A dark moment in CO2 control; Advance rulings in the Indian customs; Difficulties of arbitration; Akshay Jaitly; episodes
A dark moment in CO2 control
It looks like a bad time for global warming. In my column in the Business Standard today, I summarise the case for gloom, and suggest that there is room for hope.
Advance rulings in the Indian customs
In an advance ruling, a private person obtains greater legal certainty by having a question answered by the authorities through a stated formal mechanism. This is attractive as it reduces legal risk. It also reduces the incentives in the legislative function to draft high quality law. As an example, in the deliberations of the FSLRC the view that prevailed was to not have such a mechanism for a regulator.
A recent paper Decoding CAAR: Insights, challenges, and pathways for reforms by Vijay Singh Chauhan, Prashant Narang and Monika Yadav looks at the experiences of the Customs Authority for Advance Rulings (“CAAR”) and offers fresh insights. It fits into the literatures on tax administration and more broadly the administrative state. There is a paper and an unveiling blog article.
Difficulties of arbitration in India
Exit from the state-run legal system is enabled by arbitration. Particularly in a country like India, where the state system works poorly, it is important to have such a mechanism for voluntary exit by litigants. There are many concerns about how arbitration works in India.
On 27 February, Prashant Narang and Vishnu Suresh have an article on the Leap Blog titled The Blind Spot in Indian Arbitration: Fees, Power, and Structural Oversights. In this, they look at the history of Indian policy thinking on arbitrator fees, fee regulation, and the structural inefficiencies associated with ad hoc arbitrations dominated by retired judges.
Akshay Jaitly
Akshay Jaitly now has an author page on The Leap Blog.
Episodes
21 February: Episode 87 of Everything is Everything with Amit Varma, Moore’s laws.
28 February: Episode 88 of Everything is Everything with Amit Varma, Free speech.
7 March: Episode 89 of Everything is Everything with Amit Varma, Industrial policy.
14 March: Episode 90 of Everything is Everything with Amit Varma, Constraints and creativity.