Market offenses and limits to growth

The purpose of this article is to explore various factors that may regulate or stabilize levels in market offenses. Instead of assuming that illegal markets are ‘out of control’, evidence is advanced to demonstrate, on the contrary, that there are indeed limits to growth in criminal markets. This is presented along three principal and interconnected arguments. First, social norms limit the ability of suppliers to shape demand for illicit goods and services. Using public opinion surveys, it is concluded that the more objectionable the moral status of an illegal market, the smaller the pool of potential consumers and sellers. Second, there are considerable obstacles that confront suppliers of illegal goods and services accumulating capital and upward mobility. The consequences of product illegality inhibit the organizational growth capacities as well as the geographic expansion of illicit firms. Third, while impunity via corruptible alliances do cancel some of the effects of product illegality, this impunity is not a constant that can always be depended upon. To the extent that corruption varies across jurisdictions and over time, illegal entrepreneurs may come to realize that impunity is intrinsically limited in scope and volatile in nature and over which they essentially have very limited control. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

反垄断法中滥用市场支配地位的违法认定问题研究

禁止滥用市场支配地位是反垄断法三大支柱之一,企业取得市场支配地位并不违法,只有滥用市场支配地位才属违法.本身违法原则与合理原则是垄断行为违法认定的基本原则,滥用市场支配地位行为是垄断行为中的高级形态,其行为的违法性应适用合理原则加以分析认定,并主要从滥用市场支配地位行为对市场竞争的排斥与限制、企图独占市场、损害消费者利益、综合因素分析考查其反竞争性.     

侵权责任中违法性的判断

违法性是侵权责任中的一个重要构成要件。在违法性的判断方面,传统上形成了结果违法理论与行为违法理论。本文在对这些理论进行深入分析的基础上提出我国在违法性的判断上,不应偏重于这两种传统理论,而应当对其背后的行为义务进行分析把握,根据侵权行为的三种不同形态来判断行为是否具有违法性。     

Mystery shopping: demand-side phenomena in markets for personal plight legal services

ABSTRACT

“Personal plight” is the sector of the legal services industry in which the clients are individuals, and the legal needs arise from disputes. This article proposes that competition among personal plight law firms is suppressed by three demand-side phenomena. First, consumers confront high search costs. Identifying competing law firms willing and able to provide the needed services often requires significant expenditure of temporal and psychological resources. Second, comparable price and quality information about firms is scarce for consumers. Both of these factors impede comparison shopping and reduce competitive pressure on firms. A third competition-suppressing factor is observed in tort legal service markets, where offerings are typically priced on a contingency basis. Contingency fees have relatively low salience to consumers, and this reduces consumers’ willingness to negotiate and comparison-shop on the basis of price. This analysis is supported by the author’s empirical research with Ontario personal plight lawyers as well as the existing literature. The article concludes by suggesting possible consequences of this analysis for regulatory policy.     

Human trafficking and drug distribution in Sweden from a market perspective—similarities and differences

Based on several studies, the aim of the article is to compare trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation to trafficking in drugs. Women are recruited and drugs are bought in other countries and transported to Sweden. What are the similarities and differences between the recruitment phase (women) and the purchases (drugs)? Both sexual services and drugs are sold in local markets. This requires marketing, contacts and access to customers. Women need accommodation and often a place to sell the services, drugs must be stored somewhere and prepared for sale. Procurement, trafficking and the purchase of sexual services are illegal and in the case of drugs even consumption and possession for personal use is illegal and prosecuted. Facilitators often play an important role in connecting customers and providers. This article will further describe what kind of organizational structure is needed to arrange these logistics and some different strategies used by organizers and distributors.     

论反垄断法实施中的相关市场界定

相关市场的界定是建立反垄断法各主要制度的基础，是反垄断法实施中的一个关键问题，往往可以体现反垄断执法的宽严。在界定相关商品市场时主要应考虑商品的物理性能和使用目的、商品的价格、消费者的偏好以及供给的替代可能性等因素；在界定相关地域市场时应当考虑的主要因素则是运输成本和商品特性、商品价格、消费者偏好以及市场进入的障碍等。在我国《反垄断法》即将实施之际，反垄断执法机构应制定相关市场界定的具体规则。     

Drugs Prices and Systemic Violence: An Empirical Study

This study proposes an empirical analysis of the relation between the prices of illegal drugs and the use of violence to administrate the markets of illegal drugs. The study hypothesizes that the prices of illegal drugs affect the level of violent crime, since changes in profitability of the drugs’ markets affect the offenders’ expected utility of using violence to operate in these markets. An increase (or decrease) in prices would raise (or reduce) the offenders’ expected utility of making use of violence, for instance, to solve disputes over drugs, to conquer more market shares, to defend ones own market share, in short to make use of systemic violence (Goldstein, P.J. Journal of Drug Issues, 39:143–179, 1985). The study will analyze the relation between the dynamics of cocaine and heroin’s prices and systemic violence in the United States of America and in Europe over two decades. The correlational and inferential analyses do support the hypothesis for certain offenders’ profiles and certain murders’ circumstances.

The underworld of gold

This paper dissects the global business of gold, from the ground, through the refining and marketing process and on into the hands of the final consumer, while examining the main forms of criminal activity associated with each stage. In one fundamental respect the black market for gold is quite different from that for other contraband goods. With opiates, for example, although there are occasional interrelations, it is reasonable to differentiate between legal and illegal sectors. The legal one uses raw material from designated producing areas, transforming it into a pharmaceutical product to supply a controlled medical demand. The illegal one uses illicitly obtained raw materials to make recreational drugs in order to service a demand that in most countries is defined as criminal by its very nature. By contrast, with gold, legally and illegally produced raw materials flow through the same channels to the same set of legitimate firms for refining and casting; and the product of these respectable refineries then is redivided into separate streams serving the overt and the covert portions of the market. Even then the cross-links do not stop. Legally sold gold can be diverted into illicit uses, while illegally obtained gold can end up in the hands of otherwise legitimate manufacturers or consumers. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** AW502007 00002     

The paradoxes of organized crime

The paper argues that the concept of organised crime inconsistently incorporates the following notions: a) the provision of illegal goods and services and b) a criminal organization, understood as a large-scale collectivity, primarily engaged in illegal activities with a well-defined collective identity and subdivision of work among its members. Against this superimposition, the author's contention is twofold: (1) The supply of illegal commodities mainly takes place in a `disorganized' way and, due to the constraints of product illegality, no immanent tendency towards the development of large-scale criminal enterprises within illegal markets exist. (2) Some lasting large-scale criminal organizations do exist, but they are neither exclusively involved in illegal market activities, nor is their development and internal configuration the result of illegal market dynamics.For Susan Strange: mentor and friend     

Can minimum prices assure the quality of professional services?

This paper studies the effects of a minimum price fixed by a bureaucratic non-monopolistic professional association on service quality and consumer surplus. It shows that the price set by a Niskanen-type professional association will maximize consumer surplus only if consumers demand the highest possible average quality. If consumers demand services of lesser quality, the association’s price will be too high if measured by consumer surplus. Moreover we show that a deregulated market will always reproduce the favorable result of a uniformly high price in the case of top quality demand, while delivering superior results in the case of a mixed demand for high and low quality services.     

Mergers and difference-in-difference estimator: Why firms do not increase prices?

Difference-in-difference methods are being increasingly used to analyze the impact of mergers on pricing and other market equilibrium outcomes. Using evidence from an exogenous merger between two retail gasoline companies in a specific market in Spain, this paper shows how concentration did not lead to a price increase. In fact, the conjectural variation model concludes that the existence of a collusive agreement before and after the merger accounts for this result, rather than the existence of efficient gains. This result may explain empirical evidence reported in the literature according to which mergers between firms do not have significant effects on prices.     

Preventing Wildlife Crimes: Solutions That Can Overcome the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’

The 'tragedy of the commons' dilemma occurs when individuals working independently of one another, will overuse a common-property resource for short-term benefits while decimating the resource for long-term use (Hardin 1968). This is often found in the field of wildlife crimes where species become overexploited to increase short-term profits while endangering and eliminating a natural resource for future users. Wildlife crimes suffering from the ‘tragedy’ need to be prevented in order for species to avoid extinction while also conserving a natural resource that monetarily benefits numerous people and their respective communities. Current approaches to the illegal wildlife trade include implementing trade bans or regulatory schemes at the national and international level, yet their effectiveness of reducing the trade is unknown. Perhaps, a better approach in reducing the illegal wildlife trade is a combination of making it more difficult to poach (i.e. situational crime prevention) and incentivizing locals to abstain from poaching. This paper will first review the literature on wildlife crimes and then use a case study approach that will examine the literature on the illegal parrot trade, the market for wildlife skins, and over-fishing. Through these case studies, a comprehensive review of the problem will be detailed as well as innovative conservation solutions that show promise in reducing the poaching and exploitation of species. Amongst these solutions will be the use of situational crime prevention that has shown immediate reductions in crime when tailored towards highly-targeted areas and crimes.     

论构成要件理论的违法行为类型说

为了克服构成要件的行为类型说在体系上的不足,在刑法学中出现了构成要件的违法行为类型说,该学说是日本刑法学中构成要件理论的通说观点。以构成要件与违法性的关系为标准,违法行为类型说又可以分为认识根据说和存在根据说。认识根据说认为构成要件与违法性是相互独立的存在,但是行为如果该当构成要件就可以推定其具有违法性;存在根据说认为构成要件本身就是类型化了的不法,是违法性的价值实体。     

Deterring Sex Sales to International Tourists: A Case Study of Thailand,South Korea,and the Philippines

In developing areas, large-scale international tourism often offers a market for illegal goods and services. Unable to directly control sex sales, governments may decide to discourage prostitution by making the industry less profitable. Sex is sold to international tourists in Thailand, South Korea, and the Philippines through the oligopolistic hotel/travel agency and competitive streetwalker markets. Applying legal sanctions prices change and sales decrease in both markets. The per unit cost of law enforcement is borne more heavily by customers on the street and by firms in the hotel/agency market owing to the markets' respective inelastic and elastic demand segments. If enforcement against sellers in both markets represents a fixed cost, initially sales will not decline, but firms will experience diminishing profits. The optimum short- and long-run effects result from applying enforcement against firms in the hotel/agency market.     

论电信消费者的特殊性权利及其保护机制

从电信消费的法律特征入手,提出电信消费者的特殊性权利,并探讨如何构建我国电信消费者权利的保护机制:首先应当制定旨在保护消费者权利的电信立法;其次政府应当按照维护消费者的利益、公开、公平、公正、政企分开的原则对电信的市场秩序和企业行为实行监管,并明确电信监管机构的法律地位。第三,应当健全司法对电信消费者特殊权益的保护机制:设立电信消费者诉讼专门法庭,适用简易程序,增加消费者争议仲裁制度,实行举证责任倒置原则。第四,应当建立电信消费者权利的社会保障机制,发挥社会中间组织的积极作用。     

从刑民实体判断看交叉案件的诉讼处理机制

鉴于刑民实体关系的处理对司法实践中刑民交叉案件审理顺序的直接影响,刑民交叉案件应当坚持实体法和程序法的双重视角考察。在交叉案件的实体判断中,法秩序的统一不在于保持违法概念、违法判断的一致,而在于维护"合法"判断一致。强行将民事违法性作为刑事违法的判断前提,极有可能想当然地以合同无效、过错等充实尚无定论的民事违法性,反而导致了刑事违法判断的"失真"。在交叉案件的审理中,裁判的统一是客观事实的最大限度统一而非客观事实和法律评价的完全一致。贯彻了违法判断(相对)独立性的"刑民并行"模式既尊重了审判的独立性,也有助于避免因案件受理顺序的不同而导致裁判结果不同,是更为合理、高效的诉讼处理机制。但是,当刑民审判存在先决关系时,作为交叉案件审理例外模式的"先刑后民"和"先民后刑"具有一定妥当性。     

行政不法与刑事不法的不对称性研究

我国行政法规范与刑事法规范并行的二元违法立法模式,是确定行政不法与刑事不法范围、关系的法源所在.在我国立法模式下,行政不法与刑事不法的对象、范围均具有不对称性,均需区分交叉部分与独立部分.行政不法与刑事不法规制对象的交叉部分即规制对象相同并不意味规制范围相同,需要进一步通过规范保护目的区分行政不法与刑法不法范围的交叉部...     

Tales of Deviance and Control: On Space,Rules, and Law in Squatter Settlements

In Latin American cities, around a third of the urban population lives in tenure situations that can be designated as informal, yet variation in the ways and extent to which these arrangements do not comply with law is extensive. Furthermore, informal dwellers often employ a variety of strategies to legitimize and ultimately legalize their tenure, implying a dynamic rather than a static relationship between illegality and legality. Conceiving of land tenure in dichotomous terms, as simply being either legal or illegal, therefore, fails to reflect this diversity, nor does it capture the evolving nature of the relationship between informal settlements and the state system. Drawing from the development of squatter settlements in Buenos Aires, this article proposes an alternative perspective and shows how settlements alternate strategies of noncompliance with adaptation to the state legal system to gradually increase their legality.