法律语言本质特征的批判性分析——准确性、模糊性抑或严谨性

关于法律语言特征已有相关著述,主要秉持两种观点：一种认为法律语言的本质特征是准确性,另一种认为是模糊性。这两种观点的论据均欠妥当。法律语言的本质特征集中体现在立法语言中,通观我国法律条文的语言表述,法律语言区别于其他语言的本质特征当为严谨性。从词、句和修辞等维度进一步论证,法律语言的本质特征也当为严谨性。     

Antecedents of Psychological Empowerment: A Study of Greek Employees in Municipalities

ABSTRACT

Psychological empowerment has received a burgeoning attention among scholars and practitioners in the last decades. However, little is known about its antecedents in the public sector, and even more in municipalities. The present study attempts to fill this gap by examining the relationship of leader-member exchange (LMX), role conflict and role ambiguity with employees’ psychological empowerment. Data were collected from 210 administrative employees of nine Greek municipalities. Results supported our hypotheses that these three factors constitute important antecedents of such employees’ psychological empowerment. Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.     

Managing conflicting ‘Truth Claims’ – ambiguity in the diplomat's toolkit in East-Asian Island conflict

The article is a study of managing interstate relations via ambiguity and secrecy. At the focal point of the article is the different constitutive logic of domestic politics and diplomacy in conceiving and managing social reality; with the former implying the notion of community and the latter separateness – the difference that allows for diplomatic conduct to rely on tacit agreements and ambiguity for managing contradictory ‘truth claims’, as China and Japan did in the case of the Ryukyu and later the Senkaku Islands. Such successful management is conditional on the parties' ability to control domestic narratives avoiding contradictions in their ‘truth claims’ becoming too blatant. Yet, modern technologies increasingly undermine states' capacities for this. The leaking on YouTube of the collision of a Chinese trawler with the ship of the Japanese Coast Guard in 2010 offers a perfect example. The incident aggravated the conflict and triggered intense debates on secrecy in Japan. The article concludes by arguing that once ambiguity and tacit agreements break down, leaders should turn to their public – recognize that noisy nationalist are frequently but a minority – and attempt to renegotiate ‘truth claims’ domestically to create the basis for a compromise.     

ON AMBIGUITY IN PERCEPTIONS OF RISK:IMPLICATIONS FOR CRIMINAL DECISION MAKING AND DETERRENCE*

Deterrence theorists and researchers have argued that the critical dimension of sanction certainty is its level—increasing the certainty of punishment from a lower to a higher level will inhibit criminal conduct. However, the true certainty of punishment is rarely known with much precision. Both Sherman (1990) and Nagin (1998) have suggested that ambiguity about the level of punishment certainty is itself consequential in the decision to commit or refrain from crime. Here, we investigate this proposition. We find some evidence that individuals are “ambiguity averse” for decisions involving losses such as criminal punishments. This finding means that a more ambiguous perceived certainty of punishment is a greater deterrent of some crimes than a nominally equivalent but less ambiguous one. However, this effect depends on how large an individual's risk certainty perception is initially. That is, we find evidence for “boundary effects” (Casey and Scholz, 1991a, 1991b) in which this effect holds for lower probabilities but reverses for higher ones. For higher detection probabilities, individuals become “ambiguity seeking” such that a less ambiguous detection probability has more deterrent value than a nominally equivalent but more ambiguous detection probability. Results are presented from two distinct, but complementary, analysis samples and empirical approaches. These samples include a survey to college students with several hypothetical choice problems and data from the Pathways to Desistance study, a longitudinal investigation of serious adolescent offenders transitioning from adolescence to young adulthood.     

From ambiguity to contestation: discourse(s) of non-traditional security in the ASEAN community

‘Non-traditional security’ (NTS) is prominently featured in the agenda of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other ASEAN-led institutions in the Asia-Pacific. ‘NTS’ brings together a series transnational and non-military security threats that are considered common among regional states, urgent for them to attend to, and non-sensitive all at the same time. This a priori makes it a self-evident focus of attempts to bring regional security cooperation ‘to a higher plane’. However, this paper reveals that the uncontroversial character of NTS is overestimated, by shedding light on the co-existence of divergent – and potentially contradictory – interpretations of its meaning and implications in ASEAN and the wider region. In a context where ASEAN's relevance to the pursuit of regional security is increasingly being measured against its (in)ability to provide a coherent approach to security challenges that affect the region, the contested nature of NTS has important implications for the grouping's resilience in the twenty-first century.     

政策模糊视阈下试点政策执行机制研究 ——基于低碳城市试点政策的案例分析

试点是中国政策实践过程中的一种常见现象,现有研究多从政策制定和政策创新扩散的视角研究试点的运行机制,而忽视了试点的政策属性。试点是一种特殊的政策类型,其执行不同于一般的政策执行过程。从府际关系基础上所形成的政策模糊属性出发,采用案例研究方法,通过对低碳城市试点政策进行深入剖析,探究试点政策的执行机制。研究发现,试点政策经过一系列复杂的动态过程,依靠四种执行机制得以落实:一是在执行中规划,即以规划推动执行的方案规划机制;二是双轨并行的执行制度保障机制;三是多重嵌套的试点示范落实机制;四是模糊与清晰交叉共存的策略选择机制。四种机制相互衔接、相互依存,推动了试点政策的落实。     

试析警察执法中的模糊语言

模糊语言在警察执法中有其存在的必然性和合理性,某些情况下,甚至起着精确语言无法替代的作用,它能够增强警察执法语言的准确性、技巧性、恰当性、庄重性。但＂模糊＂不等于＂含混＂＂歧义＂,使用中要正确区分;同时,模糊语言有其适用范围,使用中还不能超越模糊度;而制定语言规范是消除不当使用模糊语言的有效途径。     

歧义结构的歧义指数

歧义指数包括歧义句型的歧义指数P1和歧义句例的歧义指数P2 ,P1值在较大程度上决定P2 值。由同一歧义句型生成的歧义句例 ,它们的歧义指数P2 会各不相同。分析歧义指数对研究歧义度具有重要意义。     

言语歧义探究

歧义是英语ambiguty的汉译,它反映了语言的形式与内容(意义)的矛盾这一普遍事实,研究歧义可以考察同一语言形式表达多种语义内容的可能性,考察表面相同的形式实质上的差异性,从而深化对语言形式与内容的种种对应关系的认识。