How Many Seats in Congress Is Control of Redistricting Worth?

How large a benefit is partisan control of the redistricting process? Do legal constraints on redistricting—such as the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act—alter this benefit? Are institutions designed to reduce the benefit to partisan control—such as redistricting commissions—effective? To measure the effects of partisan districting on the electoral fortunes of the parties, we collect data on the partisan composition of state government, House election outcomes, and moderating institutions over an 80-year period. Our results suggest that over time, both parties have benefited from unified control, with the effects largest in states where voters were evenly divided among the parties and smallest in states where the controlling party had a large advantage in the electorate. The effects have changed over time, with both parties having equally benefited from control during the middle of the 20th century, the benefit largely disappearing in the late part of the century, and the Republican Party seeing a moderate advantage from control in the current century. The benefits of partisan control were not diminished in states with redistricting commissions. The preclearance requirement appears to have hurt the Democratic Party except when its vote share was very low. The aggregate effects of partisan redistricting are moderate in magnitude—in the modern period, this effect has typically been less than 10 House seats, with the last election where control of the House would have flipped in expectation occurring in 1954.     

How to share and utilise expertise in a police forensic department through externalisation and mutualisation

The technique of fire investigation is a forensic domain in which expertise and analogies play a central role. To learn how fire investigators use these analogies to support their work, we conducted an ethnographic study in a Swiss forensic police department. To propose a suitable knowledge-management strategy, we also evaluated the knowledge conservation and sharing within the department. Our results highlighted that actionable knowledge is registered mainly in the investigators’ memories of a few, very experienced, individuals. Without experience with fire-incident investigations, an agent generally requires help from a more experienced colleague, who will then use his memory to find a similar case, which can contribute to the solution of the ongoing one. The research also established that knowledge is exchanged orally during on-site investigations and that knowledge receivers are generally those who are present on the scene. Using these findings, we suggest building a case library to support the externalisation and sharing of knowledge.     

胎儿地位的法哲学思考——以权利之概念分析为基础

胎儿地位问题是自罗马法以来倍受法学界关注的重要课题之一。对这一问题的探讨,必须以权利之概念分析作为基础。坚持“活着出生规则”为前提,采取概括保护与个别保护相结合的立法策略,应该作为我国民法保护胎儿利益的明智选择。     

Fundamental principles of the international protection system of intellectual property rights and the applications

Legal principle, which underlies the value of the legal system, is supposed to be the origin and basis of concrete legal rules. It has also resulted from abstracting and summarizing the value and spirit of these legal rules. In light of the universality and hierarchy of legal principle, the principles of the international protection system of intellectual property rights (IPR) can be divided into the following two types: one is the fundamental principles applied to the what, why and how a legal system shall be constructed, such as principles of sovereignty, equality and mutual benefit, joint development, and international cooperation, which also can be expressed as the principles of sovereignty, international coordination and cooperation, fairness and justice. The other type includes those existing in the legal system and capable of being applied directly, such as the principle of national treatment, principle of minimum standard, principle of independence (for industrial property right), principle of independent protection (for copyright), principle of compulsory implementing patent (for patent right) and doctrine of priority (for industrial property right), etc. In my opinion, the principles of the international protection system of IPR shall follow the latter model, indicating that they shall be provided and written in the international conventions on the grounds that they can be applied directly, and that they can be universally applied to the whole international protection system of IPR instead of exclusive application to one certain system. Hereupon, the author believes that principles concerning the international protection system of IPR should include the principles of national treatment, minimum protection standard and public interest.     

刑事简易程序的发展趋势

文章在简要介绍了世界各地简易程序的情况之后 ,分析了简易程序的发展趋势 ,认为 :简易程序将向模式多样化发展 ;将体现学习国外的经验与坚持本国特色的结合 ;在目标上既要考虑提高效率 ,又要注意保护人权。     

反恐、保护人权与世界和平

从国际法,尤其是国际人权法的角度,探讨“反恐与保护人权与基本自由”的关系问题。文章认为,恐怖主义严重侵犯人权,但反恐与保护人权是相辅相成的关系,反恐措施不当也会侵害人权,并对国际反恐斗争产生严重负面影响。因此,在打击恐怖主义的同时,我们也要保护人权和基本自由,注意二者的兼容性,而不应顾此失彼。在国际层面上,国际联合反恐必须纳入国际法和国际反恐公约的框架内,应以促进和平与发展、保障基本人权为最终目的。这样才能实现反恐与人权保护的协调发展,促进世界和平与安全。     

以人为本的人性论基础浅论

“以人为本”成为我国新的治国理念。它是我国依法治国方略的必然要求,也是三个代表重要思想的应有之义。本文试图从以人为本的人性论基础角度论述以人为本与人性理论的关系,以更好地理解以人为本的内涵。     

试析《国际统一私法协会国际商事合同通则》的性质和功能

《国际统一私法协会国际商事合同通则》(简称《通则》)依其设计具有六种功能。实证分析表明,《通则》作为国际商事合同准据法的功能和作为解释工具的功能都得到了一定程度的实现。《通则》已经是现实中的实在法,是一种优良的法律资源。从《通则》的功能看其性质,可以将《通则》定性为特殊的合同法国际重述,即:《通则》是可以作为国际商事合同适用法的、部分内容可以视为国际商事惯例之成文编纂的、法典化的国际商事合同法重述。《通则》的出现使国际商法的发展进程产生了质的飞跃。我国法院、仲裁庭和企业可以考虑改变对通则的态度,从漠视转为积极运用。     

难民保护面临的国际法问题及对策

对难民提供国际保护既是人道主义的要求,也是维护国际和平与安全使然,然而拒不接受难民的趋势越来越严重。应对这一问题的法律措施,一是修改既有难民定义,扩大国际难民法的保护范围,使得各国对那些不符合既有难民定义却处于与难民同样境地的人的援助,从纯粹基于人道主义考虑的自觉自愿行为转化为法律义务。二是强调国际人权法在难民国际保护中的应有作用。将人权原理应用到难民保护领域,通过敦促国家履行国际人权保护义务来实现对难民的保护,可以克服国际难民法的固有缺陷,并强化难民国际保护的法律基础。