Canada ordered to implement WTO ruling against "stockpiling" of generic drugs

In the last issue, we reported on a mixed World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling regarding Canada's patent laws, based on a complaint by the member states of the European Communities (joined by the United States). In March 2000, a WTO Panel accepted the provision in Canada's Patent Act that creates an "early working exception" to patent rights--in other words, that allows a third party to use a patented invention during the term of patent protection, as long as the use is for obtaining regulatory approval of an equivalent product to be sold once the patent expires. This was an important victory from the perspective of allowing earlier access to generic versions of patented drugs.     

指使肇事者逃逸行为的刑法学浅析

《关于审理交通肇事刑事案件具体应用法律若干问题的解释》中,对指使肇事者逃逸行为所做的司法解释,学者们从不同角度出发,对指使交通肇事者逃逸行为的法律定性提出了各自的见解。笔者认为,根据肇事者和指使者主观心态的不同组合,可对指使交通肇事者逃逸的行为作出不同的认定,但指使者和肇事者其可能成为故意杀人罪或遗弃罪的共犯,而不可能成为交通肇事罪的共犯,在指使者符合窝藏罪的构成要件时,应依照该罪处理。     

浅议“违宪”的慎用

违宪，一般指违反宪法的行为。四川两位律师认为《娱乐场所管理条例》禁止四类人从业于娱乐场所属违宪之结论经不起推敲，有使“违宪”泛化之嫌疑，同时又曲解了宪法与部门法及行政法规的关系，误解了我国以宪法为主导地位的法律体系所蕴含的“一般情况下，法无明文禁止均可行”的内在精神。在任何情况下，对违宪都应当慎重使用。     

“存在”、“此在”与“是非”——兼论庄子、海德格尔对人的存在问题观点之异同

西方哲学中“存在”一词在翻译成中文时出现的麻烦,从一个独特的角度映照出“存在”一词的多重含义和所谓“存在”问题的矛盾晦暗之处。汉语虽没有一个与“存在”完全对等的词语,但却用多个不同的词语来表述包含在“存在”中的问题。通过比较可以发现庄子所谈论的“是非”问题与海德格尔所谓“存在”、“此在”的问题在很大程度上是同一个问题,但他们对这个问题的解答却是不同的。这一比较实际上已经涉及到了中西方哲学传统中对个人的看法上的一个比较普遍的差异。     

US files WTO complaints against Brazil over requirement for "local working" of patents

At the end of May 2000, the US (later joined by the European Communities) filed a complaint against Brazil at the World Trade Organization (WTO), alleging Brazil was in violation of its obligations under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement) and the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Brazilian legislation that came into force in 1997 establishes that, in order to enjoy exclusive patent rights in Brazil, the holder of a patent on an invention must satisfy a "local working" requirement. In other words, the patent holder must "work" the patent in Brazil to enjoy full patent protection. If it fails to do this, the law says it shall be subject to the possibility of the government issuing a compulsory license, allowing someone else to use the invention and pay a royalty fee to the patent holder.     

“推定”和“视为”之语词解读?——以我国现行民事法律规范为样本

立法层面观察,"推定"和"视为"语词频繁适用于我国法律规范中。学界和实务界普遍认为两语词表达的分别是法律推定和法律拟制制度。然而,以我国现行民事法律规范为样本进行分析,却发现"推定"和"视为"语词并非与法律推定和法律拟制相对应:"推定"大多表达法律推定,但也表达法律拟制和注意规定;"视为"大多表达法律拟制,但也表达推定制度和注意规定。立法层面法律推定、法律拟制和注意规定语词适用的混乱状态必将导致司法层面对于"推定"和"视为"语词的解读困境。因此,应当在厘清法律推定、法律拟制和注意规定本质的基础上,用统一、明确的语词进行相应的制度表达。     

THE SOCIAL ECOLOGY OF URBAN HOMICIDE: AN APPLICATION OF THE "ROUTINE ACTIVITIES" APPROACH

The purpose of this paper is to use the recently developed "routine activities" approach to help interpret patterns of homicide in a major metropolitan area—Manhattan, New York We argue that the routine activities perspective suggests several distinctive hypotheses about the relationships among sociodemographic characteristics of victims, temporal features of the situation, and the probability of being involved in different kinds of homicide. More specifically, we hypothesize that the sociodemographic characteristics of age, sex, race, marital status, and employment status, along with temporal factors such as time of day, day of week and time of year, will be related systematically to the location of homicide (that is, The geographical proximity to the victim's household) and to the victim-perpetrator relationship (that is, the social proximity of participants: family members, friends, strangers). Detailed data on all recorded homicides occurring in Manhattan during 1981 are examined to evaluate the hypotheses. The results are generally consistent with expectations, indicating that the routine activities approach does indeed provide a useful framework for interpreting the social ecology of urban homicide.     

DEMEANOR OR CRIME? THE MIDWEST CITY POLICE-CITIZEN ENCOUNTERS STUDY*

There is agreement in the literature on policing that demeanor and other extralegal variables help determine police decisions. A recent challenge to that agreement has been issued, however. Klinger (1994) has asserted that nearly all previous quantitative analyses of the effects of demeanor and other extralegal variables are fatally pawed because they failed to limit demeanor to spoken words and failed to control for crime. He concluded that all previous research is suspect until additional analyses of the data sets used in previous research and new observational research are presented. This research starts the first of these tasks by reporting additional analyses of data from three previously published papers based on the Midwest City Police-Citizen Encounters Study. With demeanor limited to spoken words and crime partially controlled, the reanalyzed data suggest that the effects of demeanor depend on how demeanor is represented and, to a lesser extent, model specification. Consequently, caution with respect to existing reports of the effects of demeanor and other extralegal variables remains necessary. In addition, carefully controlling for crime and limiting demeanor to spoken words may not be the only problems surrounding efforts to assess the effects of demeanor. This research suggests that multiple representations of demeanor and more fully specified models may be important as well.     

"If I lie, I tell you, may heaven and earth destroy me." Language and Legal Consciousness in Hong Kong Bilingual Common Law

Based on an ethnographic study of courtroom interactions in the bilingual (Chinese/English) common law system in Hong Kong, this article investigates how language plays a constitutive role in shaping the ways people use, argue, and think about law. While the use of English in Hong Kong prescribes by default the supposedly universal speech act of statement-making, the presence of Cantonese allows local speech acts to be brought into the courtrooms. Two local speech acts, "catching fleas in words" and "speaking bitterness," are discussed. The findings of this study suggest that by studying the local practices and beliefs in postcolonial settings, researchers can gain insights into the complex ways in which Anglo American–style legal institutions are reconstituted.     

“检察”一词的前世今生:词源和历史的交融

中文"检察"和"监督"在语义上有着密切联系。从域外审视,英法两国作为近代检察制度的主要策源地,其语言中表述或指代"检察"的词语主要源于拉丁文prōcūrare和prōsequor。通过整体分析词语的形成和流变能够发现:一方面,二词在原初便同中文"检察"、"监督"之意没有亲缘,而同中文"代理"、"控诉"之意颇为相近;另一方面,在历史演变过程中,二词也始终保持了其本意并与"检察"、"监督"之意无任何勾连。此外,俄语中指代"检察制度"的相关词语也是直接根源于拉丁文prōcūrare。域外表述"检察"相关词语的词源、词义同其检察制度发展历史的相互交融,整体塑造了西方对"检察"的理解和认识。中西方对"检察"词语的理解差异,直接影响到有关检察权能属性、内容、检察制度等方面的理论认知和现实实践。     

REASON FOR EMOTION: REINVENTING JUSTICE WITH THEORIES,INNOVATIONS, AND RESEARCH—THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY 2002 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS*

Criminology was born in the age of reason to apply “reason” to justice, tempering the expression of moral indignation with the economics of deterrence. Modern criminology is now poised for reinventing justice around the emotions of victims, offenders, and society. One prime example is restorative justice. Others include wider use of biomedical mental health treatments for offenders, programs to make justice officials more aware of the emotional impact of their words on citizens, and programs to help justice officials manage their own emotions. Research can advance theory and innovations as a basis for a new paradigm of “emotionally intelligent justice.”     

字本位和逻各斯中心主义两种证据观及其历史演变

本文重点讨论了两种证据观：字本位的证据观和逻各斯中心主义的证据观。并进一步认为，中国传统证据观是字本位性的。表现在言、文、象三重证据符号的关系中以“书写”或经典为中心。现代中国发生了证据观的革命性变化，主要表现为“去汉字化”的逻各斯中心主义证据观，即在言、文、象三重证据符号的关系中以“言、象”为中心。“去汉字化”建立了中国现代性证据现，同时也难以避免地导致了与传统文化的断裂。     

从“庭审必备”转向“庭审后备”——民事预判决制度之提出

我国民事诉讼法理论与实定法上存在着"庭审必备"的误解,即认为只有开庭审理才是法院审理,只有开庭后作出的判决才堪称正当。"庭审必备"的刚性规则是源于庭审范畴的不当扩张,这既淡化了庭审对抗辩论的实质功能,也使大部分的开庭空有形式。我国的判决程序应从以庭审为必要,转变为必要时庭审,对于简单案件采取预判决的机制:法官直接根据起诉与答辩作出预判决,如果当事人对预判决的实体结果没有实质异议,则预判决发生效力;如果法院认为当事人的异议使案件有庭审的必要,则进一步组织开庭审理。为保障当事人不受诉讼突袭,预判决之前双方当事人有发表意见的机会,但要求一次、及时提出;当事人有通过提出异议而请求庭审的权利,但不诚信的异议将受到惩罚。     

AGE,GENDER, AND THE CRIME OF CRIMES: TOWARD A LIFE‐COURSE THEORY OF GENOCIDE PARTICIPATION*

This article asks whether genocide follows the age and gender distributions common to other crime. We develop and test a life‐course model of genocide participation to address this question using a new dataset of 1,068,192 cases tried in Rwanda's gacaca courts. Three types of prosecutions are considered: 1) inciting, organizing, or supervising violence; 2) killings and other physical assaults; and 3) offenses against property. By relying on systematic graphic comparisons, we find that the peak age of those tried in the gacaca courts was 34 years at the time of the genocide, which is older than the peak age for most other types of crime. We likewise find that women were more likely to participate in crimes against property and comparatively unlikely to commit genocidal murder. Symbolic–interactionist explanations of crime suggest people desist from crime as a result of shared understandings of the expectations of adulthood. We argue that this process may be turned on its head during genocide as participants may believe they are defending their communities against a perceived threat. Thus, in contrast to other criminological theories suggesting that people must desist from crime to be accorded adult status, some adults may participate in genocide to fulfill their duties as adult men.     

法律文书中的模糊词语初探

法律文书在大量使用确切性词语的同时,还必须适当选用模糊词语,选用模糊词语的目的其实也是为了更确切的表意。法律文书在表述难以具体确定的时间空间、无法或不必确定的程度范围、难于或无需准确描述的频率数量、带有预测推断性质的内容情节、不便或不宜直言的情景事实等状况时宜用模糊词语。运用模糊词语可以使法律文书的语义更确切、表述更严谨、文风更庄重、章法更协调。法律文书在使用模糊词语时一定要注意不能超越一定的“模糊度”,不能偏离具体的题旨语境,不能忽略其与确切性词语的对立统一。     

网络犯罪共犯行为的正犯化与定量评价

信息时代网络空间中的共犯行为发生了"异化","一对多"的共犯模式成为常态,导致共犯的从属性降低。司法实践逐渐摸索出了共犯行为正犯化的定性解释模式,并且逐步为共犯行为构建了独立的定量评价规则,这在"发起"多人、帮助多人、针对多人的"不作为""事后"共犯中都可参照借鉴。     

HELPING ALIENATED CHILDREN WITH FAMILY BRIDGES: PRACTICE, RESEARCH, AND THE PURSUIT OF "HUMBITION"

This article briefly summarizes and responds to feedback offered by Joan Kelly regarding Family Bridges: A Workshop for Troubled and Alienated Parent–Child Relationships™. We emphasize principles that promote an educational atmosphere, as opposed to a therapeutic one, and the court's role in contributing to successful interventions with severely alienated children. Among the considerations discussed are: working with favored parents, economic comparisons of Family Bridges with counseling approaches, modifying the program for use in prevention and with milder cases of alienation, and issues related to training additional team leaders and conducting outcome research.     

THE IDENTIFICATION OF "CAREER CRIMINALS" FROM "CHRONIC OFFENDERS" IN A COHORT

The findings by Wolfgang et al. that 6.3% of their cohort had 52% of the recorded police contacts is well known. This retrospective analysis has been used to suggest that imprisoning these "chronic" offenders will avert a correspondingly disproportionate amount of crime. On prospective analysis of the arrest histories, however, the recidivism probability is found to be constant after the third contact, suggesting that prior record has little predictive value regarding future criminality. These observations raise important questions about the benefits of "career criminal" programs and their incapacitative effects.     

Incitement to Religious Hatred and the ‹Symbolic’: How Will the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 Work?

This article examines the new offence of inciting religious hatred under the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006. A historical analysis of existing provisions aimed at legislating against racial hatred and blasphemy is adopted, in order to determine whether the creation of this new offence is justified and necessary. We conclude that although the new offence may fulfil an important symbolic role in a post September 11th environment, in its current form the legislation has not taken sufficient account of the precedent of racial hatred and blasphemy laws, or of more general questions about the criminalisation of hatred.     

The Role of International Legal Norms in Ensuring the "Right to a Legal Defense"

On 22 November 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR adopted the "Declaration of the Rights and Freedoms of the Individual and Citizen."¹ Article 1 of the declaration states that universally recognized international norms on human rights have priority over the laws of the RSFSR where they directly give rise to rights and duties of citizens. But, in the words of A.M. Vasil'ev, this is "really only a defended, not a proclaimed right."² The systems of international and Soviet law set down the procedure and the order of realization of rights and freedoms and the ways and means for their legal defense. An important guarantee for the realization of rights and freedoms is ensuring the individual's right to a legal defense.