INFORMATION COSTS AND LEGAL SERVICES

Most of the current debate on the effective provision of legal services ignores the centrality of information costs. It is argued that conventional controls do not address this issue, especially where clients are infrequent users of legal services and the services required are nonroutine. In this segment of the market for legal services there is an "adverse selection" problem that will drive down the quality of legal services. Existing methods of ensuring quality legal services to this segment of the market are unlikely to be effective. It is suggested that only legal agents with incentives and opportunities to acquire information can mitigate the adverse selection problem. The English bifurcation of lawyers into barristers and solicitors partly performs such a function and provides a model for possible innovations in the North American context.     

ACTIVIST CRIMINOLOGY: CRIMINOLOGISTS’ RESPONSIBILITY TO ADVOCATE FOR SOCIAL AND LEGAL JUSTICE

Similar to many criminologists, my interest in pursuing this career was driven by a desire to improve responses to injustices, on both small and large scales. I believe that among criminologists, this dedication to effect changes in social and legal justice disproportionately drives those of us historically kept out of the academy due to our race, gender, class, sexual identity, and/or other marginalizations. Fortunately, there is a growing diversity among criminologists and this has had a powerful impact on expanding the scope and depth of the field. At the same time, I am concerned that academic training and university climates frequently work against our commitment to advancing social and legal justice changes, what I refer to as “criminology activism.” This address is a call to action, stressing criminologists’ responsibility to advocate for social and legal justice on small and large scales. Numerous types of criminology activism are identified (e.g., in research, service, and teaching), including the requisite to continue diversifying the representation of criminologists.     

STATE AND LEGAL AUTHORITY

The idea of authority lies at the conceptual heart of much legal policy analysis. This essay discusses three perspectives on state and legal authority—the liberal-constitutional, the corporatist, and the technocratic—as a broad political framework for understanding major issues of judicial policy-making in the United States today. The essay examines recent literature on judicial legitimacy and capacity within the context of the three perspectives and raises research questions which derive from this approach to judicial policy. This framework provides a theoretical basis for seeing not only a decline, but changes in patterns of judicial authority and their relationship to any existing crisis of authority in the state in general.     

法律哲学与政治哲学

一、法律和政治或许法律哲学可以被理解为政治哲学的一个分支?这两者之间显然存在着关联。法律体系是政治体系的一个组成部分,而奇怪的是政治学的研究者们竟始终对它的实施不感兴趣。法律、法律适用、法律构成、立法机关、法院、司法判决、法律推理、法治,如此等等,都是政治学研究的重要课题。立法机关和法院是政治机构,法治是政治理念,司法判决和法律推理是一定社会的政治文化的组成部分,是人们展示的政治实践和政治技能。的确,它们都不是政治学的研究者们感兴趣的主题。政治学研究者的兴趣点,在于像政党这样的非法律的组织,像自由与繁荣这…     

企业社会责任和国际法

<正>绪论这篇文章设法回答以下问题:企业社会责任(CSR)是国际公法的一项特殊法律规范吗?如果答案是肯定的,那么它可以在何种程度上约束一个国家和企业?广泛认为,私人企业承担社会责任是一种自愿行为,不受法律的约束,比如企业社会责任行为守则;经济合作与发展组织的跨国企业指南也是没有法律约束力的国际公约。并且企业社会责任的宗旨和法律的宗旨也是不同的。但是,企业社会责任在法律上的影响和效力对私人企业有相当大的重要性。如     

FRUSTRATED CONTRACTS AND LEGAL FICTIONS

“Someone says to me: ‘Show the children a game.’ I teach them gaming with dice, and the other says, ‘I didn't mean that sort of game.’ Must the exclusion of the game with dice have come before his mind when he gave the order?” (Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 33, trans., (1953)).     

企业社会责任和工人的权利

<正>企业社会责任(CSR)是世界经济的一个重要方面,它联合消费者的力量和对社会负责的商业领导,来改善人权状况、劳工权利和工作场所的劳动标准。这些商业领导力量不仅有设于俄勒冈的耐克(Nike)总公司和位于加利福利亚的李维·斯特劳斯(Levi Strauss)总公司,还有总部设在台湾和香港的商社,以及东莞和深圳的工厂。若在10年前,我可不会这么说。那时,我认为企业社会责任和企业行为守则不过是用来     

COLLECTIVE SECURITY AND FATAL FIREARM ACCIDENTS*

This paper offers an explanation for rates of fatal firearm accidents in terms of confidence in collectively provided justice and security. It describes the collective security model and presents an analysis of time-series data from Detroit which supports it: accidental gunshot deaths varied positively with violent crime and civil disturbances and negatively with the allocation of resources to the police. Finally, it discusses some implications for research design and social policy.     

APPLICABILITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF LEGAL NORMS

We analyse the relationship between applicability and effectiveness of legal norms from a philosophical perspective. In particular, we distinguish between two concepts of applicability. The external applicability of norms refers to institutional duties; a norm N is externally applicable if and only if a judge is legally obliged to apply N to some case c. Internal applicability refers instead to the sphere of validity of legal norms. A norm N is internally applicable to actions regulated by its sphere of validity. We also explore the consequences of a thesis which maintains that applicability restricts the concept of effectiveness, so that only applicable norms can be considered effective. Our analysis illustrates that a proper reconstruction of the concept of applicability is of great importance not only for understanding the concept of effectiveness but also for providing insight into the nature of law. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

APPLICABILITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF LEGAL NORMS

We analyse the relationship between applicability and effectiveness of legal norms from a philosophical perspective. In particular, we distinguish between two concepts of applicability. The external applicability of norms refers to institutional duties; a norm N is externally applicable if and only if a judge is legally obliged to apply N to some case c. Internal applicability refers instead to the sphere of validity of legal norms. A norm N is internally applicable to actions regulated by its sphere of validity. We also explore the consequences of a thesis which maintains that applicability restricts the concept of effectiveness, so that only applicable norms can be considered effective. Our analysis illustrates that a proper reconstruction of the concept of applicability is of great importance not only for understanding the concept of effectiveness but also for providing insight into the nature of law.