试论WTO争端解决机构的法律解释权

根据WTO的规定,部长会议和总理事会拥有对WTO协定和多边贸易协议进行解释的专有权力;而专家组与上诉机构也可以在解决具体争端过程对WTO涵盖协议进行解释。作为争端解决报告的一部分,专家组与上诉机构的法律解释对争端当事方具有约束力。但由于WTO不存在严格的"遵循先例"原则,因此争端解决机构在特定案件中作出的法律解释在法律上也不具有先例效力;然而却具有事实上的先例效果。由于争端解决报告在事实上的先例效力,引发了关于争端解决机构"造法"的问题,有必要采取措施防止争端解决机构超越权限进行法律解释。     

论WTO争端解决活动中的法律解释

WTO争端解决中的法律解释对于WTO规则 (各涵盖协议 )的正确适用具有重要的意义。虽然争端解决中的法律解释并非一般意义上的有权解释 ,无“遵循先例”的效力 ,但对于以后的争端解决具有重要的参考意义。争端解决中的法律解释须符合国际公法解释的习惯规则 ,“解释之补充资料”作为解释规则对于WTO争端解决来说 ,其适用余地较小。在使用“适用当事国关系的任何有关国际法规则”这一与上下文一并考虑的因素将使WTO规则与其他国际法规则相协调。     

在国内法与WTO规则不一致情况下的法律适用

适用法律规范的基本原则WTO规则中协定和协议及具体条款的分类。保证WTO规则在我国准确、全面地实施，既是我国发展经济的客观需要，也是为了履行承诺、减少贸易争端、减少我国中央政府在DSB中成为被告甚至是败诉的可能性。而有效地减少这种可能性，就是尽可能使得国内法律规范与WTO规则不相冲突。对于人民法院的审判工作而言，就是尽可能在法律适用方面体现WTO规则的精神，防止因裁判而导致违背了WTO规则和入世承诺。因此我们研究的重点可以放在具体分析经常引发贸易争端的协定和条款上，从中找出解决这些经常引发争端的协定和条款…     

WTO规则的法解释学初探

WTO规则需要解释,WTO的部长级会议、总理事会以及争端解决机构中的专家组和上诉机构均是WTO规则的法定解释主体,享有法定解释权。根据WTO有关协定的规定和争端解决机构的具体实践,WTO规则的法律解释方法主要有文义解释、体系解释、目的解释和法意解释等四种。     

对WTO争端解决机制专家组程序的几点反思

引言 1995年乌拉圭回合谈判建立了WTO,接替了关贸总协定(以下简称GATT).与此同时,在继承GATT争端解决的规定和实践的基础上,WTO进行了大胆改革,最后形成了<关于解决争端的规则和程序的谅解协议>(以下简称<谅解>).专家组程序是WTO争端解决机制的核心.虽然自WTO争端解决机制建立以来,缔约方(contracting party)之间2/3以上的贸易争端在未达到专家组程序(panel procedures)之前就基本或完全得到了解决,虽然专家组报告70-80%都被上诉机构推翻,[1]但是专家组程序对WTO的法律解释、推理和应用,对国际法的发展以及后续争端解决产生了深远的影响.因此,它仍然受到了法律界和WTO缔约各方的广泛关注.     

论WTO“疑难案件”的裁判进路：法律原则

WTO争端越来越体现为一种“法律之争”。然而法律规则的默不作声、WTO规则体系的纷繁复杂和新技术的层出不穷，都给妥善解决WTO争端带来难题，并由此出现“疑难案件”。在法哲学领域，德沃金与哈特围绕“疑难案件”展开了一场著名的论战，德沃金强调法律原则的地位并提出“法律作为一种整体性的解释概念”的经典理论，这与目前WTO争端中强调的整体性解释方法不谋而合，无疑为WTO“疑难案件”的解决打开一扇窗。以“规则”为导向的WTO法律体系不仅包括外显的规则，而且包括内含的原则；在重大“疑难案件”中缺乏法律原则的铺垫和支撑，甚至将导致对法律规则的误读。而WTO中国涉诉案例中法律原则的适用也表明，裁判者对法律原则的适用态度逐渐积极。对于法律原则的研究有助于深入把握WTO法律体系，提高中国法律论证的水平。     

WTO争端胜诉方"申请授权报复"的程序问题研究——"世贸组织争端解决规则与程序的谅解"第21.5条和第22.6条之间的顺序问题

WTO争端解决机制(Dispute Settlement Mechanism)是乌拉圭回合谈判的一个重要成果,而WTO争端解决机制比起GATT时代的争端解决程序的优越性主要在于它对执行裁决的监督上。体现在"WTO争端解决程序与规则的谅解"(DSU)中,就在于第21条"履行措施的合法性审查"和第22条"申请授权报复"的规定。这两条规定在WTO司法实践中已经成为WTO法执行的砥柱规则,使多边贸易体系解决纠纷的法律体系功能更为强大。但是,WTO的立法和任何立法一样,在具有前瞻性、预测性的同时,不可避免地具有一些滞后性,甚至在立法的当时受各种利益因素的制约,在立法上留有一些空白。针对DSU第21条和第22条规定的内在冲突,从分析WTO以往发生的案例入手,综合WTO专家小组对此问题的解释,结合各国提出的建议,对此问题进行论述。     

WTO法律解释的申诉方利益取向

WTO争端解决机构的“法官”经常面临如何解释WTO规则的棘手难题.从表面上看,无论是WTO争端解决规则还是WTO争端解决机构作出的司法解释都强调应该秉持中立态度.但事实上,专家组或者上诉机构的“法官”在解释WTO法时并非完全中立,而是存在大量司法造法行为,在解释法律时常采用法律实用主义的方法,扩大WTO协定的涵盖范围,深化国际贸易自由,使诉讼结果有利于申诉方.一方面,有效解释原则为主、疑义从轻解释原则为辅的解释格局主导模糊性WTO规则的解释;另一方面,对被诉方据以辩解的国内法解释的效力进行严格限制.这些现象的发生可以用法律不完备理论、囚徒困境理论、国际贸易自行车理论和法官最高效用理论等进行解释.     

直接适用抑或非直接适用:WTO争端解决中的非WTO国际法规则

尽管WTO法没有明确规定专家组和上诉机构可适用法律的范围,但是在WTO争端解决中,直接适用非WTO国际法规则仍缺乏充分的法理依据。适用于WTO成员方之间经济关系的法律并不当然构成WTO争端解决中可适用法律的一部分。DSU的有关条款,比如第7条和第11条,也排除了直接适用其他国际法规则的可能性。DSU第7条限定专家组行使职权时必须适用WTO涵盖协定的有关规定,而DSU第11条仅提到客观评估"有关涵盖协定的适用性",从而排除了非WTO国际法规则的"适用性"。在WTO争端解决中,专家组和上诉机构未被授权直接适用非WTO国际法规则,但可以将其作为解释WTO涵盖协定的有用工具。     

反倾销中的归零问题探析

自WTO成立以来,针对反倾销调查中实施归零法的争端解决案件屡见不鲜。在2001年多哈回合反倾销规则改革谈判中,归零问题也是重要议题之一。由于《反倾销协定》未就归零问题做出明确规定,导致了成员对归零法本身的可诉性和合法性产生意见分歧,专家组和上诉机构也难以对此取得一致意见。运用法律解释的方法,结合WTO争端解决案例,分析了归零法的法律性质,得出归零法本身和适用均具有可诉性并且在反倾销各个阶段实施归零均属于违反WTO反倾销规则的结论。最后,结合反倾销规则谈判现状,指出仅凭WTO争端解决机构的裁判结果不能根本解决归零问题,终结归零法必须通过对现行WTO反倾销规则进行修改。     

Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana on Avidyā

The concept of avidyā is one of the central categories in the Advaita of Śaṇkara and Maṇḍana. Shifting the focus from māyā, interpreted either as illusion or as the divine power, this concept brings ignorance to the forefront in describing duality and bondage. Although all Advaitins accept avidyā as a category, its scope and nature is interpreted in multiple ways. Key elements in Maṇḍana’s philosophy include the plurality of avidyā, individual selves as its substrate and the Brahman as its field (viṣaya), and the distinction in avidyā between non-apprehension and misapprehension. A closer investigation shows that Maṇḍana is directly influenced by Bhartṛhari’s linguistic non-dualism in developing the concept of avidyā. This study also compares other key constituents such as vivartta and pariṇāma that are relevant to the analysis of avidyā. As the concept of counter-image (pratibimba) emerges as a distinct stream of Advaita subsequent to Maṇḍana, this study also compares the application of pratibimba in the writings of Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana.     

Unraveling the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kāvyaprakāśa</Emphasis>: Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa’s idiosyncratic sequence of topics in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candrāloka</Emphasis>

In his twelfth century alaṃkāraśāstra, the Candrāloka, Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa reverses the sequence of topics found in Mammaṭa’s Kāvyapr-akāśa, an earlier and immensely popular work. With such a structural revisionism, Jayadeva asserts the autonomy of his own work and puts forth an ambitious critique of earlier approaches to literary analysis. Jayadeva investigates the technical and aesthetic components of poetry in the first part of the Candrāloka, prior to his formal semantic investigations in the latter half of the text, thus suggesting that aesthetic evaluations of poetry beneficially inform scientific investigations of language. Jayadeva’s organization of his chapters on the semantic operations, moreover, intimates that the study of suggestive and metaphoric functions of language clarifies our understanding of denotation, which is conventionally understood to be the primary and direct path of verbal designation.     

Immigration,intermarriage and the changing face of Europe in the post war period

In this article we compare the propensity to intermarry of various migrant groups and their children who settled in Germany, France, England, Belgium and the Netherlands in the post-war period, using a wide range of available statistical data. We try to explain different intermarriage patterns within the framework of Alba and Nee's assimilation theory and pay special attention to the role of religion, colour and colonial background. We therefore compare colonial with non colonial migrants and within these categories between groups with ‘European’ (Christian) and non-European (Islam, Hinduism) religions. First of all, religion appears to be an important variable. Migrants whose faith has no tradition in Western Europe intermarry at a much lower rate than those whose religious backgrounds correspond with those that are common in the country of settlement. The rate of ethnic endogamous marriages in Western Europe are highest in Hindu and Muslim communities, often regardless if they came as guest workers or colonial migrants. Whereas differences in religion diminish the propensity to intermarry, colour or ‘racial’ differences on the other hand seem to be less important. This is largely explained by the pre-migration socialisation. Furthermore, the paper argues that the attention to institutions, as rightly advocated by Richard Alba and Victor Nee, needs a more refined and layered elaboration. Institutions, often as barriers to intermarriage, do not only emanate from the receiving society, but also—be it less formalized—within migrant communities. Especially religions and family systems, but also organized nationalist feelings, can have a profound influence on how migrants think about endogamy. Finally, strong pressures to assimilate, often through institutionalized forms of discrimination and stigmatization, not only produce isolation and frustrate assimilation (with resulting low intermarriage rates), but can also stimulate assimilation by 'passing' mechanisms. These factors, together with a more comparative perspective, are not completely ignored in the new assimilation theory, but—as this study of Western European intermarriage patterns stresses—deserve to be included more systematically in historical and social scientist analyses.     

The Supreme Array Scripture: A New Interpretation of the Title “Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra”

This article argues for a new interpretation of the Sanskrit compound gaṇḍa-vyūha as it is used in the common title of the Mahāyāna text the Gaṇḍavyūha-Sūtra.The author begins by providing a brief history of the sūtra’s appellations in Chinese and Tibetan sources. Next, the meanings of gaṇḍa (the problematic member of the compound) are explored. The author proposes that contemporary scholars have overlooked a meaning of gaṇḍa occurring in some compounds, wherein gaṇḍa can mean simply “great,” “big” or “massive.” This general sense is particularly common in the compound gaṇda-śaila (a “massive rock” or “boulder”) and is found in such texts as the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the Harivaṃśa and the Harṣacarita. Following the discussion of Gaṇḍa, the author examines the term vyūha (“array”) as it is used in the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra. The article concludes with the suggestion that a more appropriate translation of the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra would be “The Supreme array Scripture.”     

Evaluation of six presumptive tests for blood, their specificity, sensitivity, and effect on high molecular-weight DNA

Luminol, leuchomalachite green, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, Hemident, and Bluestar are all used as presumptive tests for blood. In this study, the tests were subjected to dilute blood (from 1:10,000 to 1:10,000,000), many common household substance, and chemicals. Samples were tested for DNA to determine whether the presumptive tests damaged or destroyed DNA. The DNA loci tested were D2S1338 and D19S433. Leuchomalachite green had a sensitivity of 1:10,000, while the remaining tests were able to detect blood to a dilution of 1:100,000. Substances tested include saliva, semen, potato, tomato, tomato sauce, tomato sauce with meat, red onion, red kidney bean, horseradish, 0.1 M ascorbic acid, 5% bleach, 10% cupric sulfate, 10% ferric sulfate, and 10% nickel chloride. Of all the substances tested, not one of the household items reacted with every test; however, the chemicals did. DNA was recovered and amplified from luminol, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, and Bluestar, but not from leuchomalachite green or Hemident.     

Illumination,Imagination, Creativity: Rājaśekhara,Kuntaka, and Jagannātha on <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pratibhā</Emphasis>

Sanskrit poeticians make the visionary faculty of pratibhā a necessary part of the professional poet’s make-up. The term has a pre-history in Bhartṛhari’s linguistic metaphysics, where it is used to explain the unitary perception of meaning. This essay examines the relation between pratibhā and possible theories of the imagination, with a focus on three unusual theoreticians—Rājaśekhara, Kuntaka, and Jagannātha Paṇḍita. Rājaśekhara offers an analysis of pratibhā that is heavily interactive, requiring the discerning presence of the bhāvaka listener or critic; he also positions pratibhā in relation to Bildung (vyutpatti) and practice. For Kuntaka, pratibhā, never an ex nihilo creation by a poet, serves as the basis for the peculiar forms of intensified insight and experience that constitute poetry; these may also involve the creative scrambling and re-articulation of the object in terms of its systemic composition. At times, Kuntaka’s pratibhā comes close to a strong notion of imaginative process. But the full-fledged thematization of the imagination, and of pratibhā as its support and mechanism, is best seen in the seventeenth-century debates preserved for us by Jagannātha. A link is suggested between the discourse of poetic imagination in Jagannātha and similar themes that turn up in Indo-Persian poets such as Bedil.     

Preventing Homelessness for System‐Involved Youth

Too many youth and young adults find themselves on the streets, couch‐surfing with friends, in emergency shelters or worse, after exiting the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. In some circumstances, youth have had court hearings until their exit from the legal system, but those hearings have not focused on long‐range plans of youth and emergencies youth may encounter. In other circumstances, there has been little or no planning prior to discharge, especially for young people who leave the juvenile justice system. Courts can and should prevent, alleviate or end youth homelessness for youth who appear before them through strategies that are enumerated in the recently‐passed NCJFCJ resolution. This article expounds on three of these strategies – coordinating transition and re‐entry plans, insisting on effective legal representation of youth, and utilizing sound judicial leadership. It also describes the concurrent efforts of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice and the American Bar Association's Homeless Youth Legal Network to remove legal barriers and improve outcomes for youth and young adults experiencing homelessness.     

Best practices for structuring a family court parenting plan evaluation under the 2022 AFCC Guidelines

Evaluation appointment orders provide enforceable scaffolding for conduct of family court parenting plan evaluations, and use of the evaluator's reports, feedback, file, and testimony. Unlike a contract, a stipulated or adjudicated appointment order is directly enforceable by the family court. It unambiguously positions the evaluator as the family court's appointee – answerable directly to the court and, in some jurisdictions, protected by quasi-judicial immunity from damages claims. A well-crafted appointment order governs the roles and expectations of the court, the evaluator, the parties, the lawyers, and the collateral witnesses. An appointment order mandates the legal duties, rights, powers, and responsibilities of the professionals, the parties, and the collateral witnesses. At minimum, an appointment order articulates the legal basis for the appointment, the purpose and scope of the evaluation, compensation of evaluator, and the duty of the parties to participate in the process. A written evaluation protocol or procedures statement discloses in advance the methods of investigation and assessment that the evaluator intends to use. Together, the appointment order and written protocol help the evaluator, lawyers, parents, and judge manage the complexity of the evaluation process.     

Monks Who Have Sex: Pārājika Penance in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms

In the study of Buddhism it is commonly accepted that a monk or nun who commits a pārājika offence is permanently and irrevocably expelled from the Buddhist monastic order. This view is based primarily on readings of the Pāli Vinaya. With the exception of the Pāli Vinaya, however, all other extant Buddhist monastic law codes (Dharmaguptaka, Mahāsāṅghika, Mahīśāsaka, Sarvāstivāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda) contain detailed provisions for monks and nuns who commit pārājikas but nevertheless wish to remain within the saṅgha. These monastics are not expelled. Rather, they are granted a special status known as the śikṣādattaka. In this paper I explore the rules. concerning pārājika penance and the śikṣādattaka with specific regard to monastic celibacy. Given that five out of six extant law codes recognise this remarkable accommodation to the rule of celibacy, I argue that we must look to Vinayas other than the Pāli Vinaya if we are to arrive at a nuanced and representative view of Indian Buddhist monasticism.

Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 C.E.)

     

What similes in Sāṃkhya do: a comparison of the similes in the Sāṃkhya texts in the Mahābhārata, the Sāṃkhyakārikā and the Sāṃkhyasūtra

In Sāṃkhya similes are an important means to communicate basic philosophical teachings. In the texts similes are frequently used, especially in the Sāṃkhya passages in the Mahābhārata, in the Sāṃkhyakārikā and in the Sāṃkhyasūtra. This paper compares the similes in these three texts and analyses changes in the philosophy as revealed in the similes. A comparison of the similes of Sāṃkhya texts produced over more than one thousand years reveals changes in the emphasis in this philosophical system. The purpose of the similes in the Sāṃkhya passages of the Mahābhārata is to produce an intuitive understanding of the separateness of puruṣa and prakṛti. The similes are designed to lead the listener to understand this basic dualism. In the Sāṃkhyakārikā the most difficult issues are the relationship between prakṛti and puruṣa and the idea of prakṛti working for the salvation of puruṣa. One whole chapter of the Sāṃkhyasūtra is devoted to similes.