Michael J. Trebilcock – författare

Whenever governments change policies--tax, expenditure, or regulatory policies, among others--there will typically be losers: people or groups who relied upon and invested in physical, financial, or human capital predicated on, or even deliberately induced by the pre-reform set of policies. The issue of whether and when to mitigate the costs associated with policy changes, either through explicit government compensation, grandfathering, phased or postponed implementation, is ubiquitous across the policy landscape. Much of the existing literature covers government takings, yet compensation for expropriation comprises merely a tiny part of the universe of such strategies.Dealing with Losers: The Political Economy of Policy Transitions explores both normative and political rationales for transition cost mitigation strategies and explains which strategies might create an aggregate, overall enhancement in societal welfare beyond mere compensation. Professor Michael J. Trebilcock highlights the political rationales for mitigating such costs and the ability of potential losers to mobilize and obstruct socially beneficial changes in the absence of well-crafted transition cost mitigation strategies. This book explores the political economy of transition cost mitigation strategies in a wide variety of policy contexts including public pensions, U.S. home mortgage interest deductions, immigration, trade liberalization, agricultural supply management, and climate change, providing tested examples and realistic strategies for genuine policy reform.

Competition (or antitrust) law is national law. More than 120 jurisdictions have adopted their own competition law. Is there a need for convergence of the competition law systems of the world? Much effort has been devoted to nudging substantive law convergence in the absence of an international law of competition. But it is widely acknowledged that institutions play as great a role as substantive principles in the harmonious - or dissonant - application of the law.This book provides the first in depth study of the institutions of antitrust. It does so through a particular inquiry: Do the competition systems of the world embrace substantially the same process norms? Are global norms embedded in the institutional arrangements, however disparate?Delving deeply into their jurisdictions, the contributors illuminate the inner workings of the systems and expose the process norms embedded within. Case studies feature Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, South Africa, the USA, and the European Union, as well as the four leading international institutions involved in competition: the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the International Competition Network; and the introductory and synthesizing chapter by the directors of the project draws also from the new institutional arrangements of Brazil and India. The book reveals that there are indeed common process norms across the very different systems; thus, this study is a counterpart to studies on convergence of substantive rules. The synthesizing chapter observes an emerging 'sympathy of systems' in which global process norms, along with substantive norms, play a critical role. The book provides benchmarks for the field and suggests possibilities for future development when the norms are embraced in aspiration but not yet in practice. It offers insights for all interested in competition law and global governance.

Rethinking the Welfare State offers a comprehensive and comparative analysis of social welfare policy in an international context, with a particular emphasis on the US and Canada.The authors investigate the claim that a decentralized delivery of government supported goods and services enables policy objectives to be achieved in a more innovative and efficient way, but at a lower cost. Secondly they examine the effectiveness of the voucher system as a solution to problematic welfare concerns. While this system has shown much promise in improving welfare, there have been problems for institutions unable to attract enough voucher-assisted consumers to ensure their survival.In this context, the authors examine major social programmes such as food stamps, primary and secondary education, post-secondary education, labour market training, childcare, healthcare, legal aid, low-income housing, long-term care and pensions.

Rethinking the Welfare State offers a comprehensive and comparative analysis of social welfare policy in an international context, with a particular emphasis on the US and Canada.The authors investigate the claim that a decentralized delivery of government supported goods and services enables policy objectives to be achieved in a more innovative and efficient way, but at a lower cost. Secondly they examine the effectiveness of the voucher system as a solution to problematic welfare concerns. While this system has shown much promise in improving welfare, there have been problems for institutions unable to attract enough voucher-assisted consumers to ensure their survival.In this context, the authors examine major social programmes such as food stamps, primary and secondary education, post-secondary education, labour market training, childcare, healthcare, legal aid, low-income housing, long-term care and pensions.

Our legal system is committed to the idea that private markets and the law of contracts that supports them are the primary institutions for allocating goods and services in a modern economy. Yet the market paradigm, this book argues, leaves substantial room for challenge. For example, should people be permitted to buy and sell blood, bodily organs, surrogate babies, or sexual favors? Is it fair to allow people with limited knowledge about a transaction and its consequences to enter into it without guidance from experts?

An important read for academics and policy-makers alike, Hard Choices, Soft Law asserts that voluntary standards, or 'soft' law, are an important supplement to international law in a number of areas. This key work firstly outlines the approach taken to combining soft and hard law and trade, environment and labour values in the WTO and NAFTA, and in the prospective Millennium Round. Then, using the forestry sector - a realm where formal international law remains largely absent - the book provides a detailed examination of the role of soft law in action. It demonstrates how soft and hard law can be combined to promote trade, environmental and social cohesion, in ways that also permit sustainable development. The book presents a wealth of knowledge from a range of contributors familiar with the work of the G7/G8, the OECD, the Biodiversity Convention and the Codex Alimentarius.

Offering a unique cross-disciplinary approach to scholarship in law and economics, this much-needed work expounds and critically evaluates all of the major doctrines of Canadian competition policy. The topics addressed, each in a separate chapter, include: Canadian competition policy in an historical context; basic economic concepts; multi-firm conduct; horizontal agreements; the merger review process; predatory pricing and price discrimination; vertical restraints; intra-brand competition; inter-brand competition; abuse of dominance; competition policy and intellectual property rights; competition policy and trade policy; competition policy and regulated industries; and enforcement.The treatment of each substantive topic is organized first around a discussion of the relevant body (or bodies) of economic theory and then the pertinent bodies of legal doctrine, including case law. Each chapter contains a critique of existing law in light of contemporary economic theory. This is the only book available that offers an up-to-date integrated analysis of economic theory and legal doctrine in the context of Canadian competition policy.

Immigration policy is a subject of intense political and public debate. In this second edition of the widely recognized and authoritative work The Making of the Mosaic, Ninette Kelley and Michael Trebilcock have thoroughly revised and updated their examination of the ideas, interests, institutions, and rhetoric that have shaped Canada's immigration history.Beginning their study in the pre-Confederation period, the authors interpret major episodes in the evolution of Canadian immigration policy, including the massive deportations of the First World War and Depression eras as well as the Japanese-Canadian internment camps during World War Two. New chapters provide perspective on immigration in a post-9/11 world, where security concerns and a demand for temporary foreign workers play a defining role in immigration policy reform. A comprehensive and important work, The Making of the Mosaic clarifies the attitudes underlying each phase and juncture of immigration history, providing vital perspective on the central issues of immigration policy that continue to confront us today.

A relatively new frontier for legal and policy analysis, technical barriers to trade (TBT's) have become more common as traditional border barriers have been reduced. This comprehensive Handbook comprises original essays by eminent trade scholars exploring the implications of the WTO's TBT Agreement.The TBT Agreement imposes disciplines on the manner in which WTO member countries adopt and maintain technical measures, recognizing the importance of such measures to advance legitimate domestic policy goals such as health, safety and environmental objectives, but also the potential for technical measures to constitute barriers to trade. The contributors to this volume provide an in-depth examination of the text of the Agreement and how the WTO's dispute settlement system, the TBT Committee, WTO members, and other international organizations have engaged with and been affected by it.The book's comprehensive and accessible approach makes it a first point of reference for all trade law practitioners, policymakers and regulators. For scholars and students, the Handbook will prove essential reading for a deeper understanding of trade law.Contributors: A.E. Appleton, A. Arcuri, M. Cardwell, H. Churchman, M.M. Du, T. Epps, C. Gascoigne, L. Gruszczynski, B. Hazucha, R. Howse, A. Kudryavtsev, P.C. Mavroidis, G. Mayeda, A. Mitchell, D. Prévost, F. Smith, J.P. Trachtman, M.J. Trebilcock, T. Voon, M. Wagner, E.N. Wijkström

This important book focuses on the idea that institutions matter for development, asking what lessons we have learned from past reform efforts, and what role lawyers can play in this field. What Makes Poor Countries Poor? provides a critical overview of different conceptions and theories of development, situating institutional theories within the larger academic debate on development. The book also discusses why, whether and how institutions matter in different fields of development. In the domestic sphere, the authors answer these questions by analyzing institutional reforms in the public (rule of law, political regimes, bureaucracy) and the private sectors (contracts, property rights, and privatization). In the international sphere, they discuss the importance of institutions for trade, foreign direct investment, and foreign aid. This book will be essential reading for those interested in a concise introduction to the academic debates in this field, as well as for students, practitioners and policy makers in law and development.

Institutional bypass is a reform strategy that creates alternative institutional regimes to give citizens a choice of service provider and create a form of competition between the dominant institution and the institutional bypass. While novel in the academic literature, the concept captures practices already being used in developing countries. In this illuminating book, Mariana Mota Prado and Michael J. Trebilcock explore the strengths and limits of this strategy with detailed case studies, showing how citizen preferences provide a benchmark against which future reform initiatives can be evaluated, and in this way change the dynamics of the reform process. While not a 'silver bullet' to the challenge of institutional reform, institutional bypasses add to the portfolio of strategies to promote development. This work should be read by development researchers, scholars, policymakers, and anyone else seeking options on how to promote change and implement reforms in developing countries around the world.

Institutional bypass is a reform strategy that creates alternative institutional regimes to give citizens a choice of service provider and create a form of competition between the dominant institution and the institutional bypass. While novel in the academic literature, the concept captures practices already being used in developing countries. In this illuminating book, Mariana Mota Prado and Michael J. Trebilcock explore the strengths and limits of this strategy with detailed case studies, showing how citizen preferences provide a benchmark against which future reform initiatives can be evaluated, and in this way change the dynamics of the reform process. While not a 'silver bullet' to the challenge of institutional reform, institutional bypasses add to the portfolio of strategies to promote development. This work should be read by development researchers, scholars, policymakers, and anyone else seeking options on how to promote change and implement reforms in developing countries around the world.

An important read for academics and policy-makers alike, Hard Choices, Soft Law asserts that voluntary standards, or 'soft' law, are an important supplement to international law in a number of areas. This key work firstly outlines the approach taken to combining soft and hard law and trade, environment and labour values in the WTO and NAFTA, and in the prospective Millennium Round. Then, using the forestry sector - a realm where formal international law remains largely absent - the book provides a detailed examination of the role of soft law in action. It demonstrates how soft and hard law can be combined to promote trade, environmental and social cohesion, in ways that also permit sustainable development. The book presents a wealth of knowledge from a range of contributors familiar with the work of the G7/G8, the OECD, the Biodiversity Convention and the Codex Alimentarius.

Though most conceptions of the rule of law assume equality before the law – and hence equal access to the justice system – this basic right is not being met for many low and middle income Canadians. This book focuses on the problem of civil access to justice for middle income earners – those whose household income is high enough to disqualify them from legal aid but not high enough to cover the costs of litigation.Featuring contributions by leading Canadian and international scholars, practitioners, and members of the judiciary, this multidisciplinary collection draws on scholarship in the fields of law, social science, and public policy. There is a particular emphasis on family law, consumer law, and employment law, as these are the areas where research has indicated that unmet legal needs are highest.Middle Income Access to Justice presents a variety of innovative solutions, from dispute resolution process reforms to the development of non-lawyer forms of assistance and new methods for funding legal expenses. In doing so, it lays the foundation for the development of a much-needed new delivery model to provide early intervention for legal services.

Though most conceptions of the rule of law assume equality before the law – and hence equal access to the justice system – this basic right is not being met for many low and middle income Canadians. This book focuses on the problem of civil access to justice for middle income earners – those whose household income is high enough to disqualify them from legal aid but not high enough to cover the costs of litigation.Featuring contributions by leading Canadian and international scholars, practitioners, and members of the judiciary, this multidisciplinary collection draws on scholarship in the fields of law, social science, and public policy. There is a particular emphasis on family law, consumer law, and employment law, as these are the areas where research has indicated that unmet legal needs are highest.Middle Income Access to Justice presents a variety of innovative solutions, from dispute resolution process reforms to the development of non-lawyer forms of assistance and new methods for funding legal expenses. In doing so, it lays the foundation for the development of a much-needed new delivery model to provide early intervention for legal services.

Occupational licensure, including regulation of the professions, dates back to the medieval period. While the guilds that performed this regulatory function have long since vanished, professional regulation continues to this day. For instance, in the United States, 22 per cent of American workers must hold licenses simply to do their jobs. While long-established professions have more settled regulatory paradigms, the case studies in Paradoxes of Professional Regulation explore other professions, taking note of incompetent services and the serious risks they pose to the physical, mental, or emotional health, financial well-being, or legal status of uninformed consumers.Michael J. Trebilcock examines five case studies of the regulation of diverse professions, including alternative medicine, mental health care provision, financial planning, immigration consulting, and legal services. Noting the widely divergent approaches to the regulation of the same professions across different jurisdictions – paradoxes of professional regulation – the book is an attempt to develop a set of regulatory principles for the future. In its comparative approach, Paradoxes of Professional Regulation gets at the heart of the tensions influencing the regulatory landscape, and works toward practical lessons for bringing greater coherence to the way in which professions are regulated.

An internationally renowned scholar of law and economics, Michael J. Trebilcock has spent over fifty years teaching and researching at the intersection between ideas, interests, and institutions. In Public Inquiries, Trebilcock reflects on his extensive experiences and sheds light on the role of scholars in engaging with the Canadian public policy-making process.Drawing on a number of case studies, Public Inquiries gives an informed overview of the role of ideas and interests in shaping the policy-making process. Trebilcock takes readers through his personal experiences and what he has learned throughout his career. He puts forward general lessons about the public policy-making process and reform in areas including consumer protection, competition policy, trade policy, electricity reform, and legal aid.By showing that not all experiences have been triumphant, and that disappointments can be as revealing as successes, Trebilcock draws out personal lessons and insights with a view to improving the structure and effectiveness of public inquiries.

Immigration remains a cornerstone of national policy, although it has undergone significant transformations across economic, family, and refugee admission streams in the past two decades. Reshaping the Mosaic offers an insightful exploration of Canada's immigration policy, ranging from its historical roots to contemporary developments.The book examines the growth in permanent and temporary immigration to Canada. It explores changes in selection criteria and evaluates their impact on key policy objectives: contributing to Canadian economic prosperity, facilitating family reunification, providing refuge for those fleeing persecution, and enabling the integration of immigrants and their descendants into Canadian society. The book sheds light on the legal, political, economic, and social paradoxes inherent in Canadian immigration policy, highlighting shifts in exclusion powers, deportation practices, settlement support, and citizenship rules, as well as their implications for Canadian ideals of multiculturalism, fairness, and integration. It documents the lack of transparency and informed public engagement in policy formation and the implications this lack may have on maintaining public confidence and ensuring that immigration policies align with the national interests.Driven by a conviction that the contemporary changes in immigration policy need to be examined in a comprehensive and inclusive way, Reshaping the Mosaic looks at recent shifts and their implications for society and offers invaluable insights for policymakers, scholars, and stakeholders, aiming to assist the development of a new immigration policy framework.

Immigration remains a cornerstone of national policy, although it has undergone significant transformations across economic, family, and refugee admission streams in the past two decades. Reshaping the Mosaic offers an insightful exploration of Canada's immigration policy, ranging from its historical roots to contemporary developments.The book examines the growth in permanent and temporary immigration to Canada. It explores changes in selection criteria and evaluates their impact on key policy objectives: contributing to Canadian economic prosperity, facilitating family reunification, providing refuge for those fleeing persecution, and enabling the integration of immigrants and their descendants into Canadian society. The book sheds light on the legal, political, economic, and social paradoxes inherent in Canadian immigration policy, highlighting shifts in exclusion powers, deportation practices, settlement support, and citizenship rules, as well as their implications for Canadian ideals of multiculturalism, fairness, and integration. It documents the lack of transparency and informed public engagement in policy formation and the implications this lack may have on maintaining public confidence and ensuring that immigration policies align with the national interests.Driven by a conviction that the contemporary changes in immigration policy need to be examined in a comprehensive and inclusive way, Reshaping the Mosaic looks at recent shifts and their implications for society and offers invaluable insights for policymakers, scholars, and stakeholders, aiming to assist the development of a new immigration policy framework.

Developed over a period of some six years by teachers of the subject at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, this book provides the first comprehensive and integrated teaching tool for the very basic field of debtor and creditor relations. The carefully designed text considers first the nature of the credit market and the setting in which debtor-creditor relations are formed. It proceeds to examine self-help collection, execution, garnishment, reviewable transactions, and bankruptcy. Other sections consider the rights of various special creditors (including government creditors and mechanics’ lien claimants), and proposals for comprehensive reform of the debt collection process. The authors attempt to deal with law from a national perspective. While considering in detail the statutory provisions relevant to debtor-creditor relations in Ontario, they also treat significant legislation of other provinces and examine the suitability of differing responses to similar legal issues. Their book should as well be welcomed as the first attempt to treat in detail the current proposals for reform of federal bankruptcy legislation. The authors have accepted the distinct probability that the draft legislation pending before Parliament will be enacted, and have considered the significance of these proposals in the light of the existing law. Throughout the book are extensive introductory notes, explanatory notes, questions and problems; a set of review problems concludes the text. The authors have attempted to make it unnecessary to provide detailed background in lectures. The materials have been designed both to guide the students easily through the technical areas of debtor-creditor relations and to highlight the more interesting issues that arise from legislation.

A relatively new frontier for legal and policy analysis, technical barriers to trade (TBT's) have become more common as traditional border barriers have been reduced. This comprehensive Handbook comprises original essays by eminent trade scholars exploring the implications of the WTO's TBT Agreement.The TBT Agreement imposes disciplines on the manner in which WTO member countries adopt and maintain technical measures, recognizing the importance of such measures to advance legitimate domestic policy goals such as health, safety and environmental objectives, but also the potential for technical measures to constitute barriers to trade. The contributors to this volume provide an in-depth examination of the text of the Agreement and how the WTO's dispute settlement system, the TBT Committee, WTO members, and other international organizations have engaged with and been affected by it.The book's comprehensive and accessible approach makes it a first point of reference for all trade law practitioners, policymakers and regulators. For scholars and students, the Handbook will prove essential reading for a deeper understanding of trade law.Contributors: A.E. Appleton, A. Arcuri, M. Cardwell, H. Churchman, M.M. Du, T. Epps, C. Gascoigne, L. Gruszczynski, B. Hazucha, R. Howse, A. Kudryavtsev, P.C. Mavroidis, G. Mayeda, A. Mitchell, D. Prévost, F. Smith, J.P. Trachtman, M.J. Trebilcock, T. Voon, M. Wagner, E.N. Wijkström

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.In this thoroughly revised and updated second edition, Mariana Mota Prado and Michael J. Trebilcock offer a succinct and readable introduction to the main concepts and debates in the field of law and development. They examine the role of legal systems and institutions, investigate perceptions around what laws and legal arrangements encourage and facilitate development, and probe the issues arising in both private law and public law as well as in international economic relations.Key features of the second edition include:Discussion of the role of technology in promoting developmentAnalysis of the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on developing countriesA brand new chapter investigating the role of health and education in developmentWritten with the insight of two top experts in the field, this Advanced Introduction covers the most recent trends in law and development research and highlights areas that remain underexplored. It will be essential reading for students, practitioners and policy-makers looking to gain a clear understanding of the core principles of this multifaceted topic.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.In this thoroughly revised and updated second edition, Mariana Mota Prado and Michael J. Trebilcock offer a succinct and readable introduction to the main concepts and debates in the field of law and development. They examine the role of legal systems and institutions, investigate perceptions around what laws and legal arrangements encourage and facilitate development, and probe the issues arising in both private law and public law as well as in international economic relations.Key features of the second edition include:Discussion of the role of technology in promoting developmentAnalysis of the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on developing countriesA brand new chapter investigating the role of health and education in developmentWritten with the insight of two top experts in the field, this Advanced Introduction covers the most recent trends in law and development research and highlights areas that remain underexplored. It will be essential reading for students, practitioners and policy-makers looking to gain a clear understanding of the core principles of this multifaceted topic.

Is Free Trade desirable? Does it primarily benefit the wealthy? And what are its impacts on individual autonomy and human dignity?These are some of the fundamental questions that acclaimed trade law expert, Michael Trebilcock, sets out to answer in this pithy and insightful journey through the past, present and future of international trade agreements and trade policy.Exploring both the historical and contemporary conflicts and controversies surrounding the free trade vs fair trade debate, from the perspective of both developed and developing countries, the book illuminates the nuances of such issues as trade deficits, currency, subsidies, intellectual property rights, health and safety and environmental standards and competition policy. Navigating the Free Trade - Fair Trade Fault-lines completes the journey by bringing us squarely into our times with a discussion on the implications of worldwide pandemics for international trade, and with an additional focus on the current trade conflict between the US and China.Packed with insight and reasoned analysis, this short but powerful book will be an essential read for seasoned experts and newcomers alike. The book offers thought-provoking guidance to policy makers, lawyers, economists, scholars and anyone with a stake in the future of the international trading system.

Is Free Trade desirable? Does it primarily benefit the wealthy? And what are its impacts on individual autonomy and human dignity?These are some of the fundamental questions that acclaimed trade law expert, Michael Trebilcock, sets out to answer in this pithy and insightful journey through the past, present and future of international trade agreements and trade policy.Exploring both the historical and contemporary conflicts and controversies surrounding the free trade vs fair trade debate, from the perspective of both developed and developing countries, the book illuminates the nuances of such issues as trade deficits, currency, subsidies, intellectual property rights, health and safety and environmental standards and competition policy. Navigating the Free Trade - Fair Trade Fault-lines completes the journey by bringing us squarely into our times with a discussion on the implications of worldwide pandemics for international trade, and with an additional focus on the current trade conflict between the US and China.Packed with insight and reasoned analysis, this short but powerful book will be an essential read for seasoned experts and newcomers alike. The book offers thought-provoking guidance to policy makers, lawyers, economists, scholars and anyone with a stake in the future of the international trading system.

This important book addresses a number of key issues regarding the relationship between the rule of law and development. It presents a deep and insightful inquiry into the current orthodoxy that the rule of law is the panacea for the world's problems. The authors chart the precarious progress of law reforms both in overall terms and in specific policy areas such as the judiciary, the police, tax administration and access to justice, among others. They accept that the rule of law is necessarily tied to the success of development, although they propose a set of procedural values to enlighten this institutional approach. The authors also recognize that states face difficulties in implementing this institutional structures and identify the probable impediments, before proposing a rethink of law reform strategies and offering some conclusions about the role of the international community in the rule of law reform.Reviewing the progress in the rule of law reform in developing countries, specifically four regions - Latin America, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and Asia - this book makes a significant contribution to the literature. It will be of great interest to scholars and advanced students, as well as practitioners in the field, including international and bilateral aid agencies working on rule of law reform projects, and international and regional non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that focus on rule of law reform as a major aspect of their mandate.