The Violence of Non-Violence: Law and War in Iraq

The article examines the relation between war making in Iraq and juridical reforms aimed at instituting democracy, or what the article coins juridico-democracy. It is argued that a certain aspiration for global peace, global security, and non-violence to be instituted by juridico-democracy accompanies the war against Iraq. Rather than leave this aspiration intact, the article examines the extent to which this aspiration itself is conducive to the war's violence. The associations between violence and non-violence, war and peace, conflict and security are examined not as oppositions, but as cycles, where nonviolence, peace, and security are performative of more violence.     

Employee Rights on Transfer of Undertakings: Italian Legislation and EC Law

Abstract:  The authors examine the conformity with Community law of the recent regulatory changes introduced to the Italian legal system regarding the safeguarding of employees' rights during transfers of undertakings. The investigation takes place on the assumption that the principle of primacy of Community law applies, which first and foremost means that it must be verified whether the domestic legislation in question complies with the interpretation given to the relative provisions of Community law. According to the authors' opinion, domestic law could be judged as non-conforming to the interpretation that has been given by the Court of Justice, so that the question may be brought before the Court of Justice ex Article 226 EC or by recourse to the preliminary ruling procedure under Article 234 EC, which reveal cases of incorrect implementation of the Directive.     

The law and the public's health: a study of infectious disease law in the United States

Law plays crucial roles in the field of public health, from defining the power and jurisdiction of health agencies, to influencing the social norms that shape individual behavior. Despite its importance, public health law has been neglected. Over a decade ago, the Institute of Medicine issued a report lamenting the state of public health administration, generally, and calling, in particular, for a revision of public health statutes. The Article examines the current state of public health law. To help create the conditions in which people can be healthy, public health law must reflect an understanding of how public health agencies work to promote health, as well as the political and social contexts in which these agencies operate. The authors first discuss three prevailing ways in which the determinants of health are conceptualized, and the political and social problems each model tends to create for public health efforts. The analysis then turns to the core functions of public health, emphasizing how law furthers public health work. The Article reports the results of a fifty-state survey of communicable disease control law, revealing that few states have systematically reformed their laws to reflect contemporary medical and legal developments. The Article concludes with specific guidelines for law reform.     

行政强制执行时间限制与拒绝给付禁止之制度解析——评《行政强制法》第43条

《行政强制法》第43条规定关涉的行政强制执行时间限制与拒绝给付禁止之规定透射出这样的利益博弈:公民权的保障与行政权的限缩、个人利益的凸显与公共利益的隐退。由此足以解读立法者设置该条的旨意。该种立法内容设计存在正当性瑕疵:从宏观上来看,存在与该法同一章节预置规则相冲突之嫌;从微观来看,内容设计之科学性不足。基于此,行政强制执行时间与手段限制的革新应以"抑公扬私"的立法理念为导向探求行政强制执行时间的限度;从法律依据、适用条件、程序设置等方面规制拒绝给付制度。     

The emergence of self-managing schools in South Africa: Devolution of authority or disguised centralism?

This paper considers the devolution of authority to public school governing bodies (SGBs) in the context of self-managing schools. It examines the nature of the powers, functions and duties assigned to them in legislation and asks whether the manner in which South African legislation provides for the devolution of authority and power represents authentic devolution of power, or whether it can be characterised as centralisation in disguise. The question is answered by examining, against the backdrop of general and education-specific legal provisions, two examples of functions of SGBs, namely those to determine language and admission policies.     

Proportionality, Territorial Occupation, and Enabled Terrorism

Some collateral harms affecting enemy civilians during a war are agentially mediated – for example, the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 sparked an insurgency which killed thousands of Iraqi civilians. I call these ‘collaterally enabled harms.’ Intuitively, we ought to discount the weight that these harms receive in the ‘costs’ column of our ad bellum proportionality calculation. But I argue that an occupying military force with de facto political authority has a special obligation to provide minimal protection to the civilian population. As a result, when an occupying military force collaterally enables a harm affecting the civilian population, the weight that the harm ought to receive in the ad bellum proportionality calculation is unaffected by the fact that the harm is agentially mediated – it ought to be weighed at least as heavily as those harms that the occupying force collaterally commits directly. As a result, satisfying the ad bellum proportionality constraint in wars of territorial occupation is more difficult than it has been thought.     

Enabling responsible public genomics

As scientific understandings of genetics advance, researchers require increasingly rich datasets that combine genomic data from large numbers of individuals with medical and other personal information. Linking individuals' genetic data and personal information precludes anonymity and produces medically significant information--a result not contemplated by the established legal and ethical conventions governing human genomic research. To pursue the next generation of human genomic research and commerce in a responsible fashion, scientists, lawyers, and regulators must address substantial new issues, including researchers' duties with respect to clinically significant data, the challenges to privacy presented by genomic data, the boundary between genomic research and commerce, and the practice of medicine. This Article presents a new model for understanding and addressing these new challenges--a "public genomics" premised on the idea that ethically, legally, and socially responsible genomics research requires openness, not privacy, as its organizing principle. Responsible public genomics combines the data contributed by informed and fully consenting information altruists and the research potential of rich datasets in a genomic commons that is freely and globally available. This Article examines the risks and benefits of this public genomics model in the context of an ambitious genetic research project currently under way--the Personal Genome Project. This Article also (i) demonstrates that large-scale genomic projects are desirable, (ii) evaluates the risks and challenges presented by public genomics research, and (iii) determines that the current legal and regulatory regimes restrict beneficial and responsible scientific inquiry while failing to adequately protect participants. The Article concludes by proposing a modified normative and legal framework that embraces and enables a future of responsible public genomics.     

Safe or sorry? Rights,responsibilities and retribution—the new three Rs of education in New Zealand?

A school is a microcosm of society and thus is subject to the problems existing within society generally. The rights and responsibilities of persons outside the school gates apply within the school also. The school environment is unique in that not only is a young person compelled to attend but he or she must spend a great deal of each day within the school's jurisdiction. May it then be argued that there is an enhanced responsibility of schools towards the emotional and physical welfare of their students in relation to matters within their control? This article will examine whether a New Zealand public school has a responsibility that extends further than a moral duty for the safety of its students. Particularly it will consider a school's potential liability in respect of the various forms of student‐to‐student bullying and harassment. It examines the potential for an action against a school under human rights legislation, at common law, and in criminal law.     

The future of public health law

Developments in medicine and constitutional law dictate modification of public health legislation in the United States. Traditionally overlooked by legislators, present public health laws provide inadequate decision-making criteria and inappropriate procedures for dealing with issues. Revised legislation should provide health care officials and agencies with the tools to balance individual rights against public health necessities. This Article makes four recommendations for legislative reform: (1) remove artificial legislative distinction between venereal and other communicable diseases; (2) provide criteria defining "public health necessity" to limit discretionary exercise of police power by health officials; (3) provide strong confidentiality protections in the collection and storage of public health information; (4) empower public health officials to select from a graded series of less restrictive alternatives in dealing with public health problems.     

对我国民事申请执行期间制度的初步检讨——以《民事诉讼法》第219条的修改为对象的分析

于2007年10月28日修改后的民诉法第215条将当事人向法院申请执行的期间统一规定为二年,从而摈弃了修改前的民诉法区分不同性质的执行当事人而设不同的申请执行期间之立法范式,但这并不意味着此次修改有实质的进步。这是因为从诉讼法理上讲,申请强制执行乃当事人对代表国家之法院所享有的公法上的请求权,是当事人行使诉权的具体体现,不应有期间的限制。此外,申请执行期间制度之设立客观上亦损害了民事实体法所确立的诉讼时效制度的完整适用,造成了民事程序法与民事实体法之间不必要的冲突。从根本上讲,我国民诉法关于申请执行期间制度的设立实乃基于积淀20余年的错误认识之不正确立法,应予以废除。     

Reforming the Market or the State? Article 30 and the European Constitution: Economic Freedom and Political Rights

This article takes as its starting-point the relationship between Article 30 of 30 of the EC Treaty (general rule on the free movement of goods) and the European Constitution. On the one hand, it examines Article 30 in the context of the constitutional dilemmas facing the European Union, particularly the balance of powers to be defined between Member States and the Union, between public power and the market, and between the legitimacy of Community law vis à vis that of national law. On the other hand, it reviews different conceptions of the European Economic Constitution by analysing the role of Article 30 in the review of market regulation.     

Law and public health: beyond emergency preparedness

This Article examines three questions: What is public health? What is public health law? What roles can lawyers play in public health? It first describes the breadth of public health, highlighting six trends shaping its future: social determinants of health; synergy between medicine and public health; shifts in focus from external (e.g., environmental and social) to internal (behavioral) risks to health; federalization of public health law; globalization of health risks and responses; and bioterrorism. Because the domains of law that apply to public health are equally broad, the Article next offers a conceptual framework for identifying the types of laws most suitable to different public health problems. Finally, the role of lawyers in the applied field of public health law is examined, first to encourage attention to law's effect on health, even laws having little apparent relationship to health; and second, to recognize that laws intended to achieve specific health outcomes may affect broader legal principles. Lawyers have a unique role to play in ensuring that the legal principles used to promote health also preserve justice.     

Casting Aside Clanking Medieval Chains: Prerogative,Statute and Article 50 after the EU Referendum

This article confronts the controversies surrounding Article 50 by analysing the relationship between statute and prerogative in the UK. The piece focuses on domestic constitutional issues and suggests a new way of classifying the relationship between statute and prerogative into two types falling under ‘the abeyance principle’ or ‘the frustration principle’. The abeyance principle means that where statute and prerogative overlap, the prerogative goes into abeyance. The frustration principle means that where statute and prerogative give rise to potential inconsistencies, but do not overlap, the prerogative cannot be used inconsistently with the intention of parliament as expressed in the relevant legislation. It then argues that Article 50 has the status of primary or ‘primary‐equivalent’ legislation which could justify applying the abeyance principle. This would mean that the trigger power would be exercised on statutory authority rather than through prerogative powers. If the courts are unable thus to construe the relevant legislation it argues EU law requires the courts to bridge the gap. Alternatively, if the abeyance principle is not applicable, it argues the frustration principle could apply but the circumstances in this litigation fall outside it. In the further alternative, EU law could require the frustration principle itself to be set aside in this case.     

论转型时期法律的控权使命

法律是社会利益资源的分配书.在社会利益资源总量特定的情况下,为了充分维护普通民众的利益和权利,必须控制国家公共权力部门的权力,防止因其滥用而侵犯民众的权利.法律既维权(利),又控权(力),是"双刃剑".良法和法治的核心和基础是充分体现和维护广大民众的权利,而控制国家公共机关的权力则更是其中的关键.中国的经济体制转轨和治国方略转型过程的实质就在于逐步控制权力,否则改革寸步难行.随着改革不断深入,控权与反控权的斗争会愈加激烈.必须高度重视和强化转型时期法律的控权使命.     

论经济法制定与实施的外部性及其内在化

经济法的制定与实施常常给他人带来非自愿的成本或收益 ,本文称之为经济法的外部性。经济法的外部性 ,根源于经济法的本位利益———公共利益具有显著的经济性与受益对象的不确定性等特征。经济法的外部性 ,一方面使经济活动中的外部性不能得到有效克服 ;另一面使经济法自身的价值受到了不利影响。内在化经济法之外部性 ,须用类似产权界定的方式 ,明确界定中央与地方的经济立法权、国务院各部门的立法权 ,完善经济立法程序制度 ,建立经济立法损害补偿制度 ;须在完善经济法公共实施制度的同时 ,完善经济法私人实施制度 ,建立公共实施与私人实施相互配合 ,相互补充的经济法实施机制     

Seeing War as Criminal: Peace Activist Views and Critical Criminology

A hallmark of critical criminology is its critique of the traditional definition of crime. For decades, critical scholars have proposed humanistic definitions of crime that bring state violence into the purview of academic criminology—although outside of critical criminology this is a matter of great contentiousness. This study investigates the views of those involved in peace activism, but not in any way associated with academic criminology, about the application of the term ‘crime’ to war, specifically the recent US war on Iraq. Given that there is no existing research on this subject, the article also examines how peace activists define crime generally and whether they believe those responsible for the war should be regarded as war criminals. Not surprisingly, semi‐structured interviews with 13 anti‐war activists reveal significant support for elements of critical criminological definitions of crime but an unexpected concern on the part of some that the application of the term ‘crime’ to war could be counterproductive in efforts to stop state violence. The rationales for this concern, as well as those for other issues addressed in the study, are largely presented in the interviewees’ own words.     

How research ethics' protections can contribute to public policy: the case of community treatment orders

Though community treatment orders (CTOs) were first used in 1986 in Australia, debate about their clinical and ethical merits continues even today. For some, the benefits of reduced frequency and duration of involuntary hospitalizations are believed to adequately outweigh the harms of restricted liberties in community living. For others, however, such benefits are believed to be achievable by simply arranging integrated, devoted community resources sans any threat of forced re-hospitalization. In response to this enduring controversy, this article examines the ethical merits of community orders using a novel approach. “Novel” because the examination is based on research ethics and its foundational principles.When hospital and community clinicians, family members, consumer/survivors, and advocacy groups discussed the idea of amending Ontario's mental health legislation to permit CTOs in the late 1990s, evidence of their effects and efficacy was very limited. Moreover, an order was characterized much like standard pharmacological or medical therapies because the person or an appropriate substitute decision maker's consent was necessary to authorize the order or make it valid. These two factors prompted this retrospective analysis: if CTOs - as a public policy initiative - had been treated like most other promising therapies, would any different ethics-related concerns have been raised that, in turn, would have benefited the public debate and the legislature's decisions? In other words, if respected safeguards that apply to new drugs and medical devices had applied to CTOs, would anything have changed?     

论征收中公共利益的验证标准与司法审查

公共利益原则是不动产征收中的重要原则,也是规制征收权的基本手段。公共利益具有不确定性,立法上无法对其作出准确界定,因此,应当确立一些具有可操作性的具体验证标准,以考量不动产征收是否符合公共利益原则的要求。同时,为使公共利益的验证标准发挥作用,应当构建一种有效运作的动态机制,即建立公共利益司法审查制度,赋予法院对征收之公益目的性以司法审查权和积极审查职责。     

环境公益诉讼之诉前鉴定机制研究

我国新《民事诉讼法》第五十五条在立法层面确立了＂民事公益诉讼程序＂,其中包含的环境公益诉讼在我国尚处于起步阶段,诸多配套性的程序规则和单行立法均有待完善。推行诉前鉴定机制,对于推进环境公益诉讼制度的发展具有重要的现实意义,但是,这又需要以诉前鉴定程序的完善和规范为前提。因此,必须着力解决好三个方面的问题：明确诉前鉴定程序启动的决定主体;规范诉前鉴定意见之证据能力和证明力的判断程序;明确诉前鉴定费用的负担规则。