New Legal Realism and the Ethnography of Transnational Law

The new legal realism builds on the strengths of the legal realism of the early twentieth century, viewing law as a set of social processes embedded in historical and political contexts. As it addresses sociolegal phenomena of the early twenty-first century, however, the new legal realism is more attentive to the effects of transnationalism, legal culture, and legal consciousness, and the way ideas and norms travel and are adopted around the world. Asking questions of this kind requires new, more multi-sited or deterritorialized methods of scholarship. This article explores these new perspectives and their methodologies through an examination of the use of human rights in the international movement against violence against women.     

Emotions and Attributions of Legal Responsibility and Blame: A Research Review

Research on the effects of emotions and moods on judgments of legal responsibility and blame is reviewed. Emotions and moods may influence decision makers in 3 ways: by affecting their information processing strategies, by inclining their judgments in the direction of the valence of the emotion or mood, and/or by providing informational cues to the proper decision. A model is proposed that incorporates these effects and further distinguishes among various affective influences in terms of whether the affect is provoked by a source integral or incidental to the judgment task, and whether it affects judgment directly (e.g., by providing an informational cue to judgment) or indirectly (e.g., by affecting construal of judgment target features, which in turn affects the judgment). Legal decision makers' abilities to correct for any affective influences they perceive to be undesirable and normative implications for legal theory and practice are briefly discussed.     

Born unto Brothels—Toward a Legal Ethnography of Sex Work in an Indian Red-Light Area

The global sex panic around sex work and trafficking has fostered prostitution law reform worldwide. While the normative status of sex work remains deeply contested, abolitionists and sex work advocates alike display an unwavering faith in the power of criminal law; for abolitionists, strictly enforced criminal laws can eliminate sex markets, whereas for sex work advocates, decriminalization can empower sex workers. I problematize both narratives by delineating the political economy and legal ethnography of Sonagachi, one of India's largest red-light areas. I show how within Sonagachi there exist highly internally differentiated groups of stakeholders, including sex workers, who, variously endowed by a plural rule network—consisting of formal legal rules, informal social norms, and market structures—routinely enter into bargains in the shadow of the criminal law whose outcomes cannot be determined a priori. I highlight the complex relationship between criminal law and sex markets by analyzing the distributional effects of criminalizing customers on Sonagachi's sex industry.     

设区的市地方立法权的制度逻辑、现实困境与法治完善路径

赋予设区的市地方立法权是一次地方治理的深刻制度变革.合理配置央地立法权,推进地方立法权扩容,实现地方治理法治化,是设区的市地方立法权的应然制度逻辑.基于这种应然制度逻辑梳理现实情况可以发现:立法权限规定模糊、立法资源配置不足和立法权功能异化等,是完善设区的市地方立法体制亟待解决的问题,关键在于确立人大主导的立法体制和制度改革的法治路径,这是构建国家法治新格局的重中方面.     

Transnational Jihadism and the Role of Criminal Judges: An Ethnography of French Courts

Lower national courts are increasingly asked to perform a transnational role, being directly involved in major geopolitical issues such as conflicts, migration, and transnational terrorism. Based on an ethnography of French criminal courts, this article aims to examine this emerging role of national lower courts as transnationalized players. Through an examination of terrorism prosecutions in France and the positions of the different judicial actors, it is argued that lower criminal courts, acting within a transnational context, can offer more robust resistance to states’ policies than supreme courts. This is because of the routine and the banality of their function and the direct interaction with the accused persons coupled with the judges’ own professional ethos and notion of judicial independence. Unlike supreme courts, whose role is more visible, and thus under the constant scrutiny of the political branches of the state, lower courts can operate in a more distant, independent space.     

The Targeted Killing Judgment of the Israeli Supreme Court and the Critique of Legal Violence

The targeted killing judgment of the Israeli Supreme Court has, since it was handed down in December 2006, received a significant amount of attention: praise as well as criticism. Offering neither praise nor criticism, the present article is instead an attempt at a ‘critique’ of the judgment drawing on the German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin’s famous essay from 1921, ‘Critique of Violence’. The article focuses on a key aspect of Benjamin’s critique: the distinction between the two modalities of ‘legal violence’—lawmaking or foundational violence and law-preserving or administrative violence. Analysing the fact that the Court exercises jurisdiction over these killings in the first place, the decision on the applicable law as well as the interpretation of that law, the article finds that the targeted killing judgment collapses this distinction in a different way from that foreseen by Benjamin. Hence, the article argues, the targeted killing judgment is best understood as a form of administrative foundational violence. In conclusion Judith Butler’s reading of Benjamin’s notion of ‘divine violence’ is considered, particularly his use of the commandment, ‘thou shalt not kill’, as a non-violent violence that must be waged against the kind of legal violence of which the targeted killing judgment is exemplary.     

“猜嫌疑忌”:民初的政治心理与政局走向

民国肇造,政派之间的猜嫌现象普遍存在,而南北问题又与猜嫌问题相交织,成为其初始时期政治的最大症结。猜嫌问题催生出政界一系列重大人事变动,而这些变动反过来又不断加剧猜嫌现象。作为民国初年政治关键节点的宋案亦是在猜嫌中发生,同时又引爆了猜嫌双方的结构性矛盾,最终促成南北分裂预言的自我实现。民初的政治猜嫌有其发生机制:其一是南北妥协所造成权力结构的不确定和权力关系的不稳定,国会和总统的选举预示着权力的更迭;其二是政治游民即各派政客的纵横捭阖和奔走离间,其三是各派之间的情报侦察与报刊不实报道相互作用加剧了谣言的破坏力。     

Russian Legal Culture: An Analysis of Adaptive Response to an Institutional Transplant

This article is an inquiry into Russian legal culture and is based on the assumption that any institution transplanted from one social environment to another will be reinterpreted and reshaped, so that it can be accepted into the receiving society. The process of adaptation creates an opportunity to examine the receiving society's established practices and way of thinking. To demonstrate their effects, this article explores the author's research findings carried out in two Russian towns where institutions of media self-regulation were set up. The findings are analyzed comparatively in order to identify how the key players in the two towns interpreted the initial ideas, established procedures and rules for the newly set up institutions, and defined the roles that were attributed to them. The results of the two-city case study are then used to interpret some specifics of the internal logic of the local legal culture.     

市、县政府法制部门职能作用发挥问题研究

推进依法行政、建设法治政府是新时期政府工作的重点。政府法制部门作为推进依法行政工作的综合协调机构,其职能作用发挥的范围和程度至关重要。本文试从市、县政府法制部门的职能、定位着手,阐明基层法制部门在法制系统、主体业务、促进政府依法行政、维持社会稳定方面的重要作用,对市、县法制部门存在的职能授权不充足、基础工作不到位、权力使用不规范、价值发挥不充分等问题进行了探讨,并有针对性地提出了一些建议,以期促进市、县法制部门职能作用发挥的最大化。     

对设区市立法权限之“城乡建设与管理”的界定

“城乡建设与管理”是修订后的《立法法》赋予设区市的一项立法权.由于该词含义极具概括性,无论在《立法法》修订过程中还是修订之后,有关设区市的立法权的范围争论主要体现在“城乡建设与管理”中.为此,文章梳理了现行相关立法和规范性文件中该词的内涵,并考察了七个较大市至2014年的立法状况,本文认为应在充分尊重设区的市立法权限的原则下,对“城乡建设与管理”的内容应做广义的理解,具体来说包括:城乡规划、公共设施建设,以及包括城乡公共事业、公共设施和公共事务管理三个方面的市政管理.     

The Situational Prevention of Terrorism: An Evaluation of the Israeli West Bank Barrier

Objectives

Informed by situational crime prevention (SCP) this study evaluates the effectiveness of the “West Bank Barrier” that the Israeli government began to construct in 2002 in order to prevent suicide bombing attacks.

Methods

Drawing on crime wave models of past SCP research, the study uses a time series of terrorist attacks and fatalities and their location in respect to the Barrier, which was constructed in different sections over different periods of time, between 1999 and 2011.

Results

The Barrier together with associated security activities was effective in preventing suicide bombings and other attacks and fatalities with little if any apparent displacement. Changes in terrorist behavior likely resulted from the construction of the Barrier, not from other external factors or events.

Conclusions

In some locations, terrorists adapted to changed circumstances by committing more opportunistic attacks that require less planning. Fatalities and attacks were also reduced on the Palestinian side of the Barrier, producing an expected “diffusion of benefits” though the amount of reduction was considerably more than in past SCP studies. The defensive roles of the Barrier and offensive opportunities it presents, are identified as possible explanations. The study highlights the importance of SCP in crime and counter-terrorism policy.

     

“后世博”城市生活的法律指引及思考——以“标准化”创新与推动为视角

为实现＂城市,让生活更美好＂的目标,正在见证全球经济复苏、城市化急速发展新阶段以及新一轮绿色科技革命这三大历史转折的2010年上海世博会,注定将满载着代表未来发展方向的＂标准化＂创新硕果,透过＂城市最佳实践区＂精选案例中低碳生活的样板与剪影呈现,揭示出＂绿色财富＂生成与演进的国际化进路,并给出属于＂后世博＂时代上海城市生活的法律指引。