Month: May 2019

 

Introduction

There is no doubt that the border wall is the centrepiece of the border security policy of the Trump Administration. Every Trump rally held across the country had people chanting “build the wall” without fail since Trump clinched the Republican Nomination in 2016 (Kaneally 2018). Now, after a bruising partial government shutdown and a national emergency declaration widely challenged in Federal courts around the country, we look at some of the options left for the Trump Administration to advance its border security agenda beyond the current state of stagnation (Baker, 2019). The path forward is narrow but clear: if a definitive legislative win on the border wall is still the target, the President’s message needs further moderation to appeal to a larger audience, and more concessions, despite the President’s reluctance, need to be made to the Democrats in Congress.

Continue reading “Narrow Path Forward: Trump’s Wall & Border Security Strategy”

 

Introduction

From a lawless nation governed by nothing but campaigns and a personality cult, to what is arguably the most sophisticated autocratic apparatus in the modern world, China’s authoritarianism evolved along with every other aspect of its society. To manage a myriad of conflicting interests and salient social cleavages in a forever-changing nation of more than 1.4 billion citizens, lawlessness is not the solution. Nonetheless, after waves and waves of legal reform, it is safe to say that the Communist Party is not going to facilitate a strong and independent judiciary, a hallmark feature of robust legal institutions, anytime soon. This article will explore why the judiciary is not a coequal branch of government but considered by the Communist Party as a tool to ensure regime survival.

Continue reading “Irreconcilable Differences: Strong Judiciary Versus China’s Communist Control”