The crisis facing the World Trade Organization illustrates the trade-off between legalization and compliance in international legal systems. Dispute bodies can sometimes “overreach” in their rulings, leading to resistance from member states. This article looks at one form of legal overreach: the extension of legal precedent. We argue that extending previous decisions can reduce the flexibility that states include deliberately in their agreements. We utilize original data on individual applications of precedent in the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body decisions from 1995 to 2015 and on policy responses to those decisions. We find strong evidence that extending precedent reduces on-time compliance. It also leads to longer delays before members comply. The results speak to the life cycles of international organizations, as well as questions of design and cooperation.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has brought with it an unprecedented number of agreements. BRI agreements consist of primary agreements (particularly MOUs) and secondary agreements (like performance agreements). They are a distinct, landmark feature of the BRI. Focusing on primary agreements and their close link with secondary agreements, this paper explores the following questions: What are the legal status and characteristics of primary agreements? Why are they adopted by China? What challenges do they face? BRI primary agreements can be regarded as a form of soft law, but that repurposes soft law characteristics for project development rather than rule development. BRI primary agreements have the following unique characteristics: (i) minimal legalization, (ii) a coordinated, project-based nature, and (iii) a hub-and-spoke network structure. While BRI primary agreements benefit from the advantages of soft law (e.g., reduced contracting costs, flexibility), they face challenges including those concerning underlying interests and their effectiveness.

Introduction: The legalization of cannabis for recreational use in 2018 remains a controversial topic. There are multiple perceived benefits of cannabis including pain relief, treatment of epilepsy syndromes, and improving body weight of cancer patients. However, there are also many potential risks. The short-term health consequences include cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome and cannabis induced psychosis. These conditions directly impact the influx of patients presenting to Emergency Departments (ED). There is currently limited research in the area of cannabis legalization burden. However, the studies performed have shown a significant impact in those states which cannabis is legal. A study completed in Colorado found that hospitalization rates with marijuana related billing codes increased from 274 to 593 per 100 000 hospitalizations after the state legalization of recreational cannabis. This study aims to examine if Canada's hospitals are experiencing the same burden as other jurisdictions. Methods: A descriptive study was preformed via a retrospective chart review of cannabis related visits in tertiary EDs in St. John's, NL, from six months prior to the date of legalization of cannabis for recreational use, to six months after. Hospital ED visit records from both the Health Science Centre and St. Clare's Mercy Hospital were searched using keywords to identify patients who presented with symptoms related to cannabis use. We manually reviewed all visit records that included one or more of these terms to distinguish true positives from false positive cases, unrelated to cannabis use. Results: A total of 287 charts were included in the study; 123 visits were related to cannabis use six months prior to legalization, and 164 six months after legalization. A significant increase in ED visits following the legalization of recreational cannabis was seen (p < .001). There was no significant difference in the age of users between the two groups. Additionally, the number one presenting complaint due to cannabis use was vomiting (47.7%), followed by anxiety (12.2%). Conclusion: Following the implementation of the Cannabis Act in Canada, EDs in St. John's, NL had a statistically significant increase in the number of visits related to cannabis use. It is important to determine such consequences to ensure hospitals and public health agencies are prepared to treat the influx of visits and are better equipped to manage the associated symptoms.

Introduction: Non-medical cannabis recently became legal on October 18th, 2018 to Canadian adults. The impact of legalization on Emergency Departments (EDs) has been identified as a major concern. The study objective was to identify changes in cannabis-related ED visits and changes in co-existing diagnoses associated with cannabis-related ED visits pre- and post-legalization for the entire urban population of Alberta. Urban Alberta was defined as Calgary and Edmonton, inclusive of Sherwood Park and St. Albert given the proximity of some Edmontonians to their EDs) encompassing 12 adult EDs and 2 pediatric EDs. Methods: Retrospective data was collected from the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System, and from the HealthLink and the Alberta Poison and Drug Information Service (PADIS) public telehealth call databases. An interrupted time-series analysis was completed via segmented regression calculation in addition to incident rate and relative risk ratio calculation for the pre- and post-legalization periods to identify both differences among the entire urban Alberta population and differences among individuals presenting to the ED. Data was collected from October 1st, 2013 up to July 31st, 2019 for ED visits and was adjusted for natural population increase using quarterly reports from the Government of Alberta. Results: The sample included 11 770 pre-legalization cannabis-related visits, and 2962 post-legalization visits. Volumes of ED visits for cannabis-related harms were found to increase post-legalization within urban EDs (IRR 1.45, 95% CI 1.39, 1.51; absolute level change: 43.48 visits per month in urban Alberta, 95% CI 26.52, 60.43), and for PADIS calls (IRR 1.87, 95% CI 1.55, 2.37; absolute level change: 4.02 calls per month in Alberta, 95% CI 0.11, 7.94). The increase in visits to EDs equates to an increase of 2.72 visits per month, per ED. Lastly, increases were observed for cannabinoid hyperemesis (RR 1.23, 95% CI 1.10, 1.36), unintentional ingestion (RR 1.48, 95% CI 1.34, 1.62), and in individuals leaving the ED pre-treatment (RR 1.28, 95% CI 1.08, 1.49). Decreases were observed for coingestant use (RR 0.77, 95% CI 0.73, 0.81) and hospital admissions (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.80, 0.96). Conclusion: Overall, national legalization of cannabis appears to be correlated with a small increase in cannabis-related ED visits and poison control calls. Post-legalization, fewer patients are being admitted, though cannabinoid hyperemesis appears to be on the rise.

This article traces a genealogy of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) and examines the charter's overall implementation. While there has always been a struggle between competing views of how to ensure more or less continental accountability for norms related to democratic governance in Africa, enforcement by the African Union (AU) has definitively become more robust since the ACDEG's adoption. The article argues that this development is observable in three trends: continental legalization, technocratization and judicialization of politics. It evaluates the growth of normative commitments in the field of democracy, elections and governance and their increasing consolidation into binding legal treaties; explores the increasing reliance on AU technical assistance in the implementation and interpretation of these instruments; and assesses the expanding role of continental and regional judicial bodies in enforcing commitments to democracy. Building upon a better understanding of these trends, the article identifies key contextual factors that will shape the ACDEG's future implementation.

As legal authorities consider the constitutionality of the laws surrounding prostitution in Canada, we have the opportunity to rethink some of the fundamental assumptions that have been made about sex work and the socio-legal responses to it. In this article we draw on the concept of structural stigma to analyze the stigmatic assumptions inherent in the Canadian laws and briefly describe their effect—the civic exclusion of sex workers. We then consider the ways in which these same assumptions of risk and immorality are reproduced in end-demand (partial criminalization), legalized (regulatory) models, and decriminalization. While the decriminalization of sex work is the response that relies on the least stigmatic assumptions, even the celebrated New Zealand model is not absent of moralization and “othering” discourse. Further reflection is required to conceptualize a policy approach that transcends stigmatic assumptions so as to respect the human and civil rights of sex workers.

Political science research on Europeanization has focused too little on the domestic legal-constitutional implications of European legal integration. We address this relative neglect, identifying two models of the impact of European law on domestic judicial discourses and testing them against evidence on the invocation of three EU law concepts within English courts. Contrary to a statist model, which expects judicial discourses to correspond closely with direct importations of European law through the preliminary reference procedure, we find stronger support for an indigenization model in which courts gradually domesticate previously alien concepts. These domesticating discourses offer new insights into domestic political and constitutional orders in the context of European and international legalization.