Remarks on Compassion and Altruism in the Pratyabhijñā Philosophy

Journal of Indian Philosophy - According to Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta, a subject who has freed himself from the bondage of individuality is necessarily compassionate, and his action, necessarily...     

The effects of base rate and cutoff point choice on commonly used measures of association and accuracy in recidivism research

Several measures of association and accuracy commonly used in the recidivism literature are examined for their sensitivity to variations in the proportion observed to recidivate (the base rate) and in the proportion selected for classification as recidivists (selection ratio). Logistic regression models are employed on a sample of 11,749 convicted offenders to generate predicted probabilities of four recidivism criteria varying in base rates from 0.06 to 0.48. Cutoff point selections from 0.1 to 0.9 show the effects of cutoff point changes on the following commonly used measures of association and accuracy: RIOC (relative improvement over chance), MCR (mean cost rating), Φ, γ, PRE (proportion reduction in error), and percentage correct. While all these statistics vary across base rate and cutoff points, some vary more than others: RIOC varies across cutoff points more than MCR, MCR more than Φ, and Φ more than γ. Researchers comparing such statistics across studies need be wary of the dangers of ignoring such variation.     

Otherness in the Pratyabhijñā philosophy

Idealism is the core of the Pratyabhijñã philosophy: the main goal of Utpaladeva (fl. c. 925–950 AD) and of his commentator Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–1025 AD) is to establish that nothing exists outside of consciousness. In the course of their demonstration, these ?aiva philosophers endeavour to distinguish their idealism from that of a rival system, the Buddhist Vijñānavāda. This article aims at examining the concept of otherness (paratva) as it is presented in the Pratyabhijñā philosophy in contrast with that of the Vijñānavādins’. Although, according to the Pratyabhijñā, the other subjects are not ultimately real since all subjects are nothing but limited manifestations of a single absolute subject, the fact that we are aware of their existence in the practical world has to be accounted for. The Vijñānavādins explain it by arguing the we infer the others’ existence. The Pratyabhijñā philosophers, while refuting their opponents’ reasoning as it is expounded in Dharmakīrti’s Santānāntarasiddhi, develop a particulary original analysis of our awareness of the others, stating that this awareness is neither a perception (pratyak?a) nor an inference (anumāna), but rather a guess (ūha) in which we sense the others’ freedom (svātantrya).     

A case of Vyākaraṇic oxymoroṇ: the notion of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Anvarthasaṃjñā</Emphasis>

The anvartha-sa?jñā compound associates two contradictory terms: anvartha, which means “[used] in conformity with his [etymological/first] meaning”, and sa?jñā which implies the idea of a convention; it therefore appears to be quite intriguing. The question is: is it relevant to focus on this contradiction or is it only a false problem? The aim of this paper is to answer the above question and this implies to grasp somewhat better the use of this notion by the Pā?inian grammarians. To do so, the author has studied the main texts of the Pā?inian tradition, having in mind the following questions: did the Pā?inian grammarians deal with this notion and, if so, in what terms? Did they perceive the contradiction raised by the association of the terms anvartha and samjñā? The study will show that this contradiction is only a false problem: according to the Pā?inian grammarians quoted above, even when a sa?jñā is provided with an etymological/first meaning and its bearer (or one of its properties) is partly described by this meaning, this sa?jñā belongs, above all, to the domain of convention.     

Imperial Violence: the ‘Ethnic’ as a Component of the ‘Criminal’ Class in Victorian England

This article seeks to identify how, and in what ways, the debate over ethnic identity acquired saliency during the different phases of black settlement in England, especially against the backcloth of the socio-cultural processes and the economics of colonialism. It outlines how the ‘other’ was constituted in different discourses, policies, and practices, and how these constructions were appropriated by the criminal justice agencies. Critically, ethnic identity as subordinate and ‘inferior’ was produced by many of the same mechanisms as was developed with regard to the indigenous ‘criminal’ class in Victorian England. Societal reaction, through criminal and civil statutes, established the identity of the ethnic minorities of early nineteenth century England, not just as subordinate strata, but also by a more complex process, as a variant of the newly emergent ‘criminal’ class. It is argued that, caught in the hub of empire, the ‘ayahs’, the ‘lascars’ and the domestic servants (See R. Visram, The Ayahs, Lascars and The Princes (London: Pluto).) in England’s ports found themselves reconstructed as part of the ‘criminal’ class and subsequently subjected to disciplinary measures of social control and surveillance. The author argues with regard to the indigenous population, conceptions of the threat of the non-Western crystallised around the same popular images of ‘savagery’ and of moral degeneracy, a process reinforced in imperial fiction. A desire to ‘civilise’ and improve the peculiar habits of the non-Western followed directly from indigenous precedent.     

Finding cover: Legal trauma and how to take care of it

As law originates in violence, it is always haunted by its constitutive trauma. Recourse to law's origin, which is implicitly or explicitly sought in (constitutional) adjudication, thus requires a way to deal with law's trauma. What is needed is a cover, to be provided through (legal) interpretation. Four such interpretive ‘cover up’ operations, all necessarily somewhat duplicitous, are discussed. The first three represent main currents in legal theory. First, the standard legal view, which denies the trauma but relies on traditional authority to cover it. Second, a ‘neurotic’ solution, in which trauma is also denied but nevertheless cover is produced through collective interpretation. In the third, ‘perverse’ solution, trauma is admitted, and even enjoyed; on the other hand, it is denied that cover can be produced by any interpretive authority. The fourth option provides an alternative: recognition of law's trauma, covering it through the collectively shared practice of interpretation. It is shown that an example of such a collective effort can be found in the Dutch practice of gedogen, the deliberate under-enforcement of law, which is capable of creating an ‘informal rule of law’ that deals with intractable social problems more successfully than attempts formally to enforce applicable law. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

美国种族隔离案件裁决与宪法解释方法

宪法解释是法院依照宪法审理案件、体现对社会动态合宪性评价的重要方式。通过对有关种族隔离案件的裁决,美国最高法院在推翻种族隔离、发展民权运动的历程中扮演着重要角色。本文选取三个典型案例——使"平等隔离"理论合宪化的"普莱西案"、推翻"平等隔离"理论的"布朗第一案"和将"平等保护"条款适用于联邦政府的"特区学校第一案"——阐述原旨主义与非原旨主义的论争以及历史解释和结构解释等宪法解释方法的运用。多种宪法解释方法时常结合使用,在具体案件审理中可能需要综合予以考虑。     

Between Justice and Law in Aotearoa New Zealand: Two Case Studies

Through two case studies, this essay examines the relationship between the operation and practice of law in Aotearoa New Zealand and the naming of the ‘unlawful’, ‘uncivil’ or ‘disorderly’ within a colonial context. Against the background of the apparent complicity between law and colonial interest and desire in Aotearoa, I argue that, in both the ‘Haka Party’ case (1979) and Mair v Wanganui City Council (1996), the acts of the defendants draw attention to the relationship between the authority of the law and the repression or exclusion of difference. According to the judges in both cases, the dictates of Maori law and custom were in conflict with the principles of ‘law and order’. Read in terms of colonial relations, the perceived relationship between Maori law and custom and the threat to ‘civilization’, law and order reveals the way in which ‘the law’ has operated in a culturally biased manner and has reflected the interests of Pakeha (New Zealanders of European descent). Thus, the perceived threat of the challenge made to the law in either case can be seen as the threat to reveal it for what it is, to expose the violence that maintains it, and thus to open a space for critique. Perhaps more powerfully than any physical attack on the system itself, these acts which expose the law challenge it in the name of justice, making it possible for the law to be seen both as a reflection of a particular cultural interest and hence as co-opt-able, takeable and able to be made to serve another end, that of the other in the name of justice. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

对突破合同相对性原则的再认识——兼及对《德国民法典》第359条之借鉴

合同是相对人之间的法律,对双方当事人具有拘束力。当两合同在经济上具有整体联系时,其中一合同当事人违约,引致同时处于两合同中的另一当事人在另一合同中违约,后者可以前者违约的事实作为其违约的抗辩理由,该情形实质上是突破合同相对性原则的新类型。目前,所有突破合同相对性的理论和立法均未涵盖该情形,实践中已有支持该抗辩理由的法院裁决。如何使该裁决正当化?以德国法中的关联合同制度及我国最高人民法院《关于审理商品房买卖合同纠纷案件适用法律若干问题的解释》第23条、第24条、第25条为中心,挖掘制度背后蕴含的价值取向,使法官的判决正当化,提出相关条文的解释规则。     

Genetic Identification of Communist Crimes’ Victims (1944–1956) Based on the Analysis of One of Many Mass Graves Discovered on the Powazki Military Cemetery in Warsaw,Poland

As the result of the communist terror in Poland, during years 1944–1956 more than 50,000 people died. Their bodies were buried secretly, and most places are still unknown. The research presents the results of identification of people buried in one of many mass graves, which were found at the cemetery Pow?zki Military in Warsaw, Poland. Exhumation revealed the remains of eight people, among which seven were identified genetically. Well‐preserved molars were used for the study. Reference material was collected from the closest living relatives. In one case, an exhumation of victim's parents had to be performed. DNA from swabs was extracted with a PrepFiler^® BTA Forensic DNA Extraction Kit and organic method. Autosomal, Y‐STR amplification, and mtDNA sequencing were performed. The biostatistical calculations resulted in LR values from 1608 to 928 × 10¹⁸. So far, remains of more than 50 victims were identified.     

A New Alliance of De-legalisation and Legal Formalism? Reflections on Responses to the Social Deficit of the European Integration Project<Superscript>⋆</Superscript>

This paper will cover a wide range of issues. It will start with a reconstruction of the European Community’s ‘social deficit’, arguing that a credible response to this deficit would be a pre-condition for the democratic legitimacy of the deepened integration project. Such a response can be developed in a re-conceptualisation of European law as a new type of supranational/trans-statal conflict of laws – this is the thesis defended in the second section. This vision is contrasted in the third section, first with the steps towards Social Europe envisaged in the Draft Constitutional Treaty, and then with the messages of the recent judgments of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Viking and Laval. It goes without saying that the theoretical premises of the argument, let alone its many interdisciplinary dimensions and empirical background, can often only be signalled, but not developed systematically.

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Ayam aham asmīti</Emphasis>: Self-consciousness and Identity in the Eighth Chapter of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Chāndogya Upanişad</Emphasis> vs. Śankara’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bhāşya</Emphasis>

The article offers a close reading of the famous upanişadic story of Indra, Virocana and Prajāpati from the eighth chapter of the Chāndogya-Upanişad versus Śankara’s bhāşya, with special reference to the notions of suşupti and turīya. That Śankara is not always loyal to the Upanişadic texts is a well-known fact. That the Upanişads are (too) often read through Śan-kara’s Advaitic eyes is also known. The following lines will not merely illustrate the gap between text and commentary but will also reveal an unexpected Upanişadic depiction of ‘dreamless sleep’ and ‘transcendental consciousness’. Suşupti is described here as ‘one step too far’, as a ‘break’ or discontinuity in one’s consciousness; whereas turīya is depicted positively, and surprisingly even in wordly terms. Unlike the third state of consciousness in which there is no ‘world’ nor ‘me’, and which is described through Indra’s character as ‘total destruction’ (vināśa); in turīya, the world ‘comes back’, or rather the ‘renouncer’ returns to the world. Sankara’s position, as far as the story under discussion is concerned, is radically different. For him, the Upanişadic story illustrates the continuity of consciousness in all its states. For him, the identification with merely one of the consciousness-states is an error (adhyāsa) which causes suffering. Consciousness prevails even in suşupti, and turīya has nothing to do with ‘coming back to the world’, since there is nowhere to come back from or to. Turīya, as seen by the Advaitin, consists of all the other states of consciousness together, or as K. C. Bhattacharyya puts it, ‘It is not only a stage among stages; it is the truth of the other stages’. The article is dedicated to Prof. Daya Krishna (1924-2007).     

从方舟子遇袭案谈立案标准在刑法中的适用

在刑事法领域,立案标准应是司法人员认定犯罪时的参照标准,但在实践中,立案标准的功能却被无限扩大化,以致于被视为是认定犯罪成立与否的唯一标准。这种功能的错位,导致一方面将虽符合立案标准但情节显著轻微的行为认定为犯罪,另一方面又将虽不符合立案标准但具有其他严重情节的行为一概不认定为犯罪,这便出现司法中许多案件的处理结果不能为民众所接受的状况。要改变这种现状,首先,要对立案标准的性质作正确认定,即立案标准属于司法解释而非法律本身,立案标准是认定犯罪的重要参照因素但非唯一标准;其次,在司法操作中应当赋予法官一定的法律解释权,唯有如此,才可以使法官真正做到以刑法条文为根据,结合立案标准和案件中的其他情节进行综合考量,从而对某种犯罪的成立与否进行合理认定。     

刑法形式解释论与实质解释论之争

在我国刑法学领域,形式解释论与实质解释论的实质分歧不在于要不要法律的实质判断标准,而在于在什么理论范畴中、以什么方式讨论实质判断标准,主要体现在犯罪成立模式构造、形式判断与价值判断的位序、解释原则三个方面的差异。从实际效果看,和形式解释论相比,当前学者主张的实质解释大体上是一种入罪的扩张性解释而非出罪的限制性解释。我国现有刑法文化生态环境决定了学界大部分人在客观上不可能抛弃实质解释论的立场,但从社会理论的现实批判功能以及学派意识的角度出发,主观上则不宜提倡“实质解释论”,而应提倡“形式解释论”。     

Rapid Quantitative Analysis of Multiple Explosive Compound Classes on a Single Instrument via Flow‐Injection Analysis Tandem Mass Spectrometry

A flow‐injection analysis tandem mass spectrometry (FIA MSMS) method was developed for rapid quantitative analysis of 10 different inorganic and organic explosives. Performance is optimized by tailoring the ionization method (APCI/ESI), de‐clustering potentials, and collision energies for each specific analyte. In doing so, a single instrument can be used to detect urea nitrate, potassium chlorate, 2,4,6‐trinitrotoluene, 2,4,6‐trinitrophenylmethylnitramine, triacetone triperoxide, hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, pentaerythritol tetranitrate, 1,3,5‐trinitroperhydro‐1,3,5‐triazine, nitroglycerin, and octohy‐dro‐1,3,5,7‐tetranitro‐1,3,5,7‐tetrazocine with sensitivities all in the picogram per milliliter range. In conclusion, FIA APCI/ESI MSMS is a fast (<1 min/sample), sensitive (~pg/mL LOQ), and precise (intraday RSD < 10%) method for trace explosive detection that can play an important role in criminal and attributional forensics, counterterrorism, and environmental protection areas, and has the potential to augment or replace several of the existing explosive detection methods.     

Dharmakīrti on the role of causation in inference as presented in Pramāṇavārttika Svopajñavṛtti 11–38

In the svārthānumāna chapter of his Pramāṇavārttika, the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti presented a defense of his claim that legitimate inference must rest on a metaphysical basis if it is to be immune from the risks ordinarily involved in inducing general principles from a finite number of observations. Even if one repeatedly observes that x occurs with y and never observes y in the absence of x, there is no guarantee, on the basis of observation alone, that one will never observe y in the absence of x at some point in the future. To provide such a guarantee, claims Dharmakīrti, one must know that there is a causal connection between x and y such that there is no possibility of y occurring in the absence of x. In the course of defending this central claim, Dharmakīrti ponders how one can know that there is a causal relationship of the kind necessary to guarantee a proposition of the form “Every y occurs with an x.” He also dismisses an interpretation of his predecessor Dignāga whereby Dignāga would be claiming non-observation of y in the absence of x is sufficient to warrant to the claim that no y occurs without x. The present article consists of a translation of kārikās 11–38 of Pramānavārttikam, svārthānumānaparicchedaḥ along with Dharmakīrti’s own prose commentary. The translators have also provided an English commentary, which includes a detailed introduction to the central issues in the translated text and their history in the literature before Dharmakīrti.     

刑法解释的立场:一元双层形式解释论刍议

我国刑法学界近年来形成了形式解释论与实质解释论之争。通过对形式解释与实质解释的概念及双方的争点进行梳理和辨析,初步认为形式解释与实质解释虽然在表面上争论激烈,但双方在刑法解释论上可能都或多或少地存在一些毕其功于一役的偏执追求,将解释与判断压缩、混淆在一起,从而对刑法解释这一极其复杂精深的学问做了过于简单化的处理。从罪刑法定与构成要件论等刑法根基出发,提倡一元双层形式解释论,即通过将解释与判断分阶层处理,整合形式与实质两方面的资源,使形式与实质因素各得其所,从而完成对构成要件符合性的整体判断。     

司法解释的错位与回归——以法律解释权的配置为切入点

法官在个案中作出解释是法律解释活动规律的必然要求，是我国司法活动复杂性的客观需要，是消除我国司法活动中诸多弊端的有效措施。要保障法官在个案中作出法律解释，就必须建立一支高素质的法官队伍，并为法官独立审判提供良好的环境。最高人民法院作出统一解释，是维护我国法制统一的需要，是法官在个案中寻求权威性解释的需要，是最高人民法院司法权威的体现。可以考虑在最高人民法院内部设置大法官会议，按照严格的程序，专职作出统一的法律解释。     

我国司法解释规则的新发展及其再完善——《07规定》与《97规定》的比较分析

与最高人民法院1997年出台的《关于司法解释工作的若干规定》相比,于2007年4月1日起施行的新规则无论在形式体例上还是在具体内容方面均有新的发展:新规则的制定依据有所扩充,从而凸显了依法行使司法解释权的应有宗旨;突出强调了协商一致,为"两高"共同制定司法解释的工作提供了制度雏形;扩大了司法解释的立项来源,拓展了司法解释正当化的社会基础;但新规则也仍然存在一些问题:最高人民法院自己规定其司法解释"具有法律效力"显然是一种"过于自大"的失当宣示;对于司法解释工作的监督机制似乎仅具形式意义。     

中国法学引证研究之省思

The methodological basis of legal cytology is empirical positivism, i.e., the social empirical investigation method is employed to make a quantitative analysis on legal research papers. Cytology has limitation in methodology, behind which a complicated “knowledge-power” structure exists. Considering the matter in China’s present legal citation researches, the real quality of legal papers shall not be evaluated by the citation rate simply, but establishing a localized academic evaluation system to scale it comprehensively. Liu Lei, Ph.D of law, works at Suzhou University. His publications include Executing the deferment of prosecution with discretion (Chinese Journal of Law, 28(4), 2006), Spontaneous order: A puzzled analysis on Hayek’s liberty theory (Law & Social Development, 12(2), 2006), Reflections on the rule of mere-indictment-information in pretrial procedure (Global Law Review, 29(2), 2007), Recognition of local acknowledge from Chinese jurisprudence (Law & Social Development, 13(4), 2007), On the structure of the criminal trial in criminal appeal (Chinese Criminal Science, (4), 2007), An examination of criminal detention power from the perspective of the principle of separation of powers (Global Law Review, 30(3), 2008).