Critiquing the U.S. characterization,attribution and retaliation laws and policies for cyberattacks

This paper critiques the U.S. characterization, attribution, and retaliation laws and policies for cyberattacks. Characterization, attribution, and retaliation are part of the most important aspects of responding to cyberattacks. The U.S. does not have a clearly defined characterization process, other than the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Threat Table which characterizes the different motivations for carrying out cyberattacks by cyber threat actors. This Threat Table has hardly changed since 2005, yet, cyber threat actors continually develop their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and conceal their real motivations for carrying out cyberattacks. Like characterization, the U.S. does not have a known attribution procedure, nor is a single agency tasked with the function of attribution. Different agencies – the Department of Justice (DoJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF), and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) – and even private sectors companies, participate in the attribution process. This invites potential contradiction and interference with the attribution process. Though, unlike characterization and attribution, the U.S. retaliation policies are contained in different documents, none has the preciseness required to be effective. This paper thus, makes recommendations for each of these aspects of cyberattack response.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Oil Industry in the Russian Arctic: Global Norms and Neo-Paternalism

Examining the oil and gas industry in the Russian Arctic, this article investigates the gap between corporate social responsibility (CSR) as articulated in corporate offices and implemented at the local level. In Russia, global CSR norms interact with weak formal institutions and the strong informal expectations of state officials and local communities that companies bear responsibility for welfare and infrastructure. As a result, the concept of citizens as ‘stakeholders’ is underdeveloped. Instead, local residents remain subjects within a neo-paternalist system of governance that mimics some elements of the Soviet past. Compensation for damages to indigenous peoples has blurred legal obligations and the voluntary nature of CSR. However, the CSR in the region is constantly developing and formal methods of compensation may assist in clarifying the scope and practice of CSR.     

The Legal Protection for China's Flexible Workers during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a chain of socioeconomic effects worldwide. China’s social and economic operations and labor market have also been suffered because of this global crisis. During hard times, flexible employment becomes an important means for stabilizing employment. However, the pandemic also exposed the problems ensuing from insufficient legal protection for flexible workers. First, there are some gaps and defects in the labor and social security laws in terms of their scope and applicability to flexible workers. Second, there were limitations in the support and protection policies for flexible workers at the early stages of the pandemic. Although the government implemented measures soon after the outbreak of COVID-19, their role is still constrained by the legal lacunae in protecting flexible workers. As flexible employment will continue to play a significant role in China’s labor market, the State Council issued a far-reaching official document in July 28, 2020 to support it. This document indicates the directions for providing better legal protection for flexible workers, which contains expanding the legal scope and enriching the legal protection. Based on the realities and latest policies, the legal protection for flexible workers should be systemically improved in the future.     

Does counter-mobilization contain right-wing populist movements? Evidence from Germany

Right-wing populist (RWP) movements have been on the rise in Western democracies. Outside of party politics, such movements regularly organize demonstrations against political elites and minority groups. At the same time, civil society coalitions have mobilized against these movements. Yet we know little about the effect of counter-demonstrations on RWP protest activities. We derive competing theoretical expectations from previous work. On the one hand, counter-mobilization reduces mobilization because the original movement is less likely to achieve its goals (expected utility/costs). On the other hand, clashes and standoffs between opposing movements facilitate mobilization through polarization and anger (identity/emotions). We empirically analyze movement–countermovement dynamics using a new city-level event dataset on street protests by the German Pegida movement and its opponents. In our quantitative analysis, we investigate how counter-mobilization is associated with the onset of Pegida protests, their intensity in terms of participant numbers, and their demobilization. Counter-mobilization does not prevent protest onset, but large counter-demonstrations are associated with larger subsequent Pegida protests, and violence against Pegida supporters reduces the likelihood that they will stop protesting.     

合同的绝对无效和相对无效——一种技术化的合同效力评价规则解说

有效、可撤销、效力待定及无效制度仅仅是合同法上的合同效力评价规则,不妨碍其他民事规则、行政法规则、甚至刑法规则同时适用。合同无效有时可以更好地惩戒不法当事人,但有时却使得不法当事人逃离合同约束,从其非法行为中获利,甚至还会损害合同善意相对人以及和合同相关的善意第三人的利益。合同相对无效和绝对无效的区分,能有效保护善意相对人和善意第三人,有力地回应现代商事交易安全的需要。     

The Time That Was Broken, the Home That Was Razed: Deconstructing Slavenka Drakulic's Storytelling About Yugoslav War Crimes

¹In this article, I analyze the conceptualization of transitionaljustice underwriting Slavenka Drakuli's book, They Would NeverHurt a Fly, on the trials at the International Criminal Tribunalfor the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. I adopt a criticaland deconstructive strategy of interpretation that reveals Drakuli'sidea of ‘justice for the Balkans’ as not only internallyincoherent and fractured but also politically problematic. Iintroduce two concepts as central to Drakuli's storytellingabout transitional justice in the former Yugoslavia: (i) theidea of a ‘broken time’ and (ii) the idea of a ‘razedhome.’ I conclude that Drakuli's narratives of justiceare aimed at repairing broken time and rebuilding the razedhome in a way that reveals the author's redemptive, rather thanpolitical, thinking about transitional justice.     

Rethinking Explicit Consent and Intimate Data: The Case of Menstruapps

Feminist Legal Studies - Period-tracking software applications or ‘menstruapps’ have witnessed a surge in popularity in recent years. At the same time, many of them are a part of the...     

电子政务环境下的公民参与机制变迁研究

本文在阐述了公民参与的重要性基础上,从公民参与中信息流动方式的不同、参与深入的程度以及政府和公民的关系等方面,分别总结了在电子政务环境下公民参与机制的三个层次的特点、积极意义和不足。研究发现,信息技术的发展虽是民主进程的一个重要的推动力,但是信息技术的快速发展并不能保证公民参与的完全有效。所以,必须采取一些有效措施来进一步完善公民参与机制和改善参与环境。     

Comment on James R. Cohen's “abandoned housing: Exploring lessons from Baltimore”

Abstract

For most cities, the possibility of transforming unused property into community and city assets is as yet hypothetical. Fiscal constraints limit the amount of land acquisition, relocation, and demolition that cities can undertake. Private investors, unsure of which neighborhoods have a chance of becoming self‐sustaining, are reluctant to take risks in untested markets.

Cities need to create citywide planning strategies for land aggregation and neighborhood stabilization and to develop analyses of the risks and opportunities associated with redevelopment opportunities in specific markets. Research seems sorely needed. Although the policy world cannot and will not stand still waiting for academics to design the perfect study or to collect all the data to model the potential effects of various policy options and investments, analysis that can play a more immediately supportive role can and should be done now.     

Creating markets in no-trust environments: The law and economics of smart contracts

Smart contracts, self-executing agreements based on blockchain technology, have the capacity to create trust in what we term no-trust contracting environments. We argue that using them in such environments is the path to unleash the full potential of smart contracts. Compared to the contract enforcement mechanisms characterized by traditional contract law or relational contracts, smart contracts can offer a superior solution for facilitating trade.Several lawyers and economists have debated whether smart contracts might offer the prospect of cheaper, faster and better transactions. As we discuss below, contract law scholars caution that they neither replicate the relational context essential for the day-to-day practice of contracting nor offer a superior solution to problems addressed by traditional contract law, such as contract validity and legality. We clarify and systematize the current thinking on the legal nature and reliability of smart contracts, and address the concerns of contract law scholars. While doing that, we suggest a step forward in characterizing contracting environments, contract enforcement mechanisms and the trust relationship underlying contracts.