The institutionalisation of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the institutional development of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies (BCD) from 1826 to the present. Legislature careers, the internal organisation of the BCD, the current system for filling positions within the committees and electoral rules are the objects of this study. The process of development of the BCD should be understood in light of the dynamics of the Brazilian political system, which has undergone significant ruptures of regime, and also in light of the nearly permanent fragility of the democracy, especially of its representative components. It is an institution with legislature career patterns that vary through time, but always point towards opportunities out of the BCD, a stable, hierarchical and complex mode of organisation that currently values parties as distributors of opportunities. It is, above all, an institution that is subject to external influences from other parts of the political system, which diminish its autonomy and self-determination, as shown by the example of the rule for the adjudication of terms. With its 190 years, the BCD has evolved along with Brazilian democracy and today, although boasting a great structure and large resources, it still needs to establish itself as a decisive and permanent actor in driving public policies and communication (parties and government projects) with voters.     

Fuzzy Legality in Regulation: The Legislative Mandate Revisited

How does law interact with regulatory reality, and why does legislative mandate, which presumably stands at the apex of a regulatory package, often deviate from its ideal‐type as exclusive organizer of action? These questions are treated in this article through the concept of “fuzzy legality,” which serves as a common title for six different legal arrangements that stray from the ideal‐type legislative mandate, while enabling “perfectly legal” industry behavior. Against the background of potential dangers involved in such practices, the article traces the politics of preference for fuzziness both by regulators and regulatees. It reassesses calls for responsive and reflexive law as a cure for the regulatory malaise: these may have been voiced due to existing overly rigid regulatory frameworks, rather than the intrinsic flaw of legal constructs.     

关于技术秘密立法若干问题的思考

高新技术产业的快速发展使技术秘密的立法工作日益紧迫。技术秘密立法关注的重点应是调整企业内部基于技术秘密而产生的权利义务关系。在受技术保密合同约束的同时 ,掌握技术秘密的劳动者应对用人单位承担强制性的默示保密义务和竞业禁止义务。通过竞业限制合同 ,用人单位可在法律允许的范围内限制已离职劳动者的择业自由。在损害赔偿方面 ,技术秘密立法应明确过错推定归责原则 ,损害赔偿额应以损失额为限 ,并采取较灵活的方法计算损失额     

Open parliament policy applied to the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies

ABSTRACT

This article will analyse the implementation of an open parliament policy that is taking place at the Chamber of Deputies, in accordance with the guidelines of the Open Government Partnership international programme (OGP), regarding the action plan of the Opening Parliament Work Group in particular, one of the subgroups of OGP. The authors will evaluate two blocks of initiatives for open parliaments executed by the Chamber in the last few years, that is, digital participation in the legislative process and Transparency 2.0, in order to observe their impasses and results obtained until now. In the first part the authors will study the e-Democracy portal and in the second part the authors will focus on open data, collaborative activities to use those data (hackathons) and the creation of the Hacker Lab, a permanent space dedicated to open parliament practices. The analysis considers the initiatives that the authors evaluated as part of the transformative and arena profiles of the Brazilian Parliament, according to Polsby's classification, with exclusive characteristics.     

商业秘密理论与立法探讨

随着商业秘密财产价值之凸显,我国现行法律所提供的保护规范已明显不足。本文对商业秘密的概念、范围、性质、特征以及侵犯商业秘密行为的归责原则和方式进行了比较全面、系统的归纳和分析,并在引述和比较国内外相关立法基础上提出了完善我国商业秘密保护之立法建议。     

Governors and “Their” Deputies: New Legislative Principals in Mexico

Many studies on legislatures around the world have not detected a regional voting dimension. Yet governors are often important political figures and can exert strong influence on state politicians. From an analysis of the Mexican legislature, I determine that governors hold important resources that ambitious politicians need in a system with no consecutive reelection. Mexican governors use their power over federal deputies to prod their agents, the caucus leaders, into working for their states' interests on fiscally relevant issues, especially the annual budget. On all other issues, the governors delegate their deputies' votes to the party's legislative leadership.     

侵犯商业秘密罪的立法定位与司法认定

商业秘密在刑法中与在民商法、经济法中有不同的定位,基于刑法谦抑性,应对刑法中的商业秘密进行严格解释。刑法与民法是站在不同的立场,出于不同的目的看待损失的,在侵犯商业秘密罪中,重大损失认定的依据应以侵权获利额为原则,业秘密罪中常见的犯罪形态,在本罪的行为模式中,外的个人也有构成单位犯罪的可能。特殊情况下可参考许可使用费。单位犯罪是侵犯商个人的侵权行为与单位的行为具有对向性,单位之     

Electoral Reform and Changes in Legislative Behavior: Adoption of the Secret Ballot in Congressional Elections

There is widespread agreement that the Australian ballot fundamentally altered the American electoral system. One common approach to test the effects of ballot reform is to examine legislators elected under the party and secret ballot. An alternative research design, which we adopt here, compares changes in the behavior of legislators who were elected under both ballot types. We use this approach to investigate whether ballot reform directly influenced legislators' decisions to seek renomination and their behavior within the institution. Our results raise a number of important implications for understanding the effects of electoral reform on political behavior.     

我国物流产业投入产出效率研究

物流业是国民经济的重要组成部分,其效率的高低直接关系到社会经济的运行质量。本文采用DEA模型,根据我国29个省市、自治区2010年物流产业的投入产出数据对其效率进行了评价。评价结果显示:以北京、上海为代表的15个省市的物流业投入产出是DEA有效的;以青海、宁夏为代表的部分地区纯技术效率有效,规模效率非有效;以吉林省为代表的部分省、自治区产出不足,物流资源利用率低。为了保证数据的可靠性,揭示我国物流产业效率的动态特征,本文又依次对我国2009年、2011年的物流产业效率进行了评价,并在文末分别针对西部、中部及以江浙为代表的经济发达地区的物流产业发展提出了政策建议。     

The Deputies Have Stopped Extremism: On the Level of Legislation

Yesterday, an amendment to the Federal Law "On Countering Extremist Activity" that was introduced by deputies representing all of the Duma's factions was passed on the first reading.     

Committees and Legislative Strengthening: The Growing Influence of Committees in Ukraine's Legislative Process

The Ukrainian legislature is in the process of transforming from a ‘rubber stamp’ institution of the Soviet type into an ‘institution that matters’ in a new democratic state. The practice of democratic institution building in the post-Soviet countries presents multiple examples of powerful executives who gained dominance in legislative processes. What path has Ukraine taken and what can explain its specific characteristics? This article charts the growth of committees here as a marker of legislative institutionalisation in Ukraine. The study finds that Ukrainian legislative committees defy prevalent regional trends and, contrary to expectations, have asserted independent roles. It then discusses factors that may account for this unique regional development – the role of a dual executive structure and the Ukraine party system.     

论刑法立法解释权与立法权和司法权的纠葛

刑法立法解释权的产生和发展,导致这一权力同立法权和司法(解释)权产生了冲突,使得刑法解释权力体制产生了新变化。现实中,刑法立法解释权同立法权之间产生了混淆,进而因为这一权力的混淆,类推性立法解释的溯及既往造成了对被告人权利的侵犯。同时,由于解释对象和方式的混同,刑法立法解释权又同司法解释权发生运用的重合,深刻地影响了最高人民法院、最高人民检察院的刑事司法解释权的格局。     

Circumventing Legislative Committees: The US Senate

Committees have been established to improve legislation and make expert recommendations. However, many bills do not appear in committees, and how they reach the Senate floor varies in style and strategy. We develop and test expectations for when, as well as how, bills bypass Senate committee proceedings. The procedures legislators use to circumvent committees and what makes committee bypassing more probable are explored. The findings clearly demonstrate that bills introduced by ideologically extreme minority-party members are more likely to bypass committees. We also show a clear shift in the procedural choices senators make as the Senate becomes increasingly polarized. This article highlights the procedural choices members make, how these choices produce differing outcomes, and suggests evidence of positive agenda power for individual minority-party senators.     

The Secret History of Japanese Cinema: The Yakuza movies

This article explores the interplay among economic imperatives within the entertainment business, the mafia's role in the creation of its own media image, and the production of gangster films. Taking Japan as a case study, the paper shows that, when given the chance to influence the content of gangster movies, crime bosses have portrayed themselves as benevolent patriarchs and a positive force in society, rather the anti-heroes of classic American gangster movies. In Japan, such a choice had, however, the unintended consequence of a decline in audience interest and eventually led to the demise of studio yakuza movies. Ultimately, the paper shows that the mafia control over art can lead to the death of art—something that is bad for the mafia as well.     

我国省域科技投入产出效率的实证分析

科技是经济发展的推动力.为促进我国各地区科技资源的合理配置,必须尽快建立科学合理的科技投入产出效率评价机制.运用数据包络分析方法(DEA),对我国各省域2004-2006年科技投入的总体效率、纯技术效率、规模效率和规模收益进行实证分析,并在此基础上利用改进的DEA模型对各省域的效率进行排序,可以为采取相应的政策措施提供依据,以促进各地区经济持续、均衡和协调发展.