National Parliamentary Control of EU Policy: The Challenge of Supranational Institutional Development

The history of the EU is characterised by rapid and complex institutional development. This leaves European Affairs Committees (EACs) in national parliaments with a moving target problem in their endeavours to control the government's EU policies. This paper investigates how EACs react to this challenge. Building on the rational delegation literature, it is argued that EACs are likely to adapt control instruments in tandem with institutional changes at the supranational level. Using McCubbins and Schwartz (1984, American Journal of Political Science, 28, 165–179), it is further argued that EACs are likely to want to impose both police patrol and fire alarm control on the government. These arguments are investigated in the case of Denmark during the 50-year period since the first Danish application for EU membership in 1961, and considerable support is found for the authors' hypotheses.     

刑事政策的理论预设:国家、权力与公共政策

刑事政策作为刑事法界域的一个基本范畴,是当下理论界与实务部门的一个热门话题。对作为刑事政策理论预设和逻辑前提的国家、权力、管理、决策、公共政策等范畴进行研究,从而将刑事政策本身置于一个深广的人文社会背景中加以考察,有助于提升刑事政策相关研究的理论品位,并充分释放其实践效能。     

Public Policy and the Development of a UK National Geographic Information Strategy

In March 2005 the Government published a report² assessing theprogress that had been made since 1999 in embracing digitaltechnology in the UK. It declared that there had been a transformationin its use within the UK economy and civil society and thatBritain had moved dramatically up international league tablesin the take-up of IT and in its engagement in the e-economy.Since the Millennium, the Government has been busy re-organisingits procurement and service arrangements and information channels.It has encouraged departments and agencies to embrace digitaltechnology and to capture the efficiency gains that this canoffer. New offices have been established within the reportingstructures of the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury to drive theseinitiatives forward. They are the e-Government Unit, the Officeof Government Commerce and the Office of Public Sector Information.The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is also active in themanagement of geographic information. A key driver for theseOffices is engaging with digital technology in a form that willboth advance the UK economy and improve business and consumeraccess to information and services. This paper explores theseissues in the context of one specific area of policy viz., thecreation, development and exploitation of geographic informationwithin a spatial data infrastructure. The latter raises, inmicrocosm, many of the issues that the Government must tackleas it develops its digital and eGovernment transformation agendas.This paper will assess to what extent the Government can besaid to have clear objectives as to how it plans to developa geographic information strategy for the UK. It also considerswhat needs to be done to enable the diverse range of organisations,both within the public and private sectors, to move forwardin the promotion of geographic information services as a supportingmechanism to the delivery of eGovernment policies.     

The National Incident-Based Reporting System: Research and Policy Applications

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) offers a new source ofdata for measuring crime. Though far from national in coverage, NIBRS datacan address research and policy questions outside the scope of the UniformCrime Reports and the National Crime Victimization Survey. Comparisons ofthe three sources of crime data are presented, with particular emphasis onwhat can be learned from incident-based police data that cannot be learnedfrom other sources. Like all data on crime, the NIBRS is subject to variousproblems with validity and measurement error. Two general categories of suchproblems are discussed: those evident in the design of the NIBRS and thoselinked to more general issues in the organizational production of data.     

日本能源政策动向及能源法研究

当前,我国由国家能源办、国家发改委、国务院法制办和中编办等15家中央单位组成起草小组,由能源、经济、法律、公共管理领域的16名专家组成的起草专家,已展开了对我国<能源法>的起草工作.我国能源立法应该采取何种立法体系,确立何种能源管理体制,应否确立能源市场自由化等问题,值得我们从理论上深入研究.本文系统梳理了日本能源政策动向,探讨了日本能源法律制度的特点及其对我国能源立法的启示,以期为我国能源立法尽绵薄之力.     

创新国策与法制建设——中国科学技术法学会2010年上海年会学术讨论综述

中国科学技术法学会第六届会员代表大会暨2010年学术年会以＂创新国策与法制建设＂为主题,围绕＂创新政策与科技法制＂、＂产学研合作法制研究＂、＂知识产权战略＂、＂知识产权法学研究＂、＂新时期科技法学学科建设与人才培养＂等问题进行了广泛讨论,对促进科技法制建设、深入科技法学研究起到了积极推动作用。     

党的政策与国家法律70年关系的发展历程

党的政策与国家法律是国家和社会治理的两种重要制度依托。然而,不同历史时期的国家任务和制度环境直接决定着人们对党的政策和国家法律的理解认知,并体现到党的政策和国家法律在国家和社会治理中的实践定位及相互关系之中。大体而言,由新中国成立到改革开放之前,无产阶级专政是主线,巩固政权的需要推动党的政策成为无产阶级专政强有力的工具;由改革开放到依法治国,经济建设是中心,制度供给的需求促成国家法律成为重要治理方式;从依法治国到法治中国,国家治理体系和治理能力现代化成为治国理政的重要目标,党的政策和国家法律的规范转化和逻辑交融成为国家治理的时代主题。从政策本身就是法到党的政策指导国家法律制定运行,反映出人们对党的政策与国家法律关系的科学认识和解读;从主要依靠政策治理国家到全面推进依法治国,表现了党对国家治理的新思维、新理念、新方略。与此同时,党的政策和国家法律关系的学术研究也经历了一个与实践逻辑相吻合的理论演进过程。     

Effective Detention: The Development of a Policy

The Dutch Prison Service developed a new policy on indoor employment programmes. The development of this policy, the definition of these programmes and the chosen methodology of Individual Employment Counselling is described. Also some examples of good practice are given. We learned a great deal from good practice, from external advisors, from co-operation with partners like employers, probation services, local authorities and from comparable programmes in other European countries. The development of these programmes was supported by changes in the prison service, economic growth in the Netherlands, a new employment policy initiated by the Dutch government, and by sub-financing of the European Social Fund. Future challenges are: better matching of prisoners (their motivations, their capacities and handicaps) with the programmes, further development of co-operation with partners and the implementation of a good monitoring system.     

The hidden trillions: Secrecy,corruption, and the offshore interface

This paper considers the role of secrecy jurisdictions in creating a supply-side stimulus for corrupt practices and explores the use of the newly created Financial Secrecy Index as a tool for assessing and ranking such jurisdictions. Secrecy jurisdictions are a prominent feature of international financial markets, providing a combination of low or zero tax rates, lax regulation, weak international judicial cooperation, and—above all—legalised secrecy facilities. Citing the case of Barbados, this paper shows how an environment of legalised secrecy is purposefully created by not requiring disclosure of ownership information for corporations, trusts, foundations and other legal entities; through non-participation or ineffective participation in judicial cooperation and information exchange; and through laws to protect banking secrecy arrangements. Taken in combination these factors make secrecy jurisdictions attractive conduits for illicit cross-border financial flows and the harbouring of dirty money. Using secrecy jurisdictions as platforms for their operations, legal and financial intermediaries create complex and opaque offshore structures to facilitate economic crime and impede investigation. Current international efforts to stem the activities of secrecy jurisdictions are largely ineffective, but civil society is raising pressure for effective action to be taken against offshore secrecy.     

Political Environment and Policy Change: The National Endowment for the Arts in the 1990s

The relationship between changes in the stability of the political environment and policy changes are examined through the case of the National Endowment for the Arts in the 1990s. The terminologies of Hall's first-, second-, and third-order policy change and Baumgartner and Jones’ punctuation equilibrium theory of policy change are employed to analyze the relationship evident in the policy history of the Arts Endowment. The case of the Arts Endowment in the 1990s suggests that first-order changes generally occur in a stable political environment (i.e., policy equilibrium) while great instability in a political environment (i.e., policy punctuation) allows the larger second- and the largest third-orders of policy change.     

International Policy Formation: The Development Of Restorative Justice Policy Within The United Nations

Restorative justice and its related terms moved from the background of ancillary sessions to the floor of the United Nations Congress. This article documents and discusses the transfer of local policy to the international arena using the UN forum and restorative justice as a case study. First, a historical timeline traces the three influential forces, (1) the United Nations forum, (2) the non-governmental organization (NGO) activities, and (3) the individual Member States’ activities, behind the restorative justice movement onto the UN agenda. An integrated modification of Blumer’s process of collective problem definition is used as a framework to analyze the policy formation. Finally, the context of how future researchers may make use of the process is analyzed by comparing the traditional research development framework to Blumer’s policy framework. A need for wide spread implementation and outcome evaluations are needed as the policy is implemented is among the key findings.     

全国人大调查权研究

调查权是立法机关固有的权力,由于议会调查权的行使能够有效地发挥监督政府的作用,因此,外国宪法和法律都对议会调查权作出规定。我国宪法和法律也赋予县级以上各级人民代表大会组织特定问题调查委员会的权力,同时,宪法还规定全国人民代表大会有监督权和重大事项决定权,这些权力的行使说明全国人大的调查权具有宪法依据。由于我国宪法没有明确规定人大的调查权,人大行使调查权的组织和程序也缺乏相应的法律规定,不利于全国人大充分行使这一权力,针对人大调查权难以启动的原因应采取相应的立法措施。     

National Human Trafficking Initiatives: Dimensions of Policy Diffusion

The implementation of criminal law involves formal law enforcement, education, and public outreach aimed at preventing criminal activity and providing services for victims. Historically, quantitative research on global trends has focused on a single policy dimension, potentially masking the unique factors that affect the diffusion of each policy dimension independently. Using an ordered‐probit model to analyze new human trafficking policy data on national prosecution, prevention, and victim‐protection efforts, we find that global ties and domestic interest groups matter more where international law is less defined. Although prosecution, mandated by the Trafficking Protocol, was relatively impervious to global ties and domestic interest groups, both trafficking prevention and victim protection were associated with these factors. Our findings also suggest that fear of repercussions is not a major driver of state actions to combat trafficking—neither ratification of the protocol nor levels of US aid were associated with greater implementation of antitrafficking measures.