Showing papers on "Fundamental rights published in 1998"

The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction: Visions and Visionaries 1. My Brother's and Sister's Keeper: Visions and the Origins of Human Rights Religious Visions Philosophical Visions Traditional Practices and Ideas of a Very Different Sort Visions-and Reality 2. To Protect Humanity and Defend Justice: Early International Efforts To Free the Enslaved To Assist the Exploited To Care for the Wounded To Protect the Persecuted 3. Entering the Twentieth Century: Visions, War, Revolutions, and Peacemaking Modernization, Internationalization, and Visions of Rights War, Revolutions, and Rights Peacemaking and Human Rights The Covenant: Rights Proclaimed and Rights Rejected 4. Opportunities and Challenges: Visions and Rights Between the Wars A Flourishing of Visions Opportunities for New Departures Persistent Problems and Challenges The Gathering Storm 5. A "People's War": The Crusade of World War II War, Genocide, and Self-Reflections Crusaders, Visions, and Proposals Human Rights Versus National Sovereignty in Postwar Planning Opposition from the Great Powers 6. A "People's Peace": Peace and a Charter with Human Rights Insisting on a Peace with Rights Politics and Diplomacy at the San Francisco Conference The Charter of the United Nations Differing Reactions and Assessments 7. Proclaiming a Vision: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Revolution Begins Challenging Questions of Philosophy Difficult Problems of Politics The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 8. Transforming Visions into Reality: The First Fifty Years of the Universal Declaration Extending Rights and Setting Standards Protecting Rights Through Implementation Promoting Rights Expanding Activities and Enhancing Rights 9. The Continuing Evolution International Law, the Responsibility to Protect, and Challenges to Sovereignty Globalization, Development, Terrorism-and Torture New Human Rights Institutions and Organizations Technology and Political Will 10. Toward the Future The Nature and Power of Visions People of Vision and Action Forces and Events of Consequence Process, Politics, and Perspective The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Notes Selected Bibliography Index About the Author

Citizenship and Civil Society: A Framework of Rights and Obligations in Liberal, Traditional, and Social Democratic Regimes

Abstract: Rights and obligations are confusing. When people really want or need something they call it a right. Can they simply attach this word to anything they want? Can people disregard obligations with impunity? This book argues that they cannot. One must understand those relationships in specific ways to really know what can or can not be done with rights and obligations in public discourse and politics. They must create a web of interaction between citizens so that more long-term social investments may be made. Professor Janoski shows that individual rights protecting privacy, free speech, and legal access are more highly developed in social democratic countries than in liberal countries. On the other hand, obligations in those same social democratic countries are higher. On the whole, rights and obligations are in balance; or, you get what rights you pay for in terms of fulfilling obligations to the state and society.

Theory and practice of the European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract: Since the first edition of "Theory and Practice of the European Convention on Human Rights in 1978", this book has become a reference in the field of human rights in Europe. It provides a systematic and comprehensive overview of the functioning of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its application by the European Court of Human Rights. As a result of the increase in the number of Parties to the Convention from 22 in 1989 to 46 today and of the coming into force of Protocol No. 11, the protection of human rights in Europe and the case law of the Court have seen a dynamic development during the last decade. This is reflected in this fourth edition of "Theory and Practice of the European Convention on Human Rights". Particular attention is paid to the changes that have taken place in the supervisory system as a result of the coming into force of Protocol No. 11 and to the central part that the Court plays in these changes. This edition also anticipates the entry into force of Protocol No. 14, which will again bring changes to the system.

Feminism, Women's Human Rights, and Cultural Differences

Abstract: The recent global movement for women's human rights has achieved considerable re-thinking of human rights as previously understood. Since many of women's rights violations occur in the private sphere of family life, and are justified by appeals to cultural or religious norms, both families and cultures (including their religious aspects) have come under critical scrutiny. The recognition of women's rights as human rights has been taking place on the global stage-from the grassroots to the international conference levelsin the last two decades. This has required considerable rethinking of human rights. Many specific human rights that are crucial to women's well-being need to be identified and acted on to stop clearly gender-related wrongs. In this paper, I first show how many such rights cannot be recognized as human rights without some significant challenges both to that concept itself and to some institutions basic to the various human cultures, certainly families and religions. I then explore some of the interesting connections, and lacks of connection, between Western feminism-especially Western academic feminism-and the global movement for women's rights. Finally, I offer some thoughts about feminist critique (thoughts that have been stimulated by reading works by and attending meetings of feminist activists concerned with women's issues in other cultures), and also some thoughts about what kinds of support I think Western feminists can give to the global movement for women's rights. Because some of women's most basic rights-to freedom of movement and to work outside of the home, and to bodily integrity and freedom from violence-have been very much in the international news lately, I shall refer to these examples fairly often. But by doing this I do not mean to downplay the

NGOs and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights : a curious grapevine

Abstract: Introduction Genesis: NGOs and the UN Charter The 'Curious Grapevine': NGO Rights and Limitations Silencing the NGOs at the UN 'Honored Guests': NGOs in the Struggle Against Apartheid The NGO Prototype: The Anti-Slavery Society An NGO Shifts Its Focus: The Pioneer International League for Human Rights To Light a Candle: Amnesty International and the Prisoners of Conscience A Call for US Leadership: Congress, the Struggle for Human Rights, and the NGO Factor Overcoming 'Lingering Brickeritis': The Struggle for Genocide Treaty Ratification Heroic Reformers: NGOs and the Helsinki Process The Fuel and the Lubricant: NGOs and the Revolution in UN Human Rights Implementation Machinery A Rare, Defining Moment: Vienna, 1993 Genocide and Accountability: The Role of Human Rights Watch Overcoming the Crisis of Growth: Human Rights Watch Spans the Globe The 'Diplomatic' Approach vs. the 'Human Rights' Approach: The High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Blaustein Institute Uncharted Terrain: Minority Rights, Ethnic Tension, and Conflict Prevention Ethnicity and Public Consciousness: Can Ethnic Violence Be Controlled or Prevented? The 'Unexplored Continent' of Physician Involvement in Human Rights Mrs. Roosevelt's NGO Takes on New Dimensions: Freedom House's Changing Priorities 'Asian Values': The Challenge to the Universal Declaration The Rule of Law and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Accountability Revisited

The Constitution of Iran: Politics and the State in the Islamic Republic

Abstract: Part 1 Contradictions in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic: the composition of the Constitution the genesis of the Constitution the clash over velayat-e faqih Part 2 The supression of the democratic elements: the power of the leader the impotence of the people the supression of fundamental rights the power of the clergy Part 3 The fate of the Constitution's Islamic legalist elements: the unavoidable acceptance of laws alien to the shari'a circumventing the shari'a through the Rule of Emergency circumventing the shari'a through Secondary Contractual Conditions state ordinances the interests of the ruling system as a standard for legislation a problematic criterion of legitimacy Part 4 The crisis of the shari'a: an awareness of crisis the search for solutions criticism from outside

The idea of human rights : four inquiries

Abstract: Inspired by a 1988 trip to El Salvador, Michael J. Perry's new book is a personal and scholarly exploration of the idea of human rights. Perry is one of our nation's leading authorities on the relation of morality, including religious morality, to politics and law. He seeks, in this book, to disentangle the complex idea of human rights by way of four probing and interrelated essays. * The initial essay, which is animated by Perry's skepticism about the capacity of any secular morality to offer a coherent account of the idea of human rights, suggests that the first part of the idea of human rights-the premise that every human being is "sacred" or "inviolable"-is inescapably religious. * Responding to recent criticism of "rights talk", Perry explicates, in his second essay, the meaning and value of talk about human rights. * In his third essay, Perry asks a fundamental question about human rights: Are they universal? In addressing this question, he disaggregates and criticizes several different varieties of "moral relativism" and then considers the implications of these different relativist positions for claims about human rights. * Perry turns to another fundamental question about human rights in his final essay: Are they absolute? He concludes that even if no human rights, understood as moral rights, are absolute or unconditional, some human rights, understood as international legal rights, are-and indeed, should be-absolute. In the introduction, Perry writes: "Of all the influential-indeed, formative-moral ideas to take center stage in the twentieth century, like democracy and socialism, the idea of human rights (which, again, in one form or another, is an old idea) is, for many, the most difficult. It is the most difficult in the sense that it is, for many, the hardest of the great moral ideas to integrate, the hardest to square, with the reigning intellectual assumptions of the age, especially what Bernard Williams has called 'Nietzsche's thought': 'There is not only no God, but no metaphysical order of any kind...' For those who accept 'Nietzsche's thought', can the idea of human rights possibly be more than a kind of aesthetic preference? In a culture in which it was widely believed that there is no God or metaphysical order of any kind, on what basis, if any, could the idea of human rights long survive?" The Idea of Human Rights: Four Inquiries will appeal to students of many disciplines, including (but not limited to) law, philosophy, religion, and politics. Of all the influential-indeed, formative-moral ideas to occupy centre stage in the twentieth century, the notion of human rights is for many the most difficult.

Human Rights and Social Work

Abstract: [The] recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. - United Nations, 1948 So begins the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first multinational agreement specifying basic rights to which all people are entitled. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration by the United Nations General Assembly. For social workers, this anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on the meaning and significance of human rights for their work. In the aftermath of the horrors of World War II, the international community was motivated to make a statement and adopt a platform that would express their collective repugnance at these atrocities and to forge an agreement that might prevent such tragedies in the future. Under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt and with considerable urging and support from nongovernment organizations, the United Nations convened representatives of various member states to draft a document that would enumerate the rights and freedoms of all people. After three years of work, revisions, and debates - the final one lasting until the call for a predawn vote - the Declaration was adopted without dissent on December 10, 1948 (National Coordinating Committee for UDHR50, 1998). In the 50 years since its adoption, and despite several other agreements and covenants, the world has seen, and continues to see, numerous new offenses inflicted on humanity. Yet despite its inability to eliminate abuses to life and basic dignities, the Declaration remains a significant document. Its articulation of the idea of universal rights, its recognition that such rights cannot be divorced from social and economic arrangements (Gil, 1994), and its inclusion of human rights in international discourse have had a beneficial impact on the lives of countless people. The precepts and values embedded in the Declaration are familiar and central to our professional identity. They include "existential" statements about humanity, such as "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." They include "positive rights" such as the right to life, liberty, and security of person; to recognition as a person before the law with equal protection; to a nationality; to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and "negative rights" such as protection from slavery or servitude, arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile. They also include the economic, social, and cultural rights indispensable for dignity and development; the right to work, including equal pay for equal work; and the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, and necessary social services (United Nations Center for Human Rights, 1992). These statements express social work's most basic values and vision for humanity, a point well understood by our international colleagues: "Human rights are inseparable from social work theory, values and ethics, and practice. Rights corresponding to human needs have to be upheld and fostered, and they embody the justification and motivation for social work action. Advocacy of such rights must therefore be an integral part of social work" (United Nations Center for Human Rights, 1992, p. 10). In the United States these commitments to human rights appear less visible and integrated with social work practice and research. In my view, this is the result of our emphases on individual change, psychological explanation, and conventional science. Our human rights stance also is influenced by our (that is, Western) view of ourselves as the center of the universe and the representation of good (Galtung, 1994). This perspective is reinforced by a capitalist, political economy whose myths tend to obscure rights issues while claiming to champion them. But the problems that social workers confront cannot be divorced from the human rights struggles within and beyond our borders. …

Rights and Justice on a Shared Planet: More Rights or New Relations?

Abstract: It is now widely recognized that members of other animal species and the rest of non-human nature urgently need to be protected from destructive human activities. This article evaluates the case for extending the moral and legal scope of rights as a strategy for achieving these aims. It suggests that we require a more pluralistic approach to the moral standing of non-human beings—i.e. one which does not depend entirely on the discourse of rights and its cognates—and that moral argument and legal reform need to be pursued in the context of a wider movement for far-reaching structural changes in social and economic life.

Human Rights and the External Relations of the European Community: An Analysis of Doctrine and Practice

Abstract: Since the early 1990s, human rights have gained increasing importance In the external policies of the European Union (EU) and, in particular, the European Community (EC), the primary focus of this paper. While the precise delimitation of the EC's external human rights competences is stiU controversial an analysis of the existing primary sources of Community law (Founding Treaties and case law) and their extension by the Treaty of Amsterdam seems to confirm the emergence of human rights as a 'transversal' Community objective. Moreover, the EC has developed an abundant practice of including human rights aspects in its international agreements (by means of so-called 'human rights clauses'), unilateral trade preference schemes (via 'special incentive arrangements' or 'conditionali ty requirements') and technical or financial assistance programmes ('human rights clauses' and the 'European Initiative for democracy and the protection of human rights'). From a conceptual perspective, the EC's human rights policy seems governed by the principles of universality and indivisibility. However, the specific weight to be attributed to economic, social or minority rights, the EC's capacity to adhere to international human rights conventions and the interplay between 'First Pillar' (EC) and 'Second Pillar' (CFSP/EU) activities all await future clarification.

Transnational Politics, International Relations Theory, and Human Rights

Abstract: century presents a puzzle for students of comparative politics and international relations. Many of our dominant theories-realism, rational choice, and economic interest group theories-have trouble accounting for the rise of human rights politics except to dismiss them as marginal, insignificant, or an ideological cover beneath which economic groups or hegemonic countries pursue their interests. But as the other essays here and the daily newspapers make abundantly clear, human rights issues are not marginal, and increasingly detailed policy and institutional mechanisms exist to ensure the implementation of international human rights standards. In some cases, these policies can have a direct impact on human rights practices, and have contributed to reduced repression and regime changes (see Sikkink 1993; Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink forthcoming).

Advancing safe motherhood through human rights.

Abstract: In order to reduce preventable maternal mortality it is necessary to go beyond ensuring the development and availability of effective health interventions. What is needed is a recognition that maternal mortality is caused by womens inferior social status and that womens disempowerment from birth represents a cumulative social injustice that governments are obliged to remedy through application of their political health and legal systems. The challenge of effectively applying such a human rights perspective to safe motherhood is similar to that required in efforts to eliminate slavery or racial discrimination: the necessary reforms threaten conventional practices and value systems. The claim that safe motherhood is a human right will gather legitimacy when it is understood that denying this claim creates an injustice within the standards of fairness that societies hold dear. In addition countries must recognize that this human rights claim arises from their own cultural values. Then governments must be held accountable. Advancing safe motherhood through human rights will require a diagnosis of laws policies and social norms. The task must include inquiries into the nearly 600000 annual maternal deaths and it must meet the challenge of translating human rights into the rights of each person to be human. As 1998 celebrates the first 50 years since the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights the next phase in human rights development must focus on the previously neglected interests of women.

Human rights fifty years on: a reappraisal

Abstract: This book offers a critical reappraisal of the project for universal human rights. The twentieth, thirtieth and fortieth anniversaries of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were all marked by the publication of volumes that celebrated achievements in the field of human rights. Many of these took a self-congratulatory line that emphasized progress on the protection of human rights, ignoring the facts of torture, genocide, structural deprivation and the routine exclusion of some groups from political, economic and social participation. This book brings together some of the leading critics of the current project for universal human rights, including Noam Chomsky and Johan Galtung, as a counterweight to triumphalist approaches on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration.

Development and human rights : the role of the World Bank

Abstract: Created three years after the end of World War II, and on the eve of a Cold War, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is commemorating its 50th anniversary. The Declaration gave steadfast promise to the idea that every man, woman, and child has fundamental value and shares inalienable human rights and freedoms. The World Bank believes that creating the conditions for the attainment of human rights is a central and irreducible goal of development. The world now accepts that sustainable development is impossible without human rights. What has been missing is the recognition that the advancement of an interconnected set of human rights is impossible without development. This booklet illustrates the Bank's contribution to a broad spectrum of human rights. Whether they are called economic and social, or civil and political, Bank programs help unlock human potential - the most fundamental human right of all.

The Proliferation Of Rights: Moral Progress Or Empty Rhetoric?

Abstract: The Proliferation of Rights explores how the assertion of rights has expanded dramatically since World War II. Carl Wellman illuminates for the reader the historical developments in each of the major categories of rights, including human rights, civil rights, women's rights, patient rights, and animal rights. He concludes by assessing where this proliferation has been legitimate and helpful, cases where it has been illusory and unproductive, and alternatives to the appeal to rights.

Why Rights are not Trumps: Social Meanings, Expressive Harms, and Constitutionalism

Abstract: Constitutional theory and political philosophy typically conceive constitutional rights as trumps for individual interests over appeals to democratic judgments concerning the common good. This article argues that actual constitutional practice reveals that rights frequently function in a different way. Most often, rights police the kinds of justifications government can act on in different spheres rather than protecting atomistic interests in autonomy, or liberty, or dignity. Rights therefore serve as tools courts use to evaluate the social meanings and expressive dimensions of governmental action. In this way, the developing literature on social norms can be extended from private law and social interaction to public law and relations between the individual and the state. Seen from this vantage point, standard critiques of rights‐oriented constitutionalism, for intrinsically elevating atomistic interests over collective pursuit of the common good, can be seen to be mistaken. Instead, rights are m...

Reconciling Extradition with Human Rights

Abstract: The human rights movement, which has had such a powerful impact on international law and relations in the post—World War II period, has in recent years turned its attention to extradition. Treaties, executive acts and judicial decisions on extradition have all been affected. At the same time, transnational and international crime has increased. The international community has responded by creating new institutions and expanding the network of bilateral and multilateral treaties designed to outlaw transnational crime, promote extradition, and authorize mutual assistance. Inevitably, there is a tension between the claim for the inclusion of human rights in the extradition process and the demand for more effective international cooperation in the suppression of crime, which resembles the tension in many national legal systems between the “law and order” and human rights approaches to criminal justice. As in domestic society, it is necessary to strike a balance between the two so as to establish a system in which crime is suppressed and human rights are respected. This was stressed by the European Court of Human Rights in the leading case on extradition and human rights, Soering v. United Kingdom, when it stated: [I]nherent in the whole of the [European] Convention [on Human Rights] is a search for a fair balance between the demands of the general interest of the community and the requirements of the protection of the individual’s fundamental rights. As movement about the world becomes easier and crime takes on a larger international dimension, it is increasingly in the interests of all nations that suspected offenders who flee abroad should be brought to justice. Conversely, the establishment of safe havens for fugitives would not only result in danger for the State obliged to harbour the protected person but also tend to undermine the foundations of extradition. These considerations must also be included among the factors to be taken into account in the interpretation and application of the notions of inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in extradition cases.

Human dignity, human rights, and human genetics.

Abstract: According to an emerging international consensus, the practice of human genetics should respect both human dignity and human rights.' In the Preamble to the Council of Europe's Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine,2 for example, the signatories resolve 'to take such measures as are necessary to safeguard human dignity and the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual with regard to the application of biology and medicine'; and, similarly, in the Preamble to UNESCO's recently adopted Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights3 an instrument peppered with references to human dignity and human rights it is emphasised that research on the human genome 'should fully respect human dignity, freedom and human rights'. Yet, how should we interpret this commitment, particularly the commitment to respect for human dignity? Even if we do not dismiss '[a]ppeals to human dignity ... [as] comprehensively vague',4 we can scarcely deny that they need some unpacking. As Mohammed Bedjaoui has remarked:

The civil rights movement

Abstract: Series Foreword by Randall M. Miller Chronology of Events The Civil Rights Movement Explained The Modern Civil Rights Movement: An Overview Freedom's Coming and It Won't Be Long: The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement Mississippi: Is This America? With All Deliberate Speed: The Fight for Legal Equality Sisterhood Is Powerful: Women and the Civil Rights Movement A Second Redemption? Biographies: The Personalities Behind the Movement Primary Documents of the Civil Rights Movement Glossary of Selected Terms Annotated Bibliography Index

Human Rights and International Political Economy in Third World Nations: Multinational Corporations, Foreign Aid, and Repression

Abstract: Introduction Universal Human Rights in a Cross-Cultural Context Foreign Policy and Human Rights Human Rights and Multinational Corporations: Investing in Repression? Human Rights and Foreign Aid Case Studies of Multinational Corporations and Human Rights Conclusion Selected Bibliography Index

Data protection pursuant to the right to privacy in human rights treaties

Abstract: This paper examines the extent to which the basic principles of data protection laws may be read into provisions in human rights treaties proclaiming a right to privacy. Two such provisions are analysed in detail: Art 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Art 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Case law developed pursuant to both provisions indicates that each have the potential to embrace all of the core principles typically found in data protection laws. However, this case law currently falls short of data protection laws in terms of both ambit and prescriptory guidance.

The Practice of Language Rights in Canada

Abstract: On what grounds should language rights be accorded in Canada, and to whom? This is the central question that is addressed in C. Michael MacMillan's book The Practice of Language Rights in Canada. The issue of language rights in Canada is one that is highly debated and discussed, partly because the basic underlying principles have been a neglected dimension in the debate.MacMillan examines the normative basis of language rights in Canadian public policy and public opinion. He argues that language rights policy should be founded upon the theoretical literature of human rights. Drawing on the philosophy behind human rights, the arguments for recognizing a right to language are considered, as well as the matter of whether such rights possess the essential features of established rights. Another model that is examined is the idea that rights are a reflection of the established values, attitudes, and practices of society. This analysis reveals that there is a significant gap between what a political theory of language rights would endorse and what garners support in public opinion. MacMillan also scrutinizes the federal and provincial contexts in the development of a language rights framework.From these explorations, a case is developed for a recognition of language rights that is consistent with the logic of human rights and that corresponds roughly with developing Canadian practice. The Practice of Language Rights in Canada is a unique contribution to the current literature not only because it conceives of language rights as a human right but also because it frames the whole debate about language rights in Canada as a question of values and entitlements.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights: The Development of its Non-State Communication Procedures

Abstract: The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights2 was adopted in June 1981 at the Eighteenth Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity As envisaged in Article 63, the Charter entered into force three months after ratification by a simple majority of state parties of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), on 21 October 19863 A decade later, by October 1996, fifty African states had ratified it4

The approach of the European Commission and Court of Human Rights to international humanitarian law

Abstract: The ever-increasing membership of the Council of Europe, and the accompanying growth in the number of States party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), promises to create fresh challenges for the new single European Court of Human Rights which will begin to sit full-time in Strasbourg as of 1 November 1998. Speculation varies with regard to the type of challenges that the new Court will have to face, but one which cannot be ignored is the likelihood that the new Court will have to come to terms with more cases arising from situations of conflict. Judge Jambrek, urging judicial restraint and conservatism in a dissenting opinion, warned that the Court may have to look at what happened in the Croat Region of Kraijna, in the Republika Srpska, in other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina or in Chechnya. If the Court is so required, many cases may involve issues which call for consideration of international humanitarian law.

Property Rights in Firms

Abstract: This paper presents a property-rights-based approach to comparative corporate governance. Two central claims are advanced. The first is that property rights institutions are the principal source of diversity among national corporate governance systems. More specifically, firms in a given economy are shaped by (1) the extent to which control rights over assets are allocated to politicians and bureaucrats rather than private agents, and (2) the degree to which control rights over assets are legally as opposed to politically or socially enforced. To illustrate, the paper examines cross-country data on such factors as economic freedom, corruption, and political risk to create a property rights spectrum for the United States, Japan, and South Korea that explains observed corporate governance differences among the three countries. The second claim is that convergence of corporate governance systems will be limited, despite the existence of powerful market forces operating at the global level. Property rights analysis is again used to frame the argument. While the efficiency concerns that drive the mechanisms of convergence operate powerfully on firm managers, they act only weakly on the political actors who hold significant control rights over firms in every economy. Thus, convergence will occur only where institutional inertia grounded in politics can be overcome. Even where formal rules converge, differences in enforcement practices linked to distinctive national structures are likely to persist.