将本应履行合同的财产挪作他用的行为是否构成合同诈骗的思考

在实践中,合同诈骗案件经常出现争议。或是公安机关抓了人而检察部门不捕、不诉,或是受害人举报被骗而公安机关不予立案,再是犯罪嫌疑人四处投诉公安机关插手经济纠纷。于是不得不就定性问题逐案开会研究,将大量的精力消耗在对检察院不捕、不诉决定的复议复核上,消耗在对当事人投诉公安机关推诿渎职、插手经济纠纷的解释答复上。其中把本应履行合同的财产挪作他用的案件最为突出。     

The Best Interests Standard for Incompetent or Incapacitated Persons of All Ages

When making decisions for adults who lack decision-making capacity and have no discernable preferences, widespread support exists for using the Best Interests Standard. This policy appeals to adults and is compatible with many important recommendations for persons facing end-of-life choices.Common objections to the policy are discussed as well as different meanings of this Standard identified, such as using it to express goals or ideals and to make practical decisions incorporating what reasonable persons would want. For reasons of consistency, fairness, and compassion, this standard should be used for all incapacitated persons.     

To Waive or Not to Waive: The Right to Trial and Plea Bargaining

Criminal defendants in many countries are faced with a dilemma: If they waive their right to trial and plead guilty, they typically receive charge or sentence reductions in exchange for having done so. If they exercise their right to trial and are found guilty, they often receive stiffer sanctions than if they had pled guilty. I characterize the former as ‘waiver rewards’ and the latter as ‘non-waiver penalties.’ After clarifying the two and considering the relation between them, I briefly explicate the grounds for a moral right to trial. I then assess the defensibility of such rewards and penalties. In addition to considering whether waiver rewards and non-waiver penalties serve the aims of legal punishment, I address the three main arguments for permitting them. The first suggests that defendants willing to plead display more remorse for their crimes and thus are deserving of lighter sentences. The second defends waiver rewards and non-waiver penalties in cases where prosecutors are alleged to know that defendants are guilty but face problems establishing their guilt at trial. The third holds that guilty defendants who are willing to plead conserve scarce state resources and should be rewarded for it, whereas those unwilling to plead squander such resources and should be penalized accordingly. I contend that none of these arguments provides persuasive grounds for waiver rewards or non-waiver penalties, even on the assumption that we can distinguish those defendants who should waive their right to trial from those who should not. This conclusion presents a fundamental challenge to contemporary plea bargaining practices.

To Filter or Not To Filter: The Role of the Public Library in Determining Internet Access

To filter or not to filter-that is the question facing public librarians who are trying to decide whether to install Internet blocking software on computers. The filtering question hinges on the First Amendment, balancing adults' rights to constitutionally protected speech against the protection of minors and determining what materials might be considered harmful to minors. The purposes of this article are to examine the theoretical and practical aspects of blocking Internet content and to analyze the 1998 federal district court's ruling that found a Virginia library's filtering policy was unconstitutional. In addition, this article will review alternatives designed to protect minors and propose a three-pronged solution that both ensures adults' access to constitutionally protected speech and restores decision-making to the family in protecting minors from harm.     

The Politics of Obstruction: Republican Holds in the U.S. Senate

A defining feature of the modern US Senate is obstruction. Almost all pieces of legislation considered in the Senate are affected either directly or indirectly by obstruction. Obstruction takes many forms in the modern Senate, but one of the most prevalent, yet least studied, is the hold. Using a newly created dataset on Republican Senate holds, we cast light on this important practice. Our results suggest that a variety of factors including timing, party status, and a senator's voting record are related to both the prevalence of holds and the success of legislation subject to holds in the Senate.     

State-based Representation and National Policymaking: The Evolution of the Australian Senate and the Federation

Ostensibly, Australia's constitutional framers designed the upper house as the ‘guardian of states' interests', ensuring that the smaller states were adequately represented in the federation. In recent decades the Senate has positively reinvented itself as a guardian of democracy, and is commonly known as the ‘house of review’. This study examines the changing representative role of senators and the Senate through surveys and interviews of current and former senators. The Senate has also become more of a guardian of the national interest, with proportional representation, larger constituencies and longer terms being the key institutional factors.     

To Internet or Not?: Assessing the Efficacy of Online Police Training

The field of police training is undergoing a paradigm shift due to technology, and this study used an andragogical lens to explore various considerations for the implementation of online education (OE) into police training regimens. This comprehensive assessment utilized quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the feasibility of OE for professional development among police officers in Tennessee. The study examined whether the potential performance of police officers in OE is related to various demographic factors and evaluated the perceptions of police regarding online education. Data analyses indicated a statistically significant relationship between potential online learning success and various factors, including formal educational level and previous exposure to OE. The majority of participants in the study said they preferred OE to traditional instruction, felt that OE is an appropriate delivery method for professional development, and believed that the use of OE for delivery of professional development provides increased training opportunities.     

Different Houses: The Distribution of Earmarks in the U.S. House and Senate

Nearly all studies of pork‐barrel politics in the U.S. Congress focus on the House, biasing our conception of how politics influences federal spending and skewing our attention toward factors that are active in the House. This article highlights differences between the Senate and House in how pork is allocated. We identify four important differences between the House and Senate, generate hypotheses regarding how each difference should influence the distribution of pork projects, and test these hypotheses using data from earmarks in the Appropriations bills passed by the two chambers for fiscal year 2008. The results support three of our four hypotheses, suggesting that senators are driven by different motivations than House members. These results imply that theoretical accounts of pork‐barrel spending need to account for these interchamber differences. Our findings also highlight how studies of legislative behavior, more generally, need to account for important differences in legislative structure and organization.     

To Spank or Not To Spank: The Effect of Situation and Age of Child on Support for Corporal Punishment

This study examined college students' attitudes toward spanking as a function of the situational context and age of the child. As expected, respondents were more likely to find spanking appropriate for preschool (ages 3–4) and early school age children (ages 7–8) than for older children (ages 11–12). Physical punishment was also viewed as more suitable when the child's misbehavior was disrespectful (talking back to a parent), or violated strongly held norms (hitting a playmate, stealing), and less appropriate for age-related or less serious misbehavior. Gender and race differences emerged, with males and blacks showing more support for corporal punishment than females and whites. In general, findings revealed strong support for spanking, although there was evidence of some ambivalence, especially among white and female respondents. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

本案是否应适用“举证责任倒置”

本文从分析一案例着手,对《关于民事诉讼证据的若干规定》(最高人民法院2001年12月21日颁布)第四条第八项中所规定的"医疗行为"之所指进行了一些思考,并认为在处理医患争议的案件中,不应将所有的由医护人员做出的行为均认定为该规定中所说的"医疗行为",进而一律适用该规定。     

诉讼效益：公正与效率的最佳平衡点

在现代法治社会中,诉讼价值的取向是呈多元化趋势的.公正、效率、效益,可谓是任何诉讼活动所追求的"三位一体"的价值目标.但三者关系究竟如何定位?这一直是近期学界争论的热点.首先,公正与效率的关系是静态和动态的有机结合.也即公正是诉讼的核心和基础,效率是公正的有效保障,两者可以说在诉讼价值的追逐过程中是发展变化的.然而,一旦发生冲突,二者的关系又如何处理呢?本文认为诉讼效益应当是协调两者关系的最佳平衡点.只有如此,才能使我们在司法实践中既保持理性,又不脱离现实,为社会提供最大程度的公正与整体效益.     

我国应诉管辖制度的反思与重构

应诉管辖制度在我国民诉法和司法解释中规定较为具体,但从制度配套的角度来讲,与“伪立案登记制”和移送管辖制度在法理和逻辑上存在较大冲突.这会引发限制应诉管辖适用及诱使地方保护主义等问题,冲击正常诉讼秩序.解决之道是废除“伪立案登记制度”,并改“职权移送管辖”为“当事人申请管辖”.对于“法院告知义务”这一适用要件,保持不增设之立场.保留现有应诉管辖规定位置,同时针对应诉管辖具体适用过程中的问题一一予以明确.这种重构保证应诉管辖在我国民事诉讼中的良好运行.     

Making a Difference - or Not: an Evaluation of the Effects of Failing to Evaluate

American Journal of Criminal Justice -     

The making of the Canadian legal profession: a hybrid heritage

The Canadian legal profession emerged from the confluence of two distinct traditions: the American and the English. The colonies of British North America followed the pre-revolutionary American model of a unified legal profession, according to which all lawyers could practise as barristers and solicitors. American and Canadian lawyers pursued a client- and market-driven, eclectic type of practice that was receptive to innovations – such as the large law firm, the contingency fee, and university legal education – that were strongly resisted in England. On the governance side, however, Canadian lawyers created an indigenous but English-inflected model whereby professional self-governance was delegated to a statutorily-created body that had the power to compel all lawyers to join if they wished to practise law. With their commitment to client-centred service and strong governance, Canadian lawyers long enjoyed a cooperative and productive relationship with provincial governments, unlike the adversarial one characteristic of the United States or the long benign neglect of the legal professions by the English state. It is argued that this historical pattern may help to explain the continuing strength of the self-governance model in Canada at a time when it is being questioned and radically reformed elsewhere in the common law world.