Explaining the Role of Restrictive Rules in the Postreform House

Abstract Four competing explanations have emerged regarding restrictive rules in Congress. Informational theory claims that rules reduce information costs and facilitate committee specialization. The distributional perspective suggests that rules enforce legislative bargains and help members achieve gains‐from‐trade. Another claim is that rules increase the Rules Committee's independent influence over policy. Lastly, partisan theory asserts that rules are used to increase the majority party's influence over policy. Abstract This analysis tests these claims during the 97th, 98th, 104th, and 105th Congresses. The findings demonstrate that theoretical constructs developed in earlier analyses of special rules are not robust over time and across legislative contexts. The results refute majoritarian assertions that rules are used as informational devices. Similarly, little evidence supports the claim that Rules Committee preferences independently affect rule assignment. Instead, a partisan principal‐agent framework emerges as the most useful construct to explain procedural choice in the postreform House.     

Preferences,Partisanship, and Whip Activity in the U.S. House of Representatives

Using Democratic whip counts from the 92d House, we compare representatives' stated intentions to their actual roll‐call votes to detect evidence of party pressure. After arguing that this strategy understates real party influence, we nonetheless point to evidence of member conversion by party leaders. On 16 bills analyzed, two‐thirds of the switches between the count and the vote occur in the direction favored by party leaders. We examine one bill in depth, showing how the efforts of party leaders were consequential to the outcome. The pattern of movement on this bill, along with data from the larger set of bills, provides evidence that leaders act strategically, targeting the members whose persuasion requires the fewest resources.     

Slavery,Partisanship, and Procedure in the U.S. House: The Gag Rule, 1836–1845

From the 24th through the 28th Congresses, the House of Representatives operated under versions of a “gag rule” that blocked petitions dealing with abolition and related matters. This article presents the gag rule as not only a historically important window into slavery deliberations in Congress but also a case study in majority party restrictions of minority rights—and in the boundaries that constituency politics can place on majority power. Through analysis of vote choices and voting changes over time, I demonstrate that the gag rule's partisan origins gave way as northern members voted against party and with specific constituency pressures as well as general sectional sentiment. The gag rule shows the power of electoral considerations and constituency in the early U.S. House, and it also illustrates the force that constituency can have over majority procedural maneuvering.     

Explaining Seat Changes in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1950–98

Abstract: Recent U.S. House elections have challenged existing models of congressional elections, raising the question of whether or not processes thought to govern previous elections are still at work. Taking Marra and Ostrom's (1989) model of congressional elections as representative of extant theoretical perspectives and testing it against recent elections, we find that the model fails. We augment Marra and Ostrom's model with new insights, constructing a model that explains elections from 1950 to 1998. We find that, although presidential approval ratings and major political events continue to drive congressional elections, the distribution of open seats must also be taken into account.     

机动车损害赔偿责任对交通行为的规范作用

机动车损害赔偿责任是一种对近代以来民事上的过失责任原则做出修正的特殊侵权行为责任。它有着深厚的社会基础、法理根据。其重要作用在于促进机动车驾驶人注意义务的履行和提高。机动车损害赔偿责任作为一种特殊侵权行为责任,在及时救济保护受害人方面发挥着积极作用。     

The Structure of China's Conflicts Law: New Developments of the Rules on Special Commercial Law

Netherlands International Law Review -     

融贯于特定场景中的规范、事实与证据——以司法过程为例

规范、事实与证据是司法过程中的三个核心范畴,具有多义性,但又能够在司法过程中融贯一致,无论是探寻本质的定义方法,还是后现代主义的解构方法都不能合理地解释这一点,只有在融合这两者理论优势前提下,规范、事实与证据才能够得到合理而一致的理解。     

降临在民宅内的恐怖

美国警察在执行拘留和逮捕任务时,曾多次选错对象或误闯不该进入的民宅,这无疑给执法的正义性蒙上了阴影。     

《鹿特丹规则》述评

2008年12月11日,联合国大会正式通过了<联合国全程或部分海上国际货物运输合同公约>,并建议将公约命名为<鹿特丹规则>.本文在介绍该公约主要内容的基础上,比较了公约与<海牙规则>、<维斯比规则>、<汉堡规则>及我国<海商法>的主要区别并加以评析,最后提出对我国<海商法>修改的立法建议.     

初评《鹿特丹规则》

对《鹿特丹规则》中的海运＋（maritime＋）、承运人的义务和赔偿责任、托运人的义务和赔偿责任、货物的交付、批量合同与合同自由、承运人的识别等问题进行探讨和评论。     

Disentangling the Role of Ideology and Partisanship in Legislative Voting: Evidence from Argentina

We present a novel approach to disentangle the effects of ideology, partisanship, and constituency pressures on roll‐call voting. First, we place voters and legislators on a common ideological space. Next, we use roll‐call data to identify the partisan influence on legislators' behavior. Finally, we use a structural equation model to account for these separate effects on legislative voting. We rely on public opinion data and a survey of Argentine legislators conducted in 2007–08. Our findings indicate that partisanship is the most important determinant of legislative voting, leaving little room for personal ideological position to affect legislators' behavior.     

Explaining the Effectiveness of Heroin-assisted Treatment on Crime Reductions

This study examines the relationship between heroin-assisted treatment versus methadone maintenance and the criminal activity of 1,015 individuals participating in a German model project. The main objective is to investigate how these treatments contribute to a decline of criminal behavior. The analyses are based upon self-reported criminal offence and police data on alleged criminals. Logistic regression is employed to explain the variance in the 12-month prevalence 1 year after program admission. The results clearly show a decline of criminal offences among participants receiving maintenance treatment; this decline was significantly greater in the heroin group with respect to property crimes and drug offences. The multivariate analysis reveals that the effects are due to a decrease of illegal drug use and absence from the drug scene.     

Explaining Majority and Minority Trust in the Police

This article tests the contribution that social capital theory, performance theory, and the procedural justice-based model can make towards explaining the trust of majority and minority group members in the police. The central research questions are: (1) do the same factors determine their levels of trust? and (2) are the effects parallel? To answer these questions, we carried out regression analyses on data collected from majority and minority group members living in Belgium (960 face-to-face interviews). The results show that, although the three theories offer explanatory elements for members of both majority and minority groups, the explanation of their trust in the police is not identical. Implications for research and theorization are discussed.     

Explaining restraint from filibustering in the US senate

While much has been written about the increase in filibustering over the past two decades, there has been very little discussion of the fact that, even today, opponents of legislation that could be filibustered often do not exercise this institutional right – even when doing so means the difference between defeat and passage of the measure. This study seeks to explain why legislation opposed by a cloture‐preventing minority is not always filibustered. Based on a broader look at the strategic environment facing senators, this study lays out six specific hypotheses. Analysis of data from 1947–98 provides substantial empirical support for most of these hypotheses, demonstrating that the strategic calculations behind the decision to filibuster are complex and multifaceted. In particular, this study finds that for legislation on which opponents have a clear incentive to filibuster, restraint is more likely to occur when the workload is light, when parties are not polarised, when the president favours the measure, when opponents’ cloture‐preventing margin is slim, and on minor legislation.     

“人本”语境下的规则冲突与冲突规则

"人本相同"是国际社会公认的普世价值,但事实上的"人本不同"造成了各国民商事法律规定的冲突。"人本"语境下的冲突法应尊重人的价值,维护人的权利,重视人的发展,以促进全球范围内民商事活动的顺利进行、物质资源的合理配置、人类社会的和谐共存。我国《涉外民事关系法律适用法》以"人本"思想为价值导向,多采双边冲突规则,坚持内外法律平行,注重冲突法的实质正义,平等保护内外国当事人的合法权益,体现了"以人为本"的科学发展观,为构建和谐国际民商事秩序保驾护航。     

加拿大外国银行分行准入制度及其对我国的启示

加拿大对外国银行分行准入曾经是采取禁止的态度,到1999年6月28日加拿大联邦立法机构通过了《第C-67法令》。该法令试图修改《银行法》、《清算与重组法》以及其它金融机构相关法令,从而允许合格的外国银行在加拿大设立分行。外国银行分行可以采取全能分行或者贷款分行的形式来运作。尽管加拿大外国银行分行制度的历史并不悠久,但其新近制度的构建确实比较系统全面。本文在评介加拿大外国银行分行准入的标准、申请程序及相关信息要求的基础上,对我国相关制度的完善进行一些思考。