Institutional and Political Sources of Legislative Change: Explaining How Private Organizations Influence the Form and Content of Consumer Protection Legislation

This article explores how private organizations influence the content and meaning of consumer protection legislation. I examine why California forced consumers to use a private dispute resolution system that affords consumers fewer rights, while Vermont adopted a state‐run disputing structure that affords consumers greater rights. Drawing from historical and new institutional theories, I analyze twenty‐five years of legislative history, as well as interviews with drafters of the California and Vermont laws, to show how automobile manufacturers weakened the impact of a powerful California consumer warranty law by creating dispute resolution venues. As these structures became institutionalized in the lemon law field, manufacturers reshaped the meaning of legislation. Unlike California, the political alliances in Vermont and a different developmental path led to a state‐run dispute resolution structure. I conclude that how social reform laws are designed and how businesses influence social reform legislation can increase or decrease the achievement of a statute's social reform goals.     

Rule‐Intermediaries in Action: How State and Business Stakeholders Influence the Meaning of Consumer Rights in Regulatory Governance Arrangements

The boundaries between public and private actors are increasingly blurred via regulatory governance arrangements and the contracting out of rights enforcement to private organizations. Regulation and governance scholars have not gained enough empirical leverage on how state actors, private organizations, and civil society groups influence the meaning of legal rules in regulatory governance arrangements that they participate in. Drawing from participant observation at consumer law conferences and interviews with stakeholders, my empirical data suggest that consumer rights and, in fact, consumer law, mean different things to different stakeholders tasked with adjudicating consumer rights. Rights afforded consumers who purchase warranties are now largely contingent on first using alternative dispute resolution structures, some created and operated by private organizations with soft state oversight and others run by stakeholders but with greater state oversight and involvement. Using new institutional sociology and regulatory governance theories, I find that stakeholders involved in overseeing and administering these dispute resolution systems filter the meaning of consumer rights through competing business and consumer logics. Because consumer laws mean different things to stakeholders tasked with adjudicating consumer rights, two different rights regimes simultaneously exist in this field. I conclude that how rule‐intermediaries administering private and state‐run dispute resolution systems conceptualize what consumer laws mean in action may have implications for regulatory governance and more broadly, consumers' access to justice.     

The Privatization of Public Legal Rights: How Manufacturers Construct the Meaning of Consumer Law

This article demonstrates how the content and meaning of California's consumer protection laws were shaped by automobile manufacturers, the very group these laws were designed to regulate. My analysis draws on and links two literatures that examine the relationship between law and organizations but often overlook one another: political science studies of how businesses influence public legal institutions, and neo-institutional sociology studies of how organizations shape law within their organizational field. By integrating these literatures, I develop an "institutional-political" theory that demonstrates how organizations' construction of law and compliance within an organizational field shapes the meaning of law among legislators and judges. This study examines case law and more than 35 years of California legislative history concerning its consumer warranty laws. Using institutional and political analysis, I show how auto manufacturers, who were initially subject to powerful consumer protection laws, weakened the impact of these laws by creating dispute resolution venues. The legislature and courts subsequently incorporated private dispute resolution venues into statutes and court decisions and made consumer rights and remedies largely contingent on consumers first using manufacturer-sponsored venues. Organizational venue creation resulted in public legal rights being redefined and controlled by private organizations.     

西南民族地区多元纠纷解决机制研究

在市场经济的大潮冲击下,西南民族地区社会纠纷解决机制呈现出数量繁多、机制复杂,传统解决机制作用弱化等现象。在新时期,西南少数民族地区多元纠纷解决机制的构建中,应该坚持调解组织与法院审判两大体系为中心,具体是人民调解组织必须坚持运作机制上的非国家性,纠纷解决过程和形式上要体现非司法特点;司法机关运作机制上要体现国家性,解决过程中遵循严格形式主义和法治主义;治安调解机制应采取严格的"法治"主义,即"严格的依法而为"。在传统纠纷解决机制上应正视、承认传统纠纷解决机制的补充作用,采用不同途径和机制让传统纠纷解决机制成为此地区纠纷解决有机部分。     

Why the “Haves” Do Not Necessarily Come Out Ahead in Informal Dispute Resolution

This article explores the implications of Galanter's distinction between repeat and one‐off players to informal dispute resolution settings. Relying on quantitative and qualitative data regarding one British “private‐Ombudsman” scheme, the article analyzes the extent to which complaint handlers' decision making advantaged more experienced and better resourced firms and/or high‐status and more assertive complainants. The article's tentative theoretical proposition is that the typically indeterminate nature of informal dispute resolution settings renders them less susceptible to large organizations' and other repeat players' capacity to “play for rules.” Yet, this indeterminacy makes such processes more vulnerable to decision makers' reliance on heuristics.     

法经济学与纠纷解决

作为一种全新的法学解释系统和理论框架,法经济学有着自身的研究范式。法经济学的研究范式应该是研究纠纷解决理论的有利工具。法经济学基本研究范式对纠纷解决的理论阐释包括对成本效益、供求关系和市场、纠纷解决过程中国家制定法与民间社会非正式规范的博弈均衡等诸多方面的理论分析。在法经济学的研究视角下,论述纠纷诉讼外解决的经济社会合理性。     

Muslim Mandarins in Chinese Courts: Dispute Resolution,Islamic Law,and the Secular State in Northwest China

Many sociolegal studies have investigated the relationship between state law and informal law, examining alternative dispute resolution and popular justice as intersections between such types of law. However, such questions have received little attention in East Asian authoritarian states. I use the case of dispute resolution among Chinese Muslim minorities (the Hui) to reexamine the relationship between state law and Islamic law. Based on nineteen months of fieldwork in Northwest China, I argue that the Hui case shows codependence between the types of law. Law is deeply embedded in social relationships between the Hui and the party‐state. An analysis of personalistic relationships shows the ways in which religious and secular authorities access each other, transforming each other's law to augment their own legitimacy, but not without the potential for violence. The China case illuminates dynamics between Muslim communities and states that are prevalent elsewhere in the post‐9/11 period.     

The Reconstitution of Law in Local Settings: Agency Discretion, Ambiguity, and a Surplus of Law in the Policing of Hate Crime

An important yet poorly understood function of law enforcement organizations is the role they play in distilling and transmitting the meaning of legal rules to frontline law enforcement officers and their local communities. In this study, we examine how police and sheriff's agencies in California collectively make sense of state hate crime laws. To do so, we gathered formal policy documents called “hate crime general orders” from all 397 police and sheriff's departments in the state and conducted interviews with law enforcement officials to determine the aggregate patterns of local agencies' responses to higher law. We also construct a “genealogy of law” to locate the sources of the definitions of hate crime used in agency policies. Despite a common set of state criminal laws, we find significant variation in how hate crime is defined in these documents, which we attribute to the discretion local law enforcement agencies possess, the ambiguity of law, and the surplus of legal definitions of hate crime available in the larger environment to which law enforcement must respond. Some law enforcement agencies take their cue from other agencies, some follow statewide guidelines, and others are oriented toward gaining legitimacy from national professional bodies or groups within their own community. The social mechanisms that produce the observed clustering patterns in terms of approach to hate crime law are mimetic (copying another department), normative (driven by professional standards about training and community social movement pressure), and actuarial (affected by the demands of the crime data collection system). Together these findings paint a picture of policing organizations as mediators between law‐on‐the‐books and law‐in‐action that are embedded in interorganizational networks with other departments, state and federal agencies, professional bodies, national social movement organizations, and local community groups. The implications of an interorganizational field perspective on law enforcement and implementation are discussed in relation to existing sociolegal research on policing, regulation, and recent neo‐institutional scholarship on law.     

以国际商事法庭为核心的我国“一站式”国际商事纠纷解决机制建设

我国提出建立诉讼、调解、仲裁有效衔接的多元化"一站式"国际商事纠纷解决机制。国际商事法庭作为该机制的核心不仅要扩张其管辖,还需要对调解和仲裁提供司法支持和监督,并深化国际商事专家委员会的职能。国际商事纠纷解决机制需要配套程序法的国际化,为此要引入国际化的商事调解,完善国际商事仲裁法律制度,民事诉讼法也要有所突破和创新,并在多双边层面推动国际商事调解协议和判决的跨境执行。     

法国消费争议非讼解决机制及启示

法国消费争议非讼解决从普遍管辖向专业管辖、国家主导向企业自治并行发展。调解机构或独立设置,或附设于国家机关、公用事业单位、企业及行业组织,其独立、公正、便捷,有法令、章程、协定等保障,在实践中发挥着化解消费争议的功能。我国可通过法律授权并规定调解规则,依托既有行业组织设立或单独创设专业调解委员会,强化消费者协会调解职能,鼓励经营者建立消费者保护部门,完善消费争议非讼解决机制。     

论ADR对重塑我国非诉讼纠纷解决体系的意义

非诉讼纠纷解决方式 (ADR)是美国近 30年来异军突起的诉讼外纠纷解决机制。它是各种不违背法律强制性规定的 ,由纠纷双方当事人自主选择并控制的 ,替代诉讼程序解决民事纠纷方式方法的总称。ADR具有灵活解决纠纷、合理分配司法资源、降低纠纷解决成本等功能。由于我国传统法律文化等因素和ADR具有较大的亲和性 ,引进国外ADR的先进经验对重塑我国非诉讼纠纷解决体系具有重大的现实意义     

ADR适用于解决行政纠纷的合宪性论证

ADR应用于行政纠纷解决领域,不但关涉公共资源配置和公民利用司法的权利问题,更涉及行政权、司法权和立法权之间的分权关系以及法治原则等重要宪法原则,必然会引发关于合宪性的关注与审视。ADR合宪性命题的证成是推广应用ADR的必经之路。在法律移植层面上,作为一种在不同的法律秩序中完成同一功能的规则,美国行政纠纷解决中ADR合宪性之确立,为学界探究我国多元化行政纠纷解决机制提供了一种比较与借鉴的视角。     

中国职务发明纠纷多元解决机制探究

中国职务发明数量的增长以及职务发明纠纷的增加引起了各界的广泛关注,如何构建有效的纠纷解决机制成为了一个十分重要的议题.通过分析以德国和法国为代表的大陆法系国家以及以美国和英国为代表的英美法系国家的相关纠纷解决机制,并将其与中国当前实践进行比较,(本文认为)有效的纠纷解决机制应致力于两方面努力.一方面,在设有知识产权法院的城市设立解决职务发明纠纷的专门委员会来专门处理职务发明纠纷.另一方面,在实体和程序上协同调解、仲裁及诉讼程序,从而使这些机制能够共同实现职务发明纠纷的有效解决.在参照《专利法》第四次修改内容和《专利纠纷行政调解指南》的基础上,将中国实践中的各种职务发明纠纷解决机制相协调,这有利于激励科技创新,平衡雇主与雇员的利益,进而有助于将中国建设成为创新型国家.     

纠纷解决与和谐社会

和谐社会并不是没有纠纷的社会,而是要从法律的角度把不和谐的纠纷控制在最小的范围内,使社会呈现出稳定而有序的状态。诉讼虽然是现代社会中纠纷解决机制中的最主要的纠纷解决方式,但其并不是唯一的纠纷解决机制。通过诉讼与人民调解等非诉讼纠纷解决机制的科学配置及时的化解社会矛盾是实现和建构和谐社会的关键所在。     

Basic concepts and issues: a primer on distribution and sales representative agreements in the medical device and durable medical equipment industries

Counsel for a manufacturer of medical devices or durable medical equipment must have working knowledge of various legal disciplines to draft contracts with intermediaries (sales representatives and distributors) for the marketing and sale of the manufacturer's products. If the manufacturer wishes to sell its products abroad, counsel must become familiar with the laws and business practices of the target country, and methods of gaining access to the foreign market. This Article gives readers an overview of the applicable legal principles, under U.S. and foreign laws, in the areas of agency, contracts, healthcare regulation, consumer protection, intellectual property protection, and dealer protection. To aid counsel in drafting intermediary agreements, specific contractual terms and issues are explored in depth, including: appointment clauses, performance provisions, provisions concerning pricing and payment, protective clauses (shielding the manufacturer from liability), term and termination provisions, independent contractor clauses, export control clauses, recordkeeping and audit provisions, choice of law clauses, and dispute resolution clauses.     

论和谐社会视角下的纠纷解决机制

社会主义和谐社会的构建,离不开一套良好的纠纷解决机制。我国现行纠纷解决机制存在着纠纷解决方式单一、纠纷解决成本高效率低、纠纷解决方式彼此之间各自为政不相配套的问题,应通过建立多元化的、符合中国国情的纠纷解决机制来逐步解决。     

论多元纠纷解决机制的引导机制

当前，虽不敢妄言中国已经进入“后诉讼时代”，但多元纠纷解决机制作为一种客观存在，其合理性已被诸多学者反复论证并在实践中广泛采用。在此背景下，关于多种纠纷解决方式的建构、完善以及相互之间的衔接成为了理论界与实务界热情不减的探讨课题。置身于纠纷解决途径匮乏的现实情境，此种关注实为必要。不过，令人稍感困惑的是，人们在倾心构筑多种纠纷解决方式之际，却忽视了纠纷解决需求者在面临具体纠纷时选择之迷茫，这种“多元性无知”无疑是多元纠纷解决机制推行之羁绊。通过探究多元纠纷解决机制之引导机制，指引当事人找到进入“某个恰当程序的大门”。     

Toward Better Outcomes for Families Through Innovative Dispute Resolution Programs in England

This article explores and shares the learning from two of Cafcass’ innovative dispute resolution pilot programs. The programs aim to improve outcomes for families against the backdrop of rising private law demand in England, while keeping the child at the center. The Positive co‐Parenting Programme pilot provides a structured intervention to reduce conflict and promote timely resolution for children and families in complex cases. The Support with Making Child Arrangements pilot explores whether the provision of a package of support to parents ahead of the first court hearing can help them come to safe agreements about their children without the need for court intervention.     

劳动争议处理几个疑难问题研究

随着经济体制改革和劳动制度改革的不断深入开展 ,目前我国各类劳动争议的数量急剧增加 ,且争议内容十分复杂 ,极易与民事争议、行政争议、人事争议相混淆。加之目前我国劳动争议相关立法不尽完善 ,劳动争议处理制度存在诸多缺憾 ,导致现实生活中劳动争议案件的解决困难重重 ,因此 ,完善劳动争议立法和改革现行劳动争议处理体制 ,已是迫在眉睫的焦点问题     

美国阶梯式纠纷解决条款执行力问题研究

如何选择一种更快捷、更有效以及更便宜的方式来解决合同纠纷,是国际商事社会如今所面临的挑战。这并不是说要摒弃传统的诉讼和仲裁等争议解决机制,而是指需要用其他替代手段来补充这些机制。本文将以美国为例,对ADR方式作为仲裁或诉讼前置程序的阶梯式纠纷解决条款进行研究,以期提供给当事方最好的争议解决机制来满足维持其彼此间良好关系的特殊需要。