Ethics of Disenfranchisement and Voting Rights in the U.S.:Convicted Felons,the Homeless,and Immigrants

This paper examines the contemporary ethical issues surrounding voting rights of three disenfranchised groups in the U.S.: convicted felons, the homeless, and immigrants. Even in modern countries like the U.S., voting and other forms of political participation are skewed toward the elite, those with higher incomes, those who are employed, and those with more education. Low voter turnout presents serious challenges to democratic responsiveness, or the ability of leaders to respond to the needs and demands of citizens. Hence, voting should be encouraged in accord with the common interest. An important conclusion is that allowing all citizens – irrespective of their status – to vote would give them a voice in the context of governance. This notion is also associated with distributive justice, a philosophical concept that concentrates on just outcomes and consequences.     

Penal Disenfranchisement

This paper considers the justifiability of removing the right to vote from those convicted of crimes. Firstly, I consider the claim that the removal of the right to vote from prisoners (or serious offenders) is necessary as a practical matter to protect the democratic process from those who have shown themselves to be untrustworthy. Secondly, I look at the claim that offenders have broken the social contract and forfeited rights to participate in making law. And thirdly, I look at the claim that the voting ban is essential part of the justified punishment of serious offenders. These arguments have in common the feature that they attempt to articulate the sense in which rights imply responsibilities, particularly that voting rights should be conditional on one’s having met one’s civic responsibilities. I argue that the only interpretation of this view that could justify prisoner disenfranchisement is that which thinks of disenfranchisement as fair and deserved retributive punishment for crime. Against widespread opposition to, and confusion about, the importance of retributive punishment, I offer a brief defence. However, I conclude that even if legitimate retributive purposes could in principle justify prisoner disenfranchisement, the significance of disenfranchisement is such that it should be reserved for the most serious crimes.     

Electing the Electorate: The Problem of Prisoner Disenfranchisement

The issue of prisoner disenfranchisement is examined in the light of the recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Hirst v UK . It is argued that the arguments in favour of denying prisoners the right to vote lack plausibility. Prisoner disenfranchisement cannot be coherently defended on the justifications of punishment or on the grounds of risk. On the contrary, matters of principle and policy considerations favour the re-enfranchisement of convicted prisoners.     

重刑罪犯的人格特征分析

目的 探讨重刑罪犯人格特征和相关因素,为罪犯心理矫治和犯罪预防提供建议.方法 采用明尼苏达多相人格调查表(Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory,MMPI)对服刑中期和新入监的重刑罪犯进行测量.结果 比较重刑罪犯组与正常组的MMPI因子,其差异具有统计学意义(P<0.001),其中F、Pd、Pa、Pt、Sc因子的原始分明显高于正常组;Pd因子T均分高于常模一个标准差者所占比例最高;在F、Hs、D、Hy、Pd、Pa、Pt、Sc、Ma分量表上,T分大于常模者的比例较大;两点编码超常态比例较大.结论 重刑罪犯是人格障碍的高发人群,需加强对其人格障碍的矫治研究.     

《红字》的复调性

运用叙事学理论和复调小说理论,对霍桑<红字>的矛盾性进行分析,可以发现这部作品存在多种声音的叙述:第一,叙述者的声音;第二,隐含作者的"声音";第三,小说中海丝特·白兰、丁梅斯代尔、齐灵窝斯三位主人公声音的在场.由于多种声音的出现,读者在解读作品时能真切体会到作者的思想及<红字>中存在的矛盾性.     

民事主体价值论

民事主体在不同的发展阶段表现出其个性化的价值特点,对这些个性化的价值进行分析可以找出民事主体整体的价值定位。民事主体除了对社会和个人的价值之外,还应注意到它作为一种制度在整个民法体例构建中所起的作用,即民事主体的体系价值。     

对附随义务的界定

附随义务的本质不在于是否由法律规定或合同约定,而在于它是诚实信用原则的派生和发展。     

宋代咏物词的发展脉络

宋代咏物词的发展可分为承袭期、反正期、高涨期和汇合期四个阶段。承袭期注重描绘物象的外在形态，风格冶艳；反正期开始赋予事物以生命和情感，朝着敦煌、盛中叟原创期咏物词的录城大道反正、回归；高涨期更多借物抒情，托物言志，并在时代因素的作用下，形成家国身世之恨的新主题；在汇合期，家国之恨已成为咏物词创作的社会心理基础，而且不同词派都注重谋篇布局、造语运典、仍律合韵之法，表明南宋后期雅化、诗化已成为词体创作的共同蕲向。     

试析中小城市仲裁发展工作的思路和措施

中小城市仲裁工作是一个很容易被人们忽略的角落。笔者以自己的经验和思考,总结出了在中小城市发展仲裁事业的全局思路和具体应该采取的措施,为我国中小城市的仲裁事业发展提供了有益的借鉴。     

婚姻关系模型理论与离婚法律制度之间的关联性研究

婚姻关系理论从来都是婚姻制度的实质性基础。如果说离婚制度研究是一种“具体而微”的学术进路,那么婚姻关系理论则反映着整体的、宏观的、基础的婚姻定位、婚姻意识和婚姻观念,它融合了学者对婚姻文化的观察和思考,从“认识婚姻和塑造婚姻”的角度彰显着和实践着婚姻法的根本使命。对婚姻关系有着怎样的认识和定位,从根本上决定着离婚制度的指导思想和离婚案件的处理方式,这是另一种意义上的“塑造婚姻”。婚姻关系理论对个人自由与社会正义的考量,鲜明而深刻地体现在离婚制度中。一、不同婚姻关系模型的理论争锋关于婚姻关系理论,丰富多…     

法治社会的“法”与“治”

“依法治国”,“法治”为其要义。近些年来,学界政界,对法治议论者甚多,其中不乏有胆有识之高论。但何谓法治之“法”,何谓法治之“治”,何“法”可用之于“治”,“法”与“治”关系如何,法治本质与特性如何,似鲜有平心静气、细致深入之论者。就此而言,此处严存生教授之文可谓棋高一筹,令人一新耳目。文中释论人之本性,法之明善及法之属性;治之自治与善治,治之于官而非民,治出于民及其属性等等,均有学理说服与发微启迪之长。推呈学界,或能复引精粹之玉。不仅如此,意味更为深长者,“依法治国”之“法治”,究竟寓意何在?其与“法制”究竟有何不同?前者一定是观念上的进步,抑或传统“治”国之策的另一种表达?     

The Sense of Freedom. The Surprise of Being-in-Common

‘Globalization’ implies, among other things, the radical crisis of the metaphysical and theologico-political conceptions of sense. The crisis of the device built upon the concepts of the abstract individual, the nation and the State is at the same time the crisis of the subject as a master and an owner of sense (each time, the sense). But, if human beings are subtracted by the national, historical and metaphysical identities, by the system of the meanings-image, they are exposed to the possibility itself of sense as what precedes and exceeds every constituted identity or reality. This article aims at exploring in Jean-Luc Nancy’s thought the strict relationship between the ‘non-appropriable’ nature of sense and the being-in-common of human beings considered not as abstract individuals, but as multiple-singularities. A community that is the opening itself of sense, is not sacrificed to an originary or future Unity, but it is offered to the event of the present; to the existences as events and to an ‘immediate mediation’ as surprise. The experience of this offer as surprise is what Nancy calls ‘freedom’. Graduate student at the University of Venice, Italy; conducting a study of ‘the centres of temporary detention’ for migrants in Italy. The translations of all extracts are mine unless otherwise provided. These pages are dedicated to the migrants of the Association Solidariedade Imigrante of Lisbon, Portugal (to each one and to all of them, their friendship is for me such a great gift). I would like to thank Vania Trento Miotto and Thanos Zartaloudis with all my heart for the precious help in the revision of this article. Obviously, the responsibility for these pages rests entirely with me.