The CCJ decolonizing Caribbean constitutionalism

The Caribbean Court of Justice was conceived to further the Anglophone Caribbean’s decolonization process. Decolonization included not just transitions from colony to independent statehood but also the repudiation of imperial formations. The Court’s capacity to do this is evident in the McEwan Case. Using bold approaches to interpretation, the CCJ effectively erased the general savings law clause (which was previously treated as effective in immunizing colonial laws from inconsistency with the Bill of Rights) and affirmed the fundamental rights of trans persons. Since those clauses tethered post-independence constitutionalism to colonial era legal arrangements, erasure has the effect of bringing the Constitution forward and home. I argue that erasure is the result of proper methods of interpretation and not overreach since savings clauses are now functionally obsolete. The CCJ also signalled its decolonising capacity by articulating Caribbean identity in inclusive terms. It rightly affirmed that trans persons are entitled to full membership in the political community, in circumstances where its position is likely an anti-majoritarian one. The CCJ is demonstrating its decolonizing capacity in a context where, it is argued, the Privy Council cannot. It is hoped that other Caribbean States will be encouraged to accede to the CCJ’s appellate jurisdiction.     

Learning from Diversity: A Theoretical Exploration

Public-sector organizations tend to be more racially and ethnically diverse than private-sector organizations, leading to the challenge of enhancing heterogeneous work group effectiveness. Recent work suggests that a group's "diversity perspective," or set of beliefs about the role of cultural diversity, moderates diverse group performance. One perspective, the integration and learning perspective, argues that heterogeneous groups function better when they believe that cultural identities can be tapped as sources of new ideas and experiences about work. However, simply holding the integration and learning perspective may not be sufficient. Research on general group learning has shown that it requires particular behaviors and cognitive frames. This article integrates recent work on diversity perspectives with long-standing research on team learning to propose a conceptual model of learning in culturally diverse groups. It suggests that both the integration and learning perspective and more generic learning frames and skills must be present.     

Disrupting the Settler Colonial University: Decolonial Praxis and Place-Based Education in the Okanagan Valley (British Columbia)

This article demonstrates how decolonial Placed-Based Education can disrupt a settler colonial academic status quo. We begin by situating our analysis in the unceded Syilx Territories of the Okanagan Valley (British Columbia, Canada) and proceed by illustrating how both taken-for-granted colonial epistemologies and banal exnominations of white supremacy remain orthodox within mainstream Canadian higher education. We next define “decolonial praxis” by drawing from insights offered by critical feminist, anti-racist, and Indigenous scholars and community organizers before moving into a summary of how we embraced theories and strategies of decolonization coupled with Place-Based Education in an introductory Gender and Women’s Studies course. We conclude with our response to the ongoing exclusions being reproduced by neoliberal universities that result from the primacy they grant to Western knowledges and rationales. The piece reveals how decolonial place-based methods can be leveraged against settler colonial institutions, discourses, and logics to unsettle their claims to legitimacy, land, and authority over learning.     

A Letter of Congratulations from Chairman Wieslaw Klimczak of the Civil Association ＂Polish House＂ to President Zhou Tienong of CAFIU

Warsaw April 29,2011 Your Excellency Mr.President, On behalf of the Civil Association "Polish House",I would like to extend our sincere congratulations and best wishes to the participants of the 2nd Plenary Session of the 10th Executive Council of the Chinese Association for International Understanding(CAFIU) scheduled on April 29,2011.This Session,held at the 30th anniversary of CAFIU,is of special significance and far-reaching influence.As a Polish NGO enjoying sound cooperation with     

从“省直管县财政改革”迈向“省直管县行政改革”——安徽省直管县财政改革的调查与思考

安徽等地实行的省直管县财政改革和扩权强县改革,在创新财政体制、推动县域经济发展、提高行政管理效率等方面取得了明显成效,但省直管县财政体制与市管县行政体制并存也产生了亟待解决的问题。要从根本上解决这些问题,继续放大财政改革和扩权改革的体制能量与制度功效,必须适时启动和稳步推进省直管县行政改革,构建扁平化的省直管县公共行政体制。     

Why did inheritance laws change?

The existence of restrictive inheritance laws poses a problem. Since such laws restrict parents' choices, they may cause conflict among children, and so, at first glance, appear to be costly for society. Then why did these laws survive for so long? Why were they not altered once their harm was perceived? This paper shows that restrictive laws have benefits, as well as costs, since they diminish inequality among heirs and thus enhance social stability. The advantages of these laws are evident when people live in relatively isolated communities where central authorities are weak. As population increases and central authorities become stronger, the stability of a society is enhanced if inheritance laws are changed and greater freedom of choice is given to parents. These views are examined by looking at inheritance laws in England and France during and after the Middle Ages. The reason for selecting these countries is to explain not only the existence but also the evolution of inheritance customs and their evolution is better documented in these countries than elsewhere.Say not you know another entirely, till you have divided an inheritance with him (J.K. Lavater).     

论侵权请求权的优先权保障

依据私权优先原则,《侵权责任法》第4条规定了侵权请求权的优先权保障制度。侵权请求权优先权是担保物权,就侵权人的全部财产而设立,其目的在于保障被侵权人在就同一行为应当承担侵权责任和刑事责任、行政责任,侵权人的财产不足以支付的情况下,优先实现侵权请求权。侵权请求权优先权能够对抗刑事责任或者行政责任中的财产性责任,对于税收优先权也应当具有对抗效力,但对其他债权则无对抗效力。