商法探源——论中世纪的商人法

对商法史的考察和分析历来是我国商法学研究的薄弱环节。本文采用史论结合的研究方法 ,对中世纪商人法的产生背景做一些宏观考察 ,并尝试概括出其几个世纪以来演进的基本特点 ,希望可以收到正本清源、以史鉴今之效果。     

论清末商法的实施及其效果

中国封建社会并不存在独立的商法制度。制定私法性质的商法是晚清修律的重要任务之一。清末商法作为中国近代最早的商事立法,在近代法制史上占有比较重要的地位,因此有必要对清末商法的实施机构、清政府对商法的贯彻施行、民间对商法的遵守等方面给予必要的研究。清末商法的制定与实施在一定程度上推动了清末社会经济的发展。     

Recovering the Indigenous Legal Traditions of India: Classical Hindu Law in Practice in Late Medieval Kerala

The collection of Malayalam records entitled Vanjeri Grandhavari, taken from the archives of an important Namputiri Brahmin family and the temple under its leadership, provides some long-awaited information regarding a wide range of legal activities in late medieval Kerala. The organization of law and the jurisprudence represented by these records bear an unmistakable similarity to legal ideas found in dharmastra texts. A thorough comparison of the records and relevant dharma texts shows that landholding Namputiri Brahmins, who possessed enormous political and economic power in the region, mediated the implementation of dharmastra into the legal system. From this comparison arise new understandings of law and legal categories such as custom and positive law. Moreover, such comparisons begin to elucidate the problems involved in Western assumptions that it is textual law, not its interpretation and application by humans, which controls behavior. The Vanjeri records demonstrate not only the importance of dharmastra as a historical document but also the manner and extent to which dharmastra provided the foundation for legal systems in Kerala as well as in other regions of India.     

In Offense of Usury Laws: Microfoundations of Illegal Credit Contracts

Several European countries base their anti-usury laws on the definition of interest ceilings. Underlying this approach is the identification of high interest rates with the usurious nature of the relative credit contract; hence usury is nothing more than a particularly onerous credit contract. The present paper contradicts this traditional view by presenting a general micro-founded model of credit contracts that arrives at a few conclusions, before in a static and then in a dynamic contest. Firstly, it demonstrates the specificity of the usury contract with respect to the bank contract, pointing up the particular nature of those who supply and demand usurious credit. Secondly, it demonstrates that in environmental situations with little protection of property rights and a propensity to illegality, the decision of a borrower to turn to a usurer may be efficient from the Pareto standpoint and thus not the result of a rationing equilibrium in the bank credit market, as is commonly thought. Thirdly, it deduces from this the insubstantial link between interest rate level and the usurious nature of the contract. Hence two consequences for policy: (a) it is more effective to combat usury by improving the laws and law enforcement to better protect property rights, rather than introduce rate ceilings; and (b) in any case, the usury market can be reduced but not eliminated, since it is a meeting place for particular borrowers and lenders of funds.     

清末商事立法评析

商事立法是清末修律的重要组成部分,贯彻了清政府“参酌中西”、“务期中外通行”的修律指导方针．是外国商事法律与中国传统商事习惯的混合物。商事法律的修订,促进了清末工商业的发展,开启了中国商事法律近代化的历程,为中国近代商事立法打下了基础,对我们今天的商事法律建设具有重要的借鉴意义。修律过程中存在的照抄照搬西方法律、超前于中国现实的缺陷和不足,则为我们今天移植外国法律提供了教训。     

商业贿赂犯罪长效控制机制思考

商业贿赂是中国社会转型时期经济腐败现象最为重要的形式之一。我国为治理商业贿赂而全面启动的专项斗争产生了积极的效果。然而，构建于传统的、以“二元论”企业角色观为基础。以作为受贿主体的国家工作人员为规制重点的商业贿赂犯罪控制模式。并未切中商业贿赂犯罪“上游犯罪”之根本。具有一定的局限性。以“一元论”企业角色观为基础，以企业社会责任为视角，以作为行贿主体的企业及其工作人员为规制重点，提出商业贿赂治理新思路，并以此构建中国反商业贿赂长效机制，可以弥补传统治理商业贿赂思路的局限性。     

The criminal underworld of Medieval England

Abstract

In contrast to views put forward by Marjorie Blatcher, it is argued here that the impact of Bills of Custody on business in the court of King's Bench in the late fifteenth century can only be judged if all custodial bills are counted and only if special attention is given to those bills dealing with matters which would otherwise have been outside the court's normal jurisdiction. It is shown that the increase in the numbers of such cases is too modest to support Blatcher's claims of a massive increase in business since the 1450s, that the extension of the notion ‘in custody’ to people on bail did not happen in 1452, as she stated, but 20 years earlier, that it was extended to people on mainprise as well, at least for some time, and finally that fictitious Bills of Middlesex and writs latitat were not as important in connection with custodial bills as Blatcher thought.     

The Morality of Treason

Treason is one of the most serious legal offences that there are, in most if not all jurisdictions. Laws against treason are rooted in deep-seated moral revulsion about acts which, in the political realm, are paradigmatic examples of breaches of loyalty. Yet, it is not altogether clear what treason consists in: someone’s traitor is often another’s loyalist. In this paper, my aim is twofold: to offer a plausible conceptual account of treason, and to partly rehabilitate traitors. I focus on informational treason, as the act of passing secret intelligence to foreign actors without authorization. I argue that informational treason is sometimes justified, indeed morally mandatory; even when it is morally wrong, its beneficiaries are sometimes justified, indeed obliged, to make use of the intelligence thereby provided.

     

刑事审判中实物证据的审查判断及排除

刑事审判中,实物证据以其特有的客观性、稳定性和不可替代性特征而对于案件事实的认定发挥着令人更为信服的证实作用,从而显示出实物证据的证明优势。但实物证据在刑事诉讼证明中,也存在其一定的局限性。对于实物证据的审查,应主要从其客观真实性、证据来源、保管和鉴定过程、与案件事实的关联性、是否全面等方面进行。对于非法实物证据实行有别于言词证据的裁量排除原则,即只有在相关部门不能补正或者作出合理解释的情况下,才对其予以排除。     

中世纪前期罗马法在西欧的延续与复兴

古代罗马法随着西罗马帝国的衰亡、蛮族国家的入侵进入到＂黑暗时代＂,并一直延续到12世纪意大利波伦那大学《学术汇纂》发现所引发的＂罗马法复兴运动＂。然而,中世纪前期的历史表明：古典罗马法基于自身的优良性、蛮族国家普遍适用的属人主义原则以及基督教与僧侣们的努力,在蛮族国家顽强地保留了下来,并直接影响了蛮族国家的法律发展,最终在发端于帕维亚的罗马法教育的直接推动下,古典罗马法在欧洲得以复兴。     

论冲突中的道德和法律

道德和法律的冲突来源于道德的多元化。在专制主义下 ,道德和法律的冲突的调整方式是取消冲突或放任冲突。这两种方式被历史证明是行不通的。适度冲突论是解决道德和法律冲突的设想 ,目的就是要在二者适度的冲突中推动法治不断地进步。     

The Morality of Killing Human Embryos

The morality of embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) depends on the moral status of human embryos. I defend the interest view against some of Don Marquis's objections, and show that on his own Valuable Futures account, ESCR is morally permissible.     

Public Space,Public Morality: The Media Construction of Sex in Public Places

Public sex has been the focus of a number of academic texts in recent years, but while some comment more generally on how the media have presented specific forms of public sexual activity, it remains unclear how the media have constructed these undertakings. The phenomenon consists of a number of subcultures aimed at providing sexual enjoyment in public settings in different ways. There has been evidence that those engaging in public sex undertake significant risk that, while motivating for those taking part, can lead to a number of tragic consequences. Some of these consequences include physical attacks by members of the public as well as susceptibility to robbery and even abduction. This article will explore one of the possible reasons behind an unfavourable view of public sex in the public conscience- the mass media, and in particular, newspapers in the United Kingdom. The way in which the media have constructed various forms of public sex will be explored, as well as the information provided in reports, and in particular, the detailing of locations of Public Sex Environments (PSEs).