Cyber asset in judicial discourses: a socio-semiotic interpretation

Issues concerning cyber asset in cyberspace have intrigued the legislators, the judicial practitioners, the netizens, and even the onlookers in real world; simultaneously, academia is discussing the disputes aroused by this intangible object. However, various studies in the past refined the discussions in domains of law but the refinement fails to clarify the cyber-asset issues and to resolve the disputes. Therefore, a better understanding of what “cyber asset” is can be achieved by exploring cyber asset in the judicial discourses from a socio-semiotic perspective. In this study, judicial discourses are tantamount to the semiotic resource. Then, incorporating in a generic model of judicial discourses, we examine (1) how cyber asset as a sign has been framed by agents of the judicial institution of the People’s Republic of China; (2) how the judicial institution justified their framing; and (3) whether any temporal change in the semiotic system of cyber asset took place. Furthermore, by applying the five questions introduced by Van Leeuwen, we examine why the quandaries of cyber asset are aroused. In conclusion, we propose that the cyber-asset disputes can hardly be resolved unless joint efforts are made by the legislature and the judiciary of the People’s Republic of China.     

Toward a Regulatory Budget

A regulatory budget would require the federal government to treat compliance costs incurred by the private sector as if they were incurred by the government, without requiring the government to actually assume those costs. For example, EPA could be given a regulatory compliance budget of say $80 billion in FY98. A regulatory budget would provoke an annual debate in Congress on the size of EPA's or OSHA's budget. Such a debate would force the proponents to weigh the benefits and costs of various regulatory programs, something now lacking in the political process.
Interest in a regulatory budget reflects the slight gains in the quality of regulatory decision making resulting from mandatory regulatory review. It is now apparent that better information about the costs, benefits, and distributional consequences of regulation will not automatically improve regulatory decision making-although it would not hurt.     

公正审判基本人权视野下的司法独立与司法受制

公正审判基本人权视野下的司法独立，其全部目的是为了公正审判。为防止绝对的权力导致绝对的腐败，司法权本身也需要约束，因而司法独立也不是绝对的，存在公正审判的诉讼机制下司法受制的必要性，印司法要接受司法内监督和司法外监督。司法内的监督包括审级监督和再审监督，司法外监督包括媒体监督、权力机关监督和社会其他监督等，而司法外监督以不代替司法审判、不构成对司法权的不正当干涉为底限。司法独立与司法受制共同统一于公正审判。     

Toward a Theory of Fiscal Slack

Though the fiscal slack literature has advanced over the past decade, more research is needed for a systematic understanding of the determinants and uses of fiscal reserves at the local level. This paper reviews theory and empirical evidence on the determinants of municipal fiscal reserves offers a conceptual framework for analyzing fiscal reserves accumulation and tests a series of hypotheses using a panel of 2007–2012 financial data for 145 U.S. cities from 21 states. Generalized least squares models show that unassigned general fund balances and unrestricted net assets are positively associated with general fund surpluses in the previous year and with local household incomes, while not being related to measures of fiscal risk, revenue effort, and voter characteristics. Overall, the findings suggest a relatively stronger influence of the capacity to save than the need to save on local fiscal reserves.     

Toward a post-industrial planning theory

Post-industrial tendencies indicate changes in the composition of the labor force and changes in world-view. Increasingly, next to highly intellectual work and rational ways of thinking can be found work with affective content and existentially based ways of understanding. Rationalism loses effectiveness as a guide to social action because it leads to fragmentation of the experienced world. Existentialism holds out the promise of synthesizing experience into a coherent image. Because planning involves the translation of knowledge into action, these changes in cultural values and ways of understanding call for innovations in planning theory. Challenges to rationalism require creating a new constitution for planning. Synthesis of rationalism and existentialism requires articulation of an existental planning theory. Embracing existing social conflicts is necessary for accomplishing both tasks.     

Toward a Psychology of Framing Effects

Framing is the process by which a communication source constructs and defines a social or political issue for its audience. While many observers of political communication and the mass media have discussed framing, few have explicitly described how framing affects public opinion. In this paper we offer a theory of framing effects, with a specific focus on the psychological mechanisms by which framing influences political attitudes. We discuss important conceptual differences between framing and traditional theories of persuasion that focus on belief change. We outline a set of hypotheses about the interaction between framing and audience sophistication, and test these in an experiment. The results support our argument that framing is not merely persuasion, as it is traditionally conceived. We close by reflecting on the various routes by which political communications can influence attitudes.     

Toward a Critical Theory of Education*

I propose developing a critical theory of education for the new millennium articulating a metatheory for the philosophy of education and key themes of a democratic reconstruction of education. These include developing new literacies as a response to new technologies, a new critical pedagogy to meet the challenges of globalization and multiculturalism, and radical democratization to counter the trend toward the imposition of a neo-liberal business model on education. I argue that democratic reconstruction of education needs to build on and synthesize perspectives of classical philosophy of education, Deweyean radical pragmatism, Freirean critical pedagogy, poststructuralism, and various critical theories of gender, race, class and society.     

Toward a Theory of Non-State Actors' Intelligence

The literature on intelligence contains many laments that scholars of intelligence have not developed widely accepted theories, or even definitions, of intelligence. This paper describes, compares, and modestly theorizes about intelligence-related activities of two variants of non-state actors – violent insurgent/terrorist groups and advocacy NGOs – focusing on their counterintelligence and covert action-like activities. These groups operate in some ways similarly to, and in other ways dramatically different from, states' intelligence services. This comparative analysis extends the scope of intelligence studies and offers suggestions for additional research.