An economic analysis of contracts signed between tour operators and travel agents

The tour operating process is based on many phases, one of which is the distribution of tourist products through the telephone, websites (direct sale) and through the traditional channel of exploiting travel agents’ skills and experience (indirect sale). This paper provides an economic analysis of contracts characterizing the relationship between tour operators and travel agents by taking into account risk-sharing, incentives and flexibility of contractual alternatives. The first part focuses attention on existing agreements regulating commercial and marketing aspects of the economic relationship with tour operators of both independent agents and agents belonging to a network, something whose importance is increasing over time. After the analysis of standard contracts, the paper describes controversial factors limiting the use of a potential compensation system based on a relative performance evaluation that, given the characteristics of the tourist market, could give firms a number of advantages. JEL classification D86. L14. L83     

All watched over by machines of loving grace: A critical look at smart contracts

Smart contracts are coded parameters written into an immutable distributed ledger called a blockchain. There has been increasing legal interest in the application of these self-executing programs to conduct transactions. Most of the scholarly and practical analysis so far has been taken the claims of this technology being akin to a contract at face value, with legal analysis of contract formation, performance, and enforcement at the forefront of the debate. This article discusses that while smart contracts may pose some interesting legal questions, most of these are irrelevant, and smart contracts should be understood almost strictly from a technical perspective, and that any legal response is entirely dependent on the technical capabilities of the smart contract. The article proposes that smart contracts are not contracts for all practical purposes.     

制度的关注与自主性的建立——探寻一种达致可欲法制现代化的研究方式

当下中国的法学理论研究与具体法律制度建构之间存在着断裂与分离,不仅法学理论研究脱离于具体的法律制度建构,而且具体法律制度的建构也并不依赖于中国的法学理论,这种断裂和分离状况不仅源于当下中国既存的法学理论研究忽略了法学作用于社会的方式,而且更是由于中国法学理论研究始终未能摆脱其他场域的控制作用。因此,应当在关注具体法律制度建构的同时,努力建立中国法学的自主性。只有以这种方式进行研究才有可能就何种法制现代化更为可欲这一问题作出实质性的贡献,从而可能进一步在诸多研究者的共同智性努力下最终达成一种关于可欲法制现代化图景的"重叠共识"。     

论我国紧急状态法制的实现条件与路径选择——从反思应急法律体系切入

紧急状态法制对于解决宪法上紧急状态制度的虚置问题,推动应急基本法的结构性调整,填补应急法律体系中的制度断层,提升其体系内部各个层次、各个相关条款之间的融贯性,有着十分紧迫的现实意义。经过理论条件和现实障碍的细致论证,可以推导出我国紧急状态法制的实现条件极为特殊,寄希望于短期内制定一部统一的《紧急状态法》似乎不具备可行性。从完善应急法律体系的整体考量,可以将紧急状态法制的任务一分为二,按照实体分散和程序统一的思路分别展开实质性构建,同时发挥“情境化”规范进路的聚合效应,打破分散的形式结构体系,在超常规应急治理(紧急状态)情境中实现规范内容的实质统一。     

事业单位分配机制问题研究

随着我国社会主义市场经济体制的建立和各项制度改革的不断深化,现行事业单位工资收入分配制度仍存在一些问题。要解决事业单位目前分配制度中存在的问题,必须贯彻按劳分配与按生产要素分配,效率优先、兼顾公平的分配原则,重构事业单位工资的动力机制、调节机制、监控机制、保障和预警机制,从宏观调控和微观搞活两方面着手,分类管理、放权搞活,创新分配机制,扩大事业单位内部分配自主权,逐步建立符合事业单位不同特点、重现实表现、重实绩和能力、富有活力的工资收入分配制度。     

金融危机的应对:以日本银行业金融机构破产处理法律为例

伴随着泡沫经济崩溃金融系统问题爆发,日本经历了从出台特例措施应对金融机构个别破产事件,到制定和完善法律,以使金融机构破产处理走向制度化的过程。通过完善存款保险金制度,充实资金援助机制,确立金融整顿管财人、继承银行等金融机构破产处理的常规措施和专门的金融危机应对措施,《存款保险法》使金融机构破产处理制度得以恒久化;而《金融机构重组程序特例法》为行政处理手法之外,提供了金融机构破产处理的司法程序。这些制度适应了金融机构破产处理措施所要求的尽早预防、业务继续、保护存款人、集团处理以及责任追及等特性,显示日本金融机构破产处理法制已基本完善。     

从“灰脚法庭”到现代常设仲裁机构——追寻商事仲裁机构发展的足迹

“灰脚法庭”是中世纪商人习惯法中最具特色的实践机构之一。它的存在及其大量的实践为现代国际商事仲裁机构的发展提供了宝贵的历史经验,它是现代国际商事仲裁机构的一个重要的早期雏形。当然,现代国际商事仲裁法具有许多新的发展。这种创新正标志着中世纪商人习惯法在当代的复兴,即现代商人习惯法。     

Protection against Unfair Contracts: An Economic Analysis of European Regulation

After considering the possible outcomes that may result from the interaction between potential contract parties, this paper discusses potential causes of inefficiency and investigates how the law affects conditions that would give rise to inefficiency. The analysis is focussed on the European regulation of standard form contracts. This regulation implies that unfair terms in standard form contracts are unenforceable in Member States of the European Community, and can be interpreted as a measure to curtail the adverse selection problem that originates in the fact that contract parties may use standard form contracts. This paper investigates the welfare implication of this protection against unfair contracts.     

新合同法若干制度及规则的解释与适用

新合同法就格式条款、缔约过失责任、债权人的代位权及无权处分等民事制度作了规定 ,应采用体系解释 ,目的解释等民法解释方法来把握各项规则 ,以准确地适用法律。     

Building sustainable free legal advisory systems: Experiences from the history of AI & law

The enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI) as a source of solutions to problems is not new. In law, from the early 1980s until at least the early 2000s, considerable work was done on developing ‘legal expert systems.’ As the DataLex project, we participated in those developments, through research and publications, commercial and non-commercial systems, and teaching students application development. This paper commences with a brief account of that work to situate our perspective.The main aim of this paper is an assessment of what might be of value from the experience of the DataLex Project to contemporary use of ‘AI and law’ by free legal advice services, who must necessarily work within funding and other constraints in developing and sustaining such systems. We draw fifteen conclusions from this experience, which we consider are relevant to development of systems for free legal advice services. The desired result, we argue, is the development of integrated legal decision-support systems, not ‘expert systems’ or ‘robot lawyers’. We compare our insights with the approach of the leading recent text in the field, and with a critical review of the field over twenty-five years. We conclude that the approach taken by the DataLex Project, and now applied to free legal advice services, remains consistent with leading work in field of AI and law.The paper concludes with brief suggestions of what are the most desirable improvements to tools and platforms to enable development of free legal advice systems. The objectives of free access to legal information services have much in common with those of free legal advice services. The information resources that free access to law providers (including LIIs) can provide will often be those that free legal advice services will need to use to develop and sustain free legal advisory systems. There is therefore strong potential for valuable collaborations between these two types of services providers.     

Heir, Celebrity, Martyr, Monster: Legal and Political Legitimacy in Shakespeare and Beyond

The seventeenth century placed Western political thought on a path increasingly concerned with ascertaining the legitimacy of a determinate individual, parliamentary or popular sovereign. As early as Shakespeare, however, a parallel literary tradition serves not to systematise, but to problematise the discourses used to assert the legitimacy with which control over law and government is exercised. This article examines discourses of legal and political legitimacy spawned in early modernity. It is argued that basic notions of ‘right’, ‘duty’, ‘justice’ and ‘power’ (corresponding, in their more vivid manifestations, to categories of ‘heir’, ‘celebrity’, ‘martyr’ and ‘monster’) combine in discrete, but always encumbered ways, to generate a variety of legitimating discourses. Whilst transcendentalist versions of those discourses begin to wane, their secular analogues acquire steadily greater force. In addition to the Shakespearean histories, works of John Milton, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Friedrich Schiller and Richard Wagner are examined, along with some more contemporary or ironic renderings.

Rethinking legal methods after Brexit

ABSTRACT

This article provides a critical, personal appraisal of attempts at designing an introductory Legal Methods module, from the perspective of Brexit. Focusing on the author’s own “cases and materials” collection, it interrogates how, rather than challenging a number of paradigms which subsequently dominated Brexit discourses, it unwittingly reproduced them. The second part of the article seeks to respond by suggesting various ways in which a Legal Methods module might introduce students to legal analysis through the example of Brexit itself.     

文牍理性:清代州县讼事的文书与程序

清代州县讼事虽无系统的法定程序,在实践中却自有一套章程。通过诉讼档案和官箴的相互参证,呈告、批发、查唤、诉禀、和息与审断、复禀与上控、具结等一系列程序得以重构。清代州县的讼事,以文书为核心,可以说无文书,无诉讼。并且,这些文书与程序呈现明显的互动结构,显示出浓厚的沟通理性。同时,不同诉讼环节有不同的文书,不同州县的文书又具有鲜明的共通性,这种高度的规范性正是帝制中国文牍理性的结晶。尽管从性质上说,清代州县的文书与程序属于一种前现代治理的文牍技术,但在现代法治来临之前,文牍理性可能是清代司法的最佳路径。     

From old to new: From internet to smart contracts and from people to smart contracts

Discussing legal issues related to smart contracts on the blockchain is very topical. This article will discuss primarily smart contracts on the blockchain the conclusion and execution of which does not interact with the physical world, as well as briefly touch upon smart contracts on the blockchain which do interact with the physical world. For these smart contracts, it will be determined to what extent existing EU internet laws can help support their development and if not, what is needed to support this. In order to answer this question, the following will be discussed: the rise of e-commerce and in particular the EU internet laws supporting and regulating e-commerce, how smart contracts work and how smart contracts compare with existing technological developments and comparable legal constructs (internet, bank accounts and bank guarantees). Subsequently, it will be explained how the use of smart contracts leads to a shift of confidence, from trust in people to trust in code. On the basis of The DAO hack and the problems that arose, it will be illustrated that this shift to trust in code is not as absolute as is often thought. The article concludes that applying specific EU laws on supporting and regulating e-commerce to smart contracts is difficult for two reasons. First of all, the starting points differ: trust in people versus trust in code. Secondly, technical and practical obstacles often inhibit applying internet laws in a meaningful manner. When using smart contracts, it makes more sense to prevent problems from arising than to correct them afterwards. For this reason, it is advocated that programmers work together with lawyers to create better smart contracts and that the legislator focuses on laws dealing with auditing smart contracts code by trusted third parties and automatically equating smart contracts with written contracts with wet ink signatures. This will hopefully facilitate the rise of smart contracts on the blockchain.     

法学教育的历史使命与重新定位

法律人才的培养取决于法学教育的正确定位和不断创新。应摈弃狭义的法学教育的概念 ,重新界定和建构法学教育的新概念。法律人才培养体制改革的当务之急是 :第一 ,与法律职业部门的教育培训机构共同构建法律职业教育共同体 (如组建国家司法学院和省级司法学院 ) ;第二 ,尽快建立与司法考试制度相适应、相配套的法律职业教育制度和法律职业培训制度 ;第三 ,尽快制定法律人才培养质量评价制度 ,组建法律教育专家委员会     

国企改制与国有土地使用权

国企改制是我国经济体制改革的核心内容,而土地资产处置则是国企改制的重要组成部分。根据我国现行有关规定,对国企改制中涉及的划拨土地使用权。根据企业改革的不同形式和具体情况,可分别采取国有土地使用权出让、国有土地租赁、国家以土地使用权作价出资（人股）、国有土地使用权授权经营和保留划拨用地等方式予以处置。     

中国经济刑法法益:认知、反思与建构

当前基于秩序、利益、自由等表述的经济刑法法益学说在认知进路上存在问题,无法形成本体和功能自洽的法益观。应当承认集体法益的独立性,立足法益二元论对经济刑法法益进行本体重塑与功能展开。它勾连宪法,是保障在经济领域中实现个人自由的外部条件的统一体,也是经济秩序市场经济规范保护的客体。法益不是刑法独有的保护目标,仅根据法益标准难以有效区分刑事不法与行政不法。经济刑法的犯罪化应坚持保护适格的集体法益,同时更加注重合比例原则和明确性原则的补充与限制。经本体重塑的经济刑法法益兼具体系超越与体系内在功能,有助于在反思当下中国经济刑法立法与司法的基础上,重构经济刑法的立法理念与犯罪化标准,厘清经济犯罪的类型与解释原理。     

Lawyers,CABx and the Community Legal Service: A new dawn for social welfare law provision?

This article explores the prognosis for social welfare law provision in the light of the government's plans for the Community Legal Service. It considers whether the involvement of both the advice sector and the traditional legal profession can provide the basis for stable and comprehensive provision of social welfare law. I conducted in-depth interviews with CAB workers and local solicitors in the large conurbation served by two CABx who participated in the non-solicitor franchise pilot in 1997. The research focused on the relationships between the legal service providers and the impact of the franchise operation on the CAB. Although harmonious relationships were found to be largely intact at a local level, the franchise raised considerable tension within the CABx that must serve as a cautionary note to any optimism about 'establishing the Community Legal Service'.