胁迫相关问题探讨--兼评《合同法》之规定

胁迫作为有瑕疵的意思表示,在各国民法中都有明确的规定,其构成要件有五个方面:一是有胁迫行为;二是有胁迫的故意;三是胁迫须非法;四是被胁迫人因胁迫而产生恐惧心理;五是被胁迫人基于恐惧而为意思表示.我国民法规定胁迫的对象可以是公民及其亲友或法人,笔者认为,对亲友的范围应作扩大解释,同时,胁迫不仅仅限于表意人之相对人,也存在着第三人胁迫的问题.胁迫的效力,我国合同法规定了三种情况:受胁迫而损害国家利益时,合同无效;其他情况则可撤销;受胁迫人不行使撤销权的则合同有效.其中合同法规定的撤销权包括变更的情况是较为合理的.关于撤销权的行使,我国合同法的规定存在着明显的不足,即将除斥期间的起算规定为自合同成立之日开始.这样的话,受胁迫人因为受胁迫可能在该期间内不能行使权利.因此,规定为胁迫终止后开始计算较为合理.     

一个根本不存在的共犯种类--胁从犯--胁从犯的刑法依据和政策依据质疑

以刑法第28条作为胁从犯的存在依据,实属牵强附会,刑法第28条是关于主犯和从犯的补充规定;按作用分类法的理论,胁从犯是不存在的,刑法中只有主要作用和次要作用、辅助作用的规定,一些论者关于胁从犯的"较小作用"、"作用小于从犯"、"作用最小"的观点没有刑法依据.以毛泽东同志关于"首恶必办、胁从不问、立功受奖"的论述作为胁从犯的政策依据,也值得推敲,毛泽东选集中的"胁从"之说在当时主要是指听从"首恶"指挥跟从"首恶"国民党官兵,是今天刑法中"从犯"的立法依据,而不是胁从犯的政策渊源.     

Physically forced, alcohol-induced, and verbally coerced sexual victimization: Assessing risk factors among university women

Using survey responses from a sample of 185 college women enrolled at a large northwestern university, this study identified the various risk factors related to three different forms of verbally and physically coercive sexual victimization. Three logistic regression models were estimated and findings indicated that (1) more sexual partners and delays in responding to danger in sexual settings significantly increased the odds of experiencing unwanted sex as a result of verbal coercion, (2) an increased number of sex partners significantly increased the odds of experiencing alcohol-induced sexual assault, and (3) an increased number of sex partners and affiliation with the university Greek system significantly increased the odds of experiencing completed rape. Future research directions and policy implications are discussed.     

Patent procedure in England and Wales: the Streamlined Procedure meets resistance

The proposition by the English High Court in 2005 that the StreamlinedProcedure for dealing with patent actions should apply wheneverraised by a party to an action in the absence of convincingreasons to the contrary has been rejected by the Court of Appeal.     

More than meets the eye: the role of psychopathic traits in attention to distress

ABSTRACT

Although psychopathic traits have long been associated with predation and violence, it is unclear how individuals high in psychopathic traits choose victims. Victim selection and violence perpetration may be facilitated by attention to, or unawareness of, distressful facial expressions. Using a novel eye-tracking paradigm, the present study aimed to identify whether psychopathic traits are associated with unconscious attentional biases to expressions of distress. A sample of 138 undergraduates (23 males, 115 females, M_age?=?20.4) viewed 80 paired images portraying a neutral, and authentic expression of either fear, pain, embarrassment, startle, or sadness. Psychopathic traits did not predict initial orientation to distressing over neutral expressions. However, callous-affective traits negatively predicted attentional maintenance to expressions of embarrassment and pain, whereas criminal tendencies and erratic lifestyle positively predicted attentional maintenance to embarrassment and pain, respectively. Findings offer insight into perceptual processing of others’ distress, with implications for violence and victim selection.     

Just the Fax: Federal Express meets the information age-Lessons learned in technology transfer

On July 2, 1984, the first ZapMail message was sent from Federal Express chairman Frederick W. Smith to six members of FedEx's corporate board of directors in separate cities across the country (Zemke 1986). It worked. However, by late September 1986, after suffering over $300 million in operating losses, Federal Express decided it didn't (Keller and Wilson 1986). Why? This postmortem of ZapMail draws on management and innovation theory and research, as well as historical accounts of communication technology development and market conditions from 1984 through 1986, to analyze the failure of FedEx's once-promising electronic delivery service. An analysis of the fax market in 1995 and FedEx's subsequent successful adoption of information technologies conclude this paper.