Legislative Transparency and Credit Risk

Open governance requirements are designed to improve accountability, which implies that transparent governments are more trustworthy stewards of their publicly invested power. However, transparency may also reduce institutional effectiveness and inhibit political compromise, diminishing the capacity to manage resources responsibly. We assess empirical support for these competing perspectives in the context of American state legislatures, many of which have become exempt from state sunshine laws in recent decades. We leverage variation in the timing of these legislative exemptions to identify the effect of removing transparency in a crucial governing institution on investors’ risk perceptions of states’ general obligation bonds. Our analysis of these data during the period 1995–2010 suggests that removing legislative transparency reduces state credit risk. We conclude that while openness in government may be normatively desirable, shielding legislative proceedings from public view may actually be better for states’ debt repayment capacity, improving their overall fiscal health.     

法律法规名称英译研究

法律法规的名称往往揭示了法律法规所要调整或规范的对象、主要范围或主要内容,故而至关重要,但目前鲜有学者对我国法律法规名称的英译进行探讨。在权威机构颁布的法律法规英译本中,法律法规名称的翻译在术语、语法及句法等方面都存在诸多值得商榷之处。中西方思维、文化及心理上的巨大差异导致了中英文表述上的不同。从翻译目的论的视角观之,法律法规名称的英译需正确选用术语、注重译入语的语法和句法表述习惯,尤其是参照外国法律法规名称的表达方式,方能最终实现我国法律法规英译的目的。     

Distinguishing Between Influences on Brazilian Legislative Behavior

Ideal point estimators hold the promise of identifying multiple dimensions of political disagreement as they are manifested in legislative voting. However, standard ideal point estimates do not distinguish between ideological motivations and voting inducements from parties, coalitions, or the executive. In this article we describe a general approach for hierarchically identifying an ideological dimension using an auxiliary source of data. In the case we consider, we use an anonymous survey of Brazilian legislators to identify party positions on a left‐right ideology dimension. We then use this data to distinguish ideological motivations from other determinants of roll‐call behavior for eight presidential‐legislative periods covering more than 20 years of Brazilian politics. We find that there exists an important nonideological government‐opposition dimension, with the entrance and exit of political parties from the governing coalition appearing as distinct shifts in ideal point on this second dimension. We conjecture that the Brazilian president's control over politically important resources is the source of this dimension of conflict, which has recently become far more important in explaining roll‐call voting than the ideological dimension.     

地理标志立法模式之比较分析--兼论我国地理标志的立法模式

一、问题的提出“地理标志”是由“原产地名称”逐步发展而来的,早先的国际公约一般采用“原产地名称”的说法,自WTO之TRIPS协议后,国际社会逐渐转向使用“地理标志”。因为地理标志不仅能囊括原产地名称的所有外延,还包括除名称外的其他表征符号。我国也大致经历了从“原产地名称”到“地理标志”的转变。鉴于此,笔者采用“地理标志”行文,相关论述自然都适用于“原产地名称”。自法国首开专门法保护地理标志之先例后,世界各国逐渐制定或修改法律法规,对地理标志进行保护。但鉴于各国特定的历史条件、社会环境和法律传统,其立…     

Transparency and doubt: Understanding and interpretation in pragmatics and in law

Correspondence on this paper and offprint requests should be addressed to Professor Marcelo Dascal, Department of Philosophy, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel. We thank Dennis Kurzon for helpful remarks on an early draft.     

立法解释的疑问——以刑法立法解释为中心

真正意义上的立法解释,是指在刑法施行过程中,立法机关对发生歧义的规定所作的解释.但是,这种立法解释不符合法治原则的要求,不符合罪刑法定原则,不符合解释的必要性,不符合客观解释目标,也不是发现法律真实含义的有效途径.     

立法文本翻译中译者的主体性研究——以《节约能源法》的英译本为例

对比分析《中华人民共和国节约能源法》的中方译本和美方译本发现,中国译者和美国译者在法律文本的词、句、语篇等各个层面均采取了不同的翻译策略或手段,足以突显法律文本翻译中译者的主体性。主体性的发挥要受到政治、意识形态、文化等因素的影响,而立法文本翻译中译者所扮演的主体性角色反过来又会促进或影响翻译目的的实现。     

论完善中央与地方权限争议立法解决机制

中央与地方的权限争议已经成为我国中央与地方关系的核心问题,现存解决机制中无论是就抽象权限还是具体权限的争议解决都存在诸多缺陷。按照法治化的思路,对立法解决机制的完善应该依循减轻中央对地方的影响、地方对中央的相对自主以及两者在利益交涉上的平衡的路径加以实现,以突出立法解决机制重在争议预防的策略。     

立法权去中心化与立法模式转变

立法权本应属于人民全体,只是交由代议机关行使,但是立法权的所有与行使的分离使其有被滥用的可能,由此导致立法权在行使时出现趋中心化:立法权绝对化、非理性化、将立法权而不是公民作为立法过程的核心。因此,应着力实现立法权的去中心化,实现立法权行使范围和方式的变革。立法模式应该实现由单一政府立法到政府立法与社会立法相结合的转变,更多地发挥公众、社会团体和专家的实质性作用。     

Filing for corruption: Transparency, openness and record-keeping

The rhetoric of the new development agenda is shaped by democratisation,decentralisation and accountability. The intention is to reassert the role ofthe state but only within the context of involving and working for thepeople. Multilateral and bilateral donor statements are replete withreferences to openness, transparency, accountability and combatingcorruption. This article discusses the rhetoric of such language but then askshow they are to be implemented.What is at issue is that such terms are crucial development goals but,without greater attention to concrete outcomes and processes, may remainrhetoric.     

国际商事仲裁的透明度问题研究

保密性一直是国际商事仲裁的优点之一,但随着国际商事仲裁可仲裁事项范围的不断扩大、WTO透明度基本原则的影响以及投资仲裁透明度改革的逐步深入,国际商事仲裁领域也掀起透明度改革的浪潮.当事人协商一致将争议提交仲裁旨在能够得到公正裁决,因此如何保证仲裁程序以及裁决的公平公正尤为重要.透明度的增加可以增强国际商事仲裁的可预见性,使得当事人更加信赖这一争议解决方式,并能增进公众对仲裁的了解.国际商事仲裁领域的透明度与公众参与、披露义务不同,透明度改革并非完全摈弃或者推翻保密性.实践中,各国际商事仲裁机构也纷纷修改其仲裁规则以彰显增进透明度的决心,但由于仲裁的保密性,其执行情况仍不容乐观.     

危险驾驶罪的立法理念与立法完善探讨

刑法修正案（八）首次将＂醉驾＂、＂飙车＂行为以危险驾驶罪入刑。鉴于民众甚至司法人员对该罪的认识上和操作中均存在不少亟待澄清和回应的问题,诸如该罪立法理念上与刑法谦抑性是否存在着矛盾和冲突？如何认识和处理该罪中＂罪过倒挂＂问题？如何理解和适用该罪的追诉时效问题？如何看待和处理该罪的行为方式过窄的问题？通过对以上诸问题进行阐释进而提出了完善相关立法的构想及其路径。     

中外票据保证制度之立法比较

票据保证是为补充票据债务人的信用,维护票据安全,促进票据流通而设立的制度,各国和各地区票据法都对票据保证做了规定,但略有不同。希望通过立法比较,从中借鉴国外和境外的相关制度和经验,以期对完善我国的票据保证制度有所裨益。