A secret paradox of the common law

This essay recounts a fascinating if complicated piece of Anglo-American debate. My aim is to reach a conclusion about the importance of the notion of changing one's normative position as part of the act of “giving sufficient consideration” for a legal contract. In several journals and textbooks between 1894 and 1918 the major contract scholars of the time, e.g., Langdell, Anson, Pollock, Williston, Ames, and Corbin, discussed a special example which was thought to reveal a paradox in the common law of consideration. The problem had shown itself in the textbooks of Pollock in England and Langdell in the United States. The example is of two contracts made by three persons in which one contract with the third party repeats the content of an existing contract with the second party. It would appear that the party at the pivot experiences no new detriment in merely performing, or promising to perform, his pre-existing duty. If so, such oblique contracts with third parties must fail for want of consideration extended from the first party. About this difficulty the experts were anything but agreed. The cases were not consistent. At the root of this uncertainty is an ambivalence about the concept of consideration itself. Should it be conceived in terms of normative relations and changes of moral position or should it be conceived in valuative terms, as harms and benefits? The differences of opinion about the legal validity of oblique contracts is explained by this ambiguity, one which the common lawyer has not yet resolved.     

Justice and power in civil law negotiations

The relationship between power and justice in civil law negotiations is discussed. It is argued that the concept of power is essential to understand justice behavior in civil law negotiations. Distributive justice appears to be hardly relevant in civil law disputes and should be replaced by retributive justice to understand the behavior of the parties. The analysis leads to the observation that justice is more likely to be relevant for the powerless party in civil law disputes than for the power-holder. I conclude that both the relative power and justice behavior cannot be studied without taking into account the perception by individuals of both the relevant norms and the salient characteristics of the interaction.     

Justice and equality in mental health law: the European experience

This is the text of a lecture delivered at the World Conference of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health in Sydney in September 2003 on the occasion of the award to the author of the Prix Philippe Pinel. Its theme is the potential of the European Convention on Human Rights to secure the human rights of people with mental disorders and disabilities, viewed in the context of the legislation on mental health and mental incapacity in England and Wales. Its conclusion is that the Convention is better at protecting them from unwanted or unnecessary treatment and care than it is at securing for them equal access to the treatment and care they want or need. The lecture has been updated to reflect developments in the United Kingdom since 2003.     

Justice at the confluence of law and economics

Law has long been combined with economic thought, but only recently has law been combined with economic theory. This article explores the implications of this development for theories of justice and interdisciplinary research. Value in economics is usually measured by price (the market tradition) or by satisfaction (the utilitarian tradition). The relationship of these concepts to equity in law is explored. Also explored is the relationship between bargaining theory and contractarian theories of justice. The article examines the possibility that methods and concepts developed in the economic analysis of law will prove useful to sociologists and social psychologists by contrasting the study of rational choice and the study of attitudes.     

“人肉搜索案”的社会诱因和法律困境

随着社会的进步和科技的发展,社会形态也必然发生变化,整个中国社会进入了以网络运用为代表的信息时代,这也导致了网络搜索成为一个需要面对的问题.其中,人肉搜索就是一个不可回避的社会问题.由于社会变迁,共同体规则衍变,旧有规则不能完全调适新问题,一系列现实问题不仅给法律带来了困境,也引发了人们对法律制度的思考.     

The bioethics and law paradox: an argument to maintain separateness with a hint of togetherness

This article analyses how bioethics and law interact and work together. The first half of the article provides definitions of both ethics and bioethics. The article then considers a number of different bioethical standpoints to demonstrate the variance of views in relation to bioethics. In addition, the first half of the article focuses on the different regulatory possibilities in regard to bioethical contexts. This demonstrates that law is of central importance to bioethics. This part also shows that even though law and ethics are often used simultaneously to achieve bioethical goals, law and ethics cannot be used interchangeably. Thus, even though it is somewhat inevitable that law will be used in the pursuit of the goals of bioethics, bioethics and bioethical principle should not be merely a vehicle for law-makers to utilise. The second half of the article focuses on the issues of autonomy and consent to demonstrate how law and ethics have developed in one of the foundation areas of bioethics.     

无诉讼即无法治--论宪法诉讼乃法治之精义

从宪政的意义上而言 ,法治的本质是宪治 ,即宪法之治 ,而宪治的核心则在于宪法诉讼 ;因为宪法诉讼制度是宪法自身的“免疫”系统 ,没有明确的宪法诉讼机制 ,宪法就无以抵御各种外来侵袭 ,违宪之法律和行为就得不到及时的纠正和制裁 ,违宪责任就无从追究 ;这样 ,宪法对于政府及其权力运作的规约能力势必阙如 ,而一部对政府没有现实规约能力的“宪法”是无论如何也不可能带来真正意义上的法治。因此说 ,法治的精义在于宪法诉讼 ,没有宪法诉讼 ,就没有法治。     

Socially Appraising Justice: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

The impact and effectiveness of organizational justice efforts vary across cultures. Previous justice research has focused on such themes as outcome allocation, process criteria, allocation control, and decision justification largely from a Western point of view. This paper analyzes organizational justice perceptions from a cross-cultural perspective. More specifically, using the Hofstede cultural dimensions (individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, and power distance), key justice areas are examined. Further, predictions as to the general salience of key justice areas are offered relative to a national culture's overall organizational justice preferences and tendencies.     

Book Review: Considering Social Justice: A Review of David Miller's Principles of Social Justice

Miller's volume is a useful, thorough, and innovating overview of the subject of social justice. It inspires three lines of critical response. The first involves the symbiotic role of philosophy and empirical inquiry in the analysis of justice. The second involves the qualities of opportunity that ought to underlie justice. Finally, there are a few lessons regarding the status of justice in the overall evaluation of society that can be learned from the case of the United States, which has an anomalously bad record with respect to distributive justice. The centrality of politics is one of the implications of the analysis.     

金融公正理念的法学阐释

资本扩张所导致的金融危机与两极分化,将弘扬自由与平等为主旨的金融法拖入了目标和现实相背离的现代性悖论之中。从公正理念的维度,重新审视现代金融法的价值取向与功能定位,对于缓解法的服从性与正当性之间的紧张关系,以及维护法的权威性具有重要意义。推进中国金融法制的现代化进程,须对西方的现代性范式扬善抑恶,以求实现金融自由与社会秩序的良性互动。     

Risk Assessment for Juvenile Justice: A Meta-Analysis

Risk assessment instruments are increasingly employed by juvenile justice settings to estimate the likelihood of recidivism among delinquent juveniles. In concert with their increased use, validation studies documenting their predictive validity have increased in number. The purpose of this study was to assess the average predictive validity of juvenile justice risk assessment instruments and to identify risk assessment characteristics that are associated with higher predictive validity. A search of the published and grey literature yielded 28 studies that estimated the predictive validity of 28 risk assessment instruments. Findings of the meta-analysis were consistent with effect sizes obtained in larger meta-analyses of criminal justice risk assessment instruments and showed that brief risk assessment instruments had smaller effect sizes than other types of instruments. However, this finding is tentative owing to limitations of the literature.