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The mobilization of narratives is essential in integrating people and constructing identities that help in navigating complexity, uncertainty, and conflictuality. This paper explores how comparisons are used as a discursive tool to shape narratives and bring about changes in policy and society, using the High Speed Two megaproject in the UK as a case study. We examine the comparisons that promoters and protesters employ in an organizational setting. In particular, we explore how the narratives that result from these comparisons--on questions including the need for the megaproject, the benefits of the megaproject, alternatives to the megaproject, and issues of noise, sustainability, compensation, and branding--help their efforts to organize. The research highlights how comparisons serve as an important cue in discourse and how different forms of comparison can help to create narratives and shape policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How have differently institutionalized welfare regimes dealt with the Covid-19 crisis? In particular, how have they confronted the social and economic inequalities exposed by the virus? Taking three European countries--Germany, Sweden, and the UK, corresponding broadly to conservative-continental, social democratic, and liberal regime types--this paper tracks the virus response in the areas of income and employment protection and health and residential care. With attention paid to issues of "capacity" and the institutional arrangements in each case, we find that institutional histories in Germany and Sweden permitted a certain recidivistic reliance on established practices in the areas of employment and social protection. In sum, certain social and economic inequalities were mitigated as these countries set aside recent trends toward "liberalization" and mobilized longer-standing institutional capacities to protect some groups, although by no means all. Evidence of this trend is less clear in the health and residential care sectors, where Germany had existing capacity, allowing its older population to weather the crisis in better order than its counterparts in Sweden and the UK. In the UK, welfare liberalization has led to increased social and economic inequalities and funding reductions in health and residential care--all of which have reduced the country's ability to deal with severe crisis. The Covid response in this case was agile, but also chaotic, with little being done to ameliorate the positions of the most vulnerable groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have argued that political parties in government matter for policy integration reforms, but the way they do so remains somewhat undetermined. In this paper, we contribute to this literature by tackling two interrelated open questions: How does the presence of different political parties in government, which rely on policy programs on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum, shape the intensity of policy integration reforms? To what extent do changes in governing political parties affect the political motivation of policy integration reforms and thereby influence the goals and means of these reforms? To explore these questions, we examine a case where institutional capacity is generally favorable to such reforms. Specifically, we compare policy integration reforms in the UK under the New Labor government (1997–2010) with those passed by the Conservative governments (1979–1996), and by the coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats (2010–2014). We find that political parties' policy positions, and respectively, their political motivations, decisively shape the intensity of policy integration reforms, as well as their substantial goals and means. Furthermore, our results imply that changes in governing parties increase the overall frequency but can reduce the coherence of reform programs over time. These results point to a paradox for the governance of problems through policy integration, whereby the presence of high institutional capacity as provided by a majoritarian system can have negative long-term consequences for policies aiming to solve complex problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A string of corporate litigation cases in the United Kingdom highlights the role of corporate group structures in complicating efforts to impose liability on parent companies for the activities of their subsidiaries, particularly where those subsidiaries are located in the Global South. Corporate group structures serve to insulate parent companies against liability for actions of their subsidiaries. This is the case even where economic benefits accrue to parent companies, which are often incorporated in the Global North. These group structures cabin liability for environmental and climate harms within subsidiary companies through reliance on company law principles such as limited liability and separate legal personality. These company law principles allow parent companies to enjoy corporate profits from the activities of their subsidiaries but disavow liability for any environmental damage resulting from such activities. This dichotomy has obvious equity implications, which are exacerbated in the extractive industries and in the context of climate change. Negative climate impacts are and will be felt predominantly in the Global South. In addition, environmental damage removes avenues of climate adaptation for vulnerable populations. But company law principles are not impervious to these equity challenges. These principles have never been absolute and courts have consistently found exceptions to them, although those exceptions have fluctuated in effectiveness and frequency over the years. Recent decisions by the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in the United Kingdom imposed duties on parent companies for environmental damage caused by their subsidiaries. Cases following the decision in Chandler v Cape Industries illustrate tension between company law as interpreted in the Global North, and climate and environmental justice as experienced in the Global South. Climate change forces a reconceptualization of company law, including transnational corporate liability. This paper argues that these reconsiderations are not only appropriate, but given the contested histories of many of these companies in the Global South, long overdue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada's trade relations with the UK have been governed by the CETA since the signature of that agreement with the EU in October 2016. Subsequent to the decision of the UK electorate to leave the EU, it became necessary to envisage the creation of a new trade agreement directly between the UK and Canada. Initially, the Government of Canada indicated a willingness to negotiate a new trade agreement with the UK as quickly as possible. But, as the future relationship of the UK to the EU became increasingly uncertain, the Government of Canada decided to hold back until greater clarity could be obtained. As of July 2020, Canada was still waiting. The future trade agreement will reflect the desire of both countries to maintain their long-standing and close relationship. Both have strong interests in trade and investment with the other and both will seek to reinforce these interests. The particular concerns of both countries are outlined in this paper and the outlines of a future trade agreement are set out. In conclusion, the author suggests that it would be in the interests of the UK, rather than seeking simply a bilateral agreement, to seek to negotiate an Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, thereby clarifying its relations not simply with Canada but with all of Europe and North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2015, when the UK legislated a target for aid spending, the nature of its spending on official development assistance has changed significantly. Government departments not traditionally associated with spending aid have found themselves in charge of disbursing aid funds as a result of that year's spending review. The vote to exit the European Union has subsequently introduced a number of uncertainties. What considerations will be at play in UK aid spending after Brexit? What will become of official development assistance currently spent through European mechanisms? In what sort of configuration might the Department for International Development and other government departments find themselves? The focus of this paper is on how the vote to leave the European Union might affect the way the UK spends aid. It asks whether the legal framework for this spending is robust enough to withstand the demands that a new post-Brexit political and economic context will make. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Economics Foundation and the Adam Smith Institute are at opposite ends of the British think tank scene. As such, their policy proposals following the 2008 financial crisis could hardly be more different. Whereas NEF saw the crisis as an opportunity to advance substantial reforms to the British economic model, the ASI sought to combat surging criticisms of market deregulation and found the root of the crisis in state intervention. Given these contrasts, this article traces these organisations’ intellectual and institutional transformations between 2007 and 2013. Based on interviews and documentary analysis, this paper compares their organisational structure, sponsors, output and perceived policy impact. Overall, the financial crisis had substantial effects on these think tanks’ research and funding, but perhaps the most significant transformation relates to their efforts to reposition themselves to reach and construct new publics. By 2013, NEF promoted alternative narrative frames to the austerity discourse, while the ASI sought to reach those ‘not already convinced’ of the advantages of free markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision-makers in UK health and social care are routinely asked to draw on evidence of 'what works' when designing services and changing practice. However, this paper argues that too much focus to date has been placed on a narrow definition of what constitutes valid 'evidence' (and one that privileges particular approaches and voices over others) and a simplistic conception of the decision-making function. As a result, policy and practice have too often been dominated by medical and quantitative ways of knowing the world, with such research approaches assumed to be more valid than other forms of enquiry. In contrast, the paper calls for a more inclusive notion of 'knowledge-based practice', which draws on different types of research, the tacit knowledge of frontline practitioners and the lived experience of people using services. This, the paper argues, will lead to a more nuanced approach to 'the evidence' and -- ultimately -- to better and more integrated decisions. Against this background, the paper outlines a suggested research agenda for those seeking to develop decision-making within these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Labour government was accused of frenzied law making, creating a criminal offence for every day spent in office. The current government, responding to these concerns, has introduced a 'gateway' mechanism to halt the tide of criminalization. New research suggests that the accusations levelled against the last government badly underestimated the reality: criminal offences were--and despite the gateway mechanism, are still--created at a far greater rate than one a day. But what does this actually mean? This paper reviews the available evidence on the extent of the criminal law, including recent research by the author and others, noting the characteristics of new criminal offences, which are typically directed towards the regulation of particular activities rather than the general public, but frequently potentially carry severe maximum penalties and should not be wrongly dismissed as trivial and/or regulatory. While acknowledging the significant rate at which criminal offences are committed, it casts doubt on the common assumption that this is something which has increased substantially in recent years. It explores how the vast quantity of criminal offences on the statute book can be reconciled with the doctrinal treatment of criminal law as a somewhat narrower topic, and concludes by analysing the extent to which critiques made of criminalization in modern practice, particularly in relation to the claims made about the New Labour government, are borne out by the available evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International criminal law lacks a coherent account of individual responsibility. This failure is due to the inability of international tribunals to capture the distinctive nature of individual responsibility for crimes that are collective by their very nature. Specifically, they have misunderstood the nature of the collective action or framework that makes these crimes possible, and for which liability can be attributed to intellectual authors and leaders. In this paper, I draw on the insights of comparative law and methodology to propose a new doctrine of perpetration that reflects the role and function of high level participants in mass atrocity while simultaneously situating them within the political and social climate that renders these crimes possible. This new doctrine is developed through a novel approach which combines and restructures divergent theoretical perspectives on attribution of responsibility in the English and German domestic criminal law systems as major representatives of the common law and civil law systems. At the same time, it harnesses social science literature to identify and capture, in doctrinal terms, the unique circumstances in which mass atrocity occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of practitioner involvement in a policy consultation process is usually taken to be evident in the extent to which the resulting policy document is shaped by their views. Taking as its case study a public consultation for a new Scottish mental health policy, and drawing on theories of knowledge, this paper finds that for practitioner involvement in this consultation it is not possible to measure impact in this way. This is because the experiential and verbal knowledge of practitioners is not easily transferable through the different stages of the consultation process and into the final policy document. Instead, another significant effect resulting from practitioner involvement in the consultation is identified. Practitioner participation in the consultation is found to be a productive process of learning or education which produces a policy community more aware of its role in relation to the new policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The force of a constitution, like the force of all enacted law, derives, in significant part, from the circumstances of its enactment. Legal and political theory has long recognized the logical necessity of a "constituent power." That recognition, however, tells us little about what is necessary for the successful enactment of an enduring constitution. Long-term acceptance of a constitution requires a continuing regard for the process that brought it into being. There must be, that is, recognition of the "constituent authority" of the constitution-makers. This paper is a consideration of the idea of "constituent authority" drawing on a comparison of various constitutional systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from a social capital perspective, this paper explores sources of organisational resilience within a public-private partnership. Responding to persistent poor performance the UK Highways Agency, responsible for maintaining and developing the national road infrastructure introduced a collaborative approach to supplier management and engagement. Drawing from a case study of the Construction Management Framework (CMF), it is argued that the development of structural, cognitive and relational elements of social capital provides a fertile context for the emergence of organisational resilience. The CMF achieved significant performance improvement, adapting itself to the changing needs of the Highways Agency, and found ways to capture and use innovation, and provides an example of effective Business Continuity Management (BCM) practice in identifying and responding to threats and in building organisational resilience, safeguarding the interests of key stakeholders and value-creating activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a paradigm of chronic illness, requires for its safe clinical management ready access to complete information, not always possible using paper records. Aim: To develop an IBD database (DB) for both individual patient management and collating information across centres. Methods: Access® based, with a minimum dataset. Results: Prospectively collected data for 11,432 patients from 21 centres. Profile Diagnosis: Ulcerative colitis (UC) 56%, Crohn''s disease (CD) 40%, indeterminate colitis 4%. M:F ratio: UC 1.08:1, CD 0.72:1. Median age at diagnosis: UC 39, CD 30years. Operated: UC 16%, CD 47%. Thiopurine use: UC 16%, CD 29%. IBD related mortality: 0.74%. Discussion: A snapshot of this large IBD cohort shows the disease profile across the UK is similar to other large series. Unexpected gaps, sometimes large emerged (e.g. data on smoking and immunosuppression) highlighting the need for clear definition, consistency and completeness of data collection. Clinical management is made easier by the ‘at a glance’ summary, automated clinic letters, and facility for monitoring and audit, but the time required limited its ‘real-time’ use. Conclusion: Our experience shows it is possible to collect data from centres across the country which truly reflects clinical practice. We have learned as much from the process itself as from the data, principally, information needs to be well defined, validated at entry, and updated at every visit, a time consuming sequence which we had underestimated. Our lessons learned may help inform the development of a national database, and support national IBD standards and audit. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The commissioning and production of social sciences research is largely governed and shaped by the norms and values of the academic community, in which research influence and impact on practice are often not prioritised, or are somewhat taken for granted. This paper explores how the research commissioning process might be reconfigured to make research influence and impact issues of central importance. Using examples from a UK government funded health services research programme in which the authors have both been closely involved, it discusses the mission or purpose of research; the nature of research needs and the way that research priorities are set; the products of research and the way such outputs are used; and the nature of healthcare organisations and decision makers who are the intended users of research. It concludes that reinventing the research commissioning process to give primacy to influence and impact opens up exciting possibilities: a world where researchers have detailed and nuanced understandings about local organisational contexts, and are active participants in interpreting the research discourse for managers; and a world where managers are actively engaged with the ideas, theories, insights and critiques that come from research, are participants in local data collection and analysis, and are on a constant quest for reflexive application of these insights in their local contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]