Settling for Less? Organizational Determinants of Discrimination‐Charge Outcomes

Although more than 60,000 workers formally charge their employers with unlawful sex or race employment discrimination annually, fewer than one in five charges results in outcomes favorable to the complainant. Building on sociolegal and organizational theory, this study examines how employing organizations avoid unfavorable discrimination-charge outcomes. Using EEO-1 establishment reports matched to discrimination charge data provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, I assess the effect of employers' legal experience, resources, and indicators of legal compliance on the likelihood that complainants receive favorable charge outcomes, benefits, monetary settlements, and policy change mandates. In general, I find that legal experience, establishment size, and indicators of legal compliance insulate employers from unfavorable charge outcomes. However, in situations where employers are willing to settle claims, legally experienced establishments are more likely to pay monetary damages and receive mandates to change their workplace policies.     

Developing and auditing a merit pay system

Employers who use subjective appraisal ratings can be charged with unlawful discrimination. The best defense, say the authors, is designing and using an equitable performance appraisal system.     

论不法原因给付的返还规则——以92个案例的实证研究为切入点

我国司法实践中不法原因给付的返还问题存在较大分歧。综合分析2013年至2021年期间92个相关案例的裁判立场可以发现,对此问题存在判决驳回诉讼请求、裁定驳回起诉、支持返还请求以及收缴共四类处理方式,且禁止返还的立场占多数。我国立法并未规定不法原因给付,法院多依据“不法原因给付不得请求返还”之法理进行裁判,从而构成法律漏洞。通过比较法的方法进行填补,是现阶段我国处理不法原因给付案件的合理路径。域外法对传统禁止返还规则进行适用上的限制,同时,将诸因素纳入衡量的动态评价体系,此方案逐渐得到认可,亦可为我国相关问题之解决提供借鉴。     

论禁止歧视

歧视是指被法律禁止的、针对特定群体或个人实施的、其效果或目的在于对承认、享有和行使基本权利进行区别、排斥、限制或优待的任何不合理的措施,即歧视的表现形式是在相同的情况下无合理理由而恣意取消或损害特定群体或个人平等享有权利的任何区分、排除或选择的措施。法律禁止歧视的目的是对少数群体或具备该群体特征的个人基本权利的保护以实现法律的公正。禁止歧视与平等在本质上是一致的,因为平等并不反对任何差别,但却反对没有合理依据的区别对待。如果差别有正当的理由并且是为了实现合法目的,则不构成歧视而是法律许可的合理差别。     

试论行政程序中的非法证据排除规则

基于行政合法性原则、证据合法性要求和人权保障、程序正义要求 ,行政程序中应当确立非法证据排除规则。但我国现实情况决定了行政程序采纳这一规则不能过于严酷。我国相关司法解释和行政规章所确立的非法证据排除规则的内容实有检讨、重构的必要     

美国性骚扰法律制度及其借鉴意义

性骚扰是不受欢迎的带有性色彩的言行,是一种非法的性歧视。依美国判例,性骚扰不必源于性的目的,其内容不必是直接的表示;同时,性骚扰行为者在主观上应当是有过错的,受害者在主观上须为不欢迎骚扰行为。构成可诉的性骚扰行为其损害后果须达到严重的程度。依美国最新判例,同性之间也可以构成性骚扰;雇主对员工中的上级职员的性骚扰行为承担民事责任。美国的性骚扰法律制度对我国的立法具有一定的借鉴意义,如公法上的规定并不排除私法的适用,性骚扰的含义应当包含性别歧视,雇主责任应当在立法上得以确立,立法者应当在道德规范和法律规范中寻找平衡点。     

非法拘禁罪行为构造研析

旨在剖析非法拘禁罪的行为构造。首先就非法拘禁罪之客观行为进行了本体研析,界定了"拘禁"与"其他方法"之内涵。随后,从基本构成时间和从重或加重构成时间两个层次,探究了非法拘禁罪客观行为的时间限定问题。在此基础上,述及非法拘禁罪客观行为之前提条件,并认为非法限制他人人身自由的行为,在必要时也可以非法拘禁罪论处。     

‘All About That Bass’? Is non‐ideal‐weight discrimination unlawful in the UK?

People of non‐ideal‐weight (overweight or severely underweight) are subjected to discrimination, in the workplace and elsewhere, based on attitudinal assumptions and negative inferences from their membership of a group, such as that they are insufficiently self‐motivated to make good employees. But is that discrimination unlawful in the UK? The Equality Act 2010 offers only a very tenuous route for protection, because the Act is based largely on a ‘medical model’ of disability. EU law, which embraces a ‘social model’ of disability, drawing from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, offers more, at least in theory. But the mechanisms for enforcing individual EU law rights mean that entitlements in EU law are likely to be enforceable in practice only against state employers. This situation leaves a gap in the law which is remediable only by legislative reform.     

The Cotonou Trade Régime and WTO Law

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to see how the trade régime created by the new Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA) signed in 2000 tried to deal with the problem of the incompatibility between Lomé Convention trade preferences and the WTO Law. The first part tries to highlight the incompatibility between the trade preferences and the WTO Law before showing that the CPA has maintained the trade preferences, although on a temporary basis. This has been made possible in part thanks to a waiver exceptionally given by the WTO competent organs, which allows otherwise unlawful preferences for the time being. The second part argues that despite the maintenance of the preferences to a certain extent, the CPA in fact introduces a new era in the EC‐ACP Trade relations characterised by a clear will of harmonising their own legal instruments with the WTO legal régime. This desire to standardise is illustrated by: the integration of WTO principles governing South‐North relations like the Special and Differentiated Treatment principle (SDT), adopting this Organisation's trade concepts, but also by the establishment of a concrete negotiation timetable, in theory to allow the achievement of a full harmonisation by 2020. Thus it has been argued that the Lomé era is being followed by a transition period that should lead to a completely new trade régime, or to many partial régimes, which could render the existence of the ACP countries as a single group less relevant than in previous times.     

新时期农村道路交通管理制度构建

当前农村交通秩序混乱、恶性事故频发,其根源在于农村交通参与人普遍存在着交通法律和安全意识缺失,车况差且无牌无证普遍,农村道路通行条件差存在安全隐患,农村非法营运、非法载客等现象泛滥,在人力物力的投入上严重不足,警务管理覆盖范围有限,制度建设缺位。解决的措施是加强农村公共客运交通体系建设;完善农村道路维护的责任主体,解决维护经费来源;以村组织为依托,实现村级组织交通的自我管理;实行交通管理警区制,构造全面控制网络和服务平台;实行农村机动车税费优惠制度。     

Disproportionate and Discriminatory: Reviewing the Evidence on Police Stop and Search

Eight years after the Lawrence Inquiry, the question of police powers to stop and search people in public places remains at the forefront of debate about police community relations. Police are empowered to stop and search citizens under a wide range of legislative acts and the power is employed daily across Britain. Far from laying the debate to rest, the Lawrence Inquiry prompted new research studies and fresh theories to explain the official statistics. We argue that the statistics show that the use of the powers against black people is disproportionate and that this is an indication of unlawful racial discrimination. If stop and search powers cannot be effectively regulated – and it seems that they cannot – then their continued use is unjustified and should be curtailed.     

非法经营罪调控范围的再思考——以《行政许可法》若干条款为基准

《行政许可法》的出台,为重新思考非法经营罪的调控范围提供了契机,具体可从行政许可法涉及的许可种类、确立的有限政府理念以及设定的许可依据等方面反思非法经营罪特别是兜底项“其他严重扰乱市场秩序的非法经营行为”的内涵与外延。只有那些违反国家规定中的特定主管机关行政许可、并由承担填补空白构成要件的规范性文件限定有刑罚后果的严重扰乱市场秩序的经营行为,方能以非法经营罪论处。     

中国刑法语境中的“共谋罪”考辨

共谋罪是英美刑法特有的概念。共谋罪的本质是二人以上就犯罪、不法行为或其他行为的实施达成协议。惩罚共谋罪本质是惩罚不法协议。围绕“共谋罪独立于目标犯罪而具有可罚性”的基础性观念,英美刑法创设了相应的实体法和程序法规则。我国刑法中的阴谋犯、预备犯等与英美刑法共谋罪从根本上说是不同的范畴。我国刑法并不惩罚共谋罪。     

遏制航空运输非法干扰的法律对策

本文针对国际国内民航目前反非法干扰的严峻局势,初步提出了我国反非法干扰的法律体系构想。作者认 为,为有效遏制非法干扰行为,必须确定航空器登记国的优先管辖权,强化行政法律制裁机制,协调民事责任、行政 责任和刑事责任的统一。     

Staff physicians, interns and residents, and hospital volunteers: are they protected from employment discrimination?

Traditional notions of the employment relationship between a hospital and its volunteers, residents, interns, and physicians having staff privileges are not decisive in determining whether the worker is protected from unlawful employment discrimination. Instead, hospital executives and attorneys must look to the totality of the circumstances of the work relationship in order to make this determination. Hospital volunteers are usually not protected by Title VII, but under some circumstances they may be; residents and interns are probably always protected; and physicians seeking staff privileges probably are protected, if the denial of staff privileges interferes with the physician's employment relationship with his or her direct employer, or if the granting of staff privileges to those who served in the hospital's residency program is a well-established routine practice, regularly followed by the hospital.     

The human genome: lessons for life, love and the law

In 2003, the Australian Law Reform Commission and the Australian Health Ethics Committee (of the National Health and Medical Research Council) completed a major inquiry into the Protection of Human Genetic Information, focusing on privacy protection; protection against unlawful discrimination based on genetic status; and the establishment and maintenance of high ethical standards. The joint inquiry considered these matters across a wide range of contexts, with the final report, Essentially Yours, making 144 recommendations in such diverse areas as medical research; clinical genetic services; genetic research databases; employment; insurance; immigration; sport; parentage testing; and law enforcement. This article discusses some of the major themes that emerged in the course of the inquiry and underpinned the broad-based strategy adopted to prepare Australia for the challenges of the "New Genetics".     

应对竞争的抗辩:美国和欧共体反价格歧视法的比较与借鉴

价格歧视属于企业价格决策的一种,而价格决策很大程度上受制于企业所处的竞争地位和竞争环境.而价格歧视又是竞争法规范的对象.为了将与竞争法目标相容的和不相容的价格歧视区别出来,除了其他规则之外,美国和欧共体的竞争法还确立了应对竞争的抗辩,被控方可据此推翻指控.比较美国和欧共体竞争法中的有关规则,分析两者在这一问题上的相同点和不同之处,针对我国未来反垄断立法中的禁止价格歧视条款,提出具体的建议.     

我国证据能力制度的反思与完善

证据能力是证据制度要解决的核心问题之一,其主要关注的是证据在刑事诉讼过程中的准入问题。大陆法系和英美法系国家在证据资格问题上都注重防止不符合法定条件的证据材料进入到诉讼过程中,以避免法官因此形成不恰当的心证。不同的是,大陆法系国家要求法官在严格证明程序的规制下行使自由裁量权,立法上对证据能力问题较少具有普适性的规定;而英美法系国家则设立专门的程序来解决证据的可采性.并根据大量的证据规则来约束法官的自由裁量权。我国现行的证据能力制度存在诸多缺陷。在构建我国能力制度的时候.可以吸取国外的先进经验,一方面建立相应的证据能力规则,另一方面完善相关的程序,使证据能力制度真正发挥其制度功能,保障法官在审判过程免受不当因素的影响。     

Are Older Workers Past Their Sell‐by‐Date? A View from UK Age Discrimination Law

This article assesses the effectiveness of United Kingdom age discrimination law in protecting older workers from claims that they are less productive and perform more poorly than younger workers. The article assesses employer perceptions and the incompatibility of such perceptions with existing research and the current interpretation of age discrimination law by the CJEU and the Supreme Court which accords with such research. The effectiveness of age discrimination law in practice is assessed through an analysis of existing compensation reduction rules. The article concludes that the existing rules which allow for a reduction in compensation payable where there is a chance that the same outcome would have been reached in the absence of discrimination (the ‘chance model’) reduces the effectiveness of the existing protections. A move to a ‘certainty model’ would be less speculative, would serve the objectives of anti‐discrimination law and would reduce concerns about compatibility with EU law.     

Gourmet Can Have His Keck and Eat It!

Abstract: The touchstone of the judgment of the Court of Justice in Keck has been the question of how to apply the criteria allowing the exclusion of selling arrangements from the scope of Article 28 EC, in particular in respect of national regulatory rules relating to advertisement. This article examines the evolution of the Court's approach to selling arrangements in the light of the requirements set out in Keck. The judgment in Gourmet has added to the debates as it highlights the issue of the ‘market access’ test as a reference for the assessment of factual discrimination in respect of selling arrangements covered by the Keck exception. The article focuses on the impact of Gourmet on the determination of the outer limits of the scope of application of Article 28 EC, and thus attempts to find a place for Gourmet within the spectrum between the rejection of the judgment in Keck at one end, and the refinement of the requirement relating to ensuring that there is no factual discrimination between imported and domestic products in the application of national rules covered by the Keck exception, at the other.