Journal of Special Jurisdictions Special Issue on the ZEDEs Issue II ● Volume I ● May 2021 ● ISSN 2691 – 5480 Editorial Team Publisher Joseph McKinney Managing Editor Nathalie Mezza-Garcia Copyeditor Jalen D. Nelson Editor-in-Chief Tom W. Bell Cover by Nathalie Mezza-Garcia Image by Zaha Hadid Architects. Reproduced with the permission of Honduras Próspera Inc. Journal of Special Jurisdictions The Journal of Special Jurisdictions is an international peer-reviewed journal founded to advance knowledge of Special Economic Zones and other special jurisdictions. It publishes original papers on the theory, history, regulations and development of special jurisdictions. Research published here can be used to inform policymakers about special jurisdictions. The Journal maintains a non-partisanship approach to its topic. It is led by the team at the Institute for Competitive Governance at the Startup Societies Foundation. Submit to this journal DONATE TO THE JOURNAL (SSF) T This journal is published under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. Available at http://ojs.instituteforcompgov.org/index.php/jsj Journal of Special Jurisdictions Letter from the Publisher Joseph McKinney Startup Societies Foundation the media are looking towards Special A meteor hit the world in 2020. There were Jurisdictions for the first time. no billowing flames, darkened skies, nor flattened cities, but the results were In 2019, while Special Jurisdictions were equally traumatic. Covid-19 demolished widespread, many still viewed them as everyone’s way of life. Governments strange and “out-there”. In 2021, when responded in ways unprecedented in traditional solutions have failed, “strange” human history. On top of the staggering has become “innovative” and inevitable. toll on life and health, societies’ core foundations have staggered. Politics, This renewed Special Jurisdictions economics, finance, and culture have interest coincided with the launch of the oscillated, desperate to find a new most advanced example of a special equilibrium. jurisdiction to date: the Honduran ZEDEs. The ZEDE framework has progressed in This type of stress forces us to look at the different forms over the last ten years. world through new lenses. Because of the Last year, it finally came to fruition with sheer magnitude of today’s problems, the launch of the first ZEDE, Próspera. It decision-makers are more open to different was quickly followed by the second, Ciudad approaches. As a result, many in Morazán. ZEDEs embody the next government, businesses, academia, and generation of Special Jurisdictions with 2 Institute for Competitive Governance Startup Societies Foundation Available at http://ojs.instituteforcompgov.org/index.php/jsj Journal of Special Jurisdictions their own legal, administrative, and In 2020, we released a call for papers on regulatory systems. the ZEDEs to fulfill that need. Because of our extraordinary authors, that the second As institutions reflect on how to recover issue of the Journal is the ultimate and thrive in a Post-Covid World, we have academic guide on the ZEDEs. We expect an advantage. At the Startup Societies that stakeholders in government, Foundation, we have been studying special academic, business, and media take our jurisdictions for the last 5 years. Now more authors’ work to heart. Ultimately, we than ever, I can say with great confidence: hope that they take action, based on the it is crucial to look at special jurisdictions. best practices tested in the ZEDEs, and let Today, this means looking at the ZEDEs. more special jurisdictions thrive. Their success, or failure, could shape the future of Special Jurisdictions, and the course of governance in the 21st century. Institute for Competitive Governance Startup Societies Foundation 3 Available at http://ojs.instituteforcompgov.org/index.php/jsj Journal of Special Jurisdictions Letter from the Editor Dr. Nathalie Mezza-Garcia, PhD Startup Societies Foundation In your hands, you hold a The second issue of the Journal of Special comprehensive starting point to Jurisdictions focuses on the Honduran familiarize yourself with the ZEDEs, Zones for Employment and Economic where they come from, how they are Development–Zonas de Empleo y different from the REDs, how they are Desarrollo Económico, ZEDEs. This time, governed, how they are shaping, what is we introduce five papers about the ZEDEs, CAMP, and what can we foresee. one about pandemics and medical zones, The first paper is by Jorge and another one about China’s foreign SEZ Colindres, a Honduran lawyer and the policy and Brazil. I am proud to say that director of the Fundación para la Libertad all our ZEDE papers contribute to the body Económica. We decided to put Colindres’ of scholarship of common law special paper first because of its excellent jurisdictions, and in particular the ZEDEs, exposition of Honduras’ history prior to the using various methods and approaches. ZEDEs. The paper diligently references However, this issue has several Honduran regulations, laws, and codes. It comparative analyses. Some papers also explains Honduran details known compare ZEDEs, ZEDEs and other zones mostly to those familiar with local politics. around the world, ZEDEs and REDs, The paper is great for anyone wishing to ZEDEs and Honduras, and the ZEDEs dig into the ZEDEs’ background and before and after. potential. I believe readers will not be able to ignore the paper’s points, whether they Institute for Competitive Governance Startup Societies Foundation 4 Available at http://ojs.instituteforcompgov.org/index.php/jsj Journal of Special Jurisdictions agree with it. In a nutshell: Colindres I am confident that our readers will argues that the first ZEDE, Próspera, is also find our third paper very interesting. better equipped with democratic An expository article by the Próspera mechanisms than the rest of Honduras. team, Erick Brimen, Trey Goff and The second paper presents an Nicholas Dranias, the third paper details interzone comparative analysis between the governance structure of the first four zones that the author, Professor Tom ZEDE. It locates the ZEDEs within W. Bell, grouped under his coined term Honduras’ broader context and tells the ‘common law zones’. In the most elegant story of Próspera’s creation. The paper way, the paper gives us a visual includes a section where Brimen, understanding of the administrative, Próspera’s Managing Director, narrates in organizational, and governance structures first person the ins-and-outs of the of Dubai International Financial Centre, negotiation process. He provides details the Abu Dhabi Global Market, only known by insiders otherwise. The Kazakhstan’s Astana International paper also addresses controversies and Financial Centre and the Próspera ZEDE. critiques surrounding the ZEDEs and Bell explains how each of these zones provides Próspera’s approaches to the import laws from outside sources and how issues raised. the zones and the states where they nest Our fourth paper, written by implement checks and balances (or not). Jeffrey Mason, Carl Peterson and Daniela Professor Bell concludes that the ZEDEs, Cano from the Charter Cities Institute and or Próspera, at least, is a more the Fundación para la Libertad independent type of common law zone than Económica, complements this issue nicely. its counterparts. Structured political First, it explains the precursor of the influence seems to be a weakness of the ZEDEs and its problems, the REDs. It then other three zones in this study. This eye- analyzes the ZEDE law text, articles, catchy paper shows how. amendments, and statutes that have made Institute for Competitive Governance Startup Societies Foundation 5 Available at http://ojs.instituteforcompgov.org/index.php/jsj Journal of Special Jurisdictions the ZEDEs possible. The paper is great for us from Honduras to the United States and lawyers and for anyone interested in the the COVID-9 pandemic. The authors legal aspect of the ZEDEs. It also propose a new type of federal zone, Medical addresses some controversies surrounding Countermeasure Manufacturing Zones, as the ZEDEs law and establishes differences a response to supply chain problems faced between the two first ZEDEs; Próspera during the pandemic. These problems and Ciudad Mozarán. include shortages of equipment, personnel, Our fifth piece is a report by Daniel among others. As the authors explain, Fernández and Olav Dirkmaat. While it is Medical Countermeasure Manufacturing not an original piece, we republished this Zones could offer tax incentives, short- study after subjecting it to peer review for listing, and speed up processes for its economic projections of the ZEDEs and businesses within those zones. They could what they could mean for Honduras in the be a route for companies to be considered long-term. This piece discusses how the for the Strategic National Stockpile, and to ZEDEs share elements with China’s and make sure that the United States is well with Dubai’s zones. Likewise, it details positioned in times of crisis. This paper is how ZEDEs can expand to noncontiguous a splendid example of this Journal’s areas, and how the ZEDE frameworks can mission: to provide a space for academics branch to subZEDEs. The authors call and practitioners to approach special these ‘growth hubs’ and implement jurisdictions in novel ways. It pleases us to simulations to calculate the economic see here a type of zone