Surrogacy,Identity, Parentage and Childrenʼs Rights – Through the Eyes of a Child

In this article I will focus on two important aspects of children's rights which are impacted by artificial reproductive technology (particularly surrogacy); being the rights to identity and the rights to legal parentage. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child acknowledges the importance of a child's right to identity, to be protected from discrimination on the basis of the status or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians or family members. For many children born through surrogacy arrangements, they may have only one or no legally recognized parent. The adults caring for them may have parental responsibility orders but this falls well short of providing children with the benefits and protections that legal parentage does. The issue of identity can be complex. Increasingly, states have recognized the importance of children knowing the circumstances of their birth and being able to access biological and genetic information including medical information. From a child's perspective the issues of identity and parenthood are intertwined. Given the importance of identity, more needs to be done to ensure that identifying information about children born as a result of artificial reproductive technology is properly stored and readily accessible for these children. Denying a child legal parentage when there are no concerns about the care being provided by their parents cannot be justified when considered from a children's rights perspective.     

Why Should Remorse be a Mitigating Factor in Sentencing?

This article critically examines the rationales for the well-settled principle in sentencing law that an offender’s remorse is to be treated as a mitigating factor. Four basic types of rationale are examined: remorse makes punishment redundant; offering mitigation can induce remorse; remorse should be rewarded with mitigation; and remorse should be recognised by mitigation. The first three rationales each suffer from certain weaknesses or limitations, and are argued to be not as persuasive as the fourth. The article then considers, and rejects, two arguments against remorse as a mitigating factor in sentencing: that the crime, not the offender, is the focus of punishment; and that the truly remorseful offender would not ask for mitigation. The article concludes with a brief consideration of whether a lack of remorse should be an aggravating factor.

Image conditions for machine-based face recognition of juvenile faces

Machine-based facial recognition could help law enforcement and other organisations to match juvenile faces more efficiently. It is especially important when dealing with indecent images of children to minimise the workload, and deal with moral and stamina challenges related to human recognition. With growth related changes, juvenile face recognition is challenging. The challenge not only relates to the growth of the child’s face, but also to face recognition in the wild with unconstrained images. The aim of the study was to evaluate how different conditions (i.e. black and white, cropped, blur and resolution reduction) can affect machine-based facial recognition of juvenile age progression. The study used three off-the-shelf facial recognition algorithms (Microsoft Face API, Amazon Rekognition, and Face++) and compared the original images and the age progression images under the four image conditions against an older image of the child. The results showed a decrease in facial similarity with an increased age gap, in comparison to Microsoft; Amazon and Face++ showed higher confidence scores and are more resilient to a change in image condition. The image condition ‘black and white’ and ‘cropped’ had a negative effect across all three APIs. The relationship between age progression images and the younger original image was explored. The results suggest manual age progression images are no more useful than the original image for facial identification of missing children, and Amazon and Face++ performed better with the original image.     

《民法典》中准合同制度的历史演变与体系效应

准合同制度是我国《民法典》中的一项重要制度,其包括无因管理和不当得利。准合同概念源于罗马法。随着合同一般概念的发展,准合同概念中的意思论要素被法学家们不断强调,其中,近代自然法学派尤其重视对准合同概念进行意思论的改造。然而,意思论的准合同处于法定之债与意定之债的中间环节,已不再被当代主要大陆法系国家立法所坚持。由于我国《民法典》的立法者采取了实用主义的立法思路,所以,我们应在法定之债模式下理解准合同制度。无因管理制度的准合同属性主要体现在《民法典》第984条中,即管理人管理事务经受益人事后追认的,从管理事务开始时起,适用委托合同的有关规定。然而,这一规定是否具有实际意义值得商榷。准合同理论对不当得利制度的影响主要体现在建构返还法体系和统一化或类型化不当得利返还请求权方面,而非体现在对具体合同条款的准用中。     

国家治理视阈中的“道德承认”原则

中国特色社会主义的依法治国不同于西方资本主义国家的依法治国,其根本区别是:西方资本主义国家的依法治国是以"契约论"为基础,目的是为了保护个体私有财产不受侵犯。而中国特色社会主义的依法治国是立足于公有制经济基础,超越了"资产阶级法权狭隘眼界",把"道德承认"作为国家治理视阈中的价值原则。"以德治国"具有内在客观性,而"依法治国"则具有外在客观性,两者必须相互扬弃对方的片面性而达成和解。"以德治国"需要在国家治理中确立"道德承认"原则,并把"道德承认"原则作为国家共同体的实体性存在论基础。所谓"道德承认"是指,在共同体中,每个个体都应该从至高无上的"善"的理念出发,而不仅仅是从保护个体财产不受侵犯的原则出发,来保证共同体具有绝对的存在论基础的基本理念。因此,"依法治国"不意味着取代"以德治国",而是要坚持两者相结合。"以德治国"提供的"道德承认"原则为"依法治国"提供了终极性价值支撑。     

Examining Honneth’s Positive Theory of Recognition

ABSTRACT

In this article I examine Axel Honneth’s positive theory of recognition. While commentators agree that Honneth’s theory qualifies as a positive theory of recognition, I believe that the deeper reason for why this is an apt characterisation is not yet fully understood. I argue that, instead of considering only what it is to recognise another person and what it means for a person to be recognised, we need to focus our attention on how Honneth pictures the practice of recognition as a whole, which according to him works to make societies into places of greater freedom. This conception of recognition as a freedom-enhancing practice is supposed to provide a solution to a key problem of Frankfurt School critical theory, namely of how to determine the emancipatory practice in which critical theory is rooted, which becomes apparent as soon as one turns to the context in which Honneth originally develops his theory of recognition. At the end of the article, I offer a few reasons for doubting the overly positive picture of the practice of recognition that Honneth provides us with.     

Injustice,Violence and Social Struggle. The Critical Potential of Axel Honneth's Theory of Recognition

Abstract

Honneth's fundamental claim that the normativity of social orders can be found nowhere but in the very experience of those who suffer injustice leads, I argue, to a radical theory and critique of society, with the potential to provide an innovative theory of social movements and a valid alternative to political liberalism.     

论仲裁裁决的撤销与不予执行——兼谈中国《仲裁法》的修改

仲裁裁决的撤销与不予执行制度是法院对仲裁进行司法监督的重要方式。本文在探究该制度在我国的来源、仲裁制度的价值以及对各国仲裁监督制度进行比较后认为,新修订的《仲裁法》不应再拘泥于1991年修订的《民事诉讼法》的规定,特别是“双轨制”和实体审查的规定,在平衡公正与效率两个原则的前提下,顺应国际立法潮流,实行仅对仲裁裁决的程序事项进行司法审查的制度,在撤销和不予执行仲裁裁决制度上实行“单轨制”,本文在文末进一步提出了具体的修改意见。     

论人的联合与双向承认法权

人的联合既是基于承认的欲望,也是承认的实现形式,从而是自由本身;相互承认是公民联合的机制和形式,公民身份则是落实、体现人的联合及其相互承认的枢机,而一以法权体制笼统之,法权即自由。法权秩序的人性基础体现为"最初之人"与"最后之人"的预设,而昭示了不同文化、政治共同体的自我政治-道德理解,展现了它们对于人世生活与人间秩序的可欲图景的不同憧憬。