The Private Interests of Public Officials: Financial Regulation in the US Congress

Legislators' private financial holdings affect policy decisions. Due to financial self‐interest, we theorize that legislators whose personal investment portfolios include equities from firms affected by proposed policies vote for legislation that benefits those firms. We also theorize that legislators with greater personal exposure to equity investments support policies that benefit equities markets generally. We create a novel data set of legislators' personal stock investments and examine major congressional actions since the 1990s on financial deregulation and market intervention. US House members who own stocks in firms who benefit from financial deregulation vote for deregulation. House members with greater exposure to financial and automotive stocks support the financial and auto bailouts, respectively. General exposure to equities markets is also associated with support for key legislation boosting markets. The normative implications are significant, as legislators' private interests influence decisions in the public sphere.     

Private Regulation of the Public Sector: A Neglected Facet of Contemporary Governance

The centrality of regulation among the tools deployed by governments is well established in the social science literature. Regulation of public sector bodies by non-state organizations is an important but neglected aspect of contemporary governance arrangements. Some private regulators derive both authority and power from a legal mandate for their activities. Statutory powers are exercised by private regulators where they are delegated or contracted out. Contractual powers take collective (for example, self-regulatory) and individuated forms. But a further important group of private regulators, operating both nationally and internationally, lack a legal mandate and yet have the capacity to exercise considerable power in constraining governments and public agencies. In a number of cases private regulators operate more complete regulatory regimes (in the sense of controlling standard setting, monitoring, and enforcement elements) than is true of public regulators. While private regulators may enhance the scrutiny given to public bodies (and thus enhance regimes of control and accountability), their existence suggests a need to identify the conditions under which such private power is legitimately held and used. One such condition is the existence of appropriate mechanisms for controlling or checking power. Such controls may take the classic form of public oversight, but may equally be identified in the checks exercised by participation in communities or markets.     

Would a United Nations Environment Organization Help to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals?

As a follow-up to the 2005 United Nations World Summit, Jan Eliasson, President of the sixtieth session of the United Nations General Assembly, plans that the General Assembly will take up the issue of international environmental governance (IEG) in spring 2006. This may provide an opportunity to start negotiations on creating a United Nations Environment Organization (UNEO) in the larger context of reforming the UN. Against this background, this article discusses the need for IEG reform, the advantages and disadvantages of creating a UNEO and its potential in helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The article concludes that a UNEO – as a UN specialized agency – may have greater political clout than the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) currently commands, which is only a programme based on a resolution of the General Assembly. Given its increased political weight, a UNEO could be a better tool to address environmental needs in developing countries, and help to achieve poverty and development goals.     

Families and The State: An Historical Perspective on the Public Regulation of Private Conduct

This paper examines the history of the debate between advocates of the regulation and the deregulation of family life through a case study of English social policy for children in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It introduces the generational order as an issue worthy of consideration alongside that of the gender order. It considers the nature of the relationship between private and public spheres of social action and questions the adequacy of rigid formulations of this distinction. Successive attempts to develop technologies of intervention are discussed and the limitations imposed by liberal political theory are identified. It is argued, nevertheless, that the generational order is of such importance that some form of social regulation is inescapable.     

论对私募基金的法律规制

私募基金最主要的特征在于以私募方式设立，其投资者必须为具有自我保护能力的合格投资者且不得超过一定数量。私募基金不得以广告、公开或变相公开方式发行，应根据发行人与劝诱对象之间是否存在“既存的实质联系”来判断发行方式是否构成公开。为了防止私募基金公开化，对私募基金份额的转售行为必须加以一定限制。信息披露是私募发行制度中的一项重要内容，贯穿于发行与转售两个阶段。     

自诉转公诉问题思考

对于被害人享有自诉权的案件,公安机关或检察机关在一定条件下将其转为公诉,这有利也有弊。从域外立法规定和司法实践来看,自诉转公诉主要是通过直接提起公诉、接管自诉或独立上诉三种方式来实现的,它与代为告诉、自诉担当既有区别又有联系。完善我国自诉转公诉制度既要借鉴域外先进经验,又要立足我国国情,注意该制度可能产生的弊端,增强该制度的可操作性。     

引言公共利益与私人权益的权衡

我国现代社会有两个重要特点:其一是城乡二元结构正在迅速改变,城市化发展加快,住宅私有化基本完成,私有住宅总量增速迅猛;其二是人民生活日益现代化,城乡整体生活社会化进程极快.与城市化和社会化发展同步的,是公路、铁路、机场、码头、公园和公共娱乐场所、体育场馆等公共设施需求日益加大,各类大中型企业应运而生.     

Green Markets: Environmental Regulation by the Private Sector*

The article begins with a review of recent trends in the devolution of state functions to nongovernment institutions, and discusses how private interests may be enlisted in furtherance of public policy. It then outlines a variety of institutions and instruments which might comprise a system of regulation for environmental protection, and suggests some of the forms of interaction between them. The focus then turns to commercial activity which can further the interests of environmental protection. It summarizes eight emerging trends in “green commerce” and concludes that in some settings, the constructive influence of commercial forces can exceed that wielded by government agencies.     

国际私法上公共秩序保留制度之比较研究

本文在比较各国有关公共秩序保留制度的学说及立法与司法实践的基础上,对这一制度从其产生之基础、功能与缺陷、"公共秩序"的含义、公序保留所排除的对象、公序保留之后的法律适用及其与其他相关制度,如识别、直接适用法和单边冲突规范的关系等多个角度进行解析,进而对我国国际私法中公序保留制度的设计提出一些建议.     

公诉转自诉的法律困惑与完善构想

公诉转自诉是我国刑事诉讼法确立的一项起诉制度,因立法缺陷导致司法实践中困惑迭出.积极借鉴有关国家的立法和制度模式,在完善现行法律的基础上,采取扩大起诉主体、统一案件适用范围、为自诉人举证提供支持、设置自诉权行使的调控机制等方法与途径,来构建既有利于被害人诉权的实现,又能对公诉权形成有效制约的现代诉讼机制.     

Human Rights and Unfair Dismissal: Private Acts in Public Spaces

This article addresses the termination of employment because of the conduct of the employee in her leisure time, in the light of the right to private life. It explores the impact on the retention of employment of activities taking place outside the workplace and outside working hours, and argues that the approach of UK courts and tribunals, which is based on a primarily spatial conceptualisation of privacy, is flawed. A fresh approach to privacy, resting on the idea of domination, is proposed, which is sensitive to the particularities of the employment relationship. Considering the fairness enquiry in dismissal, it argues that off‐duty conduct may lead to lawful termination of employment only if there is a clear and present impact or a high likelihood of such impact on business interests; a speculative and marginal danger does not suffice. It further proposes that a particularly meticulous test is appropriate when certain suspect categories, such as the employees' sexual preferences, are at stake.     

对公共风险的政府规制——阐释与评述

现代社会存在着诸多公共风险,也存在着诸多针对公共风险的政府规制。如何理解公共风险,这是政府规制成立的逻辑起点。与私人风险是由一方的故意或者过失而引起的不同,公共风险在本质上是一种与道德无涉且在功能上有利于减少风险和增进公共福祉的行为。但是一旦从风险变成事故,公共风险却会对社会造成极大损害。如何治理公共风险?业已成为我们所要面对的重要课题。传统的侵权法由于技术上的局限,已经不胜任对公共风险的治理。政府规制在现代社会中发挥了越来越多的作用。当政府介入公共风险的治理之后,原先通过事后损害赔偿来保护个人权利的法律制度逐步让位于通过准入、标准和信息披露等构筑起来的以安全为目的的政府规制,而且这种制度的核心也不再是着眼于个案式的正义实现,而是为了减少整体风险。     

集团诉讼中的律师：私人检察官抑或私利牟取者？

最近的调查显示,公众对集团诉讼制度的不信任正在增长。必须对集团诉讼制度做点什么的感觉不断增强,直至最近在两党连立的《集团诉讼公平法》的讨论过程中达到了顶峰,这部立法扩大了联邦法院对州际集团诉讼的权限,同时要求联邦法院谨慎审查代币券和解协议。寻求利益的集团诉讼律师及其在诉讼启动、选择以及和解方面伴随的努力。基于这一原因,私人检察官类比理论的支持者很少主张国家检察官缺乏启动旨在维护公共利益之诉讼的权力。然而近年来情况变得更加复杂,因为许多国家检察官积极联合私人原告律师启动消费者欺诈诉讼和反托拉斯诉讼。各州已经在尝试的方法有:(1)在私人律师选择方面强制增加竞标程序;(2)禁止受雇于国家检察官的私人律师接受胜诉酬金协议;(3)禁止向国家检察官竞选捐资的律师与那些检察官进行诉讼上的合作。     

Private Power, Public Interest: An Examination of Search Engine Accountability

As information becomes a critical commodity in modern society,the issue is raised whether the entities that manage accessto information, that are tools for public discourse and democracy,should be accountable to the public. The Internet has transformedhow we communicate, and search engines have emerged as managersof information, organizing and categorizing content in a coherent,accessible manner thereby shaping the Internet user's experience.This article examines whether search engines should have publicinterest obligations. In order to answer this question, thisarticle first examines comparative public interest regulatorystructures, and the growing importance of the Internet to publicdiscourse. Then examined is how the algorithmic designs andmanual manipulation of rankings by search engines affects thepublic interest without a sufficient accountability structure.Finally, the values necessary to a public interest frameworkare suggested.     

Public Good, Private Protections: Competing Values in German Transplantation Law

Organ transplantation has become almost routine practice in many industrialized countries. Policy, ethical, and legal debates tend to center on fairness of allocation rules or alternatives to promote greater numbers of donations. There are also certain beliefs about the use of bodily materials that are often presumed to be homogenous across Euro–American societies. In Germany, however, the idea of using the bodies of some for the good of others, and the right to proclaim some bodies dead for large–scale medical and political purposes is highly charged. This is due to the historical context of medical experimentation, selection, and euthanasia under National Socialism, and the former East German socialist policies which intervened in the private lives and bodies of citizens. This article is based on an ethnography of organ procurement practices during the period when German policymakers struggled with writing a transplant law. Active public resistance revealed deep concern about state intervention in private matters and amplified the growing unrest over definitions of moral community in a changing, post–reunification society. The article shows how public disputes about health policy become a way through which societies deal with other social conflicts.     

Living Apart Together: The Relationship Between Public and Private International Law

Netherlands International Law Review -