In Defense of Kant’s League of States

This article presents a defense of Kant’s idea of a league of states. Kant’s proposal that rightful or just international relations can be achieved within the framework of such a league is often criticized for being at odds with his overall theory. In view of the analogy he draws between an interpersonal and an international state of nature, it is often argued that he should have opted for the idea of a state of states. Agreeing with this standard criticism that a league of states cannot establish the institutional framework for international justice, others also suggest an alternative stage model interpretation. According to this interpretation, Kant’s true ideal is in fact a state of states, whereas the league is merely introduced as a temporary and second best solution. In contrast to both the standard criticism and the stage model interpretation, I argue that fundamental normative concerns count in favour of a league rather than a state of states. I also argue that Kant’s defense of such a league is consistent with his position on the institutional preconditions for just interaction in the domestic case because of crucial relevant differences between the state of nature among individuals and the external relations between states.     

“Kripkenstein” in Legal Interpretation

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - Saul Kripke, commenting on Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (his idiosyncratic...     

Evaluation of Two New Methods for DNA Extraction of “Legal High” Plant Species

A quick, simple, and high-yield nucleic acid isolation process is crucial for high-quality DNA analysis. The ability of the MicroGEM PDQeX phytoGEM system and Omega Bio-tek E.Z.N.A.® Plant DS Mini kit to extract PCR-ready DNA was evaluated by extracting the forensically relevant “legal high” plant species: Ipomoea purpurea, Artemisia absinthium, Mitragyna speciosa, Datura stramonium, and Papaver somniferum. The plant material was pulverized, processed using the manufacturer’s plant protocol for the PDQeX Nucleic Acid Extraction or the manufacturer’s protocol for the Omega extraction, quantified using the Invitrogen Qubit 2.0 Fluorometer, and analyzed for amplifiability by PCR using a Qiagen Rotor-Gene Q instrument and published assays. The DNA amplicons for the legal high species produced high-resolution melt curves concordant with the melts observed when DNA was isolated using the Qiagen DNeasy Plant Mini Kit in previous studies.     

Mill’s Defense of Capital Punishment

John Stuart Mill strongly supports capital punishment for aggravated murder. He rejects various arguments against capital punishment, including the claim that it is incompatible with respect for human life. He believes that capital punishment is a superior deterrent to the alternative of life imprisonment with hard labor. However, the deterrent effect of capital punishment is achieved by its appearance of severity. In fact, it is less cruel than the alternative, and it is the least severe form of punishment that would effectively deter murder. Mill regards death itself, as distinguished from the manner of dying, as a relatively minor evil. His views on death and capital punishment are not compelling, and, if they were widely accepted, would undermine the seriousness of some types of murder.     

In Defense of His Guru: Dratsepa’s Rebuttal to the Challenges Articulated by the Proponents of the Other-Emptiness Doctrine

The buddha-nature literature has a significant place within the Indian Mahāyāna tradition and Tibetan Buddhism. While it is usually included in the so-called Last Wheel of the Buddha’s teachings, many Tibetan thinkers began to cast doubts about the textual significance of buddha-nature discourse in fourteenth-century Tibet. In this article, I will examine one particular case where there is apparent tension between multiple Tibetan masters over the importance of buddha-nature teachings. This paper primarily analyzes Dratsepa’s commentary to the Ornament (mdzes rgyan) written by his teacher, Buton. Dratsepa construes the Ornament as a work critiquing Dolpopa’s interpretation of the buddha-nature literature. He levels a barrage of criticisms against Dolpopa by referring to Indian śāstras and sūtras that are equally important to both of them, and also by tracing his own assessment of the tathāgata-essence teachings to early Tibetan scholars. In contradistinction to Dolpopa’s claims, Dratsepa offers several nuanced readings of the buddha-nature literature and complicates the notion of what it means to have tathāgata-essence, what a definitive or provisional meaning entails, and the relationship between the Middle Wheel and the Last Wheel teachings. In brief, Dratsepa’s text sheds light on one of the earliest discourses on the tension between self-emptiness and other-emptiness presentations.     

From the Perspective of Procedure Justice “Tax Source Linked” Legal Regulation Discussed

“税源联动”的建立,能从一定程度上克服我国当前税收征管中存在的痼疾,既节约信息收集成本,简化征管程序,又通过不同部门信息资源共享,使资源利用最大化,阻塞税款流失漏洞.然而,在追求税收征管现代化和税款征收高效率过程中,尚有一系列法律问题需要探讨.因此,在税收程序正义视角下审视“税源联动”,并坚持在税收程序法定、公开等基础上推进“税源联动”,对于“税源联动”规则制度逐步完善,以及实践中得以充分发挥作用具有重要意义.     

Causes of Legal Procedure Deficiency in Chin

在去滁州市检察院采访路上就听说,前阵子,滁州市检察院两个处长主动提出要辞去领导职务,一问方知,原来两人所领导的处室在去年的全省考评中虽跻身全省前三名,却没能拿到第一,自认为拖了大家的后腿,没颜面再做这个领导。这听来未免夸张,但得知2005年度,滁州市检察院蝉联检察业务     

Revisiting the “But Everybody Does That!” Defense

Law and Philosophy - It’s not uncommon for people to try to shield themselves from blame or punishment by saying, “But everybody does that!”. This BEDT defense seems more...     

The Psychological Impact of Previous Victimization: Examining the “Abuse Defense” in a Sample of Harassment Litigants

The present study examines the impact of previous sexual victimization on emotional distress in a sample of women (n?=?492) involved in a sexual harassment class action lawsuit. Sexual harassment was found to predict symptoms of PTSD and general symptoms of anxiety, over and above the effects of previous victimization and other relevant personal variables; it also predicted depression and self-esteem, although previous victimization had a stronger impact on these variables than did sexual harassment. The effects of previous victimization and sexual harassment on emotional distress appeared to be independent and cumulative. The legal and clinical relevance of these findings are discussed.     

Changes of the Legal Nature and the Ownership of Underground Garage——As the disputes of “Today Garden”

《物权法》的实施导致地下车库法律性质和地位的变化,也改变了其权利归属认定的逻辑前提.《物权法》实施前,地下车库必须依附于物业小区的宗地使用权,没有独立存在的基础,只能为区分所有建筑物的附属物.交易中未约定时,其权属随商品房的移转而一并移转;《物权法》实施后,借助于土地的分层利用制度,地下车库成为可独立交易物,由此为开发商保留地下车库所有权提供了可能,就其所有权取得无特别约定时,地下车库仍为其初始权利人——开发商所有.因此《物权法》颁布前后,有关地下车库权属判断的衔接问题尤为凸显.     

“The Unnamed Third”: Roberta Kevelson's Legal Semiotics and the Development of International Law

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

“Ought to” as a Chinese Legal Performative?

The article discusses the legal performatives as used in Chinese legislative language consisting of bixu (shall), yingdang (should or ought to), keyi (may) and bude (shall not) with the illocutionary force of imposing obligations, conferring rights and permission, and prohibition (bude). It postulates that the use of bixu and yingdang is traceable to the influence of the ancient Chinese cultural and legal philosophy of li and fa. It argues that Chinese language is a carrier of messages with built-in Chinese cultural codes and to be able to understand Chinese law, the wider cultural and linguistic contexts must be considered. It also proposes that speech act theory needs to address the interlingual and intercultural variables in the construction of meaning.     

Imagining New Social Legal Futures: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Pre-Law Students’ Experiences with Discourse Communities of Legal Practice

This paper considers the ways that concepts such as social justice and law were used as semiotic objects-in-tension by a group of five US undergraduates considering law school to make sense of their ideas about entering the discourse communities and communities of practice associated with being a lawyer. This group was made up of undergraduate women who had completed a summer residency program sponsored by the Law School Admissions Council to increase enrollment of students from under-represented groups. Of the five participants, two were US-born; the others immigrated to the US as teenagers; each was aware of her position as multiply marginalized, by gender as well as other factors, including refugee or immigrant status, religious affiliation, sexual identity, and/or association with “at risk” labeling. Data analyzed reflect a 3-year study of their changing perceptions of their relationships to law school discourse communities, using text, interviews, individual video narratives, and informal, face-to-face group meetings. A sociolinguistic approach to multimodal discourse analysis is used to examine the ways that the women, each in a unique way, articulated an increased investment in direct and embodied engagement, lived experience, and personal testimony—not as supplements to doing/being a lawyer, but as necessary and expected practices therein. Over time and through various modalities, they used their vantage point from outside the dominant discourse communities of law to stage social critique and to contest the binary logic and normative criteria that forge the boundaries of exclusion from and inclusion in these communities. Specifically, they resemiotized notions of being a lawyer from the margins in ways that demanded a more fluid and polysemous interpretation of what it means to do ethically rigorous social justice work—hence reworking the relationships between justice (as an abstract ideal) and the law (as an institutionalized regime) and widening the semiotic potential of their own future work. Particularly significant are the ways that semiotic trajectories progressed from an emphasis on what Halliday identifies as textual (fixed and highly abstract) functions of language to interpersonal (embodied, relational) and ideational (expressive, experiential) functions. Such a trajectory away from entextualization suggests that voices and perspectives from the margins may be using those imaginary margins tactically as sites from which to contest the boundaries that define whose voices count within the legal system and to contest normative limits on semiotic potentialities for lawyers working toward more just social futures.     

The Legal Dimensions of Whole-Process People’s Democracy

The concept of whole-process people’s democracy can be analyzed in terms of four the rule of law dimensions: continuous democracy, authentic democracy, extensive democracy and consultative democracy. Continuous democracy means that democracy provides a continuous and uninterrupted mechanism in terms of stage, time and space, which can ensure the continuous participation of the people in the management of state and social affairs. Authentic democracy is not only embodied creation of opportunities and conditions for the people to have more channels and methods of participation in the management of state and social affairs, but is also reflected in the process of democratic practice, including the protection of legitimate rights and interests of the minority. Extensive democracy means that the people are fully and deeply involved in the management of state and social affairs as well as their own affairs, from the operation of the state system to social life at the community level, and from pre-election to post-election. Consultative democracy is a means of realizing people’s democracy in the whole process. It applies consultation and seeks truth, aiming at building consensus. Moreover, it integrates various channels of consultation, and integrates democracy into all aspects of the work of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and government and in all aspects of the people’s political and social life.     

“In the public interest”: The privacy implications of international business-to-business sharing of cyber-threat intelligence

This article reports on preliminary findings and recommendations of a cross-discipline project to accelerate international business-to-business automated sharing of cyber-threat intelligence, particularly IP addresses. The article outlines the project and its objectives and the importance of determining whether IP addresses can be lawfully shared as cyber threat intelligence.The goal of the project is to enhance cyber-threat intelligence sharing throughout the cyber ecosystem. The findings and recommendations from this project enable businesses to navigate the international legal environment and develop their policy and procedures to enable timely, effective and legal sharing of cyber-threat information. The project is the first of its kind in the world. It is unique in both focus and scope. Unlike the cyber-threat information sharing reviews and initiatives being developed at country and regional levels, the focus of this project and this article is on business-to-business sharing. The scope of this project in terms of the 34 jurisdictions reviewed as to their data protection requirements is more comprehensive than any similar study to date.This article focuses on the sharing of IP addresses as cyber threat intelligence in the context of the new European Union (EU) data protection initiatives agreed in December 2015 and formally adopted by the European Council and Parliament in April 2016. The new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to EU member countries, a major focus of the international cyber threat sharing project. The research also reveals that EU data protection requirements, particularly the currently applicable law of the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC (1995 Directive) (the rules of which the GDPR will replace in practice in 2018), generally form the basis of current data protection requirements in countries outside Europe. It is expected that this influence will continue and that the GDPR will shape the development of data protection internationally.In this article, the authors examine whether static and dynamic IP addresses are “personal data” as defined in the GDPR and its predecessor the 1995 Directive that is currently the model for data protection in many jurisdictions outside Europe. The authors then consider whether sharing of that data by a business without the consent of the data subject, can be justified in the public interest so as to override individual rights under Articles 7 and 8(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which underpin EU data protection. The analysis shows that the sharing of cyber threat intelligence is in the public interest so as to override the rights of a data subject, as long as it is carried out in ways that are strictly necessary in order to achieve security objectives. The article concludes by summarizing the project findings to date, and how they inform international sharing of cyber-threat intelligence within the private sector.     

Peircean Semeiotic and Legal Practices: Rudimentary and “Rhetorical” Considerations

Too often C. S. Peirce’s theory of signs is used simply as a classificatory scheme rather than primarily as a heuristic framework (that is, a framework designed and modified primarily for the purpose of goading and guiding inquiry in any field in which signifying processes or practices are present). Such deployment of his semeiotic betrays the letter no less than the spirit of Peirce’s writings on signs. In this essay, the author accordingly presents Peirce’s sign theory as a heuristic framework, attending to some of the most important ways that it might serve to facilitate a semeiotic investigation of our legal practices. He pays close attention to the ways the topics of history, formalism, reductionism, and generality become, from a Peircean perspective, salient features of legal studies.

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