美国行政改革的价值取向及其启示

市场化、放松规制、分权化是美国行政改革实践中的三种基本价值取向。尽管中美两国行政改革属于现代化不同阶段上的改革,因而两者在改革的具体政策的选择上具有很大的不可通约性,但它仍能给我们一些有益的启示。     

The consequences of a pragmatic turn for semiotics

Clara H. Stewardson Professor of Philosophy.     

美国宪法对调整经济生活的作用

经过200多年的演变,以市场经济为基础的美国经济已发展为"混合"经济,即自由的和受管制的市场经济.这种发展无不与美国宪法密切相关.美国宪法不仅奠定了美国政治制度的基本框架,而且其多项规定直接影响到美国的经济生活.相关规定包括宪法第1条第8款;宪法第1条第10款;宪法第4条;宪法第6条等.由于美国宪法条款用语笼统,为立法和司法解释留有巨大的空间,因此宪法中关于调整美国经济生活的规定在不同历史时期和社会经济生活的不同方面,演绎出丰富的内容.本文仅对上述美国宪法的相关条款的具体适用进行讨论,以明确与美国经济生活有关的比较重要的宪法概念,进而了解美国宪法在指导美国经济发展中的作用.     

美国西部开发立法及其经验教训

美国的西部指的是阿巴拉山脉以西的整个地区，是美国现在领土的绝大部分。美国的西部开发可以分为农业开发、工业开发和科技开发三个阶段。无论在哪一个阶段，法律都与之息息相伴，从而在200多年……     

"法律事实"概念的法哲学思考

本文从法哲学的角度对法律事实这一概念进行了分析 ,认为法律事实是客观事实的一种 ,并不是有些人所说的“经验事实”或“主观事实” ,也不是“法律证据”、“法的事实”、“事实上的法” ;法律事实与其它客观事实的区别只在于它对法律有意义 ,对于法律工作者来说具有历史性、间接性 ;法律事实是由事物、事物的运动及其结果构成的 ,可分为物的方面和人的方面 ,而人的方面又分为外部行为和内心活动两方面。对法律事实的认识是通过对证据的认识进行的 ,而这一认识是很复杂的 ,不同历史时期 ,人们把对证据的普遍性认识固定在法律中 ,因而形成历史上特定的证据制度。人们对法律事实的认识与法律事实本身的一致是相对的 ,也就是说 ,其真实性是相对的 ,从程度上来说可以分为两种 ,即形式真实和实质真实。人对法律事实的认识的相对性和差异性决定了司法工作中“以事实为根据”的事实只可能是客观事实或法律事实本身 ,而不能是法律工作者内心对事实的认识或一般所说的“经验事实”、“主观事实”。     

美国被害人权利宪法化运动及启示

美国的被害人权利保护运动又呈现出权利入宪的最新发展动向,这场运动引发了美国社会关于被害人权利保护模式与范围的激烈争论,被害人权利宪法化运动足以透射出一国传统的诉讼法律观以及被害人与被告人利益之关系,被害人与政府利益之关系等多维度的价值空间,并为我国被害人权利保护提供有益的借鉴。     

美国非法口供的排除标准及对我国的启示

美国非法口供的排除标准从开始的不具有任意性这一主观标准,扩大到包括违反“米兰达规则”这一客观标准。主观标准和客观标准各有利弊。我国对非法口供的排除目前仅规定了客观标准。为更好地实现刑事诉讼打击犯罪与保障人权两大目的,有必要对我国非法口供的排除标准进行完善,在这方面美国的实践给了我们一定启示。     

The ongoing debate over Medicare: understanding the philosophical and policy divides

This Article examines the evolution and status of Medicare, as well as the myriad current efforts to reform this longstanding entitlement. The author analyzes why healthcare financing for the elderly follows an administered pricing, fee-for-service model, while the working population generally obtains its insurance under a competitive market model. As a non-means-tested program modeled after Social Security, Medicare embraces both a universal entitlement philosophy of government-provided basic health services, and a need-based entitlement philosophy of caring for the Medicare-eligible elderly.     

The Troubled American

"Americans love dissidents from every country but their own." —From a speech by Katrina vanden Heuvel at a reception celebrating the Russian edition of Stephen Cohen's Failed Crusade.     

The American experiment

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research -     

The law and the public's health: a study of infectious disease law in the United States

Law plays crucial roles in the field of public health, from defining the power and jurisdiction of health agencies, to influencing the social norms that shape individual behavior. Despite its importance, public health law has been neglected. Over a decade ago, the Institute of Medicine issued a report lamenting the state of public health administration, generally, and calling, in particular, for a revision of public health statutes. The Article examines the current state of public health law. To help create the conditions in which people can be healthy, public health law must reflect an understanding of how public health agencies work to promote health, as well as the political and social contexts in which these agencies operate. The authors first discuss three prevailing ways in which the determinants of health are conceptualized, and the political and social problems each model tends to create for public health efforts. The analysis then turns to the core functions of public health, emphasizing how law furthers public health work. The Article reports the results of a fifty-state survey of communicable disease control law, revealing that few states have systematically reformed their laws to reflect contemporary medical and legal developments. The Article concludes with specific guidelines for law reform.     

When is an assault not an assault? The Canadian public's attitudes towards wife and stranger assault

There is no distinction in the Canadian Criminal Code between assaults committed on strangers and assaults of spouses. Traditionally, however, wife assault has been considered a private affair, and it has been argued that this attitude continues to be reflected in the police response to domestic disputes. In this study of 240 adults'written responses to assault scenarios, the victim-offender relationship produced variations in ratings of seriousness, in the relative amounts of blame attributed to the victim and offender, and in the recommended police response. In general, nondomestic recidivist offenders tended to be treated most harshly by the subjects, as did offenders who assaulted their victims inside a private house. Additionally, female subjects gave higher ratings of seriousness of the offense, and considered future violence by the offender to be more likely, than did male subjects. The findings are explained in terms of the subjects' ability to identify with the offender, although the decision-making process in judging cases of assault is evidently complex. The implications of these findings for police officers with discretionary powers are considered.

     

美国知识风险公司的运作模式及其启示

在现代市场经济竞争条件下,专利制度的功能逐渐从传统意义的激励发明创造转变为符号财产的利益分配,由此也催生出许多新型的专利经营公司运作模式.其中,以美国知识风险公司为代表的专利基金模式堪称是将风险资本与知识创造相结合的成功典范.这种崭新的商业模式可能给我国的自主创新系统造成两个层面的影响:一方面,它确实可以加速发明创造的商业化进程;但同时不应忽视的是,它也有可能导致合作过程中的技术外流从而丧失产业竞争力.因此,我们有必要采取有效的措施来加以应对.     

Mother teresa meets Genghis Khan: The dialectics of hierarchy-enhancing and hierarchy-attenuating career choices

We replicated and extended earlier work showing the connection between social dominance orientation and the perceived attractiveness of hierarchy-enhancing and hierarchy-attenuating careers using data from two large and independent samples of UCLA students. Consistent with expectations, the data from both studies showed that the greater the students' level of social dominance orientation, the more attractive hierarchy-enhancing careers such as criminal prosecutor, police officer, and FBI agent were perceived to be. Similarly, the greater the students' social dominance orientation, the less attractive they found hierarchy-attenuating careers such as public defender, civil rights lawyer, and human rights advocate. These conclusions held even after controlling for the effects of socioeconomic status and political conservatism. Canonical correlation analysis disclosed that the attractiveness of these career paths within the general domain of law made only one, bipolar and unidimensional projection within social dominance space. The nature of this bipolar dimension reproduced the hypothesized distinction between hierarchy-enhancing and hierarchy-attenuating social roles. Theoretical implications of the results are discussed.