Strasbourg,the House of Lords or Elected Politicians: Who decides about rights after Re P?

In Re P , the House of Lords decided that art 14 of the Adoption (Northern Ireland) Order 1987 which prohibited unmarried couples from being eligible to adopt, violated articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Apart from its significance for adoption law and anti-discrimination law, Re P is also important in understanding the constitutional role of the courts under the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA). Re P recognizes that if Strasbourg has determined that an issue falls within states' margin of appreciation, this does not prevent municipal courts from enforcing those rights. This comment will discuss the meaning and scope of the courts' obligation under section 2 of the HRA, the status of the rights protected by the HRA and the appropriate role of the courts in a rights dispute which is subject to moral, social, religious or political controversy.     

论我国知识产权的刑事法律保护

知识产权刑事法律保护的核心在于价值取向的科学与合理。就中国知识产权刑事法律保护的价值选择来看 ,首先 ,在保护边界的划分上 ,应立足于保护主义的立场 ,同时济之以自由主义的补充 ;其次 ,在保护重心的确定上 ,应强调私权保护优先 ,同时兼顾竞争秩序的维护 ;最后 ,在保护战略的选择上 ,应兼采多种战略 ,实现形式的强保护与实质的弱保护的有机结合。据此 ,文章在分析中国现有知识产权刑事法律保护体系缺陷的基础上 ,提出了完善我国知识产权刑事立法的几点设想 :一是采取结合型立法模式 ,充分发挥附属刑法的作用 ;二是增加、充实有关犯罪 ,使知识产权刑法保护具有适度的超前性 ;三是调整刑罚结构 ,重视罚金刑和资格刑的适用 ;四是完善刑事诉讼程序 ,着力加强对知识产权犯罪被害人的刑事赔偿     

Police Shootings and the Role of Tort

In Ashley v Chief Constable of Sussex , the House of Lords ruled that a civil claim in trespass to the person may be sustained against an individual police officer in respect of a fatal shooting, in circumstances where the officer had already been acquitted in criminal proceedings and where liability to compensate in respect of all losses had been conceded. Two members of the majority clearly ruled that trespass torts may have a vindicatory purpose which survives a concession of liability to compensate, thus deepening the connection between tort, and the protection of fundamental rights, and suggesting an intriguing distinction between the functions of civil and criminal law.     

The Law Lords and Human Rights

This article presents an empirical analysis of the impact of the Human Rights Act on the House of Lords. Drawing on a database of judgments from 1994 to 2007, changes in judgment‐giving behaviour are identified by charting patterns of agreement and dissent across different categories of case. Voting records are also examined in order to identify whether significant differences exist between individual Law Lords in their approach to human rights cases.     

Of ‘Landmark’ or ‘Leading’ Cases: Salomon's Challenge

This article seeks to question the two dominant conceptions of ‘landmark’ or ‘leading’ cases in English legal scholarship, using the House of Lords decision in Salomon v. Salomon Co Ltd. – the most famous case in corporate law – as a case study. It argues that neither the first dominant conception of ‘leading’ or ‘landmark’ cases, characterized by the analysis of the intrinsic merits of a case, nor the second, which looks at the historical contexts in which cases were decided, appears sufficient by itself to determine whether a case is landmark or canonical. Rather, we have to look at how the canonicity of a case is constructed by subsequent courts. The article seeks to advance the debate concerning the formation of landmark cases and aims to challenge certain prevailing views on the canonicity of corporate law's arguably most significant case.     

惩罚与保障：并重还是侧重？——刑事诉讼理念的重构：从现行刑事诉讼法第一条出发

寻找惩罚犯罪与保障人权之间的平衡点，既是刑事诉讼理论永恒的主题，也是世界各国司法实践的难题。而二者并重还是有所侧重，不仅是一个事关刑事诉讼理念并由此决定一国刑事诉讼法的模式、原则以及具体制度建构的核心问题，在中国，还是一个能否革除刑诉积弊、实现宪法修正案保障人权的大问题。在中国热研刑事诉讼法再修改之际，这更是再修改的刑诉法生或死的关隘问题。我们应当放弃固守多年的并重论，倡导“侧重论”，即侧重保障人权。     

The Territorial Scope of Employment Legislation and Choice of Law

Traditionally, the determination of the territorial scope of the statutory rights conferred by employment legislation forming part of English law has been regarded as an issue entirely disconnected from the choice‐of‐law process. Indeed, this view formed the basis of the key decision addressing the problem of territoriality, Lawson v Serco, decided by the House of Lords in 2006. After presenting the current state of the law with regard to the territorial scope of employment legislation, this article takes a critical look at Lawson v Serco. It is argued that the ‘European’ choice‐of‐law rules must have a greater importance for determining the territorial scope of employment legislation and, consequently, that the approach pursued in Lawson v Serco is no longer correct, if it ever was, and should not be followed in the future.     

Indeterminacy,Disagreement and the Human Rights Act: An Empirical Study of Litigation in the UK House of Lords and Supreme Court 1997–2017

This article explores the impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on the decision making of the House of Lords (UKHL) and the UK Supreme Court (UKSC). How does Convention rights content vary across areas of law in the UKHL/UKSC? Are some judges more likely than others to engage in Convention rights discourse? Is judicial disagreement more common in cases with higher levels of Convention rights discourse? A robust method of answering questions of this nature is developed and applied to decisions of the UKHL/UKSC, showing that the Convention rights content of decisions has varied over time and over substantive areas of law. Higher levels of human rights discourse are associated with greater levels of disagreement. A benchmarked measure of human rights content is developed to show the effect of the particular judge on the human rights content, illustrating the indeterminacy in human rights discourse and how its deployment can be contingent on judicial attitudes.     

Provocation and Pluralism

What is the best way to reflect human diversity in the structure of the provocation defence, and similar excusatory defences in the criminal law? The House of Lords recently concluded that the right way is to allow the jury to personalise and thereby qualify the apparently uniform ‘reasonable person’ standard mentioned in section 3 of the Homicide Act 1957. In this paper we argue that this is not the right way at all. We argue that the reasonable person standard, unqualified, already accommodates the only variations between people that the law should want to accommodate in an excusatory defence. To defend this view we revive the common law's tripartite analysis of the ‘objective’ (or impersonal) issues in the provocation defence: first, was there an action capable of constituting a provocation? second, how provocative was it? and third, how much self‐control should have been exhibited in the face of it? We show that these questions each have a built‐in sensitivity to certain variations between different defendants' situations, but that this does not detract from their objectivity (or impersonality). We argue that no more sensitivity is needed in the name of human diversity, and what is more that no more sensitivity is desirable.     

Rights in Criminal Law in the Light of a Will Theory

The will theory of rights has so far been considered incapable of capturing individual rights under criminal law. Adherents of the will theory, therefore, have defended the claim that criminal law does not assign rights to individuals. In this article I argue first, that criminal law does assign individual rights and second, that the will theory of rights may enhance our understanding of these rights. The two major implications of the account are: a volenti non fit iniuria principle for criminal law, and a theoretical framework for an idea of punishment as restitution.     

监所检察权利保障职能的优化与实现-基于对新《刑事诉讼法》的研判

修改后的《刑事诉讼法》基于司法文明的要求,在更高层次和水平上完善了监所检察权利保障的司法职能。然而,监所检察．Y-作的客观现状与新《刑事诉讼法》的现实要求之间的矛盾在一定程度上消弭和制约了监所检察监督职能的发挥。因此,如何深化对新《刑事诉讼法》中涉及监所检察权利保障理念变革与制度更新的思考,是我们全面落实新《刑事诉讼法》、正确履行监所检察权利保障职能着重探讨的课题。我们应当以强化监所检察权利保障的理论基础为逻辑起点,优化监所检察权利保障职能的立法设计,并就如何落实好、发挥好新《刑事诉讼法》赋予监所检察的权利保障职能,解决好监所检察的执法理念转变、加强基础保障和机制创新等问题作出贡献。     

Liability for sexual harassment in criminal justice agencies

This article focuses on sexual harassment in criminal justice agencies from a legal perspective. The article briefly describes sexual harassment cases that address agency liability decided by the United States Supreme Court, discussing the standards of liability articulated in Burlington Industries Inc. v. Ellerth (1998), Faragher v. City of Boca Raton (1998), and Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986). A more precise understanding of when agencies are liable for the actions of their subordinates is developed through an examination of lower federal court decisions. Trends in the law are identified, as case law is categorized according to harassment by supervisors and co-workers. The article concludes by exploring the policy implications flowing from court decisions and by calling for further research on this troubling aspect of the criminal justice workplace.     

Rethinking Criminal Libel: An Empirical Study

The prevailing view of criminal libel among communication law scholars in the United States is that there are very few prosecutions, that most of the prosecutions are about politics or public issues, and that none of the prosecutions are necessary because victims of defamation can sue for civil libel. The results of an empirical study of all Wisconsin criminal libel cases from 1991 through 2007, however, suggest that criminal libel is prosecuted far more often than realized, that most criminal libel prosecutions have nothing to do with political or public issues, and that the First Amendment is an effective shield on the rare occasions when a criminal libel prosecution is politically motivated. This article concludes that criminal libel can be a legitimate way for the law to deal with expressive deviance that harms the reputations of private figures in cases that have nothing to do with public issues.     

The European Convention as an Invigorator of Domestic Law in the Netherlands

This article examines the impact of the European Convention on Human Rights on domestic law in the Netherlands, with special regard to criminal procedure. The Convention has contributed to slow but profound transformations in the structure of criminal proceedings and to making these proceedings more adversarial and more rights oriented. It has opened up the Dutch system of criminal justice to the world and forced it to adapt itself to international standards of fairness. As a result, this system has become less naïve, more sophisticated, and more mature. Moreover, the case of the Netherlands illustrates how the Convention acts as a motor of convergence between civil law and common law systems of criminal justice.     

检察权谦抑性的法理基础

刑事诉讼中的检察权行使,要尽可能地保持克制、妥协、宽容,这就是检察权的谦抑性.检察权的谦抑性是受刑事诉讼法学、刑法学、犯罪社会学和刑事政策学等学科理论和实践发展的深刻影响而形成的.检察权行使的谦抑性最终要由具体的检察官来体现和贯彻,因此,一方面要从立法上人手;另一方面,要通过培养心怀谦抑的检察官入手,从而使刑事法的谦抑理念与检察官内在的谦抑品性相协调.     

Discrimination Law and the Ebb and Flow of Indirect Effect in Britain

Strained judicial interpretation of British discrimination law is not new; some of the leading House of Lords cases on the European Union law doctrine of Indirect Effect have concerned discrimination law. The interpretative obligation, to read national law in line with EU law, has seen words read in and like being treated with like according to changing mores. However, the disability discrimination case of EBR Attridge Law v Coleman [2010] I.C.R. 242 saw an entire sub-section being read in by an Employment Appeal Tribunal. This article briefly reviews the House of Lords’ approach in earlier cases, primarily through the prism of discrimination law, and then asks, following more recent Employment Appeal Tribunal cases concerning pregnancy discrimination and the protection from victimisation within the Equality Act 2010, whether the high-water mark for judicial re-writing has been reached in Britain and whether compliance with European law can better be attained in other ways.     

论自然权利的刑法保护

环境的刑法保护是一种重要的环境保护方法，但环境刑法的架构极富变化，传统的刑法保护客体理论存在着明显的不足，我国刑法保护的客体应为公民环境权与自然权利的综合体，兼顾对人类环境权和自然本身的权利的保护，突出自然价值的独立性，以充分全面保护自然环境不受人类环境犯罪行为的侵害。     

论刑事赔偿对刑事诉讼的救济

阐述刑事赔偿对刑事诉讼进行救济的科学内涵,阐明刑事赔偿救济刑事诉讼的具体范畴,并对刑事赔偿救济刑事诉讼的责任免除作了阐述。认为刑事诉讼的动态平衡被打破符合刑事追诉的认识论规律,刑事赔偿是对刑事诉讼进行救济的重要途径。指出被追诉人合法权益遭受侵害是刑事诉讼动态平衡被打破的标志,对遭受侵害的合法权益本身进行救济,实质是对动态平衡被破坏的刑事诉讼程序的间接的救济。刑事赔偿救济刑事诉讼的范畴包括侵犯人身自由权的救济、侵犯生命健康权的救济以及侵犯财产权的救济等。     

The Merowe Dam Project – When Does the Coin Flip from Legal Business Activity to Criminal Behavior? Reflections on the Concept of Guarantor’s Liablity in the Context of Transnational Business Activities

The individual liability of corporate officers for crimes that are often framed as transnational human rights abuses is much debated. While it seems that some standards of liability are developing in the field of international criminal law, standards of criminal liability in cases where the alleged crimes do not amount to international crimes remain to some extent unclear. This article will examine a concrete case that was investigated by the Frankfurt/Main prosecutor’s office. Additionally, it will be considered whether international soft law standards on corporate human rights due diligence have an influence on how the existing standards of guarantor’s liability, and especially that of principals (Geschäftsherrenhaftung), are to be interpreted in these cases.     

中俄刑法典有关危害食品安全犯罪的规定之比较

中俄两国刑法典有关危害食品安全犯罪的规定在构成要件、犯罪既遂标准以及处罚等方面有所不同,两国刑法典有关危害食品安全犯罪的规定各具特色。俄罗斯刑法典将该类犯罪归类于危害公共安全类犯罪的做法值得我国借鉴;其规制行为内容多、规制目标广的做法更有利于对消费者合法权益的保护;其量刑情节设置具体、细腻的做法也有参考价值;罚金刑的设置方式也具有一定的借鉴意义。