The bugle of justice: the romantic socialism of William Morris and George Orwell

This essay considers three possible applications of the concept of justice to the work of William Morris and George Orwell. It begins with a brief look at the treatment of criminals in Morris's utopian writing: a specific issue which anticipates some of the points of the modern restorative justice model. The bulk of the essay is devoted to the elaboration of four interconnected elements of the utopia of romantic socialism in Morris and Orwell: elements that provide the positive building blocks of the just society of human well‐being. The roles of the past, of nationality, of the natural environment, and of the demechanization of labor in the creation of the community of the future are considered. The final section, by drawing on several other specimens of socialist utopianism, examines the insufficiency of emotional ethical responses to injustice in producing a convincing version of ideal arrangements, and thereby highlights the value of the romantic visions of Morris and Orwell.     

The Use of Force in British Foreign Policy: From New Labour to the Coalition

This article studies the ideational underpinnings of the UK Coalition government's ‘liberal conservative’ foreign policy. It begins by suggesting that an Iraq‐centric account of Blair's foreign policy suggests a grand vision on the prime minister's part that was lacking from his earlier foreign policy adventures, which relied on a more conventional form of British statecraft. The second section contends that the Gordon Brown years 2007–10 and, since the end of New Labour, Coalition foreign policy, can be seen as a response both to the substance and style of Blair's highly personalised stewardship of foreign policy post‐9/11. The war on terror and the invasion of Iraq were accompanied by a seemingly open‐ended democracy promotion around the globe which was quite out of character with past British practice. The article argues, therefore, that under Brown and Cameron cautious pragmatism has tended to win out over the proclamation of grand strategic ambition.     

Report of the Commission on the Consequences of Devolution for the House of Commons (the McKay Commission)

The report of the McKay Commission on the Consequences of Devolution for the House of Commons is reviewed. The Commission, which contained experts on parliamentary procedure, raised a number of important and difficult questions; the answers are less impressive than the questions. In view of the difficulties of any scheme, including that proposed by the Commission, for what is popularly known as “English Votes on English Laws,” policymakers should revisit one of the options that was specifically ruled out of McKay's terms of reference. This would be a reduction in the numbers, but not the powers, of MPs from Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in the way that applied to Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1979.     

SOMATOTYPING,ANTIMODERNISM, AND THE PRODUCTION OF CRIMINOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE*

This study analyzes the work of William H. Sheldon, the psychologist, physician, and advocate of the study of body types. It investigates how he arrived at his much‐repeated finding that a correlation exists between mesomorphy (a stocky, muscular body build) and delinquency and how his ideas were validated and perpetuated. It reviews what Sheldon actually said about the causes of crime; identifies his goals in searching for a relationship between body shape and criminality; explains how he found audiences for his biological theory at a time when sociological approaches dominated criminology; and attempts to understand the current criminological ambivalence about the scientific status of Sheldon's work, despite its discreditation decades ago. I argue that the tripartite structure of Sheldon's thought attracted three different audiences–methodologists, social scientists, and supporters–and that it encouraged the supporters to fund his research without reference to the critiques of the social scientists. I also argue that somatotyping was part of a broader antimodernist reaction within international scientific communities against the dislocations of twentieth‐century life. To understand the origins, acceptance, and maintenance of criminological ideas, we need a historical perspective on figures of the past. Positivism may inform us about what is true and false, but we also need to know how truth and falsity have been constructed over time and how the ideas of earlier criminologists were shaped by their personal and social contexts.     

老骥伏枥 日新月异——评William Tetley教授的新书《海上货物索赔》（第四版）

William Tetley教授是国际知名的海商法专家,2008年,其封山之作《海上货物索赔》第四版发行。该书结构更加完整,内容浩瀚翔实,观点正确,言之有物,并就海上货物运输法相关的新生问题、热点问题进行研讨。