内幕交易民事责任的价值平衡与规则互补——以美国为研究范本

内幕交易的民事赔偿责任不同于普通的侵权责任。如何应对内幕交易的民事诉讼、是否应对该类诉讼进行适当限制是各国制度建构所面对的共同问题,在此方面,美国的经验具有重要的借鉴意义。在内幕交易民事责任的追究中,存在着远非单一的多元价值,补偿投资者利益只是要实现的若干目标之一。制度构建的重要任务是要对相互冲突的价值目标进行恰当的协调和平衡,其中包括:威慑、监控内幕交易行为、保护投资者信心与防止滥诉、保护公司利益之间的平衡;补偿投资者损失与防止民事责任成为投资者保险之间的平衡;保护受害者诉讼权利与抑制过度诉讼之间的平衡等。同时,为实现法律的目标,内幕交易民事赔偿的各种法律规则之间需要功能的互补和相互的配合,包括刑事、行政、民事责任的互补配合,程序法和实体法的互补配合等。     

独立审计准则的法律地位研究

审计准则是行业协会制订的内部自律性规则,其制度价值在于保障审计质量并作为对其成员的审计失败是否追究纪律责任的依据,不能调整注册会计师与财务信息使用人之间的民事关系。审计准则规定的注意义务范围与注册会计师应尽的注意义务范围之间存在一定的差距,因而在该义务差距范围内出具的虚假证明文件注册会计师是有过错的,注册会计师对此应承担民事责任,同时以履行审计准则规定的义务作为抗辩其审计失败的民事责任缺乏法律根据,也不为国外司法实践承认。我国的审计准则与公众期望之间存在一定差距,该差距的存在进一步表明我国的审计准则不能作为注册会计师注意义务的法定标准。     

论税收之债的溯及变更和消灭

税收为法定之债,于法律规定之税收构成要件充分时而发生,且在发生后原则上即具有不可溯及变更和消灭性。但在法定情形下,作为例外,对已经成立的税收之债可进行溯及调整。税收之债溯及变更和消灭的事由包括基础处理决定的作成、废弃或变更,法律行为的无效、撤销、解除、附条件的成就,形成权的行使,税收优惠条件的丧失,税收法律的溯及适用,强制执行的回转等。溯及调整税收债务,应遵循一般程序和特别程序的规定。     

Contractual Limitations on the Auditor's Liability: An Uneasy Combination of Law and Accounting

Operative as from 6 April 2008, sections 532–538 of the Companies Act 2006 create a new liability limitation regime in contractual relationships between audit firms and companies in relation to the statutory audit function which overturns an almost eighty years old fundamental principle of company law. This new regime is the product of continuing pressure by the audit profession for liability reform and concern by Government regarding the market structure for audit services. This commentary critically evaluates the regime from law and accounting perspectives. It concludes by reflecting on its longer term implications for audit quality, perceptions of the audit profession and the evolution of a future research agenda.     

Formation of procedural beliefs about legal arenas: Do people generalize from loosely related past legal experiences?

Few studies have addressed how people develop beliefs about legal authorities' neutrality and fairness. Using a cross-sectional survey of taxpayers (N = 147), this study examines the sources and processes underlying the formation of these beliefs. Controlling for significant contributions of media stories about audits and past audit experiences, past loosely related negative legal events (traffic court) also shape perceptions that tax auditors are more biased and unfair. Information about police officers exchanged in conversations also creates perceptions that tax auditors are more biased. These generalization effects occur only when people do not have prior direct experience with tax auditors. For taxpayers with prior audit experience, positive experiences are related to more positive perceptions of auditors and media stories about tax audits produce more negative perceptions. The findings suggest that positive and negative past experiences shape beliefs only when they disconfirm prior perceptions based on imagination or indirect sources. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

有限责任公司股东优先购买权问题研究

有限责任公司股东优先购买权的法理基础在于期待权和有限责任公司的理论。股东优先购买权是一项法定权利 ,是股东基于股东资格而享有的请求权 ,其行使须依法定程序。股东优先购买权的效力及法律保护须考虑公司资本利益和股东有限责任原则的衡平以及如何防止股权转让自由的滥用。     

民营上市公司财务监督问题——兼评《上市公司治理准则》《证券法》的相关修订

在日本设置监查委员会等三类委员会的公司中,监查委员会和会计监查人为公司财务监督的最终把门人。日本立法者虽然给予了这两大监督机构一定的独立性,但是东芝公司财务造假事件的发生却反映出这两大机构背后的许多问题。我国《上市公司治理准则》和《证券法》对公司财务监督的有关修改难以解决民营上市企业的财务造假问题。在我国,作为民营上市公司内部财务监督把门人的审计委员会和日本的监查委员会一样,有着交叉任职和缺乏专业性的问题,这使得聘任财会专业的专职审计委员显得有所必要。同时,类似于日本的情形,独立性、会计师事务所的强制轮换制度缺失和时间压力是会计师事务所担任我国民营上市公司外部财务监督把门人时所面临的问题,对此可采取的改革措施有赋予审计委员会对会计事务所的选解任权和报酬决定权、限制每年年初前4个月签字会计师审计的公司数量等。     

Croatia’s computer laws: promotion of growth in E-commerce via greater cyber-security

Croatia’s Electronic Signature Act (“ESA”) was enacted in 2002. The ESA is third-generation and provides for legal recognition of all types of E-signatures, but gives preferred status to the digital signature. The ESA provides for regulation of Certification Authorities (“CA”), who may voluntarily elect to become accredited if they are able to comply with stringent financial and technical requirements. The principal duties of CA’s are to: issue certificates to successful applicants; confirm the authenticity and integrity of E-signatures to relying third parties; maintain a repository of certificates which may be accessed by the public; and cancel a certificate if any information contained therein is discovered to be inaccurate. The ESA covers legal liability of CA’s and punitive measures which may be taken against them if they violate the ESA. The Electronic Document Act (“EDA”) was enacted in 2005. The EDA specifies how an E-document can be used to comply with a statutory requirement for production of a paper document or an original document. The EDA also creates a legal presumption of admissibility of evidence in electronic form, and contains rules pertinent to assumed time/place of transmission/receipt of an E-message. The EDA covers liability of Internet service providers and specifies several computer crimes. The Electronic Commerce Act (“ECA”) was enacted in 2003. The ECA provides for basic E-contract rules, basic regulation of E-commerce sellers, and basic consumer protections of E-commerce buyers. Although it was a satisfactory first-step, the ECA needs to be fine-tuned with the following modifications: (1) add E-contract attribution rules; (2) improve the E-contract acknowledgement-of-receipt rules; (3) add E-contract rules for carriage contracts; (4) strengthen the consumer protections of E-commerce buyers; (5) establish information technology courts for resolution of E-commerce disputes; (6) add cybersuite provisions; and (7) add explicit long-arm jurisdiction over foreign E-commerce sellers.

从中西比较视角看儒家的法律传统——以法律社会学和司法能动主义为基点

从法律社会学的视角审视儒家的法律传统可以发现,儒家所理解的"法律"是广义的,它既包括国家制定法("刑"),也包括礼制、礼义、道德、习俗、人情、天道等在内的所谓"活法"。"活法"在一般情况下并无国家强制力,但有社会强制力。当然,它在有些时候渗透于国家法典中,在另一些时候又被直接用作审判的依据———此种情况下的"活法"无疑是有国家强制力的。儒家的法观念实际上是致力于"情理"(活法)与国法之间的平衡,因而在司法实践中体现了一种明显的张力和弹性,因此与英美法系的传统比较接近。     

The Evolutionary Game‐Theoretic Foundations of Law

Interdisciplinary work in the law often starts and stops with the social sciences. To produce a complete understanding of how law, evolutionary game‐theoretic insights must, however, supplement these more standard social scientific methods. To illustrate, this article critically examines The Force of Law by Frederick Schauer and The Expressive Powers of Law by Richard McAdams. Combining the methods of analytic jurisprudence and social psychology, Schauer clarifies the need for a philosophically respectable and empirically well‐grounded account of the ubiquity of legal sanctions. Drawing primarily on economic and social psychological paradigms, McAdams highlights law's potential to alter human behavior through expressions that coordinate. Still, these contributions generate further puzzles about how law works, which can be addressed using evolutionary game‐theoretic resources. Drawing on these resources, this article argues that legal sanctions are ubiquitous to law not only because they can motivate legal compliance, as Schauer suggests, but also because they provide the general evolutionary stability conditions for intrinsic legal motivation. In reaction to McAdams, this article argues that law's expressive powers can function to coordinate human behavior only because humans are naturally and culturally evolved to share a prior background agreement in forms of life. Evolutionary game‐theoretic resources can thus be used to develop a unified framework from within which to understand some of the complex interrelationships between legal sanctions, intrinsic legal motivation, and law's coordinating power. Going forward, interdisciplinary studies of how law works should include greater syntheses of contemporary insights from evolutionary game theory.     

Litigation,Judicial Path-Dependence,and Legal Change

In this paper we consider the role that litigation and case selection play in the process of legal change. After identifying two necessary conditions for litigation, we examine the effect of judicial path dependence on the consolidation of liability rules and legal remedies, paying special attention to litigation with different win–loss ratios. We study the consequence of private litigation decisions on the contraction or consolidation of legal rules under various litigation and judicial environments. We also consider the relevance of the win–loss ratios, the existence and nature of positive litigation costs, and the weight of past precedents on the ongoing process of legal evolution.JEL K0, K40, K13, K41     

法律救济的规则选择:财产规则、责任规则与卡梅框架的法律经济学重构

法律经济学上的"卡-梅框架",是从法益保护的效果模式出发,对法律规则做出的一个类型划分。其原初结构是以法益的转移自由和定价意愿为标准划分的"财产规则"、"责任规则"和"禁易规则"。通过引入法益的初始归属和限价方式两个新的划分标准,可以增添"管制规则"和"无为规则"两个新的类型,扩展和重构"卡-梅框架"的救济分类和规则结构。这五类规则构成了法律经济学上可供选择的一个"规则菜单"。一个社会在特定领域的规则选择,对应着国家权力干涉社会生活的不同程度,体现了法律背后的观念变化和权力博弈。对于法律救济规则分类与效率比较的理论研究,有助于深化对中国现行法律的学术理解和制度完善。     

奸淫幼女构成犯罪应以明知为前提 --为一个司法解释辩护

在严格责任与罪过责任分立的基础上,奸淫幼女构成犯罪必须以明知为前提,这样才能在保护幼女和保护被告人的合法权益之间求得一种法治视野下的平衡.应当摈弃"应当知道"的传统提法,而把奸淫幼女的明知分为确切知道和推定知道两种.从最高法院关于奸淫幼女问题的司法解释出发,我国现行的刑事司法解释体制及其形式应该逐渐由抽象的司法解释过渡到个案性质的司法解释,再进一步过渡到判例制度.     

法律、民生与民间规则——兼论两岸交流制度中民间规则的作用

法律是社会交往和社会需要的产物,因之,法律也是主体交往中日常生活的公共产品。它不仅作用于人们日常的物质生活,而且也作用于人们的精神生活。更重要的是,法律作为正式制度,还缔造着人们的制度生活。但法律的规定并不是完全自足的,一方面,需要关注作为非正式制度的民间规则的作用,另一方面,当法律规定有所遗漏,或者法律规定对公民的日常生活不能调整、规范时,民间规则对救济法律的不足,就可能会派上用场。甚至即使法律对相关社会关系有所规定,在实践中也免不了法律和民间规范相互交叠地发挥作用。基于这种认识,在两岸有关民生的交流中,应当把民间规则纳入保障两岸民生、促进两岸往来的重要社会因素中。     

Waiting for Enron: The Unstable Equilibrium of Auditor Independence Regulation

A primary function of auditor independence regulation is to ensure that any financial incentives auditors may have to approve misleading or inaccurate accounting are outweighed by market and regulatory deterrents to compromising an auditor's independence. This article is an inquiry into the current state of this incentive equilibrium in the United Kingdom: the possible costs and benefits that may be incurred by auditors if they elect to acquiesce to management's demands to accept problematic accounting. It argues that the equilibrium position currently incentivizes a rational auditor to acquiesce. On the one hand, the article demonstrates that the recent evolution of audit firm revenue streams has provided auditors with a substantial incentive to compromise their independence and provided management with credible sanctions to pressurize them to do so. On the other hand, the article shows that regulatory and market costs of acquiescence do not counterbalance the benefits of acquiescence.     

Untangling the Web: A Review of Certain Secure e-Commerce Legal Issues

A number of critical legal aspects in the area of secure e-commerce and cybertrade are examined including doing business on the internet and web sites. Key issues including compliance with data protection laws, web site ownership and hypertext linking are raised.The use of the internet for communication on an intercompany basis provides concerns over security, confidentiality, defamation, harassment and infringement and companies must consider implementing ground rules for the use of e-mail and the internet in order to reduce or avoid corporate liability as well as directors and officers own personal liability.The growth of cybertrade raises issues relating to the underlying legal and regulatory global infrastructure and at present whilst the technology exists the other infrastructures do not and therefore there are urgent needs for co-ordination on an international basis in this area in relation to public key infrastructures, validity of digital signatures, the implementation of guidelines for trusted third parties, certification authorities and CyberNotaries.     

公司法律形态结构改革的走向

现行公司法上,公司法律形态存在着结构性问题。有限责任公司虽属封闭公司,但没有涵盖发起设立股份有限公司,而股份有限公司却容纳了公开公司和封闭性的发起设立股份有限公司。这种结构导致了封闭公司适用不同规则,公开性股份有限公司、封闭性股份有限公司适用同样的规则。公司法改革的取向是整合封闭公司资源,重塑有限责任公司形态,涵盖所有封闭公司,并使股份有限公司仅具有公开公司特点,不再涵盖发起设立的公司。在此基础上,同一法律形态的公司适用同样的规则,以利公司法现代化。同时,实现公司法体系一元化,外商投资有限责任公司与内资有限责任公司并轨,这是重塑有限责任公司形态的应有内涵。     

Safe harbor provisions of Chinese law: How clear are search engines from liability?

It seemed well-settled that Chinese law provided owners of search engines with safe harbor against unreasonable interference from copyright holders. But the judgment of IFPI v. Yahoo! shook this belief. This controversial judgment is related to the rather convoluted applicable legal rules, with joint infringement rules interweaved with the safe harbor provisions. To fully expose the scope of search engine provider's liability and the legal issues of the Yahoo! China ruling in particular, this paper examines the Chinese provisions for joint infringement and liability for search engines, discusses all the Chinese “safe harbor” provisions, those in the Regulation RCIN, the Judiciary Interpretation for Digital Copyright and the Administrative Measures for Digital Copyright. Following this discussion, suggested errors in legal application in the Yahoo! China case are analyzed and a suggested right approach is argued.     

Agency problems in the legal political system and supreme auditing institutions

The analysis shows that there are agency problems in the legal political system. Thus there is a need for auditing services that have to be delivered by the supreme audit institution. There are considerable problems in motivating auditors to perform high-quality audits and there is an urgent need to develop effective performance and effectiveness technologies. However, even if these problems could be solved perfectly, an important problem remains: how to ensure that politicians really use the audit results.