that contributed significantly to price increases was regulated products, which saw the annual change go from 7.1% in December 2021 to 11.8% by the end of 2022. The measure of core inflation excluding food and regulated items, in turn, went from 2.5% to 9.5% between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022. The substantial increase in core inflation shows that inflationary pressure has spread to most of the items in the household basket, which is characteristic of inflationary processes with generalized price indexation as is the case in Colombia. Monetary policy began to react early to this inflationary pressure. Thus, starting with its September 2021 session, the BDBR began a progressive change in the monetary policy stance moving away from the historical low of a 1.75% policy rate that had intended to stimulate the recovery of the economy. This adjustment process continued without interruption throughout 2022 and into the beginning of 2023 when the monetary policy rate reached 12.75% last January, thus accumulating an increase of 11 percentage points (pp). The public and the markets have been surprised that inflation continued to rise despite significant interest rate increases. However, as the BDBR has explained in its various communiqués, monetary policy works with a lag. Just as in 2022 economic activity recovered to a level above the pre-pandemic level, driven, along with other factors, by the monetary stimulus granted during the pandemic period and subsequent months, so too the effects of the current restrictive monetary policy will gradually take effect. This will allow us to expect the inflation rate to converge to 3.0% by the end of 2024 as is the BDBR’s purpose.Inflation results for January and February of this year showed declining marginal increases (13 bp and 3 bp respectively) compared to the change seen in December (59 bp). This suggests that a turning point in the inflation trend is approaching. In other Latin American countries such as Chile, Brazil, Perú, and Mexico, inflation has peaked and has begun to decline slowly, albeit with some ups and downs. It is to be expected that a similar process will take place in Colombia in the coming months. The expected decline in inflation in 2023 will be due, along with other factors, to lower cost pressure from abroad as a result of the gradual normalization of supply chains, the overcoming of supply shocks caused by the weather, and road blockades in previous years. This will be reflected in lower adjustments in food prices, as has already been seen in the first two months of the year and, of course, the lagged effect of monetary policy. The process of inflation convergence to the target will be gradual and will extend beyond 2023. This process will be facilitated if devaluation pressure is reversed. To this end, it is essential to continue consolidating fiscal sustainability and avoid messages on different public policy fronts that generate uncertainty and distrust. 1 This Report to Congress includes Box 1, which summarizes the trajectory of Banco de la República over the past 100 years. In addition, under the Bank’s auspices, several books that delve into various aspects of the history of this institution have been published in recent years. See, for example: Historia del Banco de la República 1923-2015; Tres banqueros centrales; Junta Directiva del Banco de la República: grandes episodios en 30 años de historia; Banco de la República: 90 años de la banca central en Colombia. 2 This is why lower inflation has been reflected in a reduction of income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient that went from 58.7 in 1998 to 51.3 in the year prior to the pandemic. 3 See Gómez Javier, Uribe José Darío, Vargas Hernando (2002). “The Implementation of Inflation Targeting in Colombia”. Borradores de Economía, No. 202, March, available at: https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/5220 4 See López-Enciso Enrique A.; Vargas-Herrera Hernando and Rodríguez-Niño Norberto (2016). “The inflation targeting strategy in Colombia. An historical view.” Borradores de Economía, No. 952. https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/6263 5 According to the IMF, the percentage change in consumer prices between 2021 and 2022 went from 3.1% to 7.3% for advanced economies, and from 5.9% to 9.9% for emerging market and developing economies. 6 https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/noticias/junta-directiva-banco-republica-reitera-meta-inflacion-3

In the article shows the importance of the global nuclear safety regime, reveals the role of legal instruments (international nuclear conventions and safety standards) as its constituent elements, highlights and discusses the key stages of development and improvement of international legal regulation of nuclear safety, reflects the latest changes and trends in the field. It is noted that the lack of independence and transparency of the regulatory authority, non-compliance of the requirements of laws, regulations and technical standards with international standards leads to tragic consequences. An example of the consequences of non-compliance with nuclear safety principles, in particular, is the accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant. Therefore, it is important to create not only a system of safety standards, but also the conditions necessary to ensure its application by all participants of activity in the field of atomic energy usage.