The High Representative and directoires in European foreign policy: the case of the nuclear negotiations with Iran

ABSTRACT

The negotiations with Iran about its nuclear programme have seen the most protracted involvement of the High Representatives of the European Union in a high-profile policy case. This article traces the evolution of the High Representatives’ participation in the negotiations, from the first contacts with the E3 (Germany, France and the United Kingdom) in 2003 to the adoption of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015. It focuses on the institutional role the High Representatives played in relation with the directoires leading the talks with Iran – first the E3 and, since 2006, E3/EU. In this context, it examines the personal and organisational factors that affected the influence each of the three High Representatives (Javier Solana, Catherine Ashton and Federica Mogherini) had in regard to the directoires. The analysis distinguishes specifically between the phases before and after the 2009 Lisbon Treaty. The article shows how similar personal qualities of the three High Representatives in terms of problem-solving and trust-building gave them political capital that enabled them to adopt a fairly constant role as bridge-builders within the directoires and between the directoires and other actors. The reforms of the Lisbon Treaty had only a minor impact.     

论法官惩戒委员会的法律地位

设立法官惩戒委员会,并由该委员会对法官履职是否构成违法审判提供专业意见,是完善法官惩戒制度的重要内容和制度创新。对法官惩戒委员会的定位与职能,学界的建议与实际的制度建构并不完全一致。各地在设立法官惩戒委员会的过程中,因对其法律地位的理解不深、不透甚至存在偏差,导致其处于“无功能”的状态。作为一个全新的制度设计,在有域外先例可供借鉴的情况下,吸收其有益经验,再根据中国现实国情来建构,是制度建设的有效途径。当前,应根据修订后的我国《法官法》对法官惩戒委员会的相关规定,在明确法官惩戒委员会法律地位的基础上,在设立主体、委员构成、设立模式上下功夫,并做好与其他职能部门的衔接工作,确保法官惩戒委员会依法建构并保证制度得以顺利运行。     

刑事被害人当事人化的反思与制度重构

刑事被害人当事人化的实质是犯罪损害追诉方式的公私合一,该制度设计混淆了公益和私益两种不同性质的诉讼,导致两种权益保护相互冲突进而对刑事司法结果公正造成负面影响。公私分离是刑事被害人去当事人化的当然制度选择,其立法对策主要包括在刑事立法中确立被害人为特殊诉讼参与人、废除被害人在刑事审判中就定罪量刑发表意见的权利、废止被害人刑事自诉权和切断其引起刑事二审、再审的程序路径。同时需要完善相关配套举措,如允许被害人对其物质和精神损害单独提起民事诉讼、完善精神损害赔偿制度、建立刑事被害人国家补偿制度等。     

银发浪潮下的中国老年人力资源开发

人口老龄化是中国当前及今后很长时期都必须面临的重要问题,充分认识到老年人力资源开发的重要意义,挖掘老年人口红利将成为经济社会发展的新动力。中国拥有规模庞大的老年人力资源,但老年人口实际就业率并不高。影响老年人力资源开发和利用的因素既有社会观念、强制的退休年龄制度等宏观因素,也有老年人的就业意愿、健康状况、受教育程度等微观因素。促进老年人就业,实现老有所为是中国积极应对人口老龄化的重要举措。研究提出如下政策建议:转变社会观念,营造老年人力资源价值观念;重点开发低龄健康老年人力资源;加强对老年人的教育和培训;重视对老年就业的法律保护;改革现有的强制退休年龄制度,实行弹性退休制度。     

What Factors Influence the Intentions of Individuals to Engage in Tax Evasion? Evidence from Ghana

ABSTRACT

This study examines the views of students on the ethics of tax evasion, their intentions to evade tax, and investigates the factors that predict such intentions. Relying on the extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the study investigated whether attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and moral obligation may be good predictors of the intention to evade tax. Data were gathered from 662 students of University of Ghana Business School using questionnaires. The hypotheses were tested using the structural equation modelling technique. Results indicate that the intention to evade tax among the students is low and most respondents generally perceive tax evasion as an unethical practice. The results also demonstrate that attitude, subjective norms and moral obligations have important implications on the intention to evade tax. The evidence we provide should be useful to governments and tax agencies interested in promoting responsible tax compliance behaviour among individual taxpayers.     

(Re)Productive Discourses: Media Coverage of Children Born of War in Colombia

Children born as a result of wartime sexual violence have not gained a place in the stories covered by the Colombian media. Based on an extensive content analysis (using the software MAXQDA 12) of newspaper articles published between 1990 and 2015, ethnographic content analysis, and drawing upon feminist critical discourse analysis, this paper explores how information about these children is presented as part of storylines that use the explanatory framework of sexual violence as a weapon of war. In those storylines, children emerge not as independent subjects but as part of social representations of female victims of wartime sexual violence and male perpetrators.     

‘That splendid body of women’: nursing,professional registration,and suffragette militancy

ABSTRACT

In the decades before World War One, a group of women fought for their right to control their own futures, claiming that their governance was in the hands of men whose interests lay in keeping women subservient. Initially articulated by an educated, middle-class few, the women's demands were embraced by widening numbers of both women and men. They saw their hopes dashed on several occasions by political manoeuvring, and only after WWI did their demands begin to be met. This is not an account of the women’s suffrage movement, but rather of the fight for the registration of trained nurses. Both movements claimed the right of women to be actors in their public lives and both faced public condemnation for transgressing social boundaries. The two movements interacted, with nurses connecting their struggle to the wider call for women's rights, and with the suffrage movement foregrounding nurses as disenfranchised women professionals.     

祖孙双单亲比对的匹配概率研究

目的推导祖孙双单亲比对的匹配概率(PMGDS)公式,并以随机模拟法进行验证。方法首先,根据定义推导PMGDS的数学公式,依据此公式在19个基因座上计算PMGDS的数值。其次,以随机模拟法设计实验,在19个基因座上计算PMGDS的模拟值。最后,以模拟值对比公式值的方式,对公式进行实验验证。结果研究获得了PMGDS的数学公式,经模拟实验验证显示出良好的符合。结论祖孙双单亲比对的错判概率较低,具有很好的应用价值。     

论不追究刑事责任

我国《刑法》和《刑事诉讼法》用三个不同的概念对不追究刑事责任作了规定。《刑事诉讼法》第16条所规定的不追究刑事责任可分为三种情形,但《刑法》第201条第4款中规定的不予追究刑事责任并未归属其中。现行刑事立法在不追究刑事责任的规定中概念不统一,《刑法》在规定不追究刑事责任方面不当缺位,已有的规定也较为粗糙,《刑事诉讼法》缺乏特赦令执行的程序规定,我们有必要完善不追究刑事责任的刑事立法规定。     

The Dark Sides of Artificial Intelligence: An Integrated AI Governance Framework for Public Administration

ABSTRACT

As government and public administration lag behind the rapid development of AI in their efforts to provide adequate governance, they need respective concepts to keep pace with this dynamic progress. The literature provides few answers to the question of how government and public administration should respond to the great challenges associated with AI and use regulation to prevent harm. This study analyzes AI challenges and former AI regulation approaches. Based on this analysis and regulation theory, an integrated AI governance framework is developed that compiles key aspects of AI governance and provides a guide for the regulatory process of AI and its application. The article concludes with theoretical implications and recommendations for public officers.