The misbegotten marriage of soft psychology and bad law

The proposal to justify homicide by psychological self-defense rests on an insecure scientific foundation and would be legally mischievous. The core concepts are unacceptably vague and lack rigorous empirical support. The proposed defense is better characterized as an excuse than as a justification because rational victims of purely psychological abuse do have socially preferrable alternatives to homicide, and the proposal is inconsistent with modern criminal law that limits justifications for homicide. The defense would create substantial administrative problems and would facilitate adoption or expansion of related undesirable doctrines. The best response to abhorrent physical and psychological abuse is not unnecessary further violence, but the creation of adequate deterrents and alternative solutions for victims.     

Using rights and the law to reduce women's vulnerability to HIV

Cathi Albertyn's paper, an edited and updated version of her presentation at "Putting Third First," argues that both human rights and the law can play an important, if limited, role within a wider set of national and international strategies to reduce women's vulnerability to HIV. It analyzes the nature of women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, and highlights some of the issues and lessons in using rights and the law to advance gender equality and reduce women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.     

Barcelona 2002: law, ethics, and human rights. Using the law to improve access to treatments

The XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa in July 2000 focused worldwide attention on the problem of accessing treatments in developing countries. In the interim, thanks to the work of activists - from demonstrations to court cases, and from acts of public courage by people living with HIV/AIDS to ongoing lobbying of politicians and trade negotiators - some very significant developments have occurred. But the reality is that the vast majority of people living with HIV/AIDS still lack access to affordable, quality medicines. This article, a summary of a paper presented at "Putting Third First: Vaccines, Access to Treatments and the Law," a satellite meeting held at Barcelona on 5 July 2002 and organized by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the AIDS Law Project, South Africa, and the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit, India, explores three approaches for improving access. In the first part, Richard Elliott provides an overview of the state of the right to health as embodied in international human rights law; comments on the experience to date in litigating claims to the right to health; and identifies potential strategies activists can adopt to advance recognition of the right to health. In the second part, Sharan Parmar and Vivek Divan describe price-control and drug-financing mechanisms used by industrialized countries to increase the affordability of medicines; and discuss how some of these mechanisms could be adapted for use in developing countries. Finally, Jonathan Berger describes the use of litigation in the courts by the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa.     

Privacy law as price control

The median Internet user is concerned about digital advertisers collecting personal information. To address these fears, the European Union passed the Privacy Directive to regulate the common business practice of information collection. This paper investigates the potential effects of this regulation, finding that the law is likely to generate several unintended consequences. Economists and legal scholars acknowledge that personal data serves as the “price” for accessing many digital platforms. I extend this logic to argue that if a regulation enables consumers to stop supplying this information, while continuing to consume the site’s content, it is equivalent to a price control. Next, I discuss unintended consequences that this price control may generate: tie-in sales, investment flight, and altered exchange characteristics. Lastly, I conclude that, just as with traditional price controls, the privacy price control may be a way for government officials to enhance their popularity with the citizenry. In short, my analysis suggests that one of the most well-researched policy interests of economics—the theory of price controls—can shed light on one of economists’ newest interests: digital privacy.     

The law is a good thing (psychology is,too)

Psycholegal studies have been hampered by the lack of a theory to guide the choice of topics for research. Both judicial decision making and psychological research would be enhanced by emphasis on subjective experience in determining the scope of fundamental rights and fostering a legal system consonant with human dignity and responsive to social reality. International human rights law is presented as an example of the feasibility and utility of psychological jurisprudence. This article is based on a presidential address to the American Psychology-Law Society at the meeting of the American Psychological Association in August 1991, in San Francisco.     

Using immersive virtual reality and ecological psychology to probe into child molesters' phenomenology

Abstract

Child molesters (n=13) and sexually non-deviant subjects (n=29) were immersed with virtual characters depicting relevant sexual features while their sexual arousal and gaze behaviour were assessed to characterise their sexual preferences and intentional dynamics. Sexual arousal was measured using circumferential penile plethysmography (PPG). Gaze behaviour dynamics were derived from average gaze radial angular deviation (GRAD) and GRAD coefficient of variation (GRADCV). Results show distinct sexual arousal profiles according to sexual preferences and point towards the existence of specific gaze behaviour dynamics guided by sexual intentions. Theoretical interpretations are based on the ecological psychology of J. J. Gibson, the extended mind theory and the integrated theory of sexual offending. Theoretical underpinnings stemming from these approaches are advocated as being especially well suited to explain how virtual reality can help probing into child molesters' phenomenology as lived from the “first-person” stance.     

行政授权与法律控制研究

一、行政授权界说 什么叫行政授权？目前学术界对此有不同的理解,其中大致有以下几种倾向．一种受民法理论中“委托”与“授权”不分的影响较大,认为行政授权就是行政委托。另一种认为行政授权是指法律法规对一定组织的直接授权,其直接依据便是我国行政诉讼法的有关规定。还有一种认为行政授权就是经法律法规的许可,行政主体把自己的行政职权转让于另一组织的行为,这种理解与我国一些法律中的授权含义相符合。对此,笔者认为行政授权是指行政主体在法律法规许可的前提下,依一定的程序把自己的全部或部分职权让于一定组织的行为。之所…     

Using feminist judgments in the property law classroom

This article describes how the Feminist Judgments book will be used as a resource for a new, compulsory LLB property law module. The module (which was still in the planning stages at the point of writing) takes the development of co-ownership law as its subject matter. Students will be guided to read cases that reveal both the evolution of different legal solutions to co-ownership disputes and the gendered situations of the parties concerned, and will be assessed in part by writing a judgment of their own. The feminist judgments will provide students with models of feminist analysis and judgment-writing. The aim is to bring feminist scholarship into the core curriculum and to learn useful critical, research and writing skills.     

市场监管法属于经济法抑或属于行政法

市场监管法以市场监管关系为调整对象则属于行政法范畴,要使其能够真正发挥应有的作用,则必须以竞争关系为调整对象,并以有关国家机关为辅助机关,以司法救济途径为主的方式重新构建之。     

Icons of control: Deleuze,signs, law

This paper is broadly concerned with Deleuze’s distinction between ‚la loi et les lois’ on the one hand, and jurisprudence on the other. Jurisprudence is the␣creative action of legal practice, the process by which it is forced to think constructively and anew. In such circumstances legal thought is akin to Deleuze’s concept of the event. I explore the distinction between law and jurisprudence by way of Deleuze’s comments on control societies, arguing that, under control, law ceases to be a juridical hierarchy conforming to disciplinary modes to become a regulatory practice of interminable modulation. In order to begin to explore the relations and connections between law/jurisprudence and control, the paper will look to the semiotics of C.S. Peirce (who influenced Deleuze’s work on cinema). In particular it will argue that control operates predominantly through icons. As a consequence I argue that the proper ground of the sign, the event, is co-opted and, following from this, that control functions through the confusing of sense and meaning. Thanks to Anne Bottomley, Ronnie Lippens and Jamie Murray.     

目标公司反收购的法律规制

上市公司收购已成为我国证券市场上最为重要的新生力量。收购市场的活跃引发目标公司反收购的激烈。由于缺少完善的规制反收购的法律规则,我国目标公司的反收购不仅损害了目标公司及股东的利益,而且阻碍了公司收购在公司治理方面有效作用的发挥。本文通过介绍英美的经验,提出了我国当前规制目标公司反收购可采取的措施:(1)确立董事的信义义务;(2)建立控股股东表决权排除制度;(3)构筑司法救济体系。     

论以民法补充海商法的单位

一直以来,“以民法补充海商法”的原则成为国内学者和实务界解决海商法与民法之间的法律冲突、补充《中华人民共和国海商法》立法漏洞的惯用思维;然而,这一原则的模糊性导致对以民法补充海商法的单位是事项还是要素产生争议。从《中华人民共和国立法法》与《中华人民共和国海商法》具体条文出发,通过法律解释得出民法补充海商法的单位是事项而非要素的初步结论;进而结合海商法的外来性和海上责任的独立性进行理论分析,对以上初步结论进行进一步印证;在此基础上提出对海商法研究与《中华人民共和国海商法》修改的建议。