The Ideologies of Mediation: The Movement's Own Story

This paper has three aims. First, it describes the ideologies of six organizations that have been and continue to be prominent in the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) movement in the United States. These organizations all feature the use of mediation as a central component of their work and as a solution to larger social problems.
Second, it elaborates some points of similarity and difference in these ideologies in light of a debate that emerged in the late 1970's between "community" and "agency" models of mediation, that is, between programs that chose to closely affiliate with the formal justice system and those that chose not to. Several years after the start of this debate, we believe there are important points of convergence and divergence that have not received enough attention by those who advocate for or against alternative dispute processing.
Finally, the authors wish to use the opportunity this study provides to speculate more openly on the contemporary meaning of legal informalism and the ways in which formal and informal legal structures now seem to be linked.     

The Ideological Congruence Illusion: The Impact of Valence

Considerable evidence has been generated to establish that “ideological congruence,” that is, a close matching of government policy positions with median left‐right voter opinion, generally prevails in liberal democracies. Based on a cross‐national analysis of election survey data, this article challenges that view and elaborates an alternative perspective. In this perspective, nonpolicy or valence considerations strongly influence vote choices and electoral outcomes in a directional sense—sometimes favoring the Left overall, sometimes the Right. Partly as a result, government positions typically deviate substantially from median opinion, forming a pattern that is clearly bilateralist or two‐sided rather than center‐concentrated.     

The Failure of the Spectacle: The Voices Within

This article offers an ethnobiographic analysis of one of the most marginalized populations in contemporary US society: impoverished individuals with schizophrenia, schizoaffective or mania hallucinatory bipolar disorder who are imprisoned, first within their minds, and secondly by the state, what I term “the spectacle.” Punishment for their disease, rather than treatment, forces many of them into constant drift-transition between shelters, seedy motels and the streets: the spectacle’s disposable trash. I argue that to be recognized as a rights-worthy human being within the neoliberal spectacle individuals are required to have the financial, social and cultural resources necessary to actively participate in the labor market and the profit-generating activities of consumption and consumerism. The limited economic resources of the mentally ill keep them from being sufficiently active participants to be viewed as socially worthy. Consequently, they become socially unworthy—the socially dead. The seriously mentally ill experience both spatial and moral dislocation. They are cast out as flawed consumers and failed workers, and more importantly, due to the stigmatization of mental illness, they are disavowed of their humanity, rendering them socially dead.     

有利的法——实质正义的极端化

我国《涉外民事关系法律适用法》在部分涉外关系的法律适用方面要求选择"有利于保护"某一方当事人的实体法。这种规定虽然有体现冲突法实质正义追求的积极意义,但也为法院查明和准确适用外国法增加了难度,不利于司法任务的简单化。所谓"有利的法",要求法院在众多可适用的法中,通过比较选择一个能最好保护一方当事人利益的实体法,这其实是美国"最好的法"选法方法的翻版。冲突法实质正义的趋向应当是有限度的,不应取代实体法所应发挥的作用,否则会破坏法律选择的稳定性和可预见性,丧失冲突法的规范价值和存在意义。鉴于该法生效时间不长,一时难以修改,可以考虑通过司法解释对之予以适当矫正。     

The future of technological law: The machine state

Advances in technology will challenge and change the current manner in which legal regulation occurs. It has always been possible to describe governance and law as a form of technology in itself, but the growth of digital technologies provides a new means by which to regulate the population. This article posits the theory that the inherent characteristics of technology will become inherent within the digitisation of law. As law becomes an increasingly digital entity, it will become more concerned with perfect reproduction of law upon the person, and so more encompassing in its scope. In addition, the increasing use of digital technologies in augmented reality, in 3D and 4D printing both in solid and biological matter, poses a fundamental change in the regulatory relationship between the State and the individual – a challenge the State will need to address.     

The Democratic Costs of Constitutionalisation: The European Case

There is little doubt that the European Union suffers from a legitimacy deficit. However, the causes of this deficit and, as a consequence, the remedies are contested. This article wants to show that an important, but often overlooked, cause for the legitimacy deficit lies in the overconstitutionalization of the EU. The European Treaties have been constitutionalized by the ECJ, but are full of provisions that would be ordinary law in states. Constitutionalization means de‐politicization. What has been regulated on the constitutional level is no longer open for political decision‐making. Thus, in the EU political decisions of high salience are not only withdrawn from the democratically legitimized institutions, but also immunized against political correction. Therefore, the consequences from the constitutionalization have to be drawn: The Treaties should be reduced to those norms that reflect the functions of a constitution, whereas all the other parts have to be downgraded to the level of secondary law.     

The Renaissance of Comprehensive Planning: The Oregon Case

During the last decade, a popular pastime among planners and others has been to discredit the comprehensive plan and the process by which such plans are developed. Advocacy planning, strategic planning, policy planning, social planning, etc., were suggested alternatives to the traditional focus of planning-the comprehensive plan, The reasons for criticism were varied, but basically they boiled down to the fact that plans often ended up on shelves collecting dust. Plans failed as continuing guides to a wide variety of decisions since they were static end-state conceptions a supposedly better world. Plans and their associated regulatory devices were found inadequate to control or limit the effects of the market-plans were simply ineffective tools. So the searcH began for alternatives or modifications to the comprehensive plan.     

The Beating of Rodney King: The Dynamics of Backfire

The 1991 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police provides rich case material in how an attack perceived as unjust can backfire. Drawing on nonviolence theory, an original framework is developed to analyze attacks as potential backfires that are usually, but not always, inhibited. Attackers can use a variety of methods to inhibit backfires, including covering up the attack, devaluing the target, reinterpreting the events, using official channels, and using intimidation and bribery. Writings on the Rodney King beating include evidence on the use of each of these methods. Studying the backfire process offers improved understanding on how to oppose unjust attacks.     

Response: The Politeness of History

In my response to the reviews of my book by Marianne Constable, Shai Lavi, and Renisa Mawani, I situate the argument of Common Law, History, and Democracy in America, 1790–1900: Legal Thought Before Modernism within a concern with contemporary forms of historical knowledge. Where contemporary historical knowledge practices subsume their objects of investigation, I adopt the temporality of the object of investigation—namely, the common law—as the structure my book. In different registers, Constable, Lavi, and Mawani urge me to take up more explicitly the foundational questioning about which they care. I welcome their readings. However, given the distinct problematic from which I start, I argue, the book is not in the first instance an argument about the ontology of history or law.     

Registration: The Cornerstone of REACH

The EC Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) came into force on 1 June 2007, marking the end of three years of intense negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament. One of the most hotly debated topics was the registration of substances, where the original Commission proposal sparked an extensive debate about the volume-based structure proposed. Risk-based prioritization was a concept proposed by both industry and academia to replace this, but due to its own fundamental lack of workability, its inclusion was rejected. However, a lightening of the low tonnage levels was agreed, along with the practical implementation of the 'one substance, one registration' principle. Overall, it can be seen that despite the many changes proposed, analyzed, discussed and accepted during the three years of intense negotiations, the basic architecture that the Commission proposed remains and registration will provide an enforceable framework for companies and will ensure a level playing field for chemicals across Europe.     

论隐私的法律保护范围

隐私权是自然人人格权的重要内容 ,但并不是所有的隐私都应得到法律的保护 ,法律保护的隐私的范围应严格限定为具有合法性的个人隐私。由于我国现行立法没有对隐私做出具体的规定 ,一方面使得公民的隐私权难以得到充分的法律保护 ;另一方面又有试图将隐私范围扩大化的倾向 ,并使隐私权超出合理的范围而与其他权利相冲突。     

Introduction: The Sins of Segregation

Law and Philosophy -     

The Seriousness of Crime Cross-Culturally:

This study examines the perceptions of the seriousness of offenses: first, by examining perceptions of a wide range of offenses for respondents from two very divergent cultures, the United States and the Middle East, second, by assessing the perceived severity of some 17 sanctions for respondents from these two cultures and finally, by assessing the impact of religiosity on the perceived seriousness of Crime. In addition, both the magnitude estimation and category techniques for measuring the seriousness of crime are utilized and the results from using these two techniques are compared.