Accountability in the Regulatory State

Accountability has long been both a key theme and a key problem in constitutional scholarship. The centrality of the accountability debates in contemporary political and legal discourse is a product of the difficulty of balancing the autonomy given to those exercising public power with appropriate control. The traditional mechanisms of accountability to Parliament and to the courts are problematic because in a complex administrative state, characterized by widespread delegation of discretion to actors located far from the centre of government, the conception of centralized responsibility upon which traditional accountability mechanisms are based is often fictional. The problems of accountability have been made manifest by the transformations wrought on public administration by the new public management (NPM) revolution which have further fragmented the public sector. In this article it is argued that if public lawyers are to be reconciled to these changes then it will be through recognizing the potential for additional or extended mechanisms of accountability in supplementing or displacing traditional accountability functions. The article identifies and develops two such extended accountability models: interdependence and redundancy     

规制国家的法理学构建——评桑斯坦的《权利革命之后:重塑规制国》

桑斯坦的<权利革命之后>一书对现代规制国家进行了全方位的辩护,并从宪法建构的角度提出了规制之于普通法传统中的自治和福利原则在现代经济和社会生活中的优越之处.植根于美国宪政传统,桑斯坦建议从权力机构的设计和规制的实体目标这两个层面对规制国家进行宪政重构,他强调一套行之有效的知识在其间的重要性.不仅如此,鉴于美国独具一格的政治传统,他从司法适用的层面提出了一套解释原则,试图借助该解释原则,将规制国家的制度逻辑和基本理念贯穿到具体的司法适用过程,从而一方面保证规制国家的规制策略及其权力安排接续宪政民主的基本精神,另一方面保证通过司法适用,规制可以全方位地渗透整个美国的经济和社会生活中,从而实现原初宪法的初始意图.     

“对赌协议”的裁判路径及政策选择——基于PE/VC与公司对赌场景的分析

PE/VC与目标公司对赌的司法裁判要点从合同效力转入合同可履行性后,需要面对两个层次的追问:一是以什么样的实体标准来判断履行障碍,二是由谁来判断是否存在履行障碍。华工案和"九民纪要"仅处理了第一个层次的问题,且主要以资本维持原则作为实体判断标准。然而,我国现行公司法资本维持原则过于粗疏,且缺乏"大分配"概念和底线规制的思路,导致"对赌协议"下的回购只能通过减资的途径,徒增成本。域外以清偿能力标准替代资本维持原则,体现了另一种以债权人利益为导向限制公司资产单向流出至股东的规制思路,但其商业逻辑上的合理性却无法掩盖更大的操作成本。就第二层次的判断主体而言,以美国特拉华州为代表,法官的商业判断逐渐让位于公司董事会的商业判断,却进一步凸显了公司、不同类别股东、债权人之间利益冲突的复杂状态。立法层面的价值判断与政策选择将最终决定司法裁判的走向,未来我国公司法的修订需要回应商业实践的诉求,同时PE/VC投资者也需要直面投资失败的风险承担。     

跨国公司如何影响中国行政规制政策

跨国公司通过参加座谈会、听证会,直接接触行政官员,接触行政机关及其事业单位,通过对专家及传媒的利用,通过对公益事业的参与,来对政府规制体系施加影响。跨国公司日渐成为中国行政治理网络的一部分。应建构开放、反思、多元的政策形成程序,强化对规制政策的合法性、必要性和合理性论证,规范跨国公司和行政部门的联系。     

我国国有企业的政策定位与若干立法问题探析

对国有企业进行准确地政策定位是解决我国目前企业法律体系混乱 ,完善公司法规范以及制定《公共企业法》的基础。国有企业是一个经济概念 ,表现为多种企业法律形式。我国国有企业与西方国家国有企业相比有共性也有个性 ,将广泛存在于竞争与非竞争领域 ,并采取公共企业与一般商事企业等多种企业法律形式。因此 ,立法应区分国有企业的不同经营性质分类进行规范并纳入以企业组织形式为标准建立的企业法体系中 ;废除《全民所有制工业企业法》和《全民所有制工业企业转换经营机制条例》 ,对公共企业进行专门统一立法 ;对其他国有企业按一般商事企业同等规范 ;将《公司法》中“国有独资公司”的规定归入《公共企业法》的规范范围 ,廓清我国企业立法体系。     

美国管制革新的方法

美国<行政程序法>,总的来说是一件相当不错的法律,很好地经受住了时间的考验.当然,我们也承认它存在一些缺陷,并需要更新,但是反对商业团体和他们在国会中的支持者们所提出的这样巨大的、有时甚至是激进的改变.     

Constructing Compliance: Game Playing, Tax Law, and the Regulatory State

This article proposes a rethinking of approaches to compliance, extending perspectives that view regulation as an interactive or reflexive process mediated by sociolinguistic practices. These suggest that the meaning of rules is not fixed ex ante, but may emerge and change through such interactions, which therefore actually help to construct what it means to comply. The analysis supports proposals to base tax law on purposive general principles combined with detailed rules. However, it suggests that this should be the approach adopted for the tax code as a whole, instead of focusing mainly on the merits of a general anti-avoidance principle, as some of the recent debates have done. The article explores the question of interpretation of rules and the problem of avoidance and game playing. It reexamines the issue of the indeterminacy of rules and relocates it within the context of professional and regulatory practices, suggesting that it is these interactions that construct the meaning of rules and hence of compliance. The analysis is applied to income taxation, to sketch out how the international tax system has been constructed through the interaction of contending views of fairness in the allocation of tax jurisdiction, while in the process becoming refined into a formalist and technicist process of game playing. It argues that the central factor in this process has been the inherent contestability of the core concepts of international taxation, the rules on corporate residence and source of income. The article concludes by considering some of the current proposals for improving tax compliance, in particular by reducing complexity, improving clarity, and the use of broad principles.     

The State and Telecom Surveillance Policy: The Clipper Chip Initiative

United States law enforcement and national security agencies have claimed that the proliferation of strong private-sector encryption is eroding their ability to monitor the electronic communications of terrorists, drug traffickers and the like. In response, the "Clipper Chip" initiative was launched. The aim of the initiative was to guarantee law enforcement access to a set of so-called "spare keys" that could be used to unlock encrypted electronic messages. Efforts were also made to internationalize the Clipper Chip initiative. In the face of intense opposition, the initiative was shelved in 1999. This article delineates and explains the formation and eventual demise of the Clipper Chip initiative. Building on the work of other scholars, the authors utilize theories of state policy making to identify the key determinants that shaped the different moments of the Clipper Chip initiative.     

State Policy and National Representation: Marijuana Politics in American Federalism

Members of Congress represent geographically demarcated districts embedded in subnational policy environments. Drawing on policy feedback literature and literature on congressional representation, I argue that, because of this institutional configuration, subnational policy adoption can affect national representation. More specifically, policy reforms in the states they represent can increase pressures members face from organized groups and individuals in their constituencies to promote aligned federal policies. Empirically, I examine the effects of state marijuana legalization. The inferential design leverages differences across the states in statewide citizen initiative institutions, which provides exogenous variation in legalization. Instrumental variables analysis indicates legalization influenced pro-marijuana bill sponsorship and roll calls in the 116th Congress. The evidence points to growing influence of industry in legalizing states—including the ability to mobilize employees and customers—as the key mechanism, thus underscoring the importance of a political economy perspective for studying interdependencies in American federalism.