Marine plastic pollution continues to increase despite decades of international regulatory activity, raising questions about the effectiveness of existing global governance arrangements. Existing legal instruments were not specifically designed to address plastic pollution in the marine environment and only target certain aspects of marine pollution. Despite the need for a global, legally binding plastic treaty, the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) process to address plastic pollution reached a deadlock in August 2025, where delegates failed to achieve consensus on fundamental definitions and upstream plastic production control. This article explores the specific political and procedural factors that have prevented the reaching of an agreement. We argue that the deadlock in the INC negotiations reflects three deep structural barriers. In particular, the economic dependence of some states on fossil fuels, which has led them to oppose essential upstream measures aimed at diminishing plastic production; the consensus-based procedural rules of the negotiations empowered a small minority of states to block ambitious measures, effectively limiting the treaty’s potential; and unresolved debates regarding financial mechanisms and responsibilities widened the gap between high-consumption economies and developing nations. Improving legal instruments, procedural strategies, clear definitions of the scope of the treaty and the application of robust economic safeguards are necessary to overcome the deadlock. This perspective describes the evolution of international plastic governance, synthesises the reported outcomes of the INC process and discusses structural and political obstacles to a strong global treaty. It also examines possible pathways to overcome the current deadlock while emphasising the need for national and regional policies, such as single-use plastic bans, circular economy and regulation of the international trade of plastic waste.

The expansion of aquaculture often faces challenges related to environmental impacts and social acceptance, particularly when involving exotic species. In Argentina, where marine aquaculture remains marginal, recent proposals for salmonid farming in Tierra del Fuego province (TDF) have sparked public debate, balancing economic development against environmental concerns. In response, the local government enacted Law 1135/2021, banning salmonid farming in the province. This study explores public attitudes toward exotic salmonid aquaculture in TDF using a mixed-methods approach, combining press discourse analysis with an extensive online survey. Results indicate strong public resistance to net-pen salmonid farming in the Beagle Channel, especially among TDF residents and individuals linked to environmental sciences. In contrast, land-based aquaculture and farming of native species receive more support. Most respondents doubt the economic benefits of salmonid farming, and nearly 80% of TDF residents support the ban. Notably, while there is strong opposition to new exotic introductions, most respondents do not support eradication of established salmonid populations, which are widely accepted due to their long-standing presence and importance for recreational fishing. These findings reflect the nuanced views of the local community and emphasize the need for socially informed and transparent regulatory frameworks for aquaculture development in ecologically sensitive regions.

Cats are among the most popular pets worldwide. However, regulations on the protection of their welfare in breeding establishments are scarce. Our study documented management, reproduction, and welfare issues, as well as their possible associations, in a sample of 512 members of the Associazione Nazionale Felina Italiana (ANFI) using an online survey. In particular, univariable and multivariable logistic mixed-effects regression models were used to assess potential associations between management-related practices and animal welfare proxies (i.e. stillbirth, death at weaning, C-section, reproductive success). Italian cat breeders reported being mainly amateurs, with a median of three queens. Cats were predominantly kept indoors, and 94.1% of breeders reported having a nursery. Approximately half of the queens were bred for the first time at or before one year of age (48.5%); however, we suggest postponing first mating, using contraceptives when needed to support reproductive management. Mean stillbirth and pre-weaning mortality were 4.3 and 3.5%, respectively. Mortality rates were lower than those reported in previous national and international studies. Although breed was not statistically significant in any model, Persian, Bengal, and Maine Coon showed the highest observed overall litter mortality rates. In the multivariable model, stillbirth occurrence was associated with litter size, C-section, and male cohousing with the females’ group. C-sections were required in 6.4% of breeding events and were associated with reduced space allowance. Our results need to be interpreted with caution, but they could still provide useful evidence-based recommendations to inform welfare policy changes.

Since the beginning of this century, most South American countries have modified their position within society, challenging the self-regulating nature of markets and intervening in social issues. This approach supports the transition toward a “third-generation” model for the social policy field, one in which Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) acquires a relevant role. In the last few years, many public policies have included SSE in their design, with the purpose of addressing the key issues of developing societies: unemployment and poverty. This article analyzes the main regulatory dimensions and conditionings of the national programs that promote SSE in South American countries and aim to enhance social inclusion and employment. Particularly, the article examines the most illustrative social programs implemented at the national level in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela in the last decade.

A growing number of researchers study the laws that regulate the third sector and caution the legal expansion is a global crackdown on civil society. This article asks two questions of a thoroughly researched form of legal repression: restrictions on foreign aid to CSOs. First, do institutional differences affect the adoption of these laws? Second, do laws that appear different in content also have different causes? A two-stage analysis addresses these questions using data from 138 countries from 1993 to 2012. The first analysis studies the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and constitution-level differences regarding international treaties’ status. The study then uses competing risk models to assess whether the factors that predict adoption vary across law types. The study finds that given ICCPR ratification, constitutions that privilege treaties above ordinary legislation create an institutional context that makes adoption less likely. Competing risk models suggest different laws have different risk factors, which implies these laws are more conceptually distinct than equivalent. Incorporating these findings in future work will strengthen the theory, methods, and concepts used to understand the legal approaches that regulate civil society.

Three decades after the initial five-year deadline for compliance, federal agencies and museums have once more been called to account for their failure to return Ancestors and cultural items to Tribal Nations under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA). In April 2024 more than 70 practitioners collaborated in forums and paper and poster sessions to produce the first ever “Day of NAGPRA” at the 89th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in New Orleans. The overwhelming success of this effort is as clear a barometer as any for the current need in the discipline for more conversation, better resources, increased opportunities, and—above all—the chance at a truly collaborative push for a complete return of all Ancestors and their belongings to their communities. In this article, we set up our thematic issue by introducing readers to the various contributions concerning duty of care, education, and policy implementation inspired and informed by the “Day of NAGPRA.”

Global demand for shark products has contributed to increased levels of illegal shark fishing, posing a significant threat to marine ecosystem health and the sustainability of related livelihoods. Despite increased management and policy attention, including bans on shark finning and harvesting of certain species, compliance is not universal, and unsustainable practices persist. In this study, we focus on illegal shark fishing by Sri Lanka’s semi-industrial fleet, aiming to explore fishers’ awareness, perceptions of, and compliance with measures introduced to curb unsustainable shark fishing. During January–June 2023, 254 questionnaire-based interviews and six focus group discussions were conducted at three harbours associated with previous illegal shark landings to explore awareness of regulations and potential drivers of non-compliance. Our findings suggest that only 9% of respondents were aware of all banned shark species, 12% landed banned sharks that were caught incidentally and 47% reported that illegal shark landings occur. Thematic analysis identified key drivers of non-compliance, including the economic importance of sharks, reluctance to discard sharks, lack of awareness of regulations and perceived corruption amongst management authorities. These findings underscore the need to incorporate human dimensions into policymaking and fisheries management to address the global issue of illegal shark fishing effectively. Additionally, we identify that local support is critical for the success and sustainability of shark conservation and management efforts.

The underlying logics of how welfare states redistribute financial resources to their citizens have been studied intensively. Researchers have focussed on redistribution based on the principles of work, residency or taxpaying. However, family as a redistributive principle in its own right has never systematically been studied neither for a wide range of welfare regulations, nor for welfare benefits and obligations. Hence we do not know in how far the redistributive logics based on other redistributive principles are also found for the redistributive principle of the family. In this paper we address this question, using EUROMOD to analyse the degree of legally stipulated, family-related redistribution for forty-two hypothetical family forms. In our findings, all EU member-states show family-related redistribution in line with the ‘Robin Hood’ logic, with special redistribution to families with several children, single-earner families, and single parents.

Jerry Ellig was a unique character and a great economist. He believed in one thing, using economic analysis to help solve problems. He became an expert at Regulatory Impact Analyses and how they helped governments to choose the best option to do just that, all the while recognizing the problems that government has with necessarily much less information than markets. He believed in holding governments to account for achieving results including periodic lookbacks to see what they were doing. What was great about Jerry is that he had fun doing all of this both on the job and at his beloved Tiki bars.

The past five years have seen a dramatic increase in scholars working to supplement or challenge accounts of structural injustice. Almost without exception, scholars in this area assume that the move from personal responsibility to political or public responsibility will represent a net gain in justice, at least in modern liberal regimes. In this essay, I challenge this assumption and introduce the concept of “structural hobbling” as a parallel cause of injustice, but one whose origins derive from neutral state activities rather than from intentional bad faith or diffuse private action (as in structural injustice). Using health-care regulations as a lens, I offer two narratives of individuals navigating health-care regulations that demonstrate how seemingly neutral regulatory decisions create regressive hobbling effects. Structural hobbling challenges structural-injustice theorists to take more seriously the complex and often subtle ways in which apparently benevolent state activity can create downstream injustice, while adding complexity to existing narratives around public responsibility and what it demands.

In a new era of regulatory oversight, the US Supreme Court upended traditional Chevron deference to agency interpretations of ambiguous Congressional provisions in Loper in June 2024. Federal courts were instructed to make their own assessments of statutory authorities amid an onslaught of public health agency challenges surfacing nationally. Even so, SCOTUS may be eyeing further limits on agency powers despite clear and substantial repercussions for the health of the nation.

Traditionally, corruption is seen as a rational pursuit of profit, focusing on personal gain. However, this view overlooks other influences. This paper focuses on the behavioral aspects of corruption, providing a deeper understanding of its complexities, and addressing the factors overlooked by conventional approaches. Reviewing some of the literature, we highlight how researchers have approached corruption from the perspective of behavioral sciences. Additionally, we examine how the emerging discipline of Behavioral Public Policy (BPP) employs innovative methods to reduce corrupt practices, offering new strategies that transcend traditional perspectives. Our paper innovates by demonstrating how corruption can be reduced by substituting traditional regulations with nonregulatory tools like nudges and sludge audits, or by leveraging digital choice architectures to minimize human-to-human interactions, known corruption enablers. By reducing regulations and administrative red tape, and introducing digital frameworks, these tools simplify processes minimizing opportunities for corrupt behavior. In this paper, we aim to infuse corruption research with a behavioral twist, a digital approach, and a deregulatory perspective, offering policymakers an alternative path to foster transparency, accountability and ethical governance. While this approach will not completely eradicate corruption, it strives to show how BPP can reduce its occurrences.

We present the conclusions of the Focus Meeting 2, “Toward a Standard for Dark and Quiet Sky Protection”. The material is organised in two sections, corresponding to the days in which each subject was presented and discussed.

President Biden’s first-day memo “Modernizing Regulatory Review” directs the Office of Management and Budget to “propose procedures that take into account the distributional consequences of regulations… to ensure that regulatory initiatives appropriately benefit and do not inappropriately burden disadvantaged, vulnerable, or marginalized communities.” This paper makes two contributions. First, it discusses how economic analysis can transparently provide the information needed to make value-judgments about what distributional effects are appropriate and inappropriate. Second, it discusses the distributional consequences of regulations that are either designed to reduce internalities or might have the additional benefit of reducing internalities. Examples include tobacco product regulations, appliance energy efficiency standards, and automobile fuel efficiency standards. In many cases, the regulations will increase the prices or decrease the availability of goods that disadvantaged consumers prefer. This paper discussed how to determine whether restricting their consumption opportunities creates net benefits or net costs for disadvantaged consumers. Inframarginal consumers who do not change their consumption face higher opportunity costs but do not receive any benefits from reduced internalities. Empirical challenges include the need to quantify the fraction of inframarginal consumers and the size of the internalities.