The Russian mafia: Expulsion of law

The purpose of this paper will be to determine whether the conditions that exist in present‐day Russia are congruent with Foucault's claim that power in modern societies is not ensured by law and punishment but by normalization and control, which go beyond the state and its apparatuses, and that law plays an increasingly subordinate role within contemporary disciplinary society. I will also see what conclusions can be drawn from the Russian‐Soviet case that are relevant to evaluating the paradigms supplied by Foucault in deciphering the modalities of power in the modern world. In what sense can he help us understand how discipline and law in Imperial and Soviet Russia created the necessary conditions for the emergence of the Russian Mafia? Law has been transformed in the hands of the Russian Mafia and has expanded its spheres of influence rather than being displaced. The conditions that exist in present‐day Russia can be applied to Foucault's claim that power in modern societies is not ensured by law and punishment but by normalization and control which go beyond the state and its apparatuses. But it is not the case that law plays an increasingly subordinate role in present‐day Russia. Rather, it is no longer controlled by the sovereign power of the monarchy or by the Soviet state and its apparatuses, but is now predominately controlled by the Russian Mafia.     

Narcotics trafficking and the American mafia: The myth of internal prohibition

Numerous books assert that the Mafia long had a prohibition against engaging in narcotics trafficking, either for reasons of morality, or else because of the public stigma attached to drugs. In reality, there are many problems with the belief in voluntary abstention. The mythical nature of internal prohibition, and the far different reality, will be illustrated from the case of Philadelphia, supposedly the base for one of the most powerful and traditional-minded of all the American Mafia groups, the family headed from 1959 to 1980 by don Angelo Bruno. We will attempt to explain the roots of the prohibition myth, both for writers and for the wider public that appears so endlessly enthusiastic about sagas of organized crime. Finally, the paper examines the implications of this myth for policy makers in successive wars on crime.     

The Chinese mafia: private protection in a socialist market economy

Gambetta's theoretical framework focuses on two important aspects directly relating to the birth and development of mafias, namely a demand for private protection and a supply of the same. In the Post-Mao era, China started its transition from a centrally controlled economy to a market-directed economy by adopting reform and opening-up policies. The widespread creation of property rights has exponentially enlarged the demand for protection. However, property rights are ambiguously defined in the Chinese legal system, and the state is unable and unwilling to provide efficient and sufficient law enforcement mechanisms for needy people because of the rampant corruption of government officials and the weak judicial system. In this case, the mafia that is interested in the private provision of protection developed into an alternative enforcement mechanism for ‘securing’ property rights in China's economic transition. The most important service offered by the mafia in China is not only to assist business enterprises in monopolising the market, but also to assist local government in China's economic reform.     

Philadelphia's “black mafia”: A social and political history

Trends in Organized Crime -     

The territorial expansion of mafia-type organized crime. The case of the Italian mafia in Germany

The present paper deals with the territorial movements of the mafia groups. After postulating that the concept of mafia refers to a form of organized crime with certain specific characteristics of its own, the paper presents: i) a repertory of the mechanisms underlying the processes whereby mafias expand beyond their home territories, and ii) a taxonomy of the forms that the mafia assumes in nontraditional territories. In a case study approach, the conceptual framework thus outlined is applied to the mafia’s presence in Germany, as reconstructed from documentary and judicial sources. Though this is an exploratory investigation, certain findings are clear: i) the ‘Ndrangheta is more active in Germany than the other traditional Italian mafias (Cosa Nostra and Camorra), and ii), even in “successful” expansions, the mafia does not reproduce the embeddedness it typically shows in its home territories, but chiefly concentrates on infiltrating the economy and dealing on illegal markets.     

Organ harvests from the legally incompetent: an argument against compelled altruism

Organ transplants may offer the best hope of long term survival for individuals afflicted with certain cancers or other debilitating diseases. The hope that a transplant may inspire in an organ recipient should not, however, be the determinative factor when the proposed source of the organ is incompetent. Competent adults are not compelled to act altruistically by undergoing a surgical invasion for the benefit of third parties. Children and mentally incompetent adults should likewise be protected from such compelled altruism. Case by case adjudication of petitions to harvest organs from incompetents are inevitably driven by a concern for the recipient and an unwarranted deference to parental authority, and not by concerns for the autonomy and well being of the incompetent donor. This Note argues that organ harvests from legal incompetents should be statutorily prohibited.     

教育股份制的特质研究

教育股份制是借鉴企业股份制合理内核的一种教育运作的创新模式。它符合教育政策和法律,适应经济和社会发展变革的现实需求,是实现教育事业可持续发展和教育进步的有效途径。教育股份制体现了一种多元化的价值趋向,并以社会本位为核心,强调公私法的兼容和价值并存,并集中在资本和管理两个层面,寻求教育公益性和资本寻利性的最佳平衡和有机统一从而凸现出其作为一种独立制度设计的特质。