Sustainable use of wildlife: The role of private contracts as a conservation tool

Abstract

This paper focuses on the ability of local communities to make effective use of private legal tools as a means of assuring sustainable wildlife use. Using recent legal developments in Kenya as a case study, the paper examines a series of contracts entered into between local communities in the Samburu District and tour operators wishing to bring wildlife “photo safaris”; onto Samburu lands. These contracts, typically referred to as “Eco‐tourism contracts,”; are designed simply to allow tour operators to lead tour groups through community property without trespass. The authors argue that to achieve their true potential, these contracts must be treated, in essence, as “wildlife easements,”; or “eco‐easements,”; that can become publicly‐recorded mutual conservation commitments, and as such must incorporate conservation principles with a focus on environmental impact and wildlife management. Moreover, these contracts must be linked both conceptually and financially to the communities’ governance structure and to its broader conservation efforts.     

破坏野生动物资源类犯罪若干疑难问题研究

破坏野生动物资源类犯罪为法定犯。但由于行政法、刑法以及司法解释关于野生动物犯罪相关规定存在一定的冲突,特别是在动物保护等级、保护对象、升档标准等方面,导致司法实践在法律适用方面存在众多困难。而在司法实践中,关于动物犯罪案件司法鉴定、主观明知、违法性认识、证明标准等方面也存在不同的观点。     

可持续发展的森林资源立法研究

可持续发展是当今世界发展的主旋律,森林资源立法应当以可持续发展为基本原则.我国虽然已经形成了比较完备的森林资源保护的法律架构,但囿于立法时代的局限尚有不足.森林资源立法应当确立可持续发展的原则,建立广泛的公众参与机制及非公有制林业的激励机制.此外,森林资源立法可以规定评估和监测制度作为森林资源发展的保障制度,同时还应该注意与其他相关法律法规的协调,使森林资源在合理、稳定、相互协调的法律与政策的环境下实现可持续发展.     

The Constitution of a European Democracy and the Role of the Nation State

Starting from the presupposition that European democracy is necessary to the survival and development of the European Union, the author deals with the process which may entail a European constitution, and discusses the elements of the present legal structure of the EU which are conducive to a European Democracy. In particular, the author focuses on the incomplete, polycentric, and dynamic character of a possible EC/EU constitution, and on the duality of its legitimating principle. This claim is that these characteristics necessitate some institutional modifications of democratic principles if compared with national democracy, and that Euro-democracy is possible if we do not simply apply the standards of democracy valid for Member States, but succeed in developing criteria which are adequate to the institutional qualities of the EC/EU. Finally, the author maintains the legal character of the regulatory power of the Community, and invokes the mutual legal bonds linking the Member States and their peoples as the source of the Community.     

The rule of law and sustainable development

This paper examines the relationship between the rule of law and sustainable development. It does so from the perspective of the rule of law as a development end, and as a means to sustainable development. It offers a model for conceptualising and measuring the rule of law, including the two global indicators for SDG Target 16.3. It explores the wider relationship between the rule of law and other Sustainable Development Goals, and proposes a thematic approach to better understanding the associations between legal frameworks and development outcomes.     

野生动物保护中的几个法律问题

从近年来野生动物保护的实践出发,提出了野生动物保护目前面临的现实问题和法律缺陷。就野生动物的生存权和人的生存权、财产权的意合,野生动物致害后的处置和损害补偿,野生动物管理等问题提出了一系列法律对策,并对上述问题提出了立法建议。     

Procedural Justice in Resolving Family Conflict: Implications for Youth Violence Prevention

The fairness of our legal system is often judged by individuals and the public at large along dimensions of procedural and distributive justice. People seem to care about how legal decisions are made as well as about the specific outcomes reached by juries and judges. In fact, perceptions of procedural and distributive justice or injustice may influence public perceptions and confidence in the legitimacy of our legal system. This paper focuses mainly on procedural justice. Using an ecological framework, we tested the hypothesis that older adolescents use the same or similar criteria for evaluating fairness in the context of family decision making that people in general use to evaluate the fairness of legal processes and decisions. We also tested the hypothesis that family decision-making procedures that are perceived to be unfair contribute to increased risk for acting out and deviant behavior among older adolescents. Principal components analysis confirmed that older adolescents use several distinct criteria for evaluating procedural fairness in the family context and that these criteria are comparable to those that people use to evaluate the fairness of legal procedures (rational and objective treatment conveying personal respect, consistent and non-discriminatory treatment reflecting social status or standing, and instrumental participation or having "an opportunity to be heard"). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis confirmed that procedural justice factors are associated with adolescent deviant behavior. We discuss implications for adolescent deviance and youth violence prevention.     

涉外可持续发展行政法制若干问题研究

建立完善的涉外可持续发展行政法制,不仅是我国可持续发展战略的内在要求,同时也是我国履行国际可持续发展公约的国内法保障。本文在分析我国涉外可持续发展行政法制基本概念的基础上,主要就涉外可持续发展行政法与国际条约在我国的适用问题、涉外可持续发展行政法中的“超国民待遇”问题、涉外可持续发展行政法律关系的法律救济问题展开论述。     

Law, Morality, Coherence and Truth

Abstract . The author analyzes the relations between truth and law starting from the distinction between practical and theoretical spheres. He shows, first, how moral and legal statements and reasoning are connected with an operation of weighing and balancing different values and principles and how this operation is ultimately based on personal and intuitive preferences and feeling. The criteria developed by the theoretical sciences to define truth (coherence, consensus and pragmatic success) can only be translated into practical statements as criteria of correctness because we cannot affirm that a norm or value statement is true or false. The three criteria become interrelated indices of correctness: They are criteria for rational discourse.     

试论加强我国宏观调控法制建设

我国国民经济的持续、稳定、协调增长 ,有赖于科学合理且完备的法律制度体系加以保障。考察我国的宏观调控法律制度 ,无论是理论上还是实践上都十分薄弱。因此 ,加强我国的宏观调控法制建设显得尤为迫切。本文从多角度分析了我国宏观调控法制建设的现状、成因 ,并进一步提出了对策。     

精神障碍者刑事责任能力评定标准研究

刑事责任能力直接关系着案件的定性与处理。其评定有医学标准与法学标准两个要件，但法学要件的相关概念极不具体，且缺乏可借助的客观评定工具和具体的评定标准．相关评定工作一直是经验性判定。严重影响鉴定结论的科学性和一致性。我们课题组从法学要件着手。对法学要件辨认和控制能力进行量化，将医学标准和法学标准有机结合。编制出《精神障碍者刑事责任能力评定标准（草案）》，经有关鉴定机构试用，运行结果也较理想。     

A Review of “Taking Back Eden: Eight Environmental Cases That Changed the World”

Abstract

The biological aspects of illegal harvests of threatened wildlife are outlined. It is shown that local agriculturalists are beneficiaries of illegal harvesting and that competition from agriculture exacerbates the extinction risk. Illegal harvesting of wildlife is driven by the profitability of the exercise, but law enforcement activity can deter poaching by reducing the associated expected profits. Law enforcement may be unable to limit illegal harvesting to levels threatened populations can sustain as a result of perverse consequences or strategic responses by poachers to law enforcement activity. Poaching activity is sensitive to the beliefs of participants about future prices and the availability of wildlife. Erroneous beliefs result in price collapses being observed. Integrating legal markets with increased local control of wildlife and punitive law enforcement strategies may be the most effective and efficient means to constrain illegal harvests.     

Corporate governance and financial development: a study of the French case

This paper belongs to the growing body of the “Law and finance” literature based on time-series study. It carries out an empirical investigation of the role of corporate governance in financial development. We focus on French corporate governance reforms in order to examine whether these reforms are consistent with the reorganization of the French financial system, which took place during the period 1977–2004. This research aims at evaluating one proposition of the legal origin claims based on the idea that there is a strong and stable relationship between legal origin, investor protection and financial system. A key question the study addresses is how corporate governance rules and the French financial development have changed over time. Our study suggests that indicators related to investors’ rights (shareholders, employees, and bondholders) have been increasing over time, despite the specific legal origin of the French system. On the contrary the creditors’ rights have followed a less clear trend. Our econometric investigation is fairly new as the Law and finance literature has not until now provided corporate governance indicators suitable for French legislation. From that perspective, our work undergoes a multiple criteria analysis of corporate governance reforms. Following this approach, we suggest that the causality links between changes in the French legal environment and financial growth in France are more bidirectional than unidirectional.     

Why Legislate for Sustainable Development? An Examination of Sustainable Development Provisions in UK and Scottish Statutes

This article examines the use of the term ‘sustainabledevelopment’ in Acts of the Scottish and UK Parliaments.It begins by examining the UK's traditional reluctance to legislateon sustainable development, the more recent reversal of thatapproach and some definitional issues surrounding the term.It then moves on to consider the sustainable development provisionsin detail examining their form, strength and limits, and howthey can be monitored, reviewed and enforced both inside andoutside court. The article concludes that over and above anysymbolic value, in many instances the provisions also have legalsignificance. The formulations vary and while some are simplymaterial considerations to be used in decision-making, thosewhich set out mandatory requirements such as reports do createbinding legal rules. Furthermore, there are a few examples wherethe duty or objective is set out as a clear legal rule thatcould be interpreted as providing a framework for decision-making.     

Trends in the Incidence of Legal Problems and in the Use of Lawyers

Changes in the law, government regulations, socioeconomic changes, increased consumerism, the public's level of awareness—all these and other factors influence the population's demand over time for lawyers'services. This article analyzes the changes over time in the two elements that determine the demand for lawyers: the number of legal problems encountered by the population and the rate of use of lawyers in solving these problems. After showing that sequential occurrences of legal problems are not independent of each other and are age dependent, the author develops a mathematical model that explains the variability in the present number of problems encountered by different age groups. The number of problems is found to result from a relatively mild accumulation with age of legal problems, coupled with a strong increase in the number of problems from generation to generation. The analysis of individual legal problems reveals a variety of patterns from problem to problem in both the level of occurrence and the rate of use of lawyers for such problems. The author concludes that the combined effect of occurrence and utilization will operate toward a continuing increase in the demand for lawyers'services at least for the very near future.     

Climate Change,Wildlife Movement and the Law: A Case Study from New Zealand

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change mandates parties to prepare for adaptation to climate change. This is of direct relevance to the management of wildlife. Climate change is likely to alter and/or expand the habitats of wildlife and may make the conditions within existing habitat ranges unsuitable for the continued existence of a species. Of necessity, efficacious adaptation must attempt to address this likelihood. Using New Zealand as a case study, this paper considers the range of present legal instruments that might be utilized within that nation to manage the movement of wildlife and identifies any lacunas that should be addressed. The conclusions will be of interest to any nation wishing to protect wildlife from the adverse effects of climate change.     

Hans Kelsen's Doctrine of Imputation

First, the author examines the traditional doctrine of imputation. A look at the traditional doctrine is useful for establishing a point of departure in comparing Kelsen's doctrines of central and peripheral imputation. Second, the author turns to central imputation. Here Kelsen's doctrine follows the traditional doctrine in attributing liability or responsibility to the subject. Kelsen's legal subject, however, has been depersonalized and thus requires radical qualification. Third, the author takes up peripheral imputation, which is the main focus of the paper. It is argued that with respect to the basic form of the law, exhibited by the linking of legal condition with legal consequence, peripheral imputation counts as an austere doctrine, shorn as it is of all references to legal personality or the legal subject. If Kelsen's reconstructed legal norms are empowerments, then the austere doctrine of peripheral imputation captures the rudiments of their form, exactly what would be expected if peripheral imputation does indeed serve as the category of legal cognition. Finally, the author develops the puzzle surrounding the legal "ought" in this context. Although Kelsen talks at one point as though the legal "ought" were the peculiarly legal category, the author submits that this is not the best reading of Kelsen's texts.     

Electronic healthcare data collection and pay-for-performance: translating theory into practice

With insight grounded in his work for a national data collection consortium and as Vice President of Quality and Outcomes at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, the author connects the theory of pay-for-performance to the realities of its implementation. The author expands the Diagnosing the Data conversation by describing the challenges of collecting meaningful data and by addressing the potential legal issues that data use raises. Drawing on his national and local experience, the author concludes with suggestions for adopting data collection programs that are both clinically relevant and scientifically reliable.     

Entrapment between Two Pillars: The European Court of Justice Rulings in Criminal Law

Abstract:  This article deals with the possibility of adopting criminal law provisions on a first pillar legal basis. The analysis focuses on two decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) dealing with the matter, with specific emphasis on the second one. The main problems debated are the legality principle, the implicit competence of the Community legislator, the criteria for establishing when there is a need for adopting criminal law provisions on an EC legal basis and the scope and depth of this competence. Comparing the arguments of the Advocate General with the ECJ's approach to the matter, the author tries to establish whether the right decision has been adopted and what the solutions for the future are.     

Global Legal Interaction and Legal Cultures

Abstract . The legal discourse of a steadily growing European legal community and universal legal harmonization is misleading since it abstracts completely from the cultural dimension of law which consist of patterns of interpretation and behavioral routines with respect to law. The article makes use of abundant literature in administrative sciences, international management research and socio-psychological studies in Intercultural Communication in order to propose indicators for a comparison of legal cultures in the areas of European legal integration, international commercial transactions and international lawyering.