The following post comes from guest blogger Stephen F. Williams, a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Studying Maklakov’s efforts on behalf of the rule of law inevitably reminded me of issues relating to the rule of law in the United States today. I’ll quote a couple of remarks about […]
The following post is from guest blogger Stephen F. Williams, a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Yesterday I posted a brief discussion of Maklakov’s failure to seek solutions to the “ad law” problems of the Stolypin land reforms: administration by officials of the ministry of internal affairs who were […]
The following post is from guest blogger Stephen F. Williams, a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. My thanks to Professor Halabi for his thoughtful and discerning review. I can only hope that reviews published in the wider world will share those qualities. But as a purpose of the blog […]
I’m very pleased to introduce a series of posts this week on the fascinating new book, The Reformer: How One Liberal Fought to Preempt the Russian Revolution, by Stephen F. Williams. Regular readers might wonder why a blog on regulation and administrative law would spend a week on a book about Vasily Maklakov, a somewhat […]
Many thanks to Peter and, of course, Judge Williams for a book rich with lessons for historians, scholars of the administrative state, and, for me, at least, international relations. In a world where autocracy remains common if more threatened, Judge Williams sets out to explore the prerequisites for autocracies to transition (peacefully, it would appear) […]
In their opening remarks at the March 3, 2017 roundtable, Carolyn Wilkins of the Bank of Canada and Andrew Hauser of the Bank of England described the efforts undertaken by their organizations to understand the capabilities and limitations of distributed ledger technology. Both central banks examined the potential use of distributed ledger technology in large-value […]
Distributed financial technologies (DFT) and protocols are gaining a foothold in important payment and settlement applications in global markets. The software developed by Ripple is one example of an enterprise solution for financial institutions that improves the efficiency of their cross-border payments. However, robust DFT must be paired with clear commercial rules that define and […]
Through his seminal work on transaction costs, Nobel laureate Ronald Coase highlighted key frictions that prevent organizations from relying exclusively on market transaction to achieve their goals. Uncertainty, asymmetric information and the risk of moral hazard, by undermining the ability to write complete and effective contracts, force organizations to internalize operations and depend on more […]
People involved in FinTech live in a world of “what if?”, “how about?” and “why not?”. They gaze into an unknown future filled with unlimited possibilities for a more efficient and inclusive global financial system. But that future may also pose potentially devastating risks that are beyond the control of policy-makers. Nowhere is this dichotomy […]
As new uses of blockchain technology become more varied and appealing, the issue of appropriate regulatory structure is a common legal theme. Blockchain delivers a secure, tamper-evident digital evidence structure. Blockchains combine distributed computer networks and cryptography to make a better way of storing and proving who did what when. From a functional legal perspective, […]
On March 3, 2017, industry leaders, policymakers, and academics converged at Yale Law School to discuss blockchain, a technology that some believe has the potential to disrupt current modes of providing core financial services and transacting in capital markets. Over the course of the day, panelists debated the opportunities created by blockchain adoption, as well […]
As part of this blog’s symposium on the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice’s recent Report to the President-Elect, Bernie Bell has written a thoughtful commentary on the ABA’s 2016 proposals to revise the Administrative Procedure Act. I have something of a stake in those proposals, because I successfully presented them to the […]
The gap between textbook administrative law and actual practice exists in many areas, but perhaps nowhere more so than with respect to the so-called independent agencies. In theory, such agencies operate “independent” of the control and direction of the President. In practice, the White House has myriad mechanisms to oversee and even to control these […]
In A Report to the President-Elect of the United States 2016, the ABA’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice calls attention to the opportunity to enhance to the efficiency of, and satisfaction with, the outcomes of agency adjudications by expanding the government’s commitment to using ADR techniques. Any discussion of ADR in the context […]
A fraught area in recent times has been the unwillingness of the political executive to accept scientific findings generated in the civil service or in the academy in the face of controversy over regulatory matters on which they bear. Issues about “bending science” became particularly acute during the second Bush presidency, when political refusals to […]