Policing with Contempt: The Degrading of Truth and Denial of Justice in the Aftermath of the Hillsborough Disaster

The Hillsborough disaster happened at a premier United Kingdom soccer stadium in April 1989 claiming the lives of ninety-six men, women, and children. Over the next decade there followed a Home Office inquiry, a criminal investigation, compensation hearings as far as the House of Lords, the longest inquests in recent history, a judicial review, a judicial scrutiny, and private prosecutions. Media coverage has remained intense and there has been persistent parliamentary debate. Despite the evidence amassed, much of it undisclosed, the legal argument and official discourse, the bereaved and survivors remain deeply concerned that the 'truth' of Hillsborough has been suppressed and reconstructed.
This paper considers Hillsborough and its long-term aftermath in the context of a theoretical discussion of the reconstitution and registration of 'truth' within social democracies when state institutions stand accused. It adopts a critical analysis drawing on human rights discourse in discussing how 'regimes of truth' operate to protect and sustain the interests of the 'powerful'. In examining the formal legal processes and their outcomes regarding Hillsborough, the paper demonstrates how they were manipulated to degrade the truth and deny justice to the bereaved. In revealing the procedural and structural inadequacies of these processes, the paper raises fundamental questions about the legal and political accountability of the police. Finally, it discusses alternative forms, informed by a human rights agenda, through which 'truth' can be acknowledged and institutionalized injustices reconciled.     

Protecting the Right to Housing in the Aftermath of Natural Disaster: Standards in International Human Rights Law

In 2006, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reportedthat an average of 211 million people each year were directlyaffected by the accumulated impact of natural disasters.¹ Thisis approximately five times the number of people thought tohave been affected by conflict over the past decade.² It iscommonly expected that, as a result of climate change, populationgrowth and inappropriate urbanisation, the incidence, severityand impact of natural disasters will continue to rise. And yetwhile the obligations of states in situations of armed conflicthave been extensively debated, the applicability of human rightslaw in the aftermath of natural disaster has not been so widelyexamined by regional or international human rights bodies. Thispaper considers the obligations of governments in the aftermathof natural disasters, with a particular focus on the right tohousing. The applicability of human rights law (and specificallyeconomic, social and cultural rights) in the aftermath of naturaldisaster is considered in a general sense, followed by a discussionof the content of the right to housing, and the obligationsof governments to respect, protect and fulfil this right inthe course of responding to disaster. The question of whetherstates have an obligation to provide restitution, compensationor other form of reparation to those who have lost homes, landand property by reason of natural disaster is also discussed.The paper draws on examples from the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004),the Pakistan earthquake (2005) and the South Asian floods (2007),and identifies specific elements of government obligations thatare of particular importance in ensuring the right to adequatehousing in the aftermath of natural disaster.     

对征收与征用的一个辨析

本文对征收与征用的关系进行了辨析,指出国内学者对征收/征用的二分法有过于简单化之虞,不利于实现对所有财产的公平保护.本文用美国法中的taking这一概念考察包括对动产、不动产、无形财产在内的所有形式财产的征收与征用的不同情形,指出一切形式的征收、征用都应该以公共利益为目的,按照法律授权,并给予公正补偿.     

中国网约车的监管困境及解决

网约车的出现既解决了城市交通问题,满足了乘客出行需要,也对机动车的利用效率有了很大提升,但是带来的社会问题、法律冲突和监管难题也是不容忽视的。特别是随着时间的推移,业态发生了变化,到底如何监管变得更加复杂。网约车与传统出租车既有区别又有联系,建立一种连接传统与现代的监管模式,考验政府的智慧与能力,也开启互联网+时代的法治政府新样态。     

Climate Change Litigation's Regulatory Pathways: A Comparative Analysis of the United States and Australia

This article provides a critical next step in scholarship on climate change litigation's regulatory role. It creates a model for understanding the direct and indirect regulatory roles of this litigation. It then applies this model to the United States and Australia, two key jurisdictions for climate change lawsuits, in order to explore the regulatory pathways that this litigation has taken, is taking, and likely will take. This analysis helps to illuminate the ways in which litigation influences regulation and forms part of climate change governance.     

A Regulatory Analysis of International Climate Change Regulation

The political challenges impeding the negotiation of a comprehensive multilateral agreement on international climate change have received a great deal of attention. A question that has gone somewhat overlooked is what essential components an effective regulatory scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should contain. The objective of this article is to examine the regulatory architecture of current international arrangements relating to global climate change regulation. A systematic analysis of the structure, substantive composition, and administrative characteristics of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol is undertaken. The analytical standard against which the agreements are examined is whether current international regulatory arrangements satisfy the basic requirements of regulatory coherence. The analysis identifies how the present scheme consists of a complex institutional structure that lacks a substantive regulatory core. The implications of the absence of functional and effective mechanisms to govern greenhouse gas emission reductions are considered in relation to the principles of good regulatory design. This, in turn, provides useful insights into how a better regulatory scheme might be designed.     

Regulatory Failure and the Collapse of Japan's Home Mortgage Lending Industry: A Legal and Economic Analysis

This article analyzes the dynamics of contemporary cooperation and conflict in Japanese financial regulation through the prism of the jusen problem, the collapse of Japan's home mortgage lending industry in the 1990s. The jusen problem is one of the most striking examples of regulatory failure, strategic interest group bargaining, and large-scale dispute resolution in Japanese history.     

Credible Commitment in Non-Independent Regulatory Agencies: A Comparative Analysis of the European Agencies for Pharmaceuticals and Foodstuffs

Abstract: The creation of more and more supranational regulatory agencies has been one of the most significant institutional developments in the European Union during the last decade. Usually, these agencies evolve from EU committees and take over most of their structures. Accordingly, like most EU committees and the Commission, regulatory agencies are not independent, but act under the control of the member states. The question is, how far do they indicate a credible commitment of the Member States to long-term policy goals like health and consumer protection. This article compares the institutional structures and decision-making rules of the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products and of the newly established European Food Safety Authority, in order to clarify the extent of credible commitment that the Member States show through the setting-up of these agencies. It concludes that the commitment of the Member States in the foodstuff sector is not as deep as in the pharmaceutical sector, and that the creation of the European Food Safety Authority will not lead to a success story similar to that of the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products.     

专利权垄断性的法哲学分析

专利权具有垄断性但不是法律上的垄断权。专利权客体的本质是技术方法。专利权客体通过权利说明书外化而具有可审查性;专利权客体内化和物化为专利产品而具有财产内容。专利权垄断性是专利法比照物权设立的对抗他人效力的权利逻辑范围。专利法是国家以技术进步为交易目的、在技术发明人和社会公众之间的“对价”或衡平机制。专利产品垄断市场份额是市场开发的结果而不是制度配给。     

ECJ倡议的内在缺陷及国际投资法体系的变革方向

从发展中国家和发达国家的角度来看,ECJ都是一种有瑕疵的建议.它的缺点对于发展中国家来说尤为严重,因为它从根本的角度忽略了发展的层面.发展中国家运用现有的双边协定比接受ECJ的多边协定更加适当.虽然现有的乌拉圭FDI体制相比于ECJ更加恰当,但是从发展的角度讲,前者有着重大缺陷,国际社会应当对此缺陷给予即时关注并采取补救措施.     

Negotiating Durable Solutions for Refugees: A Critical Space for Semiotic Analysis

Despite the proliferation of specialised agencies designed to reduce the prevalence of refugees worldwide, the number of individuals fleeing persecution is increasing year on year as endemic violence in countries such as Iraq, Somalia and the Syrian Arab Republic continues. As a result, media broadcasts and political dialogues are saturated with discussions about these “persons of concern”. Fundamental questions nonetheless remain unanswered about what meaning these actors attribute to the label ‘refugee’ and what intent, other than paucity of knowledge, might be driving the term’s use or manipulation. Though this is evidently important in the public arena, where incorrect conflations fuel mistrust and misunderstandings, the ramifications of these divergent understandings at the level of multi-lateral politics have yet to be critically explored. This article applies Barthes’ theory of the multiple orders of the sign to address this. Using the case study of the negotiations preceding the invocation of the Cessation Clause for Rwandan refugees, it illustrates how the word refugee is susceptible to numerous, simultaneous understandings, and discusses the implications of these manifold interpretations for how durable solutions are envisaged and negotiated in the refugee regime. In the case of Rwandan refugees in Uganda, this has meant that over a decade of stalemated discussions between the Governments of Uganda and Rwanda and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees over their future have been broken by a series of bilateral concessions that, whilst diminishing the political significance attached to this protracted caseload, have failed to address the continuing precarity of their situation. By conceptualising the word refugee as a sign according to the Saussurean model of semiotics, this paper therefore argues that despite the term’s established legal-normative definition, its inherent malleability makes it susceptible to processes of political instrumentalisation. This elevates the refugee as a rhetorical figure above the refugee as a physical-legal body entitled to certain forms of assistance.     

图书馆规章制度的法学分析

图书馆规章制度是图书馆管理活动的重要依据,是对我国法律、法规、规章的延伸和补充.制订规章的价值与理念不仅是管理的需要,而且也关系到使用者的权利问题,关系到我国法律、法规、规章、方针政策的贯彻实施.所以,重探图书馆规章制度的性质及地位、图书馆制订规章制度的权力依据、规章制度的效力及实施等问题,具有现实的意义.     

Regulatory Appraisal: A Neglected Opportunity for Law and Economics

Governments are increasingly using cost-benefit analysis to appraise regulatory proposals. In this paper, the author reviews recent practice in the USA and UK. Drawing particularly on examples of analysis undertaken by the British Health and Safety Executive, he argues that a technique originally adopted to assess the merits of public projects is, as yet, insufficiently sensitive to some of the problematic aspects of the interaction between legal instruments and human behaviour. These aspects are the focus of much law-and-economics analysis and the value of regulatory appraisal would be enhanced by an increased input of such analysis.     

Procedural Rationality and Regulatory Decision-Making: A Decision Framework Approach

This paper presents the methodology and some preliminary findings from an ongoing study of the procedural rationality of regulatory decisionmaking in the occupational health arena. The author employs the concept of procedural rationality in the sense used by Herbert Simon to refer to the logic of decision-making as it is shaped by institutional constraints. Of particular interest here is the impact of provisions for the involvement of affected interests in and public scrutiny of the regulatory process. The methodology presented involves a charting of the "decision frameworks" adopted by participants in the process at various stages. The methodology is illustrated through its application to the particular case of the development of a regulation governing occupational exposure to inorganic lead in the Canadian province of Ontario.     

Regulatory Competition: A Private International Law Approach

This article analyzes the regulatory competition model (RCM) from a private international law perspective. This perspective helps us identify and resolve two gaps in the standard explanation of the RCM. According to the standard explanation, two conditions must be fulfilled for the market of legal products to function well: (1) free movement of resources (persons, capital, and goods); (2) the absences of cross-border externalities. In relation to this second condition, the standard model argues that a uniform material rule is necessary to overcome cross-border externalities. The main thesis of this article is that a private international law approach can complete this model by adding two ideas. First, a smooth functioning of the market-of-legal products requires, not only the free movement of resources, but also a uniform private international law system which guarantees the autonomy of the parties (free choice of law) and the procedural implementation of this autonomy (free choice of forum and free movement of judgments). And second, a uniform material law, which wipes out the regulatory market, is not essential to deal with the externality problem; rather a uniform conflict-of-laws rule, which leads to the internalization of cross-border externalities by states, can correct at least some of the externalities problem and also maintains the regulatory market.