The Professional Model of Law vs. The Business Model of Law: A Critical View of Opposing Trends in the United States of America and the People��s Republic of China

This study begins by reflecting on the literature characterizing the nature and function of a profession qua profession. It continues by arguing that based upon commonly used indicia of a profession that the practice of law in the US is de-professionalizing in significant ways and morphing towards a functioning business model. The related advantages of such a development for American society, its lawyers and their clients, including especially criminal defendants are critically discussed. It then traces the emergence and ascendancy of the rule of law in China and corresponding quest to institutionalize the practice of law in China as a profession. The study concludes by exploring the alternative advantages of applying the business model to Chinese legal practice. It recommends that embracing a paradigm shift away from the professional model towards a business model, comparable to what is happening in the US, would be to the greater advantage of Chinese lawyers in terms of enhanced authority, increased self-regulation, as well as providing greater leverage in advocating client interests.     

Overlooking the merits of the individual case: an unpromising approach to the right to die

Abstract .
One of the strongest arguments against the legalization of voluntary euthanasia is that even though a given suffering or comatose patient may have a moral right to die, legal recognition of the right would lead inevitably to mistakes and abuses in other cases. The flaw in this argument is the assumption that it is always and necessarily a greater evil to let someone die by mistake than to keep a person alive by mistake. In fact, we cannot plausibly say that one of these two kinds of mistake is in itself, isolated from other factors, always more serious than the other. This point is illustrated by an examination both of a terminal patient whose prospect is a full year of intolerable pain (Matthew Donnelly) and of a patient in a "persistent vegetative state" (Nancy Cruzan). Moreover, it is untrue that legalization would necessarily lead to greater numbers of mistakenly approved discontinuances of treatment than of mistakenly approved refusals of termination, and numbers, it is argued, do matter.     

Voluntary multilateralism and institutional modification: The first two decades of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

The voluntary multilateralism and consequent institutional weaknesses that have characterized Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) since its inception in 1989 are explained by the multiple geo-political fractures that characterize the Asia Pacific, as well as bureaucratic constraints and the missed opportunities to incorporate civil society. The history of APEC is the on-going creative struggle between ambitious multilateralists and national-sovereignty realists. While APEC has fallen short of its most ambitious goals, it has achieved some notable results in the cognitive diffusion of values and information, policy innovation to promote economic integration, and institutional modification in response to trial-and-error learning and to global shocks. The normative conclusions suggest additional institutional reforms and substantive agendas consistent with a flexible, evolving voluntary multilateralism.

Developmental Change in Adolescent Delinquency: Modeling Time-Varying Effects of a Preventative Intervention and GABRA2 Halpotype Linked to Alcohol Use

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Better integrating human developmental factors in genomic research is part of a set of next steps for testing gene-by-environment interaction hypotheses. This...     

对“明显低于或者高于市场价格”的解读——从一件受贿案谈起

交易型受贿中的"明显低于或者高于市场价格"在理论上理解不一,在实践中争议也较大。作为一种新型的受贿犯罪,交易型受贿采取表面合法的交易形式进行,具有隐蔽、复杂等特点。但其在本质上仍然具备受贿罪的共同特征即权钱交易。因此在判断"明显低于或者高于市场价格"时,应当围绕受贿罪权钱交易的本质展开,将合法的市场交易行为与交易型受贿区别开来。