Preserving Curious Institutions

Reviewing the BBC 'Impartiality' review and the OFCOM report on the future of news the piece argues that impartiality remains a vital tool of maintaining standards of public service news, which in the end have to be objective. Sustaining journalism that reveals new knowledge is the problem and vital to the maintainance of democratic discussion.     

Cold War Insecurities and the Curious Case of John Strachey

When Socialist intellectual John Strachey was appointed as Secretary of State for War in 1950, his pre-war record as a Marxist writer with close connections to the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) became a matter of public debate. A bitter campaign was run against him in the Beaverbrook press, and some members of the US defense and nuclear establishment pressed for an embargo on sensitive information being passed to the UK War Office. American suspicion of the political reliability of the Labour government was heightened by the appointment, but this does not explain how and why some Americans were so hostile to Strachey. The FBI's dossier on his pre-war activities, circulated amongst his American critics, documented Strachey's supposed secret membership of the CPGB's Central Committee. MI5 and Special Branch files show that this supposition was based on faulty intelligence. The readiness of American anti-Soviet protagonists to lend credence to such suspicions contrasts with the relaxed view of Strachey's past that was taken in Whitehall. Both positions were characteristic of their time, and of this stage in the Anglo-American alliance. This paper explores the ways in which American insecurities and a British climate of tolerance towards fellow travellers shaped the way that episode played out.     

When is Growth Not Growth? The Curious Case of Mental Health Budgeting in New York

This article argues that the adverse impact of Medicaid on state budgets alleged in various public debates has been overstated, in some measure because of the inaccurate and misleading manner in which Medicaid expenditures are appropriated in state budgeting systems. Data on Medicaid and mental health spending in the state of New York is used for analysis. The first section provides a Medicaid spending and budgeting background. The second section discusses Medicaid and mental health in New York. The third section describes actual budgeted spending for mental health in New York, and the final section provides a discussion and concluding comments.     

自然法思想对民法和国际法的贡献

自然法理论与罗马法学相结合,使罗马法优越于同时代其他国家的法律;自然法观念促使人们发出对法典化的呼唤,著名的《法国民法典》和《德国民法典》得以诞生;自然法是国际法的基础或渊源。     

论行政法的本位

现代法治的精神是对人权的保障和促进,行政法作为实施宪法的技术法,是权利本位的法.行政的公共性或公益性要从服务于国民的人权保障中寻找其中心意义.权利以其正当性和道德价值为基础,决不受制于政治的交易或社会利益的权衡,当公共利益和公民权利发生冲突时,不能简单地以公共利益优先为原则,以社会功利牺牲个人的尊严.     

此经济法非彼经济法

我国高等院校经济类、管理类及其他非法学专业普遍开设经济法课程,该课程的内容包括法学专业的民法、商法、经济法(有些教材还包括社会法)的内容.法学专业经济法与非法学专业经济法并存的现象,给非法学专业的法学教育带来困惑和不利效果.追溯非法学经济法课程来源及成因,提出应尽快为其正名.建议近期将非法学专业开设的经济法更名为“民商经济法基础”,远期将大学一年级的法律内容结合起来,这样既有利于非法学专业法学教育系统化,又能解决非法学专业经济法名不副实的问题.     

选举法修改的重要意义

十一届全国人民代表大会第三次会议对选举法的修改是我国人民政治生活中的一件大事。这次选举法修改对社会主义民主政治建设、构建和谐社会和人权事业的发展都具有重要意义,同时为我国公民充分行使选举权和被选举权提供了更加切实的制度保障。     

论罪刑法定原则下的刑法司法解释

罪刑法定原则是现代法治社会普遍接受的基本原则。应该在正确理解罪刑法定的基本含义的基础上,厘清罪刑法 定原则与刑法司法解释的关系,把握罪刑法定原则对刑法司法解释的制约。     

私法在乡村治理法治化中的独特功能

针对如何构建乡村治理体系所涉法治,既有研究多围绕《中华人民共和国村民委员会组织法》等公法展开,故存在不足,亟待考察私法能否发挥某些独特功能。鉴于公法在培养村民的基本法治意识上存在一定的不足,同时,村民与私法的现实联系更为密切,尤其是考虑到私法严格奉行“私法自治”根本原则,由该原则所引申的“私法自治”“合法私利”以及“德法融合”等重要法治意识,不但有益于培养村民的基本法治意识,而且将极大促进在乡村治理进程中,对相通的、根本性的村民法治意识的良好培养。     

The National Minimum Drinking-Age Law

The National Minimum Drinking-Age Act of 1984 was hailed bysome observers as a welcome and appropriate exercise of federalpower. However, the act also constituted an invasion of states'rights. The act stipulates a minimum legal age of 21 for thepurchase or public possession of any alcoholic beverage, andincorporates sanctions against states whose laws are not incompliance. This article evaluates the constitutional basesfor federal intergovernmental regulation in a policy area dominatedby states since the repeal of prohibition in 1933 by the Twenty-FirstAmendment. It also considers the effectiveness of policies designedto prevent alcohol-related highway deaths, and the relativemerits of federal incentives or penalties to induce desiredbehavior by the states. The article concludes that the states,for which the Reagan administration's early theme of decentralizationwas so promising, may continue to find both their federal fundsand individual autonomy seriously compromised in the foreseeablefuture.     

公司累积投票制之法律经济学分析

2005年《公司法》第106条首次写入了累积投票的公司董事选举方式,虽仅是依照国际通行的做法将之规定为任意性规则,但仍然博得了不少学者专家以及中小股东的热情追捧。然而,仔细观察之,累积投票制这一表决权规则违背了公司股东平等的原则,有背弃"一股一票"原则之嫌。并且,从法律经济学的视角考察,累积投票制扭曲了股东剩余索取权和投票权重相匹配的原则,将引发不必要的代理成本。此外,该选举制下产生的董事将具有明显的异质性,可能会导致公司原本最有效率的机构(董事会)成为"异议堂",不利于股东整体福利的最大化。对于外部要约收购市场而言,由于累积投票制的引入,也会产生额外的不确定性和收购成本,从而弱化该市场的效率,导致资源的非优化配置。     

论我国执法制度的重理

执法制度的重理是我国改善执法状况、提高执法水平的需要，也是我国加入WT0后政府行为适应调整的需要。根据目前我国执法中存在的问题，我国执法制度的重理主要涉及执法形式重理、执法组织重理、国家公务员管理重理、执法方式重理、执法程序重理等。     

The Minos and the Socratic Examination of Law

The Minos is said to initiate the natural law tradition because it claims that an unjust law is not truly a law. But the dialogue also shows that reason cannot recognize that a given statute, as such, is a law. Along with this criticism of law, the Minos shows why the Socratic inquiry into law must consider whether divine law is based on a kind of knowledge through which law can be recognized as authoritative. Thanks to the Minos, we see that Plato's Laws begins by examining the kind of knowledge that underlies divine law and that throughout the dialogue the Athenian Stranger is testing whether human reason can know and establish divine law. In the end, the Minos and Laws establish a once influential but now neglected Socratic tradition of inquiry into law.     

书写条件变化对笔迹特征变化的影响

研究书写条件变化对笔迹特征变化的影响,对笔迹鉴定的实现具有重要指导意义.书写条件变化的种类分内部条件和外部条件.内部条件有生理条件和心理条件,外部条件分书写工具异常,书写姿势异常,书写承受异常和书写环境异常.这些因素对书写人的笔迹变化的影响有其自身的原因、特点和变化规律.