Ecologies of green finance: Green sukuk and development of green Islamic finance in Malaysia

In this paper, we analyse the recent development of green sukuk (often referred to as an Islamic green bond) since its issuance in Malaysia in 2017, and critically evaluate whether it addresses some of the existing contradictions of green finance. Using a financial ecologies approach, we examine Malaysia's configuration of green sukuk as drawing from the existing international green bond regime, partnership with the World Bank, and Malaysia's own experience and expertise in Islamic finance, with the objective of building Kuala Lumpur's competitiveness as a global Islamic financial centre. Through documents analysis and interviews with key market actors in Kuala Lumpur and other financial centres, our findings point to the emergent international adoption of green sukuk. While this achieves Malaysia's state-building objectives, specifically through expanding Malaysia's sukuk market and advancing its status as a frontier of Islamic financial innovations, the potential for improving the current green bond regime has been more doubtful. A key limitation is the incorporation of existing Green Bond Principles, which enables not only green sukuk's international acceptance but also renders it susceptible to greenwashing. By examining the intersection of different ecologies of green and Islamic finance, we reveal the contradictions and limitations of green sukuk in contributing to Malaysian state-building and climate action.

Legal regulation of international adoption in Lithuania and Portugal

Research problem and degree of the research. Protecting the rights of the child is one of the most important issues today, both nationally and internationally. The situation is particularly complicated when it comes to international adoption. The adoption institute transcends all cultures and has long since existed, having played different functions over time. This institute has come to reflect social changes relating to how society faces a child’s needs, the way of exercising parental responsibilities and the needs of birth parents and adoptive parents. This is a subject increasingly relevant within the phenomenon of globalization and the urgency given to children and their rights in contemporary society. This is a subject for today and for the future. The adoptive child, due to his or her subjective characteristics, is unable to exercise his or her rights properly. This obligation must be exercised by the child’s parents or the State and its authorities. Although the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania guarantees that every child has the right to grow up in a family, many children do not have a family and are forced to grow up in foster care. In this situation, an adoption institute emerges, which, at least from dallies, gives the child a chance to live in a family. In Portugal, the strong connection between the principle of the child´s best interest, major principle of family law, deeply influences the entire legal institute and, specially, the matter of international adoption. The placing of children in a foreign family is a subsidiary option, in great deal due to the difficulties that they will find from the moment they exit their country of origin. Difficulties such as differences in culture, language, religion, habits, among others that may result in children´s cultural uprooting and affect their cultural identity, beyond the cut with their biological family, implied in any adoption. Subject of the article: protection of the rights of the child and problems in cross-border adoption. Aim of the work: to analyse whether the rights of the child in the case of international adoption are violated. Research methods: teleological, historical, comparative analysis of legislation, generalization, analysis, and synthesis of scientific literature, descriptive, comparative, analytical methods. The right of the child to grow up in a family is enshrined in the basic international instruments. It is in the family that the life and socialization of each child begins. It creates an atmosphere for the child to grow, develop and explore the world. The child should grow as much as possible to feel the love, care, and responsibility of his parents. Adoption is a significant process in many states. The main international instrument governing adoption is the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoption. States, in accordance with both their national and international legislation on adoption, seek to enable the child to grow up in a new family, while ensuring that such adoption best protects the rights and interests of the child. In Portugal, the child’s best interest is a fundamental concept in this matter, for a true concept of individual rights is one in which the child is considered a subject of rights, and not object of them. This principle is the guiding principle for the exercise of private responsibilities in relation to children, as well as public ones, and should be considered both in state and judicial decisions and actions. The child’s best interest is an indeterminate legal concept, varying with the customs of each society, taking into evolutionary and dynamic nature, and depending on case-by-case evaluation. This continues to be a divisive issue in Portugal and Law No. 2/2016, of 29 February eliminates discrimination against persons of the same sex who live in a de facto union or are married, in access to adoption, civil sponsorship and other family legal relationships, making all the legal changes. Key words: child, adoption, child’s right to grow up in a family, international adoption.

Closing New Loopholes: Protecting Children in Uganda’s International Adoption Practices

Despite closing a legal guardianship loophole that enabled foreign prospective adoptive parents to bypass restrictive Ugandan adoption laws in 2016, corruption in intercountry adoption persisted, with the courts legitimating new end-runs around the requirements. But US sanctions issued in 2020 bring new hope for reform. By highlighting what children’s advocates are doing to fight back, I suggest strategies for effective child and family safeguarding practices against adoption corruption as well as efforts to seek justice for affected children and families.

International Adoption of Children with Special Needs in Spain

International adoption has declined in recent years, although international adoption of children with special needs arises. We aim to describe our experience in international adoption of children with special needs and to analyze the concordance between the pathologies included in pre-adoption reports and the diagnosis made upon arrival. We conducted a retrospective descriptive study including internationally adopted children with special needs evaluated at the reference unit of La Paz University Hospital (Madrid) between 2016-2019. Epidemiological and clinical variables were collected from medical records, and pre-adoption reports were compared to established diagnoses following their evaluation and complementary tests. Fifty-seven children were included: 36.8% females, median of age: 27 months [IQR: 17-39], mostly coming from China (63.2%) and Vietnam (31.6%). The main pathologies described in the pre-adoption reports were hematological (22.6%) and neurological (24.6%). The initial diagnosis that motivated the international adoption via special needs was confirmed in 79.0% of the children. After evaluation, 17.5% were diagnosed with weight and growth delay and 27.4% with microcephaly, not previously reported. Infectious diseases were also prevalent (29.8%). Only 7% provided a complete immunization schedule. Conclusion: According to this series, the pre-adoption reports appear accurate, with a very low rate of new diagnosis. Pre-existing conditions were confirmed in over 75% of cases. Complete evaluation upon arrival, including infectious diseases screening and close follow-up, ideally by experienced multidisciplinary teams in specialized units, is recommended to provide comprehensive care.

Consumer Welfare of Country-of-Origin Labelling and Traceability Policies

Traceability regulations are a way to protect consumers by forcing firms to identify and track products step-by-step through all stages of production, processing, and distribution. Traceability is often used in conjunction with country-of-origin labelling where products explicitly identify where production takes place. However, such country-of-origin regulations can conflict with WTO provisions. This paper analyzes the impact on consumer welfare of traceability and country-of-origin in an international trading regime to assess whether such regulations actually improve consumer welfare. The paper constructs a theoretical model that highlights the potential market failure that arises from traceability. The paper then introduces a simple international trade regime to identify impacts on consumer surplus. The paper compares outcomes with, and without, traceability and country-of-origin regulations. Given the inherent free-rider problem, the paper shows that, as long as costs associated with traceability are low enough, mandatory regulations are welfare improving. Free trade, in the absence of foreign traceability, can lower consumer welfare so provides a rationale for country-of-origin rules. However, mandatory country-of-origin rules need not be welfare enhancing. We show that country-of-origin rules are similar to import barriers and so are third-best solutions. The better solution is international adoption and recognition of traceability rules which would make country-of-origin rules moot.