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Judging Policy
Courts, like other government institutions, shape public policy. But how are courts drawn into the policy process, and how are patterns of policy debate shaped by the institutional structure of the courts? Drawing on the experience of the Brazilian federal courts since the transition to democracy, Judging Policy examines the judiciary's role in public policy debates. During a period of energetic policy reform, the high salience of many policies, combined with the conducive institutional structure of the judiciary, ensured that Brazilian courts would become an important institution at the heart of the policy process. The Brazilian case thus challenges the notion that Latin America's courts have been uniformly pliant or ineffectual, with little impact on politics and policy outcomes. Judging Policy also inserts the judiciary into the scholarly debate regarding the extent of presidential control of the policy process in Latin America's largest nation. By analyzing the full Brazilian federal court system—including not only the high court, but also trial and appellate courts—the book develops a framework with cross-national implications for understanding how courts may influence policy actors' political strategies and the distribution of power within political systems.
eBook
Activating judges: Courts, institutional structure, and the judicialization of policy reform in Brazil, 1988–2002
Latin America's courts are not uniformly dysfunctional, or consistently subservient to the region's strong executives. On the contrary, in the wake of post-transition reforms, the region's courts may have significant influence on public policy debates and policy choices. Courts shape the alternatives available to policymakers, play a role in determining which political actors are able to exert an influence on policy, and influence the comparative strength of various political actors in the process. This dissertation draws on a new institutional framework to explore the policy effects of the Brazilian federal court system on federal government policymaking between 1988 and 2002. I focus on how institutional characteristics of the federal court system structure public policy debate within the judiciary, and thus in the Brazilian polity as a whole. Bureaucratic structures, constitutional arrangements, legal instruments, and the professional norms of judges, lawyers and prosecutors influence public policy debate within the judiciary, and thus affect public policy outcomes, by determining who has access to the courts, where in the court system that access is granted, and how and under what conditions courts make decisions. I argue here that the institutional characteristics of the judiciary shape the policy issues that emerge in the courts as influentially as the institutional arrangements of electoral and party systems affect policies debated in legislatures, or decree power and reelection rules shape the manner and the content of the policy priorities expressed by the executive branch. I do not make the claim that the judiciary is necessarily as influential in structuring national policy choice as the executive or legislative branches. However, this dissertation highlights the notion that institutional features govern how policy issues are brought into the judiciary, mold the strategies of political actors in the judiciary, and shape the normative and procedural filters by which the judiciary mediates policy debates. This lesson is particularly useful in comparative perspective, contributing to our understanding of the role of courts and their impact on governance and public policy within the re-emerging democracies of Latin America.
Dissertation
Education: Higher: Fights, Camera, action: Today Oxford's vice- chancellor puts before the dons' parliament controversial plans to modernise the university. It's the first stage in a drama that could run and run. By Donald MacLeod and Matthew Taylor
This series of proposed changes has created a feverish atmosphere and a widespread feeling that the no- nonsense New Zealander is trying to move too far, too fast. On the other hand, there are urgent problems that [John Hood] must solve. Oxford may be at the top of the tree in the UK, but the global competition isn't waiting. The trouble is that, this being Oxford, everyone has a different, articulately argued, opinion on what the vice-chancellor should be doing. Bill Macmillan, Oxford's pro-vice-chancellor, says the proposals before congregation are just the start of the discussion and talk of a threat to academic freedom is unfounded. \"We are proposing a joint process of contribution review involving the colleges and the university, precisely because we recognise the competing demands on people's time and the need to balance workloads,\" he says. \"The strategy gives equal weight to teaching and research so the balance between the two may be struck on an individual basis . . . I can't understand the idea that a contribution review would erode academic freedom. Such reviews are commonplace in other research-intensive universities.\" Contradictory views of Hood are swirling around the quads as the dons gather. Many senior figures believe the decision to agree to postpone the debate on governance proves he is listening and is prepared to compromise. Others subscribe to the \"cock-up theory\", arguing that the new vice-chancellor blundered into Oxford without realising that the dons would not easily be pushed around.
Newspaper Article
Education: Notebook
* Naming the latest higher education institution has proved almost as hard as creating it through the merger of Surrey and Kent institutes. Half Kent's architecture staff decamped to the University of Kent and legal action is pending. But the new baby now has a name: the University College of the Creative Arts. Sir Michael Bichard, rector of the University of the Arts London, has been won round, apparently, by the frantic lobbying of Elaine Thomas, head of the new institution. She hopes to shorten the title to \"university\" by 2007.
Newspaper Article
Lecturers to strike
Tens of thousands of university students face cancelled seminars and unmarked work next term after academics voted to strike over pay.
Newspaper Article
Oxford dons rebel over plan to hand powers to business leaders
Yesterday it emerged that Congregation had tabled a second motion warning of a threat to academic freedom which it says is being undermined by the university's academic strategy that seeks joint college/university reviews of individuals' performances. Unlike Cambridge, where there have been frequent clashes between members of the equivalent body, Regent House, and the former vice- chancellor Sir Alec Broers over his attempts to modernise the university's structure, reform at Oxford has been relatively amicable until now. Professor [John Hood]'s proposal set out in a green paper in February would see a 150-strong academic council comprising all 39 heads of colleges and so bring them into a single structure. It would also contain members elected by Congregation, heads of the 40 largest departments and individuals from the museums, and the chief executive of Oxford University Press, among others.
Newspaper Article
News Roundup: Universities Keele plans to drop physics
Paul Farrelly, the Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, said Keele University had plans to scrap the degree because of falling research money and student numbers.
Newspaper Article
Physics course closure hits ministers' strategy
Days after Newcastle upon Tyne was named \"city of science\" by the chancellor, Gordon Brown, its university, a member of the Russell Group of leading universities, said that it was closing its pure physics course to \"concentrate on its strengths\". Newcastle's physics department, like chemistry at Exeter, received a 4 rating in the 2001 research assessment exercise (RAE) - the second highest grade. The ranking is important, because a 4 grade means significantly less money than the top rate, 5*. Earlier this year Newcastle was congratulated for its burgeoning chemistry department by Sir Harry Kroto, president of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Newspaper Article
Clarke acts on threat to university courses
\"Any sensible government needs to take a long-term view of what our students are studying and whether we have enough graduates in the subjects needed to help our economy and society thrive,\" Mr [Charles Clarke] said. \"That is why I consulted with cabinet colleagues over the courses they felt needed extra protection. We have now agreed a list of key subjects of national strategic importance.\" Yesterday Mr Clarke refused to comment on individual closures, saying the final decision was for universities not the government. \"We cannot force them to keep courses open, or to offer courses of a particular length or type,\" he said. \"However, as a strategic body the HEFCE is perfectly placed to give me advice on what encouragement and incentives we can introduce to meet our key objectives.\" As Mr Clarke was giving evidence, the government was was being criticised in the science and technology select committee. Conservative MP Robert Key, whose Salisbury constituency includes the Porton Down research centre, said the Exeter chemistry department closure was \"the climax of a long catalogue of failures for British science\".
Newspaper Article