Claiming "Victim" to Harassment Law: Legal Consciousness of the Privileged

Sociologists of law have long been concerned with the effectiveness of rights; the emergence of diversity training in the 1990s spurred renewed attention to questions of how laws are enacted in daily life. Much scholarship has constructed the managerialization of civil rights law and popularization of diversity concepts as diluting efforts to redress structural discrimination. In studying diversity and antiharassment trainings in practice, I argue that these are sites where civil rights find expression of their obligations, and I find that much of the "dilution" of content stems from diversity trainers' efforts to negotiate with the resistance of trainees to their new obligations under civil rights law. The trainees evince a variable legal consciousness in relationship to this legality of rights-promotion, to which they are being exposed in these trainings; the findings suggest further research is needed into the legal consciousness of the privileged.     

Mobilizing the Law in China: "Informed Disenchantment" and the Development of Legal Consciousness

This article critically examines the development of legal consciousness among legal aid plaintiffs in Shanghai. It is based on 16 months of research at a large legal aid center and in‐depth interviews with 50 plaintiffs. Chinese legal aid plaintiffs come to the legal process with high expectations about the possibility of protecting their rights; however, they also have only a vague and imprecise knowledge of legal procedure and their actual codified rights. Through this process of legal mobilization, plaintiffs' legal consciousness changes in two separate dimensions: changes in one's feelings of efficacy and competency vis‐à‐vis the law, and changes in one's perception/evaluation of the legal system. Put another way, the first dimension is “How well can I work the law?” and the second is “How well does the law work?” In this study I observe positive changes in feelings of individual efficacy and competency that are combined with more negative evaluations/perceptions of the legal system in terms of its fairness and effectiveness. The positive feelings of efficacy and voice provided by the legal process encourage labor dispute plaintiffs in the post‐dispute period to plan new lawsuits and to help friends and relatives with their legal problems. Disenchantment with the promises of the legal system does not lead to despondency, but to more critical, informed action. This study provides new evidence on the nature of China's developing legal system with a focus on the social response to the state‐led “rule of law” project.     

“汉土疆界碑”铭文解读——以法律文化的视角

清雍正三年秋,在湘鄂西容美土司与长阳县交界地区,发生了大规模的汉土田地权属之争,当事各方通过会勘、协商,最终妥善解决了争议,并在争议地带建立起两座形制内容完全相同的"汉土疆界碑",创立了通过协商机制解决区域性民族纠纷的范例。汉土疆界碑铭文典型地反映了清初改土归流前夕,渝湘鄂黔毗邻多民族混居地区民族关系的急剧变化;记录了容美末代土司田?如在与命运抗争的同时,为保一方民众的安宁,坚持理性处理民族关系的策略,为世人认识少数民族土司提供了一个真实的影象。     

公民法律意识视角下的网络暴力

公民法律意识和责任意识是构建法治社会的心理基础,网络暴力和侵权的最深层次原因在于我国网民的法律意识和责任意识缺乏。要认清网络暴力的本质并有效预防和治理网络暴力问题,必须厘清网络暴力与公民法律意识的关系。公民现代法律意识和责任意识的培植是有效治理网络暴力的一个重要环节,主要表现在培养正当行使权利的意识、培养自觉守法意识以及培养公民责任感等方面。只有如此,才能从根本上净化网络环境,建设和谐的网络社会。     

方法、思路与问题——评《中西法律文化比较研究》(第三版)

以《中西法律文化比较研究》一书为例,探讨研究者如何从类型学的角度比较中西法律文化,指出其成功之处在于揭示了两种文化的类型特征,局限在于忽略了研究对象的复杂性,并为完善这些类型提供了思路;接着指出研究者在寻求中国传统法律文化与现代法制的联系时所怀有的是一种理解与沟通的心态,并对其观点和论据进行了分析与批判;最后清理了研究者运用中国古人的世界观会通中西法律文化的思路,从中探寻研究者从激进主义向文化守成主义转变的现象和原因。     

The Human Rights Act and Legal Culture: The Judiciary and the Legal Profession

The purpose of this article is to consider the effect the United Kingdom’s currently prevailing legal culture is likely to have on the realization of cultural change presaged by the Human Rights Act. The article is in five parts. The first two address the preliminary questions: what is meant by ‘legal culture’ for these purposes, and what type of ‘human rights culture’ does the Human Rights Act envisage? The answers define the scope of the remainder of the article’s inquiry into the ways in which the Act itself and the culture of the United Kingdom legal profession and judiciary are likely to interact. The third part of the article identifies some examples of the sorts of culturally specific aspects of current legal practice which are likely to operate as serious practical constraints on the emergence of a human rights culture worthy of the name, before the fourth part considers what sorts of cultural changes will be required of judges and lawyers for the presaged cultural transformation to come about. Finally, the article asks whether there is any reason to believe that courts and lawyers can find from within their present culture the resources to bring about the necessary shift.     

Accounting for the "Second Assault": Legal Organizations'Framing of Rape Victims

What organizational and community conditions influence legal officials to treat rape victims “unresponsively”? Our analysis is guided by Goffman's theory of organizational frameworks and frames of activity and March and Olsen's institutional theory of organizations. Using data from 130 m-organizations in Florida that process rape cases, we compare six types of organizations (including hospital emergency rooms and rape crisis centers) on eight criteria and review their frameworks and frames of activity relative to unresponsiveness. We use the issue of victim legitimacy to illustrate the utility of our model. Our results show that well-meaning staff in legal organizations are oriented to routinely treat victims unresponsively. Their organizations routinely orient them to be concerned with, for example, public approval, the avoidance of losing, and expediency more than with victims' needs. In our conclusion, we identify ways legal officials and rape crisis centers can promote responsive treatment of victims. We also call for research on legal organizations that are responsive to victims and for a nationwide discourse on the “politics of rape victims' needs” as a means of addressing the gender inequality issues that underlie rape crimes and laws and orient legal officials to treat victims unresponsively .     

寻找最初的独角兽——对廌的法文化考察

以独角兽廌的起源、沿革、作用、贡献以及社会历史背景为基本脉络,以与席相关的甲骨文为线索,对中国远古时代的法律文化作出全新的大写意式的诠释和描述.廌是东夷蚩尤部落的图腾,又称夷兽.东夷部落是文身、五兵、五刑(灋)、战鼓的创造者.廌成为战胜之神的象征.廌与礼、刑、律、法的产生有着密切关系.因此,廌的族谱就是一部中国远古法律文化史.     

Globalization and the Decline of Legal Consciousness: Torts, Ghosts, and Karma in Thailand

This study analyzes the transformation of legal consciousness associated with the process of globalization. It examines changing conceptions of injury and compensation in northern Thailand, where global economic and cultural flows have had a dramatic impact over the past twenty years. In their "injury narratives," ordinary Thai people describe the harm they have suffered, the causes they identify, the issues of responsibility with which they struggle, the obligations and remedy systems they consider relevant, and the role of law as they perceive it. These accounts, as well as litigation records from the Chiangmai Provincial Court, suggest that a transformation of Thai legal consciousness has indeed occurred, but not in the direction one might have expected. Rather than embracing liberal legalism or conceptualizing their grievances in terms of rights, injury victims in post-globalization Thailand are now less inclined to perceive their experiences in legal terms and more inclined to rely on a new form of religious discourse in which Buddhist precepts justify the injured person's decision to refrain from the pursuit of compensation. This article offers an explanation of why globalization appears to have pushed legal consciousness in the direction of religiosity rather than rights.     

New Perspectives from the Oldest Profession: Abuse and the Legal Consciousness of Sex Workers in China

Although prostitution is illegal, millions of women sell sex in China. In the process, they experience significant abuse and harm at the hands of clients, madams, pimps, the police, and health officials. This article examines the legal consciousness of Chinese sex workers through their interpretations of these abusive experiences. It reveals how they think and talk about them, and how their reactions sometimes translate into concrete actions. My evidence shows that sex workers name abuse as harmful, blame others for it, and occasionally make claims. They also have strong opinions about prostitution policies, and the relationship between these regulations and their experiences of abuse. These findings place scope conditions on previous theories of marginalized people and the law, which suggest that powerless individuals perceive a more peripheral role of the law in their lives. In addition, this evidence enriches our understanding of legal consciousness in China by showing how debates around the concept apply more broadly than previously recognized.     

“一带一路”建设中的法律问题及法治机制构建

运用法治方式和法治思维推进“一带一路”建设是实施“一带一路”战略的重要方法.当前“一带一路”建设中所面临的法律问题主要是法律冲突问题、区域经济合作问题、生态及环境保护问题、民间组织参与“一带一路”建设之法律地位问题以及国内相关立法之衔接与修改问题.为此,一方面,应通过制定相关行动计划、建立协商谈判和决策协调机制、确立共同行为规则等来解决“一带一路”建设中的宏观问题;另一方面,以解决相应微观问题为目的,从“一带一路”建设中的法律冲突协调机制、区域经济合作中的法治保障机制、生态及环境保护中的法治合作机制、民间组织参与“一带一路”建设法律地位之确立、推进国内相关立法的完善修改等方面予以法治化建构.     

论民族法律文化视角下“法律多元”的含义与现状

在民族法律文化及少数民族习惯法研究者的学术话语当中,“法律多元”是一个常用的词汇,它通常被用以描述各族习惯法与国家法多元并存的法律现实状况。值得注意的是,“法律多元”本身并不是一个具有统一和明确含义的概念,在当代中国国家法制统一的背景之下,对“法律多元”的使用尤需慎重。当借助“法律多元”的理论对多重法律体系的状况进行描述时,应当根据特定的语境和视角,对“多元”的含义加以必要的说明。立足于少数民族法律文化研究的视角,语境化地对我国“法律多元”的含义以及现实状况进行描述和分析时,亦应如此。     

Institutionalizing Legal Consciousness: Regulation and the Embedding of Market Participants in the Securities Industry in Ghana and Fiji

How do differences in the implementation of regulation impact market behavior? I propose a theoretical framework to understand this impact as part of the process of embedding market participants through the institutionalization of legal consciousness within a field of action. I use this framework to understand the impact of the difference in the implementation of securities regulation in Ghana and Fiji. In Fiji, where the regulatory agency is more present and process‐oriented, brokers operate with a greater orientation toward formal rules. In Ghana, where the regulatory agency is distant and auditing, brokers rely on explicit enforcement of floor‐based norms. Conceiving of legal consciousness as an emergent feature of a field of social action advances the understanding of how legality is institutionalized, since the emergent structure shapes the orientations, behavior, and relations of actors within the field.