Israeli press and the war against terrorism: The construction of the ‘liquidation policy’

Since November 9, 2000, about a month after the break out of the Palestinian uprising, the Israeli government had launched a military strategy of assassinating Palestinian activists it deems to be security threats in the West Bank and Gaza. This study examines how the daily press covered this policy and how the assassinations were constructed in the news media. The analysis focuses on the handling of the killings carried out in November and December 2000, because of the importance of the initial frameworks of meaning and interpretation. It is shown that the reporting regarding the extreme measures taken by Israel, took place without any sense of criticism. The newspapers gave a wide coverage to the IDF version of the events, quoted largely senior security officers and adopted official definitions, including the assumption that IDF only kills people directly involved in terrorist attacks. IDF killings were depicted as a reaction to Palestinian terrorism, and presented in vague, distancing and laconic terms. Palestinian violence was identified, detailed and received prominence in many ways. It is argued that the structured relations between the press and its military sources granted a wide range of legitimacy to the assassinations and enabled the Israeli government to pursue its policy and even extend it. The fact that these assassinations brought an escalation in the conflict and contributed to the continuation of terrorist attacks was never an issue.     

What can be done against public corruption and fraud: Expert views on strategies to protect public integrity

A number of questions dominate the debate about public corruption and fraud. First of all, of course, there is the question of the content of these phenomena. What is corruption, what is fraud and how is it related to power abuse and public waste? Some scholars stress that these questions are unanswerable if ethnocentrism is to be avoided. Others are more positive about the possibility to grasp the central meaning of the concepts. A second type of questions has to do with understanding public corruption and fraud. To define a concept is something; to understand it is something different. Understanding means knowing the causes and consequences. To be able to understand it, corruption should be given a place in the framework of knowledge about public structure, culture and behavior. This is all but a simple endeavor because it will make a difference which theoretical and methodological framework is chosen as a starting point. This article seeks to avoid this obstacle by choosing an approach which could be categorized as pragmatic and eclectic, trying to discover whether there are causes which are seen as important by a variety of experts with different academical and occupational backgrounds: is there a common core present in different approaches? Third, there is the normative debate. What are the positive and negative consequences of corruption and fraud and how can cost and benefits be compared and judged? Nowadays, most scholars and practitioners in the field stress the negative consequences of public corruption and fraud. Such a critical attitude almost automatically leads to a fourth type of debate, about the question “what to do about it?”. Which methods and strategies are thinkable and what works? This subject is the central one in this article.     

Government protection against terrorism and crime

A game theoretic model is developed where a government protects against a terrorist seeking terrorism and criminal objectives. A terrorist can recruit a benefactor providing funds by remaining ideologically pure, or may resort to crime. The model accounts for the players’ resources, unit costs of effort, unit benefit and valuations and contest intensities for terrorist and crime objectives. We determine and quantify how these factors and the government impact a terrorist’s terrorism and crime efforts and relative ideological orientation on a continuum from being highly ideological to being highly criminal. We also consider how the terrorist group is impacted by support of benefactor(s), the central authority’s ability to impose greater sanctions for terrorist activities compared to criminal actions and the ideological orientation of the group’s leadership. We discuss insights from the model and consider a few historical perspectives.     

Legislators and interest groups: Some observations on the Israeli scene

Public administration in Britain is expected to operate according to the principles of good administration. However, in a climate of efficiency and value‐for‐money, agreement as to what these principles require can no longer be assumed. In particular, there may be differences between the principles supported by those engaged in the administrative process and the requirements that an increasingly interventionist judiciary see as appropriate. These differences would seem best resolved by a Code of Good Administration, the drawing up of which could be undertaken by the Select Committee on Public Administration and represent parliament's response to judicial/executive tension. Such a code would prevent the erosion of the principles of good administration, act as an authoritative document for the courts and provide select committees with a further mechanism by which to hold government to account.     

Applying game theory to the protection of public funds: Some introductory notes

Regulatory agencies responsible for preventing misuse of public funds do not all operate in the same fashion. Some carefully weigh the costs and benefits associated with various enforcement policies, but others do not. We use game theory to suggest that (1) regulatory agencies actually have a range of enforcement options at their disposal and (2) these enforcement options can have quite different cost-benefit ratios, depending on the resources of the enforcement agency, the nature of its connection to principals, and the strategies adopted by opportunistic actors. We conclude that enforcement organizations must be flexible in order to be effective.     

Copyright protection for AI-generated outputs: The experience from China

Artificial intelligence (AI) is involved more frequently in the creative process nowadays, which raises debates associated with copyright protection for its outputs across the globe, China included. On 25 April 2019, the Beijing Internet Court released the first decision in relation to the copyrightability of the output automatically generated by computer software in China. In this case, the Beijing Internet Court held that copyrightable works should be created by natural persons, and therefore denied copyright protection for the output intelligently generated by computer software although it possessed originality. In another case decided on 24 December 2019, the Nanshan District Court of Shenzhen approved that the output automatically generated by computer software was copyrightable, holding that the review generated by an intelligent writing software conformed to the formal requirements of written works and it could be granted copyright protection.This article analyses these two cases in detail and describes the experience of China in copyright protection for AI-generated outputs. As the first two cases about copyrightability of AI-generated outputs in China, the two cases play a significant role in future copyright protection of such outputs nationally and internationally. The two cases indicate that some of AI-generated outputs are eligible for copyright protection in China. Instead of challenging the existing doctrines of modern copyright regime, the two decisions provide a mechanism for copyright protection of AI-generated outputs within the current human-centered copyright law realm.     

以色列政坛的分化与组合

内塔尼亚胡的优势此次选举原定2013年10月举行,内塔尼亚胡之所以提前大选,他认为他们的第一个优势是过去几年内,以色列执政联盟在经济上保证了以色列在全球经济不景气的背景下仍保持强劲增长。2011年以色列经济增长达4.7%,是经合成员国(OECD)的两倍;2012年经济增幅下降,也仍达3.3%。而据以《哈雷兹报》1月18日所做的选前最后一次民调显示,47%的受访者认为社会和经济问题才是最紧迫的问题。这说明内     

Violence against women and political conflict: The Northern Ireland experience

This essay outlines the implications for abused women and children living in a society dominated by a high level of social disruption and examines the various responses to domestic violence when it occurs in the midst of political violence. Attention is focused on whether or not there are any special problems encountered in such a situation and whether these have particular implications for women elsewhere. Using Northern Ireland as one example, the essay explores the social conditions impacting at the familial, community, and state level and assesses the extent to which these provide a pervasive and interactive system for legitimizing domestic violence.     

Privacy,stigma and public protection: A socio-legal analysis of criminality information practices in the UK

Criminality information practices involve public authorities in the UK (and elsewhere) gathering, retaining and sharing information that connects with an identifiable individual; all with the ostensible aim of upholding and improving standards of public protection. This piece first charts the landscape of contemporary criminality information practices in the UK today. The article then examines recent legal emphases and policy directions for public protection networks. Consideration is then given in the piece to privacy rights and values and the difficulties in providing an exact typology and grounding for these. The piece then outlines a suggested framework for correct legal regulation, as well as a through commentary on the work done by Catherine Bellamy et al. to empirically determine the extent to which public protection information sharing can in fact occur in correct adherence to legal regulation. A socio-legal analysis is undertaken of the nature of public protection networks as variants on Goffman's performance teams within a dramaturgical routine that foregrounds stigmatisation of perceived ‘risky’ individuals as an aspect of that routine. This piece also explores the processes of institutional isomorphism as a reaction to shifting policy directions and legal doctrines, acting as a driving force towards a hierarchical performance of criminality information practices by public protection networks. Three conclusions are offered up for consideration: firstly, that the growing complexity of the law and regulation relating to criminality information practices might improve privacy values in the criminal justice system and help to add precision to necessary processes of stigmatisation in relation to the aim of public protection. Secondly, that these shifts in the law still need ongoing revisions, in order that a hierarchical approach to criminality information practices can be arrived at over time. Thirdly, that if the permanency of potential stigmatisation through the indefinite retention of criminality information cannot change, due to the competing pressure on the criminal justice system from public protection duties, then consultation with ‘risky’ individuals where practicable, before criminality information connected to them is shared across public protection networks becomes essential as a privacy-enhancing value and practice.     

论我国环境保护公众参与制度的完善

公众参与环境保护作为环境法的一项重要制度，对于维护公众自身生存环境，弥补国家在环境保护中的不足，实现可持续发展目标具有重要的意义。我国现行公众参与制度存在公众参与的范围较窄，公众参与的方式和内容在立法中原则而抽象，缺乏环境公共利益受损的救济方式，非政府组织（NGO）的力量比较薄弱等缺陷。而保障公民环境知情权．拓宽公众参与的途径与范围，建立环境公益诉讼制度，促进非政府组织的进一步发展是完善我国环境保护公众参与制度的重要途径。     

Crime victims and attitudes towards the police: the Israeli case

Crime victims are a critical component of the criminal justice system. Their evaluations of the police have been studied through victimization and public attitude surveys mainly in the US and the UK. This study, which utilizes data from a large scale community survey conducted in Israel in 2008, finds that victims’ attitudes towards the police are significantly more negative than those of non-victims regarding police treatment, performance, and trust in the police. This study is the first to compare the views of victims and non-victims in Israel, while focusing on a wider array of attitudes than previously examined.