Global Sustainable Development Governance: Institutional Challenges from a Theoretical Perspective

This paper submits that efforts to achieve sustainable development at global level call for, inter alia, institutional reform. It argues that there is no optimal institutional design, and that different schools of thought have different perspectives of the future. It briefly presents the history of institutional evolution in the area of sustainable development up to the latest developments in the context of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development. This history sets the context for the rest of the discussions. It then presents a taxonomy of the various options suggested in the literature for improving the institutional structure of the United Nations in order to achieve sustainable development. This paper critically examines the feasibility of these options from the perspective of the different schools of thought in international relations theory. It argues that from the point of view of idealistic supranationalists, a hierarchic supranational environment and/or development organisation should be established to integrate and coordinate activities in the UN in order to promote sustainable development governance. It argues that from a realist/neo-realist and neo-liberal institutionalist approach, coordination, whether hierarchical or horizontal, is doomed to failure. From a historical materialist approach all efforts at institutional design are likely to lead to asymmetrical results reflecting global power relations. This paper concludes with a speculative argument that institutional design is not a question of the best architectural option, but calls for multiple pathways including strengthening of individual organisations, promoting the progressive development of the law of sustainable development, developing a high level advisory body to advise the Secretary General, promoting the concept of the decentralised network organisation and possibly finding ways to cluster regimes. The effectiveness of these multiple efforts are dependent on the support of civil society. In order for sustainable development to take the key concerns of developing countries into account, it is necessary that institutions are able to represent the variety of views of their members and that countries develop good policies domestically.     

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF BARGAINING FOR ADOPTION ASSISTANCE PAYMENTS

Families that adopt children who are in foster care may receive monthly adoption assistance payments to offset the cost of raising the adopted child. The amount of the adoption assistance payment is the subject of bargaining between the family and the child welfare authority. This article uses a bargaining model to highlight factors that, in addition to the expected costs of raising the child, might influence the outcome of bargaining over adoption assistance payments. Findings indicate that married parents who adopt children already in their care have an advantage in bargaining, and single women who adopt their kin or foster children have a disadvantage in bargaining.     

What price a child? Commodification and Australian adoption practice 1850–1950

The issue of premiums has always proved problematic for advocates of benevolent adoption for whom the involvement of money tainted an exchange that was meant to be grounded in love. This paper argues that the shifting relationship between supply and demand has meant that there has always been a market in children and that adoption was one of the more prominent mechanisms used to regulate that exchange. Drawing on a database of 25000 advertisements placed in Australian newspapers during the so-called century of the child, it analyses the ways in which children were rendered desirable in a competitive market. Analysing the more than 3000 advertisements in which it was made clear that money, known at the time as a premium, was to change hands, it casts new light on the commodification process involved in adoption, identifying a mismatch between the preferences of those seeking and those needing to dispose of children. It identifies a market that was highly responsive to the environment in which it was operating and proved remarkably resilient in the face of the increasing regulation of adoption. By viewing adoption through the lens of the market, it questions the notion that the ‘best interests of the child’ have always necessarily prevailed.     

Attitudes toward Domestic Violence in Korean and Vietnamese Immigrant Communities: Implications for Human Services

The present study examined the effects of gender, ethnicity, acculturation level, age, and education level of Korean and Vietnamese Americans on their attitudes toward domestic violence. The sample consisted of 229 Koreans and 184 Vietnamese, recruited from ethnic communities and college campuses in southern California. Participants completed a brief questionnaire, which included the Revised Attitudes toward Wife Abuse Scale (RAWA) and the Marin and Marin Acculturation Scale as well as demographic variables. Gender, education, and acculturation level emerged as significant predictors of attitudes toward domestic violence. More specifically, men as well as those who were less acculturated and less educated were more likely to endorse pro-violence attitudes. While there were no significant ethnic differences in the global attitude toward domestic violence between the two immigrant groups, there were specific inter-ethnic differences on select items of the RAWA scale.     

MAKING A MOUNTAIN OUT OF A MOLEHILL: A LAW AND ECONOMICS DEFENSE OF SAME‐SEX FOSTER CARE ADOPTIONS

This article explores the methods by which homosexual partners can adopt children from foster care, primarily via the stepparent adoption method because most jurisdictions do not recognize same‐sex marriage or civil unions. In establishing that the children in foster care constitute a market not in equilibrium, I explore the significant barriers to entry that homosexual partners must overcome in order to adopt a child, including the biased rules of intestate succession, the inability of homosexuals to secure health insurance or other governmental subsidies for their nonbiological, adopted children, and the apparent misconception that homosexual parenting negatively affects the well‐being of the child. By deconstructing the barriers to entry in the foster care market for children, children will be afforded the opportunity to maximize their utility through permanency, and homosexual parents and the general public can maximize their utility through the reallocation of assets away from the foster care market, given that more children are likely to be adopted once homosexuals are granted unfettered adoption rights. The reallocation of assets away from the foster care market increases social efficiency, which is desired by all.     

A new approach to measuring technology with an application to the shape of the diffusion curves

This paper documents the sources and measures of the cross-country historical adoption technology (CHAT) data set that covers the diffusion of about 115 technologies in over 150 countries over the last 200 years. We use this comprehensive data set to explore the shape of the diffusion curves. Our main finding is that, once the intensive margin is measured, technologies do not diffuse in a logistic way.

TRADE‐OFFS IN FORMULATING A CONSISTENT NATIONAL POLICY ON ADOPTION*

Just as the courts must consider the trade‐off between the best interest of the child and parental rights in involuntary termination of parental rights, policy on international adoption must consider the trade‐offs between the best interest of the child and the long‐term interests of the nation. We argue that countries that suspend international adoptions do not maximize social welfare. A consistent national policy to maximize the well‐being of the children and society at large would be to devote resources today to the oversight of international adoption in accord with child protections under the Hague Convention, while at the same time developing a domestic system of care that provides for the physical and developmental needs of orphaned children in the context of permanent families.     

内生型治理的本质意涵与路径面向

内生型治理是中国社会治理转型的必然要求,是共建共治共享社会治理新格局诉求下多元规范协同治理的必然路径,体现了"中国之治"的"中国经验"和"中国智慧".内生型治理具有历史性、发生学、实事求是、人民性等意涵,是中国特色社会主义理论和实践的伟大创新,是历史逻辑与实践逻辑的融合创新.在系统论、协同学及"技术-社会"视角的指引下...     

我国社区治理“碎片化”整合机制探析

在我国社区治理不断深化的背景下,社区多元治理主体在参与治理过程中面临着碎片化困境,主要表现为治理主体的碎片化和治理过程的碎片化。治理主体碎片化分化为内部碎片化和外部碎片化,治理过程碎片化表现为整体过程碎片化和具体过程碎片化。导致社区治理碎片化的根本原因在于多元治理主体的错位及协动不足。在未来的社区治理中,可以参考日本的社区协动治理机制,明确社区多元治理主体的角色定位,完善社区多元治理主体协动治理机制,以营造共建共治共享的良好氛围。     

试述收养关系的公证

收养公证具有民主性、自便性和平等性，因为订立收养协议是在充分协商、自愿自主、平等互利的基础上达成的。收养公证具有规范性和法治性，因为收养公证从申请、受理、审查、出证乃至解除等全过程，都是严格依照法定程序进行的。收养公证具有诚信性和效益性。因为收养公证是按照人们的传统习俗、精神、灵魂、道德和言而有信的基础上而建立起来的，故有极高的效果性和可行性。收养公证具有正义性和道义性，因为这种精神符合“老吾老，以及人之老；幼吾幼，以及人之幼。天下可运于掌。”这既是行急人危的恻隐之心，又是人类救死扶伤的人道主义精神，已成为世人广为称道和颂扬的美德。     

从善秩到善治:乡村治理有效的法治逻辑

全面推进乡村振兴,治理有效是基础,而治理有效需要建立在良好的治理秩序基础之上.建构基于法治的乡村治理秩序,是从善秩到善治的关键,其取决于村内部治理秩序和村外部治理秩序的良性运转、协调与平衡.逻辑框架在于:村内部层面,村民依法自治、依法用权维权;村外部层面,政府依法行政,推进治理法治化;协调与平衡层面,良法善治、缘法而治...     

和谐社会视阈下的治理理论

构建社会主义和谐社会是党中央的一项重大战略举措,也是我国社会发展到现阶段的必然要求和广大人民群众的热切愿望。和谐社会不仅是一种美好的社会理想,也是当代中国社会治理的基本价值取向与方法论诉求。治理是超越传统意义上的"统治"和"管理"理念的新的管理理念和管理方式。加强社会和谐建设,促进社会和谐,必须进行社会和谐治理。     

论交通事故证据的审查与采用

交通事故发生后,针对众多证据,除了依靠科学、合法的手段收集证据外,对于收集到的各类证据,就要从现场勘查图;现场照片;现场勘查笔录;对技术鉴定;驾驶员的分析和证人证言等多方面审查,只有这样才能使交通事故责任认定事实清楚、证据充分,才可以正确的处理交通事故     

治理视野下的信访制度

中国的信访制度运行50年,在21世纪进入了制度变迁的关键时期。从历史的考察和现实的分析可见,中国特色的信访制度更加符合治理的逻辑而不是法治的逻辑。在治理的视野之下,按照合法性、透明性、责任性、法治、回应和有效的目标,改革信访制度的现实路径应着眼于改善信访的社会环境、合理定位信访功能、坚持法治原则、注重信访治理过程及信访治理的社会效应、探索多样化处理问题的方式。     

瑕疵仲裁协议效力的认定

瑕疵仲裁协议是当事人在争议发生之前或争议发生之后订立的仲裁意思表示明确、真实但内容存在些许缺陷的书面文件。一个仲裁协议是否瑕疵仲裁协议,取决于判定仲裁协议效力的法律。我国的仲裁立法对仲裁协议的有效要件规定的过于严苛,使许多当事人仲裁意思表示真实的仲裁协议被认定为瑕疵仲裁协议导致仲裁协议无效,当事人丧失了仲裁救济途径。我国的仲裁法亟待完善,亟待与国际社会接轨。我国应当以1985年联合国国际贸易法委员会《国际商事仲裁示范法》为蓝本制定我国的仲裁法律,使我国的仲裁法与各国法律保持一致,我国现在是贸易大国、海运大国,我国应该成为国际贸易争议仲裁中心和国际海事案件仲裁中心,这样才能与我国的贸易大国、海运大国地位相匹配。     

Diffusion as a Process of Creative Adoption

This paper elaborates an integrated framework for understanding diffusion as a process of creative adoptions in the business sector. Within the context of the economics of localized technological change, adoption is viewed as a complementary component of a broader process of adjusting the technology when unexpected events in the product and factor markets push firms towards a creative reaction. When the stock of adoptions exerts a suitable combined effect both on the gross profitability of adoption and on the costs of adoption, such that the net profitability of adoption and hence the rates of new adoption follow a quadratic path, the dynamics of creative adoption can engender a S-shaped diffusion process.     

转型期的社会管制与自组织治理——美国进步时代的治理启示

19世纪末20世纪初的进步时代是美国社会的重要转型期。为应对这一时期社会领域出现的失控和无序现象,政府开始加强社会管制,社会自组织治理也开始逐渐兴起,通过多元治理机制的协调互动,最终为国家重构了良好的制度氛围和发展环境。本文认为,发挥社会自组织的治理优势,推进其与治理机制的有效结合,对转型期中国政府的治理改革具有重要的借鉴意义。