The International Journal
of Not-for-Profit Law

Volume 6, Issue 2, February 2004

This issue of the International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law features two thematic clusters, both quite timely–on civil society and the law in the Pacific region, and on challenges facing American nonprofits–as well as a cornucopia of features on civil society in law, philosophy, culture, theory, practice, and even cinema.

With the aid of David Robinson, Director of the Institute of Policy Studies Program on Civil Society at Victoria University and a member of the board of directors of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, we present four articles on the Pacific region. Kerry O’Halloran considers how a charity law framework can promote social inclusion for minority culture groups, with particular emphasis on the indigenous people of Australia. Complementing Kerry’s article, Myles McGregor-Lowndes explains how Australia is working toward a major charity law reform. Rounding out the section, James Duckworth and Mose Saitala consider reform efforts in Tuvalu, and Tuwhakairiora Williams and David Robinson assess cultural factors that influence philanthropy in Maori society.

Three articles examine challenges facing today’s American nonprofits. The post-9/11 efforts to inhibit the financing of terrorist organizations, as Barnett F. Baron of the Asia Foundation shows, also inhibit the financing of legitimate charities and add to the workload of philanthropic organizations with international interests. Officials of many American nonprofits, according to Jeffrey M. Berry, harbor misconceptions about their right to influence policy, which may skew the public debate away from their positions. Finally, not-for-profit organizations that seek greater efficiency by trying to operate like businesses, Bill E. Landsberg contends, may soon confront unintended and undesirable consequences.

Our lead feature, by Julia Greenwood Bentley, examines Chinese civil society through the eyes of people who operate civil society organizations, with some surprising and insightful findings. Robert Hayhoe offers an overview of Canadian tax law relating to the third sector. Antonio Itriago and Miguel Angel Itriago argue that in Latin America, “organized” civil society may constitute a small and unrepresentative portion of civil society as a whole. We are pleased to reprint two articles from SEAL, the European Foundation Center’s journal of social economy and the law: David Moore on tax laws affecting corporate philanthropy in the CEE and NIS, and Simon Zadek on the evolving concept of corporate responsibility. Taking a theoretical approach, scholars Timothy J. Peterson and Jon Van Til dissect the civil society concept. Our feature section concludes with a light essay on cinematic civil society, by Rod Smolla, dean of the University of Richmond School of Law, followed by a book review by Morgan Meis (himself the author of an article on movies and civil society) and short notes on current books.

Once again, we gratefully acknowledge the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, for principal support for IJNL; the Ford Foundation, for a grant enabling ICNL to undertake an in-depth evaluation of IJNL and the other elements of its Internet Services Program; ICNL Supervisory Council members; and, of course, our authors.

ICNL is grateful to those who are supporting or who have supported this publication in the past, including the United States Agency for International Development, the Catholic University of America, the World Bank, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Wallace Global Fund, the Helen Bader Foundation, the Compton Foundation, the American Express Foundation, the AT&T Foundation, the GE Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alcoa Foundation, the Chevron Corporation, the Counterpart Foundation, the Aga Khan Foundation, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, the Asian Development Bank, and the Eurasia Foundation.

Stephen Bates
Editor
International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law
sbates@icnl.org