Toxic Torts, Public Interest Law, and Environmental Justice: Evidence from Louisiana*

Poor and minority communities facing environmental hazards have increasingly turned to legal strategies to seek redress but a divide has emerged in these cases and their outcomes. Some aggrieved communities turn to private injury lawyers, while others secure representation by public interest groups, such as Earthjustice, the Southern Environmental Law Center, or university law clinics. Is justice being equally served in these cases? We analyze the impact of toxic tort versus legal aid approaches in determining the outcome of environmental justice struggles using four landmark cases from Louisiana in the context of other factors that appeared important in determining how these cases resolved.     

论美国有毒物质侵权诉讼中的健康检查费损害赔偿诉讼

在有毒物质侵权诉讼领域,美国普通法新近发展了预防性的健康检查费损害赔偿诉讼,亦即如果原告暴露于有毒物质中,即使还没有发现因此而产生的明显疾病,但对此而进行的合理医疗检查所产生的费用也可以获得赔偿。该诉讼是在美国环境司法实践中产生发展的,具有普通法上的法理基础,同时在适用时又有一定的条件要求。对具体赔偿金额的执行也较为特别。这一诉讼对我国目前环境侵权法的研究和实践具有借鉴价值。     

论毒物致害侵权的时效再造

在涉及潜伏性毒物致害侵权的诉讼中,诉讼时效经过常为被告援引的一项法定抗辩.若不改革现行的诉讼时效制度,那些遭受具有长潜伏期的产品毒物和环境毒物伤害的受害人的权益将无法得到保障.对于这个新问题,国内鲜有具体阐述,因此有必要借鉴美国等这方面制度成熟国家司法实践之经验,重构我国涉及毒物致害侵权诉讼的时效,完善相关立法.     

Researching Restorative Justice: Politics,Policy and Process

The purpose of this paper is to explore some questions around the process of engaging in research in restorative justice in the contemporary political and economic climate of the UK. Its key concern is to endeavour to create a framework in which it is possible to develop an understanding of the process whereby restorative justice was transformed from the ‘dead duck’ of the late 1980s to its current popularity. It takes as its example for understanding this transformation the problems and possibilities of engaging in research in restorative justice and how such research needs to be contextualised within a wider understanding of the policy and political process. This paper does not set out to offer any answers to the questions it raises, but is primarily concerned to bring to the fore some of the absences that can be detected within the contemporary embrace of restorative justice in the UK.     

Law, Finance, and Politics: The Case of India

The liberalization of India's economy since 1991 has brought with it considerable development of its financial markets and supporting legal institutions. An influential body of economic scholarship asserts that a country's "legal origin"—as a civilian or common law jurisdiction—plays an important part in determining the development of its investor protection regulations, and consequently its financial development. An alternative theory claims that the determinants of investor protection are political, rather than legal. We use the case of India to test these theories. We find little support for the idea that India's legal heritage as a common law country has been influential in speeding the path of regulatory reforms and financial development. Rather, we suggest there are complementarities between (1) India's relative success in services and software; (2) the relative strength of its financial markets for outside equity, as opposed to outside debt; and (3) the relative success of stock market regulation, as opposed to reforms of creditor rights. We conclude that political economy explanations have more traction in explaining the case of India than do theories based on "legal origins."     

Rights,Justice and War: A Reply*

I offer a response to Rodin’s, Statman’s, Stilz’s, and Tadros’ papers on my book Cosmopolitan War.     

美国妨害法在环境侵权救济中的运用和发展

环境侵权救济 ,特别是环境侵害的排除 ,关涉受害人保护和产业发展的平衡。从美国传统妨害法在环境侵权救济中的运用和发展来分析 ,其维护环境正义与经济发展双重目标的有关理论和制度值得我国环境立法和环境司法实践参考和借鉴。     

论环境质量标准与环境污染侵权责任的认定

环境质量标准兼具技术属性和法律属性,既非规章也非规范性文件,其约束力来自于援引环境质量标准的法律规范,其核心功能在于为环境质量状况提供比对依据,并与援引环境质量标准的法律规范、行政规划共同发挥设定目标、考核激励、督政问责的作用。环境质量标准具有以分类管理为理念、以整体主义为价值观和方法论、以阶段性控制目标为依据、以政策选择为结果的特征。从规范的角度分析,环境质量标准不可用于认定环境污染侵权责任。但从事实的角度分析,环境质量标准对于认定环境污染侵权责任能够发挥有限的证明作用:可为证明环境影响的消极性提供科学支撑,有助于认定加害行为要件;可在有限的范围内缓解损害要件的举证难度;可用于证明加害行为与损害之间的关联性。     

The Criminal Justice Approach: Case Examples

The article presents a special form of a European comparative synopsis. For this case examples have been chosen ranging from administrative or minor (criminal) offences to increasingly serious offences and offenders. In this way it can be comparatively demonstrated how the criminal justice systems studied handle specific cases and whether they do so in a similar or different way.     

Economic Analysis,Environmental Policy,and Intergenerational Justice in the Reagan Administration The Case of the Montreal Protocol

Economic arguments played a significant role in the decision by the Reagan Administration to lead the international effort to protect the stratospheric ozone layer from depletion caused by certain otherwise useful industrial chemicals. During the period prior to the signing of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer in 1987, it was recognized within the Administration that ethical considerations (involving the valuation of risk and intergenerational equity) were essential components of the economic analysis. Adoption of a principle of intergenerational neutrality had the consequence that any reasonable comparison of the benefits of ozone layer protection to the costs of regulatory control overwhelmingly favored regulation.     

The Politics of Justice and the Paradox of Justification

Pluralism, (normative) uncertainty, and disagreement are all widely held to constitute major obstacles for gaining assent to policy choices, especially when they concern legitimation-sensitive issues and hence are in particular need of a sound justification. Plausible as it appears to be, in the present article I argue that this belief may reflect only half of the truth, because the very forces that are held responsible for the erosion of consent often also seem to serve as justificatory resources, opening the door for a wide range of policy options that it would not be possible to sell if it were always unambiguously clear what ought to be done. Some empirical examples are discussed to illustrate how this paradoxical logic of justification works in practice.     

《民法典》环境侵权惩罚性赔偿制度之功能剖辨

《民法典》侵权责任编第1232条规定的环境侵权惩罚性赔偿制度,是一项新增制度.从内在机理审视,惩罚主义理论或功利主义理论均难以为环境侵权惩罚性赔偿制度的"惩罚"功能提供理论支撑.从规则体系审视,若赋予该制度"惩罚"功能,则错置了侵权责任的保护客体,混同了生态环境保护中私法机制与公法机制,忽视了"环境损害"救济法律机制体...     

Privatization in Poland: Politics,Society, and the Law*

The paper presents the beginning and the initial results of the process of privatization in Poland. Starting from the summer of 1990 it examines the political debate on the Privatization Act and corresponding social reaction. It shows how the society answers such important questions as: who, and on what principles, is to take over the hitherto state-owned property? The next question is on the content of the “social contract on privatization”: the legal starting point and the first empirical results. It appears that the most visible social effect was the growth in the inequalities between workers and the elites of the society. The role of workers in the process of transformation is also of special interest. Finally, the paper examines the role of privatization law, which on the one hand presents a compromise between the ruling class and the society and on the other hand has been replaced by current privatization policy.