Larry Catá Backer
W. Richard and Mary Eshelman Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law and International AffairsProfessor Larry Catá Backer immigrated with his family from Cuba when he was young, growing up in the Cuban American community in Miami. Professor Backer focuses his research on governance-related issues of globalization and the constitutional theories of public and private governance, with an emphasis on semiotics. Recent work centers on issues of business and human rights, on the semiotics of cognition in the context of generative intelligence and big data tech and data driven governance (including Chinese social credit systems), state owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds, constitutional theory and ideologies of democratic organization in liberal democratic and Marxist Leninist systems, datafication and corporate governance, and international norm making. He has a particular interest in Chinese and Cuban constitutional systems and semiotics in legal systems. He is currently completing a Commentary on the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, and is co-editing books on human rights due diligence, and on issues in the Chinse constitutional system. He currently teaches courses on corporate social responsibility, corporations, multinational enterprises, and the constitutional law of religion. He teaches courses on policy aspects of these areas at the Penn State School of International Affairs, along with the SIA core course, Actors, Institutions, and Legal Frameworks in International Affairs. He has lectured on issues of international system of business and human rights, and on transnational, corporate and constitutional law in Asia, Latin America, Europe and Australia, in English and Spanish. He serves on the Board of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy and on the Advisory Board of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. He served on the planning committees for the 3rd (2009-2010) and 4th (2018-2019) National People of Color Scholarship Conferences, and serves on the board of a number of journals, including among them the Business and Human Rights Journal (Cambridge University Press), Iuris Dictio (Colegio de Jurisprudencia Universidad de San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador), Narxoz Law and Public Policy Review (Narxoz University, Kazakhstan, and Emancipating the Mind in the New Era: Bulletin of the Coalition for Peace & Ethics. Professor Backer is a member of the American Law Institute and the European China Law Studies Association. He served as an elected member of the Penn State University Faculty Senate from 2005 to 2018, and as chair of the Penn State University Faculty Senate for 2012-2013, serves on the Senate Committee of Past Chairs. Since 2021 he has served as the University Faculty Ombuds. His books include Cuba’s Caribbean Marxism: Essays on Ideology, Government, Society, and Economy in the Post Fidel Castro Era (Little Sir Press, 2018); Lawyers Making Meaning (Springer, 2013) and Signs in Law, A Source Book (Springer, 2014) (both with Jan Broekman), and Hong Kong Between “One Country” and “Two Systems”: Essays from the Year that Transformed the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (June 2019 – June 2020) (Little Sir Press, 2021). Published casebooks include , Law and Religion (4th ed., West, 2021, with Frank Ravitch), Comparative Corporate Law (Carolina Academic Press, 2002). Forthcoming books include Elements of Law and the U.S. Legal System (Carolina Academic Press, expected 2020), He has published over 100 articles and book chapters that have appeared in journals and books published in Europe, the United States, Brazil, and China. Shorter essays on various aspects of globalization and governance appear on his essay site, “Law at the End of the Day.” His publications and other work are available on his personal website, BackerinLaw, or through the Social Science Research Network.
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814-863-3640
Backer’s Publications
Books
United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: A Commentary (forthcoming 2025)
Elements of Law and the United States Legal System (forthcoming 2025)
The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Constitutional Law (Guobin Zhu, Björn Ahl & Larry Catá Backer; proposal under review 2023-2024)
The Current State and Future Trajectories of Human Rights Due Diligence Laws: New Legal Norms on Human Rights Due Diligence (Larry Catá Backer and Claire Methven O’Brien, eds.; Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group forthcoming 2024).
Law and Religion: Cases, Materials, and Readings (4th ed. 2021) (with Frank S. Ravitch)
Hong Kong Between ‘One Country’ and ‘Two Systems’: Essays from the Year that Transformed The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (June 2019 – June 2020) (2021)
The Self-Reflexive Imaginaries of Law: Essays on Contemporary Legalization in an Age of Algorithmic Law and Platform Governance, Emancipating the Mind in the New Era: Bulletin of the Coalition for Peace & Ethics 16(2) (Winter 2021) (Larry Catá Backer and Matthew McQuilla (eds)
Essays on Contemporary China–Heartland, Periphery, and Silk Roads, Emancipating the Mind in the New Era: Bulletin of the Coalition for Peace & Ethics 16(1) (Summer 2021) (Larry Catá Backer and Matthew McQuilla (eds), 2022)
Cuba’s Caribbean Marxism: Essays on Ideology, Government, Society, and Economy in the Post-Fidel Castro Era (2018)
Contributions to Books (selected since 2020)
‘Legal Semiotics, Globalization, and Governance,’ in Research Handbook on Legal Semiotics (Anne Wagner and Sarah Marusek (eds); Edward Elgar, 2023) pp. 61-85 (ISBN 9781802207255; eISBN 9781802207262)
‘“Whole Process Democracy” as Applied Constitutionalism,’ in The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Constitutional Law (Guobin Zhu, Björn Ahl & Larry Catá Backer; forthcoming CUP 2025).
‘Human Rights Due Diligence in the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights,’ in The Current State and Future Trajectories of Human Rights Due Diligence Laws: New Legal Norms on Human Rights Due Diligence (Larry Catá Backer and Claire Methven O’Brien, eds.; Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group forthcoming 2024).
‘Chinese State-Owned Companies and Investment in Latin America and Europe,’ in Human Rights and environmental sustainability in state-owned enterprises in Latin America and Europe (Judith Schonsteiner and Markus Krajewski, eds., Routledge, forthcoming 2024).
‘Describe, Predict, Intervene!—On Objective Subjectivities and the Simulacra of Semiotics in the New Era; Simulated Signification and of Mechanical Meaning Making in Managing Post-COVID Human Society,’ in Rearguards of Subjectivity (Frank Fleerackers (ed); Springer, 2023) pp. 21-62 (ISBN 978-3-031-26854-0 (hardback); ISBN978-3-031-26857-1 (softcover); ISBN 978-3-031-26855-7 (eBook)).
‘“The Flower of Democracy Blooms Brilliantly in China [中国的民主之花绚丽绽放]”: The Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Constitutional Order,’ in Routledge Handbook of Constitutional Law in China (Ngoc Son Bui, Stuart Hargreaves, Ryan Mitchell (eds); Routledge, 2022) chp. 5, pp. 67-84 (ISBN 9780367651855).
‘Principle 4: The Obligations of States in Markets With Respect to Enterprises Owned, Controlled, or Supported by the State,’ in Elgar Commentaries on the United Nations Principles of Business and Human Rights (Barnali Choudhury, ed., Edward Elgar, 2023) chp. 4, pp. 35-42 (ISBN-13: 978-1800375666).
‘Un Somaro Piumato’ — Rethinking the Scope and Nature of State Liability for Acts of their Commercial Instrumentalities: State Owned Enterprises and State-Owner Liability in the Post-Global,’ Julien Chaisse, Jędrzej Górski and Dini Sejko (eds) The Regulation of State-controlled enterprises: An Interdisciplinary and Comparative Examination 369-398 (Singapore: Springer Nature, 2022).
‘The Problem of the Enterprise and the Enterprise of Law: Multinational Enterprises as Polycentric Transnational Regulatory Spaces,’ in Oxford Handbook of Transnational Law 777-800 (Peer Zumbansen, ed., Oxford University Press, 2021).
‘And an Algorithm to Entangle them All? Social Credit, Data Driven Governance, and Legal Entanglement in Post-Law Legal Orders,’ in Entangled Legalities Beyond the State 79-106 (Nico Kirsch, ed., Cambridge, 2021) (ISBN 978-1-108-84306-5 Hardback; 978-1-108-82379-1 Paperback).
‘Foreword: Bannermen and Heralds: The Identity of Flags; the Ensigns of Identity,’ in Flags, Identity, Memory: Critiquing the Public Narrative through Color v-xxvii (Anne Wagner and Sarah Marusek, eds., Dordrecht: Springer 2020) (ISBN 978-3-030-32865-8) (the volume is the recipient of the Gheradis Davis Prize 2021 (University of Texas Law School)).
‘China,’ in Tipping Points in International Law: Critique and Commitment 52-73 (Jean d’Aspremont, and John Haskell eds., Cambridge University Press, 2021) (ISBN 978 1108 84510 6).
‘The Cri de Jessup Sixty Years Later: Transnational Law’s Intangible Objects and Abstracted Frameworks Beyond Nation, Enterprise, and Law,’ in The Many Lives of Transnational Law: Critical Engagements with Jessup's Bold Proposal 386-418 (Peer Zumbansen (ed.), Cambridge UP, 2020) (ISBN: 9781108490269).
Journal Articles (selected since 2015)
The Imaginaries of Regulatory Spaces in an Age of Administrative Discretion: Social Credit ‘in’ or ‘as’ the Cage of Regulation of Socialist Legality, The China Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Greater China 24:--- (Special Issue; forthcoming 2024)
The Soulful Machine, the Virtual Person, the “Human” Condition, and its Social Constitution — An Encounter with Jan M. Broekman, Knowledge in Change: The Semiotics of Cognition and Conversion (Dordrecht, Springer, 2023, +199 pp), 37(3) International Journal for the Semiotics of Law pp. 969-1083 (Dordrecht: Springer Nature; 2024 (hybrid)) Online here.
Trust platforms: The digitalization of corporate governance and the transformation of trust in polycentric space, Regulation & Governance (2024) doi:10.1111/rego.12614.
The Algorithmic Law of Business and Human Rights: Constructing Private Transnational Law of Ratings, Social Credit and Accountability Measures, 18(4) International Journal of Law in Context 1-21 (2022; Special Issue) with Matthew B. McQuilla.
Robert Cover and International Law—Narrative Nudges and Nomadic Nomos, 37(4) Touro Law Review 2315-2364 (2022).
'Lawyers are not algorithms: Sustainability, corruption, and the role of the lawyer in institutional frameworks and corporate transactions', 23 Legal Ethics 4-23 (2021) DOI: 10.1080/1460728x.2021.1979728.
The Semiotics of Consent and the American Law Institute’s Reform of the Model Penal Code’s Sexual Assault Provisions, 1(1) Undecidabilities and the Law: Coimbra Journal of Legal Studies 49-83 (2021).
Popular Participation in the Constitution of the Illiberal State—An Empirical Study of Popular Engagement and Constitutional Reform in Cuba and the Contours of Cuban Socialist Democracy 2.0, 34(1) Emory International Law Review 183-276 (2020) (with Flora Sapio, and James Korman).
Popular Consultation and Referendum in the Making of Contemporary Cuban Socialist Democracy Practice and Constitutional Theory, 27(1) U. Mia. International Law Review 37-130 (2019)(with Flora Sapio).
Next Generation Law: Data Driven Governance and Accountability Based Regulatory Systems in the West, and Social Credit Regimes in China 28(1) USC Interdisciplinary Law Journal 123-172 (2018).
Chinese Strategies to Combat Corporate Corruption: From a “Two Thrust Approach” to a “Two Swords One Thrust Strategy” of Compliance, Prosecutorial Discretion, and Sovereign Investor Oversight in China, 52(1) International Lawyer 1-45 (2019).
Chinese Constitutionalism in the ‘New Era’: The Emerging Idea and Practice of Constitution in the Wake of Xi Jinping’s Report to the 19th Chinese Communist Party, Connecticut Journal of International Law 33(2):163-213 (2018).
测度、评估和奖励：中国和西方建立社会信用体系的挑战？(Cutting-edge measures, assessments, and rewards: The challenge of establishing a social credit system in China and the West?), “互联网金融法律评论（jiflsjtu）”微信公众平台。前沿栏目·第三季第21篇（总第182篇）. (Shanghai Jiaotong University “Internet Financial Law Review (jiflsjtu).
Theorizing Regulatory Governance Within its Ecology: The Structure of Management in an Age of Globalization, 24(5) Contemporary Politics 607-630 (Special Issue 2018).
西方反腐领域新举措，从“各自为政“到“一股合力“ 58(2):17-30 吉林大学社会科学学报 --- [Sword One Thrust Strategy” to Combat Criminal Corruption: Corporate Compliance, Prosecutorial Discretion, and Sovereign Investor Oversight, Jilin University Journal of Social Science] 58(2):17-30 (2018) (ISSN 0257-2834; DOI 10.15939/j.jujsse.2018.02.fx2).
Between the Judge and the Law—Judicial Independence and Authority with Chinese Characteristics, 33(1) Connecticut Journal of International Law 1-41 (2017)).
Sovereign Wealth Funds, Capacity Building, Development, and Governance, 52(4) Wake Forest Law Review 735-780 (2017).
The Human Rights Obligations of State-Owned Enterprises: Emerging Conceptual Structures and Principles in National and International Law and Policy, 50(4) Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 827-888 (2017).
The Corporate Social Responsibilities of Financial Institutions for the Conduct of their Borrowers: he View from International Law and Standards, 21 Lewis & Clark Law Review 881-920 (2017).
Shaping a Global Law for Business Enterprises: Framing Principles and the Promise of a Comprehensive Treaty on Business and Human Rights, 42 (2) North Carolina Journal of International Law 417-504 (2016).
A Lex Mercatoria for Corporate Social Responsibility Codes without the State?: A Critique of Legalization Within the State Under the Premises of Globalization, 24(1) Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 115-146 (2017).
The Emerging Normative Structures of Transnational Law: Non-State Enterprises in Polycentric Asymmetric Global Orders, 31(1) Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law 1-52 (2016).
Central Planning Versus Markets Marxism: Their Differences and Consequences for the International Ordering of State, Law, Politics, and Economy, 32(1) Connecticut Journal of International Law 1-47 (2016).
Are Supply Chains Transnational Legal Orders?: What We Can Learn From the Rana Plaza Factory Building Collapse, 1(1) University of California Irvine Journal of International, Transnational, and Comparative Law 11-66 (2016).
Fractured Territories and Abstracted Terrains: The Problem of Representation and Human Rights Governance Regimes Within and Beyond the State, 23(1) Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 61-94 (2016).
Corporate Social Responsibility in Weak Governance Zones, 14(1) Santa Clara Journal of International Law 297-332 (2016).
Regulating Multinational Corporations — Trends, Challenges and Opportunities, 22(1) Brown Journal of World Affairs 153-173 (Fall/Winter 2015).
The Cuban Communist Party at the Center of Political and Economic Reform: Current Status and Future Reform, 8 Northwestern Interdisciplinary Law Review 71-129 (2015).
Moving Forward The U.N. Guiding Principles For Business And Human Rights: Between Enterprise Social Norm, State Domestic Legal Orders, and the Treaty Law that Might Bind them All, 38(2) Fordham International Law Journal 457-542 (2015).
International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and Sovereign Wealth Funds—SWFs as Instruments to Combat Corruption and Enhance Fiscal Discipline in Developing States, International Review of Law 2015:swf.5; http://dx.doi.org/10.5339/irl.2015.swf.5 (Qatar University).
Crafting a Theory of Socialist Democracy for China in the 21st Century: Considering Hu Angang’s Theory of Collective Presidency in the Context of the Emerging Chinese Constitutional State, 16(1) Asian-Pacific Law and Policy Journal 29-82 (2014). Chinese language version为21世纪的中国设计社会主义民主理论：中国宪政国家兴起语境下对胡鞍钢“集体领导制”理论的思考， Tsinghua University Journal (forthcoming 2015).
The Crisis of Secular Liberalism and the Constitutional State in Comparative Perspective: Religion, Rule of Law, and Democratic Organization of Religion Privileging States, 48 Cornell International Law Journal 51-104 (2015).
The Emerging Structures of Socialist Constitutionalism With Chinese Characteristics: Extra-Judicial Detention (Laojiao and Shuanggui) and the Chinese Constitutional Order, Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal 23(2):251-341 (2014) (With Keren Wang). Chinese language version白 轲 王可任 著, 依宪治国与从严治党格局下党内反腐惩戒制度的法治考察 , 中国法律评论 China Law Review 207-234 (2015 年第 4 期(总第 8 期)) (available http://www.chinalawreview.com.cn/article/20151117170703.html).
Backer’s Presentations
“In Defense of the State and the International Legal Order: Reflections on Human Rights Obligations of Business: Beyond the Corporate Responsibility to Respect (Surya Deva and David Bilchitz, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2013).” Discussant Remarks. UNOG Library Talks — Book Launch, “Human Rights Obligations of Business,” a side event at the Second Annual United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights, of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, 2 December 2013.
“Polycentricity in South Asian Human Rights Law: On the Strategic and Simultaneous Use of Multiple Sources of Law to Advance Human Rights Against MNCs in South Asia.” Conference: “Asia and International Law in the 21st Century: New Horizons.” Asian Society of International Law 4th Biennial Conference. New Delhi, India, November 15, 2013.
“Methodological Issues in Implementing an Internationalized Curriculum — Five Approaches to Internationalization.” Conference: “Internationalizing the Campus, College and Classroom.” Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania. September 27, 2013.
“Democratizing International Business and Human Rights by Catalyzing Strategic Litigation.” A Festival of Ideas Conference: Business and Human Rights: Moving Forward Looking Backwards. University of West Virginia College of Law. Morgantown, West Virginia. September 23-24, 2013.
“State and Party in the Scientific Development of a Legitimate Rule of Law Constitutional System in China: The Example of Laojiao and Shuanggui.” International Conference on “The Rule of Law With Chinese Characteristics” in Transition. City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, June 6, 2013.
Podcasts
“From the Belt and Road Initiative to Social Credit Systems: Tech and Business Relations Between the US and China” (PowerPoint).
Presentation for Global China Connection Penn State Chapter Industry Expert Series (Virtual) 10 December 2020. Available HERE: PSU_Presentation_ChinaBusinessTech12-2020.
The Schulich School of Law and the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society present the F.B. Wickwire Memorial Lecture in Professional Responsibility & Legal Ethics and the Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Business Law Forum (YouTube).
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an urgent call for action by all countries in a global partnership. The private sector has an important role to play in implementation of the SDGs, and all businesses are called upon to apply innovation and creativity to solving the challenges of sustainable development, while respecting human rights, to protect the planet for future generations. An expert panel moderated by Schulich School of Law Professor Sara Seck will explore the ethical and professional responsibilities of lawyers as they help their clients navigate this new business landscape. The panel members are: • John F. Sherman, III, Shift • Penelope Simons, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa • Larry Catá Backer, Law & International Affairs, Penn State • Birgit Spiesshofer, International Law and Business Ethics, University of Bremen and Dentons Europe LLPB
Diverse Perspectives On The Impact Of Colonialism In International Law (SoundCloud).
Presentation of “In the Shadow of Empires — Latin American Perceptions of Development and International Law.” Panel: Diverse Perspectives on the Impact of Colonialism in International Law, sponsored by the Minorities in International Law Interest Group. Conference: American Society of International Law Annual Conference. Washington, D.C., 28 March 2019.
Panel 11. Cuba’s Political/Economic Culture in the Post-Raúl Period Chair: Gary Maybarduk, U.S. Department of State (retired)Culture, Larry Catá Backer, Coalition for Peace &Ethics and Pennsylvania State University, “The Challenge of Preserving the Revolutionary Moment in Changing Times” Miami, Florida 6 Aug. 2018.
Summary of My Presentation, “The Privatization of Governance: Emerging Trends and Actors,” for Conference: New International Trade and Rules Between Globalization and Anti-Globalization; Conference: New International Trade and Rules Between Globalization and Anti-Globalization. The Conference concept note and program may be accessed here. All of the recording links to our events from April 21-24, 2017 can be found here under the “Archived Event Video” tab. Links to each day of the conference may be accessed through the following links: Friday April 21; Saturday Morning April; Saturday Afternoon April 22; Sunday April 23; Monday April 24.
“Beyond Nation and Law: A Manifesto;” Remarks at the Launch Symposium of the Dickson Poon Transnational Law Institute – “Transnational Law: What’s in a Name?” 27 April 2016. Podcast here (remarks start at hour 2.32.30).
The American Bar Association has granted conditional approval for Penn State Dickinson Law and Penn State Law to reunify and operate as Penn State University’s single law school under the name Penn State Dickinson Law with locations in Carlisle and University Park. Danielle M. Conway is the dean of the unified Penn State Dickinson Law, which will enroll a unified class in fall 2025.