The Normative Foundations of Defamatory Meaning

This paper assesses normative arguments regarding four views about defamatory meaning. The moralised view holds that a statement about a person is defamatory if and only if we ought to think less of that person if the statement is true. The nonmoralised view holds that a statement is defamatory if and only if people in fact think less of the subject on hearing the statement. A third - the dual view - can be split into two versions. The first version holds that a statement is defamatory if and only if it satisfies either the moralised or non-moralised views. The second version holds that statements satisfying either view can be defamatory, but they ought to be considered fundamentally different forms of personal defamation, with different remedies, defences and conditions of liability attached. Both the moralised and non-moralised views are rejected because they fail to acknowledge instrumental and intrinsic reputational value respectively. The first version of the dual view is rejected because it compromises the expressive value of defamation, implausibly suggests that truth should be a general defence and fails to recognise that different objections apply to the moralised and nonmoralised views. The upshot is that we ought to accept the second version of the dual view.     

编读往来——Editor Intercourse

Ben Cornett霍尼韦尔安防集团全球总裁 致中国安防行业的优秀媒体——《中国公共安全》衷心希望我们公司能与你们一起成长，同时希望我们能共同合作，让中国成为每个人都觉得安全的乐土。     

The Procedural Texts of the International Criminal Court

With the recent approval of the Regulations of the Registrythe procedural law applying before the International CriminalCourt has been written down in the books almost completely.The following overview of the pertinent documents is to facilitatea thorough study of this new international criminal procedure,the architecture of which is of unprecedented complexity.     

Conversational Implicatures and Legal Texts

Legal texts are often given interpretations that deviate from their literal meanings. While legal concerns often motivate these interpretations, others can be traced to linguistic phenomena. This paper argues that systematicities of language usage, captured by certain theories of conversational implicature, can sometimes explain why the meanings given to legal texts by judges differ from the literal meanings of the texts. Paul Grice's account of conversational implicature is controversial, and scholars have offered a variety of ways to conceptualize implicatures and Grice's maxims of conversation. Approaches that emphasize the systematic nature of implicatures can provide explanatory accounts of the gap between literal meaning and the meaning communicated in the text. For example, a theory of scalar implicature, a type of generalized conversational implicature, can account for the application of the interpretive principle known as ejusdem generis, which narrows the scope of “catch‐all” clauses located at the end of lists of items. Despite the availability of such theories, some scholars have argued that conversational implicatures are not applicable to legislation. The arguments, based primarily on the uniqueness of the legislative context and its noncooperative nature, though, do not establish the inapplicability of conversational implicatures to legislation.     

个人言语判别特征在短文本作者鉴别中的应用

目的以法律语言学为视角,通过测试语用、语篇语义以及语篇信息文本特征值对文本作者的判别能力,探究短文本作者鉴别或同一认定的方法。方法采用实验、语篇分析和统计的方法,对4位作者的28篇微博(每人7篇)共11种组合形式(二人组、三人组和四人组)逐一进行了文本特征值的测试和文本作者的判别分析。结果从语用、语篇语义学以及语篇信息领域抽取的5个特征值的不同组合对4名作者的所有11种判别组合都能进行显著区分,判别正确率达到85.7%~100%。结论基于4位作者微博文本的判别分类器已经建立并可以继续推演用于其他短文本作者的鉴别分析。     

世界贸易组织法律文本中的审查标准探析

在WTO法律文件中《反倾销协定》第17．6条和DSU第11条是关于审查标准的规定。在事实审查上两者之间没有“冲突”；而在法律审查方面，前者是后者的有益补充而非代替，共同构成了现行多边贸易体制的审查标准。DSU第3．2条的目的是维持WTO成员间的权利和义务的平衡，以保证多边贸易体制的稳定性和可预测性，并不构成审查标准的一部分。两个相关部长决定和声明只具有宣示性，并没有对WTO审查标准实践产生实质影响，也不构成审查标准的一部分。     

地方性法规文本质量研究——以重庆市160件法规文本评估为基础

2007年6-12月,重庆市社科规划项目《地方人大立法后评估制度研究》课题组从立法必要性、地方特色、法制统一、权力配置、技术规范五个方面,对重庆市当时有效的160件地方性法规文本进行量化评估,平均得分83.09,得90分以上的法规有9件,70分以下的4件,60分以下为零。五项质量要素中,地方特色所得比例最高,技术规范次之,立法必要性居第三,权力配置为第四,法制统一排在末位。在一定程度上说明,重庆市地方性法规文本所反映的地方特色比较鲜明,讲究立法技术,但在突出地方特色和注重地方立法创新中还须更加注意法制统一,科学地处理好权利与权力的关系,严格防止部门权力的立法扩张。     

The Syntactic Features of Islamic Legal Texts and Their Syntactic Implications for Translation

Certain religious texts are deemed part of legal texts that are characterised by high sensitivity and sacredness. Amongst such religious texts are Islamic legal texts that are replete with Islamic legal terms that designate particular legal concepts peculiar to Islamic legal system and legal culture. However, from the syntactic perspective, Islamic legal texts prove lengthy and condensed, with an extensive use of coordinated, subordinate and relative clauses, which separate the main verb from the subject, and which, of course, carry a heavy load of legal detail. The present paper seeks to examine the syntactic features of Islamic legal texts and the syntactic translation implications involved through studying three Islamic legal Arabic excerpts and their English translations. The paper argues that amongst the syntactic features of Islamic legal texts are nominalisation, participles, modals and complex structures. It also claims that the syntactic translation implications are indeed syntactic features of legal English, which are sentence combining versus sentence break, nominalisation, wh-deletion, passivisation, modals and multiple negations. Moreover, nominalisation, modality and complex structures are features of both Islamic legal texts and legal English, albeit with varying degrees.

     

政论语篇翻译中语域的正确转移

政论语篇属于超正式的文体,要求观点鲜明,表达准确、结构严谨。译者在用词组句上应避免主观上的选择,注重语域的正确转移。本文阐述了政论语篇超正式体的特点,将语域理论运用于政论语篇的汉译英中,强调语域理论对政论语篇翻译的制约作用和再现政论语篇超正式体的特点。     

从作者的真实到读者的真实——西方小说叙事技巧的嬗变

西方小说自产生之日起 ,就以真实为标尺实践着叙述方式和技巧的变化和演进。从“无所不知”到“有所不知”;从讲述完整的故事到堆砌零散的片断 ;从富有哲理的主观叙述到原初的客观描述 ,在显示小说叙事技巧发展的轨迹的同时 ,也展示了文学的真实观念的演变。这就是由主观的真实到客观的真实 ,由作者的真实到读者的真实。     

Scaling Policy Preferences from Coded Political Texts

Scholars estimating policy positions from political texts typically code words or sentences and then build left‐right policy scales based on the relative frequencies of text units coded into different categories. Here we reexamine such scales and propose a theoretically and linguistically superior alternative based on the logarithm of odds‐ratios. We contrast this scale with the current approach of the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP), showing that our proposed logit scale avoids widely acknowledged flaws in previous approaches. We validate the new scale using independent expert surveys. Using existing CMP data, we show how to estimate more distinct policy dimensions, for more years, than has been possible before, and make this dataset publicly available. Finally, we draw some conclusions about the future design of coding schemes for political texts.     

国际法律文本中违约损害赔偿制度及其借鉴

CISG、UPICC和PECL是国际贸易统一实体法的重要成果,对国际贸易产生了重大影响。在违约损害赔偿制度方面,三者作出详尽的规定,统一化程度较高,尽管在某种程度上还存在一些差异。我国《合同法》对违约损害赔偿制度作出了具体规定,这些规定在实务中发挥了重要作用,但是这些具体规定在某种程度上还存在缺陷,需要进一步完善。CISG、UPICC和PECL中有关违约损害赔偿制度的合理规定,对完善我国《合同法》中违约损害赔偿制度具有一定的借鉴意义。     

非法证据排除规则知识的文本比较分析

在当今的中国刑事司法学界,关于美国的非法证据排除规则的知识和经验有很多介绍与论述,呈现出多种知识文本形式.然而,通过对拿来主义的非法证据排除规则的知识文本与实践中的美国非法证据排除规则知识文本的对比分析,发现在构成要素与要素的结构关系上,关于该规则的美国知识文本与中国传播的知识文本表现出很大差异,这种状况有可能对理解美国非法证据排除规则与制度的知识以及进行运用产生不同的结论.由此认为:在进行非法证据规则研究与实践中,如果片面理解该规则的历史文本,可能会造成对中国与此规则相关的证据制度建设问题的遮蔽,不利于对该项规则的理解、研究、发展和实践.因此,研究和实践要避免对文本的片面理解与运用.     

Between Conciseness and Transparency: Presuppositions in Legislative Texts

Presupposition is the semantic-pragmatic phenomenon whereby a statement contains an implicit precondition that must be taken for granted (presupposed) for that statement to be felicitous. This article discusses the role of presupposition in legislative texts, using examples from Swiss constitutional and administrative law. It illustrates (a) how presuppositions are triggered in these texts and (b) what functions they come to serve, placing special emphasis on their constitutive power. It also demonstrates (c) how legislative drafters can distinguish between “good” presuppositions and “bad” presuppositions by weighing their main advantage, conciseness, against their main flaw, reduced transparency. The present study argues that, if employed carefully, presuppositions can be a useful stylistic means to keep legislative texts free from unnecessary clutter that merely elaborates on the obvious; however, it also suggests that, if applied wrongly, presuppositions can camouflage the duties and obligations placed on the subjects of a law and thus impede its accessibility and its efficient and effective implementation.