From Manslaughter to Preventable Accident: Shaping Corporate Criminal Liability

This article looks at the assumptions, agendas, and relations of power that shaped Bill C-45, revisions to the Criminal Code of Canada aimed at strengthening corporate criminal liability. The Bill, passed in fall 2003, originated in response to the deaths of twenty-six workers at the Westray mine in 1993, a disaster caused by unsafe and illegal working conditions. Through an examination of Parliamentary Committee hearings, this article explores how conceptions of corporate criminal liability were shaped and modified, and links this to the implications and potential of Bill C-45 to hold corporations to account. The authors argue that conservative conceptualizations of corporate liability limited the reform options that were considered by the Committee, and that the resulting legislation will do little to challenge the structural conditions that underlie culpable workplace injury and death.     

公用事业监管法治化研究

公共利益的价值定位和公用事业的自然垄断等特性,使得市场竞争机制及以维护竞争为目标的反垄断法在公用事业领域难以充分发挥作用,而对公用事业进行法律干预又是必要的。实践证明,监管制度因其独特价值而成为法律干预公用事业的优选。但要实现监管的制度价值,法治尤为关键,即追求良性的监管依赖于完善的法律制度基础和可靠的法律促进机制。公用事业监管的法治化应包含"有理"、"有权"、"有限"、"有效"、"有责"等核心要素。公用事业改革的国际经验也证实了监管法治化的重要作用。     

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 – Thirteen years in the making but was it worth the wait?

Despite a gestation period extending over thirteen years, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is a disappointment. It is limited in its scope, restricted in its range of potential defendants and regressive to the extent that, like the discredited identification doctrine before it, it allows its focus to be deflected from systemic fault to individual fault. As a result the Act may not curb the type of short-sighted risk management decisions that can lead to the deaths of innocent workers, consumers and members of the public. Further, by requiring DPP consent to prosecute, the Act threatens to entangle corporate manslaughter prosecutions in the political process to an unacceptable degree. Despite these weaknesses, the symbolic significance of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 may ultimately transcend its methodological deficiencies.     

企业社会责任及其法律规制

企业社会责任的理念超脱狭隘的"股东至上主义",是对传统企业理论"个人本位"的修正和补充,企业社会责任更加关注的是企业对社会利益的增进和维护,"社会本位"应当是企业社会责任的理论基础.对于法律并没有强制性要求的行为和义务相关的企业社会责任,无法通过国家强制力来保障实现,但仍然可以通过道德色彩浓厚的"软法"来对其进行规制.在坚持"个人本位"与"社会本位"相结合的原则下,应建立以企业社会责任为导向的自律机制,完善以政府为主导的企业社会责任他律机制.     

經濟危機後中國公司治理何去何從

2005年公司法順應國際趨勢,在鼓勵自治方面頗有突破。然則,自治是一把雙刃劍,放鬆管制的同時必须注重監督卻沒有跟上,是爲一大隱患。此後兩年美國金融危機爆發,並演化爲全球性的經濟危機,至今陰雲不散。這場危機肇始於華爾街的     

An Analysis of the Effects of Subjective and Objective Instruction Forms on Mock-Juries' Murder/Manslaughter Distinctions

Defendants' emotions at the time of their crimes may potentially serve as mitigating circumstances in murder/manslaughter cases. The present study examined whether differences between two forms of instructions given juries in such cases affected mock-juries' murder/manslaughter distinctions. Jurors' reasons for their verdicts and definitions of murder and manslaughter were also compared. In addition, three factors found to be predictive of murder/manslaughter distinctions in previous research were evaluated. It was found that, though instruction forms affected jurors' stated reasons for their verdicts and their definitions of murder and manslaughter, they did not significantly affect murder/manslaughter distinctions. Defendants were most likely to be convicted of murder if they had a history of violence with the victim and dwelt upon their emotions. We suggest jurors likely construe instructions given them to fit their a priori understandings of murder, manslaughter, and the potentially mitigating role of defendants' emotions.     

企业慈善捐赠的法律规制

目前,我国企业慈善捐赠法律规制还不完善,企业慈善捐赠定性没有法律依据、立法上缺乏对捐赠企业及受捐者相关权利保障、企业摊捐劝捐现象随处可见。欲解决这些困境。必须在立法上将企业慈善捐赠纳入社会保障体系,明确捐赠企业与受捐人的合法权利,并对企业摊捐劝捐行为予以规制,引导企业主动捐赠。     

Explaining Corporate Environmental Performance: How Does Regulation Matter?

How and to what extent does regulation matter in shaping corporate behavior? How important is it compared to other incentives and mechanisms of social control, and how does it interact with those mechanisms? How might we explain variation in corporate responses to law and other external pressures? This article addresses these questions through an study of environmental performance in 14 pulp and paper manufacturing mills in Australia, New Zealand, British Columbia, and the states of Washington and Georgia in the United States. Over the last three decades, we find tightening regulatory requirements and intensifying political pressures have brought about large improvements and considerable convergence in environmental performance by pulp manufacturers, most of which have gone “beyond compliance” in several ways. But regulation does not account for remaining differences in environmental performance across facilities. Rather, “social license” pressures (particularly from local communities and environmental activists) and corporate environmental management style prod some firms toward better performance compliance than others. At the same time, economic pressures impose limits on “beyond performance” investments. In producing large gains in environmental performance, however, regulation still matters greatly, but less as a system of hierarchically imposed, uniformly enforced rules than as a coordinative mechanism, routinely interacting with market pressures, local and national environmental activists, and the culture of corporate management in generating environmental improvement while narrowing the spread between corporate leaders and laggards.     

专利“创造性”判断中的“事后诸葛亮”——兼评我国《专利法》第22条及《审查指南》中相关规定

"事后诸葛亮"问题在专利创造性判断标准的发展过程中起了举足轻重的作用,"非显而易见性"标准的一个重要作用就是防止"事后诸葛亮".美国专利创造性判断中的"教导-启示-动机"标准是防止"事后诸葛亮"的一个重要武器,但巡回上诉法院却错误的适用了该标准.随着美国专利质量的下降和"KSR"案的到来,"事后诸葛亮"问题又得到人们的重新审视.我国<专利法>第22条规定的"(突出的)实质性特点与(显著的)技术进步"标准及专利"审查指南"中的相关表述均存有问题,容易导致"事后诸葛亮"的产生.     

论应对“危机型”突发事件的代替性策略——“必需之法则”

“危机型”突发事件的本质及法律本身功能的局限性,决定了人们无法解决非常状态下“法律与需要”之间的矛盾。“必需之法则”可以作为应对“危机型”突发事件的代替性策略。作为一种理想类型的“必需之法则”是由社会危机的极端性、自由裁量性、不受法律约束性、事后公开说理性等六个要素构成。它的理论价值在于能够增强人们对宪法长远的信仰和对法治的忠诚,能够防止集权主义有效地解决“危机型”突发事件,能够动员全社会力量共同解决危机。“必需之法则”可以与法律主义相互补充,作为我国政府应对极端危机事件的方法,也可以有效提升公民在社会危机发生过程中的公德,克服政府官员和公民的冷漠、怠责与怯懦。     

论"法人作品"规定的重构

《著作权法》同时规定了"法人作品"和"特殊职务作品"及其两者不同的著作权归属规则,导致在实践中难以区分这两类作品.因此,应当对"法人作品"的规定进行重构,对其原则适用"委托作品"和"特殊职务作品"的著作权归属规则,并同时规定自然人作者不在作品上署名的情形.     

由理念走向制度——评检察机关以“案-件比”为核心的案件质量评价指标体系

检察机关案件质效评价新机制抓住了"案-件比"这一制度性考核的核心,弥补了以往办案质量评价体系中无法对办案效率进行有效监督与管理的短板,体现了以人民为中心、法律正当程序、公正与效率、科学管理与创新发展等理论价值。其制度性优势在于,客观上能够提升认罪认罚从宽制度适用率、减少程序空转、提升捕诉精准化与有效性、提高检察官亲历办案积极性。科学发挥其指引性作用,应重塑检察机关在审前程序中的主导地位,回归以常态程序为主的司法办案模式,同时应确立检察官客观公正及时的办案义务,激活自行补充侦查制度等。     

Government Regulation of "Adult" Businesses Through Zoning and Anti-Nudity Ordinances: Debunking the Legal Myth of Negative Secondary Effects

Municipalities that prohibit "adult" businesses from operating in certain areas have justified these "zoning" regulations by advancing the idea that the presence of the business will have so-called "adverse, or negative secondary effects" on the surrounding community. Most recently, a plurality of the United States Supreme Court has upheld the extension of this doctrine beyond the zoning of adult businesses to the symbolic behavior within them in the form of ordinances banning nudity. This article abstracts and analyzes the methods and major empirical findings of studies conducted by United States municipalities, purporting to detect adverse secondary effects of adult businesses. With few exceptions the methods used in the most frequently cited studies are seriously and often fatally flawed. These studies, relied on by other communities throughout the country, do not adhere to professional standards of scientific inquiry and nearly all fail to meet the basic assumptions necessary to calculate an error rate-a test of the reliability of findings in science. Those studies that are scientifically credible demonstrate either no negative secondary effects associated with adult businesses or a reversal of the presumed negative effect. The implications of the lack of evidence of adverse secondary effects for the regulation of performances within adult businesses are discussed.     

Prosecuting 'Gross' Medical Negligence: Manslaughter, Discretion, and the Crown Prosecution Service

This article examines prosecutions of health care professionals for gross negligence manslaughter following fatal errors committed in the course of their work. Unease has long surrounded the use of 'gross negligence' as a form of criminal liability, and particularly as it applies to health care professions operating in high-risk settings. The recent dramatic rise of such prosecutions calls for a closer understanding of the processes by which important prosecutorial decisions are made. In particular, this calls for an investigation into the exercise of discretion by prosecutors in interpreting the loosely defined and contested concept of gross negligence. This article analyses data obtained from a statistical analysis of 'medical manslaughter' cases and also from interviews with crown prosecutors. Discussion of the main findings leads to the conclusion that the offence of gross negligence manslaughter is incapable of any objective and fair measurement and ought to be abolished.     

Review Essay: Legitimizing Legitimacy: Shaping a New Frontier of Research

Social Justice Research -