Indigenous Australians: Language, and the Law

Indigenous peoples face a number of hurdles intaking cases to Australian law courts. In thecase that the social and economic problems canbe overcome, they face problems related to theintellectual structures of the court and thelanguage and philosophical beliefs that thecourt systems are based on. Derrida shows thatWestern metaphysics privileges speech overwriting, and this counts against indigenouscultures in which narrative knowledge is a formof writing. Due to this privileging, there is adifferend involving the courts and indigenouspeoples which makes the achievement of justicedifficult in the legal arena in Australia. Thisarticle questions whether the courts are thecorrect bodies to deal with indigenous issues.The achievement of justice is made moredifficult again by the truth-producing effectsof legal decisions, which render native titleas a weaker form of property right. Finally,indigenous Australians are caught in a catch-22situation, in which in order to receivejustice, they must Westernise their thought toadapt to the court system, and yet not allowany Westernisation of their culture. Such aWesternisation can be forced upon indigenouspeoples by the truth-producing effects oflanguage.     

Food,Meaning, and the Law: Confessions of a Vegan Semiotician

The essay that follows combines several genres along an unconventional path. It departs from the psycho-semiotic analysis of a personal turning point: the author’s ‘conversion’ to veganism. After exposing the rationale for this change in semiotic terms, however, the essay extends its theorization to the social level, inquiring about the intersection between vegan conviction and commensality. In a world where different food ideologies co-occur, converge, conflict, and sometimes clash, what is the role of the law in establishing value priorities and strike a balance among different sociocultural and political trends? The essay concludes with a synthetic definition, in semiotic terms, of the perspective on food, meaning, and law promoted by the author: a vegan liberalism that is tolerant of food pluralism but simultaneously militates for the evolution of culture and society toward the accomplishment of a utopia, that of a world immune from the exploitation of animal suffering.     

国际法的哲学之维:内涵、功能与路径

国际法哲学是国际法学和法哲学的新兴领域,在这一初级阶段,应当采取积极鼓励和多元发展、大胆尝试、积极讨论的态度。由于国际法本身不成体系,以及国际法历史发展的轨迹,国际法对于法哲学的需求更大。国际法哲学的探索有利于引领国际法的理论化进程,解决国际法实践中的困惑,促动国际法学与部门法学的沟通,推进法理学的全面均衡发展。国际法哲学所包含的内容可以从不同角度和广度进行分析,其研讨路径包括超越分析法学而拓展法哲学的各种方法在国际法上的适用;构建国际法哲学的基本体系;以跨学科的视角进行国际法具体问题的研讨;并由此建构一般法哲学(法理学)。     

Meaning, Time and the Law: Ex Post and Ex Ante Perspectives

This paper considers the tension between timelessness and timeboundedness in legal interpretation, examining parallels between sacred texts and secular law. It is argued that familiar dualities such as those between statute and judge-made law, law and equity, written and spoken discourse, dictionary meaning versus intended or contextual meaning, can be examined using this timeless/timebounded framework. Two landmark English cases, DPP v Shaw (1961) and R v R (1991) are analyzed as illustrating contrasting aspects of the socio-legal politics of “reasoning backwards”. The related temporal distinction between ex ante and ex post points of view is examined both within legal theory and as a key issue for linguistic and semiotic systems. The argument is made that this distinction is the key to a wide range of methodological and theoretical problems in relating linguistics and semiotics to law.

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Enlargement at the European Court of Justice: Law,Language and Translation

The enlargement of the EU to 25 Member States in May 2005, followed by the accession of two more states in January 2007, raised a number of questions concerning the organisational structure of that Union—the sheer scale of the largest EU expansion to date highlighted the need to restructure EU institutions. For the European Court of Justice (ECJ), enlargement meant a huge influx of people to staff new divisions in the administrative hierarchy of the Court. This article describes the process and effects of enlargement at the ECJ, particularly in relation to translation and the language regime of that Court. Prior to the May 2004 and January 2007 enlargements there was a general perception among those working at the Court that enlargement would result in significant dislocation of life at that institution. In particular, it was felt that the translation directorate would not be able to cope with the addition of 11 ‘new’ languages to the list of official EU languages. The reality, however, was far from the disaster that many had predicted. That said, even a mere year following the May 2004 enlargement, a number of changes in the functioning and dynamics of that Court were already noticeable.     

论我国文化法的场境、意境与面向

我国文化法是一个立足中国国情,调整中国文化领域社会关系,旨在保障中国公民文化权利,促进社会主义文化强国建设的规范体系.当前我国社会主义文化建设的国内外环境,奠定了我国文化立法兴起的场境;我国文化法在社会主义建设与发展过程中拥有的价值与功能证成了其存在与强化的意境.而在建立健全我国文化法体系的过程中,最基础的环节在于明确文化法的中国面向,让中国文化滋养文化法、中国国情内化文化法、中国特色社会社会主义法律体系涵摄文化法、中国公民诉求催生文化法.如此,我国的文化法才可能在促进法治中国与文化中国建设中发挥现实效应.     

Making Meaning of Megan's Law

This study of Megan's Law contrasts scholarly narratives that describe and analyze sexual predator laws with a case study of implementation in New Jersey. A critical feminist perspective shows that Megan's Law employs a radically underinclusive notion of sexual violence that conflicts sharply with feminist arguments about the cultural and institutional roots of sexual violence. The law excludes many of the most common offenders from reach of the law, thus deflecting attention away from assaults committed by family and friends in favor of reviving stereotypes about deviant strangers. The most significant effect of Megan's Law is not to expand the power of the punitive state but to advance a political and legal interpretation of rape that undermines the basis for and gains made by feminist rape law reforms of the 1970s.     

'Immunity', 'Privilege', and 'Right': British Trade Unions and the Language of Labour Law Reform

A continuing debate exists among labour lawyers in the United Kingdom as to the most appropriate legal framework for the regulation of collective industrial action. Many have argued that a change in legal form will not in itself afford greater protection to union activity. Through an analysis of the changing approach of the trade union movement to the issue of 'immunities' and 'rights' during the Thatcher period, this article seeks to demonstrate that adoption of the 'rights' discourse in fact offered considerable strategic advantages. In consequence, any analysis of this question should not overlook the significant political role played by language.     

论侵权法上抗辩事由的内涵

传统规范结构理论在解释侵权法上抗辨事由的内涵时遭遇到了困难,而通过对构成要件的性质以及抗辩事由与法效果之间关系的重新论证,可以将抗辩事由定义为评价妨碍事实的抽象总结,这种方法不仅有助于对抗辩事由的外延的确定,而且也有助于侵权法领域的证明责任之明晰。     

诠释学视野中法律的意义

本文从二十世纪哲学主潮之一———诠释学哲学的原理出发 ,探讨了法律的意义问题。文章认为 ,法律的意义存在于自治体之间的相互沟通关系中。正是在此种关系中 ,形成了自治体之间具有法律内在要求的意义联系。在此基础上 ,文章进一步以诠释学的观念阐述了法律的本体意义和象征意义。最后 ,文章对法律世界必然会出现的意义冲突及其救济方式从诠释学视角给出了答案     

Paradise Lost...: The Meaning of Modernity and the Antinomy of the Law

This essay argues for the centrality of the study of paradoxes of particularity and universality in the interface between law and politics in modernity. Particularly, in order to understand the process of constitution of a political collective and the role of supernumerary elements that re-enter a constituted legal-political system. After introducing the question of paradoxes or antinomies in the relation between law and politics in modernity, the essay engages with current understandings of exceptionalism and the possibility of a leftist or ‘real’ suspension of the law. In order to do so, this essay makes full use of certain theoretical tools developed in anthropological accounts of political and legal processes, and current French-oriented and Latin American political philosophy.