关于刑事冤案再审程序的几个问题——以刑事冤案应当专设再审程序为研究重点

刑事再审案件可以分为两类:一类是刑事难案,其虽因“确有错误”而被提起再审,但再审后仍可能维持原判;另一类是刑事冤案,即再审前已确信原生效裁判确定的“罪犯”事实上是无辜之人,再审只是为了从法律上加以确认.对于后者,司法实践中采用实质上回归原审程序的再审程序进行审判,产生了诸多问题.鉴于此,应当专门设立在审理法院、当事人及其他参与人、审理方式、审理内容、裁判依据等方面既不同于一审程序也不同于二审程序的特别再审程序.     

浅议刑事再审程序的价值理念

刑事再审程序作为法律救济的一种特别程序,其设立的目的是为了纠正错误的裁判,实现司法的公正。但再审程序的启动必然涉及到诉讼效率问题。目前我国现行刑事再审程序的设计以追求实体公正为理念,轻视了程序公正,忽视了效率价值。这也导致目前我国司法实践中刑事再审程序的实施效果未能尽如人意。本文首先具体分析了我国刑事再审程序价值理念之不足,接着进一步从理论上阐明再审程序与司法公正和诉讼效率的关系,进而提出了实体公正与程序公正并重,兼顾公正与效率,在公正的前提下实现最大的诉讼效益的价值理念。     

Understanding and Application --Comment on Amendment of the Criminal Retrial Procedure of the Criminal Retrial Procedure

刑事再审程序，是一种非常救济程序，应当注重再审纠错与程序安定性价值之间的衡平。此次《刑事诉讼法》修改用修改两条、新增两条的方式对刑事再审程序作了一定的修改与完善，有其进步意义。但对于申诉改造、再审事由的设置、再审的启动主体以及再审审理程序的构建等核心问题并没有涉及。因而，此次《刑事诉讼法》关于再审程序的修改只能称得上是程序“微调”。从司法适用的角度来讲，新《刑事诉讼法》的有关规定尚有进一步完善、细化的必要。对此，结合中国的司法实际，可以通过司法解释的形式加以完善，以统一指导司法实践。     

我国刑事再审程序的不足与完善

刑事再审程序是刑事司法制度的重要组成部分,对于保护人权和维护司法公正具有重要意义。现阶段刑事再审程序在制度设计与运行方面存在诸多问题,违背了诉讼规律,损害了司法权威。本文从指导理念、启动机制、审理裁判等方面分析了刑事再审程序的不足,并提出了相应的改革方案。     

修改刑事诉讼法 完善刑事再审程序

刑事再审程序,是对发生法律效力的刑事裁判依法重新审理的程序,是刑事诉讼法的重要组成部分。它对于保障当事人的刑事申诉权利,依法纠正错案,促进司法公正,维护司法公信力具有非常重要的作用。目前,刑事诉讼法再修改工作已经启动,刑事再审程序的完善应是其中一项重要内容。在此背景下,本文拟对完善刑事再审程序的几个问题略呈管见,以期能在刑事诉讼法修改层面对完善我国刑事再审程序尽些许建言之责。一、完善刑事再审程序的必要性。早在1979年,我国制定的《中华人民共和国刑事诉讼法(试行)》就设专章规定了刑事再审程序,但局限     

关于刑事再审程序的几个基本问题

刑事再审程序是刑事诉讼程序的有机组成部分，近年来，学术界对该程序中一些具体操作问题进行了有益的探讨，笔者仅就这一程序的几个基本问题谈以下浅见。一、刑事再审程序的概念和特征在我国，刑事再审程序是刑事诉讼法中审判监督程序的通俗称谓，因此，严格意义上，使用刑事审判监督程序的提法似更正规、更严谨。但是，笔者基于这样两个方面的考虑，使用了刑事再审程序乃至刑事再审制度的提法。其一，刑事再审的含义更准确。“审判监督”在刑事诉讼中含义较广，它既可以指法院系统内上级对下级法院的审判监督．还可以指国家专门的法律监督…     

浅谈外国刑事再审程序给予我国的借鉴

我国的刑事再审程序不论是在设计的理念上,还是其制度本身,都与现代的司法理念存在很多相悖之处,有着许缺陷。本文通过对国外有关刑事再审程序的比较与借鉴,以期对完善我国刑事再审程序能有所帮助。     

论刑事再审程序的启动

文章针对再审程序在司法实践中存在的问题 ,从理论和实践出发 ,并借鉴国外的有关规定 ,重点阐述了刑事再审程序启动的主体、理由等方面问题 ,提出完善刑事再审程序的几点建议。     

再审程序的理解与适用——兼评《刑事诉讼法》关于再审程序的修改

刑事再审程序,是一种非常救济程序,应当注重再审纠错与程序安定性价值之间的衡平。此次《刑事诉讼法》修改用修改两条、新增两条的方式对刑事再审程序作了一定的修改与完善,有其进步意义。但对于申诉改造、再审事由的设置、再审的启动主体以及再审审理程序的构建等核心问题并没有涉及。因而,此次《刑事诉讼法》关于再审程序的修改只能称得上是程序"微调"。从司法适用的角度来讲,新《刑事诉讼法》的有关规定尚有进一步完善、细化的必要。对此,结合中国的司法实际,可以通过司法解释的形式加以完善,以统一指导司法实践。     

刑事再审程序之重构

刑事再审制度是刑事诉讼理论和司法实践中一个十分重要的制度。然而长期以来,理论界对刑 事再审程序的研究多拘泥于程序运作过程中的一些具体细节,而缺乏深入的理论思考。因此,对 刑事再审程序的理论基础、诉讼构造、模式等进行深入探讨是非常必要的,同时这种探讨也有益 于刑事再审程序的重构。     

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.     

Turning a Madhyamaka Trick: Reply to Huntington

Huntington (2007); argues that recent commentators (Robinson, 1957; Hayes, 1994; Tillemans, 1999; Garfield and Priest, 2002) err in attributing to Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti a commitment to rationality and to the use of argument, and that these commentators do violence to the Madhyamaka project by using rational reconstruction in their interpretation of Nāgārjuna’s and Candrakīrti’s texts. Huntington argues instead that mādhyamikas reject reasoning, distrust logic and do not offer arguments. He also argues that interpreters ought to recuse themselves from argument in order to be faithful to these texts. I demonstrate that he is wrong in all respects: Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti deploy arguments, take themselves to do so, and even if they did not, we would be wise to do so in commenting on their texts.     

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.”     

The Mūlāvidyā Controversy Among Advaita Vedāntins: was Śaṅkara Himself Responsible?

The concept of avidyā or ignorance is central to the Advaita Vedāntic position of Śȧnkara. The post-Śaṅkara Advaitins wrote sub-commentaries on the original texts of Śaṅkara with the intention of strengthening his views. Over the passage of time the views of these sub-commentators of Śaṅkara came to be regarded as representing the doctrine of Advaita particularly with regard to the concept of avidyā. Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati, a scholar-monk of Holenarsipur, challenged the accepted tradition through the publication of his work Mūlāvidyānirāsaḥ, particularly with regard to the avidyādoctrine. It was his contention that the post-Śaṅkara commentators brought their own innovations particularly on the nature of avidyā. This was the idea of mūlāvidyā or ‘root ignorance’, a positive entity which is the material cause of the phenomenal world. Saraswati argues that such an idea of mūlāvidyā is not to be found in the bhāṣyas (commentaries) of Śaṅkara and is foisted upon Śaṅkara. This paper attempts to show that although Śaṅkara may not have explicitly favoured such a view of mūlāvidyā, his lack of clarity on the nature of avidyā left enough scope for the post-Śaṅkara commentators to take such a position on avidyā.     

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.