BANKING FOR THE POOR: BUILDING A NEW INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ARCHITECTURE FOR MICROFINANCE

Margaux Janine Hall

Microfinance has defied traditional beliefs in proving that poor global citizens in Africa and other developing regions are “bankable” and that financial services extended to them can be scaled. Yet, increasingly, there is an awareness that certain microfinance institutions are engaging in harmful behavior - akin to the predatory behavior of lenders in the now-collapsed subprime-market. Common features of both markets include the express targeting of poor, minority persons and a growing presence of unfair lending practices, with an attendant high risk of irresponsible growth and great harm to borrowers. This article proposes a new international legal architecture for microfinance, one that promotes responsible growth and fair lending practices. It expands upon the principles outlined in the 2008 Campaign for Client Protection initiated by certain microfinance institutions. It proposes more granular guidelines for responsible and sustainable growth that is centered on: ensuring fair lending; ensuring a free and fair bargaining process; protecting the dignity of clients; and closely monitoring microfinance institutions’ growth and interactions with global capital markets. By adopting such a legal framework, the microfinance industry has the potential to build a double-bottom line, where social and economic well-being are reinforced in concert.

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ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN CHILD RESEARCH IN LIGHT OF THE CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

Jane Brodin
&
Vaska Stancheva-Popkostadinova

The purpose of this article is to discuss the needs and priorities for ethical considerations in research on children. The focus will be on methodological issues in research on a target group that is often described as vulnerable, i.e. children, and especially children with different kinds of disabilities. The focus will also be on ethical considerations in research in relation to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989) and how these demands are met in reality. There are still many things to be done in order to fulfil the agreements in the CRC, and one question is why member states have not been able to make more powerful changes for children of the world. Children are the future and the time has come when we have to count on children and allow them to have influence in the decision-making that will affect their lives, as most political decisions influence a child’s future.

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DEMOCRACY AND INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY: WESTERN PRACTICES OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Yannis A. Stivachtis

The paper argues that democracy in its ‘liberal anti-pluralist’ form represents an innovative form of the historical standard of ‘civilization’. In fact, democracy has been the unifying feature of all possible successors to the historical standard of ‘civilization.’ Democracy is recognized as the most suitable form of governance and essential for the full protection of human rights. These compatibilities, along with freedom, stability, accountability, openness, social justice, international peace, and stronger international law make democracy the focal point for the current standard of ‘civilization.’ In providing a set of socio-political institutions, democracy becomes the blueprint and mechanism through which Western values and interests are transmitted. Membership conditionality represents one of the most effective ways through which such transmission takes place.

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UNEXPECTED DEFEAT, SUDDEN COLLAPSE

Marcus A. Templar

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MUCH ADO ABOUT BORAT

Review of: Robert A. Saunders, The Many Faces of Sacha Baron Cohen: Politics, Parody, and the Battle Over Borat (Lexington Books, 2008).

Pablo Castillo Díaz

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