Hanging — A review

A study of 201 cases of death due to hanging, 95% being suicidal in nature and 5% being accidental; in addition there was one judicial hanging. The majority of deaths were in persons over 50 years of age, males predominating particularly in the 50 – 60 age group. In contrast to the Registrar General's annual returns for suicide which show a steady decrease over the past 20 years, deaths due to hanging have increased considerably, particularly in the last decade. This trend could be related to the dramatic fall in carbon monoxide poisoning and more circumspect prescribing of barbiturate drugs.     

宪法上征收规范的效力是否及于征税:一个比较法的观察

宪法上的征收规范一般不拘束征税。从德国法和美国法的情形来看,宪法上的征收规范对征税具有"弱拘束力",只有在极端情形中,征税可能因违反征收规范而无效。《德国基本法》上的征收规范对征税的拘束力主要表现为"半数原则",美国宪法上的征收规范对征税的拘束力主要表现为"极其武断的征税构成没有补偿的征收"。《德国基本法》和美国宪法的规则对解释中国宪法上的征收规范具有借鉴意义。     

Youth Gangs — A Special Problem

Beginning in the mid-1980s, some youth gangs with origins in the large urban centers of Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Detroit, and New York, became major criminal entrepreneurs in the supply of illicit drugs. In a very short time, many of these gangs have developed intrastate and interstate networks for the purpose of expanding their highly profitable participation in the state, regional, and national illegal drug sales market. Significant levels of violence and related criminal behavior have accompanied this phenomenon. Youth have always been distributors and sellers of drugs within their local peer groups, whether these groups were informal or organized as “gangs.” Most youth who are involved with illicit drugs have not had direct contact with drug dealers. Their street, school, or neighborhood suppliers have been friends and acquaintances. The onset of domestically-produced drugs or drug compounds presented an opportunity for youth to be in control of the supply. Domestically grown marijuana represented such an opportunity. Clandestine laboratory-produced methamphetamine and PCP increased it. And, finally, domestically-manufactured “crack” or “rock” cocaine opened the floodgates for serious youth participation in the huge profits available through illicit drug trafficking.     

“Bubbles”—A Spot Diagnosis

Abstract: Aspiration of blood is a phenomenon observed in violent and natural death scenarios. Bloodstain patterns evolving from expectoration of aspired blood may look suspicious of a violent genesis and thus mislead crime scene investigators. In the present case, a woman was found lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. Furthermore, bloodstains covered her face, clothing, and surrounding furniture and walls. Bloodstain pattern analysis and medicolegal inspection of the suspected scene of crime were carried out and revealed dispersed stains with enclosed gas bubbles in the absence of signs of physical violence leading to the assessment of a natural manner of death. The bloodstains were attributed to expiration of blood because of an internal bleeding. Medicolegal autopsy confirmed the on‐site diagnosis as a fatal esophageal varix rupture was found.     

In Search of the Responsible Subject: History, Philosophy and Social Sciences in Criminal Law Theory

This paper examines the way in which English criminal law's conception of responsibility has changed since the eighteenth century, and explores the relationship between changes in legal framework, changes in processes of criminalisation and punishment, and broader social, political and economic changes. It argues that the development of ideas of individual responsibility for crime are responses to problems of co-ordination and legitimation faced by systems of criminal law, and that these problems can be expected to change according to the environment in which the system operates, with important factors including the distribution of political interests and economic power; the prevailing cultural and intellectual environment; the organisation and status of relevant professional groups and the vigour of alternative means of social ordering. Substantively, the paper explores the hypothesis that criminal responsibility has shifted from a conception founded in ideas of character to a capacity-based conception over the relevant period. Methodologically, the aim is to historicise the structure as well as the content of criminal law within a socio-theoretic framework, constructing a dialogue between criminal law theory of a doctrinal and philosophical temper and socio-historical studies of criminal justice.     

Soft Law in the European Union—The Changing Nature of EU Law

This article is based on the assumption that there is a continuum running from non‐legal positions to legally binding and judicially controlled commitments with, in between these two opposite types of norms, commitments that can be described as soft law. It aims at defining soft law in international relations in order to provide a mapping of EU law on the basis of the soft law/hard law divide. It helps categorise EU competences and public policies, and sees how they fit with the distinction between two kinds of processes: legalisation (transformation of non‐legal norms into soft or hard law) and delegalisation (transformation of hard law norms into soft law and evolution from hard to soft law).     

超越作为实体的受众与作为话语的受众——论基于技术视角的受众观的兴起

受众研究是传播研究的核心范畴。长期以来,两种完全不同的受众观左右着这一领域:即作为心理实体的受众观和作为话语实在的受众观,这两种针锋相对的受众观各有所长,但也各有所短,只是盲人摸象式的展示了一些关于受众的碎片化的观念和想象,无法解释今天发生在互联网上的受众实践。鉴于技术的偏向常常会改变受众与传播者的关系并进而影响到受众的观念和行动,因此将媒介看作是一种关系汇集和展演的空间,并就此分析技术与受众的相互建构,是更为科学的受众观。     

寻找“更有利的法”:比较型冲突规范的司法困境及出路

2011年,中国《涉外民事关系法律适用法》引入了有利条款。六年多来,这种比较型冲突规范因其迥异的适用逻辑和比较法气质,在实践中遭遇了司法规避,至今未见严格准确适用有利条款的司法案例。司法困境的原因何在?走出困境只能仰赖立法修改乃至废除有利条款吗?通过对有利条款的历史溯源和实践中的裁判逻辑进行分析,可以发现司法困境既存在立法论根源,又存在司法技术阙如的问题。通过对现有案例进行法教义学梳理和分析,再通过设计和评析虚拟案例的方法,可以发现,在司法实践中准确适用有利条款具有可行性,并不存在实质性的障碍,至少能在个案层面上建立清晰、具有可操作性的裁判规则。法官不应以司法规避放弃裁判的职责。寻找更有利的法,就是寻找更睿智的法官。在司法实践中积极适用有利原则具有重要的理论价值,有助于从中观层面上发展比较法理论。在中国深化对外开放和建设一带一路的背景下,同样别具实践价值。     

比较法作用的新领域——《比较法与法律实践:论取消边界》一文评介

<比较法与法律实践:论取消边界>是加拿大麦吉尔大学(University of MiGill)比较法学会、法律系法学教授戈兰(H.Patrick Glenn)于2000年11月份在美国召开的比较法百年世界大会上提交的一篇论文,作者还就这一问题在大会上作了主题发言.