从权利保障到权力制约:论我国民事诉讼模式转换的趋向

我国民事诉讼改革目标是从职权干预型诉讼模式转向当事人主导型诉讼模式.作为构建当事人主义的两大支柱,辩论原则和处分原则奠定了民事诉讼基本结构,其核心精神在于界定当事人和法院在民事诉讼中的任务分配和相互关系,实现当事人权利制约司法权力.从我国民事诉讼改革的进程看,尽管制度层面就当事人诉讼权利完善已取得不少进展,但是在权力制约方面仍有不足.本文结合当事人主义基本原理,从我国民事诉讼法与司法解释涉及的起诉、撤诉、自认等问题,检视我国民事诉讼中两大基本原则在权力制约方面的欠缺,进而指出我国民事诉讼现代化改革深化和民事诉讼模式转型方向——只有将重心从权利保障转向以权力制约为中心,才能构建起实质意义当事人主义.     

民事诉讼模式转换的先声——《最高人民法院关于民事诉讼证据的若干规定》评析

一、何谓民事诉讼基本模式转换理论民事诉讼基本模式转换理论是近年来国内民事诉讼法学界提出的一种令人关注的理论。这种理论是建立在对民事诉讼最基本的关系，即诉讼当事人与法官关系的考察基础之上的。考察的结果，按照诉讼当事人与法院在诉讼程序中享有的权利、义务以及所受到的制约，把世界各主要国家的诉讼制度，分成三种模式———绝对当事人主义模式、相对当事人主义模式和职权主义模式。与三种模式相对应的典型的诉讼制度，绝对当事人主义以英美法系国家英国、美国诉讼制度为代表；相对当事人主义以大陆法系国家法国、德国为代表；…     

论当事人主义诉讼模式在我国法上的新进展

我国民事诉讼模式的改革目标是建立大陆法系的当事人主义诉讼模式,即以约束性辩论原则、约束性处分原则以及职权进行主义为基础,辅之以合理的释明权制度.近年来关于我国民事诉讼模式的改革目标在理论上存在一些误识,主要体现为混淆了当事人主义诉讼模式的适用范围、夸大了当事人主义与协动主义的差异等.民事诉讼法和相关司法解释条文表明,当事人主义诉讼模式的核心指标——请求拘束原则和主张责任已经基本在我国法上得以确立.     

论民事司法中的“协同主义”

从2002年4月1日开始实施的《关于民事诉讼证据若干规定》在司法实践中产生了诸多不良影响,民事司法陷入困境。协同主义是指在以当事人为诉讼程序主体的前提下,法院、当事人、律师以及其他诉讼参与人互相配合,和谐地解决民事纠纷的一种诉讼模式。它具有独特的功能和诸多优点。以"协同主义"作为民事司法的指导思想可以帮助我们走出困境,同时我国的现实状况和文化背景也决定了民事司法要以"协同主义"作为指导思想。     

我国民事诉讼模式构筑初探

<正> 涉及我国民事诉讼模式构筑时,有人主张“建立一种新的以当事人主义为主兼采职权主义的民事诉讼方式”;有人反对,认为应“与外国民事诉讼制度实现对接”建立当事人主义诉讼模式。     

走出民事诉讼模式的误区——民事诉讼模式划分问题研究

本文主要分析了民事诉讼模式的含义和民事诉讼模式划分问题。通过对两种划分方法的对比，将当事人主义和职权主义从原则和模式两个层次上予以界定，以及在我国经济体制转变的背景下为了民事审判方式改革能正确进行，必须超越两大法系在具体制度上存在的巨大差异，运用模式分析法，将它们的共同点统一在当事人主义诉讼模式上。     

阐明权制度的确立及其适用事项的范围

阐明权是市场经济条件下民事诉讼的一项重要法律制度，而阐明权的行使问题更是诉讼中活的机制和力量。随着我国民事诉讼审判方式改革的推行和民事诉讼理论的发展，主张我国民事诉讼应当由职权主义转向当事人主义成为理论和实践的主流，阐明权制度的有关理论及其行使所针对的诉讼事项的范围问题确需给予更多的关注。本文对法官阐明的理念及阐明权制度的确立过程作了回顾，概括总结了我国关于阐明权的规定和制度运行现状，最后针对我国国情提出法官行使阐明权应适用的具体诉讼事项，并从相反情形划出阐明权应当避免涉足的范围。     

论民事诉讼模式理论的方法论意义及其运用

民事诉讼模式理论自1990年代中期兴起以来,其所倡导的向当事人主义的诉讼模式转型的改革进路由于精当描述并批判了当时中国司法实践的现实状态和准确指明并预测了未来中国司法改革的方向,在学科内外都产生了极大影响.但进入21世纪以后,民事诉讼模式理论也面临着空心化和空谈化的批评,理论界提出了协同主义等概念试图挑战当事人主义的地位,而实务界所倡导的司法能动等理念和相关制度改革也与当事人主义构成悖反.从方法论的角度观察,民事诉讼模式理论发挥着范式革命的效果,而当事人主义则在可证伪性和确定性的意义上是具有科学性.因而,民事诉讼模式理论目前的危机并非因为其不够科学,而是由于过于宏观,无法直接指导具体的制度设计和操作,有必要加大中层概念的研究,根据民事诉讼模式的原理,形成关于诉讼行为、诉讼标的等中层概念的通说,民事诉讼模式理论当能获得更为广阔的应用空间.     

“科学调解”的提出及其体系构建——以更好实现诉讼调解“案结事了”为目标

诉讼调解,作为我国民事诉讼的一项基本原则和重要制度,在解决民事纠纷、节约诉讼资源、促进社会和谐上发挥着不可替代的作用。然而,近年来随着"调解优先"和"强化调解"的不断加强,特别是审判管理考核     

民事诉讼协同主义:在理想和现实之间

民事诉讼协同主义,是由当事人的真实义务和法院的阐明权(义务)等一系列诉讼义务构成的理想化的诉讼图景。协同主义的基础条件是民事诉讼制度的社会化、福利化,通过适当扩大法院职权,修正、补充辩论主义。协同主义并非是一种独立的诉讼模式,而是协调各方诉讼行为的一种诉讼理想,其作用在于协调法院、当事人和其他诉讼参与人之间的整体关系。在我国构建协同主义,必须兼顾其周边制度要素。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Anyathākhyāti</Emphasis>: A Critique by Appaya Dīkṣita in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Parimala</Emphasis>

In this paper, the problem of illusory perception, as approached by the Nyāya and Advaita Vedānta schools of philosophy, is discussed from the standpoint of the Parimala. This seminal work belonging to the Bhāmatī tradition of Advaita Vedānta was composed in the sixteenth century by the polymath Appaya Dīk?ita. In the context of discussing various theories of illusion, Dīk?ita dwells upon the Nyāya theory of anyathākhyāti, and its connection with jñānalak?a?apratyāsatti as a causal factor for perception, and closely examines if such an extraordinary (alaukika) perception is tenable to explain illusory perception. He then proceeds to point out the deficiencies of this model and thereby brings to the fore the anirvacanīyakhyāti of Advaitins as the only theory which stands scrutiny.     

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.)