Markets and Corporate Conflict: A Substitution-Cost Approach to Business Litigation

This paper examines the phenomenon of conflict escalaton in business relations. A theory of when conflict between firms will proceed from informal relationship-preserving norms to more formal and destructive end games involving litigation is developed and tested. The central theoretical claim is that substitution costs serve as an impediment against the escalation of conflict. Data on market concentration and dollar flows between aggregate markets in the economy are used to develop measures of substitution costs. Measures of substitution costs and trade figures are also used to describe power advantages in markets. The theory is tested through a series of regression models. The main findings are that (1) when substitution costs are high, parties are less likely to escalate conflict and (2) asymmetric market relations result in less conflict escalation than symmetric ones. Empirical analysis indicates that substitution costs are related in predictable and meaningful ways to conflict escalation and business litigation.     

A New Approach to the Interpretation of the French Constitution in Respect to International Conventions: From Hierarchy of Norms to Conflict of Competence

Netherlands International Law Review -     

From Balance to Conflict: A New Constitution for the EU

As the crisis (and the Union's response to it) further develops, one thing appears clear: the European Union post‐crisis will be a very different animal from the pre‐crisis EU. This article offers an alternative model for the EU's constitutional future. Its objective is to invert the Union's current path‐dependency: changes to the way in which the Union works should serve to question, rather than entrench, its future objectives and trajectory. The paper argues that the post‐crisis EU requires a quite different normative, institutional and juridical framework. Such a framework must focus on reproducing the social and political cleavages that underlie authority on the national level and that allow divisive political choices to be legitimised. This reform project implies reshaping the prerogatives of the European institutions. Rather than seeking to prevent or bracket political conflict, the division of institutional competences and tasks should be rethought in order to allow the EU institutions to internalise within their decision‐making process the conflicts reproduced by social and political cleavages. Finally, a reformed legal order must play an active role as a facilitator and container of conflict over the ends of the integration project.     

From a Top-Down to a Bottom-Up Approach to Legislative Oversight

Over the years there have been several studies of oversight in the context of the US Congress; much less attention, however, has been paid to the study of oversight in parliamentary systems. Comparative studies spearheaded by several international organisations in recent years offer a different perspective of legislative oversight. They emphasise a new concept, oversight potential, and suggest that strengthening this potential would help promote good governance, fight corruption and improve democracy. This study examines the concept of oversight potential in a pure parliamentary system – the Israeli Knesset. It shows that low potential impairs actual oversight in a parliamentary system that uses mainly police-patrol techniques as defined by the 1987 work of McCubbins and Schwartz. It suggests that increasing oversight potential will help improve the oversight outputs of the legislature. Finally, it develops a bottom-up legislative approach for measuring oversight potential, and by doing so it enriches this neglected field of research.     

论从意义到形式的语法研究新思路

吕叔湘先生的<中国文法要略>开创了从意义到形式的汉语语法研究的新思路,这不但体现在下卷的"表达论",而且贯穿全书的始终.该书最主要的贡献在于建立了六大语法范畴系统:动词时态系统、句子功能系统、句子语气系统、语义角色系统、语义范畴系统以及语义关联系统,这是吕叔湘语法研究的核心思想.在这一思想的指导下,汉语语义语法理论才得以长足的发展.本文全面阐述了汉语语义语法的理论思想,指出它的理论核心是:强调形式与意义的的双向研究,特别是强化了语义范畴、语义角色和语义关联的研究.     

公民有序参与：当代中国立法领域的新课题

中国的民主法治建设离不开广大人民群众的积极参与,唯其如此,社会主义法治才能得到人民的认同,民主才能真正得以落实,“依法治国”的目标才能真正得到实现。作为法治体系中关键一环的立法环节,直接关系到各类社会权利、利益的分配与协调,必须具备广泛的代表性。公民有序参与是中国立法领域的新课题。     

我国行贿罪的理论冲突和立法抉择

行贿罪是贿赂犯罪中的一个重要罪名,在高压反腐的背景下,刑法学界对于行贿罪的构成要件、刑罚处罚乃至存废问题都存在较大的争议。保留行贿罪有利于严密反腐败刑法法网和对贿赂犯罪的惩治。行贿罪的成立要求行为人主观上必须具备“谋取不正当利益”的目的有利于限制刑法的处罚范围,符合刑法谦抑性。行贿罪特别自首制度符合刑法“从严治吏”的旨趣。     

冲突法单边主义立法模式构想

冲突法中的单边主义在维护国家根本利益和保障国家经济安全方面具有重大价值和意义。单边主义立法模式也是冲突法立法中不能缺少的一个方面,其较为全面的阐释应该为＂一个依据——两个制度——若干规则＂。一个依据就是以宪法为依据,宪法作为冲突法立法和司法的总指导;两个制度即公共秩序保留和法律规避,通过这两个制度达到对外国法适用的排除;若干规则包括直接适用的法,内向性规则等等。     

An Ambition‐Theoretic Approach to Legislative Organizational Choice

Understanding legislative organization requires that we understand internal institutional choice; we must be able to describe and predict variation in internal structures across legislatures rather than simply explain a given structure. Currently, models that would enable us to do so are largely unavailable. This article offers a more general model, based on a variant of ambition theory, with the explicit purpose of examining variation in internal organization rather than a particular structure. Theoretical results indicate that legislators' strategic preferences over structures will fall into distinct and opposed types. This finding implies that legislatures themselves should fall into the same types and that structures, rules, and norms should appear in organized, relatively coherent bundles linked to varying legislator types.     

War Stories and Occupying Soldiers: A Narrative Approach to Understanding Police Culture and Community Conflict

Narrative theory and methods are gradually finding a place in the study of crime and its control. However vibrant narrative criminology has been to this point, narrative scholars have somewhat ignored policing, both in terms of the language and grammar of individual officers and the cultural life of the institution itself. In this article, we elaborate the importance of storytelling in the (re)production of contemporary police culture and the broader police power. While storytelling as cultural production is, of course, not the sole purview of police, they are uniquely positioned to shape the broad social, cultural and political imaginaries of crime and the realities of crime control and community interactions. Therefore, in paying close attention to the narratives of police and the cultural work accomplished through storytelling, we gain insight into the production and maintenance of police authority and culture.     

立法技术探讨

立法技术是指立法的方法和技能 ,它包括法的内容的确定技术、表述技术和完善技术三个方面。立法技术不仅对立法 ,而且对国家法制乃至整个社会 ,都有非常重要的价值。     

多元翻译理论初探

本文在比较中西典型译论的基础上指出,翻译的本质是涉及诸多要素的交流活动,而这些译论仅侧重反映了其中的某些方面,因此,提倡通过“对话”,吸收其合理内核,使其共存,从而建立一种多元对话的翻译理论新体系非常必要。     

Dimensions of Legislative Conflict: Coalitions,Obstructionism, and Lawmaking in Multiparty Presidential Regimes

This article addresses central issues in multiparty presidential systems: the functioning of legislative coalitions and the dynamics of legislative conflict. Since electoral competition has elements of both positive‐sum (increase in common support) and zero‐sum (exact division of the support) qualities, lawmaking in coalitional systems presents unique challenges. Using legislative data from Brazil, we examine how coalition management and unity affect legislative delay and obstructionism. We find, among others, that: (1) coalition management is pivotal for both faster legislative approval and less obstructionism, but its effect depends on coalition size; and (2) cohesive opposition impedes the legislative process.