Political corruption and the role of public prosecutors in Italy

This paper analyzes the problem of political corruption in Italy and the role public prosecutors have played in unraveling such a phenomenon. The factors that have contributed to fostering systemic corruption as well as those that have contributed to uncovering such a system are given careful consideration. The most relevant conclusion is that whereas endogenous forces in the judiciary (prosecutors and judges) — in particular, its low level of institutional autonomy — have prevented it from containing corruption, exogenous forces — which have broken the conditions that had favoured the stability of the so-called first Republic — have led prosecutors to engage in massive investigations.This article is a revised version of the paper prepared for delivery at the 1994 Workshop on Corruption and Politics held at the Instituto Internacional de Sociologia Juridica, Onati (Spain), July 13–14, 1994. I am appreciative to Prof. Giuseppe Di Federico (University of Bologna) for his deep insights of this complex matter and for his very useful comments.     

The rule of power in the language of law

Conclusion Thus power appears as both a topic within an already constituted realm of legal analysis, and as one of the motors that drives the constitution of this realm. This second foundational level is only available to reflexive thought that can place its analysis within the world of law it analyses so as to monitor its own possibility-conditions. Power therefore presents itself as shaping the very language employed to articulate it so that the analytic language of legal education can become a resource in its own right. In drawing upon this resource we have found that power and truth are mutually implicated. Contrary to the counter-reflexive and implicit view of legal culture, this means that knowledge of the power/truth relation is also an outcome of this relation. This suggests that power is a positive factor in the determination of any legal meaning and developments within legal disciplines. Through the disowning of legal culture's counter-reflexivity it is possible positively to characterise the character and operation of power across the constituted and constituing levels. At the constituted level it shapes discourse and speakers from the inside as well as externally. At the constituting level — which can no longer be treated separately — it individualises/collectivises those very subjects, their positions and world, and distributes a conceptual and linguistic framework for its self-comprehension.     

The emergence of the rule of law in Russia

This paper challenges an empirical claim about the commercial courts (arbitrazhnye sudy) made by Kathryn Hendley and her co-authors in their paper “Law, Relationships and Private Enforcement: Transactional Strategies of Russian Enterprise” in Vol. 52, No. 4, Europe-Asia Studies in 2000. Basing their case on a quantitative survey of Russian firms, they conclude that economic actors in the 1990s relied on ‘the law and legal institutions’ because the commercial courts were relatively effective. In order to test this claim about the link between individual behaviour and the judiciary, I ask: What type of belief about corruption was held by Russian economic actors who trusted the commercial courts for conflict resolution at the end of the 1990s? The data set is drawn from a survey of 227 Russian firms made in 1997. I use self-reported data on economic actors’ preference for using or not using the commercial court (in case of a hypothetical conflict about a considerable amount of money) as a proxy for trust. A binary logistic regression model shows that economic actors who accepted corruption as a fact of life at the time of market entry were three times more likely to trust the commercial courts for conflict resolution than economic actors who rejected corruption. This finding contradicts any reasonable definition of the rule of law and suggests that the neo-liberal reformers should have paid more attention to the content – rather than merely to the speed – of reform.     

社区法治在法治进程中的价值

社区法治既是国家法治建设全局中的重要领域,又是能够催生和促进法治的新生社会空间,社区产生发展的历史背景、社区自身的特点属性、以及社区法治化社会实践,都带有法治社会建设"试验田"、"示范区"和"战略区"的特征和功能。     

行政法治的经济分析

对行政权力进行制衡是法治建设的重要内容.本文采用成本收益分析法,运用制度经济学的思想,并结合公共选择理论以及博彝论.分析我国如何在法治进程中规制行政权力,平衡行政权与立法权、司法权之间的关系.通过重点研究在行政立法、执法、行政诉讼以及守法过程中,行政主体与相对人之闻、行政主体之间的博弈过程及其结果,表明我国的行政制度正在法治建设的轨道上不断发展和完善.     

投资环境的改善与法治建设

随着我国改革开放的不断深入,特别是加入WTO后,如何改善投资环境,增强外商投资者的信心,吸引外商来华投资已成为我国面临的一个突出问题。本文分析了法律在改善投资环境中的作用,并就涉外投资立法应当注意的问题提出建议。     

习近平法治思想中的法治学学理

习近平法治思想是马克思主义法治理论中国化的最新成果,是内涵丰富、论述深刻、逻辑严密、体系完备、博大精深的法治思想.习近平法治思想引领中国法学研究从法律主题向法治主题转换,蕴含着系统化的法治学理论,开辟了法治学学科新领域.新时代的法学研究应当以习近平法治思想中的法治学学理为依据,加快推进形成科学完备的法治学学科体系,实现...     

民众参与法治建设的途径

社会主义法治建设的过程是广大人民充分参与的过程。本文对我国民众参与人大、行政、司法等工作的意义和途径进行了探索。认为我国民众在参与法治建设过程中创造了许多丰富的经验,但仍然存在民众参与不足的问题,因而应当采取多种措施促进民众广泛和深入参与法治建设。     

公众参与与行政法治

The public participation and the system of the People’s Congress constitute a basic mode of China’s modern democracy. This article first analyzes the lessons from the development of public participatory democracy since the founding of People’s Republic of China, especially those related to the promotion of public participation and the establishment of rule of law in administration and constitutionalism, then, and study the strategic value and potential risks of public participation to the development of human society, the necessity and channels of law protection on public participation. At last, it discusses the trend of public participatory democracy in the environment of globalization and informationization, and its impact on the reconstruction in respect of administrative rule of law and constitutionalism.     

紧急状态与行政法治

Emergent administrative power is a necessary power for dealing with emergent situation. Although different emergent administrative powers under different constitutional systems are different in content, they share the same logic structure. The establishment and the execution of the emergent administrative power shall be subject to the regulation of law. The regulation of emergent administrative power requires for the adoption of various measures with attention to the balance of values. Translated from Faxue Yanjiu 法学研究 (Case Journal of Law), 2004, (2): 3–16.     

推进宪政建设实施依法治国——首都法学界学习宪法座谈会综述

为深入学习第十届全国人大二次会议通过的《中华人民共和国宪法修正案》,广泛深入地开展宪法学习宣传活动,日前,司法部、中国法学会联合举办了首都法学界学习宪法座谈会,邀请首都法学界部分专家学者畅谈学习宪法的体会。 中国社会科学院法学所研究员、中国法学会学术委员会主任、民经法学研究会会长王家福,中国政法大学教授、中国法学会婚姻法学研究会会长巫昌祯,中国政法大学校长、教授、中国法学会法理学研究会副会长徐显明,北京大学副校长、教授、中国法学会经济法学研究会会长吴志攀,中国社会科学院人权研究中心主任、中国法学会信息法学研究会会长刘海年,中国社会科学院法学所研究员、中国法     

法治文明的二元权力观解读

在对权力这一现象的研究中,不少人已开始注意到国家权力和社会权力的对立冲突对于法治建设的巨大影响,特别是近年来,社会权力的蓬勃发展更加强了人们对它进行深刻认识的要求。马克思主义的经典理论在讨论权力这一社会现象时,也肯定了权力最初起源于社会,只是当阶级分化、国家出现后,权力才集中于国家手中。因此,在建设法治文明的过程中,必须要以国家权力与社会权力和谐并存的二元权力范式来构建我们的制度。