探望权法律制度完善探讨

探望权,是指离婚后不直接抚养子女的父亲或母亲一方享有的于未成年子女探望、联系、会面、交往、短期共同生活的权利。随着当今社会离婚率的普遍增长,离婚后有关探望子女的纠纷也逐渐增加并成为社会问题。作为现代亲权理论的产物,我国婚姻法第三十八条确定了离婚后子女探望权制度,使我国婚姻法得到进一步完善。构建探望权制度对于家庭和睦、社会稳定具有重大意义。     

Reflections on a young offenders institution: communication--a need, a want, a right

In this article, it is demonstrated that a dichotomy exists between wider societal movements to develop communication between individuals and among institutions and management practices within a young offenders institution. The principle aim of the article is to illustrate how young offenders are being systematically denied the opportunity to socially interact with others at an appropriate level. The significance of social exchange for these prisoners and how they achieve this is highlighted. The article concludes by suggesting some recommendations in relation to communication within young offenders institutions.     

The European Parliament and Comitology: On the Road to Nowhere?

The European Parliament has generally been deeply distrustful of the comitology system, primarily on the grounds that it allows the national administrations to undermine its supervisory role in the area of implementing legislation. Parliament has therefore sought to use the political, budgetary and jurisdictional means at its disposal to counteract the spread of comitology, or at least to promote the less intrusive forms of committee procedure. These initiatives have not, for the most part, been wholly successful; neither the interinstitutional agreements nor Parliament's arguments before the Court of Justice have produced the results it had hoped for. Parliament has been able, however, to use its Maastricht powers to influence the choice of committee procedure included in legislation adopted under codecision, and its budgetary tactics have forced the Commission to rationalise somewhat the annual expenditure on committees of all kinds and to bring a modicum of transparency into their operation. The imminence of the intergovernmental conference led to a suspension of hostilities towards the end of 1996.     

Access to treatment as a right to life and health

In some countries in Latin America, in the absence of leadership from governments, activists have had to resort to the courts to obtain access to HIV/AIDS treatments for people with HIV/AIDS. In his presentation to the XIII International AIDS Conference (abstract TuOrE458), Edgar Carrasco, of Acción Ciudadana Contra el Sida (ACCSI), discusses the process that was followed in Venezuela. The presentation describes the very limited access people with HIV/AIDS had to antiretroviral therapies and treatments for opportunistic infections under Venezuela's health and social security systems. It provides details of lawsuits that were launched on behalf of several individuals living with HIV/AIDS, and that resulted in the courts ordering the government to provide treatments for these individuals and, eventually, for all people with HIV/AIDS in Venezuela. The presentation concludes that recourse to the courts is a useful tool for activists and that civil actions launched on behalf of people with HIV/AIDS can serve as an example for people with other chronic diseases.     

European Parliament and Executive Federalism: Approaching a Parliament in a Semi-Parliamentary Democracy

Abstract: The European Parliament has often been understood along the lines of theories of European integration—compared to regular parliaments by Federalists or belittled as merely an international assembly by intergovernmentalists. This paper proposes an understanding of the European Parliament not along theories about what the EU should become, but what it is and surely will continue to be, that is a very distinct federal structure. The European Parliament is a parliament in an executive federalism—with far‐reaching consequences for its form and functions. After outlining the characteristics of this federal structure, these consequences will be demonstrated by analysing the European Parliament in contrast with two ideal types of parliaments: the working parliament, separated from the executive branch and centred around strong committees (like the US Congress), and the debating parliament, characterised by the fusion of parliamentary majority and government as well as plenary debates (like the British House of Commons). Dwelling thus on a comparison to a legislature in a non‐parliamentary federal system, like the US Congress, this paper argues that the European Parliament might best be understood as a special case of a working parliament. Finally, it will be proposed to consider the influence of executive federalism not only as fundamentally shaping the European Parliament but also as rendering the EU generally a semi‐parliamentary democracy.