国人对民决团在英美法庭中的功能的误解

民决团仅仅负责事实审,决定事实问题;法官则负责法律审,决定法律问题。这个认识的错误在于：普通法中没有“事实审”、“法律审”的术语,这是国人杜撰出来的。普通法事实发展出来法律,法律是事实的积累。民决团事实上既决定法律又决定事实。它在美国,具有最高权力,大于总统、国会和最高法庭。另外民决团在美国7个州还决定量刑,在有死刑的州,还决定死刑。事实与法律的区分和混合,有助于法官将复杂问题交给民决团决定并在上诉中捍卫民决团的最高权力;也有助于法官对法律问题下命令、进行违宪性审查。总之,理解民决团的最高权力,是理解普通法的关键。     

Catches to the right to be forgotten,looking from an administrative law perspective to data processing by public authorities

Public authorities process personal data. In most cases these data are processed because there is a legal obligation to do so, or because processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. The right to be forgotten or to erasure will, in this situation, play a limited role in the protection of the rights of the individual. There is even a public interest in maintaining archives, thus in not forgetting. At the same time, the possibility exists that not forgetting might be more valuable for the protection of rights of data subjects then forgetting. In the case of data processing by public authorities, it is important that the processing is based on a law. A close watch should be held on the grounds that public authorities use to justify the processing. As the right to be forgotten will play a limited role in the protection of the rights of data subjects in the case of data processed by public authorities, it is important to emphasize the right of access and rectification of data. It is therefore essential that the controller is transparent to the public with regard to the processing of data.     

Advance directives and the persistent vegetative state in Victoria: a human rights perspective

With advances in medical technology, it is now possible to sustain the life of a person in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) until a decision is made to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment. Who makes that decision? Under the Medical Treatment Act 1988 (Vic) there is no legally enforceable right for a person to choose, in advance, what intervention that person will and will not accept if he or she ends up in a PVS. The best that can be achieved is that a person can appoint an agent who is empowered to refuse medical treatment on the person's behalf in the event of incompetence. It is suggested that this mechanism ignores two fundamental human rights: self-determination and the inherent right to dignity. This article proposes the development of an advance directive mechanism that provides for a person to refuse, in advance, specified intervention, thereby respecting fundamental human rights and alleviating the existing need for an agent to second-guess a person's desires and best interests.     

Democracy,Subsidiarity, and Citizenship in the ‘European Commonwealth’

Is there a ‘constitutional moment’in contemporary Europe? What if anything is the constitution of theEuropean Union; what kind of polity is the Union? The suggestionoffered is that there is a legally constituted order, and that asuitable term to apply to it is a‘commonwealth’, comprising a commonwealthof ‘post-sovereign’ states. Is it a democraticcommonwealth, and can it be? Is there sufficiently ademos or ‘people’ for democracy to be possible?If not democratic, what is it? Monarchy, oligarchy, ordemocracy, or a ‘mixed constitution’? Argued: thereis a mixed constitution containing a reasonableelement of democratic rule. The value of democracy isthen explored in terms of individualistic versusholistic evaluation and instrumental versus intrinsicvalue. Subsidiarity can be considered in a similarlight, suggestively in terms of forms of democracyappropriate to different levels of self-government.The conclusion is that there is no absolute democraticdeficit in the European commonwealth.

     

Rewriting Roe v. Wade

Presented in this essay are suggestions for rewriting Roe vs. Wade, the case that resulted in the establishment of a constitutional right to abortion. Essentially, the argument is 1 of equal protection. It is suggested that abortion be viewed as presenting a problem that might be termed "the law of samaritanism" -- the law regarding obligations imposed on certain individuals to provide assistance to others. In American law it is a deeply rooted principle that an individual is ordinarily not required to volunteer assistance to another individual who is in danger or in need of aid. The argument presented maintains that if a pregnant woman is required to carry the fetus to term and deliver it, then she is being compelled to be a Good Samaritan. It is argued further that if the generally limited scope of obligations of samaritanism under current law are considered, and the special nature of the burdens imposed on pregnant women by laws forbidding abortion are also considered, the obvious conclusion is that the equal protection clause forbids imposition of these burdens on pregnant women. The argument is developed in a lengthy form and calls for an extended discussion of the law of samaritanism. The uniqueness of the abortion case also creates problems as the equal protection argument is approached, and an approach to equal protection questions is sketched.     

中药复方专利侵权诉讼中公知技术抗辩研究——兼评“天士力诉万成侵犯专利权”案

公知技术抗辩是专利侵权诉讼中被告保护自己利益的有效手段。用以抗辩的公知技术是指专利申请日之前已有的、处于公知状态的技术,但不必是可自由使用的技术。公知技术抗辩是否成立的判断应采用"二者比较创造说"。在既符合等同侵权又存在公知技术抗辩的情况下,应当优先适用公知技术抗辩。     

A statistical approach to drug sampling: a case study.

In many countries it is left to the discretion of the court to accept or reject conclusions based on sampling procedures as applied to the total drug exhibit. As an alternative to this subjective approach, a statistical basis is presented using binomial and hypergeometric distributions to determine a lower limit for the proportion of units in a population which contains a drug, at a given confidence level. A method for calculating the total weight of a drug present in a population within a given confidence interval is also presented. In the event of no failures (all units sampled contain a drug), a sample size of six or seven units is generally sufficient to state that a proportion of at least 0.70 of the population contains a drug at a confidence level of at least 90%. When failures do occur in the sample, point estimation is used as the basis for selecting the appropriate sample size.     

INCORPORATING ATTACHMENT ASSESSMENT INTO CUSTODY EVALUATIONS: THE CASE OF A 2‐YEAR‐OLD AND HER PARENTS

Attachment with parents is central to a child's development. It is well established that the quality of this attachment in early childhood is a strong predictor of developmental and psychological functioning throughout the life span. One of the primary issues in custody evaluations is assessing the quality of the child's attachment to each parent and the parents' capacity to foster security and to consider what this might mean for short‐ and medium‐term decisions about their care. The nature of attachment measures is summarized, and the combined use of three attachment‐caregiving instruments in a custody evaluation is illustrated through the case of a toddler whose parents were engaged in a high‐conflict divorce. The case study demonstrates how, in addition to standard clinical observations, including a set of attachment‐based instruments with a standardized psychological test battery provided information critical to a recommendation for custody and parent visitation.     

Presumptions in Legal Argumentation

In this paper a theoretical definition that helps to explain how the logical structure of legal presumptions is constructed by applying the Carneades model of argumentation developed in artificial intelligence. Using this model, it is shown how presumptions work as devices used in evidentiary reasoning in law in the event of a lack of evidence to assist a chain of reasoning to move forward to prove or disprove a claim. It is shown how presumptions work as practical devices that may be useful in cases in which there is insufficient evidence to prove the claim to an appropriate standard of proof.     

The Journalist in the Courtroom

"Proceedings in all courts shall be open to the public." Such is the content of Article 157 of the Constitution of the USSR. The principle that judicial proceedings are to be open to the public—a principle that is contained in the nation's highest legislative act—is of enormous practical significance. The fact that judicial proceedings are open to the public is a guarantee that procedural norms are scrupulously observed in the process of examining the materials of a case, thereby substantially reducing the probability of judicial error. It goes without saying that the further improvement of social oversight over the work of law enforcement agencies is a necessary condition to the democratization of public life. What is more, the openness of judicial proceedings to public scrutiny is a powerful means for the legal education of citizens and of forming a truly socialist legal conscience.     

论和解合同

和解合同是当事人约定相互让步,以终止争执或排除法律关系不明确之状态的合同。构成和解合同,第一须有争执或法律关系不明确的状态的存在;第二须有终止争执或排除法律关系不明确状态的意思;第三须有相互让步。和解合同不必定为债权合同,而是有可能为物权合同或准物权合同;和解合同不必定为双务合同;和解合同为不要式合同。和解合同的典型内容为确定效力。     

A Criminal Injustice System? Sex Offender Suspects and Defendants

The purpose of this paper is to open up a discussion regarding the potential shift from the presumption of innocence to a presumption of guilt regarding those suspected of or charged with sexual offending. It is acknowledged that further investigation is needed and it is hoped that this discussion is one of many. The crux of this paper therefore is that sex offender suspects and defendants potentially find themselves in a criminal injustice system. Whilst the focus is predominantly on ‘victims’ (usually female) and people suspected or charged with sexual offending (usually male) within the criminal justice system in England and Wales the concerns articulated here are not confined to this context. For example such concerns are echoed in relation to the potential injustices occurring on American campuses. This demonstrates that this is a domestic and international situation and a situation that extends beyond the criminal justice system. We argue that what is occurring at home and abroad has to be contextualised with regard to public, media and official attitudes and approaches to ‘victims’, suspects, defendants, sex, sexual consent, sexual offending and a subsequent shift from the presumption of innocence to a presumption of guilt. It is argued that not only is the presumption of innocence undermined by the presumption of guilt regarding suspects and defendants in cases of sexual offending, it is also undermined in England and Wales by the victim personal statement (VPS). The VPS contains and promotes the idea that there is a ‘victim’ and ‘offender’ before this has been legally established in a court of law. These assumptions embodied within the VPS weaken the principle and practice of the presumption of innocence. The safeguard of the presumption of innocence is potentially under threat and the result is an even greater potential for miscarriages of justice and wrongful convictions.     

Impacts of Monetary,Fiscal and Exchange Rate Policies on Output in China: A Var Approach

Applying the VAR model and using the interest rate as a monetary policy variable, we find that in the long run, output in China responds negatively to a shock to the interest rate, the real exchange rate, government debt, or the inflation rate, and it reacts positively to a shock to government deficits or lagged own output. When real M2 is chosen as a monetary policy variable, long-term output in China responds positively to a shock to real M2 or lagged own output, and it reacts negatively to a shock to the real exchange rate, government debt, or government deficits. Its response to a shock to the inflation rate is negative when government debt is used and is positive when government deficits are considered. In the short run, fiscal policy is more important than monetary policy in three out of four cases. In the long run, monetary policy is more influential than fiscal policy in three out of four cases. Therefore, the government may consider conducting monetary and fiscal policies differently in the short run and long run. The government needs to be cautious in pursuing deficit spending as its long-term impacts depend on the monetary variable employed. The policy of maintaining a relatively stable exchange rate is appropriate as the depreciation of the Yuan may hurt the economy in the short run.     

Should the EU Protect Democracy and the Rule of Law inside Member States?

Against the background of recent developments in Hungary, the article discusses the question whether the European Union ought to play a role in protecting liberal democracy in Member States. First, it is argued that the EU has the authority to do so, both in a broad normative sense and in a narrower legal sense (though the latter is more likely to be disputed). The article then asks whether the EU has the capacity to establish a supranational militant democracy; here it is argued that at the moment both appropriate legal instruments and plausible political strategies are missing. To remedy this situation, the article proposes a new democracy watchdog, analogous to, but more powerful than, the Venice Commission. Finally, it is asked whether EU interventions would provoke a nationalist backlash. There is insufficient evidence to decide this question, but the danger of such a backlash probably tend to be overestimated.     

Subculture,Gang Involvement,and Delinquency: A Study of Incarcerated Youth in China

The purpose of this study is to examine youth gang phenomena in China employing a two-step approach. The first step is to apply the delinquent subculture perspective to the explanation of variation in gang involvement; the second is to investigate the relationship between youth gang involvement and self-reported delinquency. The data for the study were collected from face-to-face interviews conducted with adjudicated youth offenders incarcerated in a province-run juvenile prison. Structural equation modeling is used to assess the direct and indirect effects of delinquent subculture exposure and gang involvement on three outcome variables of delinquency. The primary finding is that exposure to a subculture of violence is indeed a significant predictor of gang involvement. Importantly, gang involvement is significantly correlated with both violent offending and drug offending.     

Case commentary: anonymisation is not exoneration

This case commentary analyses a ruling that any use of information given in confidence for unconsented purposes is a breach of confidence capable of supporting a legal action (even if the information has previously been anonymised and aggregated). The ruling is being appealed. It is argued that, while it is reasonable to delineate a narrower duty of confidentiality (not to disclose personal information, against breach of which anonymisation protects), this must be within a broad duty of confidence (not to use private information, which using anonymous information can still breach). Thus, the ruling is fundamentally correct in holding that anonymisation does not permit information obtained in confidence to be used for unconsented purposes. This, however, implies that information obtained for a patient's treatment may not be used lawfully for medical research or NHS management purposes without consent, even if it is anonymised. Such a consequence is unacceptable as a matter of public policy. However, it is equally unacceptable to seek an exemption through the idea that patients give "implied consent" for medical research and NHS management purposes. It is also unacceptable to maintain that the public interest in medical research (regardless of its aims) justifies unconsented use of information obtained in confidence, even if the information is anonymised. The way in which Section 33 of the Data Protection Act 1998 creates an exemption to its Second Data Protection Principle provides a ready-made model for a public interest based exemption for medical research and statistical NHS purposes.     

宪法审查的穷尽法律救济原则

"穷尽法律救济原则"是各国宪法审查制度普遍采行的启动要件,它在集中式审查模式中主要存在于宪法诉愿程序中,而在分散式审查模式中主要体现为"穷尽行政救济"。然两类规范形态具有相通的双层结构规范内涵:在判断是否已穷尽相关法律救济之后,对于未穷尽者,进一步判断其是否属于具有普遍性意义或者会产生重大且无法避免之损害的例外情形,以谨慎决定宪法审查是否可提前。这既体现出宪法审查的备位性,也说明备位性须受到人权保障之价值目标的限制。     

犯罪客体是刑事违法的最高价值标准

犯罪客体并不具有哲学意义上客体（对象）的含义。它是生活行为是否违反刑法的价值标准。它的内容是刑法法益。它派生出客观构成要件,并对客观构成要件具有解释功能。因为生活行为符合客观构成要件就刑事违法,构成要件符合性必须先形式判断,后实质判断,而犯罪客体就是实质判断的价值标准,所以犯罪客体是刑事违法的最高价值标准。根据罪刑法定原则,犯罪客体必须法定。     

The new biology and the question of personhood: implications for abortion

Opposition to abortion is based in part on the assumption that personhood is achieved at or shortly after fertilization of the egg. This interpretation of personhood arises from a contemporary application of the ancient doctrine of preformationism, a doctrine which holds that there is a preformed individual, in an ontological sense, within the developing entity. The assumption that the fertilized egg is unique in its capacity to develop into a human being is at least in part responsible for the opinions of those opposed to abortion. Yet, the uniqueness of the zygote in its capacity to develop into an adult organism is qualified by the discovery that development may be possible in a number of other ways. Consideration of the phenomena of cloning, parthenogenesis and chimerism can relieve moral ambiguity about abortion and may reduce opposition to that practice.     

中国传统司法思维模式的文化分析

中国古代法官在审判过程中,为追求实质正义-无讼与和谐,往往会舍法而取情理,依情理进行审判。这种法律思维模式与西方的严格形式主义相对,被称为实质性思维模式,它是中国古代审判文化的一个特质。其产生的文化根源是中国人对和谐、无讼理想社会的追求及越过事物的形式追求实质内容的思维模式,以实质性思维处理案件亦可达至息讼止争的社会目的,但这种思维模式也造成了中国人法治观念的淡漠,同时阻碍了中国法治社会的建立。然而,无论如何它作为中国传统法律文化的一部分又是无法抛弃的,只能期待我们现代人对其进行创造性的转化。