Intervention Theatre: performance,authenticity and expert knowledge in politicians’ travel to post-/conflict spaces

ABSTRACT

This article explores the role of official travel activities by politicians to post-/conflict spaces in German foreign policymaking. Starting from the observation that official travel justifications stress the value of authentic insights and unfiltered information, while journeys in practice are meticulously planned and staged, it asks what kind of knowing is possible, how actors make sense of the staged nature of field trips, and how multiple performances create and/or undermine notions of authenticity and first-hand expertise. The article shows that official on-site visits are composed of multiple conscious performances by all actors involved, but that these performances do not undermine the notions of authenticity and expertise. On the contrary, knowledge authenticity—or truth claims on the basis of authentic insights—and related expert authority are produced through travel-as-performance. The emphasis policymakers put on on-site presence and (the performance of) localized knowledge contradicts intervention literature’s generalized finding of a prioritization of technocratic over localized knowledge. The article draws on politics and performance scholarship and authenticity theories in tourism studies to make sense of a wealth of empirical material on the claims, practice and functions of German MPs’ journeys to post-/conflict spaces as part of broader political struggles over policy knowledge.     

高铁隧道内气动效应形成损坏痕迹特点分析

动车高速通过隧道时,运行车体推动的空气由于受到隧道壁的约束能形成能量很强的冲击气流,有时会造成一些设备设施损坏、脱落,进而危及高铁行车安全。这类事件发生后,铁路部门往往误以为是人为破坏,并以破坏案件进行上报。本文通过对特定动车行车事故的现场勘验、调查访问,分析了高铁隧道内气动效应对特殊位置设施造成损坏的过程及形成痕迹特点,准确认定了事件性质和事故发生原因,并对气动效应形成损坏痕迹和常见工具形成痕迹的区别进行了探讨。     

确立刑讯逼供者对受害人的损害赔偿责任

刑讯逼供是一种恶意侵犯公民人身权利的违法行为。在刑讯逼供者是否应当向受害人承担损害赔偿责任的问题上,许多国家和地区的立法持肯定态度,如英国、美国、法国及我国台湾地区。为充分填补受害人的损害,惩罚和遏制刑讯逼供的不法行为,我国应当确立刑讯逼供者对受害人的损害赔偿责任制度。该制度的确立应当从完善国家赔偿法和民法的有关规定来进行。     

关于保护人权、遏制刑讯逼供教育的思考

口供作为一种非常重要的证据,在刑事诉讼中发挥着非常重要的作用,为各国司法界所重视。然而,获取口供的过程常常与"保护人权"这一现代刑事诉讼价值目标相冲突,刑讯逼供屡禁不止。从公安院校的教育入手,就学员们对于"人权"、"刑讯逼供"认识的形成原因以及如何进行保护人权、遏制刑讯逼供教育进行探讨,以求使未来的执法人员从根本上树立惩罚犯罪与保护人权并重的意识,自觉维护和推动人类文明。     

透视司法公正与效率——从分析民事诉讼中指定庭审结束时间入手

随着公民权利意识、法治意识的不断提高,以及人民法院在定纷止争中的重要性日益增强,公民通过诉讼讨要权利、找回正义的诉求呈现不断上升的趋势,人民法院审理民事案件的数量空前增加,司法公正尤其是程序正义再次面临前所未有的挑战,厘清司法公正与效率的关系,找出真正影响公正与效率的因素,并提出有效的对策在当前特殊的时代背景下显得极为重要。     

审前程序中的刑事辩护权改革思考

刑事辩护权改革在侦查阶段应遵循辩护权相对被动的原则,辩护人只须具有会见权、讯问在场权和要求对羁押合法性进行审查的申请权,无须赋予其调查取证权。在审查起诉阶段,应遵循控辩双方资源共享的原则,应建立证据开示制度,辩护人应具有全面阅卷权、调查取证权。     

Medical Practice in Early Colonial Spanish America: A Prospectus

This paper outlines the current state of research on medical practice in early colonial Spanish America. It argues that medical practice in Spain was more diverse than generally supposed, and that this complicated the exchange that occurred between Native American, African and European medical traditions in the Americas. Control of medical practice in Spanish America was exercised not through the establishment of state institutions, but through the close working of the state and the Church that on the one hand promoted medical care as a charitable activity and on the other sought to suppress practices that were incompatible with Catholic beliefs. However, due to the shortage of trained medical practitioners, the authorities were relatively tolerant of alternative medical practices and this enabled a process of exchange and fusion. The paper illustrates these processes with respect to medical practice in Cartagena de Indias in the early seventeenth century. It concludes with suggestions of avenues for future research.     

Journeys to the limits of first-hand knowledge: politicians’ on-site visits in zones of conflict and intervention

ABSTRACT

This article explores the practice and political significance of politicians’ journeys to conflict zones. It focuses on the German example, looking at field trips to theatres of international intervention as a way of first-hand knowledge in policymaking. Paying tribute to Lisa Smirl and her work on humanitarian spaces, objects and imaginaries and on liminality in aid worker biographies, two connected arguments are developed. First, through the exploration of the routinized practices of politicians’ field trips the article shows how these journeys not only remain confined to the ‘auxiliary space’ of aid/intervention, but that it is furthermore a staged reality of this auxiliary space that most politicians experience on their journeys. The question is then asked, second, what politicians actually experience on their journeys and how their experiences relate to their policy knowledge about conflict and intervention. It is shown that political field trips enable sensory/affectual, liminoid and liminal experiences, which have functions such as authority accumulation, agenda setting, community building, and civilizing domestic politics, while at the same time reinforcing, in most cases, pre-existing conflict and intervention imaginaries.     

鉴定结论和勘验笔录作为证据种类的困境与未来

鉴定结论和勘验笔录作为独立证据在现行法律框架内存在种种困惑与悖论 ,文章认为在未来证据立法中应取消二者的证据资格 ,鉴定人、勘验人纳入证人范畴 ,鉴定、勘验为证据调查手段     

刑事勘验技术在毁林案件侦破工作中的应用

毁林案件在社会转型期呈多发趋势,严重损害了人民群众的合法利益。刑事勘验技术在侦破毁林案件中有着重要的技术支持作用,具体运用时要注意掌握方法和技巧。