The role of valuation and bargaining in optimising transboundary watercourse treaty regimes

In the face of water scarcity, growing water demands, population increase, ecosystem degradation, or climate change, transboundary watercourse states inevitably have to make difficult decisions on how finite quantities of water are distributed. Such waters, and their associated ecosystem services, offer multiple benefits. Valuation and bargaining can play a key role in the sharing of these ecosystems services and their associated benefits across sovereign borders. Ecosystem services in transboundary watercourses essentially constitute a portfolio of assets. While challenging, their commodification, which creates property rights, supports trading. Such trading offers a means by which to resolve conflicts over competing uses and allows states to optimise their ‘portfolios’. However, despite this potential, adoption of appropriate treaty frameworks that might facilitate a market-based approach to the discovery and allocation of water-related ecosystem services at the transboundary level remains both a challenge and a topic worthy of further study. Drawing upon concepts in law and economics, this paper therefore seeks to advance the study of how treaty frameworks might be developed in a way that supports such a market-based approach to ecosystem services and transboundary waters.     

律师见证制度中的两大悖论

律师见证是指律师接受双方当事人的委托，以律师事务所的名义对民事法律行为的真实性、合法性进行证明和监督的一项活动。它旨在实现法律正义，然而，笔者发现该制度在设计与实际运行中存在两大悖论，即主观与客观的悖论和初衷与实效的悖论，致使该制度带有不客观、不公正的天性，并陡增处理民事官司的复杂性。因此，笔者认为封这一制度的期待应是“到此为止”。     

互联网法律规制的若干问题探讨

互联网应用极大地改变了人们的生活方式,互联网领域的法律问题也改变着法律的世袭领地,创造出了法律的"混血儿"。调整因互联网应用而产生的各类社会关系的法律规范即互联网法,其调整手段涉及公法和私法领域,是一个正在成长中的兼具特异性范畴和共同性范畴的综合性法律部门。互联网立法既要针对互联网发展的特点,制定互联网领域的单行法,又要在现有的民法、刑法、知识产权法等部门法中增加针对互联网领域的专门条款,以达互联网法律规制的目的。     

Resolving the so-called “probabilistic paradoxes in legal reasoning” with Bayesian networks

Examples of reasoning problems such as the twins problem and poison paradox have been proposed by legal scholars to demonstrate the limitations of probability theory in legal reasoning. Specifically, such problems are intended to show that use of probability theory results in legal paradoxes. As such, these problems have been a powerful detriment to the use of probability theory – and particularly Bayes theorem – in the law. However, the examples only lead to ‘paradoxes’ under an artificially constrained view of probability theory and the use of the so-called likelihood ratio, in which multiple related hypotheses and pieces of evidence are squeezed into a single hypothesis variable and a single evidence variable. When the distinct relevant hypotheses and evidence are described properly in a causal model (a Bayesian network), the paradoxes vanish. In addition to the twins problem and poison paradox, we demonstrate this for the food tray example, the abuse paradox and the small town murder problem. Moreover, the resulting Bayesian networks provide a powerful framework for legal reasoning.     

金融公正理念的法学阐释

资本扩张所导致的金融危机与两极分化,将弘扬自由与平等为主旨的金融法拖入了目标和现实相背离的现代性悖论之中。从公正理念的维度,重新审视现代金融法的价值取向与功能定位,对于缓解法的服从性与正当性之间的紧张关系,以及维护法的权威性具有重要意义。推进中国金融法制的现代化进程,须对西方的现代性范式扬善抑恶,以求实现金融自由与社会秩序的良性互动。     

Positive,Normative and Functional Schools in Law and Economics

During its relatively short history, the law and economics movement has developed three distinct schools of thought. The first two schools of thought, often referred to as the Chicago or positive school and the Yale or normative school, developed almost concurrently. The functional school of law and economics, which developed subsequently, draws from public choice theory and the constitutional perspective of the Virginia school of economics to offer a third perspective which is neither fully positive nor fully normative. Various important methodological questions have accompanied the debate between these schools concerning the appropriate role of economic analysis in the institutional design of lawmaking and the limits of methods of evaluation of social preferences and aggregate welfare in policy analysis. These debates have contributed to the growing intellectual interest in the economic analysis of law.JEL Classification: K00, B0, B5, B25, B41     

Foucault’s Critique: A Topology of Thought

In order to elucidate some of the ways in which critique and subjectivity become inextricably linked in Foucault’s oeuvre, the paper proceeds first by briefly discussing the concept of critique as limit-attitude as it appears in some of Foucault’s methodological writings. Subsequently, the main tenets of Judith Butler’s commentary on the essay ‘What is Critique?’ will be summarized, concentrating on the image of the virtuous, self-making subject that the author’s interpretation brings out of Foucault’s original text. The second part of the paper aims to develop an alternative reading of Foucault’s notion of critique by looking at the ways in which the notion of space operates as an underlying perspective in his archaeological analysis. Ultimately, it will be shown how the spatial implications of Foucault’s early works and a more passive form of subjectivity as unfolding from his discussion of the ‘author function’ and his own methodological reflections coalesce into a form of practical critique, which, as wished by the author, may take ‘the form of a possible transgression’ (Foucault 1984a, p. 45).     

证明标准视野中的证据相关性--以刑事诉讼为中心的比较分析

证据相关性是证据法学中的一个基础性问题,然而,我国学界对此却还缺乏较为深入的研究,相应的也存在着一些似是而非的说法。如果将证据相关性放在证明标准的视野中进行审视,在证据相关性的概念内涵、知识建构方式及其法律控制三个方面,中国与西方国家在法律上有着根本的区别。中国未来的证据立法应在重构证明标准的前提下,展开对证据相关性规则以及与此有关的诉讼规则的建构。     

Process-focused analysis in transboundary water governance research

Previous analysis of transboundary water governance has been focused primarily on state-centred approaches. The articles in this special section move us forward from this focus in three ways. First, they highlight the crucial role played by non-state actors in shaping water governance outcomes. Second, they show us how these actors can increase the ‘room for manoeuvre’ in negotiations. Third, they provide an entry point for developing process-focused approaches in transboundary water governance research. This article argues such an approach might improve our understanding of transboundary water outcomes and suggests new focus on how key actors form networks of alliances and shape decision-making landscapes at multiple governance levels and arenas. From a scholarly perspective, it brings to light the blurred boundary between state and non-state actors, as derived from a better understanding of the elusive links between actors and organisations; it unravels additional layers of complexity in the hydro-hegemony concept and bends the rigid notion of power asymmetry, towards the subtleties of power relations and interplays in transboundary decision-making processes.     

禁食野生动物的刑法规制与教义阐释——以《刑法修正案(十一)》第四十一条为中心

《中华人民共和国刑法修正案(十一)》增设了针对陆生野生动物以食用为目的的危害行为的法律规制,在原有罪名基础上进一步拓展了野生动物刑法保护的外延。这一立法条款修订与疫情防控的社会背景相关,体现了积极主义刑法观回应社会现实的功能。此次刑法修正案对野生动物的立法完善不仅是尊重动物伦理生命权的体现,而且深层次地涉及公共卫生安全的法益考量,是弱人类中心主义在刑事立法领域的生动展现。野生动物的刑事法律规制并未采用全面保护的立场,这一保护的有限性是刑法作为保障法的地位所决定的,这也决定了在野生动物保护的法律规则体系中,需要审慎辨析刑法与行政法律规范之间的关系。在具体适用时应当结合此次修正案的条文设置进行教义分析,合理把握具体要件的内涵与彼此之间的逻辑关系,防范以保护之名而随意逾越刑法边界。     

'Solange, chapter 3': Constitutional Courts in Central Europe—Democracy—European Union

Abstract: Soon after the accession of eight post‐communist states from Central and Eastern Europe to the EU, the constitutional courts of some of these countries questioned the principle of supremacy of EU law over national constitutional systems, on the basis of their being the guardians of national standards of protection of human rights and of democratic principles. In doing so, they entered into the well‐known pattern of behaviour favoured by a number of constitutional courts of the ‘older Europe’, which is called a ‘Solange story’ for the purposes of this article. But this resistance is ridden with paradoxes, the most important of which is a democracy paradox: while accession to the EU was supposed to be the most stable guarantee for human rights and democracy in post‐communist states, how can the supremacy of EU law be now resisted on these very grounds? It is argued that the sources of these constitutional courts’ adherence to the ‘Solange’ pattern are primarily domestic, and that it is a way of strengthening their position vis‐à‐vis other national political actors, especially at a time when the role and independence of those courts face serious domestic challenges.     

继承法热点问题探析

长期囿于计划经济和简单生活资料生产束缚的中国家庭正经历着前所未有的变革。与之相适应,人们的财产继承观念也有了新的变化,这给当前我国的继承法带来了许多新的问题。立足于现实,从文化、经济的视角观察和评价当前一些继承关系中的热点问题,诸如洁手原则、自由选择权原则、遗嘱自由原则、文化对继承者资格的阻滞以及尊重习惯法原则,以期对继承制度的完善有所裨益。     

The EU's Private Law in the Regulated Sectors: Competitive Market Handmaiden or Institutional Platform?

The article contests the claim that EU private law is narrowly circumscribed by a market rationality. Such a claim tracks broader criticism of EU functional legal integration, although it tends to obscure the underlying transformative pressures on private law and regulation and the role EU law plays in coping with such pressures. To offer a number of counter‐narratives, the article draws on examples from the regulated sectors, including telecommunications and energy, to reveal their experimentalist features. These suggest that EU private law is constructed through a process of error‐corrections, which allows for mutual adjustment of instruments and hybridisation of EU and local policy goals. The process results in more finely grained assemblages of autonomy and regulation to respond to concrete problems or newly salient policy goals, so that markets are understood as social institutions that are always works‐in‐progress rather than convergence points. Thus, EU private law provides a platform for transnational market‐building through innovating institutions that promote various normative and policy commitments despite the interdependencies that could undermine them.     

“PARADOX OF ENGLISH LAND LAW” — AN ENLIGHTENMENT TO LAND LAW REFORM IN CHINA

Since the founding of New China in 1949, the land law system with Chinese characteristics has been formed based on various practices, inter alia, the evolution of the rural land law system from the agrarian reform to the cooperative and people’s communes and further to the household contract responsibility system, which made historical contributions to the development of Chinese social economy. However, with the development of the practices and the deepening of the reform, China’s land law system is facing great challenges under the new circumstances. Although many differences exist between English land law and Chinese land law in the areas of legal form, the regulated objects and contents, English land law can provide some beneficial enlightenment to China’s land law reform. Particularly, the “paradox of English land law,” which presents the way how the English land law, as the law adjusting the basic property relations with many traditional factors, responds to the process of social and economic development with leaps and bounds.     

论互联网平台反垄断的宏观定位——基于政治、政策和法律的分析

反垄断法的定位取决于其独特的价值、目标和功能。反垄断法自始即具有重大的政治经济使命,可以成为有着宏大价值目标和强大经济调整功能的"超级法"。互联网产业在资本、技术和商业模式上的独特性,使平台易于触角广泛和无序扩张,具有反垄断的高关联度。互联网平台反垄断首先要在宏观价值上拓展思路和提高站位,又要积极寻求恰当的法律和经济的技术性路径。我国互联网平台反垄断不能轻言和盲从当今美欧的表面趋势,不汲汲于引领潮流和贡献经验,趋势之下可能掩盖着不同的利益诉求,而要一切服从和服务于我国数字经济的实质性发展利益,既要及时、积极和到位,又要适时、适度和谦抑,并始终以促进我国互联网产业创新发展和提升国际竞争力为目标。互联网平台反垄断应当坚持法治进路,构建相应的规则体系,并确保客观、中立和理性,防止非理性和情绪化。     

Legal aspects of text mining

“Text mining” covers a range of techniques that allow software to extract information from text documents. It is not a new technology, but it has recently received spotlight attention due to the emergence of Big Data. The applications of text mining are very diverse and span multiple disciplines, ranging from biomedicine to legal, business intelligence and security. From a legal perspective, text mining touches upon several areas of law, including contract law, copyright law and database law. This contribution discusses the legal issues encountered during the assembly of texts into so-called “corpora”, as well as the use of such corpora.     

知识产权法"利益平衡说"之反思:自然法与功利主义之比较

“利益平衡说”被认为是知识产权法之基本原则或基本精神,旨在平衡权利人个人利益与社会公共利益之冲突,并以此解释知识产权法的制度构成。依自然法理论,知识产权之正当性因其自然获得性,相关权利与限制是确定权利的正当边界,维护以个人权利为基础之社会契约。功利主义理论则认为知识产权保护是实现社会效用之必要工具,经由排他性权利及其限制来达至社会效用最大化。无论限制或保护权利均有可能产生对权利或社会效用的正面或负面作用。由此,利益平衡的二元价值目标论值得商榷。知识产权法的根本问题是以个人权利为导向还是以社会效用为终极价值之选择问题。     

A review of the evolution and state of transboundary freshwater treaties

Internationally shared basins supply 60 % of global freshwater supply, are home to about 1/3 of the world’s population, and are focal points for interstate conflict and, as importantly, cooperation. To manage these waters, states have developed a large set of formal treaties, but until now these treaties have been difficult to access and systematically assess. This paper presents and makes publicly available the assembly and organization of the largest known collection of transboundary water agreements in existence. We apply for the first time a “lineage” concept to differentiate between independent agreements and groups of legally related texts, spatially reference the texts to a global basin database, and identify agreement purposes, goals and a variety of content areas. The 688 agreements identified were signed between 1820 and 2007 and constitute 250 independent treaties which apply to 113 basins. While the scope and content varies widely, these treaties nominally govern almost 70 % of the world’s transboundary basin area. In terms of content, treaties have shifted from an earlier focus on regulation and development of water resources to the management of resources and the setting of frameworks for that management. While “traditional” issues such as hydropower, water allocation and irrigation are still important, the environment is now the most commonly mentioned issue in treaty texts. Treaties are also increasingly likely to include data and information sharing provisions, have conflict resolution mechanisms, and include mechanisms for participation beyond traditional nation-state actors. Generalizing, treaties have become more comprehensive over time, both in the issues they address and the tools they use to manage those issues cooperatively.     

Karl Polanyi and the Problem of Corporate Social Responsibility

This article considers Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as part of the projects in ‘new governance and decentred regulation’, which draw social forces towards the regulation of economic behaviour. It uses Karl Polanyi to open up pertinent interfaces between society and economy for observation, and Gunther Teubner to substantiate a ‘regulatory’ view of the company's social relationships. The article finds that CSR combines movements for the recognition of social relationships, on an unprecedented scale, with rigorous simultaneous movements for market building and social abstraction. Twenty‐first‐century market economy is defined by a capacity to contain ‘the social,’ which is thrown between the two movements, creating opportunities for companies to void the market's social limits. The article counterposes that the social that ‘returns’ after marketization needs to find its way past market‐building CSR, to constructively unshackle and redefine the framing of social conflicts that concern the corporation.     

当代中国私法进程中的民商事司法解释

当代中国正处在社会变革时期,急剧变化的社会关系需要法及时作出反应。最高法院的司法解释与民商事立法相得益彰,构成了当代中国私法进程的两条十分醒目的发展脉络,司法解释时而还扮演着"先行者"的角色。尽管存在着一些与社会变革不相协调的、引发争议甚至遭受谴责的司法解释,但作为一种具有"中国特色"的法律现象,在构建私法秩序方面,最高法院的司法解释仍大有可为。