Impacts of the Globalization on International Law and Tradition on Quatar and the UAE - Research Paper Example

?Impacts of the Globalization on International Law and Tradition Introduction In qualitative approach globalization is defined as the “networks of interdependence that span intercontinental distances, involving the integration of economies, culture, technologies, and governance (Keohane and Nye 2000a, 105)” while in quantitative approach as “increasing trade openness and Foreign Direct Investments” (Lee, 2006). Mostly globalization is lead by the purchasing activities of consumers and marketing activities of the producers. Advancing of information technologies and extensive usage of internet based communication methods has accelerated the rate of globalization during the past decade. Impacts of globalization are now evident at the country level. The international linkages currently adopted by the countries can be attributed to political, socio-economic and environmental spheres. Hence the intended and unintended impacts of increasing the interdependencies of nations are evident in domestic legislation and tradition. This paper examines such impacts of globalization on Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Organization of the report Specific objectives of this paper are (1) to identify the characteristics of legislation and tradition in Qatar and the UAE and (2) to identify the impacts of globalization on legislation and tradition of Qatar and the UAE. The first section of the paper describes the characteristics of international law and traditions practiced in Qatar and the UAE. Second section of the paper describes the advantageous impacts of globalization on international law and traditions of the above two countries. Third section of the paper describes the disadvantageous impacts of globalization on international law and traditions of the above two countries. Final section on conclusions presents a country vise comparison of the above impacts. Characteristics of International law and Traditions in Qatar and the UAE Islamic law or Shri’a law is the mainly accepted legal framework in Qatar. Government of the country can be described as an absolute monarchy. The country has not signed the international Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. There are restrictions placed upon the women’s accessibility to certain facilities, goods, and services by the domestically accepted legislation. According to the Universal Declaration on human rights however restricting the accessibility of the facilities, goods, and services on the basis of gender is unlawful. Hence the UN has criticized the human rights law practiced in Qatar on multiple occasions. The international laws practiced in UAE have also been largely criticized by the international institutions on law enforcement. Example: The UAE’s Draft Labor Law introduced in 2007 received a number of sever criticisms from the Human Rights Watch. Accordingly, there is an urgent need for provisions of workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively, protecting all the categories of workers including local farmers and grazing workers by the labor law, clarifying the minimum age of employment and non discriminatory accessibility to all the categories of work by women and local labors. Further, the remedies or sanctions that are placed to deter the violations of UAE labor law are inadequate according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The government is advised to provide effective penalties for violations and be effective and efficient in applying them (HRW, 2007 p.13). Nevertheless, Qatar ranked in 36 among the 186 countries listed in the Human Development Index (HDI), 2012. Evidently adopting a legislation which is heavily different from the dominating western countries has not impeded the socio economic development of Qatar. It can be due to the fact that Qatar’s strategic restrictions that are placed upon the International trade. International trade regulations had been highly liberal despite the controversy status in human rights. Example: Export tax are not imposed in Qatar despite import and sale of pornographic material, alcohol and pork-based products are prohibited (SAP). Both countries export large amounts of petroleum to the world market. Growth of the trade balance boosts the growth of economies. Example: GDP growth of the UAE has exceeded 7 percentage proportion compared to the previous year during 2000 to 2007 time period. Value of the property market, public-private partnerships, infrastructure investments as well as the services sector of the UAE considerably developed despite the political unrest prevailed in the country during the above time period (Chapman, 2009). In 2010 the highest GDP per capita was recorded from Qatar. In the same year economic growth rate of the country was 19percentage which is the fastest in the world. Advantageous Impacts of Globalization on International Law and Traditions of Qatar and the UAE Establishing international level interdependencies can improve the laws and traditions practiced in countries. However the profitability of such international alliances largely depends on the availability of common interests, values, principles and procedures that are transparent across all the member states. Successfully implemented globalized economies are more powerful than the individual states (Schultz, 1998). Globalization has positively influenced the international law in Qatar and the UAE. As described above, these two countries have significantly improved the international laws during the late 2000. This has lead to decrease the cost of labor in the country. Example: 95 percentage proportion of labor market of the UAE comprises of migrants who are mostly from South Asia. In 2005, the number of migrants in UAE labor market amounted approximately 2.7 million (HRW, 2007, p.7). It is evident that labor law and migrant law have supported the high economic growth rates in UAE. Shifting from the egoistic interests of states to community interests of the world is important in meeting the contemporary challenges such as the global climate changes. Countries are currently threatened with decreasing agricultural and livestock production, increasing sea level and frequent climate anomalies such as the incidents of hurricanes, floods and droughts. Neglecting the importance of natural environment and ecosystems for too long can be considered as the root cause for this situation (Deressa et. al., 2010). Regardless of the differences in individual state’s contribution to the degradation of world ecosystems, such adversities are felt by all the countries in the world. Qatar and the UAE are not exceptional on this regard. Qatar’s environmental Law No. of 30 of 2000 ensures the protection of domestic environment. Moreover, the country is involved in a number of International conventions and protocols which are aimed at reducing the global warming (SAP). Punishments regarding breaching of the environmental laws in Quatar can result in closing down of the business firms, imprisonment of persons and imposition of fines. However there are a number of disadvantageous in increasing the interdependency of people Disadvantageous Impacts of Globalization on International Law and Traditions of Qatar and the UAE Globalization has increased the intervening of powerful countries in less developed countries (Mathews, 1997). Example: the domestic and international laws adopted in the Middle East region had been largely criticized by the international institutions which are dominated by the western world. Example: the following statement depicts the opinion of World Economic Forum regarding the governing of the UAE. “Will leaders in the UAE be able to implement the necessary economic and political reforms and enforce the rule of law, both in public and private governance? Will the UAE be able to maintain internal order and stability, in particular vis-a-vis a complex and uncertain regional situation?” (WEF, 2007, p. 6). In the same publication a number of law reforms have been suggested as “essential” for the political stability in the UAE. By definition a community contains a boundary. With respect to the global community however, there is no explicit physical boundary. Simma and Paulus, 1998, states that “does the boundary of all-embracing community like the International one only consist of those with whom nobody wants to deal, namely, terrorist 'rogue states’?” (p. 268). Above authors argue such 'rogue states’ are only a vague concept as they are only imperfectly identified by the international institutes. The above statement describes a primary limitation in globalization. As was described previously presence of common interests, values, principles and procedures among multiple individual states can be taken as a comparatively robust boundary applicable to modern day globalization. Example: Euro group, OPEC, SAARC. Member countries of all these organizations contain similar traditions and/or interconnected historical back grounds. However, the impacts of globalization can be biased towards certain cultures in the world. Example: Simma and Paulus, 1998, states that “Does the 'international community' personify a particular civilization and value system, namely, a 'Western' way of life, and therefore exclude groups opposing those values — religious fundamentalists or advocates of 'Asian values', to name a few? But if this is the case, how can the international community engage people and peoples from different cultural backgrounds?” (p. 268). Traditions in the UAE and Qatar are significantly different from the western countries. It has been largely criticized by the international community. Question here is why can’t there be traditions which are different from the western world? Perhaps such different traditions can be more efficient and effective compared to the western systems. Example: the current debt crisis in the Euro group explicitly demonstrates the imperfect nature of the western political and economic systems. EU had been ill-prepared to confront the issues of financial systems’ integration that was occurring during 2007-2009 time period. Instability of the EU zone banking system is regarded by the researchers as a result of ad hoc coordination between the financial institutes across the Euro group states (Ferry and Sapir, 2009). Pressure arising from the traditions of dominating countries can adversely affect the socio political stability of Qatar and the UAE. Unemployment and inequality in the economy can prevail in the developing economies despite expanding the international trade and Foreign Direct Investments i.e. globalization (Lee, 2006). The above economic indicators can be worsen and skill-biased technological change can occur due to too liberal international trade regulations and migrant laws (Sen, 2002). Chapman, 2009, advocates globalization can adversely affect the less developed countries’ labor markets. Example: a large proportion of migrant workers in UAE labor market are from less developed countries. Emerging an international labor market increase the inequalities between skilled and unskilled workers within the UAE and across the national borders (p. 99). Increasing competition among the less developed and developed countries for productive resources in the economy worsen the income disparities. However some researchers have also reported decreasing income disparity by adopting population weighted economic growth models (Schultz, 1998). Conclusions International laws concerning the global community are focused on materializing the common interests of world communities as opposed to the egoistic interests of individual states as in conventional regulatory mechanisms. International laws in the UAE and Qatar considerably improved according to the world standards during the past few years. The two countries also gained substantial economic profits by liberalizing the international trade regulations and labor migrant laws. The traditions of the UAE and Qatar however face significant challenges in a rapidly globalizing environment. Although similar domestic legislation and traditions are observed in both the countries, international law has been substantially different. Such differences in international have been largely unfavorable towards the UAE compared to the Qatar. References Chapman, A.R. (2009). Globalization, Human Rights, And The Social Determinants Of Health. Bioethics, 23(2): 97–111 Deressa, T.T., Hassan, R.M. & Ringler, C. (2010). Perception of and adaptation to climate change. Journal of Agricultural Science, 149(1), 1-9. Ferry, J.P. and Sapir, A. (2009). Banking Crisis Management in the EU: An Interim Assessment. Tilburg University Human Development Reports. (2012). United Nations Development Bank. Retrieved on March 15, 2013 from http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/ Human Rights Watch. (2007). The UAE’s Draft Labor Law Human Rights Watch’s Comments and Recommendations. Retrieved on March 15, 2013 from http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2007/ Keohane, R. O. and Nye J. S. (2000). 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