我国社区矫正执行体制的反思与建构——以推进刑事执行一体化为视角

刑事执行一体化是我国当前司法改革与刑事理论探讨的热门问题，也是我国刑事理论学界居主流的观点。在刑事执行一体化的国际趋势的背景下，我国刑事执行一体化改革势在必行，刑事执行一体化的改革一实践，必将在一定程度上影响社区矫正执行体制。立足于我国现行社区矫正执行体制的立法冲突和现存问题，建议从社区矫正执行主体定位、机构与队伍建设和制度建设三个方面建构我国的社区矫正执行体制。     

农村社区建设的财政困境与对策研究

目前,农村社区建设的主要困难就是资金不足。资金不足主要体现在财政转移支付投入面宽量少,执行上存在制度漏洞;农村乡镇以及村屯自身能力不足,无法通过自身收入充分行使建设农村社区并保障其正常运行的职能;村民自筹困难重重等方面。对此,本文提出以下建议:设立农村社区建设专项资金,建立监督体制;采取不同形式,培养并提高乡镇和村屯自身建设能力;组建专门的农村社区管理委员会,对农村社区建设进行系统规划;以税收优惠等手段鼓励企业等社会力量投入农村社区建设。     

宽严相济刑事政策定位及实现的路径选择

在司法领域,政策只能通过法律形式体现,法官的活动只应服从法律,而宽严相济刑事政策具有行政政策的特征,因此这一政策应当是立法政策,不应直接作为具体政策指导司法实践。将宽严相济作为司法政策存在一些弊端,因其不具有执行的标准,且政策的灵活性容易造成为执行政策而执行政策,难以避免权力的干扰。由于政策主体同样存在利益,因此应当有制度的约束,宽严相济刑事政策的样态应当是制度和法律。制度创新的路径选择有自上而下的强制性变迁和自下而上诱致性变迁。宽严相济刑事政策是自上而下制定的,其实施更应注重自下而上的实践探索。     

社区矫正制度在我国本土化之管见

社区矫正是当今重要的刑罚执行方式。它与监狱矫正相对称,在西方发达国家广为适用,并在罪犯改造方面取得了良好的效果。我国近年来也引入了该制度,并在一些省市展开试点。本文拟就社区矫正制度在我国本土化为议题,论证其重要性并试图从立法和矫正方法等方面探讨其在我国本土化的构建。     

试论我国社区矫正法律制度的完善

在我国社区矫正工作由上海试点到全面铺开的情形下,充分认识我国社区矫正制度存在的主要问题;从构建非监禁刑执行和社区矫正的科学体制、提高社区矫正刑在刑罚体系中的地位、实行全程化网络监管机制等方面,探讨如何完善我国刑事诉讼体制下作为非监禁刑执行方式的社区矫正法律制度。     

多边主义概念探析

多边主义是关于国际合作的实践和理论。作为一种制度形式多边主义具有四个本质特征:不可分割性、普遍的行为原则、扩散的互惠性以及解决争端。当今时代,随着全球市民社会的重建和非政府组织的兴起,传统的国家中心多边主义正受到"自下而上"力量的挑战,多边主义的概念相应扩展。     

公众参与和中国法治变革的动力模式

三十年法制改革的动力,从整体上看来自于自上而下的政府推动。在法制改革的初期阶段,这种政府主导、自上而下的动力模式有其现实合理性。但从法制变革,特别是行政法治改革语境看,自上而下动力模式在逻辑上和现实上也有明显的局限,存在着动力衰减的现实可能性。为了使法治改革在秩序和变革的平衡中获得可持续的发展动力,应当引入自上而下和自下而上这双重推动力。     

社区矫正人员帮扶现状、困境与对策调查研究

社区矫正是我国司法体制改革和工作机制改革的重要举措,社区矫正人员帮扶是社区矫正的重要内容之一,但在社区矫正研究领域缺乏针对社区矫正帮扶的分析。在这项研究中,课题组采用深度访谈方法对上海市社区矫正人员帮扶进行调查,从经济困难、重新就业、家庭关系、社会适应、心理健康五个方面分析了社区矫正人员帮扶的主要内容,并且发现该项工作面临着民众缺乏理解、社会保障制度障碍、重新就业制度限制与社会志愿资源紧张四个方面的困境,最后从转变"重刑主义"思想、创新社会保障制度、改革重新就业制度与扩充社会志愿力量四个方面提出了相应的促进对策。     

案件请示制度合理的一面——从最高人民法院角度展开的思考

现有对案件请示这一非正式制度的评价,主要是以法治原则为判断标准,围绕上下级法院关系来展开,但缺少较为细致的经验讨论。实际上,案件请示不仅包括自下而上的请示方式,还包括自上而下的调阅方式。不同类型的案件请示效果也有很大不同。案件请示制度反映出复杂的紧密交织在一起的法院内部和外部权力关系。要深刻理解这一制度,必须将其放在整个社会背景和政法体制之中加以改良。     

社区矫正体制机制创新之思考

社区矫正体制和机制创新，是社区矫正在探索我国刑罚执行制度改革中的重要使命。社区矫正工作体制是指，社区矫正机构设置、领导隶属关系和管理权限等方面的体系、制度、方式方法等的总称。近年来，各试点地区根据“两院两部”的《通知》要求，经过实践探索，基本形成了党委、政府统一领导，司法行政机关组织实施，相关部门协作配合，司法所具体执行的社区矫正工作领导体制。     

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.     

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.”     

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.     

Monks Who Have Sex: Pārājika Penance in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms

In the study of Buddhism it is commonly accepted that a monk or nun who commits a pārājika offence is permanently and irrevocably expelled from the Buddhist monastic order. This view is based primarily on readings of the Pāli Vinaya. With the exception of the Pāli Vinaya, however, all other extant Buddhist monastic law codes (Dharmaguptaka, Mahāsāṅghika, Mahīśāsaka, Sarvāstivāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda) contain detailed provisions for monks and nuns who commit pārājikas but nevertheless wish to remain within the saṅgha. These monastics are not expelled. Rather, they are granted a special status known as the śikṣādattaka. In this paper I explore the rules. concerning pārājika penance and the śikṣādattaka with specific regard to monastic celibacy. Given that five out of six extant law codes recognise this remarkable accommodation to the rule of celibacy, I argue that we must look to Vinayas other than the Pāli Vinaya if we are to arrive at a nuanced and representative view of Indian Buddhist monasticism.

Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 C.E.)

     

What similes in Sāṃkhya do: a comparison of the similes in the Sāṃkhya texts in the Mahābhārata, the Sāṃkhyakārikā and the Sāṃkhyasūtra

In Sāṃkhya similes are an important means to communicate basic philosophical teachings. In the texts similes are frequently used, especially in the Sāṃkhya passages in the Mahābhārata, in the Sāṃkhyakārikā and in the Sāṃkhyasūtra. This paper compares the similes in these three texts and analyses changes in the philosophy as revealed in the similes. A comparison of the similes of Sāṃkhya texts produced over more than one thousand years reveals changes in the emphasis in this philosophical system. The purpose of the similes in the Sāṃkhya passages of the Mahābhārata is to produce an intuitive understanding of the separateness of puruṣa and prakṛti. The similes are designed to lead the listener to understand this basic dualism. In the Sāṃkhyakārikā the most difficult issues are the relationship between prakṛti and puruṣa and the idea of prakṛti working for the salvation of puruṣa. One whole chapter of the Sāṃkhyasūtra is devoted to similes.