推进侦查法治化建设遏制刑讯逼供

刑讯逼供是为诸多国际法律文件与我国法律所明确禁止和坚决反对的行为。然而,我国刑事司法实务中刑讯逼供现象却禁而不绝。刑讯逼供现象的存在显示出我国侦查机制的状况落后,直接影响到人权保障与司法公正根本价值的实现。那么,为何这一现象久遭批判却难以杜绝?如何从根本上遏制刑讯逼供行为?我认为,必须深刻反思我们现行的侦查机制,切实推进我国的侦查法治化建设,完成从传统侦查制度向现代侦查制度     

浅析刑讯逼供

司法实践中,刑讯逼供时有发生,影响案件定罪处罚。如果有效遏制刑讯逼供,防止冤、假、错案的发生,是保障人权、营造良好法制社会的必然要求。本文对刑讯逼供这一司法现象进行的简单论述,从提高警察队伍素质,加强对侦查活动的监督,完善证据制度三个方面来论证。     

检察机关查办刑讯逼供案之侦查手段分析

刑讯逼供在我国司法实践中是长期以来的客观存在,检察机关作为国家的法律监督机关,对于司法工作人员刑讯逼供,侵犯公民人身权利的案件具有侦查权。在查办刑讯逼供案件时,怎样形成科学的侦查方式,排除"口供是证据之王"的传统侦查思维,是个值得探究的问题。本文从分析刑讯逼供案件查办的现状出发,提出了几点建议。     

刑讯逼供案件的热问题与冷思考

本文从刑讯逼供案件侦查的角度，对刑讯逼供类案件的特点、经常出现的问题、应当适用的原则和举证责任分配等问题提出了相关见解。文中认为刑讯逼供案件应当实行举证责任倒置，刑讯逼供案件不应适用疑罪从无原则，并对这些观点的原因进行了分析，希望能够加深对刑讯逼供这一罪名的认识，对这类案件的侦查、起诉和审判工作有所裨益。     

论刑讯逼供的危害及对策

刑讯逼供,它有悖于诉讼文明与司法民主的现代性要求,为了维护司法公正,维护诉讼平等,维护程序正义,推进法治发展进程孤儿研究刑讯逼供的历史现状,寻找遏制刑讯逼供的对策.严刑峻法在中国有着悠久的历史.自新中国建国以来我国在人权保障方面做出了巨大努力,但司法实践中,犯罪嫌疑人的人权仍得不到保障,刑讯逼供现象在侦查过程中屡禁不止.从追求实体正义的角度看,很多情况下是通过刑讯逼供等暴力手段获得的证据,从追求程序正义的角度看,这是对人权的严重侵犯,严重的情况下可能构成犯罪.根据我国的司法现状,想要完全遏制刑讯逼供是不可能的,然而寻找解决对策减少延安的发生确实可行的.从实体和程序入手,转变思想和更新制度双管齐下,在提高司法者法律意识的前提下,加强监督力度.     

刑讯逼供的成本——收益构成浅析

成本—收益分析方法是经济学上常用的方法,是一种对投入和产出进行估算和衡量的方法。将该种方法引入到刑讯逼供的理论研究上,可以促使侦查办案人员在首次侦查讯问之前充分考虑到如果采取刑讯逼供将要付出什么样的代价,反之,会有什么样的收获,在充分衡量了代价和收获后做出正确的选择,从根本上杜绝刑讯逼供的发生,切实保障和尊重人权。     

我国法庭治理刑讯逼供之反思与重构

刑讯逼供久禁不绝,侦查机关固然难辞其咎,但对侦查行为合法性的程序控制机制“失灵”也是易被忽视的重要原因之一。我国法庭对被告人提出的有关刑讯逼供的抗辩几乎一概置之不理,不仅使本已有限的司法审查权虚置,而且使被告人根本无法获得有效的司法救济。法庭在治理刑讯逼供问题上的“无能”表现,不仅有立法不周的原因,而且还有深层次的体制因素和思想根源———基于对这些制度化背景的认知与反思,构建程序性制裁制度,无疑是使法庭能够真正遏制刑讯逼供的最为现实的出路。     

刑讯逼供社会认知状况调查报告(下篇·警察卷)

通过问卷调查,了解警察群体对刑讯逼供的主观认知情况。调查结果显示,警察普遍能够正确掌握关于刑讯逼供的知识,但深层次心理上对刑讯逼供的宽容度仍然较高,因而易发生“知”与“意”割裂的情况;警察对已提出的刑讯逼供防治措施以及对短期内有效遏制刑讯逼供的信心明显不足;警察个人工作、学习等不同背景会对刑讯逼供之认知产生一定的影响。针对调查结果所显示的警察群体对于刑讯逼供的主观认知状况,建议在推进警察教育改革,加强警察队伍建设的同时,重视制度建设与基层工作,从多方面防止和遏制刑讯逼供的发生。     

遏制刑讯逼供的对策

刑讯逼供是反人权的酷刑表现,是我国传统法律文化的一大特征。文化的自然传承,使刑讯逼供成为必然。因此用侦查人员素质问题来解释刑讯逼供现象,或者仅仅呼吁人权保障,虽不无道理,却未免肤浅。刑事法治的基本要求是实行规则之治。遏止刑讯逼供,只能用制度改造法律文化,用制度保障犯罪嫌疑人、被告人人权。一、从建立健全制度入手,遏制警察使用刑讯逼供手段。在英美法系国家,如英国,建立了对非法取得证据的司法排除规则。法官如果发现控方提交的被告人有罪供述系警察用强制、压迫或其他非自愿的方法所获得的,就必须将该供述排除于法庭之外,而…     

侦查制度改革的法律文化思考

滥用侦查权力是学界提出的侦查制度中较为突出的问题,它在实践中表现为刑讯逼供、超期羁押等非法行使侦查权力的现象.对于如何改革,学界不乏一些激进的主张,其中以要求对警察权力进行严格控制和立即赋予嫌疑人沉默权为代表.通过运用法律文化为分析工具,可认为在中国目前的政治、经济、文化条件下,滥用侦查权力是局部的、技术层面的问题,可以通过系统内部不引起司法体制剧烈震动的措施逐步解决.而上述两种激进的主张在人、事、物等社会资源严重不足的情况下,都有虚置化的危险.     

Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana on Avidyā

The concept of avidyā is one of the central categories in the Advaita of Śaṇkara and Maṇḍana. Shifting the focus from māyā, interpreted either as illusion or as the divine power, this concept brings ignorance to the forefront in describing duality and bondage. Although all Advaitins accept avidyā as a category, its scope and nature is interpreted in multiple ways. Key elements in Maṇḍana’s philosophy include the plurality of avidyā, individual selves as its substrate and the Brahman as its field (viṣaya), and the distinction in avidyā between non-apprehension and misapprehension. A closer investigation shows that Maṇḍana is directly influenced by Bhartṛhari’s linguistic non-dualism in developing the concept of avidyā. This study also compares other key constituents such as vivartta and pariṇāma that are relevant to the analysis of avidyā. As the concept of counter-image (pratibimba) emerges as a distinct stream of Advaita subsequent to Maṇḍana, this study also compares the application of pratibimba in the writings of Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana.     

Unraveling the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kāvyaprakāśa</Emphasis>: Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa’s idiosyncratic sequence of topics in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candrāloka</Emphasis>

In his twelfth century alaṃkāraśāstra, the Candrāloka, Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa reverses the sequence of topics found in Mammaṭa’s Kāvyapr-akāśa, an earlier and immensely popular work. With such a structural revisionism, Jayadeva asserts the autonomy of his own work and puts forth an ambitious critique of earlier approaches to literary analysis. Jayadeva investigates the technical and aesthetic components of poetry in the first part of the Candrāloka, prior to his formal semantic investigations in the latter half of the text, thus suggesting that aesthetic evaluations of poetry beneficially inform scientific investigations of language. Jayadeva’s organization of his chapters on the semantic operations, moreover, intimates that the study of suggestive and metaphoric functions of language clarifies our understanding of denotation, which is conventionally understood to be the primary and direct path of verbal designation.     

Immigration,intermarriage and the changing face of Europe in the post war period

In this article we compare the propensity to intermarry of various migrant groups and their children who settled in Germany, France, England, Belgium and the Netherlands in the post-war period, using a wide range of available statistical data. We try to explain different intermarriage patterns within the framework of Alba and Nee's assimilation theory and pay special attention to the role of religion, colour and colonial background. We therefore compare colonial with non colonial migrants and within these categories between groups with ‘European’ (Christian) and non-European (Islam, Hinduism) religions. First of all, religion appears to be an important variable. Migrants whose faith has no tradition in Western Europe intermarry at a much lower rate than those whose religious backgrounds correspond with those that are common in the country of settlement. The rate of ethnic endogamous marriages in Western Europe are highest in Hindu and Muslim communities, often regardless if they came as guest workers or colonial migrants. Whereas differences in religion diminish the propensity to intermarry, colour or ‘racial’ differences on the other hand seem to be less important. This is largely explained by the pre-migration socialisation. Furthermore, the paper argues that the attention to institutions, as rightly advocated by Richard Alba and Victor Nee, needs a more refined and layered elaboration. Institutions, often as barriers to intermarriage, do not only emanate from the receiving society, but also—be it less formalized—within migrant communities. Especially religions and family systems, but also organized nationalist feelings, can have a profound influence on how migrants think about endogamy. Finally, strong pressures to assimilate, often through institutionalized forms of discrimination and stigmatization, not only produce isolation and frustrate assimilation (with resulting low intermarriage rates), but can also stimulate assimilation by 'passing' mechanisms. These factors, together with a more comparative perspective, are not completely ignored in the new assimilation theory, but—as this study of Western European intermarriage patterns stresses—deserve to be included more systematically in historical and social scientist analyses.     

Turning a Madhyamaka Trick: Reply to Huntington

Huntington (2007); argues that recent commentators (Robinson, 1957; Hayes, 1994; Tillemans, 1999; Garfield and Priest, 2002) err in attributing to Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti a commitment to rationality and to the use of argument, and that these commentators do violence to the Madhyamaka project by using rational reconstruction in their interpretation of Nāgārjuna’s and Candrakīrti’s texts. Huntington argues instead that mādhyamikas reject reasoning, distrust logic and do not offer arguments. He also argues that interpreters ought to recuse themselves from argument in order to be faithful to these texts. I demonstrate that he is wrong in all respects: Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti deploy arguments, take themselves to do so, and even if they did not, we would be wise to do so in commenting on their texts.     

The Supreme Array Scripture: A New Interpretation of the Title “Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra”

This article argues for a new interpretation of the Sanskrit compound gaṇḍa-vyūha as it is used in the common title of the Mahāyāna text the Gaṇḍavyūha-Sūtra.The author begins by providing a brief history of the sūtra’s appellations in Chinese and Tibetan sources. Next, the meanings of gaṇḍa (the problematic member of the compound) are explored. The author proposes that contemporary scholars have overlooked a meaning of gaṇḍa occurring in some compounds, wherein gaṇḍa can mean simply “great,” “big” or “massive.” This general sense is particularly common in the compound gaṇda-śaila (a “massive rock” or “boulder”) and is found in such texts as the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the Harivaṃśa and the Harṣacarita. Following the discussion of Gaṇḍa, the author examines the term vyūha (“array”) as it is used in the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra. The article concludes with the suggestion that a more appropriate translation of the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra would be “The Supreme array Scripture.”     

The Mūlāvidyā Controversy Among Advaita Vedāntins: was Śaṅkara Himself Responsible?

The concept of avidyā or ignorance is central to the Advaita Vedāntic position of Śȧnkara. The post-Śaṅkara Advaitins wrote sub-commentaries on the original texts of Śaṅkara with the intention of strengthening his views. Over the passage of time the views of these sub-commentators of Śaṅkara came to be regarded as representing the doctrine of Advaita particularly with regard to the concept of avidyā. Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati, a scholar-monk of Holenarsipur, challenged the accepted tradition through the publication of his work Mūlāvidyānirāsaḥ, particularly with regard to the avidyādoctrine. It was his contention that the post-Śaṅkara commentators brought their own innovations particularly on the nature of avidyā. This was the idea of mūlāvidyā or ‘root ignorance’, a positive entity which is the material cause of the phenomenal world. Saraswati argues that such an idea of mūlāvidyā is not to be found in the bhāṣyas (commentaries) of Śaṅkara and is foisted upon Śaṅkara. This paper attempts to show that although Śaṅkara may not have explicitly favoured such a view of mūlāvidyā, his lack of clarity on the nature of avidyā left enough scope for the post-Śaṅkara commentators to take such a position on avidyā.     

Evaluation of six presumptive tests for blood, their specificity, sensitivity, and effect on high molecular-weight DNA

Luminol, leuchomalachite green, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, Hemident, and Bluestar are all used as presumptive tests for blood. In this study, the tests were subjected to dilute blood (from 1:10,000 to 1:10,000,000), many common household substance, and chemicals. Samples were tested for DNA to determine whether the presumptive tests damaged or destroyed DNA. The DNA loci tested were D2S1338 and D19S433. Leuchomalachite green had a sensitivity of 1:10,000, while the remaining tests were able to detect blood to a dilution of 1:100,000. Substances tested include saliva, semen, potato, tomato, tomato sauce, tomato sauce with meat, red onion, red kidney bean, horseradish, 0.1 M ascorbic acid, 5% bleach, 10% cupric sulfate, 10% ferric sulfate, and 10% nickel chloride. Of all the substances tested, not one of the household items reacted with every test; however, the chemicals did. DNA was recovered and amplified from luminol, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, and Bluestar, but not from leuchomalachite green or Hemident.     

Illumination,Imagination, Creativity: Rājaśekhara,Kuntaka, and Jagannātha on <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pratibhā</Emphasis>

Sanskrit poeticians make the visionary faculty of pratibhā a necessary part of the professional poet’s make-up. The term has a pre-history in Bhartṛhari’s linguistic metaphysics, where it is used to explain the unitary perception of meaning. This essay examines the relation between pratibhā and possible theories of the imagination, with a focus on three unusual theoreticians—Rājaśekhara, Kuntaka, and Jagannātha Paṇḍita. Rājaśekhara offers an analysis of pratibhā that is heavily interactive, requiring the discerning presence of the bhāvaka listener or critic; he also positions pratibhā in relation to Bildung (vyutpatti) and practice. For Kuntaka, pratibhā, never an ex nihilo creation by a poet, serves as the basis for the peculiar forms of intensified insight and experience that constitute poetry; these may also involve the creative scrambling and re-articulation of the object in terms of its systemic composition. At times, Kuntaka’s pratibhā comes close to a strong notion of imaginative process. But the full-fledged thematization of the imagination, and of pratibhā as its support and mechanism, is best seen in the seventeenth-century debates preserved for us by Jagannātha. A link is suggested between the discourse of poetic imagination in Jagannātha and similar themes that turn up in Indo-Persian poets such as Bedil.     

Preventing Homelessness for System‐Involved Youth

Too many youth and young adults find themselves on the streets, couch‐surfing with friends, in emergency shelters or worse, after exiting the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. In some circumstances, youth have had court hearings until their exit from the legal system, but those hearings have not focused on long‐range plans of youth and emergencies youth may encounter. In other circumstances, there has been little or no planning prior to discharge, especially for young people who leave the juvenile justice system. Courts can and should prevent, alleviate or end youth homelessness for youth who appear before them through strategies that are enumerated in the recently‐passed NCJFCJ resolution. This article expounds on three of these strategies – coordinating transition and re‐entry plans, insisting on effective legal representation of youth, and utilizing sound judicial leadership. It also describes the concurrent efforts of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice and the American Bar Association's Homeless Youth Legal Network to remove legal barriers and improve outcomes for youth and young adults experiencing homelessness.     

Best practices for structuring a family court parenting plan evaluation under the 2022 AFCC Guidelines

Evaluation appointment orders provide enforceable scaffolding for conduct of family court parenting plan evaluations, and use of the evaluator's reports, feedback, file, and testimony. Unlike a contract, a stipulated or adjudicated appointment order is directly enforceable by the family court. It unambiguously positions the evaluator as the family court's appointee – answerable directly to the court and, in some jurisdictions, protected by quasi-judicial immunity from damages claims. A well-crafted appointment order governs the roles and expectations of the court, the evaluator, the parties, the lawyers, and the collateral witnesses. An appointment order mandates the legal duties, rights, powers, and responsibilities of the professionals, the parties, and the collateral witnesses. At minimum, an appointment order articulates the legal basis for the appointment, the purpose and scope of the evaluation, compensation of evaluator, and the duty of the parties to participate in the process. A written evaluation protocol or procedures statement discloses in advance the methods of investigation and assessment that the evaluator intends to use. Together, the appointment order and written protocol help the evaluator, lawyers, parents, and judge manage the complexity of the evaluation process.