Institutional and Political Sources of Legislative Change: Explaining How Private Organizations Influence the Form and Content of Consumer Protection Legislation

This article explores how private organizations influence the content and meaning of consumer protection legislation. I examine why California forced consumers to use a private dispute resolution system that affords consumers fewer rights, while Vermont adopted a state‐run disputing structure that affords consumers greater rights. Drawing from historical and new institutional theories, I analyze twenty‐five years of legislative history, as well as interviews with drafters of the California and Vermont laws, to show how automobile manufacturers weakened the impact of a powerful California consumer warranty law by creating dispute resolution venues. As these structures became institutionalized in the lemon law field, manufacturers reshaped the meaning of legislation. Unlike California, the political alliances in Vermont and a different developmental path led to a state‐run dispute resolution structure. I conclude that how social reform laws are designed and how businesses influence social reform legislation can increase or decrease the achievement of a statute's social reform goals.     

中国经济法的改革与创新——一种制度变迁的视角

经济法是我国改革开放的产物。中国经济法的改革与创新,是在改革开放、社会转轨的大背景下完成的。经济法的发展一直是＂摸着石头过河＂。一方面,＂渐进式改革＂注定了经济法在发展初期以国家本位为主导、以经济行政法规、法律＂双轨制＂立法为特征,在稳定的前提下,以较小的社会成本获得了中国经济的高速增长（政治的科斯定理）。早期我国经济法属于典型的＂由上而下＂的＂强制性制度变迁＂。随着经济改革的不断推进、意识形态的转变、以及国内外法制环境的变迁,特别是中国加入WTO,经济法完成了从国家干预法到国家协调法、从国家本位到社会本位、从国内法到国际转轨、从实体法到程序法、从硬法到软法、从公法到公私融合的六大转变。＂周虽旧邦,其命维新。＂新时代下,＂以人为本＂,以科学发展观为理念,经济法正迎接新的发展契机。     

总体国家安全观下的应急法治新视野——以社会安全事件为视角

应急法治是考验国家治理体系和能力现代化的试金石之一,应急法治调整对象的宽泛化要求运用类型化方法,由全民反恐入手,重点治理社会安全事件。"总体国家安全观"高屋建瓴、应运而生,蕴含着以民为本、良法善治和公私相济三大价值,成为引领我国应急法治建设的新航标。良法善治的安全观首先要求发挥政府的主导作用,着力塑造整体联动的应急治理机制,逐步完善行政应急法律体系,提高公安警察的执法水平;同时,以民为本、公私相济的安全观契合"政府与公民关系平等化"的法治追求,鼓励广泛的公众参与,提倡治安承包的再推广。     

We were conscious of the sort of people we mixed with

In the Republic of Ireland, the family is both a private entity and a construct of the state, and the relationship between family and state is outlined in the Irish constitution. In the Northern Irish state a similar conviction that the family unit is essential to the welfare of society has been implicit in social policy and legislation, as has the classification of women's place. Access to financial resources has played a significant role in situating the family in society and income and social class were inextricably interwoven.

This paper explores how social attitudes have shaped family behaviour and identity in mid twentieth century Ireland, particularly in terms of the part played by women. Class consciousness and definitions of “respectability” are considered, using oral history testimony from a number of women remembering when they were young in the 1930s and 40s. The interviewees accepted the domestic role assigned to them by popular consensus and social policy. Their stories contain frequent references to their reluctance to associate with people whose occupations were judged to be inferior because of the lower status accorded to certain kinds of work. The paper will consider the extent to which legislators and policy makers shared such class awareness and how that might have influenced the shaping of the family unit in Ireland in the middle decades of the twentieth century.     

论能源法的变革

当代能源法正在发生深刻的变革。各国能源法的调节模式逐步从国家垄断和所有的传统模式或具有特许权垄断与严格规制的私人所有模式,向有限的能源市场化转换;随着能源环境(气候)问题的突出,能源法的发展日益呈现出生态化趋势,从局限于确保供应安全转变到以管理外部性、调节需求与改良利用为重点;由于能源与社会发展的密切关联,能源法也正在通过若干权利导向的机制走向人本化。能源法这三种变革趋势表明了其承载的经济增长、社会公正与环境保护的三种法律价值。     

Legal Mobilization on the Terrain of the State: Creating a Field of Immigrant Rights Lawyering in France and the United States

Scholarship on law and social movements has focused attention primarily on the United States, and secondarily on countries that share the Anglo‐American legal tradition. The politics of law and social movements in other national legal contexts remains underexamined. The analysis in this article contrasts legal mobilizations for immigrant rights in France and the United States, and explores the relations between national fields of power and legal practices. I trace the institutionalization of immigrant rights legal organizations in each country and argue that the divergent organizational forms and litigation strategies adopted by professionalized movement organizations reflect the dynamics of the nationally distinct fields of power relations within which law reform has been conducted. My analysis links the material and symbolic resources available to law reformers to the relative authority of private and public juridical actors in each state.     

The Impact of European Integration on Private Law: Reductionist Perceptions, True Conflicts and a New Constitutional Perspective

If private law is defined simply as a matter of core areas such as substantive contract, torts, property or family law, it may be doubted whether European law has significantly affected national private law systems; or conversely, whether national private law is relevant to European integration. However, this paper argues that such conclusions are misleading: while there have been very few European interventions into the core areas of civil codes or the common law, the integration process has impacted forcefully upon deeper structures of national legal systems. Challenging the institutional embeddedness of national private law, European primary and regulatory law has remodelled (public) concepts of private autonomy, the realm of private governance and the social responsibility of private actors. How then to present and evaluate this indirect impact? Drawing upon concrete examples, this paper seeks first to understand this European challenge to the interdependence of national private law, borrowing from political science's analytical tool of multi-level governance to highlight the complex interrelations between European rights and regulatory law and national private law; and secondly attempts actively to assess the legitimacy of the impact of integration upon private law with the aid of the explicitly normative theory of deliberative supranationalism. However, precisely because Europe remains in a state of flux, and dependent upon contingent political processes, no final conclusions are drawn: as is the case with so many areas subject to integrationist logic, the contours of the ‘new European private law’ cannot be laid down in advance, and are instead a long and weary matter of cooperation and fine-tuning between national and European judiciaries.     

The Pension Trust: Fit For Purpose?

The law of trusts plays an integral and multi‐faceted role in the regulatory scheme shaping the occupational pensions arena in Australia and the United Kingdom. It facilitates the operation of private law modalities, such as innovation and competition. However, that openness also renders members’ interests vulnerable and the lack of transparency and emaciated accountability mechanisms within trust law undermine the powerful normative force exerted by the language in which trust doctrine is so often couched. That said, the regulatory regimes buttress, and rely upon, the protections offered by trust law. The result is a compelling illustration of the nuanced way in which private law is employed in a modern regulatory state.     

The patient protection and affordable care act: the victory of unorthodox lawmaking

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was a major legislative achievement of the 111th Congress. This law structurally reforms the US health care system by encouraging universal health care coverage through regulated competition among private insurance companies. When looking at the process for reform, what strikes an observer of US health care policy in the first place is that the Democratic majority was able to enact something in a political field characterized by strong resistance to change. This article builds on that observation. Arguments concentrate on the legislative process of the reform and support the idea that it may be partly explained by considering an evolution of US legislative institutions, mostly in the sense of a more centralized legislative process. Based on approximately one hundred semidirected interviews, I argue that the Democratic majority, building on lessons from both President Bill Clinton's health care reform attempt and the Republicans' strategy of using strong congressional leadership to pass social reforms, was able to overcome institutional constraints that have long prevented comprehensive change. A more centralized legislative process, which has been described as "unorthodox lawmaking," enabled the Democratic leadership to overcome multiple institutional and political veto players.     

穿越公私法分界线:自然资源国家所有权委托行使模式

基于我国自然资源自身的特点和自然资源国家所有权行使的实际情况,"统一代表行使+委托行使"模式成为重构自然资源国家所有权行使模式的现实选择,大体呈现出"代表行使—统一代表行使—委托行使"的层级结构。委托行使模式作为代表行使特别是国务院统一代表行使的具体实现方式,以集中统一行使为前提,以将国家所有权界定为私法所有权和实现国家所有权行使与监管权行使的真正分离为基础,横跨公私法两个疆域。委托行使在法律上的实现不仅要求国家所有权穿越公私法的分界线到达私法所有权的彼岸,而且需要使委托关系超越公私法律关系,成为一种新型法律关系。委托行使模式目前可通过委托协议来建立,将来应当通过自然资源特别法完成相应法律构建。     

论完善经济立法

我国经历30年改革开放的发展后,应当对现有的经济法律制度进行必要的调整和完善。完善经济立法应当以促进市场交易为价值取向,普遍遵循便利市场机制发挥的原则,充分立足于现有的经济基础,进一步厘清公法与私法的界限,有效限制公法对市场主体过多的干预,从而赋予市场主体更多的权利和自由。     

Principles of European Private or Civil Law?

The aim of this piece is to draw the attention of the debate on principles in European private law to an institutional question. As the question of who detects these principles is crucial to understand the values and intentions behind the provisions on principles, I turn to the significance of the authority question of who detects principles of European Private law with regard to the two players ECJ and the academic circle ‘Joint Network on European law'. After analysing the role of these players I will ask whether private law principles (which are principles derived from the analysis of contractual relationships by academics) or principles of civil law (derived from conflict solution by judges) govern the principles debate in European Private law. I will argue for a pluralistic understanding of European Private law, where neither academia nor the ECJ enjoy a monopoly on the detection of principles in European Private law. Instead, they form a symbiotic relationship in several respects. Understood in this way, the DCFR's role as a toolbox for the legislator is supplemented with its maybe even stronger significance as a toolbox for judges.     

政治背景人士担任公司高管的法律问题研究

本文认为,政治背景人士可担任公司高管从事营利性活动极易利用自己的政治背景为公司谋取本不属于该公司的机会和利益,对同业市场主体间的公平竞争造成损害;部分政治背景人士同时担任多家公司高管,难免对任职的公司造成不公.同时,政治背景人士担任公司高管亦会产生具体的法律问题,由于现行法律法规的缺失和不周延,必须从公法、私法和社会法三个法域予以立法完善.     

全媒体时代警察公共关系建设路径与策略

随着社会发展和警务改革的深入,警察组织、警察个体的职能、工作重心和社会角色都发生了深刻的文化。在信息传播速度日益加快的全媒体时代,公众的权利意识和法制意识不断提高,公众对公安工作和警务人员的要求越来越高,警察组织必须回应公众对警察形象和警察服务的期待,探索全媒体时代警民关系的和谐之路,探讨出警察公共关系建设的新路径与新策略。     

论经济法的社会本位理念及其实现

社会本位是以社会整体为中心和起点,要求在个人与社会之间重新分配权利的一种法律思想。它将社会视为目的而非手段,坚持权利本位,但主要关注社会公共权利而非个人权利。私法因其奉行个人本位理念而难以容纳这一权利。社会公共权利的栖息地主要是经济法和其他社会立法。在社会本位实现过程中,国家的作用至为关键,除立法机关应以社会整体为中心配置权利和义务外,司法机关和行政机关应当成为实现社会本位的重要力量。     

Politics,Prisons, and Law Enforcement: An Examination of the Emergence of “Law and Order” Politics in Texas

This article examines the rise of “law and order” politics in Texas, providing an in‐depth archival case study of changes in prison policy in a Southern state during the pivotal period when many U.S. states turned to mass incarceration. It brings attention to the important role an insurgent Republican governor and law enforcement officials played in shaping crime policy. Law enforcement's role is considered within a broader examination of political strategy during a period of intense socioeconomic volatility. The findings suggest that within particular political contexts, especially those with low levels of political participation, law enforcement agents might play a key role in shaping punishment.     

以公法之债解读我国社会保险税的建立——以纳税人财产权保护为视角

社会保险税不仅是税种法的重要组成,更是社会保障制度的核心环节,与一般的保险制度和税法制度都有着理论和实践上的差异。以公法之债为视角,解读社会保险制度和社会保险税的性质,比较社会连带互助与国家责任理论的逻辑体系,从而推求社会保险中个人责任与国家责任的划分原则,也即个人与国家债权债务关系之界定。同时结合我国社会保险资金制度的历史演变,反思社会保险制度改革的缺失。在比较社会保险筹资制度差异和若干理论阐释的基础上,对我国社会保险资金制度的改革提出建议。     

State Transformation and the Role of Lawyers: The WTO,India, and Transnational Legal Ordering

This article explains the impact of India's engagement with the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on both the Indian state and on the WTO itself. In each case, it explains the role of Indian lawyers within the larger transnational context. In engaging with globalization and the WTO, India has transformed itself. The Indian state has moved toward a new developmental state model involving a stronger emphasis on trade, greater government transparency, and the development of public‐private coordination mechanisms in which the government plays a steering role. The analysis shows that it has done so not as an autonomous policy choice, but rather in light of the global context in which the WTO and WTO law form an integral part. Reciprocally, the article displays the ways that India has built legal capacity to attempt to shape the construction, interpretation, and practice of the trade legal order. Indian private lawyers play increasing roles, although they remain on tap, not on top.     

The Missing View of the Cathedral: The Private Law Paradigm of European Legal Integration

The traditional partition between public and private law continues to reinforce the belief that public law is the only proper realm of political debate, where decisions having redistributional consequences are and should be taken. This allows for a seemingly minor role of private law in the debate on European integration. This article challenges such a traditional image by noticing the central role of private law in the several legal systems of the European Union, and by analysing a few instances of resistance to private law integration. The analysis suggests that, while fully engaged in debating the public law implications of integration, Member States strive to keep civil adjudication within their control and to protect the self–contained, autonomous structure of their codes (or sets of private law doctrines) from the disruptive impact of European legislation. Integrationist pressures compel national legal actors to make explicit the social and economic choices underlying private law rules. Against such pressures, States' resistance may take the shape of formalist entrenchment.