International Law,Institutional Moral Reasoning,and Secession

This paper argues for the superiority of international law’s existing ban on unilateral secession over its reform to include either a primary or remedial right to secession. I begin by defending the claim that secession is an inherently institutional concept, and that therefore we ought to employ institutional moral reasoning to defend or criticize specific proposals regarding a right to secede. I then respond to the objection that at present we lack the empirical evidence necessary to sustain any specific conclusion regarding an international legal right to secession. Specifically, I argue that we ought to adopt a precautionary approach, and that such an approach justifies giving no weight to promoting political self-determination per se when considering whether to reform international law governing secession. I conclude with several reasons to think that even a remedial right to unilateral secession will detract from, not enhance, the international legal order’s ability to promote peace and human rights.     

煽动分裂国家案件审讯策略实证研究

近年来,境外敌对势力利用宗教问题对我国进行政治渗透,公开支持以十四世达赖为首的分裂集团进行分裂中国的活动.境内分裂分子利用宗教和民族矛盾,积极煽动编造谎言、制造恐慌,让不明真相的少数民族群众与境外敌对势力勾结并蓄意制造动乱,扰乱民族地区社会稳定.公安机关打击煽动分裂国家犯罪分子,为维护国家统一和民族团结,保障藏区社会生产生活的长治久安、人民安居乐业具有十分重要的意义.通过对发生的煽动分裂国家案件回放,进而提出煽动分裂国家案件审讯谋略：1.精心做好审前准备.2.优选审讯突破口：从同案犯、嫌疑人心理、确实充分的证据和宗教信仰上取得突破.3.巧用正面进攻、以法攻心、以情攻心审讯策略.4.准确分析犯罪嫌疑人在审讯中的心理.最后审讯中必须注意人权保护、深挖其他犯罪成员、人身安全防范三大问题.     

Secession and Intervention in the Former Soviet Space: The Crimean Incident and Russian Interference in Its ‘Near Abroad’

Following Russian intervention and a referendum held on 16th March 2014, the Ukrainian republic of Crimea became incorporated within Russia. The Crimean episode marked just the latest in a series of situations arising in former Soviet states in which secessionist movements within disaffected territorial units were able to advance their causes aided by Russian external intervention. These situations raise significant international legal issues pertaining to secession by component parts of existing states, underpinned by external intervention. The unwillingness of the international community to recognise Russia’s incorporation of Crimea, similar to its earlier rejection of the purported secession of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia, reinforces the widely held view that non-consensual secession must be grounded in exceptional circumstances which were found to be lacking in all of these situations. It also reaffirms the principle that territorial changes brought about by external intervention will not be recognised. However, while legal assessments of these incidents may appear prima facie straightforward, they cannot be entirely divorced from the wider political phenomenon of ethnic conflict in former Soviet states and tensions existing in those states between factions seeking to further European integration and those prioritising strengthening relations with Russia. The international legal reasoning employed by the key protagonists must be understood with reference to this wider context.     

A Third Liberal Theory of Secession

Conclusion While I agree with Birch that the four cases he cites are cases that justify secession, I disagree that these are the only cases. In fact, I disagree with his approach that there can ever be a case where secession is not justified. If a group of individuals would rather be a part of a different political entity than the one to which they are currently a part, they have an inalienable right to form a political entity that is more to their liking, or to join with an already existing political entity. It is not a matter of permission. It is a matter of right. And there is no theoretical reason why the size of the seceding group cannot be as small as a single individual, although there may be some technical difficulties involved when the entity seceding is this small.He has authored or co-authored more than 30 books and has written more than 200 articles for a variety of professional journals.     

Federal Relationships

The Great October Socialist Revolution, having abolished the rule of the exploiting classes, brought freedom from the age-long oppression of all the peoples of the former tsarist empire, granting them the right to self-determination up to and including secession. As a result of the triumph of the October Revolution, sovereign Soviet socialist republics came into being on the territory of what had been tsarist Russia. These republics established their own supreme organs of power and administration and became, like the RSFSR, states of a new, socialist type.     

经济组织与纠纷自决——以两个企业为例的分析

作为成本低廉的纠纷解决方式,自决是各型经济组织的首选。诉讼在多数情况下只是一种不得已的选择。而同时,由于企业规模以及各自经济实力等差异,纠纷的自我解决形式表现出明显的差异。反思经济组织自决机制的本质,既表现一定的伦理性,也呈现某种反伦理特征;就其与诉讼机制的关系而论,则既存有竞争,也有同一关系。     

安乐死的宪法学思考

安乐死是困扰人类的一个道德和法律难题,是一个多学科研究的问题。从宪法学的角度来看,安乐死主要涉及到:病人的生命权与人性尊严的竞合、病人是否具有死亡权或者能否放弃自己所享有的基本权利、病人的个人自决权与国家对基本权利的保护义务及其冲突三个问题。如果解决宪法学上的这三个问题,将为其他学科具体构建安乐死制度提供理论上的论证资源。     

Human rights dynamics of abortion law reform

The legal approach to abortion is evolving from criminal prohibition towards accommodation as a life-preserving and health-preserving option, particularly in light of data on maternal mortality and morbidity. Modern momentum for liberalization comes from international adoption of the concept of reproductive health, and wider recognition that the resort to safe and dignified healthcare is a major human right. Respect for women's reproductive self-determination legitimizes abortion as a choice when family planning services have failed, been inaccessible, or been denied by rape. Recognition of women's rights of equal citizenship with men requires that their choices for self-determination be legally respected, not criminalized.     

Excessive risk disclosure: the effects of the law on medical practice

This article examines the debate surrounding the challenging concept of informed consent. It argues whilst the English courts have effectively excluded the use of the tort of battery as an appropriate mechanism for protecting a patient's right to self-determination, they have left the law in a state of flux due to the uncertainties associated with categorising similar claims within negligence where the onus is on risk disclosure. This confusion may stem firstly from the fact that medical practitioners are unsure exactly which risks to disclose, and secondly, from the way in which both doctors and patients perceive the consent process. The paper suggests this disorder may be having a detrimental effect on medical practice as medical practitioners are taking it upon themselves to disclose excessive information, which patient's may not want or need. A suggestion is also made that in these situations, in order that the law truly respects self-determination, consideration must be given to the patient's desire to waive their right to informed consent.     

共和与民主宪政

共和国是千百年来政治法律家们所追求的政权组织形式。共和主义可以使各种社会政治资源得以充分利用。民主是人民当家作主 ,自己决定自己的事业 ,是近现代人们所推崇的政体的主流形式。宪政主义的核心是废除绝对主权 ,强调对宪法限制统治权 ,确认并保护人民的权利。共和与民主并不矛盾 ,民主是共和的重要组成部分 ,没有民主就没有共和 ,但民主必须受到节制 ,共和必须接受民主的洗礼 ,民主共和必须由宪法予以确认。在宪政的体制下发扬民主 ,完善共和 ,是建设现代文明国家的基本要求。     

Drug trafficking,the informal order,and caciques. Reflections on the crime-governance nexus in Mexico

ABSTRACT

While Mexico is widely considered as an example of consolidated statehood, the deepening of drug-related violence and insecurity has corroborated the existence and expansion of ‘dark spaces’ governed by coalitions of state and non-state actors driven by criminal and political interests. In contrast to the prevailing interpretations and public narratives, I will argue that it is historically and conceptually flawed to understand such expressions of limited statehood solely in terms of the proliferation of criminal organisations and the exacerbation of the so-called war on drugs only. Instead, I will examine the historical patterns in Mexican state-making, in which actors and practices of political ordering outside the state properly speaking exercise multiple forms of de facto sovereignty and governance. These arrangements, including caciquismo, accommodate distinct crime-governance manifestations. The article substantiates its claims by looking at the examples from different periods and regions such as Sinaloa, Sonora and Michoacán.     

Plurinational democracies in Europe: the quest for a profane constitutionalism

How should we understand the claims on the right to decide on status made within plurinational member states of the European Union by actors and institutions seeking to protect the self-government of sub-state nations or peoples, or at least their right to consent to their ascribed status? Peaceful solutions to conflicts involving contested claims over territory, citizenship, and national sovereignty (authority) can be found when a conceptual or cultural transformation takes place towards a pluralist and bottom-up or federal concept of plurinational democracy, recovering the centrality of self-determination as the self-assertion of a political community. Constitutional law based on the popular sovereignty of a majority nation within plurinational democracies often neglects the question of the definition of the demos as the prefigured constituency, and the existence of national or territorial minorities. If constitutions are interpreted as precluding any claim to self-determination by a constituency, and any debate about that claim, then an undemocratic, sacralized model of militant constitutionalism may emerge. That model is not so much about protecting democracy as it is about imposing a national mould, a pre-defined demos. This article revisits the claims of sovereignty made by national territorial minorities in Spain, against the background of the constitutional doctrine of the Spanish judiciary that precludes these constituencies from engaging in political debates on the right to decide. The resulting sacralization of the Constitution leads to a new version of the model of ‘militant democracy’, a militant nationalist constitutionalism, which can be countered by an alternative, secular, even profane approach to the Constitution.     

虚拟角色商品化权法律保护刍议——美国实践的启示

"三毛"漫画形象纠纷案引起了我国知识产权法学界关于虚拟角色商品化权的广泛讨论。由于缺乏法律的规定和理论的支撑,此种权利纠纷案件的审判结果或有失公平,或有失统一。本文通过对美国虚拟角色商品化权由来的历史介绍及其保护的现实考量,认为我国应借鉴美国实践中所采取的综合保护模式,参考美国判例法中所形成的保护标准,关注与研究典型案例,必要时以司法解释的方式确立虚拟角色商品化权的保护标准。     

In re Browning.

HELD: Prior judicial approval is not required for a surrogate to exercise the state constitutional right of self-determination of a patient who has become incompetent and who, while competent, specifically expressed her wishes regarding medical treatment decisions orally or in writing. The surrogate, in so exercising that right, must satisfy herself that certain requirements are met.     

论WTO环境下中国“市场经济地位”问题和应对举措

市场经济地位问题在WTO的环境中,已经成为一种歧视性待遇,成为反倾销中制裁的权利。国际社会对于中国的“市场地位问题”判断标准已经超出了经济意义的范畴,具有发达国家的内国政策性的倾向,和发达国家的内国利益相联系。中国的“市场经济地位”问题可能再次成为在世界贸易组织环境下遭受反倾销的原因,引起众多西方发达国家不承认中国的市场经济地位的恶性循环和中国遭受不公正待遇的“合法”化的国际环境,在以后的经济发展过程中受到“保障措施”的限制。因此,在WTO环境下充分运用WTO成员国的权利,积极促进我国的“市场经济地位”在国际上的承认。     

党领导人民民主的双重属性

在中国,考察人民民主的发展必须注意两个重大背景:一是,只有在中国共产党的领导下才能妥善处理发展人民民主与维护国家统一、社会稳定之间的关系,把握人民民主的发展方向。由此,党对人民民主的强制性领导是历史和国情的选择,在一定时间内必须实行。二是,在党内民主与人民民主的关系上,党内民主是人民民主发展的决定性因素。由此,充兮发展党内民主是对人民民主最深刻、最有效的领导。党在确立了强制性的领导地位后,应当尽快实现由主要地依靠强制性领导向主要地依靠非强制性领导的转变。现在,人民民主呈现出蓬勃发展的势头,大力发展党内民主,对于加强党的执政能力建设,促进人民民主的发展, 都具有关键意义。     

Ethnic Law and Minority Rights in China: Progress and Constraints

Western discourse on human rights in China typically assumes that China's minority rights law must be a sham because China is an authoritarian state. In the 1980s and 1990s, however, China has articulated an "ethnic law" that elaborates rights and preferences that minorities value. At the same time, People's Republic of China ethnic law is inadequate to grant the idealized range of minority rights claimed by the Chinese state, and some rights are being eroded by the marketization of China's political economy. The most notable weaknesses in the ethnic law system include the failure to enlarge the scope of ethnic regional autonomy, a lack of preferential policies sufficient to offset the growth of the economic gap between Han and minority areas, and an inadequate program for overcoming antiminority bias. While an emerging minority elite is a stabilizing factor in minority‐state relations, additional measures to expand minority rights are required, some of which are suggested by the policies of other Asian states.     

Liberalism and Minority Rights. An Interview

The interview focuses on Kymlicka's major area of research, i.e., the issue of minority rights. Kymlicka explains why the rights of national minorities have been traditionally neglected in the Western political tradition. He argues that these rights promote individual freedom, and so should be seen as promoting liberal democratic principles. The interview covers many issues including the relationship between ethno-cultural groups and other forms of "identity politics"; how to individuate cultural groups with legitimate claims to minority rights; whether something like a "cosmopolitan view" can seriously challenge the need for minority rights; what are the dangers of building transnational political institutions such as the EU for democratic citizenship; what are the bases of social unity in multination states and what are the limits of toleration of illiberal minorities.     

The Sovereignty Game States Play: (Quasi-)States in the International Order

This article discusses the puzzle of sovereign statehood in the context of state failure and anarchy in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the first section it suggests to analyse sovereignty as a discursive fact in terms of a Wittgensteinian language game. This renders recognition a pivotal element and rejects foundationalist notions of sovereignty. The second section analyses the ‘quasi-statehood narrative’. Whereas this narrative presents sovereignty as a game, it applies two different notions of games concomitantly. This article argues that the notion of quasi-statehood maintains an empirical kernel as the core of ‘real’ sovereign statehood and as such remains within the conventional sovereignty discourse. The epilogue states that such foundationalism is not an innocent analytical move. It shows how language can have far-reaching political impact in terms of legitimation of political actions, and how, ultimately, the conventional discourse drains international relations of its content. This will be illustrated by U.S. position to state failure in their War on Terrorism.     

The Temporal Paradox of Regions in the EU Seeking Independence: Contraction and Fragmentation versus Widening and Deepening?

This article investigates the possibility of regional entities within EU Member States to become EU Member States in their own right following their secession from their mother state. International law does not automatically allow such regions to remain EU Member States since it refers this issue back to the constituent instruments of international organisations and a reading of both the EU Treaties and the ECJ's jurisprudence seems to preclude such a ‘continued membership’. The article then further explores the legal issues which could arise during the accession process of the newly independent state. After suggesting solutions to bridge the gap between its secession and its own EU membership, it is argued that the key challenge for such a region would be to ensure a smooth transition, without the loss of prerogatives under EU law, from being an EU region to an EU Member State proper.