改革开放以来公民法治观念研究回顾与前瞻

改革开放以来,公民法治观念对国家法治建设的基础性作用不断增强,学界有关公民法治观念的研究也取得了丰硕的成果,但在公民法治观念的科学测量、理论概括与学理解释等方面尚存不足,对于公民法治观念的现状特征、变化特点、影响因素与影响效应等问题仍缺乏足够的认知与研究。本文认为,公民法治观念的研究要特别加强实证研究方法的设计,建构科学测量法治观念的指标体系,优化多样化的研究方法与技术,注重跨学科的合作与研究对话。     

THE RULE OF LAW: A THEME IN FIVE VARIATIONS

This article unpacks the concept of the rule of law by distinguishing five distinct meanings of the term. These are: (1) the rule of practical wisdom, (2) the rule of the law, (3) rule by law, (4) the rule of law as a principle of constitutionalism, and (5) the rule of law as a power-building technique. It suggests that unless the particular meaning being used is clarified, discussion of the concept is likely to generate more heat than light.     

The rule of law and sustainable development

This paper examines the relationship between the rule of law and sustainable development. It does so from the perspective of the rule of law as a development end, and as a means to sustainable development. It offers a model for conceptualising and measuring the rule of law, including the two global indicators for SDG Target 16.3. It explores the wider relationship between the rule of law and other Sustainable Development Goals, and proposes a thematic approach to better understanding the associations between legal frameworks and development outcomes.     

The contribution of the European Union to the rule of law in the field of international investment law through the creation of a Multilateral Investment Court

The concept of the international rule of law has developed in a form distinct from, but related to, the rule of law at the domestic (or European) level. This article examines the notion of the international rule of law and then, after explaining the international system of investment protection and its dispute settlement system, sets these against the international rule of law. It concludes by looking at how the European Union's proposal for a Multilateral Investment Court would contribute to augmenting the international rule of law in the field of investment protection.     

法律与体育

法律和体育是人类生活的两大领域,也是重要的文化现象。如何从基本的理念与价值层面,揭示法律和体育内在关系的深刻社会基础与内在机制,为依法治体,构建以人为本的和谐体育法治提供基础性理论指导,就成为法学界和体育界面临的共同课题。运用比较分析方法,探讨法律与体育在构成要素、运行方式和思维模式方面的共同性或相似性,同时也分析法律与体育在价值选择、规则类型以及解纷机制上的不同点。通过对法律与体育的比较分析,期望能够对加强法律和体育之间的沟通与交流,推动当代中国体育运动的法治化进程提供一些帮助。     

The Rule of Law and EU Expansion

The article seeks to further discussion about the European Union's identification of the rule of law as a fundamental principle and pre-requisite for EU membership by prospective member states, despite the lack of a uniform Community-wide understanding of this concept. In this article, three points will be explored. Firstly, it will briefly examine the rule of law principle within the EU, as a contested concept, despite its pre-eminence as a fundamental principle upon which EU membership is based. Because of its contested nature, there exists across the EU, conceptual variations, leading to the problem of an apparent absence of a uniform conception of the rule of law. Secondly, the article will identify some of the main conflicts between the EU making this rule of law a pre-requisite for membership and the lack of a uniform conception for this fundamental principle. Thirdly, the article explores how these conflicts affect the development of legal cultures of prospective member states and what potential problems these conflicts imply. The article focuses on the European Union's lack of a uniform understanding of the rule of law and how this affects prospective member states from Central and Eastern Europe. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The House of Lords and the Northern Ireland Conflict – A Sequel

This article begins by commenting on an analysis undertaken by the late Stephen Livingstone of 13 cases relating to the troubles in Northern Ireland decided by the House of Lords between 1969 and 1993. It then attempts to repeat the analysis in respect of 12 such cases decided between 1994 and 2005. Areas of law arising for consideration during both periods include the rules on the use of lethal force, aspects of substantive criminal law and criminal procedure and the rights of persons arrested or imprisoned. The more recent cases also raise fundamental questions concerning the status and meaning of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The article concludes that there has been a sea-change in the way the Law Lords have handled the Northern Irish cases. From treating them in a way which might have suggested a built-in bias in favour of police, army and government perspectives, they have moved to analysing the competing arguments in the light of more modern approaches to statutory interpretation, the rule of law and human rights.     

One size fits all? Multiple intelligences and legal education

This article argues that teaching and learning methodologies used in undergraduate law degrees are gradually shifting. The traditional model relied on a largely standardised, “one size fits all” approach which assumed that developing legal reasoning through attendance at lectures and participation in tutorials and seminars would produce a successful lawyer. However, today’s law schools are adapting to a large and diverse body of law students, many of whom will move on to careers outside the legal profession. This is being recognised by an increasingly pluralistic approach within undergraduate legal education, aided in no small measure by a greater focus on skills. This article will discuss the theory of multiple intelligences, which rejects the idea of a single measure of intelligence and instead identifies a number of different intelligences with both biological and cultural underpinnings. It is argued that acknowledging these multiple intelligences and using them as an organising concept to vary and diversify teaching and learning methodologies could help to further avoid the “one size fits all” approach and enhance the student experience.     

Education as a component of law enforcement professionalism: the concept and its measurement

The. lack of empirical studies of education as a structural variable. within theoretical modelt, of professionalization was disucssed. Also, a scale. designed to measure. education, as a camponent of the. concept of low enforcement as a. profoession was developed. lnterpreted as valid and reliable, the scale. was employed in a survey of North Carolina law enforcement personnel. Although it was concluded that many law enforcement personnel did not identify education as an element of the concept of law enforcement as a profassion, a minority strongly endorsed education. Law enforcement. personnekl overwhelmingly phefered criminal justice. curricula over those. of other disciplines, and many anticipated participation in criminal justice educational programs. It was concluded the conceptualization of education as, a component of law enforcement as a profession was, emerging. However, such conceptualieation was not felt to be pervasive within the law enforcement community.     

The Rule of Law and Jury Nullification

Jury nullification occurs when a jury renders a verdict based on what it feels the law ought to demand, as opposed to what the law in fact demands. While it is beyond doubt that criminal juries in common law jurisdictions have the ability to so act without fear of legal censure or redress, it remains a highly contentious issue as to whether such juries ought to be informed of this ability. One of the main objections to informing jurors of their purview to nullify is that, in so acting, the rule of law is subverted. Thus, while jurors might have the ability to so act, they ought to be discouraged from doing so. This ability, in other words, must be hidden from them – a subterfuge justified by reference to the rule of law. In this paper I closely examine the rule of law objection and conclude that the conflicts between jury nullification and the rule of law are greatly exaggerated. In fact, in many respects jury nullification promotes the very same ends and goals as does the rule of law. Hence, I conclude, if there is a reason to withhold from the jury any knowledge of jury nullification, such a reason cannot be grounded on considerations of the rule of law.     

Interpretation of Unilateral Acts in International Law

The article explores the question of interpretation of unilateral acts in international law both from the perspective of ascertaining their binding force (law determination) and from the perspective of ascertaining their content (content determination). It argues that the objective intention of the author to be bound is what distinguishes binding commitments of unilateral origin from non-binding ones. In turn, this involves the interpretation of a unilateral act in accordance with its content and the circumstances surrounding its making. In practice, the use of clear and specific wording in conjunction with a set of contextual indicators are indicia of the intention to create a binding unilateral commitment. Against this backdrop, the article continues by addressing the question of interpretation of unilateral acts from the standpoint of ascertaining their content. It shows that the text of the act is the primary consideration in determining its content—and that its context as well as the circumstances surrounding its making are also interpretative elements that need to be taken into account. Due to the unilateral origin of these acts the interpretative rule applicable to international agreements can only be used as a point of reference when it comes to interpreting the content of these acts. In this light, the article concludes that more practice is needed in order to elucidate the exact role and weight that should be ascribed to non-textual elements in the context of interpreting unilateral acts. At the same time, the article argues in favour of adopting a broader approach to the concept of ‘interpretation’ in international law. Viewing interpretation not merely as content determination but also as law ascertainment allows us to better assess the persuasive value of arguments in favour or against certain interpretative rules when practice is scant—as is the case with unilateral acts.

     

Eyes Wide Shut: On Risk,Rule of Law and Precaution

The rule of law offers legal certainty, laying down boundaries to the state's playing field. The precautionary approach stipulates that the absence of scientific certainty is no reason not to act to prevent harm. Here, uncertainty frames action. The precautionary approach potentially expands the state's playing field, and this expansion might well undermine the precepts of the rule of law. The certainty‐uncertainty axis exposes a tension between the rule of law and the precautionary approach in what Ulrich Beck has termed the world risk society in second modernity. It is this tension that is the focus of analysis in this article.     

Public Perceptions of the Legitimacy of the Law and Legal Authorities: Evidence from the Caribbean

Research on procedural justice and legitimacy has expanded greatly across the social sciences in recent years. The process‐based model of regulation, which links people's assessments of procedural justice and legitimacy to their compliance with the law and legal authorities, has become particularly influential in criminology and sociolegal studies. A review of the previous research on perceived legitimacy highlights two important features. First, legitimacy has been conceptualized and measured in many different ways. Second, most of the research on legitimacy has focused on only a handful of developed nations. Using survey data from Trinidad and Tobago, this article examines the conceptualization and measurement of the perceived legitimacy of the law and legal authorities. The findings indicate that some of the prominent conceptual and measurement models used in previous research are not empirically valid in the Trinidadian context. The implications of the results for conceptualization, theory, and future research are discussed.     

宪政与法治是国家实现持久善治的正道

时代发展到今天,宪政信念与法治理念已经根植于现代民主社会的政治文化之中,宪政实践和法治建设之于国家实现善治的保障价值日益被人们所普遍认知;宪政、法治、民生在政治国家的有机结合与生动实践,虽会因各国发展阶段、发展层次、发展水平的不同而有所差异,但就本质和信念而言,概不应因意识形态的差异而予以随意取舍;宪政、法治、民生三者在清明世界之中互为表里、互为因果、同为一体,考其三者的发育程度、实质品位和取舍存废,则大致可知国之兴废的大势;正是它们之间的逻辑运动才一而再、再而三生动实在地演绎着人类社会和政治国家命运迥异的盛世悲歌。     

法治的量化分析——法治指数衡量体系全球经验与中国应用

指数是衡量全球各国经济、政治走势的重要尺度,各种类型的指数从某种程度上精确折射着社会生存的客观真实状态。在民主、法治等社会科学领域始终缺少一种定量分析的研究方法。法治在进入高速发展的信息化时代之后,我们应改变传统抽象法治观念的思维,并突破不同文化间法治价值观念的屏障,将法治理念贯穿至具体的指数模型之中。法治指数体系中囊括了诸如民主指数、腐败指数等一系列精确、稳定的指数样本。本文从全球具有较大影响力的法治指数出发并结合中国的基本国情进行方法论上分析与探索,为当今中国寻找一种新型、理想的法治发展路径。     

Legitimacy for a Supranational European Political Order—Derivative,Regulatory or Deliberative?

This paper discusses some models purported to legitimise a European supranational legal order. In particular, the author focuses on an application of the so-called regulatory model to the complex structure of the European Community and the European Union. First of all, he tackles the very concept of legitimacy, contrasting it with both efficacy and efficiency. Secondly, he summarises the most prominent positions in the long-standing debate on the sources of legitimation for the European Community. Thirdly, in this perspective, he analyses several, sometimes contradictory, notions of the rule of law. His contention is that we can single out five fundamental notions of the rule of law and that some but not all of them are incompatible with or oppose democracy. Finally, the paper addresses the regulatory model as a possible application of the rule of the law to the European supranational order. The conclusion is that the regulatory model should be rejected if it is presented as an alternative to classical democratic thought, though it might be fruitful if reshaped differently and no longer assessed from a functionalist standpoint of deliberation.     

论互联网社交在法治社会建设中的功能

作为一个同法治国家、法治政府相区别的概念,法治社会命题致力于实现社会生活的秩序化、法治化,并尤其强调社会力量对国家法治建设的推动作用,试图借助多元社会主体的参与来型构法治发展的动力基础。准确认识当下的社会状况,充分挖掘现有的社会力量,是开展法治社会建设的正确路径。在当代,互联网信息技术的纵深发展日益改变着现代社会的交往模式,并塑造出互联网社交这一新型的社会关系形态。互联网社交的出现与发展孕育了以网络为介质的社会力量,使社会逐渐获取了同国家对话并参与国家法治建设的能力。互联网社交在法治社会建设中的功能可以从四个向度获得理解:互联网社交缔造着网络公共空间的公民品格;互联网社交孕育了网络社会的自治能力;互联网社交构成了民主参与的"非正式"渠道;互联网社交提供了权力制约的社会手段。     

民法的基本精神与依法治国

民法作为市民社会的基本法,其基本观念是私权神圣。政府于行使公权力的过程中,秉持民法的私权观念尤为重要。本文首先论述了民法典的基本精神及现代依法治国思想的法理源流,最后阐明弘扬民法精神对于依法治国的重要意义。     

认真地对待规则——关于我国法理学研究方向的探索

法律规则是极为重要的法律现象 ,几乎所有的法学家都注重对其进行分析、注释 ,西方法学的三大流派基本上都是在不同角度围绕规则展开论述的。因而可以认为 ,法律规则是法学的核心范畴。     

依法治国与以德治国相结合的运行机制建构

依法治国与以德治国作为治国方略都是动态的过程。怎样寻求两者的有机结合,重视系统内各要素之间的良性互动,是人们应当更加关注的。本文从“机制”的词源意义出发,认为:依法治国与以德治国相结合的运行机制应当包括法治与德治的内在运行机制、二者相结合的作用互补与协调机制以及人力资源协调机制等内容。