刑事和解博弈的均衡性分析

在国家既定的法律体制框架下,被害人与犯罪人之间存在着一定的博弈,他们理性地作出自己的策略选择。从动态角度运用博弈理论分析被害人与犯罪人在刑事和解过程中的策略空间及理性选择,进而得出刑事和解博弈的均衡性实际上是一种权力与权利、权利与权利之间达成的和谐状态。     

不正当关联交易的刑事规制

不正当关联交易侵害社会的整体利益,有必要将之纳入我国《刑法》调整。本文首先分析了不正当关联交易的概念和构成特征;其次对刑罚权介入不正当关联交易的必要性进行了论证,并提出了刑罚权介入的三大原则：最后手段原则、必要性原则和适度原则。最后,对我国关涉不正当关联交易的刑事立法的缺陷进行了分析,并从犯罪主体、刑罚配置、处罚原则等多方面提出了完善刑事立法的建议。     

利益博弈与政策的有效执行

政策执行是政策过程的关键环节,政策执行的有效与否关系到公共政策的成败。在利益多元化的今天,我国的房价调控深陷"改革陷阱"之中,政策执行过程中的多重利益博弈是其中的主要因素。为了避免畸形的利益博弈导致社会发展失衡,必须为规范利益博弈做出合理的制度安排。     

论正当法律程序原则

正当法律程序,作为反映现代民主法治理念的重要程序理论,因其内蕴的普适公正性而越来越受到世界各国的普遍认可,并作为考量司法程序是否文明、理性的重要理论标准。但对于刑事诉讼中何为"正当程序"并无普遍的共识,本文从正当法律程序的内涵、判断基准以及违反正当法律程序的法律效果等方面对正当法律程序原则进行探讨与分析。     

论行政裁量的利益沟通方式

在现代社会，行政裁量涉及各种不同利益的博弈、协调和权衡，其实质是一个利益沟通的过程。为实现对行政裁量的法治化治理，有必要在行政正当原则的统领下，进一步完善现有的参与、听证和公开的利益沟通方式，并构建新型的契约、磋商、和解、调解等实质性利益沟通方式。     

法律程序正当:警察与犯罪嫌疑人利益平衡的基础

2011年初,我国社会主义法治建设取得里程碑式重要成就--中国特色社会主义法律体系正式形成.要解决我国社会转型时期司法改革进程中的重重难题,构建和谐、法治、人道的司法环境,不能仅靠正当法律程序的程序文明和法治文明.但毋庸置疑,侦查领域的正当法律程序问题是与刑事司法改革最具相关性的问题之一.在我国现行侦查模式下警察侦查活...     

浅析行贿犯罪中的“谋取不正当利益”

本文对修正行贿犯罪中"谋取不正当利益"这个主观要件提出一些意见和建议,从而使刑事法网更加规范,以利于司法实践中对行贿犯罪的认定,适当扩大行贿犯罪的打击范围,进而更有力地打击受贿犯罪。     

论行贿罪的主观要件

行贿罪的主观要件在我国刑事立法中有一个从无到有的变化过程,前后立法规定不尽一致。1997年刑法将行贿罪的主观要件表述为“为谋取不正当利益,”理论界对这一主观要件的内涵和外延的界定存在分歧,实践中对此也理解不一,导致行贿罪在适用中很不一致。本文在回顾立法变迁的基础上,就行贿罪主观要件的内涵和外延及判断标准等问题进行了有益探讨。     

污点证人豁免及其博弈分析

污点证人豁免 ,是指污点证人因作证而享受原本应受刑罚全部或部分豁免的一种刑事司法措施。美国的污点证人豁免规则发展得最为完善 ,它的发展经历了“使用豁免”(或称利用豁免 )、“衍生豁免”(或称派生豁免 )和“罪行豁免”(或称交易豁免 )的豁免形态。豁免诉讼博弈的标准形式博弈结构由该诉讼博弈主体、战略、收益组合而成。它的博弈解是由占优解、纳什均衡解以及精炼贝叶斯均衡解等构成 ,诉讼博弈规则的失范构成豁免诉讼博弈的证据黑市 ,也需要引入衡平原则来求解其诉讼博弈解。     

从刑事优先到民事优先

但凡遇有刑民牵连的案件,我国曾经的司法原则是绝对地强调国家公权优先,及至排斥公民对民事权利的行使,也即刑事优先。但随着改革开放的深入、市场经济的发展及权利本位观的确立,我国的司法原则已开始从刑事优先向民事优先转变,即在事涉刑事案件时,公民的民事诉权可与国家的刑事公诉权并行不悖,及至民事诉讼可先于刑事公诉而提起;与此同时,国不与民争利,公民对犯罪者的正当债权亦优于国家基于犯罪人犯罪而对之产生的债权。法律工作者应当与时俱进,自觉地践行从刑事优先到民事优先的转换。     

世界贸易组织法学方法论问题刍议

方法论的确定和方法的选取及应用对法学研究具有十分重要的意义。世界贸易组织法的本质是国家个体主义的,采用个体主义方法论指导世界贸易组织法学的研究符合世界贸易组织法的本质属性。在抛弃了传统法学的价值分析方法后,成本收益分析方法和国际政治分析方法更能揭示世界贸易组织法的判断标准,另外,比较分析方法和博弈分析方法对于世界贸易组织法学的研究也很有必要。同时在应用上述分析方法进行研究时应注意具体方法的适用条件和应用成效。     

Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana on Avidyā

The concept of avidyā is one of the central categories in the Advaita of Śaṇkara and Maṇḍana. Shifting the focus from māyā, interpreted either as illusion or as the divine power, this concept brings ignorance to the forefront in describing duality and bondage. Although all Advaitins accept avidyā as a category, its scope and nature is interpreted in multiple ways. Key elements in Maṇḍana’s philosophy include the plurality of avidyā, individual selves as its substrate and the Brahman as its field (viṣaya), and the distinction in avidyā between non-apprehension and misapprehension. A closer investigation shows that Maṇḍana is directly influenced by Bhartṛhari’s linguistic non-dualism in developing the concept of avidyā. This study also compares other key constituents such as vivartta and pariṇāma that are relevant to the analysis of avidyā. As the concept of counter-image (pratibimba) emerges as a distinct stream of Advaita subsequent to Maṇḍana, this study also compares the application of pratibimba in the writings of Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana.     

Unraveling the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kāvyaprakāśa</Emphasis>: Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa’s idiosyncratic sequence of topics in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candrāloka</Emphasis>

In his twelfth century alaṃkāraśāstra, the Candrāloka, Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa reverses the sequence of topics found in Mammaṭa’s Kāvyapr-akāśa, an earlier and immensely popular work. With such a structural revisionism, Jayadeva asserts the autonomy of his own work and puts forth an ambitious critique of earlier approaches to literary analysis. Jayadeva investigates the technical and aesthetic components of poetry in the first part of the Candrāloka, prior to his formal semantic investigations in the latter half of the text, thus suggesting that aesthetic evaluations of poetry beneficially inform scientific investigations of language. Jayadeva’s organization of his chapters on the semantic operations, moreover, intimates that the study of suggestive and metaphoric functions of language clarifies our understanding of denotation, which is conventionally understood to be the primary and direct path of verbal designation.     

The Supreme Array Scripture: A New Interpretation of the Title “Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra”

This article argues for a new interpretation of the Sanskrit compound gaṇḍa-vyūha as it is used in the common title of the Mahāyāna text the Gaṇḍavyūha-Sūtra.The author begins by providing a brief history of the sūtra’s appellations in Chinese and Tibetan sources. Next, the meanings of gaṇḍa (the problematic member of the compound) are explored. The author proposes that contemporary scholars have overlooked a meaning of gaṇḍa occurring in some compounds, wherein gaṇḍa can mean simply “great,” “big” or “massive.” This general sense is particularly common in the compound gaṇda-śaila (a “massive rock” or “boulder”) and is found in such texts as the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the Harivaṃśa and the Harṣacarita. Following the discussion of Gaṇḍa, the author examines the term vyūha (“array”) as it is used in the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra. The article concludes with the suggestion that a more appropriate translation of the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra would be “The Supreme array Scripture.”     

Evaluation of six presumptive tests for blood, their specificity, sensitivity, and effect on high molecular-weight DNA

Luminol, leuchomalachite green, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, Hemident, and Bluestar are all used as presumptive tests for blood. In this study, the tests were subjected to dilute blood (from 1:10,000 to 1:10,000,000), many common household substance, and chemicals. Samples were tested for DNA to determine whether the presumptive tests damaged or destroyed DNA. The DNA loci tested were D2S1338 and D19S433. Leuchomalachite green had a sensitivity of 1:10,000, while the remaining tests were able to detect blood to a dilution of 1:100,000. Substances tested include saliva, semen, potato, tomato, tomato sauce, tomato sauce with meat, red onion, red kidney bean, horseradish, 0.1 M ascorbic acid, 5% bleach, 10% cupric sulfate, 10% ferric sulfate, and 10% nickel chloride. Of all the substances tested, not one of the household items reacted with every test; however, the chemicals did. DNA was recovered and amplified from luminol, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, and Bluestar, but not from leuchomalachite green or Hemident.     

Monks Who Have Sex: Pārājika Penance in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms

In the study of Buddhism it is commonly accepted that a monk or nun who commits a pārājika offence is permanently and irrevocably expelled from the Buddhist monastic order. This view is based primarily on readings of the Pāli Vinaya. With the exception of the Pāli Vinaya, however, all other extant Buddhist monastic law codes (Dharmaguptaka, Mahāsāṅghika, Mahīśāsaka, Sarvāstivāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda) contain detailed provisions for monks and nuns who commit pārājikas but nevertheless wish to remain within the saṅgha. These monastics are not expelled. Rather, they are granted a special status known as the śikṣādattaka. In this paper I explore the rules. concerning pārājika penance and the śikṣādattaka with specific regard to monastic celibacy. Given that five out of six extant law codes recognise this remarkable accommodation to the rule of celibacy, I argue that we must look to Vinayas other than the Pāli Vinaya if we are to arrive at a nuanced and representative view of Indian Buddhist monasticism.

Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 C.E.)

     

Family breakdown and the ‘Welfare Child’ in 19th and 20th century Britain

This article traces new cycles of interest in past children as distinct from past childhood. Recent work highlighting that a conceptualisation of childhood existed even in periods with few written records closes the chapter begun by Philippe Ariès in 1960. Instead, there has been a new surge of interest in children on the edges of family life, as well as children in similarly liminal positions between the worlds of adults and children: runaways, delinquents and orphans. Several themes in the literature are identified, based on the conflicting ideas of ‘body/mind’, ‘victim/threat’, ‘needs/rights’. It is noted that researchers are using more imaginative ways of reaching the lived experience of children than the family or institutional framework, and that an increasing link is drawn between historical and modern concerns such as child abuse and the care of ‘at risk’ children.     

Vedic Language and Vaiṣṇava Theology:Madhva’s Use of Nirukta in his Ṛgbhāṣya

This article explores the way in which Madhva (1238–1317), the founder of the Dvaita Vedānta system of Hindu thought, reformulates the traditional exegetic practice of nirukta or “word derivation” to validate his pluralistic, hierarchical, and Vaiṣṇava reading of the Ṛgvedic hymns. Madhva’s Ṛgbhāṣya (RB) is conspicuous for its heavy reliance on and unique deployment of this exegetical tactic to validate several key features of his distinctive theology. These features include his belief in Viṣṇu’s unique possession of all perfect attributes (guṇaparipūrṇatva) and His related conveyability by all Vedic words (sarvaśabdavācyatva). Such an understanding of Vedic language invokes the basic nirukta presupposition that words are eternally affiliated with the meanings they convey. But it is also based onMadhva’s access to a lexicon entitled Vyāsa’s Nirukti with which his critics and perhaps even his commentators seem to be unfamiliar.While the precise status of this text is the subject of ongoing debate, Madhva’s possession of special insight into the sacred canon is established in part by his unique claim to be an avatāra of the wind god Vāyu and a direct disciple of Viṣṇu Himself in the form of Vyāsa₁. Thus, Madhva’s use of nirukta invokes his personal charisma to challenge not only conventional understandings of the hymns but traditional exegetic norms. Madhva’s provision of an alternative tradition of nirukta provoked sectarian debate throughout the Vijayanagara period over the extent to which one could innovate in established practices of reading the Veda. Articulating the Veda’s precise authority was a key feature of Brahmin debates during this period and reflects both the empire’s concern with promoting a shared religious ideology and the competition among rival Brahman sects for imperial patronage that this concern elicited. By looking at how two of Madhva’s most important commentators (the 14^th-century Jayatīrtha and the 17^th-century Rāghavendra) sought to defend his niruktis, this article will explore how notions of normative nirukta were articulated in response to Madhva’s deviations. At the same time, however, examining Madhva’s commentators’ defense of his niruktis also demonstrates the extent to which Madhva actually adhered to selected exegetic norms. This reveals that discomfort with Madhva’s particular methods for deriving words stemmed, in part, from a more general ambivalence towards this exegetical tactic whose inherent open-endedness threatened to undermine the fixity of the canon’s very substance: its language. Vyāsa’s Nirukti is one of several ”unknown sources” cited in Madhva’s commentaries whose exact status continues to be debated. Some scholars (e.g. Rao, Sharma, Siauve) maintain that these texts are part of a now lost Pāṅcarātra tradition that Madhva is attempting to preserve. This may be true for many of these citations. However, in addition to claiming to be both an avatāra of Vāyu and Viṣṇu-as-Vyāsa’s student, Madhva states in several places (e.g., VTN 42, RB 162) that the canon has suffered loss during transmission and that only Viṣṇu can reveal it in its entirety. Thus, it is possible that Madhva intends texts like Vyāsa’s Nirukti to be viewed as part of an ongoing and corrective revelation, a notion that is compatible with many Vaiṣṇava traditions (Halbfass, 1991: 4).     

Student mentoring to enhance graduates’ employability potential

This paper considers whether the adoption of a subject-specific, classroom-based, voluntary extra-curricular student mentoring scheme could provide an effective mechanism and andragogic approach to enhance higher education students’ employability potential pre-graduation.Over the three-year pilot, 26 more advanced (second to fourth year) undergraduate students actively mentored nearly 400 first year undergraduate students during workshops delivered annually within forensic and policing focused courses. In total, 17 mentors anonymously completed online, post-scheme surveys. Survey data was quantitatively analysed to evaluate the scheme, establish which skills and attributes mentors had developed and investigate whether mentors could appropriately identify example skills within professional terminology used during employer recruitment. In addition, this paper reflects on the implementation of remote student mentoring during the COVID-19 pandemic and its adoption within a blended learning framework.The results from this research strongly support mentoring as an effective mechanism to develop undergraduate employability skills, significantly developing mentors’ self-confidence and self-efficacy in their interpersonal and communication skills. Although mentors were aware of university graduate attributes and thought they could evidence these with appropriate examples, in practice this was not necessarily the case. As a result, a framework is proposed to enable mentors to identify their skills and how they may align with competencies sought by relevant forensic and policing employers. However, other andragogic practices may need to be implemented to maximise the potential for successful graduate employment.