Opinions

Retail banking: a clear and brave initiative by Britain's Financial Services Authority shines a light on dubious practices in the Italian banking industry. What would happen here if financial consultants could be paid exclusively by their customers?

As emissions of CO2 reached a new high in 2010, the imperative is to decouple growth from environmental impacts, by decarbonizing technologies. International accords that include market-based mechanisms are perhaps the only hope for avoiding disaster

The transition toward democracy is by no means guaranteed, and changes are sparking a whole new set of social tensions. Freer societies will have to consider the formerly repressed voices of conflicting ethnic, religious, political and cultural factions

International law: the Peruvian-European legal battle over sardine classification at the WTO rages on as similar-tasting fish are differentiated by geographic origin, scientific classification and a strong dose of old-fashioned protectionism from Spain and Portugal

In the international fight against corruption, mountains of studies have been done and dishonesty's huge costs have been estimated. The hard part lies in identifying and implementing political mechanisms that put individual interest at the service of the collective good

Does good government (and good governance) comes from good laws or capable men? In this debate, as old as philosophy itself, jurists would probably argue that democracy is ultimately the best guarantor of the rule of law over the arrogance of men in power