治理庸官懒政需向“隐性失职”亮剑

继贪官之后，庸官、懒官、散漫官，近日来成为众矢之的，全国各地相继出台办法剑指庸官懒政。“庸官懒政是我国的一个吏治难题。党的十七届四中全会明确提出要‘加大治懒治庸力度，着力解决干部管理不严问题’，全国一些地区进行了有意义的探索。     

中国掀起治庸风暴

近期,我国多地掀起"治庸风暴"。这其中,备受关注的是武汉市4月6日开始高调开展的"责任风暴"、"治庸计划"。该市"治庸办"曾一日内处分了近40人。从密集治理腐败,再前移到治理"庸官懒政",专家认为,各地此举值得肯定。此外,专家也指出,"治庸风暴"早已有之,但大多沦为"一阵风"。如何将"一阵风"变成长效机制,正在考验各地官员的政治智慧。     

社会主义核心价值体系视角下防范党员干部的精神懈怠

发生在部分党员干部身上的精神懈怠,直接导致党内的庸官懒政现象。本文尝试从新角度下进一步考量了社会主义核心价值体系建设如何彰显党员干部"不懈怠"的重要性、深化对党员干部精神懈怠的认识、提供防范党员干部精神懈怠的新路径。努力使社会主义核心价值体系内化为党员干部的价值观念,外化为党员干部的行为规范。     

“一国两制”视野下法律文化的同一性与多样性及其在中国的体现——写在中国特色社会主义法律体系形成之后

法律文化的概念外延包括了规范制度形态、意识观念形态、实践活动形态的法律文化。法律体系问题主要属于规范制度形态的法律文化,而法系的问题主要属于意识观念形态和实践活动形态的法律文化。由于实行"一国两制",在"两岸三地"即中国大陆、香港、澳门和台湾存在着多种法律体系与法系,这是"中国特色"的体现。中国特色社会主义法律体系形成之后,我们还可以在"一国两制"的视野下,继续探讨法律文化的同一性与多样性问题,对中西方法律文化中蕴藏的优秀精神——对法治的崇尚和对统治的信念,通过实践不断地选择,融化成一种崭新的、先进的法律文化体系,将法治精神与民族精神融为一体,建成法治国家。     

中国传统社会“德法之辩”的初始阶段及其价值主题

“德法之辩”是中国传统社会一种重要的文化现象。透过它我们可以知晓中国传统社会曾经在国家治理模式、法律制度体系构建方式、法律意识培育途径以及政权合法性建构逻辑等问题上所作出的选择与坚守。尤其是在春秋战国时期,各方围绕着它的方向、内容以及主题价值上所出现的激烈争辩,几乎奠定了这一文化现象贯穿整个中国传统社会的基本格调,对于中国传统社会几千年的国家治理模式与法律制度特质产生了深刻的影响,这一影响力至今依然若隐若现。     

依法推进检察公益诉讼,维护公共利益——陕西省人大常委会出台关于加强检察公益诉讼工作的决定

检察公益诉讼制度,是法律赋予检察机关依法履行法律监督职能的重要法律制度,是维护国家利益和社会公共利益,推动国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要举措。3月25日,《陕西省人民代表大会常务委员会关于加强检察公益诉讼工作的决定》(以下简称《决定》)经省十三届人大常委会第十六次会议表决通过,自公布之日起施行。《决定》坚持问题导向,对解决我省检察公益诉讼工作中的突出问题作了具体规定。针对近期的新冠肺炎疫情,在拓展公益诉讼案件范围中增加了"防灾减灾和应急救援"、"公共卫生安全"、"野生动物保护"的内容。考虑到我省是历史文化大省,有必要通过公益诉讼来加强文物和文化遗产的保护。     

知识产权的制度风险与法律控制

在风险社会的语境中,知识产权法是一种制度文明,也是一种可能存在的制度风险。诸如文化风险、生态风险、基因技术风险、网络风险等,主要是知识产权制度的"内生性"风险。如何克服现行知识产权法律制度和法律秩序的先天性缺陷和潜在危机,提高风险意识,增强风险识别能力,寻求风险治理机制,是国际知识产权界共同面临的时代问题。知识产权制度风险的法律治理必须秉持价值理性与工具理性统一、权利观念与责任观念统一、法律控制与技术规制统一等理念,并通过传统知识保护、公共领域保留、开放存取及知识共享协议、知识创新奖励等制度的替代和补充,形成一个应对风险社会的观念体系和制度系统。这是应对知识产权制度风险的法律举措,也是实现知识产权制度价值目标的法律变革路径。     

法治是实现“第五个现代化”的惟一通途

十八届三中全会提出了全面深化改革的总目标,即完善和发展中国特色社会主义制度,推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化,这一目标被媒体称为“第五个现代化”.而法治,是国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的最重要内涵和根本基石. “法律是治国之重器,良法是善治之前提.”在实现“第五个现代化”的征途中,时隔不到一年,四中全会就提出,全面推进依法治国,总目标是建设中国特色社会主义法治体系,建设社会主义法治国家. “法者,天下之准绳也.”就国家治理体系而言,一个国家在治理体系上完不完善,首先就得看法律体系是否健全.如果没有好的法律体系的支撑,国家治理就很难有基本的行动准则,进退便会失据.比如,中央领导屡次批评尸位素餐,甚至强调“不作为的‘懒政’也是腐败”.但假如没有责任清单和权力清单的出台,厘清政府哪些是“法定责任必须为”,就仍然会出现推诿责任、互相扯皮的“踢皮球”现象.且这种“隐性腐败”,也难以受到真正的惩罚.如此,“不作为”就仍有市场.因此,在中国特色社会主义法律体系已经形成的基础上,四中全会进一步提出建设中国特色社会主义法治体系,这将为国家治理体系现代化奠定坚实的基础.     

党的政策与国家法律70年关系的发展历程

党的政策与国家法律是国家和社会治理的两种重要制度依托。然而,不同历史时期的国家任务和制度环境直接决定着人们对党的政策和国家法律的理解认知,并体现到党的政策和国家法律在国家和社会治理中的实践定位及相互关系之中。大体而言,由新中国成立到改革开放之前,无产阶级专政是主线,巩固政权的需要推动党的政策成为无产阶级专政强有力的工具;由改革开放到依法治国,经济建设是中心,制度供给的需求促成国家法律成为重要治理方式;从依法治国到法治中国,国家治理体系和治理能力现代化成为治国理政的重要目标,党的政策和国家法律的规范转化和逻辑交融成为国家治理的时代主题。从"政策本身就是法"到"党的政策指导国家法律制定运行",反映出人们对党的政策与国家法律关系的科学认识和解读;从主要依靠政策治理国家到全面推进依法治国,表现了党对国家治理的新思维、新理念、新方略。与此同时,党的政策和国家法律关系的学术研究也经历了一个与实践逻辑相吻合的理论演进过程。     

法学视野下的党规学学科建设

党规现象是一类政治现象、制度现象和法现象.党规学以党规现象为研究对象,已经成为党建学、政治学、法学等多学科交叉融合的新的学术领域,正在成为党建学、政治学研究的重要方向,也应当和能够成为法学学科的重要分支.作为法学学科体系新成员的党规学,以一类特殊的法现象为研究对象,应当致力于在一般法治原理、规律的基础上探求党规现象的特殊逻辑,侧重于研究党规制度原理和运行机理、党内法治规律和治理逻辑,创设相对独立的概念范畴、知识体系和理论系统.进一步明确党规学学科意识和思维、党规学研究内容和方法,加强党规学基础研究和应用研究,完善和发展党规学学科体系,对于丰富中国特色社会主义法治理论体系,推进党和国家治理体系和治理能力现代化,具有重大和深远的意义.     

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.)