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Summary. To what extent are professional decision-makers in the field of public procurement susceptible to cognitive biases? Recent research found a bias in favor of the lower bidder when ranking competing bids (Dekel and Schurr 2014, “Cognitive Biases in Government Procurement – an Experimental Study with Real Bid Evaluators,” 10(2) Review of Law and Economics 169–200). In the present research we examine this question regarding another stage of the public procurement process – the qualification stage. To this end, we conducted a series of experiments with the participation of procurement officials in situations that closely resemble their daily work. Our main finding is that even though procurement officials are susceptible to a cognitive bias when they have to score competing bids, they overcome that bias when asked to decide whether to qualify faulty or questionable bids. We cautiously ascribe this difference to the different types of decision-making involved, and suggest further explorations of these insights.

Summary. This paper focuses on a doctrine that the Israeli Supreme Court has developed since the early 1990s under which the Court removes officeholders from their position by ordinary judicial review proceedings. Although this doctrine is not founded on any formal constitutional settings, nonetheless it has had a significant influence on the relationships between the judiciary and the political branches, as it was the basis for the removal of several major political figures — including ministers and top bureaucrats — from office. The substantial rise of judicial power in Israel since the early 1980s has been documented by the literature of comparative constitutionalism. Yet this rise took place despite the lack of any meaningful formal constitutional guarantees of judicial autonomy in Israeli constitutional law. I argue that this doctrine of removal can serve to explain this gap. This practice of ‘impeachment’ by judicial review is unique to Israel. Therefore, it has hardly been studied by the comparative literature. It is, however, extremely common and influential in Israeli constitutional and political life. It also enjoys massive support from legal elites and the general public alike. I argue that one cannot understand the relationships between the courts and politics in Israel without taking this component into account. In this Article, I describe the development of this practice by the Israeli Supreme Court and its influence on the relationships between the courts and politics in Israel. I also provide a critical evaluation of the doctrine.

Summary. This book section interrogates the specific role of platform monopolies in shaping and framing public debate, arguing that far from ‘pluralising’ the agenda, the particular characteristics of news and information algorithms are more likely to be having the opposite effect on balance, reinforcing the dominance of a small number of mostly legacy, incumbent news brands.

Summary. One way bankruptcy law can be used to shield wrongdoers.

Summary. Research focused on institutional corruption from a socio-cultural perspective in relation to Latin America and the potential of a faith-based collective action to effect sustainable reform.

Summary. Provides recommendations to hospitals dealing with surgeons’ requests to double-book operations.

Summary. For 2 years we have worked with another newsroom in Colombia to investigate the assets of congressmen with very interesting findings, like the one about the wife of a former president of Colombia buying cheap land to later make millions in returns by allegedly changing land use, this congressman is former president Álvaro Uribe how is now under house arrest for procedural fraud with the bribing of witnesses using the very same house complex detailed in that investigation we participated in. Another interesting result was a congressman buying natural reserves to sell them back to the government.

Summary. Prosecutors can force witnesses to testify and use perjury prosecutions to hold them to the provable truth. More controversially, prosecutors also offer witnesses inducements for favorable testimony, including leniency, immunity, and even cash. This ubiquitous behavior would be illegal as witness bribery, except for a longstanding tradition of sovereigns using this power, which legal doctrine now reflects. A causal analysis shows that even if prosecutors use this power only in good faith, these inducements undermine the epistemic value of witness testimony.

Summary. Lobbying public officials is common practice, but becomes problematic when officials have a financial interest in the sector that lobbies them and for which they are responsible. This article explores such cases, with a particular focus on Eastern Europe.

Summary. We explore affiliations of high-level public officials in East and South-East Europe and Central Asia with higher education institutions, which create a risk of undue influence because of conflict of interest.

Summary. Transparency International (TI), an NGO working on corruption worldwide, commonly defines corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.” In higher education, however, corruption also encompasses “the lack of academic integrity.” The second definition applies to both public and private institutions, since what they both offer—education—can be construed as a public good. Corruption might be perceived or it might not; in higher education, however, this differentiation is less relevant. Along with the kinds of monetary and non-monetary corruption that can be found anywhere in society, such as corruption in procurement and favouritism in hiring and/or promoting employees, corruption in higher education can implicate the students themselves, thus exerting an influence over the next generation.

Includes discussion of ways in which mainstream reforms do not address institutional/legal/influence-market corruption.

Summary. Two-year research project on Ethics and Integrity in Public Life, conducted by the Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa (ICS-ULisboa), Portugal and financed by Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos (FFMS).The project focus on ethics self-regulatory measures implemented by representative institutions across the EU democracies.