Legislative Bellwethers: The Role of Committee Membership in Parliamentary Debate

Political parties and legislators use legislative debates to establish their reputation, challenge rivals, and engage in coalition management, among many other tasks. Yet, existing theories on parliamentary debates have abstracted away from the need for information and expertise, which are costly to acquire. Drawing on the “informational” perspective on legislative organization, we address this problem by arguing that party leaders use committees as training arenas for their backbenchers. They task their assigned members with acquiring specific expertise and then rely heavily on those members during the corresponding debates. We turn to the Portuguese legislature, from 2000 to 2015, to discuss how saliency, government dynamics, and party size affect the use of experts. We test this theory using a novel approach to classify speeches that leverages the texts of legislation as training data for a supervised approach.     

Legislative Oversight in the Ukrainian Rada: Assessing the Effectiveness of Parliamentary Committees

This study analyses factors associated with the perceived effectiveness of committee oversight in the Ukrainian Rada. Based on two waves of original survey data, it attempts to discern whether Ukrainian MPs view the committee oversight process primarily as an extension of partisan politics, a forum for constituency representation and resource distribution, or a politically independent process of information acquisition and regulation. The findings of the analysis suggest that partisan political considerations do not play a significant role in shaping MP attitudes towards committee oversight. Rather, deputy evaluations of the oversight process are influenced mainly by distributional and informational factors, suggesting that committee oversight is one area in which legislative institutionalisation appears to be taking root in post-communist Ukraine.     

Politics and the Adoption of Legislative Television: An Analysis of the U.S. House Vote on C-SPAN

The present study extends the work of Crain and Goff (1988) by examining the political determinants of the earliest decision to adopt legislative television on a permanent basis at the national level in the United States. Data on legislator and district characteristics are used to explain the 1977 vote to adopt C-SPAN coverage of proceedings in the U.S. House of Representatives. Logit regression results suggest that length of service and extremity of political views/ideologies had clear and significant effects on politicians' votes concerning the adoption of legislative television. As with Crain and Goff (1988), these measures capture some element of legislator self-interest.     

试论立法听证的论辩性—─以重庆市立法听证为例

我国地方人大立法与西方议会立法不同,基本上是抽象行为的立法,其立法听证的核心和灵魂在于论辩性。论辩性也是我国立法听证区别于座谈会、论证会等其他传统的立法民主形式的主要特点。提高立法听证会论辩性要从听证议题的可辩性、双方陈述人的人数、陈述能力,以及陈述的时间、机会的对等性等方面来保障。     

应对数字艺术公共安全隐患的立法策略研究

当下数字艺术的产生和迅速崛起从根本上改变了原子艺术长期以来建构起来的艺术生态和艺术秩序,引发了某些引起人们重大关切的公共安全问题,其中突出的有网瘾问题、网络文化低俗化问题、数字谣言问题以及数字艺术知识产权保护问题等。这些问题不同于原子艺术公共安全隐患发生学上的外生性、随机性和个别性,而是呈现为内生性、公共性、流行性和危害性特征。一条比较可行的防控策略是在对数字艺术实施事前立法规范的同时,对数字艺术公共安全机制同步实施事后追溯监管。此外,加强数字艺术公共安全性及其应对机制的科研攻关和科普宣传,尽快提高全社会对数字艺术特殊规律及其公共安全性的认识和了解也是当务之急。     

地方政法委协调处理刑事案件的制度考察及分析

我国的刑事案件事实认定机制不具有对抗"协调"的功能。书面认定案件事实是地方政法委协调处理案件的技术方式。现行制度设置决定了案件事实认定主体具有多元化的特征。要保证我国刑事诉讼程序得以有效运行,就需要地方政法委在一定程度上发挥协调功效;同时,要实现公、检、法三机关之间的利益平衡也需要地方政法委进行协调;此外,地方政法委通过对刑事案件进行协调处理也可以实现自身的政策目标。目前,不宜取消地方政法委对刑事案件的协调制度,但应当合理限制地方政法委协调刑事案件的范围,并禁止地方政法委对刑事案件事实进行"协调"。地方政法委对刑事案件适用程序的协调功效应部分予以保留。地方政法委也不应对办案机关之间因处理刑事案件而出现的利益"纠葛"进行"协调"。此外,地方政法委不能以实现政策目标为由,以协调处理刑事案件的方式,不当干预办案机关正常办案。     

立法权的内在限制——一种法律和立法二元划分的进路

立法权的限制是宪政理论的一项重要内容。作为一项权力形态的立法权 ,其出现及其发展是有着深厚历史渊源的 ,因而 ,对“立法权”这个语词本身就应当作历史的考察 ,在厘清“立法权”这个语词本身蕴含的深厚意义的前提下 ,才能探讨“如何限制立法权”这个进一步的论题。从法律和立法二元划分的进路探讨立法权的限制 ,有利于厘清立法权限制的另一个维度 ,即内在限制的维度 ,在此基础上 ,另外一个重要问题是立法权内在限制和外在限制的结合。     

较大城市立法权探析

较大城市立法权既是计划经济时代的产物,也是为了满足在市场经济条件下进行政治、经济体制改革探索和试验的要求。它在近20余年的进程中,为中央层面的立法提供了丰富的经验,许多全国性的法律都是在较大城市试行成功以后,再向全国推广。但是由于该制度缺乏宪法、法律的规范,以及在监督和规制方面还不是很完善,亟需引起高度重视。     

我国土地征收立法模式之反思

土地征收的立法模式有集中型模式和分散型模式之分,集中型立法模式颇具特色;我国分散型立法模式存在诸多弊端;我国土地征收立法应采集中型立法模式,在制定统一的征收法典时,既要注意法典与现行立法和相关政策性规定的协调与整合、又要注重法典的创新与突破、还要注意法典内容的具体而全面。     

Measuring Legislative Power: An Expert Reweighting of the Fish‐Kroenig Parliamentary Powers Index

The Parliamentary Powers Index (PPI) developed by Fish and Kroenig (2009) is the most important effort to date to measure legislative power in cross‐national perspective, but it has been criticized on both theoretical and methodological grounds. We build on the 32‐item PPI to develop an alternative indicator of legislative strength that is based on an expert survey of 296 political scientists in 2014. We reweight each of the powers by expert opinion, creating a new Weighted Legislative Powers Score (WLPS) for the 158 national legislatures in the Fish and Kroenig data set. In addition, the article reports the expert‐assigned weight factors for the entire set of 32 powers contained in the original PPI, thus allowing researchers to innovate alternative, disaggregated indicators of legislative power.     

国家立法赔偿的逻辑

现实中有立法赔偿的需求,但在学理上却无法提出完整的逻辑论证,应当在纷繁的论争中分清事实与逻辑,通过审视事实背后的逻辑来完成对立法赔偿的理论论证。对于针对特定主体的违宪处分行为或明显过错下的不作为所造成的实际损害应进行国家赔偿,其过错由议会集体承担。     

Bonding in Pursuit of Policy Goals: How MPs Choose Political Parties in the Legislative State of Nature

How do MPs in nascent legislatures choose a political party? We argue that MPs self‐select into groups of like‐minded colleagues to achieve favored policy outputs. MPs identify colleagues with similar preferences based on observed behavior and informative signals such as socioeconomic status, cultural background, and previous political experience. We test this explanation in the first democratically elected German parliament, the Frankfurt Assembly of 1848, that developed a differentiated party system in the absence of electoral and career incentives. Our statistical analysis shows that MPs were significantly more likely to join parties that were similar to them with regard to ideology, age, regional provenance, confession, noble status, and previous parliamentary experience. Qualitative evidence suggests that major changes in the party system were driven by disputes over policy. Our findings are particularly important for countries with more turbulent paths towards parliamentarization than those witnessed by archetypical cases like Britain or the United States.     

基于法学视角的环境标准问题研究

环境标准属于技术性法律规范,其技术性决定了必须由专家参与,但其作为制度规范价值意义上的考量,在制定主体、制定程序以及颁布生效方面,都离不开法学视角的审视。     

论可持续发展与我国立法体系的重新架构

我国的国情决定了我国必须走可持续发展的道路 ,而作为实现可持续发展重要手段的现行法律与可持续发展的要求差距颇大。为此 ,有必要以可持续发展思想为指导重新架构我国立法体系 ,使之符合可持续发展的要求。     

关于检察长列席审判委员会制度的思考

人民检察院检察长可以列席同级人民法院审判委员会是我国法律早已规定但至今仍存在争论的一个问题。专家、学者对此意见不一，各地做法也不尽相同。就目前我国法院审判委员会的性质、职能和实际运作情况以及检察机关的职能而言，检察长列席同级人民法院审判委员会显得非常必要，应将其作为一项制度固定下来。同时，明确列席的人员、列席的案件范围和列席的程序等等。     

论我国建立民事诉讼快速审判程序的立法选择

我国的民商事纠纷的不断增加，便人民法院受理的民商事案件数量也快速增长。为了应对不断增长的诉讼潮，关键在于健全我国的民事审判程序体系，增设一个独立于现有审判程序的，全新而又高效的审判程序就是重中之重。根据现代民事诉讼法理，综合考量我国历史文化因素和现实状况。在民事诉讼中，建立快速审判程序是我国民事诉讼法的应然选择。     

业主委员会机会主义行为制度分析

业主与业主委员会之间就维权问题经常产生矛盾．由于业主掌握的信息不充分和搭便车行为导致了内部监督的缺失,而正向激励不足的业主委员会本身就存在着发生道德风险的可能．再加上政府在有效监督制度供给上的严重不足使得业主的实际监督行为面临着过高的交易费用,加剧了业主委员会机会主义行为发生的风险。因此,必须提高政府的制度供给能力,完善内外部监督机制,推进业主委员会服务的市场化和职业化,从而降低监督制度的运行成本,增加有效监督行为的供给。     

生态决策制定中公众参与的前提分析

在经济活动过程中经常会遇到的许多问题本身都与环境状况有直接的联系。这些活动如果规划失败将会引起环境的重大损失并使人们的健康和物质生受到威胁。生态问题的公众评价是在大量的客观和主观因素的作用下形成的。     

中国环境公益诉讼条款的立法意图——兼论人民法院在环境公益诉讼中的角色和权限

从对1970年美国公民诉讼立法辩论和当下中国环境公益诉讼立法争论的比较中可以看出，当前紧迫的任务之一是确立某部环境单行法上环境公益诉讼条款的具体立法意图。环境公益诉讼旨在减少对环境本身的损害，而不是赔偿对受害者的人身损害和财产损害。环境公益诉讼的第一审审判机关应为高级人民法院，人民法院在环境公益诉讼中既要拓展严格审查的角色，又要恪守职能限制。     

刑事诉讼撤销案件立法的缺陷及完善

刑事诉讼撤销案件是侦查终结的一项重要程序,但目前与此有关的刑事诉讼法及司法解释中还存在诸多缺陷,应通过完善立法,详细规定刑事诉讼撤销案件的原因,加强对撤销案件的检察监督,赋予撤销案件当事人知情权和异议权,合理处置涉案财物,从而实现撤销案件制度的价值。