Up and down the Zoning Scale

Zoning in this country has traditionally been a waiting game with the development proceess. Not knowing what specific property will be used for and not controlling the ball game suficiently to say what will be the use, land has been zoned in a “wait and see” classification. Some land has been overzoned for certain uses; other land has been left fairly open as to its potential use. Thus the system itself necessitates constant change in a property's classification as circumstances change. Many of these changes are made to accommodate a specific development proposal, so they are to the landowner's benefit. However, other rezonings result in a reduction in the landowner's potential for profit. It is this type of change—downzoning—that is the subject of this discussion.     

Up and Down,Old and New: Values and Value Systems of MPs and Voters in France

MPs are often criticised as being homogeneous. This is well known in terms of social background or gender, but the criticism also holds for values and norms. MPs are said to share normative agreements on the essential points and demonstrate differences on second-order issues. This criticism is even more widespread regarding the new politics based on the cultural divide, notably vis-à-vis politicians from the extreme right as far as immigration, European integration or globalisation are concerned. In this contribution, these criticisms are addressed by investigating the degree of normative agreements and disagreements of French MPs. Furthermore, the differences both in old and new politics between MPs on the one hand and the electorate as a whole and their supporters on the other hand are evaluated. It is concluded that MPs are definitely not all the same and the degrees of difference among MPs or with the electorate are far from being those expected.     

Down the Funnel

This article argues that the new legitimacy of the Russian regime has a military-mobilization character; in order to maintain it the regime needs a deeper confrontation with the West and a dismantling of the residual elements of the electoral legitimacy. This shift also requires stronger reliance on the use of force.     

Participation and Rules- The Functions of Zoning

Data from a case study of piecemeal zoning change suggest that the decisions of citizen zoning boards of appeal are neither lawless nor ineffective. The bulk of requests that come before them are for minor dimension or use variances and are typically allowed unless there is local opposition. The proportion of changes granted varies with the degree of clash between a proposed use or structure and the preexisting local land use-the "character of the community" (particularly in single-family residential areas). Expressions of opinion (positive or negative) by current neighbors and other community members are given heavy weight in zoning decisions.
Despite criticism of zoning boards as defective and illegitimate legal institutions and calls for their abolition, they have remained popular and extremely resistant to change. This is because zoning boards have evolved beyond their explicit rule enforcement functions to also play important dispute-settling and community maintenance functions in the contemporary urban setting. These functions of zoning can only be understood in terms of a participatory model of legal process where legal rules serve to identify situations and trigger sociopolitical processes as much as they serve as substantive norms to be enforced .     

The Dilemma of Modern Zoning

The zoning process is subject to steadily expanding volume and variety of demands and criticism. Some wish it, alone, to control the rate and location of growth and bemoan that often zoning is not so used. Others feel that zoning seldom has any rational basis and is applied on a case by case basis with little or no consideration of the existing or proposed capacity to serve the area with sewers, water, schools, parks and the many capital facilities which are an integral part of a community's infrastructure. A few say zoning is often decided on the basis of cronyism or bribery. More often critics say that zoning is decided on emotional issues by “mob rule” and that, in effect, many decisions exemplify democracy at its worst. The timid official yields to the most persistent voices by the developer, neighbors, or environmentalists and often ignores altogether the suggestions of the professional engineers and planners who in theory at least take an objective long-range view of urban development.     

Time's Up

This study tests general strain theory among a sample of 216 incarcerated women. Incarcerated women cope with many strains in prison. They frequently rely on social support from other inmates as coping mechanisms. Some even form pseudofamilies. Such relationships may impact the level of strain and negative emotions these women experience and the misconduct they engage in. The purpose of this study is to explore what relationship (if any) exists between strain, anger, depression, institutional misconduct, and pseudofamily membership. Findings suggest limited support for general strain theory and highlight the importance of women's past victimizations and impulsivity in predicting their misconduct.     

重庆市司法区域划分制度研究

司法区相对于行政区而言，是司法机关行使司法权力的场域。科学合理地划分司法区有利于保障司法独立和司法公正。重庆市的地方司法区域在中国颇具代表性，研究重庆市的地方司法区域划分制度，有利于探索中国特色的地方司法区域划分模式。     

Down to business

Legal context: A comparison of patent law relating to business method inventionsin the USA, before the European Patent Office, and in the UK. Key points: Broadly speaking, the interpretation of the US, UK, and Europeanpatent law concerning what can and cannot be patented appearsto have been largely finalized. However, as new cases are heardthe status quo is often disturbed, and this can make the applicationprocess difficult and expensive for applicants. The UK and Europeanpositions differ, despite guidelines indicating that as faras possible, the positions should be the same. In the USA also,although the approach is very different to Europe and the UK,a debate seems still to be raging as to the limits of the subjectmatter for which patents should be granted. Practical significance: The article will be helpful for anyone who wishes to quicklyunderstand the present approach to business method inventionsin these three jurisdictions.     

浅谈刑事侦查中的“网上追逃”的优势及完善

1999年中国警方首次展开"网上追逃",取得了重大成绩."网上追逃"是历次严打斗争的继续,通过网上作战,进一步增强了广大民警的科技意识,公安信息网络建设在实战中得到空前加强.     

试论严打整治斗争的健康发展

严打整治斗争既成绩斐然，也存在着某些认识上操作上的误区。“严打”勿忘“严防”，严打整治应当注重效益，要强调严格执法，要提高质量，以保证严打整治斗争健康发展。     

Digging Up, Dismantling, and Redesigning the Criminal Law

The criminal law raises wonderfully thorny foundational questions. Some of these questions are conceptual: What is a plausible conception of crime? What is a plausible conception of criminal law? Some of these questions are genealogical: What are the historical and genealogical roots of the criminal law in a particular jurisdiction? Other questions are evaluative: What are the political and moral values on which a given conception of criminal law depends? What kind of rational reconstruction, if any, could the criminal law be given? And, finally, still other questions are exploratory and normative: Should parts of existing criminal law be abandoned? What new topics in criminal law theory need to be addressed in our globalised, technologically savvy world? The contributors to Antony Duff and Stuart P. Green’s collection Philosophical Foundations of Criminal Law tackle these questions with zeal and independent spirit. They disagree markedly with each other about what the foundational questions are. And, they disagree about how those questions should be handled. This article charts their disagreements by situating the contributors within two taxonomies. The first groups them according to their approaches to the foundational questions; the second groups them according to their modes of theorising. This double taxonomy provides a useful frame within which to analyse these competing takes on the philosophically foundational work of criminal law theory.     

Community Participation and the Function of Rules: The Case of Urban Zoning Boards

Data from a case study of piecemeal zoning change suggest that the decisions of citizen zoning boards of appeal are neither lawless nor ineffective – the majority of requests that come before them are for bulk and dimension variances which typically do not threaten the land use status quo and are usually granted unless there is local opposition. When substantial changes of land use are involved two factors are influential in determining the outcome of zoning cases – the consistency or clash between the proposed land use and that of the neighborhood surrounding the site, particularly in single-family residential areas; and the expression of opinion (positive or negative) by the residents of the community.
Despite criticism of zoning boards as defective and illegitimate legal institutions and calls for their abolition, they remain popular and extremely resistant to change because they have come to play important dispute settling and community maintenance functions in the urban environment in addition to their explicit rule enforcement functions. These broader community functions of zoning can only be understood in terms of a participatory model of legal process where legal rules are understood as functioning to identify situations as much as they are norms to be enforced.